reddsun1

Well, you can thank the schmoes at Wikipedia for all sorts of spoilers in the "movie plot" entries for Transformers. I scooped some clips on youtube--I was still debating whether I want to waste my $7 bucks on this or not. The scene where the girl starts talking "gearhead" with the kid Sam is utterly laughable. --"Oh, nice headers. You got a high rise double pump carburetor--that's, pretty impressive, Sam." --"Double pump?" --"It squirts the fuel in so you can go faster." --"Oh, I like to go faster." *groan* --"An' looks like your distributor cap's a little loose." --"Yeah? how'd you know that?" --"Oh, my dad was a real grease monkey; he taught me all about this stuff. I can take it all apart, clean it, put it back together..." I don't know what the he*l she was looking at, but that sure wasn't just "a carburetor." Looked more like a cross-ram, with mechanical injection setup, or maybe quad Webers [didn't see any injector fuel rails]? And distributors don't get "a little loose"! I've heard the critics lambast Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman as having written the script with little or no character development or plot, just fluff barely capable of tying one action scene to the next--but Jeez! this is just terrible! I know one thing, her dad may be a grease monkey--but I sure as sh*t wouldn't want him or her touching anything of mine. That dialogue was about as transparent as the windshield of that car, and I barely rate as a shadetree mechanic. Dayum, that just borders on insulting the intelligence of the viewers... Not meaning to nit-pick, honest I'm not. I want to engage my "willing suspension of disbelief" like anybody else. But Chrissakes, don't insult me with such obviously erroneous dribble! Look, if you don't know sh*t about cars, don't go trying to write dialogue for somebody passing as an "expert" on cars--ask somebody who does for some fuggin pointers. All that input and $$$$ they got from GM for their 90 minute commercial, and they couldn't even ask Mr. Goodwrench about what's under the hood?

This KICKS ARSE on so many levels. Not just the stunning visual impact of the life-sized dinos moving about as they do, but the absolutely amazing potential/implications in the "voodoo rig" animatronic controls that the puppeteers use to move them. Levels of control and manipulation of huge, complex machinery that was once only the stuff of anime/movie magic seem to have an almost matter-of-fact practicality even now. The T-Rex and the Brachiosaurus are nothing short of awe-inspiring... There was a promotional clip on one morning a while back, on the Today Show[?] http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=6305...f=05&fg=rss I caught part of the NBC segment on a monitor out of the corner of my eye, when it aired a while back. So when I saw a glimpse of the actor in baby T-Rex costume wowing the crowd on the sidewalk, I didn't immediately catch sight of his legs underneath--so my immediate reaction was to think "holy sheet! how are they making that thing move like that?!" Totally fuggin' cool. The potential for cinema is amazing; this allows for a level of interaction with characters/actors undreamed of, even in '93 when Spielburg rocked audiences with his CGI monsters in Jurrasic Park. LOL, the T-Rex scares the piss out of Peter Alexander at one point.... More info on the touring show here: http://www.dinosaurlive.com/ Just think of the potential for those "voodoo rigs" in other applications....like, for instance, large walking mecha? Like a Legioss or something similar?

Ooh, the return of the "curvacious," "sexy" Ferrari? Hiz-ell yeah! Built it! Speaking of the "return of the sexy retro designs," what's the word on the Lambo Miura? Will they build it? [They'd be fools not to...]

I'd presumed the new GT would be at a disadvantage in competition, given that it's a real porker, compared to the original GT-40, and the forced induction on the original powerplant; i.e. tighter restrictions on induction/power potential than N.A. cars, or regs/homologation hoops to jump through if a different powerplant is chosen for racing. But according to the press release at the prev. link, the car seemed to be right at the knife's edge of the pack from the word go. Apparently, they think it has real potential, from what I skimmed from the article...

Well, I figured it'd be just a matter of time before someone prepped a Ford GT for actual competition. To their credit, Kinetic Motorsports got one ready for Speed World Challenge racing way back in '05--with slightly more refined aero work around the rocker panels and rear diffuser. But no sanctioning body here in the US seemed willing to homologate the GT for racing, thus the chance to see a "Ford GT-R" on an American track was missed; I figured some privateer across the pond would make the leap though. The front end on the Matech car looks very similar to that of the KMS car. I suppose there's only so much freedom in what you can do with a front splitter, given the car's original shape. I favor the Kinetic car--still retains the essential character of the GT, but looks a little more "refined" for serious racing. I've had it as my desktop background for forever...

everyone from Pepto Bismol to in-car nav system companies [is it MapQuest?] has been lampooning the Japanese man-in-rubber-monster-suit movies for their commercials lately. But seriously, don't be surprised to hear/see something from Hollywood along the lines of.... Ultraman: The Movie................................Summer '09 *groan* [hey, those Japanese don't know anything about Japanese monster movies! we can do it better! get those crack-smoking monkeys working on a script, pronto!]

OMFG that's so funny---just earlier today, I saw an ad on TV announcing "25th anniversary tour of CATS," and thought "well, considering how far makeup/costuming technology has come and how much they look like Thundercats, I'm surprised no one is trying to make a live action movie of that..." and then I see this thread. Too funny. No. Wait a minute. That's not funny at all! That's just pathetic! For the love of God, when are the big studios going to stop taking their script ideas from crack-smoking monkeys?! 1980's cartoon shows and video games do NOT a good movie make...

Hmm, come to think of it, when you study that pic for a bit, it does look more like a Photoshop than a real car. Overall, it's safe to say the the Mach 5 has arguably got to be one of the most difficult cars to translate from TV image into real-life 3D version ever, in any scale...

Hmm, not too bad. Definitely not so obviously "corvette-based" as the few other replicas of the Mach 5 out there. The wheel arches are too big for the body lines, though. And don't get me started on those fuggin "dub" wheels--what the hell are those, like 22"s or something? That "donk" crap is the ultimate expression of having more money than common sense. One fad that I can't wait for to die out; go the way of the dodo, like fuzzy mirror dice and custom vans with spaceships painted on the sides...

Okay, I get it. While there's no resemblance to Macross characters/vehicles whatsoever, I can get the "gist" of the whole thing, to show what the pacing and action might look like if a l.a. Macross were to come to the big screen. While I think that CGI technology has finally progressed to the point where a "real" VF-1 could be put on film without looking like utter fake crap, I am thoroughly conviced in my heart of hearts that if left to Hollywood, any adaptation of Macross would bear no resemblance to the original story/show whatsoever, but rather, turn out as nothing but an unholy, bastardized farce, not even worthy of wiping one's arse with. And we won't even touch the crap-tastic merchandising whoring that would surely take place... Still, a small part of me would love to see what would happen if an SFX master like Stan Winston and his studio were to build a 1/1 mock-up of a VF-1 or a Mospeada Legioss. Sure the range of motion would be limited at best, but think of it! what an unGodly kewl terror of a prop it'd make! For that matter, has anyone ever tried to build a mock-up of a Mospeada Cyclone?

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Whoa! Wait jus' a cotton-pickin' dog-gone minute! Not to be too analyitical here, but you mean that a .50 cal can basically puree a guy in the front seat, but not even bust out the front glass?! No rounds blowing out through the engine block and front end? WTF? C'mon, these SFX/pyrotechnics guys are just damn lazy. As for what such a gun would do to a person, I'd agree with the effects. I have seen some Gulf-War gun-cam video from an Apache attacking some guys using chain gun [similar size/slightly larger round?]; even from beyond visual range, and through the crappy grainy night vision lens, it's obvious to the viewer that the gun makes a gruesome God-awful mess of the poor buggars on the receiving end. Not something I'd ever care to watch more than once. Seriously, there ain't no way you're gonna convince me that viewing enough amounts of such material doesn't affect the mind. Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age or something... And yeah, Sly needs to cut that sh*t out--Rambo exorcised his demons with film #2--for me, that's where the series [should] end. For me, pt. III just doesn't exist, a "fitful dream" or something [in reality, a sh*tty bit of Hollywood-heart-on-sleeve sociopolitical commentary].

that's the new Starscream? Whoa, that looks kick-a$$! If they made him look like that in the movie, they'd get my 6 bucks. Okay, let's not get crazy; but it still looks cool. Almost as cool as a VF-1. Jet mode really looks good...now that's a robot in disguise.

Good Lord! Gratuitous just isn't the word for this. What's up with Sly's face though? Has he had plastic surgery or something? Looks like Sly's not going shirtless in this one, which is a bit of a surprise. It would seem he's definitely trying to keep the muscles ripped--IIRC, he was just busted trying to get into Australia with "a muscle enhancing substance, and was fined $22,000."

What a piece of sh*t. I mean the thief, not the car. To take something from someone else, after they put all their sweat/money/effort/etc into making it something special; there ain't much in this world lower than a damned, dirty thief....

Is is just me, but why does that helmet look conspicuously like Hikaru Ichijo's?

wasn't sure if this should go here, but I found this while surfing the other night... http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...eoid=1825622556 lmao, that was great!

Not bad, not bad. I suppose the purpose of this short is more about showcasing the filmmaker's talents than about realism or attention to details. Very nicely done, looks like a lot of effort was put into it. Creator tried to pay a lot of attention to details, from the smokestack on the robot's back, to the moving control surfaces on the planes--well done. Still, as mentioned before, it has a very Pearl Harbor feel to it. I HATED Pearl Harbor, thought it was a steaming pile of poo, as war movies go... Only a couple of sticking points for me: a. story's set in June of '43--but none of the planes he featured entered service until 1944; Spitoni shoulda done a little research b. the pilots were all just f'ing stupid. "OMG, what is that?" *duh, let's fly within arm's reach of the big fu**er then!* Yeah, yeah, I know the point is supposed to be about the "action," but jeez--from the numbskull pilots only attacking head-on; to the cornball zooming between ships, around cranes, flying to within 100 feet or so of the robot, through it's legs and such....come on. If you go to the great lengths to make the animation so detailed and "realistic" looking, don't cop out and resort to such hokey and unbelievable stunts.

Oh yeah, I bet the Hollywood execs are tickled pink by the broad spectrum of moviegoers that F. Miller & co. managed to appeal to. When I went to see it, I too noticed there were easily as many women in the audience as men. Plenty of blood and hacking, bravado and male bonding for all the guys; and the borderline Chippendales-review-in-tunics for the gals--it was a win/win for all. I've promised my wife I'm going to try to get ripped like the 300 Spartans. Of course, I won't have the benefit of CGI enhancement like those guys [nor the inspirational leadership of greats like AgentOne ], so it might take me quite a few more trips to the gym....

True, the acting in this one's pretty dodgy [hell, even when they started filming, they hadn't even written a story/plot yet!], but as racing movies go--even 35+ years on--this one is still the standard by which all others can be measured: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls08-F6I5Ss There are few points of contention from the aspect of realism in the action, save for the Ferrari crash [a bit melodramatic], and the finish--but hell, since Sebring '07, that ain't all that far-fetched/Hollywood-ish any more at all, now is it?

Actually, I realize I do need to just get over it. After all, in retrospect, even as I began recalling the movies I grew up watching--Cannonball, Gumball Rally, Vanishing Point, Corvette Summer, even the orig. Gone In 60 Sec's, pretty much any of those old hot-car chase movies--they were all kinda crappy actually. I guess each generation will have their own tastes and standards. I mean, the budget in Gi60S was practically nil, the acting was basically dreadful [at least Halicki could say he just got friends and amateurs], it's just the 45 min chase at the end that makes it worthwhile. And in retrospect, I suppose that's tantamount to the same thing with the kids that'll be going to see this Redline. If they're willing to sit through the transparent plot, the bad acting, and the lame cg stunts just for the eye candy, well then bully for them.

Look, if you're a self-professed car-nut, fine--but there's better ways to get your fix than supporting utter shite-on-celluloid like this crap. There's something like this for instance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDk9XzKBKHw But for the Love of Pete! don't tell me you'd actually pay to see this movie?! Honest to God people, if you support crap like this, then that's all Hollywood will ever give you--plot-less crap with ham-fisted acting and effects/stunts that look like they were storyboarded by 5th graders playing with their Hot Wheels. If you want to see exotic cars that'll make you drool, go to a car show, go to a sports car race, anything but supporting--and perpetuating--this kind of fecetious fluff. I don't know what's worse, the fact that this movie will likely do such a dis-service to the fine art of driving at or near 10/10ths, or that the pretentious pri*ks in this film are taking themselves so seriously: "look at me, I am sooo cool, I am sooo sexy..." Hell, at least the Cannonball Run movies had punch lines, blooper reels at the end...

I don't know why, but that last bit tickled me too.... "BRUSH YOUR TEETH!!!"

rotfl, never underestimate the power of a group of fun loving twits with a camera and a saturday to kill...

In hindsight, the original series was pretty corny, I'll admit. Towards the end of its run, they had quality and storyline issues that just sealed its imminent doom. But hey, for an 80's kid, that sh*t rocked! [and is still kewl as hell--I was recently planning on getting a t-shirt w/the T'cats logo on it...just so's I could rock dat sh*t at work on dress-down day and totally befuddle my co-workers. ] But this initial impression just screams "sucks sweaty ASS" The only glimmer of hope for this impending steaming turd is if they'll have a blooper reel for the new show too.... Mum Rah still has me ROFL every time I watch these....

Ford was supposed to unveil the new Mustang model last night at the B-Jackson auction in Palm Beach, did anyone get a look? I don't imagine they could have changed that much?