don't worry about algebra monkey, you don't need it to understand life. besides i took calculus last year and guess what i'm taking now? precalculus! i ain't that good either!

you know what movie(s) did a great job of connecting with each other? well, besides star wars.

back to the future!!! (which i just got on DVD for $20!!!!<-- that deserved 4 exclamation points) i'm gonna watch all in a row sometime soon. i love those movies.

never knew what zam said. good to know. i'm thinking i should go out with a star wars line. hmmm. or maybe a beatles lyric...

no test. no test. no test!

quote:

Originally posted by The Fryer:
don't worry about algebra monkey, you don't need it to understand life.

That's what I kept trying to tell them, but they wouldn't listen and wouldn't let me take geometry! Which I'm a whole lot better at.

quote:

back to the future!!! (which i just got on DVD for $20!!!!<-- that deserved 4 exclamation points) i'm gonna watch all in a row sometime soon. i love those movies.

Oh yeah! That's also an annual event I hold in the Den! Marathons are fun on a bun! Let's see... there's the "Star Wars" saga (of course!), the "Back to the Future" trilogy, "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy (I actually include "The Hobbit", the animated movie made waaaay back in the day to kick it off!), "The Matrix" trilogy (including the "Animatrix" placed at the proper points. I start with "The Second Renaissance", then I watch the first movie, then I watch the rest of "The Animatrix" ending it with "Final Flight of the Osiris", THEN I finish it up with "Reloaded" & "Revolutions"!), the "Alien Quadrilogy" (Which now include the "Predator" movies since "AVP" kinda bridged the gap. Of course I'm really just looking for a reason to connect 'em to make the series a little longer. It's not as fun when a marathon consists of only 2 movies, ya know. I can't wait for the second! No, I didn't think the first one was excellent, but it does have some nifty Predator-on-Alien action and the second seems to have even more, PLUS IT'S RATED R! ), the "Lethal Weapon" series, the "Die Hard" trilogy (soon to be a "series" after I grab the fourth! ), the "Blade" trilogy, the "X-Men" trilogy, the "Austin Powers" trilogy, the "Indiana Jones" trilogy, and the "Terminator" trilogy! Actually, only "Star Wars" & "The Lord of the Rings" are an annual event. The others I tend to watch MORE than once a year because they don't really force you to set aside an entire day or can be spread out over a week because the stories aren't as close as some of the other ones.

Have a great time with Doc and Marty and their craaaazzzzzy adventures!

the life of robots

i already knew but i wasn't sure if you did.

AVP was entertaining but it didn't change my life.

like star wars. I'm glad there is a second one coming though. It was a good idea almost done right.

That's great! I would love to see what he can do with a t.v. show! I'm also excited to read about another "Clone Wars"! Did I read that right, about it being Computer Generated?! I tried to click on the link to read more, but to no avail . I wonder if he's gonna make it look like "The Animatrix's Final Flight of the Osirus". That would be friggin' awesome! I was so disappointed when I learned that the style of the original 'toons was gonna be like 'Samurai Jack'. Not that I don't like the way 'S.J.' looks, but with Lucas being this big "newest technology" kinda guy, I was shocked to hear he was going for the look of a "traditional cartoon"!

quote:

Originally posted by The Fryer:
AVP was entertaining but it didn't change my life.

It wasn't supposed to ! Actually, has any movie changed your life? I mean, when I first saw "Star Wars", I loved it, but it didn't change my life or the way I look at it. Now that I think about it, I don't think I've EVER had an experience the way all of these director's and people did. It was a geat movie to me, but I just wanted to see what happened next, really. I would say the only way a movie I liked changed my life would be that I would talk about it for quite awhile with some friends of mine, or that I ran up to Wal-Mart at midnight to grab it... ASAP! That's about it, though, I go to the theater to be entertained. Not to learn, or to walk out with a new outlook on life. I absolutly love "Star Wars", but was it life changing or life affirming for me? Naw. I just made a point to stay alive long enough to see all six in a row from the enclosed darkness of the Den ! How can a movie change your life? (I'm not really asking you. It's more of a rhetorical question, but if you wanna touch upon your personal "life-changing" experiences, feel free! )

I went wanting to see an Alien fight a Predator and I got that, PLUS a Predator fighting a gorgous, absolutly beautiful Queen! (I wasn't expecting that one bit!) Did I enjoy the whole movie? No. There are many problems with it (mostly with the actors), but I forgave 'em for them because they gave me what nobody else would, some Alien-on-Predator action (because I didn't go for the actors NOT in Alien or Predator suits)! From the new trailer, it seems they were listening to the groans of a PG-13 rating on such a movie and gave us what we wanted in the sequel: BLOOD, GORE, and lots of ACTION! Did you catch the quck glimpse of the Pred-alien?! Ooooooh baby ! Ya know, I never went to a single "Alien" or "Predator" movie to see the humans anyway. I'm not saying the human element in those movies was as terrible as it was in this one, but when I heard they were making it, the ONLY thing I was excited to see was a Predator wailing on some Aliens.

I'm kinda funny that way. I think it's because of the invention of DVD. It's so easy to just "skip" to your favorite parts. So, when I'm watching a movie, I see it in chapters now. If it has at least one fantastic sequence, chances are I'm grabbing it when it's cheap. Kinda like "Dragon Wars". Awful, awful movie, but the dragons did look cool fighting the military for a bit. So, I'll probably grab it if it's in the 5 dollar bin at the store because I can skip over the crappy dialogue & "human scenes" and just watch pretty explosions! There are days when I use my 5-disc changing DVD player to the max by grabbing as many movies as I can find that have some really cool fight scenes, or action sequences and just going to the "cool parts", then moving on. I don't know how many times I've watched the lightsaber duels in the "Star Wars" prequels or the space battles in "A New Hope" & "Return of the Jedi", or how many times I decided to watch all of my movies with fantastic car chases, or just bad@ss explosions (like in the beginning of "Swordfish" (when I saw that explosion with the ball bearings slowed down and wrap around the carnage I KNEW I was gonna buy this movie and it hadn't really started yet!) or "Daylight" (same experience as "Swordfish", that explosion was the reason I wanted the movie BEFORE I'd even seen anymore of it!). I kinda did this with my VHS movies, but not as much since it took so long to fastforward to the friggin' scenes I wanted to watch. So those action scenes had to be worth the wait, like with the first "Matrix". I'd pretty much just leave the tape at the point when you see Neo's foot come through the revolving door of the office building where they're holding Morpheus. Man, it's ALL action from that point!

ah yes, it changed my life

one of my favorite teachers in high school used the phrase. i used to take this class about music composition and he would joke right before i would present my song that everyone needed to be quiet 'cause my song was gonna change their life. i didn't literally mean it, i just like the phrase maybe to remind me of that class, hmmm. though, i wonder what the world (and I) would be like without star wars?

oh yes AVP had great action scenes but the problem is i can't recall much of the story, i probably need to watch it again. i just remember this awesome underground aztec temple and it had all these booby traps and they had awesome guns they never used. but yeah, the human element helps create emotions and empathy with the audience but seriously, in this kind of movie, we want action and fights. see the fighting potential of the two species (they had one scene i remember that really did a good job with this).

really interesting thoughts about the DVD, monkey. the DVD really has changed how you watch movies. now why did i capitalize DVD and not anything else i write???

and your brief mention of daylight reminds me of a quirky fact: that was the first pg-13 movie i saw. it was pretty big deal for me in second grade.

it was almost upsetting that die hard 4 wasn't R but it didn't need to be. the movie was still really good.

as for the CGI clone wars

quote:

Originally posted by The Fryer:
though, i wonder what the world (and I) would be like without star wars?

"Star Wars" may not have literally changed lives, but it did change the way they did special effects & edited movies. It introduced the "used universe". Which is extremely surprising to me that nobody thought of making the future look like the characters actually lived there for generations!

quote:

oh yes AVP had great action scenes but the problem is i can't recall much of the story, i probably need to watch it again.

I recommend the director's cut. They actually added blood into the movie, just like there was supposed to be! It's a little CG, but not too distracting. I really loved learning more about a Predator's "passage into manhood". It's interesting to learn that the ones that fought Arnold and Danny were basically teenagers and in order for them to move on to more dangerous game, they had to kill an Alien!

quote:

but yeah, the human element helps create emotions and empathy with the audience but seriously, in this kind of movie, we want action and fights. see the fighting potential of the two species (they had one scene i remember that really did a good job with this).

I agree, and you have got to be the first person on this board (besides me, of course) to admit it! I couldn't believe how many people actually expected more than a straight up action movie. "Freddy VS Jason" was just awful, but most horror fans I talk to loved the movie because it gave 'em what they wanted: Freddy VS Jason! That's all they wanted and that's (pretty much) all they got! I'm in the same boat with "AVP". As soon as I saw that first major fight between a Predator and an Alien, I was pretty much satisfied and ready to go home. I mean, that fight was fantastic! Then to see him fight a friggin' Queen was awesome! Did you see how powerful they made her? When she broke free from those chains and stormed down that corridor, I had to change my frickin' underpants because I crapped myself with delight! If only the movie wasn't so hellbent on killing off the Predators . I would actually love to see a "Predator" movie where he got to live and enjoy his new trophies ! Death to the humans!

quote:

really interesting thoughts about the DVD, monkey. the DVD really has changed how you watch movies. now why did i capitalize DVD and not anything else i write???

Because it doesn't look right in lower-case letters?

I can't believe I'm just now hearing of this new "Clone Wars" project! Thanks alot! I was very happy to read this: There is still no network set; "It has to go after 9 o'clock, and it can't be on a kiddie channel." Now I REALLY can't wait to see it!

the movie made the predators seem like pretty lousy fighters. they weren't that great at hunting the aliens, except for that one dude.

see you and i are very similar when it comes to movies. when i want to watch a movie, like AVP or Transformers (or most michael bay film), i'm watching it for the action, not an amazing plot and story. they might not be the best things in the world but they're entertaining and that is what they're supposed to be doing. sure they won't be my favorite movies but i had fun. they met my expectations. though, i must say i have a soft spot for thrillers (the bourne trilogy has been some of my favorite films of the past few years) and character study dramas and even woody allen films. i just like movies.

as for the network:
when it comes to finances, george lucas is set and has been self financing his movies since empire strikes back. i'm not sure how the network finances things but he probably could go with the sci fi channel if he really wanted to. but why the 9:00 rule? i thought it was 10:00 for "bad stuff" to come on.

and i really need to buy the clone wars on DVD this weekend, suggestions?

Star Wars would have probably changed my life, but it came out too late. Jaws had already changed my life.

In the summer of '75, I had finished up my second year of college at UC Irvine as a Biological Science major. I had passed all my classes, but I was seriously getting burned out with both the curriculum and my fellow pre-med students. I went to see Jaws at the theatre 25 times that summer, and it restored my soul and sanity. It made me go back to UCI and start taking film classes. I ended up taking 11 film classes, which is the equivalent of one year of school, so if they had minors in film at the time, that would have been mine. I finished my B.S. in B.S. in the four years, and I took it and got a job editing film reference books. I subsequently used my degree as a stepping stone to teaching. I would have never finished school if I hadn't gone Jaws-crazy in 1975.

Sure, there are plenty of other films I went crazy for subsequently. I probably could have made a bundle in the stock market investing in 20th Century Fox just before Star Wars came out in May 1977. We went to the opening day, and when we walked out after watching it twice, we found flyers on my windshield suggesting that we invest in the company because of Star Wars release. I didn't really have any money of my own, but Fox doubled its stock value the first week or so.

as a freshmen pre medicine student struggling and competing with all the type As in my classes, while also struggling with my love for the arts and history and balancing that with my studies, I really appreciated that mark. The people in this major have askewed my view a little. I think the end goal has become an obsession, rather than an education. I'm registering for classes next semester soon, I think I'm going to be doing a few classes that I've been missing, like history and an art or too. UGA is cheap as hell anyway (we have the hope scholarship here; if you're curious i can give a long rant about its pros/cons) i think i'm just going to stay here for 5 years. you know, I sometimes wouldn't mind being a history or english teacher. I like explaining things and I'm good at it. is it worth it?

Teaching is worth it, but it's very frustrating, very time-consuming and not nearly as financially-rewarding as Medicine or even Air Traffic Control, which was my job for five+ years. It's really hard. You tell yourself that you have to quit a BS job because of all the BS, but no matter what you do, you still have to stare down, every single day, some semblance (or much more) of BS. You can escape it and still live, but maybe not support yourself. Luckily for me, I'm a kept man!!

PM me if you want any more advice. I'm available for non-B.S. purposes 24/7, but I do ignore my computer during my Pacific Time sleeping hours and most of the working ones too.

quote:

Originally posted by The Fryer:
the movie made the predators seem like pretty lousy fighters. they weren't that great at hunting the aliens, except for that one dude.

I also agree with this statement! They started with 3, which got me really excited, then quickly killed off 2 of 'em . What was up with that?

quote:

see you and i are very similar when it comes to movies

Just what I was thinkin' as we were having this little discussion ! After spending so much time around here, I was beginning to think I was the only person around here that could enjoy an action movie strictly for the action. Alotta folks don't seem to understand the extreme pleasure of just turning off your brain and enjoying the carnage!

quote:

but why the 9:00 rule? i thought it was 10:00 for "bad stuff" to come on.

It is "Star Wars", so I doubt it would be that "bad". It's probably as violent as "Episode III" since it's a war and all. So, older children would still be able to stay up and watch it while the younglings () would have to be in bed by 8. At least that's how I read it.

quote:

and i really need to buy the clone wars on DVD this weekend, suggestions?

GOOD GRAVY, MAN! You don't already have the "Clone Wars"?! Have you at least seen 'em? I hope so, because the second volume is especially important to the beginning of "Revenge of the Sith"! You might be able to find 'em extra cheap at one of those Buy, Sell, Trade places they seem to have all over the place now. They're where I buy most of my DVD's for cheap and where I take those that I bought, but couldn't understand WHY. They're also great for when they release those friggin Special Deluxe Director's Cut Extended Editions. I just trade-in my old crappy version for the new fully loaded one. Of course, I have to add like 10 bucks, but at least I ain't payin' full price for something that I pretty much already bought!

quote:

Originally posted by marky f of the moderatin' bunch:
Jaws had already changed my life.

Ya know, now that you mention it, "Jaws" changed my life too! Not as drastic as yours, but it would have been a rather significant change if that stupid drunk driver hadn't wrecked my dreams 10 months into my life. (I've actually touched this subject a little in my Comic-Based Movies thread when FraggleRockA started dissin' "Jaws".) Until I saw it, I wanted so much to be a doctor, but after this most magnificent of movies, I suddenly ran to the library to find out if sharks really did all that. I checked out every book I could find, watched every National Geographic and Discovery Channel shark special, and I annoyed everyone around me with shark facts. Yep, my plans had changed. I wanted to be a marine biologist, and all because of "Jaws"! However, going in for surgeries every year and spending at least 4 months in the hospital each time and going in for these operations at the beginning of the schoolyear just screwed me. I couldn't do it, but I've (somehow) retained all of my knowledge I gained while studying them. I can't remember very many things, but I still remember everything I had learned about sharks. So, I guess I take it back. A movie did change my life, just not real noticably since I wasn't able to follow through with the new direction I wanted to go without an education. Sometimes I wonder what my life woulda been like if I was able to finish school and go to college to become a marine bioligist. I remember asking questions about how long I'd have to attend college for the jobtitle in 8th grade, and the teacher looked at me like I was crazy adding, "Oh, it'll be for awhile. Around 8 years or more. Are you sure you want to do that?" I was all, "Nothing's gonna stop me!" I guess I shoulda added, "Well, maybe all these surgeries might.", but at that point in time, every surgery was supposed to be my last. I had no idea I'd be rendered "unfixable" and would be opened up more than the hood on my truck! But that's life, isn't it? You never know what you're gonna get. On the other side of the coin, I never woulda met my wife or had Quincy (he just turned 4 on Monday!) and Olivia (She turns 3 in January!) because I was only working at Pizza Hut (where I met my wife) because I couldn't do any better since I couldn't finish school and every other job I had let me go after they found out I had to go in for operations every few months. I'm very happy with my family. So, it all evens out, I suppose.

This thread has been pretty darn active today, huh? Not completely about "Star Wars", but fun anyway!

EDIT: I can't believe I called it "Return of the Sith"! I'm such an idiot!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Monkey_Boy,

quote:

Originally posted by Monkey_Boy:
So, it all evens out, I suppose.

Its funny that way. Somehow, things work out for the best. I'm glad that you see the good parts of your life and realize those outweigh the really bad parts. you're a pretty wise guy.

ok, so i've only seen the clone wars on youtube and that was only the first season. so, i hang my head in shame and i will be buying it very soon.

my dad was good friends with a marine bioligist. he had always wanted to be a marine biologist and after he gets his degree he spends a year catching shrimp in alaska and writing down the measurements of each shrimp. he quit after a year.

ok this is much closer to star wars than most of our other topics have been.

quote:

Originally posted by The Fryer:
ok, so i've only seen the clone wars on youtube and that was only the first season. so, i hang my head in shame and i will be buying it very soon.

GOOD GRAVY, FRYER TUCK ! I'm shocked ! Just shocked ! Well, not that shocked . I actually went to the theater without having seen Volume 2, as well, and was extremely confused as to why Grievous was coughing like he was. In Volume 1 he was kickin' @ss, but now, in "Episode III", he appears to be weaker! And it also explains why Anakin and Obi-Wan refer to each other as brothers. Oh! It even shows the ceremony where a padawan becomes a Jedi! It's also hilarious watching Palpatine getting "kidnapped" by Grievous because the General has no clue that Palpatine is Sidious! Volume 2 really does fill in ALL the blanks between Episodes 2 & 3. (Waving my hand around like I'm some sort of Jedi or something) YOU WILL GET "THE CLONE WARS" VOLUMES 1 AND 2 THIS WEEKEND, AND YOU WILL WATCH THEM AND ENJOY EVERY MINUTE OF THEM.

quote:

my dad was good friends with a marine bioligist. he had always wanted to be a marine biologist and after he gets his degree he spends a year catching shrimp in alaska and writing down the measurements of each shrimp. he quit after a year.

That kinda reminds me of "Jaws: the Revenge" when the marine biologists studied conches! They didn't like that part of the job either ! (Hey, I was young and so in love with "Jaws", I watched EVERY sequel. I didn't understand the stories in the next 3 movies were as stupid as they were until I got a little older!) Me? I woulda really wanted do something with sharks, but I'd be willing to start with the small stuff like shrimps and conches. I wouldn't have cared at all, I love sealife that much . The ocean is just chock so full of all sorts of amazing creatures, it would be fantastic to study any one of 'em for any extended period of time.

quote:

ok this is much closer to star wars than most of our other topics have been.

Interesting. My bff (what a stupid phrase: "best friend forever" Have you seen that stupid cel phone commercial with the grandma saying, "Idk, my bff, Rose." Good gravy, man! Ya know, I still don't see the big deal with texting, but I digress...) LOVES the movies, but not so much the television show, so I wonder how he'll take the news of a new cast portraying his favorite characters. Yep, he's a fan of Captain Kirk's Starship Enterprise, which is why I bought him the first six for Christmas last year. However, he does want the others, so maybe he'll get another big "Star Trek" Christmas surprise this year !

He doesn't buy DVD's as often as I do because he wants to pay his bills first . Poor guy has no priorities in life . I told him with that attitude, he'll never get to over 700, like I have! Before I was married, I would always have the decision to either eat for the week or buy a movie, and I usually chose to buy a movie . Now that I'm married, though, I can't really make my family starve for great cinema. Which kinda sucks, but what are ya gonna do? I'm not sure how DVD's became such an addiction for me. At first I was buying them like mad because I was trying to replace my 400 VHS movies with DVD's, but after awhile, I just started grabbing what I could, and now? I can't get enough!

quote:

Originally posted by Monkey_Boy:
(Waving my hand around) YOU WILL GET "THE CLONE WARS" VOLUMES 1 AND 2 THIS WEEKEND, AND YOU WILL WATCH THEM AND ENJOY EVERY MINUTE OF THEM.

(the weak minded fool that i am replies) I Will Get "The Clone Wars" Volumes 1 and 2 This Weekend and I Will Watch Them and Enjoy EVERY Minute of Them.

your jedi mind tricks are so powerful that you convinced my lazy self to capitalize.

another big star trek surprise!?! Wow.

hey monkey did you get Transformers on DVD? Is the special version worth it?

quote:

Originally posted by The Friar:
(the weak minded fool that i am replies) I Will Get "The Clone Wars" Volumes 1 and 2 This Weekend and I Will Watch Them and Enjoy EVERY Minute of Them.

your jedi mind tricks are so powerful that you convinced my lazy self to capitalize.

Ha! You just made milk come outta my nose!

quote:

hey monkey did you get Transformers on DVD? Is the special version worth it?

Of course I did! I certainly thought the special features were worth it. There are interviews with Michael Bay, the actors, and MAJOR FAN BOYS (I mean waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay bigger than me. There's a dude with like a thousand friggin' Transformer toys in his bedroom and another dude with a tattooed "belly shirt" of Optimus Prime and Megatron!), you see the design process of the characters, we get to see the actual toys of the ones we saw in the movie, and, of course, there's a section that shows the military actors going through boot camp to learn to be soldiers. However, I'm really sick of that last one. They do it with EVERY movie that has any military involvment. At first, it was cool, like on the Criterion Collection's "The Rock", but now we already know the deal so it's basically a rerun of all the other DVD docs you've seen. I actually fastforwarded through it when they started showing what REAL soldiers ate . There's another version that comes with a prequel to the movie that I really want, too. I think I talked my boy into gettin' it, so I could at least get a copy of it and then I'd let him get a copy of my supplemental disc. That way neither one of us has to miss out on either one . Since the prequel version is cheaper than the Special Edition, I pretty certain he'll grab the prequel. He's a cheap little turd. If he doesn't, I'm gonna put him in a headlock so tight, it's gonna pop his head off* ! You can read my review(s) of the movie in the "Transformers" thread in 'Action/Adventure'.



*Hopefully, you realize I'm joking . Back in '98, the two of us went to see "Godzilla" (the human element wasn't all that great, but who cares? I went to see a giant lizard destroy a city and fight with the military and that's what I friggin' got, DAG-NAB-IT!) and we ended up being the only 2 people in the theater! Which was fun because we could talk outloud during the boring parts (which was whenever Godzilla wasn't on the screen). The next day at work, I was telling this girl about how much fun it was and that I got so excited I broke Corey's neck! Her face suddenly went from a big smile to saddness and she asked, "Is he okay?" To which Corey tapped her on the shoulder and reliped, "Yeah. I'm fine." It's kinda like the time I was at another job and I was talking with someone about "King Kong" (THE WHOLE THING WAS GOOD!) and I mentioned how sad it was for me and my mom when he died at the end and another girl was upset because I had just ruined the movie for her! I turned to her and asked, "What did you think happened at the end? He climbed back down the building and swam home?" Now, I'm not saying all girls are dumb or anything, but these two were blondes in the most stereotypical sense you can imagine! I guess you can't have stereotypes if NOBODY actually behaved like 'em, huh?