OT: Movies You Have Seen Lately

[Atrocities]

Did they have a giant spider? That is all I want to know.

[mac5732]

My youngest son just bought the Firefly lst (and only)season cds and the movie Serenity. ah... watched it all in 2 days, even tho I saw some of them before, I was able to watch the entire show from the lst episode to the last and the movie which was the ending. D.... Fox for taking off a darn good series. I do hear that the Sci fi channel and fox are talking about brining it back with the original actors, don't know if thats true or not.. but it would be great IMHO

[Atrocities]

We interupt this thread for a specail rant by yours truly:

Rumor had it that Josh Weaton (sp) was black listed and his TV shows pulled because he supported the wrong political side of things. Far too many good people have as of recent years, been cast down from the lime light and success of hollywood because they do not subscribe to "certain" ideals of those who run hollywood. Let us just say that the left side of the road has far more power and is willing to use said power to ruin any one who does not support or accept their points of view.

That being said, hollywood is indeed in a state of depression that shows in just about every television show and film produced over the last five years. Dwindling box office revenew and lack luster ratings on just about everything on TV. Instead of giving us the shows and films we want, they feed us political points of view and try and tell us what and how to think. Most people tune that out as it has shown.

Films like Serenity which come along once in a blue moon are indeed jewels that we can never get enough of.

As to reviving Firefly, no can do for seven, now six more years according to the contract that was made in order to produce the film. The film did very poorly at the box office because it was not widely advertised, again black listing at work, and if you have not been able to read between the lines, allow me to elabrate by simply saying one name... Lucas.

Remember what happened to BSG in the lates 70's? Lucas sued them and they opted to end the series because the cost of keeping it going was too great. I can still remember the the ABC summer line up previews and the "Still the one, ABC is still the one" commericals that showed off BSG. Man that show was the most exciting thing I had ever seen on TV and when it debuted on Sunday Sept 17th I was hooked and forever amazed. Lucas had a part in taking that, and most recently Firefly off the air and that is why I am not a big GL fan.

End of rant. We now return you to the previously scheduled thread.

[Caduceus]

Atrocities said:
As to reviving Firefly, no can do for seven, now six more years according to the contract that was made in order to produce the film. The film did very poorly at the box office because it was not widely advertised, again black listing at work, and if you have not been able to read between the lines, allow me to elabrate by simply saying one name... Lucas.

The film was OVER advertised. The two plus weeks before it was launched, you couldn't turn the TV on without seeing an advertisement for it. The "browncoat" brigade was out if force trying to get folks to see it.

You'll need a bit more proof to show me that Lucas killed this. Considering it was on the Fox network, which is a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox, distributor of Star Wars.

Here's the gross amounts from IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379786/business
$40M investment, $25M return domestic (-37.5%)

Compare with episode three.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121766/business
$113M investment, $380M return domestic (+236%)

You're a stockholder and/or investor in movies. Which one are you going to make?

[Slynky]

Atrocities said:
We interupt this thread for a specail rant by yours truly:

Rumor had it that Josh Weaton (sp) was black listed and his TV shows pulled because he supported the wrong political side of things. Far too many good people have as of recent years, been cast down from the lime light and success of hollywood because they do not subscribe to "certain" ideals of those who run hollywood. Let us just say that the left side of the road has far more power and is willing to use said power to ruin any one who does not support or accept their points of view.

That being said, hollywood is indeed in a state of depression that shows in just about every television show and film produced over the last five years. Dwindling box office revenew and lack luster ratings on just about everything on TV. Instead of giving us the shows and films we want, they feed us political points of view and try and tell us what and how to think. Most people tune that out as it has shown.

Films like Serenity which come along once in a blue moon are indeed jewels that we can never get enough of.

As to reviving Firefly, no can do for seven, now six more years according to the contract that was made in order to produce the film. The film did very poorly at the box office because it was not widely advertised, again black listing at work, and if you have not been able to read between the lines, allow me to elabrate by simply saying one name... Lucas.

Remember what happened to BSG in the lates 70's? Lucas sued them and they opted to end the series because the cost of keeping it going was too great. I can still remember the the ABC summer line up previews and the "Still the one, ABC is still the one" commericals that showed off BSG. Man that show was the most exciting thing I had ever seen on TV and when it debuted on Sunday Sept 17th I was hooked and forever amazed. Lucas had a part in taking that, and most recently Firefly off the air and that is why I am not a big GL fan.

End of rant. We now return you to the previously scheduled thread.

Couldn't have said it better. ---- GL ! And the horse he rode in on!

[gregebowman]

Well, since Lucas gave us Star Wars, I can't be too critical of him, other to say that he reached his pinnacle at SW IV, and maybe there was a reason he didn't direct the other two films in the original trilogy. Whatever he had, he sure lost when he tried directing the other 3 SW films. He should have stayed executive producer and worry about the big things and let someone else direct. Someone who had talent and the SW vision.

I don't know if Lucas actually killed BSG in the 70's, but I do remember him threatening a lawsuit. Too bad the original BSG lasted only 1 season. I would have loved to see what they could have done if they had more episodes to play with. I don't count Galactica 80 as an actual BSG experience, and have tried for 26 years to forget it even existed.

[Hunpecked]

I really wanted to like the Firefly series, with its appealing cast, frequent humor, and underdog characters. But come on, we're hundreds of years in the future, we have FTL travel & artificial gravity, and our heroes earn their living transporting a couple dozen CATTLE from world to world? The government has terraformed numerous "moons" (no doubt at tremendous expense) into excellent replicas of a barren desert with (apparently) Earth gravity and then plants 'em with refugees from a John Wayne western? The ship is propelled at interstellar speeds by a rotating kettle tended by a high school dropout?

The movie, at least, had a bigger budget and more action, but was no more believable than the series, e.g. the interstellar superweapon played by a wisp of a girl that even Truman Capote could *****-slap into next week. I can see how such a quirky show could gather a small, dedicated fan base, but there's no need for conspiracy theories to explain its lack of general appeal.

BTW, rather than trying to pound his round peg into a square sci-fi hole, I've always thought that Wheadon should have set his story in the past, e.g. the late 1700s to early 1800s American coast, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean. Reynolds could be an American Tory (i.e. on the losing side of the American war for independence) forced off his land by the victorious Patriots, now earning a semi-legitimate living as a merchant captain, smuggler, and privateer. He could be master of a beat-up sloop named Serenity (after his lost plantation?), he could have the same scruffy crew (including women), and he could get into all the sword fights he wanted (did I mention that the Firefly series included a freakin' sword fight?).

[Atrocities]

Hunpecked, you missed the whole point of the series, there is no point to trying to make you understand. Either you got the series, or you didn't. I do hope that Joss's next television effort will work out.. sounds interesting if not anything else.

[Slynky]

I've never stood here and suggested for a single moment that Firefly/Serenity was a technical masterpiece, hunpecked. I mean, correct in all aspects of what we could expect in technology and future developments.

You know, lots of people enjoy James Bond movies and they enjoy a huge box office take. Talk about stupid things that could never happen! And then, there's the blockbuster movies like Die Hard, Mission Impossible (which is mostly anything impossible!), and even more stupid [censored] like, "Armeggedon" and its hit cast doing impossible [censored] on an asteroid. Give me a break! HIT movies often fail to meet technical political correctness and succeed in the box office.

NOW, to the story liine: IF YOU WATCHED! The premise is that the Alliance needed a place to settle as Earth was getting full. Here comes the terraforming. NOT that each terraforming exercise was to convert a rock into a paradise...it was to convert a planet into something livable. THEN, after terraforming and sending colonist out, the Alliance tended to forget the poor wretches on the outskirts. THAT'S supposed to signify the difference in tech from the central core to the forgotten colonists on the outskirts. Hence the rebellion. Hence the need for basic human needs like food (cattle) and medicine.

Was/is it technically perfect? No. But does it do it as well as all the other [censored] I mentioned? Hell yes!

The mechanic you seem to dwell on? Not much different than the apparent inate abilities of several other heroes in movies...like Star Wars. I took it as an ability to understand mechanics and space travel/engines as Tiger Woods has to a golf club.

Want to really get truthful? Then try the successful series of Star Trek where people spent a few minutes splicing a few wires together and increased warp speed twice over. Or how Wesley (a kid) save the crew many times over. Was it a hit (though really ridiculous)? Hell yes!

So, get off your high horse. Go look at a lot of successful pieces of "space pablum" and give Joss the same amount of fair assessment as you have the others.

Finally, character development in Serenity/Firefly exceeds the range of that achieved by Star Wars (really, if you go do your homework, sci-fi pulp made to a movie). The characters in Firefly/Serenity tug a bit more at your heart and emotions than Star Wars ever did. I don't remember ever getting a swelled throat at any character in SW. Or Star Trek.

Joss has made, NOT a masterpiece, but a damned good series/movie that makes you visit every gamut of what a viewer should want: Excitement, plot, secrets, emotions, and sadness. Mal is the BEST representation of a ship's captain as I can remember. Name me one better!

[Black_Knyght]

Atrocities said:
Hunpecked, you missed the whole point of the series, there is no point to trying to make you understand. Either you got the series, or you didn't. I do hope that Joss's next television effort will work out.. sounds interesting if not anything else.

I gotta go with AT on this one, Hunpecked. Reread everything you wrote, and give it a moment's thought. The point of the ENTIRE show is in there.