Recently watched

Beat me to it. It was absolutely awesome, very much in the vein of Star
Wars type story and adventure. Easily one of the best Sci-Fi
movies/shows I've seen recently, definately better than War of the
Worlds. Hopefully it'll be a lesson for Hollywood, you don't need a
huge special effects bonanza to make a good sci-fi movie. A solid story
makes the movie, not how much you spend on the cgi. Five Stars.

I was leaning towards Appleseed. The trailers looked incredible, an
amazing mix of cgi and traditional animation. Unfortunately they don't
seem to be around long in cinema's here, and usually only in Dendy
cinema's, which show a lot of 'art house' films.

Mixing? There is no mixing in Appleseed ... it's all cg. It's WAY more obvious when you actually watch it. But, they did a really good job.

I liked War of the Worlds. It's just another adaptation of the same story ... anyway.

You guys have your "post number" set higher per page, that's why there's fewer pages. Mine's 123, since it's set to 15 per page. If you have a slower connection, hint hint Underdog, you should set it to something lower than that, since less posts per page would be loaded (less avatars too ... which you can turn off anyway ... you could block images altogether)

Anyway:

19 pages: you're set to about 100 posts per page.
62 Pages: You're set to about 30 posts per page.

Toast, you were talking about that before, try lowering your number of posts per page (from the control panel on the site) and see if they load faster. It should, since there's less DB accessing going on.

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Ahhhh, that's probably why my load times are high... I'll go check it out.

Oh, man, I just saw Wallace and Grommit: The curse of the Were-Rabbit, and I must say <span style="color: red;">You have to see this film!

The story, and animation, and humour was all perfect. You have
got to see this, it's hilarious. I'd say more about the movie,
but I don't want to spoil any of it.

Greatest movie I've seen in some time. Watch it now!

</span>

I agree with my toasty friend here. Its quite a fun movie.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

I saw "Advent Children" and the anime short "Last Order" on a cinema
screen with a mate last night, and while it was nice to see it on a big
screen, the screen wasn't bright enough which left most of the fight
scenes impossible to decipher. Another problem was that there wasn't
enough volume - despite being in a cinema of sorts (organised by a
uni's anime society) it was left really quiet, rendering the soundtrack
almost inaudible and the speech and sound effects just loud enough to
hear. When you are at a cinema you really want to be blasted by the
sound, but here it was sorely lacking and it detracted from the movie.
Watching it at home was a far better experience, but it was a fun night
regardless.

As a special treat they were also showing the Appleseed movie at the
end, but unfortunately I had a train to catch so couldn't stay for it.
Shame really, since people are saying its definately worth watching.
Might pick it up when I find some money - my current expendable funds
have been decimated :sad:

---

[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Hmm, they probably placed all the speakers in a way that they caused dead waves.

I'm sure they just used loudspeakers or something: which is a bad idea. (That's what most schools have in stock anyway)

As for the brightness, they probably didn't seclude the area well enough ... or if it was completely contained, the bulb in the projector was probably going ... or something like that.

Something I doubt they took into consideration is that with more people in a theater ... the quieter the sound gets. Since, there's more bodies in the room. (or it should anyway)

Reno, find Appleseed at a second hand type place if you can. Then your purchase will feel worth it. It's currently like $20 USD ... not bothering to convert that ... so, that's really not worth it. Finding it used would be better :smile:

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Anime in the UK is horribly priced - if you buy it first hand from a
normal entertainment store it WILL cost ?20, with the odd exception
such as "buy one get one free" offers during sales or whatever. Mail
order is a bit cheaper but since the Appleseed movie is new it will
still cost in the region of ?15 or so. I don't really know of anywhere
around here that does second hand anime, but lets face it, if money is
proving hard to come by, there are always "less expensive" ways to see
a film :smile:

---

[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

I've seen small bits of Appleseed on tv. I doubt I could sit through more than half an hour of that animation style...

---

"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

On TV? You probably saw the old show or movie, which were both, if I'm not mistaken, made in the 80s. This is new, released last year.

And if it is the new version ... what kind of service do you have that allows you to see new anime??

Reno, Yeah, I figured. But, you know what? No need to bitch, because you get all the special edition games and badass artwork! Have you seen American game covers and packages? They're pathetic. A good example is Ico ... this is the American version:

US
UK Limited Edition

Not fair.

Don't even get the option here. And if there is a nice big version of something that comes out, they only make a few thousand (Growlanser Generations. This may not be a good example, because Working Design games never stay around for a long time. Even if they are some of the best games)

Anyway, back to movies.

I just finished watching Back to the Future (again). Dammit. I love that movie, and its sequels. Even the third one (now that I've watched it again). I love all the impossibilities and the racial slurs and all the things that would, could, and never did happen.

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I mean bits of the new movie, on a movie review show.

Heh, Back to the Future was just on tv here. The first is awesome, the second is cool, the third is ok.

---

"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

Don't act all hard done by Crono - you might get hilariously bad cover art but at least the games actually come out over there :biggrin:

---

[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Hey Wilson, sounds like you saw the same review on The Movie Show on
ABC. I thought it looked great, I love the action in Japanese Anime,
its always so perfectly styled.

---

Ham and Jam Contributor
http://www.hamandjam.org

'Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!'

Yeah ... but ... still. There's really not that much that comes out here that doesn't come out there. It wasn't until PSone that we started getting more titles anyway. So many great games were never released here ... which doesn't make sense, since they're usually part of series that were released here prior.

But ... what exactly is a good game that's come out here and has no date for there as of now? Because there's a lot of s**tty games out here. A LOT.

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Yeah, thats the one I saw Smith. I dont really like the action in anime, sometimes its good but usually things hang in the air too long, or fall wrong, and its distracting. The CGI style just makes everything worse imo.

---

"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

The god damn Front Mission series post 3. The fourth game has been out
in the US for over a year now, the fifth is due out in Japan at the end
of the year and will surely appear stateside too, and FM Online's
chances of seeing an EU release are next to none. Katamari Damacy never
made it to the UK, Animal Crossing took about 2 years after the US
release or something before it finally got released here, Phantom Dust
disappeared off the radar, and I've been disappointed plenty of other
times in the past with indefinate delays or cancellations of EU
releases. True enough, MOST of the good games appear here after a
while, but of the three territories its the EU that gets the short end
of the stick. On message boards you often see US folks whining if the
UK ever sees a release the US doesn't - Shenmue 2 was our sweet sweet
revenge :razz:

---

[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

My flatmates and I watched a couple of films in the past few nights, and, rarely for us, we all enjoyed them both thoroughly...

First up was Phone Booth. I'd been wanting to see this ever since it
came out but not enough to actually do anything about it :biggrin: Saw it in a
sale at HMV the other day so decided to pick it up, and I'm really glad
I did. You might think a film set almost entirely around a phone booth
would get boring but it really held my interest the whole way through.
Colin Farrell, who I didn't really hold in particularly high regard
(despite having never seen a film of his...I must be too judgemental!),
does a great job in his role, and Keifer Sutherland is also great as
the voice on the other end of the phone. Gotta love his laugh :smile:

Tonight we watched Matchstick Men with Nicholas Cage, who I've always
thought of as a decent enough actor, but never really found any of his
films to be particularly memorable (though The Rock tried its best).
This is certainly his crowning moment in my eyes. Very enjoyable con
artist film with a few less orthodox spins in the form of over the top
phobias and a reuniting with an unknown daughter. Well worth checking
out.

---

[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

I loved both of those ReNo! I'm a fan of Colin Farrell :smile:

Really awesome moivies :smile:

Well, if you like Nicholas Cage, you'll like this ... he named his kid Kal-El ... as in Clark Kent Kal-El.

But, one of the only movies he's acted well in is Matchstick men and Adaptation. Maybe, Bringing out the Dead. But overall ... he's deplorable. But, surprisingly good when playing a social freak.

Phone Booth is good. Hard to believe before that Schumacher made Batman 3 and 4 :shudder:

Colin Ferrell is a good actor ... he has bad movies though. *cough*The Recruit*cough*

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Just saw A History of Violence. I'm not sure I can recommend it. It's ok, the action is good sometimes, and the focus on how his family deals with him as his secret is unveiled was good. Still, pretty much every scene drags and goes on too long, whether it is an establishing shot in his daughter's bedroom, his son's "baseball" (softball) game, him and his wife having sex on the stairs or sixty-nining in her parents' house, or looking over the dead bodies at the diner.

Just watched My Darling Clementine (1946) dir. by John Ford.

Apparently its his most well known film, but I didn't think it was that
great. The showdown scene at the end of the movie at the OK
Corral was kind of confusing, and there were a couple uncomfortably
angled shots that seemed to break the invisible style. Anyway if
you like westerns check it out... its got Doc Holiday and Wyatt Earp...
and a terrible themesong.

Oh, and a Mexican hussie named Chihuahua.

Two Ford movies that are better:

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (very good movie)
The Westerner

The Searchers is alright too.

He directed so many movies/shows/films. 145 I think.

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I think I'll go to the library and check out Liberty Valance when I
have free time later this week. Once tomorrow's classes are over
its just coast until the weekend. :smile:

Oh yeah before I forget, I saw 4 pretty damned good new movies today, and one old great one tonight. Yeah, I couch potatoed today. Was a rare treat.

• Fever Pitch
• Sahara
• Monster in-law
• Longest Yard
  and
• As good as it gets

All top shelf movies.

---

There is no history until something happens, then there is.

I forgot to mention, I saw Serenity last ... uh ... Wednesday? Yeah ... it rocked. So now I have to watch FireFly sigh. Damn you Joss Whedon and your ability to write good group scenarios (Check out Astonishing X-Men if you want to see some of his stuff outside of the TV/Movie realm)

I plan on seeing MirrorMask this week sometime. I also want to see 2046 while it's still playing at a theater. I know I can get it on DVD and all that stuff, but, I don't have my sound stuff hooked up. (The cables had too much hiss so I ripped them apart)

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

As most of you know I've been really into zombies recently. I
watched Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) last week, and 28 Days Later
(again) yesterday. Now I really want to watch Land of the
Dead. Has anyone seen it? What were your opinions? If
there's a good response I'll try to buy the DVD.

• Monster in-law
  </li>
• Longest Yard
  </li>

I thought those were 2 of the worst movies I've ever seen!

Morphine, Land of the Dead is pretty bad. I thought Dawn of the Dead was really bad. The remake is much better (it's actually enjoyable to watch without the god awful music)

Land of the Dead is like Day of the Dead: Bad.

It has some really awesome ideas and stuff, but, it's still executed poorly. I don't know why Romero wants zombies to learn ... I really don't. (Also, as I was saying before, you can't make a movie about zombies, but rather the human drama that ensues because of them. Land of the Dead is about 1/2 human drama 1/2 about zombies. It just doesn't work well)

Shaun of the Dead (Best "traditional" zombies)
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
28 Days Later

Are about the best all round zombie movies. Of course, Romero did come up with the ideas to make zombies flesh hungry ... but ... it was just an idea. It doesn't make his movies that good, because they're pretty bad. Enjoyable for cult-zombie-freaks, but, not good by any means. Land of the Dead is no different. It's pretty funny actually.

I haven't seen "Undead" it was never playing here. I heard it was good from some people then I heard it was bad ... I don't know, since I haven't seen it.

I should mention, to interest you zombie fanatics, Serenity has a take on zombie-like-villians. :smile:

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

French Toast said:
<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quote:</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>

• Monster in-law
• Longest Yard
  </LI>

I thought those were 2 of the worst movies I've ever seen!
</div></div>

I promise, I will consult you the very next time I want to post my opinions on movies.

Seriously, if those were the worse, you don't get out much. They were far from Oscar winners but hardly poor viewing. To each their own.

---

There is no history until something happens, then there is.

I enjoyed the Dawn of the Dead remake when I saw it in theaters (the bit post credits was awesome).

28 days later is awesome because of the idea of waking up into a
post-zombie-apocalypse world. When I saw the first Resident Evil
movie... I wished they had started right where it ended.

I never watched the second RE movie, did it in fact pick up where the first left off?

<div class="abouttext">Message submitted 13 minutes after original post:</b></div>
New steam update:


Here at Valve, we like zombies. They're dead, but they're not. They
have simple tastes. They pursue their goals with an unwavering, if
shambling, intensity. Having populated Half-Life and Half-Life 2 with a
variety of them, we hope (and suspect) you share our affinity for these
unfairly maligned creatures.

Of course, long before the denizens of the undead world began to grace games
with their gruesome antics, they were already stars of the silver
screen. So, this week we're stepping outside of our usual focus to tell
you about our new favorite short film. It's called Zombie Movie.

<br style="color: white;">
A Valve employee named Mike Asquith is one of 2chums, who made the movie. Its official world-premiere is tomorrow (Saturday October 15) at Screamfest L.A.
(click for show time and details), and we think that every Steam user
in the area should be there. Ideally, attendance should reach
call-the-fire-marshal levels. Be sure to say hi to Mike when you see
him at the screening. (And just so you don't feel the need to ask him
personally when HL2 Lost Coast is going to be released: we're shooting
for the end of the month.)

Oh man, you have to see the uncut version: More zombies. More gore. More Ving. How could it be bad? (I saw a movie at Blockbuster I wanted to rent. It had Ving Rames AND Jim Brown! It also took place in prison. The only thing that could make that better is zombies. Well, 2 out of 3 isn't that bad, right?)

Yeah, RE:A picked up there ... see it ... but don't think you're going to like it. I love the first one (even as bad as it is) and the second one is just ... Well, I'm glad I had a free ticket to see it.

It follows the games character ideas more closely ... while craping on the actual happenings.

It's pretty bad though. Give it a rent or obtain it through ... other ... methods. Sony's already made their money back and then some, so don't feel bad.

Actually, the one thing that was fantastic about the first movie was the soundtrack, Manson's music fit perfectly. The opening and closing were also about the best parts of the movie. Just because it was shot, cut, edited near flawlessly. Man, Paul, if you just put your mind to it more often, you'd almost be a good director.

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Seriously, the ending was fantastic. I just loved that state of the city.

I hear Day of the Dead opens similarly? Except with a chopper
touching down in the middle of a destroyed city and a woman calling out
if there was anyone still alive. Then the chopper takes off as
the undead shamble to their feet and emerge from the wreckage.
Thats how a friend described the opening to me (a long long time ago,
so I could be remembering it wrong). Is that the case? I
have yet to see the movie.

I have only seen parts. But it's pretty bad. Scientists doing experiments on zombies to make them "think". Or something like that.

I can't stand to watch them in a row or anything like that. I think I might be able to sit through them in small doses. They're just ... really bad. Let me know what you think of Land of the Dead, apparently it's longer and three shots edited differently can make a crappy movie good ... so, I'm interested in that.

Yes, the ending was fantastic ... much better than the other ending ... Oh my God. f**king terrible. Like, matrix rip off terrible. I'm glad they never finished that ending. :shudder:

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I don't know if I'm going to buy Land of the Dead now. If I can
go in with a friend or two we might just split the cost and It'll be
like renting it. Or maybe we'll sign up for netflix as a hall.

Have you guys seen this? http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/006895.html

There was a competition to take a well known movie and recut a new trailer that changes the movie entirely.

The winner turned The Shining into a feel good dramedy.

Two other entries turned West Side Story into a zombie flick and Titanic into a horror movie.

Thought you guys might enjoy them. I thought the Shining trailer was hilarious.

Don't buy it. Don't even consider it. I don't think it'll be "good" no matter what he's done to it (However, I am curious). Like I said. I was laughing a lot in the theater and I also thought $5.50 was far too much money. It was NOT worth my five dollars. However, zombie movies are far and inbetween. Like I said, rent it or something.

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

That one of The Shining was amazing :biggrin: The others were good too, but it's clear why The Shining won!

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Haha yeah definitely. The way they say "shining" at the end is priceless.

Titanic: Ha ha. I like the touch of zombism.

West Side Story: Nice.

The Shining: Perfect. I love it they even used Saulsbury Hill. Ha ha ha.

The power of editing is profound.

I've been thinking about re-edting Matrix reloaded. The only problem is, there's one part that can't be fixed with editing alone.

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

If you do, can you cut down/out the neo love scene?

As it's part of "the rave" yeah. It would turn into just a sex scene. Without Keanu ass. I'd just cut to the far shot of them.

Yes, I've thought about it before.

It'd be pretty awesome to cut in stuff from Enter the Matrix too. That'd really help so other stuff could be cut.

I like the movie and all, but there's some stuff I just hate about it. However, I wouldn't touch the Chateau fight or the freeway scene (except one shot, which I hate)

The beginning of the movie would get the most editing. The matrix code would cut to the building where Trinity jumps out of. And later on I'd cut in the clock in footage and NOT that retarded opening fight.

Why'd they make her look like a man in the second two movies?

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I really need to rewatch them. I can't even picture the scenes you're describing, nor guess which shots you hate.

I've seen the first one quite a few times, but the other two are fuzzy in my head. I can't even really tell them apart.

Yeah. I know a lot of people who HATE the second two. It's because they were expecting to see the first movie with new action or something. I didn't expect that. I actually like the second two movies more now than I did when I first saw them.

But, they need work.

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Watched the first 4 episodes of an anime series called Gantz tonight.
Pretty gory and sexually explicit, but it's an interesting premise and
it's (so far) set itself up for the possibility of having many many
interesting characters. Visually it's quite cool, mixing in CG stuff
which admittedly looks kinda outta place but very nice in it's own
right. I don't wanna spoil it at all for any anime fans (and I don't
recommend anybody who thinks they are going to watch it go hunting for
more info - it will inevitably contain spoilers which are necessary to
divulge ANY of the story!), but I highly recommend checking it out if
you're into that sort of thing. My flatmate tells me it's based on a
manga, so if that's your preferred medium then that is available too :smile:

---

[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

I saw Serenity.

I enjoyed it and recommended it to a few friends. Endearing characters, some definite great moments.

I really liked the long fluid shots... especially one in the hangar pre-robbery.

I rented and watched Undead yesterday.

This movie was rediculous. It's technically not even a zombie movie. As funny as it is, it took awhile for me to shed my expectation for zombies and ... um ... you know? Structured plot.

"One day you're a fisherman in a boat ... the next minute you've got zombie fish biting your face"

I went and saw MirrorMask tonight. Great. See it. You wont like it, I'm sure.
It's very, obviously, out of the mind of Neil Gaiman (SandMan, 1602, American Gods) It's probably the most abstract movie I've seen ... ever. It's so beautifully yet obscurly constructud visually that I had to rub my eyes when the theater lights came up. The overlayed theme is very fantastical. To the T, actually. A White Queen, a Black Queen in the lands of light and shadow seperated by the land of dreams and hopes.

This is one of those movies, media, that has shadow as a physical entity. Which is, yes, awesome.

I loved it. And I can't really describe what it's about because that would severly degrade the film. (The plot written out is pretty silly and sounds terrible, but it isn't)

Take a view. I suggest it. Especially if you like Gaiman's work.

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Doom is getting extremely sour reviews. Of course, we all expected that.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051020/REVIEWS/51012003/1023

http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/d/doom.html

http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?^Doom+(2005)

---

I Ain't Gettin' On No Plane, Foo'

Detroit Rock City (1999)

Rocks

---

Never try to be perfect - just try it and make the best out of it

Coulda been worse - I'm seeing a fair few 6/10's in there :razz: We're
considering going to see it at the cinema for a laugh - odd how we seem
to visit the cinema more often to laugh at s**t films than we do to
enjoy good ones :biggrin:

---

[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Me and my uncle and some friends are goign to watch Doom, and then LAN
it up until we get bored of it (quickly) then do a couple days of DoD:S
and BF2 :biggrin:

Watched Hitchhikers guide. I am having a very difficult time understanding British humour.

Its no damned wonder my jokes go over most of your heads. You almost had me believing they were that dumb. After watching this movie I can see why they flew so high over you.

The shovel bit in the face had me in stitches though.

Also this bit of wisdom: "Space, according to the guide is really,really big"

---

There is no history until something happens, then there is.

UD, I have to honestly say: Most of the jokes you make aren't particularly funny. :razz:

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.