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Star Wreck 6 Finally Complete

EvilNTUser writes "Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning can now be ordered on DVD, and will hopefully be shipped before 2005-09-06 unless you slashdot them (the link uses Coral). The independent movie is a 103 minute parody of Star Trek and Babylon 5, with all special effects rendered by the makers themselves. It looks like all the delays were worth it, so make sure you don't miss Captain Pirk's quest for world domination."

28 of 376 comments (clear)

  1. Surprise! Um. Not. Cool though! by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Informative

    This doesn't come as a surprise to anyone who's been following Star Wreck. They announced that the 20th would be the release date a while ago. It was even the first thing I blogged about.

    The english order page is here, but the darn thing is quite expensive. It's listed as 24 euros, which is $29.35 in American money.

    Also, the release date for Internet distribution is October 1st.

    1. Re:Surprise! Um. Not. Cool though! by EvilNTUser · · Score: 4, Informative

      "The english order page is here, but the darn thing is quite expensive. It's listed as 24 euros, which is $29.35 in American money."

      Note to everyone: Remember to edit the URL if you're ordering it.

      Also remember that there will be a free download later. Personally I'm going to pay for it, though, because they deserve all the support they can get.

      --
      My Sig: SEGV
  2. I hope their website ... by Culture · · Score: 5, Funny

    is powered by at least a million tribbles because they're going to need it.

    Cap'n, I canna' give ya 'ny more pageloads, tha' tribbles are typin' 'a fast a they can!

    --
    ----- There are two kinds of people in this world, my friend; those with loaded guns, and those who dig.
  3. If you can't say anything nice... by mikeophile · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ummm...

    Hmmmm...

    It's got some really hot Finnish chicks in it.

  4. I submitted this Saturday. WTF by va3atc · · Score: 2, Funny

    Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning finished! Saturday August 20, @08:38PM Rejected

    --
    Candle burns its brightest in the dark
  5. someone taunting the FPers? by hobotron · · Score: 2, Funny

    no comments yet?

    --
    There is truth in humor.
  6. Used to be a fan... by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I used to be a huge fan of ST TNG but the movies that they made after the series were sub par.

    The thing that pisses me off most, is that they turned the Borg into frigging vampires. This, in my opinion (as an American) is the standard American moral cop out. The Borg were evil because of their evil queen leader. Kill the evil leader and the people are cured. The Nazis were evil because of Hitler. The Chinese were Communists because of Mao. At least the series had members of the Borg Collective in thrall to a fascist leader (lore) after their destruction, so it wasn't like everything was a-okay.

    While I have my problems with The Matrix (I could believe in humans being enslaved in the Matrix in order to use their neural nets for the purpose of the Machines, but for energy? Too inefficient), it was one of the few films which didn't fall back on this cliched notion of evil. It showed people fighting because they were nations and because of economic reasons. It even had the guts to blame humans for the war. I wish Star Trek would have taken a similar tack, showing how the Borg were formed, not by some evil leader, but by economic conditions and competition, and by their own 'free' will.

    After all, eventually Borg style networking will be more efficient than going to school for 16 years to learn what you need to know. It'll be like an instant college degree. Economics and the race to the bottom as people compete tends to compell certain life choices and the use of certain technology. And those choices change us as humans and as a society.

    I suppose that's the theme of GATTACA, to a degree. I think Star Trek would have been better off using The Borg to the same effect.

    --

    ___
    It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
  7. A parody of what?? by docflan · · Score: 2, Funny

    a 103 minute parody of Star Trek and Babylon 5

    How Timely.

  8. Lawsuits waiting to happen? by samdu · · Score: 2, Interesting

    From the trailer, it looks like they're headed for some serious lawsuits for selling this on DVD. Paramount is not exactly known for playing nice with fan sites, much less fan flicks that use their IP. And I doubt WB is all too pleased, either.

    And where are all the comments? This is like the fourth /. story with NO comments. O.o

    1. Re:Lawsuits waiting to happen? by ZosX · · Score: 4, Informative

      In case you did not know, Satire is entirely protected by free speech in the United States. Since they changed the names of the charachters, they should be even more protected from the lawyers. For what it is worth, however, they could have used the USS Enterprise and everything else as long as it was satire. How do you think TV shows like Saturday Night Live and MAD TV get away with it all the time?

      Thanks to Jerry Falwell vs. Larry Flynt, satire has been protected by a landmark supreme court decision. A fan flick is not satire, in case you didn't know. Fan flicks are not protected free speech, though, personally I think anything you can create whether it be music, speech, or video should all be protected under our first amendment rights. Blatant plagurism is one thing, but creating something new based upon an existing concept should be protected, especially when there is no financial gain to be made, as in fan flicks.

      If the republic represented people instead of corporations, this would be the case. A good idea to see who your congressperson represents would be to look at their campaign donations. Too bad so much soft money gets unrecorded, not to mention people in congress who likely line their pockets for pushing through pro-corporate legislation. How do you think the Senators get to be the rich white men they are?

    2. Re:Lawsuits waiting to happen? by Depili · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Even more importantly, the film is made in Finland, where we have a nice and clean justice system aimed for punishing the criminals justly, not just the poor one that can't pay the legal fees. Even a confession isn't enough to get one conviced in here, you still need proof to go with it. And besides the same group has made several star wrek movies already, this is just the sixth and by far the best.

  9. "The first Finnish full-length scifi comedy" by Kazzahdrane · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm quite interested to see how the Finns pull of full-length sci-fi comedy, considering very few other countries seem to have even got close to making it funny.

  10. The best Finnish movie ever. by msmikkol · · Score: 2, Funny

    Star Wreck series must be among the best movies ever come out of Finland. These guys have really worked hard on the latest. My hat is off to them.

    --
    The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom, but to set a limit to infinite error.
    -Bertolt Brecht
  11. Curious question about translations by Shivetya · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A question for someone who speaks both languages.

    In the trailer there are a lot of seemingly bizarre translations. Twinkler Banks is a great example. Was that a translation made on the word or the meaning of the words? Or was it just wrong altogether? While I understand it is a parody, foreign humor can be difficult to understand at times. Fortunately special effects usually are not confusing.

    --
    * Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
    1. Re:Curious question about translations by norttipertti · · Score: 2, Informative

      Twinkler from word 'twink' (or possibly 'blink').
      Anyway it refers to a lightsource that lights very briefly.
      Wrecks usually plays _a_lot_ with engrish.
      Like 'Täysi kieroutuminen', where 'kiero' can mean both 'warp' or 'deviant'.

      --
      Road to Hell is paved with frozen door-to-door salesmen.On weekends many of the younger demons go ice-skating down it
  12. Special effects... by spineboy · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I'm just really getting tired of special effects movies. I went and mistakenly saw "War of the Worlds" and it was just horrible!. Yes, I know you can make giant spaceships look real, but so what - I'm bored of that. As long as a special effect is about as good as the OLD Dr. Who, then that's all you really need, because it was the storyline, the plot and maybe the acting which made it good.

    If you spend $50 million on polishing up a piece of dog crap, you still have a piece of crap, nicely polished in the end.
    Let's hope that these guys (please, please) spent a lot of time on the script, story, etc, which will make a good movie/story. Independent films are often much better than those big over-produced films. These Hollywood monstrousities often have 10 producers, all adding their various formula of bells and whistles, that they think some standard audience will like. That's why there are so many sequels out there - it's a "safe" gamble for the studio, and usually BORING.

    --
    ..........FULL STOP.
    1. Re:Special effects... by moviepig.com · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I'm just really getting tired of special effects movies. ..."War of the Worlds"...was just horrible! ... As long as a special effect is about as good as the OLD Dr. Who, then that's all you really need...

      A movie that's only effects isn't much, true. But remember that, especially with something like War of the Worlds, the movie itself is already an "effect", i.e., an attempt to render a literary concept into a visually believable form. If one's willing to settle for the mere narrative adequacy of "placeholder" effects, then why not simply stick with reading the book?

      --
      Seeing bad movies only encourages them. Watch responsibly
    2. Re:Special effects... by boron+boy · · Score: 2, Insightful
      The ideal would for these untrained, passionate people to be linked with mentors who could teach them the craft of visual storytelling. This is what Lucas has suggested he'll do post-Star Wars

      About time. Lucas could really use a lessons or two.

  13. Um... by rbanzai · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This appears to be the end result of an awful lots of work.... and absolutely no sense of humor.

    As usual, cheers to the CGI and OMGZ to everything else.

  14. Re:Shameless plug. by EiZei · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes a totally shameless plug of A FREE HOBBYIST MOVIE.

    RTFA.

  15. Re:Whats a Pirkinning? by jeff_schiller · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A horrible, horrible pun...

  16. Re:First: First comment by shrik3 · · Score: 2, Informative
    Second: How can they sell this and not get eaten alive by MPAA?

    Because the MPAA has nothing on them? It's 100% original stuff, except for the parodic/satiric references to Star Trek & Babylon 5.

  17. Re:why? by eno2001 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A friend of mine always asks the same thing about Linux guys. Here is my theory:

    Once upon a time (any time within the 20th century before the 1960s in the United States), men only had short conservative hair cuts and women had hair like Donna Reed. During these times, all dissent on any front was not only frowned upon but wound up getting you investigated as a "dirty red". But, as is wont to happen, the conservatives became more and more corrupt and the average person began seeing through their illusion of morality. More and more of those "beatniks" and their kind started to become prevalent in society and the conservatives lost their grip.

    In the 60s, the counterculturalists morphed into hippies and one of the symbols of the males of their rebellion was to grow long hair as a reaction against the crew cut. This trend spread until not only hippies had long hair, but even college professors, detectives, doctors and even lawyers (by the 80s)! What was once a symbol of rebellion had become a weakened style statement with no real substance. By the 90s you were seeing a mixture of men sporting both crew cuts and pony tails.

    Finally, sometime between the 70s and now, geeks (who are woefully behind the times in terms of style and counterculture) caught onto the concept of the male pony tail. This seemed to spread throughout several of the geek subcultures such as the Linux community, gamers, sci-fi fans and the like. The meaning of the pony tail amongst these folk is somewhat of a mystery because it's likely to be both a symbol of some kind of rebellion (akin to, "I shake my fist at thee") and an awkward fashion statement. So it's safe to say that the reason these folks have pony tails is probably because they want them. But it's also safe to say that they probably haven't a clue in the world WHY they want them. Except maybe because "so and so has one and he's super cool". ;P

    Did that clear things up?

    --
    -"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
  18. Re:Shameless plug. by ultranova · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why should anyone care about this?

    Well, because this

    1. Involves computers (to render the special effects),
    2. Is scifi,
    3. Involves Star Trek,
    4. Involves Babylon 5,
    5. Is basically a story about amateurs using technology, intelligence and determination to product the kind of things normally thought to require a multi-million dollar budget (basically the same story as with too many open-source projects, case mods and homemade gadgets that have been mentioned in Slashdot to count).

    I find the idea of homemade space battle movie very much in line with "News for nerds, stuff that matters". Everyone is complaining about the (low) quality of stuff that Hollywood produces; suppose every hobbyist with a computer could make professional-looking special effects ? What would that mean about indie movies ability to compete with Hollywood ones ?

    Think about it - a virtual movie studio right in your own computer, complete with virtual actors (because, lets face it, keeping several people working on a project like an indie movie is propably going to be the hardest part - it's not nice if the main character walks away halfway through), costumes, sets, semi-automatic cameramen...

    What kind of movie would you want to write and direct today ?

    --

    Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  19. Re:I hope it isn't going to bomb. by WormholeFiend · · Score: 2, Informative

    you can tell they are terrible actors

    Two words: William. Shatner.

  20. Re:Whats a Pirkinning? by Misagon · · Score: 2, Informative

    "In The Beginning" - a Babylon 5 movie
    Captain Pirk - the hero in this movie

    --
    "We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
  21. Re:How about a language that we understand by Explo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just read the subtitles? I've seen plenty of movies spoken in language that I do not understand and happily just read the subtitles.

    (This particular movie is not a problem, as I'm Finnish. :)

    --
    Everyone who makes generalizations should be shot.
  22. Re:Shameless plug. by ultranova · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They're charging about $30 for the DVD, right? Doesn't that, by definition, disqualify them from amateur status?

    No. An amateur, in this context, is someone who doesn't make his living from whatever it's he's amateur at. SW6 was 5 years in production and cost thousands of euros; there's no way they will turn a profit, much less cover their living expenses from the past 5 years. Besides, the movie is supposed to become a free download after a while. Check also Elfwood, and see how many people have mentioned that they're available for doing commissions.

    Amateurs sell their works all the time, they just don't make their living from it.

    --

    Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.