Multi Media Discussion
tomierna
(Admin)
– December 07, 2007 09:41PM
Film, TV, video DVD, DV, Flash. Put the Multi to use here, folks.
John Willoughby
– July 04, 2012 06:32PM
Homo Sapiens Sedentarius
I'm kind of bemused by that author's assumption that the original director's vision must have been superior. Based, apparently, purely on her gender and the fact that the original concept was hers. I don't know that her vision wasn't better, of course, but I don't imagine that Pixar would change directors lightly, or without a reason.
johnny k
– July 04, 2012 07:39PM
Speaking of Pixar directors, just watched John Carter. Pulpy, slaughtery fun. Light on the sci-fi (I'll assume that their take on Mars' moons was mirroring 19th-century speculation). Cool creatures. Tharks are what Jar-Jar Binks was supposed to be.
John Willoughby
– July 05, 2012 01:59AM
Homo Sapiens Sedentarius
I just saw it, too. Well, watched it as I was doing something else. I was a big fan of the books. I thought that they did the creatures very well: tharks, thoats, calots, etc. I can certainly understand why the characters were clothed, though they mostly weren't in the books' Barsoomian culture. The original Dejah Thoris was a typical heroine for 1912: proud, supportive of her man, death before dishonor, but no sort of warrior. I can understand updating her for modern audiences. The world Burroughs described was intensely colorful... almost every plant or creature was some different shocking shade. I'm glad that they didn't try for that, it would have been quite off-putting!
It was the story that crapped out for me. Not the whole hey-I'm-on-Mars stuff, but the 2 dimensional evil Zodanga thing. Which is odd, because the book had a 2 dimensional Zodanga plot as well, but the book's was better. The movie puffed up the villain, giving him an irresistable ultimate weapon, making an (at least slightly) nuanced conflict into stark Zodanga-vs-Barsoom thing. I felt that if they had spent more time on the script and less on the CGI beasties, it would have been a better movie.
Did they even mention that Dejah Thoris was oviparous? I don't mind that they didn't, but it would have been funny.
ddt
– July 05, 2012 08:23PM
Don't people here like Minecraft and GoT? You're gonna love the two together.
http://imgur.com/a/zqtpz
Not _that_ kind of OCD,
ddt
johnny k
– July 06, 2012 04:03AM
That would've been funny. I haven't read the books so it was all new to me; you just made me peruse the Barsoom wikia. Yeah, I'm surprised that the Wall•E guy couldn't make a cohesive story. New Yorker had a great pre-release story on Stanton and his struggle to get this movie "punched up". It had some campy parts, some violent fight scenes and beautiful landscapes... enjoyed each nugget, but wasn't sure how seriously to take it all. The red Martians and their motivations were pretty rote.
Oh well. I hear it did well in Russia, so maybe we'll see a direct-to-iTunes sequel.
El Jeffe
– July 11, 2012 06:54PM
What a journey.
Yeah, we watched John Carter when it came out on DVD. It was a nice mix of a few movies, imo. And it worked. We were entertained. That is all I ever ask.
El Jeffe
– July 13, 2012 04:35PM
What a journey.
Went to see To Rome with Love. Quirkly, odd, funny, subtitle-y.
How can I get gigs to fly all over the world and make a living??? Huh? TELL ME NOW!!!!!!
John Willoughby
– July 13, 2012 07:35PM
Homo Sapiens Sedentarius
Mercenary. Reply to ads in the back of Soldier of Fortune magazine.
Cloudscout
– July 15, 2012 04:26PM
˙pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ʎɯ ɥʇıʍ ƃuoɹʍ ƃuıɥʇǝɯos sı ǝɹǝɥʇ ʞuıɥʇ ı ?ɹǝʇndɯoɔ ʎɯ ɥʇıʍ ǝɯ dlǝɥ ǝuoǝɯos uɐɔ
I've been watching a lot of The Red Green Show lately.
I've seen it many times over the years whenever I happen to catch it on PBS but I've started getting the DVDs from Netflix now and it's interesting to watch how it started from relatively humble beginnings back in 1991.
The first season was a little rough. You can tell they had a limited budget and, according to the commentary, they kind of got screwed over by limited studio time. They still managed to establish a good foundation, though, and it's fun to watch.
The SECOND season, however, was a train wreck. The explanation for this reads like a composite of everything that goes wrong when network executives start interfering with creative shows. Some stuffed suit decided that he could make the show better by rubbing his personal stink on it. How? He tried to turn it into a sitcom. Unsurprisingly, his cockup alienated viewers. Rather than admit his mistake, he canceled the show at the end of the second season.
Luckily, enough of the original concept managed to find its way into each of that season's episodes so it's still worth watching.
After it was canceled, they quickly found a new home on another network where they were able to drop the sitcom garbage and return to their original vision.
I can only wonder how the idiotic network exec felt when he saw that the show he ruined with his meddling and then canceled ended up running for 13 more seasons, winning several Gemini awards and becoming surprisingly popular in the United States in the process... not to mention earning the show's creator appointment to the Order of Canada.
Tony Leggett
(Moderator)
– July 18, 2012 08:53PM
El Jeffe
– July 21, 2012 04:52PM
What a journey.
saw prometheus tonight. bit disappointed.
Jeff Cooper
– July 22, 2012 04:29AM
No posts on Spider-Man? I thought it was, well, amazing. Took some liberties with the origin story and the costume, and maybe tried to cram in a bit too much, but I really enjoyed it. Biggest problem is that Andrew Garfield is already, what, 28? He's already kind of laughable as a high school student; by the next movie, it may be completely absurd.
El Jeffe
– July 22, 2012 04:48AM
What a journey.
kids saw that while we went to From Rome with Love. Quirky movie that.
ddt
– August 13, 2012 08:41PM
I'm going to take this sore throat and slight fever as a reason not to get up to ride at dawn. The relevance to this thread? Actually kind of excited to start watching the 2005 Doctor Who series from the start. Interesting how the series changed over the years. And Eccleston was cool.
ddt
Tony Leggett
(Moderator)
– August 13, 2012 08:48PM
He was. He kinda got canned by accident IIRC. He did some interview saying he didn't want to end up typecast as the Dr and the BEEB took that to mean he didn't want a second season (which he in fact did) and cut his contract. Oops.
Tony Leggett
(Moderator)
– August 13, 2012 08:53PM
DPBD!
My somewhat tacky guilty pleasure at the moment is Mrs Brown's Boys on the BBC.
This scene had me in stitches
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2012 08:59PM by Tony Leggett.
Jeff Cooper
– August 14, 2012 02:37AM
I just started watching Doctor Who last year. I watched the first two episodes of season 6 when they first aired, really didn't get it at all, but rather than give up went back and watched from the beginning of the reboot. Didn't take me long to get through six seasons (plus the specials). Eccleston was definitely cool (and not in the way that fezzes are cool).
"The Impossible Astronaut" made a bit more sense the second time around.
johnny k
– August 14, 2012 03:42AM
Been watching Peep Show on Netflix. It is The Best. Horrible people, hillariously blunt. Watch the wedding episode.
Cloudscout
– August 14, 2012 05:42AM
˙pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ʎɯ ɥʇıʍ ƃuoɹʍ ƃuıɥʇǝɯos sı ǝɹǝɥʇ ʞuıɥʇ ı ?ɹǝʇndɯoɔ ʎɯ ɥʇıʍ ǝɯ dlǝɥ ǝuoǝɯos uɐɔ
I tried watching Peep Show since I loved That Mitchell and Webb Look but couldn't get into it. I'll try the episode you mentioned and see if that is better.
I really hope they resurrect the old Doctor Who tradition of multiple-doctor episodes. They did their one-off sketch for Children in Need a few years ago with David Tenant and Peter Davison but they could do much more. The only living actor who couldn't be made up to look enough like his Doctor Who self is Colin Baker. Tom Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann could still pull it off.
