Han Solo's leather jacket in SW7

[Frunobulax]

What he said...

 

[Otter]

Stand By,

I feel the same about Pacific Rim and Live Die Repeat. I almost didn't see LDR as I am not a Cruise fan, but I have to say it is a good film. My 12yo Daughter thinks it is the best film ever!

 

[Stand By]

Thanks Otter. I know - it was utterly incredible and I didn't see it at the cinema as, from the trailers, I somehow thought it'd be formulaic somehow. WRONG! Jack Reacher was the same.
I should have known better - Tom Cruise is my favourite actor and he doesn't make bad films (as he's a control freak and controls his career accordingly) and he's in my favourite film of all time - Vanilla Sky.

 

[Otter]

Jack Teacher wasn't too shabby either.

 

[Stand By]

PS. I said Vanilla Sky's my favourite. I just saw Bladerunner: The Final Cut at the TIFF Lightbox on Friday night. A masterpiece!

 

[Otter]

How weird, I just bought to 30 th anniversary DVD, still a great film.

 

[I would go out tonight]

PS. I said Vanilla Sky's my favourite. I just saw Bladerunner: The Final Cut at the TIFF Lightbox on Friday night. A masterpiece!

My favourites are Collateral and Minority Report. Did you ever check out Open Your Eyes, the original Spanish film?

 

[Don Tomaso]

Time to be a slightly OT iconoclast.

JJ Abrams took one of the most thoughtful and intellectual franchises in the history of entertainment, Star Trek, and turned it into not much more than a run-of-the-mill summer shoot 'em up blockbuster.

Compare the Abrams attempts to TOS, DS9, Voyager or TNG; "Spock's" 'Not so much' as compared to the allegory on Vietnam that was "Let This Be Your Last Battlefield", the first interracial kiss on network television, CAPT Picard's insistence to the Carassian that there were, in fact THREE lights "I have been, and ever shall be, your friend", or any number of the countless high dramatic points that have characterized Star Trek. IMO no comparison, and the Abrams Star Wars effort, again based on the two previews, looks like more of the action-laden same.

Well, Star Trek is nearly as intellectual as the philosophical excurses you find on the backside of a breakfast-flake-box, but each to his own, I asume.

 

[Otter]

Back on target, a website I look at occasionally, dude I want that , had the most amazing Wookie hoodie. They were out of stock when I last looked, but oh boy!

 

[Stand By]

My favourites are Collateral and Minority Report. Did you ever check out Open Your Eyes, the original Spanish film?

I did - once. An inferior film IMO and it's a perfect example of how a remake can sometimes be a good thing. It was vastly improved having been given the Hollywood treatment. I mean, the original had a lead actor with quite ordinary looks who wasn't very charismatic to speak of, and when he had his accident, wasn't left so horribly disfigured (I'm speaking of light make-up effects only) - he owned a large chain of bakeries (if memory serves) so hmmm, not very glamourous - and drove an original version Beetle. I thought he was mis-cast against the stunning Penelope Cruz.
Compare and contrast to Tom Cruise in the role - therefore you have a charming and handsome character who attracts women like flies with his looks (and easily and plausibly attracts women of the calibre of Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz - of course) and owns a world-renowned publishing company full of celebrities and is himself in the who's-who set and he drives a Ferrari - a man who truly has it all and is really disfigured with great make-up effects - and hence a lot more to lose - and so, as well as the character of David Aimes, the audience feels that loss a lot more tangibly as a result. Much more believable and satisfying.
And of course, you've got Tom Cruise giving it his all - that scene where he's in bed (with Penelope Cruz) making love to Sophia and in the same shot she inexplicably turns into Cameron Diaz and his mind just can't cope - it's a beautifully acted scene of a man who simply cannot possibly explain this in any rational sense - and that the only terrifying conclusion is that he's losing his mind and he's descending into insanity … marvellous.

Minority Report - so way ahead of its time in terms of the tech!

 

[Edward]

I'd rather be like Cruise than Stallone. Sadly Stallone has abused the crap out of steroids and HGH and it shows. Cruise on the other hand....that dude is ageless. He's 50 and looks better than most 30 year olds...thats what I'm aiming for lol

Cruise? Jinkies. Last time I saw him, he was looking rough. He'd aged into being a dead ringer for Richard Gere. Eeps. I'dc rather be Jimmy Dean than age into Richard Gere. I do like some of Tom Cruise's film, but really I like them in spite of him, not because of. Still, I'll allow that when he's not hired and directed to play the tedious Tom Cruise persona, but is actually allowed to do something interesting, he can be good. So it seems from Valkyrie, anyhow.

Stallone shares his mother's enthusiasm for plastic surgery too...

Jackie? I thought that was just Sly's weekend alter-ego!?

Episode III was amazing. Shame you didn't see it. I do agree Episodes I & II were a lot of galaxies away from the Original Trilogy.

It did, I know, contain the only scene in all three of them that was vaguely an interesting idea (Vader becoming Vader), but I'm not six years old any more, and I'm far too aware now of what a talentless hack George Lucas is. I honestly think I could direct a better film now.

View attachment 28265

What he said...

"I have a bad feeling about this." How very apt.

 

[navetsea]

aging into Richard Gere is fine... aging like Robert Redford... now that's pain.

 

[Monitor]

Mr. Cruise is my favourite actor. Just saying.

 

[mendelboaz]

I agree, Edward. Apart from the fact that George Lucas created some of my favorite childhood characters and universes, he can go f*ck off.

 

[navetsea]

when I was a child, I thought George Lucas and Col. Sanders is a same person

 

[Edward]

aging into Richard Gere is fine... aging like Robert Redford... now that's pain.

Ha.... I really don't rate either of them.

I agree, Edward. Apart from the fact that George Lucas created some of my favorite childhood characters and universes, he can go f*ck off.

Did you ever see that Youtube video comedy song "Geogre Lucas Raped Our Childhood"? In incredibly bad taste, sure, but it's ridiculously funny too.... not least for the fact that they filmed the video outsideManny's, in front of the costumed queue for Episode II opening....

I think Lucas, with his inability to leave well alone, presents a really interesting case study for the psychology of popular entertainment. You've got fans who feel a strong sense of ownership and feel betrayed by what he does with it, then you've got him with his inability to regard something as done and move on to something new - instead, he has to keep going over and changing it. With the "special" editions, he even put those out after refusing to release the originals again for a very long time, despite market demand (somewhat inevitably, when it came down to milking the audience one more time, they eventually appeared on DVD as extras in a box set). The idea of ownership of cultural property here, in a much broader sense then simply intellectual property law, is fascinating. I'm sure you could say that about a lot of films (see any time a big anniversary for Rocky Horror looms and Lou Adler wheels out the remake rumours as away of talking up the market for the inevitable rerelease of the original on disk, which we'll all dutifully buy because it's got a new cover....), but I've never seen anything face quite the backlash that the Star Wars brand has received over the way it's been handled since 1997.

 

[thor]

Then there's the Indiana Jones legacy. Not sure where that franchise is going; there was talk of a "reboot" to introduce a new, young Indy, possibly Chris Pratt ("Jurassic World" and "Guardians of the Galaxy"). Lucky Harrison Ford! We get to see him in 2 iconic roles, in 2 iconic franchises, and debate his age-appropriateness for these action-hero roles. Personally, I'm a fan of HF; he's a throwback and reminds me of past stars from the golden age of Hollywood like Steve McQueen, William Holden, and Jimmy Stewart.

 

[DesertDan]

No, not just the theme. It's the sound of the TIE fighters and the blasters and the Falcon … and those three words from Han Solo.
You look quite young on your avatar there, Navetsea, but it transports me right back to 1977 (when I was 10) when the film first came out amid massive hoopla and it changed everything. Everything else suddenly paled by comparison. And the queues to see it were astonishing - hence the term "blockbuster" as people lined up patiently around the block to get in … I saw it 3 times as there wasn't any video back then, so the only way to see it was to go and buy another ticket and stand in line with all the anticipation to see again something that looked and sounded and felt so magical and special. (Hence the bitterness and resentment from fans for what Lucas later did to the franchise. He's a one-trick pony if ever there was one).

Amen, every bit, Amen!
Unless you lived it, you can never truly understand what it was like.

 

[dh66]

Amen, every bit, Amen!
Unless you lived it, you can never truly understand what it was like.

Have to agree with you D.D.

I was 10 the summer of 77, and SW made a hell of an impact on me. As did ESB, but I must admit the last one was beginning to grow a little weary. I also was blown away by Indiana Jones the first couple of times around, but by the time Sean Connery (great as he is) got involved, my interest was waning.
I did manage to soldier through the second set of three in the theaters and fortified by copious amounts of smuggled Bacardi in my giant cup of fruit punch, but I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to watch them on the DVD with my kids, who love them (my oldest boys are 8 and 10, if that gives any perspective). They also love Crystal Skull, I on the other hand, have still not made it all the way through it.

One Harrison Ford vehicle that I still can appreciate and admire thoroughly to this day, however, is 'Blade Runner'. That one is a ****ing masterpiece. Although at no point iny life did it inspire me to a buzz cut and a trench coat.

 

[dh66]

And for whatever it's worth.....I wasn't even an impure thought in '62, but Harrison Ford in that cowboy hat and black '55 Chevy was pretty much the coolest part of 'American Graffiti' by a long shot.