great article. Although truth be told, I haven’t ever seen much of this show. But I should…..! And a possible reboot?
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Definitive Oral History of a TV Masterpiece
Joel Hodgson Wants To Resurrect Mystery Science Theater 3000 In 2014
candybowl
Scarecrow Video raising $100K on Kickstarter to preserve world’s largest archive of movies
for those of you who don’t know who/what Scarecrow Video is, you need to get INFORMED. 🙂
candybowl
It doesn’t get much nerdier than this….but I think I spotted an actual mistake! On the front of the suit at the end when they are talking, it says ‘Dallas’ on the front plate. But he says at the start of the video he was building the suit that Kane wore (John Hurt) – Kane was the character that has the alien burst out of his chest after getting back from the alien wreck. But Dallas was Tom Skerritt, the captain of the ship? Zing!
Anyway, pretty incredible work by any measure….
candybowl
HR Giger has passed away as of this past May, just found out about it tonight.
‘Alien’ artist H.R. Giger dead at 74
Love him or hate him, he was certainly one-of-a-kind and one wonders where the ‘goth industry’ would have been without him – much of its art can certainly be considered a Giger ripoff at some point or another.
Definitely not art for the timid or faint of heart, most well known for the xenomorph alien, movie artwork and set design in Alien (reused in the sequels), the ELP and Debbie Harry album covers, and a bit more obscure, one of the original attempts to make a movie out of Dune. I actually have copies of both Dark Seed videogames on my shelf, need to break those out sometime…..
In whatever eerie, disturbing bio-mechanoid resting place you now inhabit, rest in peace, Herr Giger.
candybowl
wally:
kaiju!
and finally – oops!
Finally saw the new Godzilla movie last night – great stuff! Nerdy review:
Likes – Godzilla (big surprise); the comparative size of the monsters (huge) and that they don’t mind stomping the crap out of everything they see or that bothers them. Also kudos to newbie-ish director Gareth Edwards, who after cutting his teeth on the earlier Monsters from 2010 – which you can actually watch online here – was selected to write and direct this movie – well done, sir! I also liked the fact that you are intended to feel sympathy for the Motu even when her babies are getting the ‘Ripley treatment‘ – well I did, anyway 🙂
Puzzled – Ken Watanabe‘s constant ‘thousand yard stare’ even when people are asking him questions (and he’s supposed to be the decades-long chief scientist who knows everything?!?) Maybe he lost his Godzilla Prediction Network card…? 🙂
Major nit – *no classic Godzilla roar*? I realize this is a ‘re-imagining’ (aren’t they all these days) but people, Come ON! And the roar provided is adequate but nowhere near loud or powerful enough? At least they didn’t forget the firebreath (oops, spolier alert!)
Minor nit – not enough monster battle scenes. I realize they did this in part to build tension and not just have a big battle at the start and then nowhere to go with the plot, but at least 5-10 min. more of battle would have been fine, guys. Maybe with the kaiju crushing Oracle’s HQ in downtown SF, or possibly John Woo’s office at Berkeley? now THAT would have rocked!
all in all, a very good film, however, and definitely up there with Cloverfield and other recent monster fare….see it – or be stomped!
candybowl
here’s where I’ll be, hoping Thu night!
in the meantime, 3 comics from another person who can’t wait for the new movie…. (keep scrolling)…..
candybowl
to Gojira’s return! But in the meantime (april 4), it looks like Gina Carano may have to do – what she does so well – kick a**!
candybowl
So finally got a chance to see Ender’s Game at The Crest last night. I haven’t read the book in some time, but reread it last year (I think?) in anticipation of this movie coming out.
Likes:
All the actors are well cast. Many are not given very much to do save a few lines or scenes, but even with big-name actors such as Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley in the movie, it balances out well.
The special effects are also well done and convincing – it’s always a bit of a crapshoot with zero-grav stuff in movies (to me, anyway), even with the CGI you now see (as opposed to hidden wires used in the past). It can look too fake (e.g. all the stupid CGI guys running around in Attack of the Clones) or a bit too forced – but here it looks good and doesn’t overpower the plot trying to be ‘amazing’ or anything. By contrast with the recent Gravity, in which nearly the whole movie is in a zero-G environment (and done very, very well) – this movie still holds its own.
I was also glad they didn’t go out of their way to overdo the Formics (‘Buggers’) like was done in Starship Troopers several years ago. While I have quite a number of gripes (unrelated to CGI) about that movie, they really went overboard with bugs, bugs everywhere and making them as horrific and never-ending as possible. Here, they show them only briefly, mostly in spaceships and then the Hive Queen in a few scenes, and she/it is portrayed as a sympathetic figure, just like in the book.
Nitpicks and critical (incl. some spoilers, be forewarned)
OK, on with the usual complaining 🙂
1) They really took out too much of the book, despite Orson Scott Card being heavily involved in the movie’s production, writing, etc. You miss out on most of the alienation and isolation that leads to Ender acting out – you just see a few scenes or dialog that sets it up and then boom, he’s acting out. I also missed the extensive Battle School zero-G drills and wars that the book details at length, and his brother Peter only has one scene here (in the book, he’s not a major character so much as he’s a major influence throughout Ender’s experience, but you surely see a lot more of him there). And even his sister Valentine only has a few scenes herself, and she is arguably a bigger influence on Ender than Peter? And the “mind game” Ender plays on the tablet is much more detailed and longer in the book, and serves as an important backdrop for how the Hive Queen makes mental contact with him and gains his trust. They pay lip service to it here but treat it much more like a dream that he sees several times and then follows in the real world, and that doesn’t quite cut it.
2) They don’t discuss the whole issue of Ender being a Third (in the future, people must obtain permission to have kids, and almost nobody ever goes beyond a second kid, so Ender being a Third makes him stand out – not in a positive way – from the beginning of his life). It is mentioned once at dinner and that’s about it, and never really explained
3) The whole side plot of Valentine and Peter using their skill at debate over the world networks to influence society at large (and ultimately build Peter up into becoming The Hegemon, the world’s ruler) isn’t in this movie at all. Yet it plays a notable role in the book – I think at least a few minutes here and there could have helped add it?
It’s true that were you to include much of what I mention above as missing, you’d likely add at least an hour to the movie at minimum. But I think the story suffers here because of these omissions, and I’m hoping the moviemakers pulled a Peter Jackson and filmed extra footage that can be included on the DVD when released soon. The comparison I’m thinking of here was the second Lord of the Rings movie – The Two Towers. I didn’t like that movie near as much in the theater, because most of it was spent watching people run over mountains, run across meadows, run run run! When the DVD came out, the extended version included almost 40 min. more of plot and scenes that broke all that up much better and rounded out the story much nicer. I could see a similar result with Ender’s Game, provided they made that extra footage while filming the movie.
All in all, I liked the movie and think they did a good job, but it could have been great instead of just good had they included more. Maybe the DVD….?
candybowl
Yeah, it’s viral for good reason – wow. For those too scared, watch the fake Simpsons Mr. Sparkle ad below instead…. 🙂
candybowl
