Randomland - The Forum

I just watched Outlander (2008?). The case artwork made me think it would be aweful, but it wasn't half-bad.

Hmm, watching the deleted scenes explains the plot better. What's up with that?

Wow. Vikings, aliens, spacecraft and did I mention vikings! How could that not be an awesome movie!?

It seems strange that something comprised of so much raw awesome and manliness somehow escaped my notice. I might get than based solely on the ridiculousness factor, that and your recommendation of course.

And on deleted scenes: When will they just give you the option of having them played in place with the rest of the movie? I would use that feature, especially if its something I already saw in theaters.

I hadn't heard of it either. Some of the special effects were cheesy (I figured it was older than it is) and the story leaves fundamental questions largely unanswered (why did he end up here??). And they seemed out to make the preists looks like utter fools (a bit of a pet peeve). Still, horses, a spaceship, a dragon, and swords combined with an ounce of character development made it better than a lots of those blockbuster hits that have come out in recent years (the 3rd X-men movie comes to mind as notably bad). But then again, I don't know much. Maybe I just like swords and sci-fi.

I just watched a Stephen King miniseries called Rose Red. As with all things Stephen King, it was very strange.

Katie was rather into that when it was first out. Thats a messed up show... and that aardvark.

BTW. Thanks for the Outlander loaning. It was rather better then I expected. After I watched it I was listening to my radio people and they were doing a little mini review of just that movie. They enjoyed it as for its sheer crazy masculinity and noted that the story is more or less a retelling of the legend of Bayowolf.

I just watched "Ink." A spur of the moment netflix instaview. Its probably the third best movie I have seen this year. I highly recommend it. The forces of nightmares and dreams battle over the fate of a young girls soul. The Atmosphere and mood of this movie combined with well executed visuals make for a captivating experience.

Netflix Page (http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Ink/70125584)
IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1071804/)

Cool, I threw that one in my queue. I don't recognize any of the actors' names. I like that; it sells the part better if I don't recognize the person.

Its a low budget indie, but it looks just as nice as any high budget from 8 years ago. They are all no names and there is only one character whose acting is a little off at moments. But that could be attributed to the character being played if it was written that way I guess.

I finally watched Transformers 2 a few days ago. I didn't go out of my way to see it; it was on at a family gathering. It wasn't a bad movie but it was way over the top in every conceivable way. From a storytelling point of view, the movie was completely unnecessary. I am sure the marketing department would disagree.

Its a movie made to sell toys. Thats sadly all Transformers ever were. Just an half hour toy add. But a cool one. There are so many things wrong with that movie that its flaws just ceases to matter. Its just a big, dumb, semi-raciest splody fest of eye-candy. And its good at it.

I like a movie which tells a story worth telling. That movie seemed like they had $100m dropped on their lap and were told to come up with a story. It's backwards. If there should be sequels, the storywriter should know so before the camera crews are even charging their batteries. (I think this is one reason that the Lord of the Rings movies didn't descend into putridity and the Matrix movies did).

I know it's not as financially lucrative, but come on guys -- you're the storytellers of this generation; tell a story worth telling. There are thousands of under-funded movie makers out there who would jump at a chance to get the same screentime.

(Did I slip in to some Indie scene rant?)

I just watched the new Star Trek movie. I didn't really know what to expect, but I'd say that it was better than I expected. It was excessively flashy, but it was rather humorous and kind of classy in a way which I can't explain.

I liked the new Star Trek movie as well. I like the way they handled the changed timeline. I'd be interested in seeing more movies which take place in this altered timeline.

I keep hearing people trying to make rumors about a new Khan movie taking place in the new time line.  I don't think there is any real plans for anything yet (other then to for sure make more movies, because that last one made lots of money)

With Vulcan destroyed things will go rather differently....

I don't know the original storyline at all. All I really know is all of the cliche things and oft-quoted lines. Oh, and I saw a few episodes of one of those 90's Star Trek TV series. Given that, it seemed like a pretty good movie.

Another movie with KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN? That'd be cool.

I watched Wall-E again a few night ago. That movie seems destined to become a classic. I like it a lot...but then again, I like lots of things which are aimed at people ~15-20 years younger than I...

I think wall-e is aimed at everyone. And I have heard others remark on its classicablity too. It does have a nice timeless feel to it (until we have semi-sentient robots are space cruisers that is) nothing to tie it to the year that it was made. And its almost artful with the half hour of almost silent film you get at the beginning.

Yeah, both times I watched it, there comes a point (about 30min into it) that my brain realizes that there is no dialog except for about 6 sentences said on video screens. It's a funny feeling to realize you don't really need the dialog to explain what's going on.

I was impressed at Pixars ability to have a robot able to display so much emotion with so very little dialog. Definitely one of my favorite Pixar/Disney films.

I just watched Avatar.

Part 1: I like movies
Once I was able to get beyond the revolting individuals who had chosen to sit behind us, I found the movie to be very entertaining and truly captivating. I saw it in 3D. With the ripoff 3D glasses. They over charge for the glasses, ask you to "Please recycle them" when the movie is over and refuse to let you use your own if you happen to have some already. But thats all beside the point.

The virtually present third dimension actually ads to the movie. Unlike with the the trailers preceding the feature, it wasn't at all gimmicky or cheesy. It was the best special effects ever. To this date I cannot say I know of anything that comes close to rivaling it. More then once I found myself trying to focus on floating specks as though they were close to my face. The only complaint about it I might have (aside from the glasses) would be things got a tiny bit weird at the extreme edges of the picture. Not distracting, but noticeable if you are trying to scrutinize the visual experience.

The story was a classic dude gets a blue kitty body, dude meets girl, dude joins their society and saves the world story. I was talking with a fellow movie goer and the consensus was "Fern Gully mixed with dances with wolves with a little halo kicked in for flavor."

If you can, see it in 3D. It will be years before that kind of technology is available in homes. Several more before anyone will be able to afford it. It might create a market for showing movies in smaller theaters, long after they have gone to DVD, just for the little bits of floating dust and the feeling of real depth that draws you into the story. Makes you forget you surrounding and takes you for an adventure.


Part 2.: I hate people. 
We sat in front of 4 drunk idiots. They had snuck (why isn't snuck a word?) beer into the showing. And obviously they had to drop and break a bottle under the backs of my seat and the person's next to me. One particualry stupid (or drunk... maybe both) individual kept making comments about the movie, but they were completely unrelated to what was on screen. And the starved-for-acceptance girl with him kept laughing at them all. Who blurts out "Turtles in a half shell" when there are NO TURTLES. NONE! Just little white floaty thing. Finally he got too drunk and fell asleep, Then all I had to do was put up with snoring, something I can actually tune out.  Errrr. People suck. Annnnd one of their phones went off. >:( 
Grumble cakes, grumble cakes.

Wow...I must say: Wow. People do indeed suck. I was going to say that I watched the Bourne Identity movie again last night (for like the 5th time) and that it's one of my favorites, but I just can't top your Avatar post. So, maybe I'll sneak out to that movie with Eve if it is indeed worth watching. Then I can say "it's a blue dude!" too, and know what you're talking about. Hopefully I will avoid the drunken people. I saw enough of those Wednesday night anyway, though I got paid for it.

The Bourne movies are good. They make me think of bond movies, but with a better plot and acting :) Not that I dislike the bond movies, they are just a little slow and dry by today's comparisons. They are still classics.

Defiantly go see Avatar if it interests you. With how much they spent making it they are going to need all the help they can get. I hope that this was like with the matrix, where they spent all the money developing new technology. And from then on it was cheaper to that sort of thing because the ground work as already laid. Then we can hope to see more movies with awesome affects. I really, really hope that movies makers don't go back to their old ways of relying on visual shock-and-awe alone to sell tickets. All the effects in the world can't save your movie if the story line sucks. r

I figure since I went to go see Avatar in 3D the other day that I can make a post too. Not really sure what to say though. Wow. I believe that pretty much sums it up actually. The 3D really added to the movie, I agree with you on that one and that it wasn't horribly done like the previews before the actual movie. However, lucky for me I suppose, I didn't have to put up with any drunk stupid people...as I can imagine that could help ruin a truly amazing movie. Also I didn't happen to notice the weirdness a the edges like you said you saw. Then again perhaps it was there and I was just too mesmerized by the movie to actually notice. And as for the whole glasses thing...yeah, they were really ugly and somewhat annoying especially since I had to wear them over my regular glasses, but they never told me to recycle them. I just stuck them in my pocket at the end of the movie and out the door I went. No idea how much they cost either. The ticket was $10.50 and while that is probably fairly expensive for a 3:45 showing of a movie, I would certainly pay it to see it again.

As for the movie itself, I don't know what to say other than it was a good combination of "hey that's cool!", "aw that's sweet...or something", and "weeeee! EXPLOSIONS!" Yep. Good stuff. Actually probably one of the best movies I ever remember seeing.

Glad you liked it. Its still #1 from what I hear. That means there will be a sequel from what the director was saying. Or maybe it will be a prequel...
The recycling thing I was talking about was a big round bin outside the theater entrance/exit. They add an extra $4 to the ticket price for those glasses so there was no way I am throwing them away. Just keep them until 3d projectors or TV are available to the public (the current ones are not as good I think as they need to be, and they cost 2x what a normal tv does. And I know for sure it does not cost twice as much to make them. But that's capitalism.)

Eve and I saw it too. I liked it quite a lot. As for the 3D-ness, it was cool and not gimmicky like those older red-n-blue 3D flicks. The movie going experience was really something, but I'm not sure how much of it I can attribute the the effectiveness of 3D vs hype.

But yeah, I liked it.

I watched that Terminator Salvation (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0438488/) movie last week. It wasn't horrible. A blatant ride on an tired horse, so to speak, but it was worth seeing if you just want to see something blow up. As for the preceding Terminator movie, I'm thinking everyone is pretending that 3rd movie just didn't happen...

Seems like a good thing to make believe. I liked the latest installment in that metallic warriors series. Though I have one (real) complaint about it: where were all the robots in the freaking robot factory? They only had to fight two of them? They were in the plant where they were being mass produced! :)

Other then that I agree with Zourtney, more or less.

Eve and I just finished watching the first season of Heroes (I like being behind the times). Yatta! (http://heroeswiki.com/Yatta!)

I just watched District 9 last night. I didn't really tell Melissa what the movie was about so when we started watching it she was like "Why are the even letting aliens on earth? They are just going to rise up and kill everybody, we should just kill them all first." By the end of them movie she was like "I'm really sorry I said that stuff about the aliens at the beginning of the movie." So I guess the movie had it's intended affect.

She isn't really a big sci-fi fan, so pretty much all movies she's seen with aliens involve the aliens trying to kill everybody (except for Lilo & Stitch probably). That's sort of the standard Hollywood approach with aliens. Especially ones that don't look very human. Heck even in Star Trek most of the aliens look REALLY human and the ones that don't will probably try to kill and eat you. We've been trained that aliens = evil. District 9 is a movie which makes you think about that. The aliens and that movie don't look human, and the movie doesn't try to make them cute or lovable looking. In fact at the beginning of the movie, they seem like the standard "planning on eating you" aliens.               

The violence was occasionally a little over the top (guns turn people -> soup) and there was a lot of the f-word flying around but it wasn't distracting. Overall I liked it.

I liked the over the top violence. It took away from the gory aspect and just kinda made it funny. Probably not a good attitude when considering human mortality. But they just explode! How can you not smirk at things just randomly (or not so randomly, but maybe unexpectedly) exploding like that!?

I just watched "Legion."

It Thoroughly mediocre. Moments of bad dialog and characters making stupid (and sometime ham-handedly cliche)  decisions. Seemingly only to advance the plot, because if they behaved normally there would no internal conflict in the group. And there seem to be scenes in the movie that are only there because they put them in the trailers, they don't fit with what is going on otherwise. There were other flaws as well, but then I would just be complaining.

Despite all that, the basic story concept had a lot of potential. I am usually a sucker for the theology based movies, so I might have romanticized the whole thing a little in my head. But an army of otherworldly beings possessing the week and trying to kill off mankind could have been an awesome movie. It just wasn't in this case.

All-in-all it was ok. Better then any movie I have ever made, by far. If you go see it in the theaters though, go someplace cheap. Or wait and netflix it. It should be out on DVD in a month or two.

   

I saw a preview for that movie (Legion) and was very quite confused. I can only imagine what 1:30+ of immersion would do to my brain.

I watched Demolition Man a few nights ago. That's a silly movie.

It really makes no more sense for having seen the whole thing. That movie had so much potential. Some people on the radio were talking about how they should have (purposely) played up the comedy a little. Make the movie feel like "zombie killing, the light hartted game." Supposedly the  director got a sequel mostly, if not completely filed before Legion came out. So we need not with for more, for more is already coming. It might be better then the first (I am hoping for it anyway) set in a post-apocalyptic land where people are recovering from the angel attack :-/ I am a sucker for post-apocalyptic movies more then I am one for theology based movies. Still I will probably wait for it to come out on netflix.

Demolition man in one of my favorites. It funny and takes its self just seriously enough that you can buy in, but still manages to be, as you said, silly.  I can only hope that the future is that awesome. Every restaurant is taco bell!
That reminds me, some dude at a gas station made a "three shells" joke the other day. Just after telling me that a 3 cent tax on toilet paper would pay for all  the debt our country has and solve all the worlds problems. Because everyone needs toilet paper...

 :D that's funny, funny, funny! about the 3 shells thing.... ahh hahaha :)

That's all.

L.O.L... ok :)

I watched Hitman over the weekend. For a movie based off of a video game, it seemed like it turned out pretty good. It did have more than it's fair share of (sexually) inappropriate scenes which didn't help the story much. And the movie was surprisingly gory -- but I guess that's what they were going for. You've got to lure in all those FPS gorefans.

Its cinematography was its strong point, in my opinion. I've never played the game, but I've seen artwork here and there. They faithfully recreated those scenes in live action. For example, the scene where he has his back flat against the wall with two pistols held in an X across his chest.

Some internet reviewers poked at a "thin plot." Personally, I was actually slightly confused and those oh-so-important "explanation scenes" just kind of whizzed by before I understood what was going on. Back to the gore!

But, yeah, overall, I give it an "ok." Or, "pretty good for a video game movie."

This topic has been misleadingly dead. I watched that District 9 movie a while ago. I liked it, though I am scared to think what the inevitable sequel will bring us.

There was some other movie (of Nick's) that I watched recently too. But it escapes me. (I make for a poor trap)

I watched Jurassic Park a few night ago. It was trippy. I watched that movie all the time when I was a kid, and could pretty much recite it line by line. And indeed, all that useless information was still in my brain, tucked away. :)

And for using technology that is now almost two decades old (sigh), the CG still looked pretty dang good. I'd say the weak points were shading and environmental lighting, which perhaps has come a long ways since then...well, and the computing power to render it in your living room (or your classroom, or wherever) in a 10th of the time.

So, Eve and I just finished watching Heroes last week. We started watching it quite a while ago, but when you have 4 seasons to get through, it can take some time...unless you're Cody. Anyway, I liked it. Most of the main characters only died 4 or 5 times, which is seems statistically insignificant compared to that show Alias (but I could be mistaken; I haven't seen that in years).

I think we'll go back to watching Lost. Which, by the way, I hear that's actually coming to an intentional series finale. No matter how strange a show gets, I'll give 'em boo-ko bonus points for a scripted conclusion. Oh, how I wish they all could! So many don't deserve it, I suppose, but some do. And then of course, there's those movies which were made as a single, complete script, but someone throws sequel-money at them and they have to unravel tied up ends...I'm no story-teller, but sometimes....I don't know. Sighhhhh.

Oh my. Really?  "Sighhhhh." You should be ashamed of your self!

Is heroes worth picking back up? I stopped somewhere during this last season when people started going to some jerky guys carnival. For some reason I got annoyed with it and started watching something else.




Oh! They left that poor Irish girl stuck in the crappy future and then NEVER MENTIONED HER AGAIN! Thats what annoyed me. That dude who looks like he had a stroke was like "ZAP ZAP, oh I am so in love with you, I don't want my memories back. Then Bam! Into a distopian future with ghouls and diseases or something and BAM he returns and leaves her there. Never to think of her again... or ever perhaps  BE A HERO and try and save her? Errrrg.

yeah, I know. It's an ever-present "what the heck." Then there's the obligatory _(why?!??) quasi-homosexuality barf which doesn't even really develop the characters much.

If you got tired of watching it, yeah, don't bother. I was just taking a 4 season analysis.

Season 2 of Heroes was murdered by the writers strike. So they just decided to leave the plots hanging and all character's just forgot about them or something. Mostly it just makes Peter Petrelli look like a completely heartless jerk (also a whiny idiot most of the time).

I got stopped watching in Season 3 and I probably won't ever finish it. It's a shame, Season 1 was really excellent. It just kind of all fell apart later (at least in my opinion).

It gets better again. Then gets a little annoying in the last season I saw (4 I think.)

I like watching several years of a show in one big batch. It makes it easier to gloss over annoying dumbnesses. Those seem inevitable, especially with popular shows.

And there is no annoying cliffhanger at the end of a season that you will end up waiting 4 months to see a conclusion to :) (Think Lost)

That's one thing Heroes didn't do. It was simultaneously disappointing and refreshing.

I watched The Road (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/) (2009). I hadn't ever even heard of it. I liked it; probably because I hold dear post-apocalyptic settings. But much more so because it's a story about humanity, which is what makes stories worth telling. And it seemed very well acted, to me.

I remember hearing a few good things about that movie. I think they criticized the end of it as being too idealistic for the setting. That is if its the movie  I am thinking of. And I haven't seen it so I can't yet cast any judgment. Sounds interesting though. 

I watched a movie called 12 rounds (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1160368/). It was probably not an awesome movie, but I've seen worse, and lots of stuff blew up. I suppose that was its strong point.

Remember that ancient movie "Roots" with (bu-dun-Dun) Levar Burton? Yeah...Eve and I watched the first disc of that last night. It's been sitting in its Netflix sleeve for at least 3 months. "lolz"

I finally watched War Games (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567/).

and?

And!!!!@!!11

And I'm now compelled to hook a subwoofer up with an input signal of a computer's HDD access light :) 

I think that might be to low a frequency. But try it anyway!

Haha, well yeah. Well, it'd need a little bit of logic in it. Though not nearly as cool as a little circuit board with knobs and dials pumping out the beets and boops to an adjacent 12" subwoofer, a pure software implementation would be pretty easy. If I could find some disk monitoring APIs, I could bust out some MIDI bass through the sound card with relative ease.

Either way, my computer needs that low frequency, whirring, purring, continually-contemplating-end-of-the-world-scenarios. OH@! How did I forget?! I need those HUGE square lights (http://www.weblogsinc.com/common/images/1016813135734446.JPG?0.12805987887228687) surrounding the case as well.

Oh how I (occasionally) wish that I could make embedded systems! So many (nearly idiotic dreams) would come true (and I've have junk laying around everywhere).

I can show you what little I learned about the embedded funness. But with smart phones driving down that kind of tech everything is going to have embedded versions of full linux kernels. Not that linux isn't everywhere already. But faster better linux.

And I think the beeps and boops from those old (and strangely cool) computers were the stepper motors moving tape reals around or something like that. :)

A few minuets on youtube and I remember better of what you are talking about. Those sounds were definitely not from motors.

I'm always interested in expanding my hardware/software experience. Let me know when you have time. It'd be cool to see. I responded in the other thread here (http://randomland.net/forums/index.php/topic,153.msg3088.html#msg3088).

I saw Toy Story 3 the other day. Good Pixar quality movie. However it made me think... if you lived in a pixar/disney world you constantly be hurting or killing things around you. If toys, cars bugs and animals have lives, dreams, worries, problems, friends and family how can you continue to use them as tools or food? Every time you replace a broken toy or buy a new car you're abandoning a friend who has cared for you, works hard for you and even loves you. You are just throwing them away!

And what do you eat? All the animals are sentient creatures with near human intelligence. Even the bugs on the ground. Swat a fly and you probably just killed somebodies husband, brother, or friend. Plants are likely to break out into song on a sunny day. Decent people would starve in a world like this.

Ignorance is bliss. People are never allowed to be aware, or are unable to perceive the hidden world of the toys/animals. At least in the Toy Story universe.

In the land of Disney things get a little more bizarre... you can have everything from singing food to wine glasses and flowers. In that case it would be best not to move, lest you crush a dust mite.  In such a world 'sentient' life would be of less value, and as such everyone would be, out of pure necessity, desensitized to killing things that talk. Just like we have pets are look down on eating them, some things would be safe from the slaughter. But as all things but eat and be eaten in turn... The sick, sick world that is Disney. What are we teaching our children!

Movies like Toy Story and Cars just leave me with so many unanswered questions.

Toy Story:
Why do all the toys hide the fact that they are alive from humans? Clearly not all toys realize that they are toys when they are first awakened (see Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story 1).
Some toys don't seem to come to life until their packages have been open. But in Toy Story 2 some of the toys in the toy store were alive despite still being in their packages... so what makes a toy come to life?


Cars:
If every living thing is a car... who makes the cars? Who drills the oil and creates the gas? Who machines all the parts?
If cars are doing these these jobs... how was the first car created in order to create all the others?
Why wasn't the paving machine Bessie alive, where all the other vehicles and machines seem to have been?

Maybe I'm over thinking this...

Brad, I think you were over thinking it 120 days ago. According to the "warning" in nice red letters your website gave me ;)
We are currently watching a mixture of alias and flash forward. Unfortunately flash forward is only one season long since it got cancelled :( but alias on the other hand is at least 5 seasons long! It is quite different!

I just watched the 80s classic Short Circuit. It was actually quite hilarious. And filmed (partially, at least) in Astoria, OR!

We finally watched Ernest saves Christmas! :) courts Christmas present! And his "FAVORITE" movie!! :)

Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express

Haha. Nice! I remember those old films. Those were some of my favorites as a kid. Especially the one with the trolls and the one where he saves the world from the guy with the hand on his head :)

Court let me buy E.T. a few weeks ago, he was very skeptical (is the right word court?) he was worried that it would be cheesy. Well we watched it last week last, I think it was? And he actually liked it! That movie always makes me wonder...why didn't E.T. ever visit??!

Sent from my {amazing windows phone} using Board Express

Don't worry Eve, I'll respond ;-) Yeah, the movie was better than I expected it to be!

Had you seriously never seen E.T. before?

Nope, I hadn't seen it before. It happens.

I just watched The Walking Dead. Or...at least the first 15 minutes or so of the first episode. I watched the whole first season when it first came out...but to be honest, I don't really like it anymore. It just seems too gory and violent for my liking these days. It's interesting and all but I've just lost my taste for the violence it seems.

Anyone know anything else good to watch on Netflix? I just finished all six seasons of the new Doctor Who.

Yeah, Eve and I watched maybe 6 or so episodes of it. I do remember it being unnecessarily violent. Like that would draw ratings, or something. I was actually kind of put off by the general tone of the show.

Watch SG-1 instead :) we are.

Yay for campy star-gate fun!

I also rather liked the SG Universe premise, but not so much the execution.  I had hopped that it would be a lost in space exploring the relics of the ancients, but it turned out to be a crisis-of-the-week formulaic show.

Ah, yes! I had watched the first six seasons of SG-1 but got distracted by some other show I started watching. Merlin maybe. Perhaps I should finish that. I also saw that Alias is now streaming! I have been wanting to watch that for ages, but as I recall it was also a rather violent and occasionally disturbing show.

Eve and I watched all of the Alias season (and finished just before they went streaming). They're a bit crazy and violent. But also disturbing with things like snipping off people's fingers with wire cutters. That crap still makes me squirm.

Indeed.

I just finished watching the first, and very sadly only, season of Terra Nova. Some people say it got weird or just wasn't good, but I thoroughly enjoyed the whole season. It seems to me like all the good and interesting shows get cancelled or people lose interest before the real story has a chance to emerge, so to speak. Oh well I guess...maybe it is just my fascination with dinosaurs that make me like it!

Dinosaurs are cool. Without a doubt. Even Star thinks so (she sees them all as critters needing a good home though.) You know what else is cool? Cars; And people being ridiculous in them. Star and I have recently been watching TopGear. I was surprised by how good it actually is. Blending history, motor sports and absurd projects together. Best of all, most, if not all of the show is on Netflix.

Your guys last two posts reminded me of this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillacs_and_Dinosaurs_(TV_series)) ridiculousness. Did anybody ever see that when they were little? I have the arcade game of the show on my arcade machine at home.

No I have not even heard of that. For good reason it would seem. Thirteen episodes and then cancelled...I haven't seen it so I can't say for certain, but it sure looks scary.

That does sound amazingly bad. Like someone picked two of their favorite things and tried to build a plot around it. Erm, make that 3. "Ecological freedom fighters." Yikes, yikes...

Top Gear is hilarious and awesome. I need to watch more.

I just watched....The Hobbit! Finally. It took me until it was the last day the movie was in the theater to see it. But hey, it was a really good and so was the fact there were only 12 or 14 other people in the theater.

3D or regular? I wanted to see it in 48fps 3D out of curiosity.

I agree, great movie. Left me wanting to see the next episode.

I think I liked the LOTR orks better. And the goblins in this movie were kinda... Off.

I didn't feel like paying twice as much for the 3D or whatever. $7 per ticket seemed nice and cheap to me.

Orcs or Uruk Hai? They are apparently rather different looking...and I honestly don't remember the goblins if there were any in The Lord of the Rings.

I got to see it too :) Eve and I saw it in the local(ish) IMAX. No 48fps though.I definitely enjoyed it, but it lacked a little of the magic of the LOTR movies. Maybe because the story is inherently less epic and self contained? Don't know. I still like it, though.

Didn't they fight a bunch of goblins in Moria before running up against the balrog?

Also, the more I read about such things, it seems that orks and goblins (in Tolkiens world) were both of the same species. One was just a bigger variety bred by Sauron and Saruman. 

http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Goblins

The Tolkien world is just so confusing!

All this talk really makes me want to watch The Lord of the Rings....but I don't have them. Apparently the extended edition trilogy on DVD is $80. Ugh... I could watch the second and third movies but they are not the extended edition. Does it matter? Probably not, but it would be nice to start from the beginning of the series.

I suppose there is always Amazon digital downloads.

Are they out of print or something? I will take a look tomorrow and see what our copies are.

I have them all, hehe :) Coming to watch them would be over $80 though :(

I've had lots of free time lately (being home alone for a few weeks). Free time to mess with wires, wood, code and so forth. But most importantly for this thread -- time to watch Top Gear. Lots and lots of Top Gear.

Netflix has 2003 - present available to stream, so I've kind of been skipping around. And it's all hilarious and inspires new levels of wheeled absurdity (especially off-roady stuff)!