Maximius

I agree that they did a good job of building the suspense in the beginning of the movie. The scene in the cornfields was pretty intense too. Of course, those cornfields would have been covered in dew at that point, making them deadly poison to any aliens crashing around in them..... The door thing points to another problem with that movie, the aliens technology in general. So you are going to invade another planet, so you send down one trooper per every forty square miles who will die at contact with water on a planet dripping with it with no protective clothing and who is armed with POISON SPIKES? Are you fucking kidding? A townfull of red-necks could have defended the planet with their hunting rifles and some fire hoses. Too often sci-fi and fantasy are seen by movie makers as being an easy genre to produce a movie in, just some monsters and special effects, right? They have no grasp of the suspension of disbelief, of fine tuning things like magical or hi-tech abilities to lend realism to the utterly fantastic, christ of real character development and storytelling. Ive mentioned that animated movie "The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb" before on the good movie thread. If anyone can get a copy of it, watch it and then watch some pile of crap sci-fi out of Hollywood. I swear to you, the claymation, erector set props, cardboard sets, and stop action animation of "Tom Thumb" are a thousand times more immersive than the majorityof big house productions.

"dark waters" is a really great Japanese ghost movie, its been remade for Gollywood but dont waste your $$$, see the Japanese original, it will make you soil your Under-roos. I too read "Signs" has having a strong religious theme and that was only the beginning of its problems. For one thing, an alien species that is poisoned by water? Well, I can assure you all the aliens would have been dead as fried chicken when the encountered all the WATER VAPOR IN THE AIR here on Earth. Oh, I guess the director/writer forgot that little fact.

It cant be as bad as this bat house. Im sure Canada is not heaven and I plan on doing a lot of research before doing anything but its actually pretty tough to live here sometimes. Not tough financially, although it is and its getting worse but tough in other ways. We work longer than anyone else, get paid less with less social spending and less vacation time, less "golden" years to enjoy, more stress, more pollution except maybe for China or India, greater social inequality, weaker labor laws than any other industrialized nation. Im not the only U.S.er who feels this way I assure you. The real spectacle is yet to come when the reconstruction effort gets underway. The wealthy and powerful of New Orleans are already lining up to shape the project in their own vision, you can imagine what that means for the less fortunate. The Monkey King is relying on the private sector to fix things up as always. The vultures are already circling, celebrities are holding concerts to raise awareness of their careers, and no ones even talking about the entire fucking coast of Mississippi which was whacked to hell as well. Oh, thanks for editing those tags!

Im trying to think of ways to move to Canada in the next few years myself. I dont believe this country is going to be a very nice place to live in the next decade or so, politically, economically, whatever. Maybe New Horizon will let me crash on his couch for a couple of months. I like my eggs cooked over hard, BTW. Oh, but dont worry about New Orleans, the tourist trap in the French Quarter is already opened back up for business! Come on down folks, party your asses off amongst the toxic sludge and the yet to be found corpses. I was reading an article the other day that revealed that the U.S. government is using not only heavily armored and armed police and National GUard units on the ground in New Orleans but even mercenaries. Yes, thats right, mercs. Blackwater Security people, the hired guns protecting the high ranking Americans in Iraq are also active in New Orleans. Who knows what the fuck those murderers are up to. There are also reports of the police shooting unarmed people, one reporter overheard two cops telling a national guardsman that "No one on this street is innocent", essentially saying these people dont need assistance they need a bullet. Im sure I dont have to tell you what color those people are. The sad thing is, our government did not get a majority of votes, it only won government because they redrew the electoral boundaries in such a way that they won a majority of seats in parliament. It is a sham democracy, it isn't even remotely representitive, and my fellow Aussies were stupid enough to give the government control of both houses, which by tradition we never do, meaning the government has pretty much free reign to do as they please for the next three years. So far they have used this absolute control to approve the privitisation of yet more public assets, push though some very disturbing new "anti-terrorism" powers that set the country up as a potential police state - all the government needs is another terrorist attack or disaster of some sort to use as an excuse for introducing sweeping legislation to completely rip up every last vestige of democracy and install a fully fledged dictator. It is exactly what happened in Germany with Hitler, and while I would like to think it couldn't happen here, fact is it wouldn't take much. At least in America your president is limited to two consecutive terms, and you have a bill of rights... in Australia we have nothing like that, we have relied on the traditional cultural practise of tearing people down when they get too comfortable and cocky in power - we don't tolerate arrogance or self aggrandisement for very long. We are the king of sham democracies. In 2000 and 2004 the Republican political machine worked on numerous levels to intimidate voters (in Florida State Troopers went to black neighborhoods, going door to door asking who the inhabitants were voting for w/o explaining why or who they were. For a black family, having a Trooper on your doorstep is scary enough, why were they asking about their voting plans?), to fuck with voting machines (the new voting machines in use around the nation can be tampered with simply by unlocking the back panel and one of the companies who makes the machines is owned by a Republican senator.) and to remove black voters from the voting rolls by incorrecting assigning thousands of people as being ineligible to vote. The two terms limit is nice but it doesnt help when a cabal has taken over like Bush and Co. They own all three branches of the government now, executive, legislative, and judicial. Its so bad that the Democrats, the few that are left, are regularly ignored by their Republican colleagues, left out of important meetings or given maybe 18 hours to read through a new bill that has a thousand pages. The Bill of Rights in under assault and many seem unconcerned, the Patriot Act gives the pigs all kinds of new powers to spy and detain, its not a pretty picture. I agree. Folks here would shake their heads and laugh but I dont think its that far flung of a possibility. Edited by Sparhawk: I fixed your quoting tags.

Thanks for your comments. The tarnishing I was referring to was the sense that many U.S. citizens had that this is Fortress America, untouchable and above the maddening crowd. Not anymore. The wild flag waving and drum beating folks around the world have been hearing in the last few years are not symptoms of a secure nation but rather a nation that is feeling the need to puff up its spirits. When people here tell you this is the best of all possible nations, these days there is less smug confidence and more defensiveness. Cracks are slowly appearing in the publics mind, slowly. Katrina is referring to Hurricane Katrina, the one that just ate New Orleans for dinner. The response of our leadership was idiotic and cruel and you can be sure that the real stories of the victims and their fates will not reach your ears by mainstream routes. Some of our media have even tried to place the blame on the victims.

One of the problems in the United States is that the public's perception of their leadership and the political process is wildly skewed. Our media is the shameless handmaiden of power, with the disaster of Katrina and the idiocy and callousness of our leaders some critical voices have been heard but for the most part you get the usual B.S. on the news. A perfect case in point is our Social Security system, which is under assault by those who wish to privatize it and steal even more of the publics money. There is absolutely NO PROBLEM with our Social Security as it currently stands. It is not running into bankruptcy like the Monkey King keeps squawking, the federal agency that regulates it (the General Accounting Office) has made numerous statements to the effect that it is fine, it needs no major alterations and it has told this to the President more than once. In fact, its one of the most successful programs in the history of the United States government and it has wide popular support. To hear our mainstream media, this is not so. So now we have to have a "debate", presenting both sides of the issue as if each were of equal value. This is a famous media maneuver, rather than calling a lie a lie you have a bogus debate over. It sells well in U.S. culture where we like to think we are "fair" and willing to let both sides have their say. BTW, this is how the creationism/evolution debate has been framed and even folks who dont give any creedence to creationism have expressed the willingness to "give boths sides an equal airing." in polls. Most dont realize that there are no real sides, that a very small number of people with the right connections, some half ass studies done by a rightwing thinktank infected with fundamentalist Christians and a lot of $$$ can shift the public debate. So with Social Security it doesnt matter that one "side" consists of crooked politicians who have demonstrated their willingness to lie and steal innumerable times while on the other hand there are literally thousands of experts who are screaming "There is no problem with Soc. Sec.!!!" It doesnt matter that one side of the story has ++no++ concrete evidence to back it up, that numerous economists and activists have presented tons of evidence to the contrary. Power has spoken and thats enough for the big media outlets. The President could say the sky is polka-dotted and the talking heads would soon pick up this fact and run with it. Simply because of the power and prestige of his office, his words are ususally accepted at face value, despite the fact the man has been caught lying time and time and time again. But as one journalist for a MSNBC put it "You cant just call the President a liar on national T.V.!" But thats your job, asshole. Of course if you do that, you will lose your job so I suppose they are in a pickle themselves. Our educational system supports these fantasy constructs about our nation as well. We are taught in school that our nation is this very special place, set apart from all others. We are a special people, who understand freedom like no one else does. Our "Founding Fathers" hold an almost cult-like appeal to the average individual, I have heard people say that they "discovered" liberty as a scientist might discover a new bug or bird. You can easily find an individual living in a ditch who will rant on and on about what a wonderful land this is, full of opportunity and eager to lift all boats. Until you get to the level of advanced education, and only with particular professors or programs at that, you are constantly indoctrinated into what has been termed the States "civic religion" and there is not a hint of exaggeration in that term. Nor are our citizens taught to be very critical thinkers. We are told to be critical thinkers in the classroom but then every other message that students receive, explicit or implicit, is to shut up and do as your told. Especially when you get to history or political science. You can be a critical thinker about something like astrophysics or accounting but if you start to ask too many questions about U.S. history or current policy or whatever, you will run into opposition, from teachers to fellow students to family members. Our work culture follows a similar pattern. I am an adult educator, training adult students to get their high school diplomas and then seek work. The literature we are given is pretty blatant and says it all. Dont ask critical questions of management. Dont make demands on the workplace. Dont ask what the company can do for you, ask what you can do for the company and then do more. The company is doing you a favor giving you a job, you had better be damned appreciative. These are very busy people, you are imposing on them and dont forget it. Our culture is also twisted up with what I have dubbed the "Cult of the Individual" We are told that we are the masters of our destiny, that no matter what your background you can rise to commanding heights and drive a shiny new car to boot. Success and failures have little or nothing to do with class, race, sex, but rather with personal integrity and a willingness to make sacrifices to overcome personal obstacles. As we are a society of free floating individuals, the framework through which the world is commonly viewed is a moral one, specifically its a framework that posits the individuals has having a moral relationship with one's workplace or ones local corporation. Thats why its "immoral" to lie to Wal-Mart about your past on a resume, sure Wal-mart lies all the time but thats not important, whats important is that you are an "honest" individual who won't mislead a company. I was working at a museum last year and the director of our program was a bald faced lying shitbag who would say whatever it took to get her will done, to the point where she would contradict her own words within the same conversation knowing no one would dare challenge her. Wrong! I ran into trouble early on with this specimen and so I approached my colleagues with this offer: If any of us get canned by this bitch, lets all act as references for one another. Ill say I was your supervisor, you say you were mine, that way our asses are covered. We all knew we were good at what we did and none of us were ax murderers or cannibals. We also knew that this director would have had no problem ruining any of our futures, she probably would have done it for the malicious satisfaction. One of my workmates signed on, but the others were dead against any such plan. Why? That would be lying ! I pointed out that as workers we have little maneuver room if we were screwed over, that we had no other tools at our disposal other than showing some solidarity and a willingness to cover one anothers backs. I pointed out that lying to a company is a far different thing than lying to your mommy, or to another person in general. I pointed out that our livelihoods depended on references from past employment and that if a former employer chose to tank your reference you would be screwed with no recourse. I pointed out that companies lie and cheat all the time, that the position you are hired for almost always has some hidden duties that will demand more of your time and effort than what you signed up for. None of that mattered, they were stuck in the illusion that lying to a corporation is as much a moral failure as lying to a friend. So to sum up this longish diatribe, I guess Im saying one of the U.S.'s biggest problems is the "false consciousness" that the majority of our citizenry suffers under. Its a bizarre blend of religious belief that blends into nationalism/jingoism that blends into a simplistic/moralistic view of society. It is the vile glue that has helped to hold this nuthatchery together for almost 230 years. But material conditions are changing here, there is widespread economic suffering, our shiny self image has been heavily tarnished by 9/11 and the war and katrina and the general decline in our public and private lives.

Thats the beast right there, Ill try that when I get home. I havent seen it in a while so maybe it has been corrected with a Steam Update but Ill check anyway. It has not happened for any other apps. The Dark Mod team to the rescue! Is there anything they cant do?

Im probably getting the text of the message incorrect. Ill try to find where I wrote it down at home.

Ok, Im a Team Fortress Classic veteran, and I recently dl'ed Steam in order to play. So for about a week I was getting this strange error message, actually a warning which said that Steam was attempting to operate a "virtual address" or some such thing out of my registry. I know it was the registry cause it said its doing whatever it is doing at registry address XXXXXXXX. What the fuck is Steam doing to my shit? I wish I had the note I wrote with the complete message but its at home.

Thats all you find hypocritical about America? Well, sir, there is a whole world of hypocrisy waiting for you here! Didnt you know that... This is the Land of the Free, where civil liberties are being eroded on an hourly basis, where a judge has ruled that Jose Padilla, a US citizen, can be held by the government without evidence. This is the Land of Opportunity, where 9 out of 10 white citizens blame the black citizens of New Orleans for not being motivated enough to move away from the dangerous parts of town and where in many cities 3rd world conditions exist next door to some of the wealthiest and most powerful communities in the world. This is the Land of Equality, where the racial segregation in our schools is as bad as when such segregation was legal and where people of color are regularly harrassed and even murdered by the pigs. This is the Land of Progress where a number of school districts around the country are attempting to include Intelligent Design in their biology curriculums and where a significant portion of the population believes that its only "fair" to include creationism in classrooms so as to provide "balance". See, there is a lot more to hate about this place! As for your Williams comments, Ill ignore those as you were obviously under the influence of crack cocaine when you wrote them. *<;o)

These are the same people who had a Muslim warrior (Morgan Freeman) return with his bestest buddy Robin Hood to Merry Old Catholic England, where he would have been murdered in about 2 seconds.

Its been a long time since I read the original "Starship Troopers" but I do remember its a quality pieces of writing. I'd like to re-read it now as a lot of my political/social perspectives have changed. I do remember the Fascist kind of leaning though. Another GREAT sci-fi story, this time a take on Vietnam written by a Nam vet, is Joe Haldemann's "The Forever War." Its good sci-fi and its good social commentary at the same time. Thanks for the link Goldfish, thats the guy. His stuff is great. Tom Cruise is a complete lunatic, thats the truth, but at least he can act to a degree. What about...... Kevin "Mumbles" Costner God do I hate this guy. He mumbled through Robin Hood, he mumbled through The Bodyguard with that fucking whack-o Whitney Housten, he CANNOT ACT TO SAVE HIS LIFE!!! Not to mention, as Robin Hood, he MAINTAINED HIS MIDDLE AMERICA ACCENT. CANT HE LEARN TO SPEAK WITH A ACCENT LIKE EVERY OTHER ACTOR DOES?!? WHY WHY WHY????? Billy "Wakka Wakka" Crystal Oh god just writing his name makes my hands tremble with rage. He IS his shtick, hes a wisecracking Jewish guy who plays a wisecracking Jewish guy. The movie could be about a family of Neanderthals making their way across pre-historic Europe and he would be dropping lines about Mother's guilt trips and Matza ball soup. Robin "Thorazine" Williams Proof positive that even coke addled schizophrenics can make a buck if they have the right connections. Similar to Crystal, he is his character, the "quirky" guy with a heart of gold. I know he has played a few serious roles but the weight of his accomplisments are as a scuttling weirdo who giggles to himself. Jim "I accepted the role of Mask and never let it go" Carey Apparently trying to outdo Williams for Kookiest Hollywood Komic, and hes gaining ground. Adam "Eternal Fraternity Brother" Sandler Raised substance abuse and vomiting to new comedic heights. Started out as a party crazy frat boy type, has progressed to a party crazy frat boy type with kids. More to follow!

I like the dark cartoony thing to a point, but jesus find another shtick once in a while. Id much rather read a collection of the creepy black and white comics from that British cartoonist who died a few years back, you know the cartoons, they are pretty famouse, they're the ones Burton apparently stole his ideas from. Whenever I see Burton in interviews, he is rambling on and on about where all his creative energies come from and how he is shattering preconceived notions about filmmaking and how he is not afraid to stand up to the moneybags in Hollywood because he is guided by the pure white light of artistic inspiration. Part of this rebel genius persona that he promotes is captured in his trademark wild hairdos, long stringy hair moussed to the stars. As if creativity is forcing its way out of his mind via his hair or something. Some of his movies are entertaining, but they fail my sure-fire test for filmmaking quality control: Do I feel like watching it more than once? Burtons are always one shot deals, in the case of "Planet of the Apes" a half shot deal cause I switched the channel halfway through. obscurus:"...yet to see a Spielberg movie I like." Amen, hallelujah. Spielberg's movies are agony. Melodramatic, schmarmy, formulamaic, pick your adjective. Here is another "genius", we are constantly told by the Hollywood Media Machine, come revel in his delights. As usual the delights begin and end with the special effects, the writing, casting, etc. are the same old situations, the same old faces.

I have a real beef with Tim Burton. He is NOT a creative genius, despite what his zany haircut may be trying to tell you. "Sleepy Hollow" was okay, mostly for the setting and Johnny Depp, who, try as I might to hate utterly, can still act some roles really well. Speaking of Depp: Anyone see Ed Wood? Depp is great here and the movie over all is solid. Classic line: Martin Landau as the aged, opium addict Bela Lugosi.. "TROW ME DA VHISKEY!!!!"

Similar to a bad video game, it must save bundles for an animated movie producer to simply copy and re-color huge chunks of the settings and characters. The "McDonaldization of Disney"!! The "Disneyfication of Disney"!! A cow has borne a Black Dog!! Comets and Wheels of Fire in the Sky!! What does it all mean?!?!

I love it when some yo-yo movie critic tries to "analyze" what is clearly pure shit, to get at the deeper significance of the the 4000th appearence of Bruce Willis or J-Lo. Here in Philadelphia we have this guy Patrick Stoner who rates movies and interviews the "talents" that make them. Well, he doesnt really rate them I guess, since he NEVER HAS ANYTHING AT ALL BAD TO SAY ABOUT ANY OF THEM. EVER. NOT ONCE IN HIS LIFE. He had those two baboons from "The Weddingcrashers" on a few weeks back, asking them how they managed to work themselves so deeply into the complex roles of college buds who fuck drunk girls at weddings. They paused to reflect for a moment and then explained how the roles came rather naturally. They were serious. The absolute worst part part is when Stoner wraps up each interview, like the one he did with Jessica Simpson for the new "Dukes of Hazzard." She was explaining how she had always dreamed of a role like Daisy Duke when alas time ran out. Stoner stops, glances at the camera with this smug look thats telling you "Arent we so lucky to be here to witness all this breathtaking creativity?" and then barely containing his delight whispers goodnight to you. I want to put his eyes out with a cigarette at that moment. I agree that Rambo was sending that message, but the blame was mostly displaced. It wasnt the average American citizen or Jane Fonda (scum!) that failed the Nam vets, it was the government/military. They were used up, denied benefits, left to rot in mental institutions, dumped into inadequately funded transitioning programs, and all of this under the cloud of having failed to win the day.

My old roomate, the Star Wars nut, almost had a stroke after watching I.D. for that very reason. He fumed about it for weeks.

There is a good book "Spreading the American Dream" about cultural imperialism and its historical roots. In a related vein, have you ever heard the term "toxic culture?" Its used to refer to U.S. consumer culture, which has been deemed "toxic" not only by social critics and activists but by actual medical doctors and health professionals. Cheap, nutritionless food, entertainment that turns both the mind and body into Cheez-Whiz, and a constant drumbeat of Consume and Work! is actually poisonous both literally and figuratively.

Ok, Ill push up the stakes: Under The Cherry Moon by Prince or the former symbol. I actually fell asleep during this pile of crap, out like a light. Therefore I know nothing about it other than Prince was wearing some sort of rinestone cape getup with fur trim. Independence Day The worst part of this monstrosity was the fact that Randy Fucking Quaid was the big hero in the end. You may remember him as the moron who after not flying a fighter jet in 25 years hops into an F-15, shoots down advanced alien fighters, and then rams it into the Mothership. This was also the movie that had an Apple laptop infecting an alien computer with a virus. Apples can barely talk with PCs but they can interface with alien technology? Stallone is a zombie, the only good role he ever played was in Rocky 1 and Rambo 1. Not that they are my favorite movies either but at least he seemed to meet the needs of the role. Now he is Big Hollywood Product, they insert him into stuff just to show his reptilian face.

I burnt out on the first Star Wars trilogy years ago, an old roomate was a fanatic and I must have watched each one a dozen times over. They had their time, but to me its long past. As for the prequels, they sucked, royally. There was a lot of apparent racial stereotyping going on for one thing, many here in the States read Jar Jar as a sort of Rastus character and the evil merchant consortium sounded distinctly Asian. The story lines were dull, the situations predictable, blah blah blah. I watched the first one and refuse to watch the last two as a result. To hell with Lucas, and he can take that hack Speilberg with him too. Sparhawk to address your points about Disney, I agree, Disney is horrible. Their storylines are clones of last years big blockbuster, their characterizations are by the numbers (idealistic hero, comically villainous villain, quirky offbeat sidekicks, sound familiar?) The Disney company played an interesting role in the development of American business culture, between Walt and Ray Kroc of McDonalds they re-wrote the book of business in terms of marketing, product development, and distribution. You may have heard of the term "McDonaldization" well you could also use "Disneyfication." Even more chilllingly, Disney has been a huge conduit for spreading cultural propaganda (still is!), especially in South America in the mid 20th century where Disney comics helped to reinforce capitalist ideology amongst the poor and generally illiterate populations. Sounds far fetched? I thought so too until I read one of Daffy Ducks comics from the late fifties, for sale in Argentina I believe, in which Daffy and Daisy have to fight off two buzzards named Marx and Engels. There are plenty of other examples, less explicit but compelling in their quantity. For impoverished households across S. America, the appearence of inexpensive, entertaining, and +North American+ comic books were probably a cause for celebration. Sexism, classism, lots of good stuff going on with Disney. Whats the famous line from Cinderella, when a male character attempts to sew the wedding gown? A female character comes out and chides him "This is womens work, silly!" or something similar. I lived in Orlando for a few years and I can assure you Disney is despised by the locals. They own the local government, the joke was that Orlando was Disney's biggest sideshow. I never went myself, the majority of people who I knew and who went regularly were usually flying sky high on something or other so as to really enjoy the experience. Some folks love Disney, you can even live at Disney when you purchase a home in Buena Vista, the Disney town. But don't put up a basketball hoop, or own a beat up car, or a vegetable garden, cause there are strict rules and regs about appearences.

I agree most horror movies are crap. The majority made in the Imperial States of America are these stupid moralistic tales where a bunch of teenagers engage in some hanky-panky, either sex, drugs, or something similar and are summarily executed by the monster/psycho. The hero is almost always the character that is "good", the one who says "Hey guys its not a good idea to smoke pot and have group sex in this abandoned psychiatric hosptial thats rumored to be haunted." S/he will almost certainly be the only one left standing to confront the killer in the same formula, a long chase, some close calls, and finally a battle of wits out of which the hero emerges. And then, of course, the last second of the film lets you know that the evil is not really dead, its only waiting for a new chance to rise again. In the form of a sequel. One exception to this was the Japanese flick "Dark Waters" about a haunted apartment complex in Tokyo. Its REALLY SPOOOOOOKY! I understand there is a version made in Hollywood but you wont catch me watching it. Some of the Exorcists and Omens 1, 2, & 73 had some scary moments but they cannot maintain it and they are suffused with Christian mysticism, something the world needs less of. Another great movie is Tarkovskys "Stalker", its a sci-fi piece. I wont go on with the details of it but suffice it to say Tarkovsky achieves a higher state of immersion than the average Hollywood clunker with NO special effects other than some bullets flying and masterful dialogue/cinematography. the man was hardcore, he once reshot a scene for another movie something like 27 times, each time repainting the set and repositioning the actors until he felt the setting was perfect for the script. The care comes out in his films, each scene is like viewing a painting, sometimes I just stop the DVD and soak up the images for a few seconds.

A correction to my earlier post: Its Fantastic Planet, not Forbidden Planet. Monty Python is a little played out for me. I loved them when I was younger but after 30 years of dorks doing off the cuff renditions of Python skits I cannot listen anymore. I will have to check out the League of Gentlemen though, sounds good.

Spirited Away was absolutely incredible, I am going to have to check out some other stuff that guy has created. I know this will not win me any friends here, but I really cant stand the Cohen brothers, the only movies I like of theirs is "Millers Crossing." I USED to like "Fargo", until I found out it wasnt really based on a true story as it claims in the beginning. To me that is an unforgiveable sin, they could easily found a kooky story of greed and stupidity in real life but instead they make one up and pretend it was real? CHEEEEESY! Another animated piece I have is "Forbidden Planet", not the classic science fiction movie from the fifies. Its a French sci-fantasy cartoon from the late 60s/early 70s, real trippy and weird, the way I like it.

Anyone here ever heard of "The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb?" Its an animated piece, a post apocalyptic retelling of the fairytale. Its "pixilated", meaning the human characters are tweaked to look like the clay characters in terms of movement and speech. Its bizarre but its really good too, the scenes in the government laboratory will make you hair stand on end.

I thought it might be interesting to start a discussion of favorite movies of the list's members. I'm always on the lookout for good film, my tastes range from hardcore arthouse surrealism to action ala Bronson, Eastwood, etc. Plus its slow at work and Im bored out of my fucking skull, a compelling reason in and of itself. I think the video game and film genre's share a lot of common traits and it may be valuable for us a future DM level authors to discuss these similarities and the differences as well. To my thinking, a good map is a happy mix of gameplay, immersion, and solid storytelling. So here are some of my favorites. Not necessarily in order of preference.... 1. Rikyu, directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara : One of the best movies ever made, absolutely beautiful, powerful, one gesture in a scene conveys a thousand words. Must be viewed at least 4 times to BEGIN to be appreciated, to my thinking one of the hallmark of truly great filmmaking. Its the story of Rikyu, the 16th century Japanese tea ceremony master, and his struggle to remain true to his ideals while working in the court of Hideyoshi, one of Japans most (in)famous rulers. Prepare yourself, its long, nothing seems to happen, but slowly the film works its way into your mind and won't let go. 2. Andrei Rublev, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky: The story of a 10 or 11th century Russian monk/icon painter and his struggles to remain faithful while living in a world of horror and bloodshed. Incredible cinematography, the taking of a Russian town by a combined Russian/Mongol invasion force is horrible and fascinating at the same time. Any thing by Tarkovsky is generally damned good, but this is one of my favorites. Gotta run, boss released us early, yay!