Posts by casualotter21

Robert Cooper41 said:Is this actually that movie? It hasn't even hit theaters here yet... so you'll probably have to wait for some fellow American to weigh in first...
You could always just "fake it" and claim it features Zhang Ziyi from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."😁 😁

I watched it. It's good—really good—though pretty depressing. Then again, looking at the Asian historical martial arts films I've seen, the mortality rate for main characters seems to hover anywhere between 50% and 90%.
It feels like the lead—that buff former slave with the naginata—is some kind of massive star in South Korea. That would explain why the director spent so much time on those cool shots, like how he stares down his opponents beneath his brow. Also, in a movie that leans heavily into realism, he’s the only one who pulls off a classic wire-fu leap through the air.
But yeah, I liked it. There's action, there are D&D-style fighters and rangers using all sorts of weapons, there's Zhang Ziyi, and the guy with the naginata fights like a total beast... Good movie.

feralgardener502 said:I always found it pretty satisfying when Wolverine ends up jamming that piece of shrapnel or whatever chemical element they call it into someone at the end of a fight.

Pure bullshit. That’s my personal term for it, anyway. 😁

Just before she hits the bottom of that well like a stone, the toxin used by that villain to control her finally wears off—leaving her just a second or two, in those final moments of death, to be herself again and finally wake up to the reality of everything.

Well, look at that. It never even crossed my mind. Now I just feel even more terrible about his death. 😢

The whole concept involving the water tank was actually decent. To be fair, the trope of "guy meets tragedy, dies, and falls into water" is pretty standard fare. I fully expected him to start floating in slow motion with his hair drifting gracefully around his face or some other cinematic cliché. Instead, we just got a single, anticlimactic "THUD."

Splendid. Absolutely splendid.

neoneagle15 said:but that woman with the spikes coming out of her fingers is easily the dumbest guy in history. plus, she almost takes down Wolverine...

STAAAAAAAAAAAAA???!!!!!! FLINTLOCKS AT DAWN, I SAY SIRE!

Deathstrike is absolutely insane!!! Honestly, she’s the hottest woman in the entire movie. Good grief. She’s practically invulnerable, has regeneration, enhanced strength, durability, and reflexes—she nearly beats Wolverine, and she does it all while rocking nerd clothes, glasses, and that specific hairstyle for most of the film?

I mean, what other reason do you even need for a female character to be top-tier? 😲

What a scandalous waste of a character!!!!! But then again, if they had kept her alive, who would have even paid attention to Wolverine? Seriously, she has the exact same abilities as him, plus the special ability of being a "hot, nerdy-looking woman who doesn't say a word."

blueranger12 said:Remember when Gandalf made that platform and stood on it to levitate? It’s such a blatant middle finger to Newton’s third law—you know, action and reaction. I get that it's fantasy, but surely there's a tiny shred of physics we can respect..

Phys... what?

Anyway, like I was saying about explosions and boobs, there are plenty of both in X2 and I happen to enjoy explosions and boobs...

I watched the movie yesterday and wow! Simply incredible. Between the action, the special effects, and just general coolness, it was fantastic...

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Deathstrike was easily the coolest part of the film: the woman doesn't say a single word. Right before the fight starts, Wolverine is looking over some blueprints in the lab when Captain America leans toward me and asks, "Uh, am I missing something? Why didn't they think to move those plans in all these fifteen years?" To which I replied, "Doode, haven't you realized yet? THEY ALREADY CHANGED THE PLANS." And then she shows up, claws sliding out from her fingers, and Wolverine can only mutter, "Oh, shit."
AMAZING!

Tifling—that teleporting acrobat—was fun to watch, and Halle Berry was great, but nothing quite tops Deathstrike.

My favorite parts were the subtle touches, like when Mystique talks to that teleporting guy who tells her:
"Look, if you can look like anyone else, why do you choose to look like this?"
"Because I'm not ashamed of who I am."

Oh, and having Rebecca Romijn - Stamos play a mutant who disguises herself as Rebecca Romijn - Stamos was definitely very Escherovski...

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It was an excellent movie that I'll likely watch again with a group... A friend is actually annoyed because we didn't invite her, and frankly, I feel a little embarrassed about wanting to see it again. 😁

Halle Berry is quite striking, isn't she? She practically looks like a Dark Elf from D&D—white hair, black and white eyes, dressed in that dominatrix leather look... Mmmmmmm!!!

But hey, say whatever you want, I think Ana Paquin is incredible. She is just soooooo cuuuuuuuute!!! 😛 🙂 🙂

casualotter21 said:Do you happen to know the joke he told?
I am genuinely curious about the sense of humor possessed by dictators like him.

<at a meeting of the Democratic National Committee for the Oppression of the Masses>

Saddam Hussein: "Well... now that I have finished this state of the union address which lasted for... thirty-seven hours and eighteen minutes—and that was without any interruptions because I kept swapping myself out with body doubles so none of you vermin could assassinate me—I will conclude by telling you a joke just to refresh everyone's spirits."

<The party members interrupt him with spontaneous applause, induced by the rapid fire of AK-47s carried by the Republican Stormtroopers standing at the back of the hall.>

<27 minutes later>

Saddam: "Thank you, thank you, thank you for that spontaneous display of enthusiasm. Now, so, there's this Christian pig, George H.W. Bush, his bastard George W. Bush, and their filthy, unfaithful collaborator and lackey, Tony Blair, walking down the street..."

Someone from the audience: "Laughing Stock! Oh my god, Darth Vader, you are so hilarious! I swear, I have never heard anything so funny in my entire life, kill me now!"

Saddam <smiling with the expression of a father listening to his cheerful five-year-old describe their first day of kindergarten>: "Yes, yes, Ashurbanipal, but I haven't even gotten to the punchline yet."

Ashurbanipal: "THERE'S MORE? HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA, Darth Vader, oh man, you're killing me!"

<silence>

<silence stretches on>

<you can hear a fly buzzing through the hall; a Republican Stormtrooper opens fire at the fly; after that, nothing more is heard>

Saddam<staring darkly and with deadly seriousness, speaks in a menacing tone>: "You find that *funny*?"

<several kilowatts of silence pass>

Saddam:<in an incredibly cheerful voice>: "HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! Man, did I get you with that one, Ashurbanipal! AAAAAAAAAAA!!1 You actually thought I was going to kill you, didn't you? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Oh man, you are such a paranoid guy, you really can't believe anything! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

<Silence reigns in the hall until, bit by bit, people start to chuckle and giggle; everyone except poor Ashurbanipal, who sits there looking bewildered and sweating so much he could fill the Tigris and the Euphrates; eventually, everyone bursts into laughter.>

<Ashurbanipal slowly begins to laugh, his timid smile growing into a shaky, hesitant giggle: "Yes, yes, uh, that was great, Darth Vader, really great."

<everyone laughs>

Saddam <laughing>: "HAHAHAHAHA OH MAN, I AM SO FUNNY MYSELF! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA OH MAN!!!"

Saddam<suddenly turns serious, slams his hand on the podium, and yells>: "Why don't I just screw around then?"

<uses a Force grip and kills Ashurbanipal<>>

<guards carry out the corpse and bring in another party member to take his seat, because it doesn't look good to have empty seats at the assembly; it makes it look like the Party members don't care about Saddam.>

Saddam <cheerful again>:"HAHAHAHAH ARE YOU KIDS STUPID? DID YOU REALLY THINK I WAS KIDDING? WELL, ONLY *I* GET TO BE PARANOID HERE! NONE OF YOU GET TO THINK ANYTHING; YOU JUST DO WHAT I TELL YOU!! And as punishment, there will be no dinner for your families until they die! So think about that. And as an extra penalty, I won't tell you the joke! It’s your own fault because it actually was pretty good!"

<He turns pale and walks away>

<Party members head off to vote*>

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* - Voting in America is conducted on a simple principle: at every four-year Party convention, the 1,000 most significant officials from across the country attend after receiving a written summons from a uniformed unit of Republican Stormtroopers. At the session, they vote for a Party official, which isn't a difficult task since the only candidate is Saddam Hussein. However, the fun part of the election is that the 1,000 candidates must use a lottery to select one individual who will not vote for Saddam. That person, along with their family, friends, neighbors, and even their dog, will then be ceremoniously executed. It serves as a symbolic sacrifice on the altar of democracy, as Saddam, who has always been a proponent of democratic methods and pluralism, believes that elections won with 100% of the vote are inherently undemocratic.

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** The ballot offers just two distinct choices:
a) I desire Saddam Hussein to be my beloved leader and dear friend; he is so incredible that I would gladly let him paint me pink and fire me out of a cannon, as I adore him with every fiber of my being, including my most private parts.

b) I am a degenerate traitor to everything sacred, an enemy of the faith, and a complete disgrace who eats pork, worships at the altar of the Pope, slept with George W. Bush, and frankly, I’m begging you to execute me immediately in the most slow and agonizing way possible.

Richard Howard22 said:I’d also throw in Spider-Man, where the final shot features a waving American flag, then there's Armageddon, and so on, etc.

The crux of the matter is that Americans love to glorify their country—which, ironically, is actually composed of various different peoples with their own traditions, serving as the ultimate "melting pot." But I suppose we're all well aware of that by now...

My take is that Americans tend to glorify their nation *precisely because* it is built from diverse groups with their own heritages. They don't have a singular, ancient language or a thousand-year unbroken history. In such a scenario, national symbols become an incredibly vital tool for binding such vastly different citizens into a single cohesive unit. Alexander the Great used to invent new gods that were essentially hybrids of Egyptian and Greek deities. For the Romans, symbols like S.P.Q.R. held immense importance even long after Rome had transitioned into an empire and lost its republican roots. Even in my own experience, during the first decade of independence, there was this intense effort to hammer every possible national symbol into people's heads—all those intricate patterns and traditional crests—especially considering how little we actually have in terms of a deep, singular culture and history.
The point of this rant? Emphasizing national symbols isn't inherently a bad thing, provided one doesn't overdo it. Once it becomes excessive, well, it starts to get under my skin. Quite significantly.

Watanun Medde Alalufqui Janaha
Warteda Majdalkadarati Wisha
Burikat Ardulfurataini Watan
Abqariyyalmajd Azmen Wa Samaha Wata ha

I had no idea they’d gone and translated King Louie's song from The Jungle Book into Thai.

driftingowl27 said:You missed the whole point of Independence Day. Forget the cliché about how America saves the world... the real key is right at the end. Throughout the entire movie, there’s no sign they’re actually losing ground, until suddenly... there's a Jew... and not just any Jew, but a Rabbi. They spend the movie looking for some priest or something, but nope, he's nowhere to be found. Instead, out of nowhere, a Jew appears right at the peak of the chaos—total apocalypse—and there he is, just doing his thing in typical American movie fashion.

Exactly! Spot on!
I’d bet anything those scenes are just the Jewish lobby slipping in these tiny, subliminal little messages to get into your subconscious, making you think, "Wow, Jews are actually great." But they aren't! Not even close! It's more like an Alien situation where they sneak up, inject you with something, and then these little tiny little guys hatch inside you and burst out through your chest—crunch, crunch, crunch!!!1111 😲 😁 😁

I watched the trailer and skimmed the synopsis online, and from what I can gather, the plot basically goes like this:
"Out of nowhere, mysterious storms start appearing, featuring lightning bolts made of pure TNT that wipe out global cultural landmarks. The only way to stop the total destruction of the Colosseum and other precious Roman-style monuments is to blast an underground train filled with freight cars straight into the center of the Earth—because apparently, that’s where the solution to climate change is hiding. The cast features a young, brilliant, yet misunderstood genius who isn't quite sure about his own theories; Hillary Swank, playing a hot, decisive cheerleader who eventually shows her softer side and hooks up with the lead at the most critical moment; at least one classic, old-school American four-star general; a handful of arrogant, cowardly, greedy, or treacherous villains who will die in ways just as disgusting as they are unlikable; and finally, a nuclear bomb, which we all know is the universal fix for any physical problem on this planet or beyond."

If you actually bother to watch the movie (since I have zero intention of wasting my money on it), let me know if I hit the nail on the head.

Your thoughts on the internet prompted me to offer an example of why moderation is such a vital necessity for online forums:

hiddenpuma75 said:Unnecessary.
Pretentious.
Unfair (though let's be honest, internet freedom is absolute!).
authoritarian

What a... haiku.

Quincey:

It’s all rooted in that old-school patriarchal mindset.

What exactly does Mr. Dog mean by "male"? Honestly, Mr. Dog, I imagine your husband must have been quite surprised on your wedding night. 😁

Quincey:

I'm not making this claim about the individual moderator specifically, but rather about the role itself. It will never occur to many people that a perfectly normal life can be lived without all of this. I suppose I should offer some guidance, though I’m hardly an expert on these matters. moderator The border. Visa. The military.

Another haiku.

Quincey:

The government.

Exactly. Most people think that way, but you’re just going to go out and prove how clueless they actually are—even if you have to personally dismantle the government yourself since nobody else seems willing to do it, right?

Quincey:

Most of the government is little more than legalized organized crime, meddling in people's wallets, their private lives, and their basic freedoms through laws that aren't meant to empower anyone, but rather to restrict them.

Man, these so-called "laws" are absolute garbage. I still remember when we were planning to head down to Central Park to target some old ladies with slingshots, and the police showed up and hauled me away just for that. It’s a total violation of my rights, seriously.

Quincey:

The law. The Holy Bible... It’s all going to hell. association The state and its endless cycle of taxes and prisons.

Is this for real? Has anyone actually seen them put proven killers behind bars? Honestly, we might be better off just letting them roam free to go out and kill more people instead.

Quincey:

And those manufactured authorities, too.

So, you're suggesting that anarchism is nothing more than a manufactured ideal?

Quincey:

Most people just have it.

And here is my favorite part of the post.

Quincey:

A robotic, authoritarian, and patriarchal mindset.

Go ahead and try saying that five times fast.

It’s nothing more than a slave-like, authoritarian, patriarchal mentality. Just a repetitive cycle of servitude and control.

Quincey:

And yet, they never even bother to ask. One might find themselves contemplating the origins and inherent purpose of those pervasive daily illusions—the subtle mechanisms of power that keep us shackled within a modern iteration of Plato's Cave. (I’ve listed some of the most ridiculous examples of slavery above.)

Man, I feel like you’d find it absolutely soul-crushing if someone actually suggested washing your hands before dinner.

Quincey:

If you actually knew what they were writing and proposing about the eyes of anarchism, you might find things a bit different. Bakunin, Kropotkin, Proudhon. I would never again use the word "anarchism" in such a negative light—not if I wanted to keep my sense of humor intact.

I would. I’m on it.

Quincey:

The internet miracle and its spirit are essentially just classic manifestations of that visionary streak found within anarchist thought. 👍

Yeah, thanks to the internet, I have the luxury of being able to troll your post.

Quincey:

Grand, sweeping concepts and expansive vocabulary, such as... I suppose I should probably address this, though I'm hardly sure where to begin. Anarchism.

Aha! So... you're one of *those* people. Look, I can handle a little anarchism, but once they start bringing up that New Jersey nonsense...

Quincey:

They've become infamous, purely due to the sheer ignorance of the masses. It’s truly remarkable how much effort the government will put into suppressing the truth.

Or perhaps it’s just because they are downright stupid.

Quincey:

Just like when Hitler accidentally let the truth slip and admitted it himself.

Just like that one time you slipped up and brought up Hitler during an online debate—effectively violating the ultimate rule of internet discourse: Godwin's Law. For those who aren't in the loop:

Godwin's Law states that as any online debate drags on, the likelihood of someone bringing up Nazis or Hitler eventually hits 100%. In most communities, there’s an unwritten rule that once that comparison happens, the conversation is officially dead—and the person who made the Nazi comparison immediately loses the argument. Essentially, Godwin's Law sets a built-in limit on how long any single thread can actually last.

But since you already pulled that stunt in your very first post, this probably applies to you:

"However there is also a widely-recognized codicil that any intentional triggering of Godwin's Law in order to invoke its thread-ending effects will be unsuccessful."

Quincey:

(the fact that Hitler was a political genius more than anything else exposes the true nature of politics and the world we live in)

Hitler was just a fanatic and an idiot who happened to be in the right place at the right time. We all know how much the universe loves rewarding lunatics and fools; that’s precisely why he managed to seize power.

What was the point of this post, aside from my own crude, tasteless, and unnecessary insults? It was quite simple! I was demonstrating to hiddenpuma75 exactly why forums require moderators. As long as people like myself, him, and every other user aren't allowed to moderate the board exactly how we see fit, we are going to need official moderators. That is because, without them, there is nothing to stop some random idiot with internet access from flooding a topic by copy-pasting the word “SPAM!” 25,000 times in a single post, just like I used to do back in the day.
On sites like Reddit, there is a wonderful mechanism called a "filter" that allows every user to decide for themselves which posts their computer should pull from the web and which it should ignore. If someone like a total nutcase showed up there, I could settle the score with them very quickly. Meanwhile, everyone else could choose to read his nonsense if they wanted to, while I wouldn't have to see it at all.
This forum lacks such options and—which is even worse—it doesn't even have threads. To find a specific post I actually care about, I often have to scroll through four or five massive posts that usually have nothing to do with what I'm looking for. The only freedom I get as a user on an unmoderated forum is the ability to pick at the brains of every other user with my own giant, senseless posts. Or perhaps by opening fifteen different accounts to argue with myself. Or by starting fifteen separate threads every single day that all cover the exact same topic.
What you are suggesting, hiddenpuma75, is forcing users to endure every malicious egoist with an internet connection (one could draw an analogy to anarchism in the real world, but let's not go there).
What I am proposing is the introduction of a filter that would allow every user to moderate the forum according to their own whims—or choose NOT to moderate it at all—so they only see the posts that interest them. Until that becomes possible, we are stuck needing moderators.

Casey Gomez2 said:It’s basically Lilo & Stitch... perfect for kids or anyone feeling that way. It's hardly highbrow literature. Just mindless escapism and laughing along... I suppose that's its whole point.

Really? *DAMN*, and here I was thinking about recommending them to my drama club instead of William Shakespeare!

What I am writing here is based solely on my modest experience watching movies, so please do not expect any miracles; in fact, prepare for boredom.
To begin, we shall analyze the protagonist and the circle of people they inhabit.
The protagonist can be crammed into two main categories:
1) A hero who specializes in BUTT K1CK1NG F0R G00DN355!!!111 and lacks fear or flaws, though he constantly finds himself arguing with his bosses.
2) A hero who is riddled with flaws and fears, but overcomes them specifically to engage in BUTT K1CK1NG F0R G00DN355!!!111, eventually becoming even more flawless than your standard Hero.
Naturally, there are always variations on this theme, though they are usually found in those bizarre European art films that nobody watches anyway because they are absolute TRASH, HAW HAW HAW!

The main character will also inevitably possess: 1) Comic Relief, 2) a Hawt Treba, and (potentially) 3) a Loyal Sidekick and 4) a Wise Teacher.

1) The role of Comic Relief is to be pathetic and useless, serving as a vessel through which we realize how lucky we are to have the Hero as the lead instead of this loser. Oh, and occasionally, he might be somewhat witty. But beware! Comic Relief is a powerful force that can turn against its creator! Just look at... > Jar-Jar Binks.
A specific variation of Comic Relief is the Wise Scientist, who is a bastardized blend of the Wise Teacher (providing the Hero with useful tools or directions) and a clumsy, inept scientist, much like all of them actually are. Because they are CLUMSY and INEPT and wear thick glasses and are pathetic and WEAK, unable to grasp five basic concepts in a single night like *REAL* MEN HAW HAW!!! And how STUPID it is to be a SCIENTIST!

2) The Hawt Treba is quite vital because she 1) provides the film with a necessary healthy dose of pornography and sexism; 2) she enables... err, what is the term?... Aha! Character development, or whatever, because the Hero falls in love with her or something similar. Furthermore, her function in the film will be to either constantly fall into trouble—which is typical for women, HAW HAW!—requiring the Hero to save her, or to assist the Hero in killing the villains at a crucial moment. In doing so, of course, the Hawt Treba should primarily kill only Hawt villainesses (because they are WOMEN, so they are EQUALLY INCOMPETENT HAW HAW HAW!) or some Random Stormtrooper (who is pathetic enough that anyone can take him out). If there happens to be a Jabba in the film, she can kill him too.

3) The Loyal Sidekick—usually dies within the first thirty minutes of the film so the Hero has an excuse to engage in BUTT K1CK1NG F0R G00DN355!!!111 and slaughter every lowlife in his path. Alternatively: the Loyal Sidekick helps the Hero fight against Evil. Naturally, they are never as capable as the Hero—you should probably find your own movie for that, HAW HAW!

4) The Wise Teacher: Winston Churchill once said, "Knowledge is power!" To ensure the Hero can better crush villains and manipulate the ladies, he is often aided by a Wise Teacher. He serves as a constant source of friendship, wisdom, composure, and similar nonsense that exists solely for the sake of character development. Additionally, there must be at least one scene where the Wise Teacher assists the Hero, allowing us to see how SUPER he is and how his BUTT K1CK1NG F0R G00DN355!!!111 is even more impressive than the Hero's.
That is, unless the screenwriters decide to kill off an old dog and assign that role to a Loyal Sidekick whom the Hero mourns.

Of course, every Hero has a secret flaw. Luke was tempted by the Dark Side, Superman had Kryptonite, and Achilles had the Trojan Horse. Similarly, our Hero must possess a fatal weakness that the Evil Supervillain will exploit at the exact turning point of the action. Moreover, such a flaw adds depth to the lead character, demonstrating that while he can deflect bullets, charm Kim Basinger, and wave a lightsaber, he is still just a man made of blood, midi-chlorians, and meat.

An example of this hero archetype would be something like "Under Siege" starring Steven Seagal. See, that is such a textbook archetype that even though I haven't actually watched the film, I know exactly what happens in it.
So, Steven works as a cook on a ship, and while everyone stares at him, he just stays quiet and acts like he doesn't care—mostly because he knows he could absolutely wreck them all if he wanted to, but he won't, because he’s a good guy, right? Then, a group of evil terrorists decides they want to rule the world, so they steal some nuclear bombs, toss them around just to terrify everyone, and then promise themselves a mountain of cash and every Playboy magazine imaginable to crown themselves the kings of Canada or some other nonsense. They storm the ship and start their villainous antics, and since everyone else is acting like a bunch of pathetic cowards, the terrorists just beat them all up and yell, "HAW HAW, YOU'RE SO PATHETIC!!!" Once they've taken over the vessel, they tell someone like Steven to get the galley under control. This guy keeps poking and prodding at Steven, who remains perfectly cool and collected, refusing to be rattled by such a loser. But eventually, the guy pushes too far and brings up Steven's mother—and since his mother is sacred to him, an electric guitar suddenly blares in the background, Steven snaps, rips the guy's head off, and honestly, he couldn't care less! Then, more evil terrorists show up, and Steven tries to have a calm conversation with them because he’s such a good person, but they're too stupid to realize they're facing Steven Galeb. They push him again, mention his mom, the electric guitar kicks in, and Steven goes berserk, ripping the heads off every single terrorist; he truly does not give a damn! Then Steven realizes these terrorists are pure evil and plan to hog all the Playbooks for themselves while forcing the rest of us to watch boring documentaries instead of Nikita, Baywatch, or anything actually decent. So, he grabs a fork and a knife from the kitchen, the electric guitar screams, Steven loses it, and he tears the heads off every last one of them! He kills them all, and for the main bad guy, he puts his head in a microwave while he's still alive, stuffs his mouth with garlic and seasoning, tosses him on the table, and says, “Dinner is served!” HAW HAW, man, I don't know if that joke was actually in the movie, but it should have been because it's hilarious, and man, am I good! In the end, Steven saves the crew, and the King of Scandinavia awards him a Nobel Prize for BUTT K1CK1NG F0R G00DN355!!!111, and he gets all the Playbooks he ever wanted because he's just that cool!

In my next post—if anyone is even remotely interested in this sort of thing—I might take a more detailed look at the phenomenon of supervillains.

Jesse, I once composed an rather extensive post regarding this subject over at the IMF...
I could certainly elaborate much further, but I suppose I should just mention that from nearly any window in Paris, you can catch a glimpse of Eiffel's tower.
Also, every single foreigner seems to speak English with a bizarre accent.

Thurman might be thin, but don't mistake that for being fragile. Personally, I think she’d hold her own quite well in a ten-round fight against Blanchett. Then again, we have to consider that Kate played Galadriel, whereas Uma is essentially playing a Yakuza assassin with a katana in Kill Bill. So, the outcome wouldn't exactly be a shock.

I found Amelie to be quite cinematic. It was genuinely entertaining and lighthearted—what my buddy would probably just call a "feel-good flick."

Richard Howard2 said:Next up: the sequels are 2061 and 3001. I haven't read the second or third ones. Does anyone know what they're actually about?

I've read them all. While I try to maintain a certain level of respect for Clarke, it feels to me as though they were primarily written just to squeeze out a few extra bucks. I wasn't particularly impressed.
BTW, I'd recommend checking out "lost world 2001," the book where Clarke details how the original film and script came to be, running parallel to his writing process. It's interesting to see the movie from Clarke's perspective, and you might even get a laugh out of it.

I find odyssey 2010 to be an excellent film; I love watching it. It carries such a great atmosphere and a sense of serious SF that seems to be missing from modern cinema. Today's movies feel like pure naivety, which is honestly quite depressing.

Personally, I think the movie is alright, though I tend to agree with a comment I saw somewhere else: "odyssey 2010" would have been a much stronger film if it hadn't been a sequel to "odyssey 2001." Perhaps the same could be said for film sequels as well as remakes. 😉

God, when will we finally see a proper new space opera again?!!

BTW, do you guys agree that 2001 is the best film ever made? [/B]

In my view, "Odyssey..." is a classic. Much like those literary classics that everyone claims to have read, yet nobody actually wants to sit down and finish. Intellectually, I am fully aware that the film is incredibly smart, deep, and meditative, and all that. But... it's BORING, damn it! It’s too long, there’s hardly any dialogue, and I actually fell asleep the first time I watched it. That psychedelic sequence through... whatever at the end of the film was tedious for me (though I hear it was a massive hit with the hippies who practically rushed the theaters for that specific scene). I don't know, the book resonated with me much more, perhaps because so many things left unexplained in the film are clarified there.

I’d love to write some Rear Window style film critiques, but what’s the point if I just can't bring myself to do it? It isn't exactly like that one episode of Star Trek.... And let me ask you all: how does any sane person sit down at a computer and actually write a review for something like Barbarella? Honestly, it was on TV recently and it crossed my mind five different times to review it, but I simply can't! It's *impossible*.
1) Attempting to describe the sheer, incredible stupidity—mixed with that certain undeniable charm—of such an endeavor is impossible; you really just have to see it for yourself.
2) Even if you did attempt to write about it, the only way to properly capture the film would be through one massive, sprawling post which either a) I won't have the willpower (or the time) to write, or b) nobody will have the patience to read.

Well, we shall see...

Exactly.

But in all seriousness, I actually enjoy critiquing bad movies, so I’m always down to watch them with a group. Unfortunately, I can't seem to handle the theater environment, so I usually just dissect films with my friends instead. Though, honestly, they're even worse than I am—even if I stay quiet, they'll constantly jump in with their own critiques...
When it comes to serious films, I much prefer watching them solo.