JsARCLIGHT

And lets also see if Michael Bay will shut the f up about it finally.

The brief teaser trailers they have been running are eating me alive with anticipation. And based on the most recent set shown this Sunday, all I can say is... Myra's back.

I got back from seeing it with my wife.

As it stands I liked it... but there are parts of it that bug me. My wife on the other hand felt it was, in her words, "totally stupid". We had a nice talk about it on the way home and I can understand all of her qualms about the movie (many of which have been already mentioned here). I think my preconceived notions of what this movie was going to be were kept lower than my wife. I also think that people who come into this thing wearing their fedoras and toting their replica Hovito golden fertility idols will be let down... this is not Raiders. It's more Last Crusade meets Happy Days.

But I personally went in to see Indy punch some commies, and that he did. My personal "issues" with the movie are as follows:

But all that said the movie does succeed in being a fun action romp. At current standing having only seen it once I rate it above Temple of Doom but below the other two... in as such making this my new "number three". Repeat viewings of this movie may raise or lower that opinion. As it stands now I probably will not go see it again in the theater but I will buy it on Blu Ray when it comes out... hoping that the other three also come out on Blu Ray. What good is a new movie in HD if the others aren't?

Does anyone know which Indy toys are coming in the future? I'm really hoping for a figure of

the alien

from the end of Crystal Skull. I'd LOVE a

crystal skeleton

version, too.

The

is the mail away figure for the new 3" Indy toy line. If you buy the figures they come with little cardboard crates that contain stickers you collect to mail in.

(This is a picture of the mail away figure: SPOILER LINK Mailaway Figure Photo SPOILER LINK)

I pre-purchased tickets for the last show being shown on Monday. I'm trying to go during a time when there will be fewer kids, fewer fanatics and fewer people in general. Then again I'm an antisocial movie watcher... I want it to be me and the movie with nobody else around to affect my viewing. There have been so many movies I've gone to in the past where some dipshits in the audience marred my enjoyment due to them constantly getting up and crossing in front of me, cat calls at the screen and other such goofiness.

And yes I'm that guy in the movie saying "babies don't like movies!" when your stupid baby starts crying because the movie is too loud.

I'm spoiled by my home theater.

And try as I might I'm trying to go into this thing neutral. It's getting hard when every internet post I read is hate.

OK, all of the support and bashing of this film got me to thinking...can or has there ever been a sequel (that has been released more than a few years after the original) to a successful movie that meets or exceeds our enjoyment of the earlier film?

Movies that I can think of are Terminator 2: Judgment Day, pretty much every James Bond movie (Dr. No was good but kind of lame compared to later ones like Thunderball and Goldfinger), Toy Story 2, Road Warrior, (for me) Empire Strikes Back, Dawn of the Dead and some (myself) say Godfather 2. I could probably go on and on but there is definite "history" of sequels surpassing their original in both box office and popularity.

I should probably put this in for now:

Please post any "spoilers" in the "spoiler text" option for the first week or so of release.

For those who don't know how to do it, simply Type your sentence then highlight it and click "Insert: SPOILER" on your left. Review it and click "OK". Or just "tag" your text with the [ spoiler ] [ /spoiler ] tags

Thanks!

The premise of Red Dawn seems bizarre and outlandish today, but if you were alive and "with it" (meaning not a toddler or little kid) in the early '80s everyone and their brother was freaked that the Russians were going to try to invade us. There was a rumor going around my junior high in 1983 that the Russians were going to invade the US on new years day 1984. It was like Y2K before Y2K.

I almost don't think Red Dawn could be remade today. Hollywood would completely have to re-write the thing to fit their new "worldview" tactic of selling overseas. How can they make an overt, pompous (and albeit comically exploitive) American "patriotic" movie and sell to the world? Isn't that the "problem" they have with GI Joe? I mean, they can't really make a remake with communist "red" China or Russia as the "bad guys" as they'd have to "sell" the movie in Russia and probably in China as well. They'd have to totally "Invasion USA" the thing and make the "invaders" some kind of country-less, faceless, politically correct terrorist forces and call it something stupid like Generic Kinda Anglo-Europeanish White Guys in Suits Terrorist Army Dawn.

Plus Red Dawn was sort of Millius' baby... not only was the movie a pure '80s vehicle but it had themes and plot elements in it that Millius was a big time supporter of. Hollywood at the time wasn't really keen to his "ideas" about those things and is none too friendly with them these days either.

Edit: Actually now that I've had a few seconds to think about it, Hollywood could easily remake Red Dawn in the new "flavor of the week" movie style: the shaky POV cam.

It's simple, the whole movie is shot POV from high school kids holding a camcorder. They are in class doing a report or something and out of the sky drop nameless, never to be figured out bad guys. The entire movie is one long drawn out "run away while filming the craziness" schtick. It would "work" for modern Hollywood because it enables them to remove any political connotation from the "enemies", it allows them to retain the "high school kids caught in the middle" angle, it removes those tricky Millius notions of armed teens and it allows them to paint everyone except the "poor teens caught in the middle" with a broad brush. Boffo. Hundred million in the bank. Where do I pick up my check?

I'm pulling this thread out of the flames as it was pretty good until the 5th Annual Macrossworld Butthurt Festival and Charity Tractor Pull wrecked it.

Please continue the thread but consider this a gentle warning, the next combative or inflammatory post gets someone a time out.

Besides. Do you know how much it would cost to properly CG Monarch's eyebrows?

... probably a lot less than it will take to digitally remove Phantom Limb's limbs.

The reviews are trending positive it seems. RT.com is tracking around a 79% positive. I take that as kind of a good sign.

Doc Hammer dressed up as Dr. Girlfriend was shockingly attractive... in a five o'clock shadow, gravel voiced kind of way.

I was soooooooooo hoping to see Warburton dressed up as Brock only to be blueballed by his absence that extra.

The local Target had a huge rack of them that I noticed on Sunday while picking up some milk. I bought one of them (the 20 piece "repair" Wall-E) and it's pretty neat. Decent sized and decent detail.

I dunno if I'm keen on the idea of a live action VB, but the concept doesn't totally mouth frothing enrage me. A lot of it would come down to casting. Patrick Warburton (the voice of Brock) could actually be Brock... but I think the live action-ness would have a weird vibe to it. For me personally the VB's animation style does as much for the comedy as the script.

Did anyone see the VB season three teaser on Adult Swim last night? It showed some new footage.

I was born in 1970 and saw this video when I was in college... I was about 22 or 23 if I remember.

My "problem" with it was that it was a straight out documentary consisting mostly of boring interviews that was loosely interspersed with brief (and some would say boring) anime bits. There is not really much to be "entertained" by in it... plus you have to admit it kind of shows the sadness and desperation of the "otaku" lifestyle. I remember really not wanting to be an anime fan after watching it.

I saw it on video back in like 92 or 93, when it first "came out" subtitled here in the states.

It put me to sleep.

Ooooooookay this is getting out of hand.

Suffice it to say for future generations:

- there are many member title levels

- you get them by post count, the more you post and contribute to the site the higher title you'll receive in time

- custom titles are few and far between and generally handed out in rare occasions.

- asking for custom titles is usually not the way to get them

- contribute to the site and over time you and your posts will get noticed and someone will give you a custom member title

Ok, I'll bite, post count wise, how high do they go?

Into the quintuple digits. There is only one member on the site remotely close to the "top rank" and he already has a custom title, so he'll never truly achieve the highest title.

As for the calamity in this thread, it should go without saying that you won't receive a custom title saying stupid things in a thread about custom titles. Stick around a while. Contribute to the site. Become a highly noticed member. You'll eventually get a custom title if you impress the right people... or piss them off.

(Just so people know I myself am not in the habit of giving them out)

Is there actually a full list of the default MW titles somewhere?

There actually isn't. The staff member who created the titles long ago thought it was "fun" to leave them and what post counts are needed to achieve them a mystery and the rest of the staff went along with it. It is kind of fun in a sense, not knowing when you'll "level up" to the next title. Plus it helps weed out a lot of the "throwaway posting" that people would do to gain that next "title rank".

For what it's worth I've seen the title list and all I'll let on is that there are two "titles" for each "rank", they are based on logical incremental post count and the staff member who made them set some of them pretty darn high. Needless to say, you would have actively participate on this site for years to achieve the highest title and to my knowledge no one has achieved it yet.

I... just wanna see Indy...

Edit: I should probably also say that I'm not expecting this movie to be the second coming of Raiders. I just want to see some whip cracking, some Nazi... I mean commie... punching, some corny dialog and some crazy fantastical mythical thing happen. I guess unlike other movie franchises I'm more enamored with the character of Indy than his actual adventure, and I am really interested in seeing an older Indy.

If I want Raiders I can always pop in the DVD.

Now the one thing I WILL wantonly complain about is the lack of Raiders on Blu Ray. I mean, come ooooooooooon. They were supposed to release this already!

From what I recall, Snake Eyes is undergoing the surgery when the Baroness abducts him and Scarlett takes a bullet in the process. Stalker and Storm Shadow set off to rescue him while Scarlett is in a coma. After Snake Eyes recovers, escapes and does some damage he comes back and "revives" Scarlett from her coma by speaking her name.

Snake Eye's "mute-ness" could be debated, but he does indeed speak in the comics post "accident". It's actually his famous "Snake Eyes Talks" scene in which he says his one and only word.

Snake Eyes wasn't actually a mute, he just didn't talk.

I myself liked Snake Eyes from day one up until the point he became an uber ninja. He was just so much neater to me when he was an elite commando... then again I'm not a big fan of the "white ninja" story arc that was heavily overused in the '80s. Back then it seemed like any white guy with a Michael Dudikoff haircut could become a ninja.

I might be older than some of the rest of you but I'm old enough to remember the "GI Joe Adventure Team". Back when the original 12" GI Joe line came out America got sort of "involved" in Vietnam, and parents no longer wanted to buy their kids war toys... so gung-ho American soldier GI Joe vanished and his bearded loudmouth "adventurer" friends took over. When the gas crunch of the '70s hit and Hasbro canceled the line there wasn't a soldier among them.

The "GI Joe" that everyone here "remembers" was the revival of the toy line from the '80s, which was pretty much done so Hasbro could cash in on the bigtime 3" figure craze that Star Wars kicked off. Fueled by a rampaging Reaganite pro-America entertainment industry featuring the American soldier as the big hero, GI Joe was a prime product of the decade... but as the '80s wained so did the American public's (and international public) enjoyment of the dudley do-right American soldier hero. Which brings us to today... the big strapping American soldier as a hero is kind of tainted now. Just as the original GI Joe was "poisoned" by Vietnam, the new GI Joe is kind of poisoned by modern America's "adventures" abroad.

So if you look at this new GI Joe as a sort of "GI Joe Adventure Team" for the 2K's then it doesn't "hurt" as much. I personally love the Hama Comics of the '80s but even I can admit the '80s are long gone as are the themes they stood for. If anything I kind of hope this "iffy" movie will birth new interest in the OLD '80s comics so we can get some high quality bound issue reprints again.