I saw Close Encounters again recently and thought it held up very well. Some of the quick cuts of the aliens at the very end look a bit fakey, but not too many. Overall the movie still casts a powerful spell of wonder and anticipation, IMHO.
There are several different versions of the film. The original 1977 thetrical release, the 1980 Special Edition theatrical re-release, the 1990 Criterion LaserDisc edition, the 1998 Collectors Edition video edition, the 2001 DVD edition, and the ABC televison broadcast version are all slightly different.
Thirded.
I’d volunteer but:
A. Despite having been here for 3+ years I’ve never popped my thread starting cherry.
2. Popping my thread starting cherry by starting a GD about the Holocaust sounds like a really bad idea.
That said, it would be really cool if a mod could add the posts on the subject in this thread (assuming that wouldn’t be a big headache) to the one that (I hope) someone starts. There’s a lot here already that I’d really like to respond to, but like some one said it would be hijacking the hell out of this thread.
CMC fnord!
That’s a hell of a movie to bring to the discussion. Didn’t know anything about it, but great, a new movie (for me, on cable) that might add to what I think I know about the subject. Was blown completely away by it. How in the hell is it possible, that until I saw it, I had somehow never learned that an armed uprising occurred in fucking Auschwitz-Birkenau and managed to do more damage to that death machine than the Allies did during the whole god damned war.
I’d kill to see a movie about Witold Pilecki (someone/thing else I didn’t know about until tonight, thanks An Gadaí), but for some reason I don’t think I ever will.
And we sure as hell can’t ask that question of “The Greatest Generation”, ya know the folks who think WWII started with the attack on Pearl Harbor, um what, all those Merchant Marines killed by Germans before Pearl Harbor don’t count somehow?
Sorry :o. Seriously, your right. I’ll quit now. :smack:
Yes, but they all show aliens at the end.
No!
No, I will not hear criticism of my new favorite film (sorry Snatch).
FOOT STOMP.
I will not hear it!
Oh… I can’t hear it since this is print.
Carry on…
The wife and I recently did our annual viewing of Groundhog Day. We love it, but there are a few things that would bother me more if it weren’t such a well-made film.
At the beginning, Phil asks Larry if he can keep a secret and then says the secret is he may be leaving the station. But he says this right in front of his boss, Rita, who is sitting in the back listening to every word.
When the police car chases Phil and his two drinking buddies onto the railroad tracks, it’s right behind them. They swerve just in time to keep from being hit by the train; what happened to the police car?
When the psychiatrist – or psychologist, whichever he is – tells Phil he thinks they should meet again, Phil nods his head in agreement. But when he asks if tomorrow is okay, Phil goes all despondent. Well, what did he think, it would be later the same day?
On the third day, Phil rushes out of the bed and breakfast, not lingering for a cup of coffee and inane chitchat with the lady who runs the place. And yet he seems to arrive in the town square at exactly the same moment as when he waited longer to leave.
I’ll grant your others (and the last one bothers me, too), but this one is entirely within Phil’s character. Trying to get the boss to think he might be leaving the station for a competitor and/or bigger, better deal? Hell, Herb Tarlek was pulling that shit back in Cincy.
You’re missing the point. The moral of Shrek is you can’t always assume someone’s outer appearance is an indicator of their inner personality. It’s okay for Shrek to be “ugly”, but it’s not fair to assume because he is so he ACTS ugly (burns villages, grinds bones, etc.) It’s because people judge him before they get to know him that he’s chosen a life of seclusion — which in a weird way has made him a little ugly… although still not nearly as ugly as people assume he must be.
Farquad is short, and yes there’s a bit of ribbing about his physical appearance. But hey, Shrek wouldn’t mind the occasional joke about his LOOKS, if it wasn’t tied to the presumed personality thing. If Farquad was short but a magnanimous leader, they’d be cool with him. He just happens to ALSO be a prick, and that’s why they don’t like him and why he is positioned to get his comeuppance.
Fiona is the ultimate embodiment of this… who she IS doesn’t change from when she’s pretty, to when she’s 50/50, to when she’s all ogre.
The logistics of any system where the fastest communication is by your fastest vehicle means there is a delay inherent in spreading the word. Assume Grand Moff Tarkin sends out a dozen hypercapable ships in different directions with copies of video of him easily destroying a planet, something nobody else could possibly do at all, even with a dozen Death Stars. (Hey, he wants the publicity.) Hyperspace took some time (hours) for Han, Luke, and company to travel from Tatooine. Assume similar time vs distance constraints. How fast could other planets hear about the results? How fast would word spread? What would be the results?
In other words, what indications does Yosogoth want to show other people reacting to the loss of Aldebaran?
I agree with the first assessment to a degree and have read many others complain about the same thing, (in fact, I think I read about this very complaint in multiple reviews for the movie). Maybe it’s because I’m a short dude, but…
-If Farquad HAD been a friend, and perhaps in the pursuit of ANOTHER evil short magnanimous leader with the rest of the cast, I doubt they would make the same jabs about the stature of this ‘other’ leader with him by their side. Unless the movie had a Farquad side story in which he hears the jabs, sighs and walks away, then eventually talking it out with the gang, them apologizing, he feels better.
Like I said, I’m a short guy… and that could be a factor. I’m open to that.
It’s possible my hate is an overreaction as well…though I think the short jokes started before he had established himself completely as a bad guy…
It goes to my life experience that it is ok to make fun of/discriminate against short people.
I’m not short short…but I am short (around 5’7"). However, it’s hard not to overreact when shit like when I bought myself a really nice sports car…and overheard I was overcompensating for my shortness…then 2 years later someone else buys and equivalent car and overhear comments about how studly/manly he was. Also, to also have the majority of eligible women refuse to date you just on the fact that you are 5’ 7" alone.
So you get Shrek…with a hot babe who reacts with revulsion to the prince who jumps off his horse and is shorter than her so, of course, it is COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS that he should be able to marry her…
AND
When the ugly guy gets her…she has to be ugly to…because, of course, it would be completely ridiculous for an ugly guy to have a hot babe…and he was the ‘hero’ of the film! You really think that a if the Prince was a great leader he would be allowed to have the hot babe? No way man.
Like I said…learn your place and don’t try to rise above it. Your place is defined by physical characteristics you have no control over.
The show would have been so much more powerful if she had stayed a hot babe at the end and chose Shrek. But no…can’t have that…that would be stupid.
Gahhhh…I have to stop. I hate that show with the heat/passion of a billion burning suns.
As soon as the Millenium Falcon lands on Yavin IV, the rebel commander says to Leia, “You’re safe! When we heard about Alderaan, we feared the worst.”
In fact, the whole point of blowing up Alderaan was that “Dantooine is too remote to make an effective demonstration.” Tarkin knew Alderaan was tight with the Rebels, and it was a well-known Core world, so he blew it up as a demonstration to show other Rebel worlds what would happen to them if they didn’t submit. In short, he wanted the whole galaxy to know.
(Oh, and communications through the HoloNet are instantaneous. FYI.)
Well I’m 5’5", and generally like the movie because I don’t think the jokes were malicious, just ignorant. What SUCKED was that I saw it with a girl I liked who was taller than me.
–You know what… forget it… I’m mad too! Rawrrr!:mad:
Presumably lots of Force-sensitive people other than Obi Wan noticed something was amiss, too, but wouldn’t know the specifics.
Wasn’t there a rumor (nearly confirmed to be fact) that Jeffrey Katzenberg based Lord Farquaad on 6’ 3" Michael Eisner, who used to refer to Katzenberg as “the midget”? (Strange thing also is that I can’t find any online source that gives Katzenberg’s actual height.) By blatently cutting Eisner down to size (almost literally!) and making jokes about "do ya think he’s compensating for something)? it sounds a bit like Katzenberg himself has some issues about his height.
Ahem. But of course, as a 6’ 0" man, I have no right to make that observation. Only you shorties are entitled to do that. 
Another thing that bugged me about WALL-E: all robots have cute personalities except cops. It’s totally OK to kill cops.
Maybe they got that from watching The Matrix. You know the one where the heroes are trying to free humanity - except for all those cops they shot.
I can kinda sorta see the rationale in The Matrix: the cops were, albeit unwittingly Slaves Of The Machine who were abetting the enslavement of humanity. But WALL-E? Her stalker was ill, so gotta kill her some cops.
Now, there’s my petty rant about Star Wars. There are, what four planets named in the first movie? Yavin, Alderaan, Tatooine, and Dantooine.
Four planets over a two hour movie, and two of them end in “-tooine”? :rolleyes:
Yea…but you are butt-ugly…and so can rant about the Shrek not getting the hot babe part.