reddsun1

I got a million of 'em, a cha cha cha! 0:12-0:13 - LOL, you can see the guy's foot behind the rock when he starts rolling it! The added homemade sfx are cheesy, but it actually makes it funnier.

LOL, hadn't noticed that before! There's plenty of issues to keep yer psychoanalyst busy with this movie, that's for sure. There's bound to be some innuendo in a name like Masten Thrust for your lead male. You could serve up leftover sandwiches for a week with the ham that Boone brings to this performance. But boy, what a hoot! ed: LOLOL!!! Have fun with this one, for the Freudian pervs out there!

Whoa, they made the uniforms look worse than the originals. Not terribly crazy about the "new" style of the character designs.

Part of me wishes filmmakers back in the '30s, '40s and '50s had access to technologies like those pioneered by Stan Winston, et. al. Ah what wonderfully politically incorrect, visually trumatizing cinema we could have had unleashed upon an unsuspecting public? But then, there's so much wonderfully, hilariously entertaining schlock like that we'd probably never have been exposed to: and B-movies as we know them may well not exist...

Something about "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," eh? Not sure what/where this one's from though...

Wow, there's a surprise. I'd pretty much written The Venture Bros off. Figured it was going to be just another funny little show that had run its course, come and gone. It was pretty good though. "So how are we gonna get 'em out of there? Oh, you gotta be kidding me!"

OMG, ROFLMAO!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofZUe46cHE4&feature=related

Not sure if it's already been mentioned, but... Actually, I'd have nominated this one not so much for a "Worst," but "Best Bad" Sci Fi Film of All Time--but no point in starting a whole other thread. This one's effing classic, pure and simple. What was pretty neat and funny as a kid, is nothing short of damned hilarious as an adult. The story's pretty flimsy, yes. The special effects are God-awful, true. The characters are pretty one-dimensional, we basically know from the get-go who's gonna get offed, fair enough. But it was intended to be a kids' popcorn movie, and it's B-movie entertainment at its best. Richard Boone really steals the show as Masten Thrust. Now that there was a man's man. --"...I got a better idea. You stay here with me. *laughs* I like that idea, Adam and Eve, heh-heh. Now you tell me the truth. What's back there for you? Confusion. Frustration. Nah, here's where life is. Pure. Simple. Ohh, we could make love! And we could hunt. An' what the hell else is there?" There's just no conceivable way anyone could pull off a reboot of this one--I just don't think there's anyone in Hollywood who could fill his shoes as Masten Thrust.

Okay, I have to take that back. I'm no monster. I'd reserve that last one for a more personal dream of mine....but them puppies and kittens would be good as gone; just say the word. But I'd gladly beat to a bloody pulp any mother fu**er that'd try to stand in my way, if it meant landing that ride...

That driving aggressively would perhaps be the 2nd best job in the entire world. IIRC, Lamborghini has a regular "test" driver, who must give each car produced a shakedown run after it comes off the production line [i may be mistaken though; perhaps it's Ferrari?]. But the all-time BEST job in the WORLD [for a car guy] would have to be: safety car driver, for the F1 World Championship. Don't get me wrong; I understand it's a very important, ultra-high pressure job. But still; basically, you get to drive a kick-ass powerful car, at some of the most storied and challenging tracks in the world. While the race cars may look like they're crawling during caution periods, "brisk" is an understatement for the pace that the safety car must maintain to prevent the cars from overheating while under yellow. If you're ever able to hear audio of the safety car going by the cameras during an F1 broadcast, one can hear that the driver is actually giving the car a real caning to keep ahead of the racers. So i.e.: at least 18 weekends a year, you get to travel the world, flog an ultra-high performance exotic road car for all it's worth at the greatest tracks anywhere, and get PAID to do it. Not to mention, you can boast that you can "finish" ahead of the best drivers in the world, every time you take to the track... If I could get away with it, I would gladly murder puppies, burn kittens, slit the throat of a perfect stranger to have that job...

Dammit--when is Lamborghini going to get around to producing the new Miura? [rhetorical]

Well, at least Roger Corman is maintaining his [crappy] standards... ed: the practical side of me would have to go and ruin things; the first thing I thought was: Blech! this thing's basically mouths at both ends--how the hell's it gonna take a dump? [LOL, it's just gonna swell up and eventually pop! ]

Oh definitely. There's a lot of other factors at play to be sure--like the influx of Japanese manufacturers in the '60s and '70s, that began to show that reliability could be achieved in smaller, more economical packaging. The excerpts were taken from an article that was definitely subjective; just Egan's musings on his own personal preferences when it came to choosing an old car for his "next restoration project." It's definitely a narrow look at car culture; but I think it does offer a nice tidbit of insight into why a lot of Americans were so infatuated with big cars and V8s for so long. Australia is a neat microcosm of automotive culture as well. I've come to greatly admire Aussie musclecars; from HQ Monaros, to Toranas, to E38/E49 Chargers; and of course, those beautiful Falcons. Very far ahead of their time in the way of performance features and market segmentation. Family sedans like the SLR 5000s, and "Phase" Falcons could arguably be considered progenitors to modern sports-sedans.

Just owes to different "paths" of cultural development, I guess. Just have to look at it in the context of how the car cultures have evolved in America vs Europe and elsewhere, and why it's so centered around big, robust designs and V8's. Auto journalist Peter Egan puts it much more succinctly than I ever could, in his musings on the differences between old American cars and British (ever hear the joke about old English cars' miles are measured like dog-years?): "...Well, British cars of the '50s and '60s tend to be much more charming and "sublime," per mile, than the average American car from the same era, but American cars have a much greater tendency to stay fixed, once you fix them. Also, the electrical systems tend to post-date Ben Franklin and his kite experiment. They were actually built to take you somewhere--and back--on the American continent, which is quite large. And when they finally do break, they're easier to fix... Ever seen a 327 Chevy where you had to pull the heads and pan to do a water pump? Nope. You can do one yourself in the parking lot of an auto parts store--using a cheap Chinese box wrench you bought in the store for $1.99. Your high school friends can watch and drink beer while green antifreeze pools beneath their feet... North America is a very large place, and the Isles are fairly small. The 60's London couple who drove to Brighton on vacation might have found it hard to imagine what it meant to drive across Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada to visit one's grandparents in San Francisco... Now that we're all one big happy family of world trade and shared engineering, cars from England are about as durable as cars from anywhere else (though one or two brands could still use "a little work"). But when the Elan was produced, England was, well, more insular. And our two dissimilar land masses seem to have created different expectations of how many times a piston should go up and down before the rings are worn out, or how many rotations of a fan blade should finish off a water pump seal. Highway development, of course, made a big difference, too. A friend of mine from Liverpool once told me that the stamina of British cars improved tremendously after the four-lane Motorway system opened up in Britain. "We didn't know why you Americans were always blowing up the old Mini engines until we tried going 80 mph for several hours in a straight line." Nothing like a good long day on the Interstate to find out if your engine has an adequate number of main bearings. Or driving through Death Valley in summer to see if your radiator is big enough...The U.S. was a tough environment for cars from a cool, small island with lovely twisting lanes. American cars simply had to be more durable, or no one would buy them..."

Yes. 40+ years on, and people still go ga-ga and pay inordinate amounts of money to own Cobras--cars synonymous with the guy that cobbled them together using that same "formula," so much so that they're known as "Shelbys" rather than AC's (the company that actually made the car to begin with). Yes, dumb idea indeed... Ah, ok. mea culpa. Knew there was a connection there; just couldn't remember which way it went.

The ends don't justify the means, so to speak, for that Miata dress-up kit. No way in hell it'd ever be mistaken for a real Aston. Would probably yield better results if all that effort went towards say, stretching the wheelbase by about 1" and shoehorning a small block V8 in it, for some high power:weight shenanigans. Perhaps a Chev or Mopar V8, so as to apply a slightly different method to a proven formula? But, given Mazda's previous ties to Ford...anyways, it worked for Carrol Shelby. ed: oops--I guess someone already is doing that. http://monstermiata.webs.com/ as a natural consequence, they've got some original Miata engines that can be had for a song.

LOL, they'll probably sell 'em by the boatloads... I think the same guy is responsible for designs at both firms (reason A-M's looked so much like Jags in the 90's); moved from Jaguar to Aston-Martin?

I suppose what makes them remarkable is their blistering performance numbers--in spite of their opulence and heft? It's like they're working "automotive voodoo" or something; they seem to defy physics, moving so much mass so quickly.

Perish the thought! That's never stopped Michael Bay...

I think "Exo Squad" would make an excellent property/franchise to try that with, in perhaps CGI or--dare to be audacious--live action, in a mini series or 2-3 film format? They were halfway there as far as story and character development (compared to contemporary shows); at least in season 1, before animation quality really started to suffer, and things got too gimmicky and hokey in an effort to expand the toyline. Hell, give it to HBO Films, and it might not suck a$$. Honestly, I'm surprised no one's tried any of that plagiarism-rationalized-as-reboot bullsh*t with that one yet, given the Transformers movies' validation of the big-budget robot genre.

Definitely owes to a cultural shift in what constitues as "compact." While the modern Aussie Falcon can be considered mid-size (or to they class it full-size in Oz?), the original Falcon of Detroit's more hedonistic days in the 60's ("bigger is better," styling trends shifting emphasis towards low-and-wide) was considered an economy model, and rightly so. Compared to mid-size models like the Fairlane, and full-size road tanks like the Galaxie, it was positively miniscule. Sure, people were rallying and racing Falcon Sprints back around '62 or '63, but Ford didn't consider the image of thier entry level model hip or sporty enough, with its squared, "econo-box" styling; hence Lee Iacocca et. al. converging to give genesis to the Mustang...

True. But it probably appeals to a very different segment of buyers than those considered "loyal" Mustang fans. I'd wager they'd take to the front lawn of the Dearborn offices by the thousands with pitchforks and torches, if they were expected to accept it as a replacement to the Mustang-proper.

Hmm, additions to prev wishlist: Studio Scale X-wing: damn, these things are kewl. From what I can make from pics, the "Legends" ser from Hasbro seems a reasonable facsimile (for plastic)? 1/18 Scale racing: I'd like to add to my collection of historic touring/sedan racers Classic Carlectables makes some outstanding models, very high detail for the $$

I too, was a fan of the initial redesign of the Mustang ('04-'05?), as I'd never liked the Fox-body or SN95 versions. Could see '67-'68 in the nose, more '65-'66 in the rear decklid; but it worked. Not really liking the latest iteration though, as it's getting a bit too "confused," trying to meld design cues from too many different versions. Adding the cues from the '69-'70 along the rear beltline makes it look jumbled, a bit too busy. I just wish they'd stop calling them pony-cars. They're all just too damned big and heavy to be considered along those lines--especially the Chev and the Challenger. Can you imagine if Ford had stuck to the formula that made the original Mustang such a success, i.e. youth-oriented styling, based on the current economy car (then Falcon) platform? That'd mean: a performance-oriented coupe on the Focus(?) platform. *shudders* Oh sure, those cars have been hot-rodded by enthusiastic and resourceful folks. But it's a whole different animal. The RWD "sporty" coupe as we know it would almost certainly have been relegated to automotive history.

For a while, I think ol' Shel--or his legal advisors, anyway--would aggressively pursue anyone that attempted to sell anything associated with his name without his official blessing. There was a period when Cobra replica builders were really in the legal crosshairs.