sadly, TMN gives you 100s of crappy movies for $10 a month. I've had both Directv and ExpressVu, and there's no comparison. The reason Directv is so widely pirated in Canada is because our government restricts competition and denies us the airwaves that are sailing into our houses to make Bell a few more bucks...
I've been thinking about something related to this for a while. My theory is something to the effect of "Dramatic shows have a 5 year cycle of goodness, after which they decline rapidly". It happens sooner in many cases, but it seems like year 1-2 is spent figuring out the characters, introducing us to their quirks, establishing in general. After this, we get seasons 3-4 which generally rock. Season 5 and after tend to decline in quality and originality.
THis seems to hold true for Buffy, Angel, ST:TNG, and most shows I've put to the test. There may an additional rule for shows that entirely change writing staffs and put up a new 5 year cycle.
I don't watch Law and Order or ER, but maybe someone can let me know whether they too fit the pattern.
At any rate, Buffy's hung around about 2 years too long, and ST:TNG was wearing out it's welcome in S7 too....
This is a rumor at best...
from Zap2it.com
"Rumors of a possible spin-off still run rampant, although the most likely candidate -- based on the character of Buffy's fellow slayer Faith -- now seems iffy at best since actress Eliza Dushku (who plays the recurring role on both "Buffy" and "Angel") has signed on for the FOX drama pilot "Heroine" about a young woman who finds that she can go back in time and relive single days."
Not to quibble, but the parent didn't say they were only usable in WARM places.... Just sunny ones.
And yes, Alaska, Antarctica, and Northern Canada are indeed sunny places.
The article said "best space strategy game SERIES". Methinks your little Trade Wars is a but a speck compared to the glory that was MOO and MOO II.
Bring it on, we can't wait any longer...
I guess then if I want to kick you in the back of the head because you're yapping on the phone, I can.
Sure I admit, it's not the most polite thing to do, but as an important man sometimes I just have to kick when other people are around. Deal with it!
Sometimes things people on cell phones in theatres annoy us. But it is far better to just KICK those people that annoy us than it is to ban them!
Not to defend the Diz, but
9 Treasure Planet $3,102,173 2,192 $1,415 $27,905,575 19
Looks like some people have, in fact, seen Treasure Planet. Enough to make it #9 last week, and bring in an average of $1415 over 2192 theatres...
Lilo and Sticj made around 143 Million on a 120M budget. Not stellar, but respectable.
It all sounds good, but what's reasonable to you may not be to me. I'm not saying the company is right all the time, but you can't stop people from being people. Many times, it's not 100% salary based. People get disgruntled, and many times, by the time the problem rears its head, you can't calm them back down.
You may indeed be right. I had read that they also ran into trouble in that they had planned for the assassination attempt to happen in the 21st hour, but it ended up happening in the 8th, due to the story moving more quickly because of the timescale.
This year they've taken to writing in 6 hours chunks with the full story outlined in advance.
Friends is indeed an easy target, but one of the few sitcoms that is as well written today as when it started. It's also at the top of its game both script and popularity-wise.
It's a little misleading to compare Friends (a Sit-Com) to 24 (a Drama). There are miles of difference between the two.
Also, the Brits have made lots of sit-com type shows with no ending in sight, so this is hardly a "USA" problem.
Beginning to end stories can be great, no argument there. But even they get co-opted and subverted by the big dollar. Babylon 5 was doing fine until the cancellation scare in season 4 which skewed the rest of the run into the mostly uneccessary category. And the idea of adding sub-plots that have little to do with the main story strikes me as not that different than the sitcom ideal of keeping a show going when it's doing well.
I think there's also a point to be made about allowing shows time to "find their stride". It rare that a long running show's first year is it's best. ST:TNG, X-FILES, BUFFY, etc, all matured and grew through the years. Once the introductory phase is over, the writers have time to expand and strengthen the characters, etc.
I think Crusade would have gotten better had it been allowed room to grow. I remember reading that shows like Cheers were on the chopping block after losing in their time slots constantly. Networks these days cancel shows after 2 episodes...
Though Digital indeed seems to have many plusses, there is still a fair amount of controversy about whether it will be better in the long run. There are a number of critics of the method, notable Roger Ebert. This link fittingly provides a counterpoint to Ebert's argument.
http://www.volksmovie.com/rants/archive/rogerebert . tm
UP here in Canada, you're required to shovel the sidewalk in front of your property, as well as the walk leading up to your home. This helps not only the postal carrier, but also alleviates concerns about people falling and injuring themselves while on your property, which you would be liable for. If you don;t and someone narcs on you, or the city guys try to service your house is some way, you'll be fined and/or they'll send someone to shovel at your expense.
The big issue here, as I see it, is sometimes the snow is not completely removable. When it's warmer, the snow tends to clump and is easy to scrape off entirely, but otherwise, you're generally not able to get rid of all of it.
It saddens me that we've gotten to the point where it's okay to have a lower class and the pomposity to think that no American should have to stoop to such work, but it's perfectly acceptable for the "dirty foreigners" to do it.
America needs to start setting an example by cleaning up and solving its own problems, instead of the grandstanding and righteousness.
Wow. No kidding, that "Saving Private Ryan", and "Amistad", oh, and yeah "Schindler's List"... Trite kiddie films the lot of them.
Kubrick was an over-rated hack who was barely in touch with what was going on around him, never mind what was important. "Eyes Wide Shut" was a brilliant, groundbreaking work. If it was made in 1975.
My biggest problem with EP1 was that every major battle was won by something quirky happening by accident (Anakin destroys the Trade Ship by hitting buttons until he fires the lasers, JarJar accidentally discovers how to destroy the Battle Droids, etc.) Shades of Ewoks clumsily and comically destroying the Walkers/ AT-ATs in ROTJ.
If this kid is supposed to be the gift of the universe, shouldn't we get a scene with him figuring out how to blow up the ship using his smarts... And hey, in the interests of foreshadowing, why not a quick moment where he considers the lives of those aboard and decides to do it anyway. Might make for a nice scene down the line when he gets into some wholesale wanton destruction.
The article makes many good points, and highlights the lack of success of GL's other films. It's no big surprise that Lucas is not considered a gift to screenwriting. There's no shame in it.
He should really consider sticking to the production/direction/story idea side of things, and let others flesh out the script...
Slashdot Mirror
sadly, TMN gives you 100s of crappy movies for $10 a month. I've had both Directv and ExpressVu, and there's no comparison. The reason Directv is so widely pirated in Canada is because our government restricts competition and denies us the airwaves that are sailing into our houses to make Bell a few more bucks...
I've been thinking about something related to this for a while. My theory is something to the effect of "Dramatic shows have a 5 year cycle of goodness, after which they decline rapidly". It happens sooner in many cases, but it seems like year 1-2 is spent figuring out the characters, introducing us to their quirks, establishing in general. After this, we get seasons 3-4 which generally rock. Season 5 and after tend to decline in quality and originality. THis seems to hold true for Buffy, Angel, ST:TNG, and most shows I've put to the test. There may an additional rule for shows that entirely change writing staffs and put up a new 5 year cycle. I don't watch Law and Order or ER, but maybe someone can let me know whether they too fit the pattern. At any rate, Buffy's hung around about 2 years too long, and ST:TNG was wearing out it's welcome in S7 too....
This is a rumor at best... from Zap2it.com "Rumors of a possible spin-off still run rampant, although the most likely candidate -- based on the character of Buffy's fellow slayer Faith -- now seems iffy at best since actress Eliza Dushku (who plays the recurring role on both "Buffy" and "Angel") has signed on for the FOX drama pilot "Heroine" about a young woman who finds that she can go back in time and relive single days."
Not to quibble, but the parent didn't say they were only usable in WARM places.... Just sunny ones. And yes, Alaska, Antarctica, and Northern Canada are indeed sunny places.
It also increases the volume of mail being carried, solves nothing ,and likely leads to an increase for postage.
The article said "best space strategy game SERIES". Methinks your little Trade Wars is a but a speck compared to the glory that was MOO and MOO II. Bring it on, we can't wait any longer...
I guess then if I want to kick you in the back of the head because you're yapping on the phone, I can. Sure I admit, it's not the most polite thing to do, but as an important man sometimes I just have to kick when other people are around. Deal with it! Sometimes things people on cell phones in theatres annoy us. But it is far better to just KICK those people that annoy us than it is to ban them!
Not to defend the Diz, but 9 Treasure Planet $3,102,173 2,192 $1,415 $27,905,575 19 Looks like some people have, in fact, seen Treasure Planet. Enough to make it #9 last week, and bring in an average of $1415 over 2192 theatres... Lilo and Sticj made around 143 Million on a 120M budget. Not stellar, but respectable.
It all sounds good, but what's reasonable to you may not be to me. I'm not saying the company is right all the time, but you can't stop people from being people. Many times, it's not 100% salary based. People get disgruntled, and many times, by the time the problem rears its head, you can't calm them back down.
You may indeed be right. I had read that they also ran into trouble in that they had planned for the assassination attempt to happen in the 21st hour, but it ended up happening in the 8th, due to the story moving more quickly because of the timescale. This year they've taken to writing in 6 hours chunks with the full story outlined in advance. Friends is indeed an easy target, but one of the few sitcoms that is as well written today as when it started. It's also at the top of its game both script and popularity-wise.
It's a little misleading to compare Friends (a Sit-Com) to 24 (a Drama). There are miles of difference between the two. Also, the Brits have made lots of sit-com type shows with no ending in sight, so this is hardly a "USA" problem. Beginning to end stories can be great, no argument there. But even they get co-opted and subverted by the big dollar. Babylon 5 was doing fine until the cancellation scare in season 4 which skewed the rest of the run into the mostly uneccessary category. And the idea of adding sub-plots that have little to do with the main story strikes me as not that different than the sitcom ideal of keeping a show going when it's doing well.
Try Shakespeare's Hamlet... Oh wait... not quite.
I don't even want to think about the implications of making this Open Source.... Not to mention the kernals...
Dammit! Fonzie jumped the shark on WATERSKIS, not a motorcycle. I'm a little ashamed of the technically precise Slashdotters overlooking this.
I think there's also a point to be made about allowing shows time to "find their stride". It rare that a long running show's first year is it's best. ST:TNG, X-FILES, BUFFY, etc, all matured and grew through the years. Once the introductory phase is over, the writers have time to expand and strengthen the characters, etc.
I think Crusade would have gotten better had it been allowed room to grow. I remember reading that shows like Cheers were on the chopping block after losing in their time slots constantly. Networks these days cancel shows after 2 episodes...
Though Digital indeed seems to have many plusses, there is still a fair amount of controversy about whether it will be better in the long run. There are a number of critics of the method, notable Roger Ebert. This link fittingly provides a counterpoint to Ebert's argument. http://www.volksmovie.com/rants/archive/rogerebert . tm
UP here in Canada, you're required to shovel the sidewalk in front of your property, as well as the walk leading up to your home. This helps not only the postal carrier, but also alleviates concerns about people falling and injuring themselves while on your property, which you would be liable for. If you don;t and someone narcs on you, or the city guys try to service your house is some way, you'll be fined and/or they'll send someone to shovel at your expense.
The big issue here, as I see it, is sometimes the snow is not completely removable. When it's warmer, the snow tends to clump and is easy to scrape off entirely, but otherwise, you're generally not able to get rid of all of it.
Whatever you do, don't EVER get a large bag of red balloons and release them into the summer sky. Boy, I learned my lesson...
I could have sworn that Fonzie jumped the Shark on waterskis. He tried the motorcycle, but kept floating off the seat.
It saddens me that we've gotten to the point where it's okay to have a lower class and the pomposity to think that no American should have to stoop to such work, but it's perfectly acceptable for the "dirty foreigners" to do it.
America needs to start setting an example by cleaning up and solving its own problems, instead of the grandstanding and righteousness.
Wow. No kidding, that "Saving Private Ryan", and "Amistad", oh, and yeah "Schindler's List"... Trite kiddie films the lot of them. Kubrick was an over-rated hack who was barely in touch with what was going on around him, never mind what was important. "Eyes Wide Shut" was a brilliant, groundbreaking work. If it was made in 1975.
My biggest problem with EP1 was that every major battle was won by something quirky happening by accident (Anakin destroys the Trade Ship by hitting buttons until he fires the lasers, JarJar accidentally discovers how to destroy the Battle Droids, etc.) Shades of Ewoks clumsily and comically destroying the Walkers/ AT-ATs in ROTJ. If this kid is supposed to be the gift of the universe, shouldn't we get a scene with him figuring out how to blow up the ship using his smarts... And hey, in the interests of foreshadowing, why not a quick moment where he considers the lives of those aboard and decides to do it anyway. Might make for a nice scene down the line when he gets into some wholesale wanton destruction.
The article makes many good points, and highlights the lack of success of GL's other films. It's no big surprise that Lucas is not considered a gift to screenwriting. There's no shame in it. He should really consider sticking to the production/direction/story idea side of things, and let others flesh out the script...