Movies

[Stuart Galbraith]

Yeah, such a device would make 3CPO utterly irrelevant. Unless he is somehow like an information hub, handing out translations via wifi, but again, no discussion of that, or any technology evident to make it happen.

For me, this and other logic gaps are probably the best explanation of why Ive never been able to warm to star wars, whereas I could to Bladerunner or the first 2 Aliens films, or Soldier or Screamers. They were internally consistent and these arguments to some extent had been worked out. But after all, they were the adapted works of science fiction writers, whereas Lucas was apparently just making shit up on the fly. Which probably explains why he seemed to have run out of al ideas by he second film.

[Yama]

52 minutes ago, Ssnake said:

One thing bothering me resurfaced after rewatching R1. In the whole Star Wars universe, everybody has amazing passive language skills. There is no common language (except English for members of the human species and fish men, when recognizing traps). Everybody else grunts, howls, chirps, cackles, hisses, or creates any other kind of noise; they operate as military units in combat, and everybody understand anyone at any time.

I know, it's a show for kids, but unclear communication in combat usually comes a steep price.

I think most of the galaxy has passive understanding of wookie language as a result of natural selection. Not understanding what a wookie says increases the odds of having your arms ripped off, thus putting you into selective disadvantage.

[Ssnake]

But it's not limited to Wookie rage screams. All kinds of annoying critters without appreciable evolutionary selection value are being understood just as fine.

[Skywalkre]

Eh, speaking as an American (where learning a second language is rare) I just see multilingualism in SW as a natural byproduct of a less structured society with lots of species/languages intermixing.  You Europeans are far more likely to know multiple languages and for good reason.  Historically it was more common to pick up multiple languages.  SW is no different in this regard (and note all the SW characters who don't understand certain driods or foreign languages, hence why C-3PO has his place).

[NickM]

17 hours ago, Ssnake said:

You know, I though about that, and how a Star Wars version might look like, some sort of an electronic earpiece. But nobody's wearing them. What's more, C3PO's one redeeming capability is being able to communicate "in more than 3 million galactic" languages and dialects. But you don't see them with the rebel alliance, anywhere, and hardly a second or third copy of Threepio in the whole series of films (if in disgustingly cheap chrome finish).

 

My favorite space sim shooter, the Freespace franchise has the aliens we were first at war with, but then allied with have 'modulator device': we hear their 'actual' language but an AI Robotic English voice is superimposed over it.  And on some of the occasions, we fly as the aliens and have to interact with humans, the same happens except the 'Alien' language is some Latin language (Spanish? Portuguese?) with the AI English superimposed.

[Stuart Galbraith]

Astonished they allowed this post Hayes code...

 

[Ssnake]

Okay, watched Alien: Romulus last night. Wasn't as bad as I feared it might be. Wasn't "great!" either. Probably somewhere between Alien³ and Alien 4, which at least is a substantial step up from the Alien vs Predator and Prometheus junk we've been fed the last decades.

I'd say, it's a bit of a fan film. There's visual quotes from all the other films, there's story elements from them all, I don't think I recognized anyone from the cast from a previous film (but maybe that says more about me). Think of the Rogue One of the Alien franchise, except it doesn't plug an important hole in the story arc. It was as close to an artistic bankruptcy as you can get while still producing something passable.

[Yama]

This looks like it might be fun. Somewhat similar premise to 6th Day.

Moana 2 coming out in December:

Original did fine in theatres, didn't think it would warrant a sequel. But apparently it has been a hit in streaming services, and the songs are really popular. So why not. First one had great scenery and setting, but was somewhat thin on writing.

 

 

[Ssnake]

Been a bit on a Frankenheimer binge lately. The original Manchurian Candidate, well, I'm glad they remade it with Denzel Washington a decade ago, this hasn't aged too well. The rest though, still good. Grand Prix changed the way how car scenes were filmed forever. Ronin basically was a reprise of the lessons learned in Grand Prix, with, still, I think the best city car chase ever filmed. Black Sunday has aged, but still is worth watching.

Birdman of Alcatraz impressed me as a kid, haven't rewatched it yet, through. Haven't yet seen The Train, Seconds, nor Seven Days in May. There's more, but these seem to be the highlights of his work, and so far it's not a bad line-up.

[TrustMe]

11 hours ago, Ssnake said:

Been a bit on a Frankenheimer binge lately. The original Manchurian Candidate, well, I'm glad they remade it with Denzel Washington a decade ago, this hasn't aged too well. The rest though, still good. Grand Prix changed the way how car scenes were filmed forever. Ronin basically was a reprise of the lessons learned in Grand Prix, with, still, I think the best city car chase ever filmed. Black Sunday has aged, but still is worth watching.

Birdman of Alcatraz impressed me as a kid, haven't rewatched it yet, through. Haven't yet seen The Train, Seconds, nor Seven Days in May. There's more, but these seem to be the highlights of his work, and so far it's not a bad line-up.

 

The Train is a WW2 classic. The ending is great.

The Birdman of Alcatraz is another good Burt Lancaster one.

Ronin's car chase scene is not a good as Steve Mc Queens Bullitt car chase scene. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062765/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_in_0_q_bulli

Edited September 24, 2024 by TrustMe

[sunday]

1 hour ago, TrustMe said:

The Train is a WW2 classic. The ending is great.

One of the best railway-related movies ever.

[lucklucky]

Yeah, i prefer Bullitt too.

[TrustMe]

46 minutes ago, lucklucky said:

Yeah, i prefer Bullitt too.

There's no talking for about 10 minutes just the roar of engines   

 

 

 

 

[bojan]

8 hours ago, sunday said:

One of the best railway-related movies ever.

Emperor of the North Pole and Runaway Train

[sunday]

14 minutes ago, bojan said:

Emperor of the North Pole and Runaway Train

Allow me to disagree - here it is shown how a railway workshop works, plus a lot of signalling. While there is some of the later in Runaway Train, and more modern, no shop works are shown.

[Ssnake]

I like Bullitt, I really do. But no, sorry, the chase isn't remotely as hair rising as is Ronin's. Heck, even the car chases in the first three Bourne movies surpass Bullitt's moderate stunt difficulty level by at least one order of magnitude.

[R011]

4 minutes ago, Ssnake said:

I like Bullitt, I really do. But no, sorry, the chase isn't remotely as hair rising as is Ronin's. Heck, even the car chases in the first three Bourne movies surpass Bullitt's moderate stunt difficulty level by at least one order of magnitude.

Perhaps.  I should hope they've made better ones in the fifty-six years since it came out.   Bullitt is still virtually the trope maker and still iconic.

[Stuart Galbraith]

French connection was supposed to out Bullett Bullett, and I think it had some of the same stunt team, AND some of the shots were filmed in ruch hour traffic.

Is it better than Bullett? No, because Hackman, superb actor though he is, clearly isnt a race driver like McQueen was, and its a Pontiac sedan and not a Ford Mustang. But its a damn good effort.

The car chase in the 7 ups is pretty well done too.

 

For me, the Italian Job doesnt get enough credit.

My favourite is 'robbery', largely because it shows 2 mk2 Jaguars in the environment they were built for (Police cars and getaway cars).

 

[Ssnake]

The (original) Italian Job's chase had great elements, but also humor elements that I find completely out of place - like driving up the stadium roof on the ONLY access ramp in sight, the stoopid cops driving up as well and stranding there, rather than wait at the bottom of the ramp. If you want to make a comedy, make jokes that are funny. If you make a thriller, I want nailbiting until, maybe, and the and you provide comedic relief. The dangling bus, held in balance by the gangsters on one end and the gold on the other, that was a great ending. But overall, to me, a lot of the attempts at humor haven't aged well, and appear rather silly (not in the Monty Python way).

The remade Italian Job did much better with the action scenes and had an overall more credible story (breaking into a prison to get the permission from the big boss, then breaking out again, all in one night, and none of the inmates slipping out with them, to name one example).  Also, they thought about what a ton of gold in each Mini would do to driving performance. Unfortunately, it loses a lot of style points compared to the original; Michael Caine in his prime was unbeatable.

[Stuart Galbraith]

The comedy did in places detract from the thrill of the chase, I can agree on that. On the other hand, the scene with the tunnel, where one tries to do a 360, and with the music playing, is absolutely fantastic. Try doing that in a Dodge Charger or Ford Mustang.

If you didnt like the humour, you probably wont dig the deleted scene...

 

ButI also probably should omitt the opening titles, which to my mind are some of the best in any in that period. A Lambourgin Miura, Matt Monroe and the Alps. Perfecto.

 

[Rick]

Has anyone seen "Am I a Racist" by Matt Walsh?

[Stuart Galbraith]

There is a new movie coming out called 'Rich Flu'. Its about a particularly virulent strain of flu, that only kills the rich and powerful. I can hear the tanknet heads exploding from here.

 

[Rick]

1 hour ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

There is a new movie coming out called 'Rich Flu'. Its about a particularly virulent strain of flu, that only kills the rich and powerful. I can hear the tanknet heads exploding from here.

 

Indeed! It would be bad if this Rich got the flu.

https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/american-thunder?srsltid=AfmBOop8Rx0PEJSI5PD1AkfuPvYz-yx88tpmwYhS-7oXMi63hPcObQbZ

[R011]

1 hour ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

There is a new movie coming out called 'Rich Flu'. Its about a particularly virulent strain of flu, that only kills the rich and powerful. I can hear the tanknet heads exploding from here.

 

I'm sure it will be amusing and topical and not anvillitious at all.

[Stuart Galbraith]

I'm looking forward to learning how a virus reads the forbes list.