Amped

Anyway... seriously... I OWN Alien 3 and 4... and I cherish them both a hell of a lot more than this turd. In fact, I actually LIKE Alien 3 and 4. I like AVP a whole lot less than both.

What's the world comin' to when mods lose it?!? I thought you were made of better moderator-stuff, but... maaaaaaaan, you talkin' crazy!

I never thought I would say this, but while my childhood hasn't been raped persay... Paul W.S. Anderson has certainly touched it in an inappropriate way. He has the achievement of single handedly making the worst Alien and Predator movies at the same time.

I cannot believe you spent that much time venting about how crappy AvP was yet you shrug off the criticisms of fanboys in the Star Wars threads!!! Have you even seen Alien 3 or 4??? Total & unadultrated SH*T!!! Unbelievable!!! And they let you mod these boards?!?

Interesting blip on Popular Science's site:

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/artic...76853%2C00.html

Should make for some interesting design possibilities in a number of fields!

YF-21, here we come!!!

OK, first let me say: I am a hyper-critial beeee-atch of a movie reviewer & a huge fan of the first 2 Alien flix & the 1st Predator movie (2nd one, not so much... but without it, we wouldn't have had the starting point - the Alien trophy head - for the whole AvP mythos, so it deserves credit for that much at least).

Also, I would rather pluck out my eyes & place them on a plate than watch the absolute sh*t that was Aliens 3 & 4. Start the f'in film by killin' Hicks & Newt my assssss.... Alien 4 was just plain ol' frenchy filmmaker pappy-crap: all style, no substance. Yes, the director did City of Lost Children.... SO WHAT. As a person who earns my keep as a professional designer I am always offended by filmakers & fans alike who equate interesting production design with a'great' film. No. Visually interesting maybe. But still narrative pappy-crap...

Soooo... having said all that...

AvP was pretty entertaining. Really.

Definitly suffered somewhat from the PG-13 rating, but by no means was it a total (or even partial) crap-fest! That title is reserved for crap-tacular drek like Troll 2...

WATCH OUT- SOME SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

There are definitly things to quibble about, namely:

- It is too damn rushed. They tried to fit WAY too much exposition into too limited a time frame. Oddly enough tho, it is slow to get going. I know that seems like a contradiction, but it's true!

- Super-sized everything! Jee-zus!!! I thought XTREME everything had finally been fading out as a marketing gimmick. Aparantly the filmakers of AvP were not given that memo. Steriod-enhanced predators... shoulder-mounted plasma howitzers... a T-rex-sized mama queen... way too fast & inconsistent chestburster incubation (sometimes it happens within what appears to be minutes... in other cases at least an hour or more).

- OK, somebody mentioned 'Corky the special-Ed Predator'. I agree! WTF?!? Why did they haveta mess with the facial proprtions??? Change for change sake? I'll tell ya why the Preds get wasted so fast! 'cause they appear to be 'tards!!!!

- Predator & human sittin' in a tree... Ick, how awkward & weird can you get?

OK, if that doesn't prove my standing as a card carrying supa-critical hyper-dork... well I dunno what will!

Having lambasted parts of AvP, however... there are notably good parts:

- The acting is pretty decent, given the rather flimsy script they had to work with.

- SFX were very tight! Nice job on all the technical aspects... good costumes, CGI, etc. It's just soem of the aesthetic choices taht I took issue with, not so much their execution.

- C'mon...a Predator chest-burster... how cool is that!!!

- Set up for a sequel! (duh)

Really, if anything I think AvP was more for fans of the game than of either specific franchise or of the comics. If you had ever played the game, you would've noticed how many scenes seemed to be directly from the game scenarios. Especially every time you saw an Alien lurking overhead or scurrying down or along a wall!

Like I said in a previous post... I hope this does well enough to spawn a BETTER sequel. As it is, this was good popcorn fare.

Now bring on the MARINES!!!!

Hmmmm, I want to see this movie... yet I am one of those hyper-critical fanboys who believes in only 2 Aliens movies (the others being heretical abominations of which I do not speak)... yet... for some reason, I don't know if I'd be as harsh toward AvP as I was to those seq....er, films... whose names I dare not speak.

I may catch a cheap day-time showing (hell no, I ain't gonna pay full price!). Basically, I look at this flick like the Alien/ Predator version of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla... my expectation are low: I just expect some monster bashing.

My hope is that this film will be successful enough to produce a SUPERIOR sequel.

Ick! The cyan on the first wave's intakes looks nasty!!! Sounds to me like some one F'd up the quality control on the paint specs so they decided to make that a 'special' feature of the first wave. Man I hope I don't end up with one of those!

Well, now that AvsP is out they can get crackin' on the movie I really wanna see:

Aliens vs Predator vs Terminator... where we all learn that Dutch was actually the template for the Terminators...

Yes... I'm joking.

the real sad part is that lucas talks about comedy like he knows something about it.

He does know about comedy! Just look at what he's one with his Star Wars franchise!!! Face it guys... as soon as he introduced the Ewoks we all shoulda know something was screwy back at the ranch...

Congrats on your new addition Rob!

Crap customer service = The Sports Authority.

The are like the Kmart of sporting goods stores.... oh wait! They're owned by Kmart! I don't even bother shopping there anymore. The 'tards that are supposed to help you flat out suck or can't be bothered (I've had people literally run the other way when they see me coming to ask them with a question!).. & they have the worst stock tracking system... ie - a store will tell you something is in stock, then when you drive out there, in fact, it isn't in stock... yet the computer will insist that it is. Apparently they don't update their database when items are sold. Anyhow, after having multiple bad experiences... at multiple locations... I just gave up on 'em.

As long as what they say about this one being more character driven rather then special effects driven is true...

AMEN to that!!!

You've gotta be kidding me. Robbie Williams? Why, because he's english and has a passing resemblence to a young Connery? Can he even act? If you just want to clone Connery, why not just CGI him instead?

Not so much because of any physical resemblance to Connery, so much as the attitude. Of course, it's not that Connery-era Bond fans want a physical clone of Connery... It's that sense of bad-ass menace with a suave veneer that folks find apealling about Connery's interpretation of Bond. Dalton supposedly came closest to Fleming's literary Bond... but face it, a character has to translate to the visual medium of film. Dalton's version fell kinda flat (weak scripts didn't help). Connery had not only the look but the swagger that for many folks defined the cinematic Bond.... and honestly, I agree with Graham that Robbie Williams, oddly enough, could have some of that 'attitude'.

Hmmmm... Robbie Williams. Actually, I could almost see him work in the role. He definitly would be able to pull of the cocky part of the Connery-era Bond.

The camerawork in Supremacy was SH*T... which was all the more irritating 'cause otherwise I dug it alot. I for one am not a fan of the handheld/ pseudo-documentary style of camerawork. Leave it for the combat cameramen & college students. In a movie theater it's a recipe for up-chuckin'!!!

Overall it was tad formulaic, but Damon so owns the role of Bourne that he's a hoot to watch. All-in-all, an above-average sequel that woulda been an excellent sequel if not for the jittery camera crap.

Damn, I was hoping Clive Owen was gonna get a shot at Bond (even tho - supposedly - he's never been officially approached... woulda been more in the Connery vein, IMO. Between his BMW ads, and his cool turn as the Professor in Bourne Identity, I thought he was being set up as the next Bond. Check out his new trailer... http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount_cl...whenimdead.html

I like the quote from Martin Campbell (director of 1995's GoldenEye),

"Clive would make a great James Bond," Campbell opined. "He goes back to the [sean] Connery version of Bond. There's a duality in both Connery and Clive. These are guys who onscreen love you one minute and then can kill you in the next. Plus, with Clive, like with Connery, when he hits you, you stay down."

Has that dude got Bond potential or what? Ah well, at leas he'll be in Sin City...

As for Bana... poo. I dug 'im in Blackhawk Down, but I'm lukewarm at best with him as a possible Bond.

At least it doesn't appear they're gonna go with the 'Young James Bond' concept with Orlando Bloom as a Bond...

I always wondered if someone would try to make a Blue Angels valk. Nice job!

I also found it quite eerie that the theme song "Suicide is Painless" was written by Robert Altman's 14 year old son. 

No way!!! That's messed up!!!

As ubiquitous as that haunting melody was, I always wondered how many fans of the TV series were aware of the seriously frigged-up lyrics that were supposed to go along with it.

I have that Hobby Japan issue with the diorama too!!! I'll haveta dig it out...

Anyhow, on another note...

I received the Starship Troopers/ Uchuu no Senshi DVDs a few days ago, and they're a perfect rip of the laser discs! Obviously, this means it's in Japanese w/ no English subtitles, but the video & sound quality are A-1 perfection. They're a must-have for folks that have been searching for this series.

Definitly not action packed, but well done. The aliens are weird and not so literally insect-like as in the live action movie (which is not a bad thing, IMO; I just saw that turd on cable the other day and it pissed me off all over again.. crap tactics, sh*tty acting, etc.). This series is much closer to the original Heinlen story. The animation/ look kinda reminds me alot of MADOX-01.

Buy here... http://www.trooperpx.com/ForSale.html

WOWzers!!! Nice job!

I agree that it's nice to see somebody put their own personal spin on a beloved character... wether or not it emulates the original character design to the Nth degree, the quality & care you put into this artwork shows! BRAVO!!!

What are the side effects of prolonged Ren dust exposure?  I wonder if my constant colds are a result of my work environment.  There are so many things wrong with my work area.  I can't even start.

Dude, where a mask!!!

Back when I was finishing my ID degree, I developed a nasty allergy to the particles from modeling foam (the cheap-o 5-10 lb stuff). I got lazy and stopped wearing my respirator because it was the end of the semester & everything was crazy.. multiple days with no sleep, working on final presentations & models, etc. (Anyone that has gone through a design program worth it's salt has experienced this. ) Anyhow, it got to the point where as soon as I came near that foam and smelled it, my throat would pinch up & I couldn't breathe. Not a pleasant reaction, and not one you wanna have when you have to work with the stuff...

Thankfully, it no longer affects me this way, but I learned my lesson: wear proper protective gear. Most modeling compounds and materials are toxic to some degree, and your health is way too important. If you were to make the same mistake laying up something like fiberglass, it could prove to be fatal.

As for this project: SWEEEEET!!!

Wild recovery pic & story about one of the (few?) SR-71 crashes, this one off the coast of the Phillipines...

http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/Luzon.html

Born to Fight looks entertaining as hell! Everyone at my office has the same reaction to the fight on top of the semi-tractor trailers... WTF?!? I can only assume that was a minor character, 'cause if they screwed that stunt up, he wouldn't be around for a second take!

Ong Bak was a great chop-socky flick. I order one of the boots offa eBay a coupla weeks ago and was very impressed with the quality of the DVD. The movie itself was a great piece of entertainment. Kindava slow-burn experience. It never really reaches a 'climax', per se, but it does what it does very well.

A wafer-thin plot/intro... builds up to series of chase/ fight scenes... and a quick conclusion. Inbetween all of that is some of the most brutal fighting I've ever seen in a film. Not bloody... just F'n brutal. I've never seen such excessive (& effective) use of elbow & knee hits as this flick depicts! You'll cringe as many of these moves connect (I'm sure the stunt men were feelin' it the next day). The main character has the most aggressive style I've ever seen... he's constantly advancing, absorbing blows, pressing his attack. Very cool & tough.

One scene in particular sticks in my head: where the main dude is goin' to town with his elbows on this other guy's head... my buddy winced and said it sounded like an adding machine rappin' against the guys skull, the blows were rainin' down so fast!!! Hell, even my mom was entertained while watching this movie!

If you like fighting films, you won't be disappointed by this one!

Wow, I have high hopes for this film. I think Bale is a great choice. However... I'm getting a bit of a bad The Shadow vibe from that trailer. I'm think the final product 'll measure up tho...

Sweet jeebus! I gotta have that Avenger!!! The question is... where the hell do I display somethin' that big?!?

Forget the Enterprise, When I get mine I'll have to kitbash the 1017-A. (Kudos to those who know that one).

Ah yes, good ol' 1017-A... Commodore Decker's Constellation, Enterprise's Constitution-class progenitor right? .. the one munched-on by the 'The Doomsday Machine', aka the intergalactic waffle-cone of DOOM! There are supposed to be internal & external difference between the two sister ships right? ... the Enterprise being the more advanced (newer of the two). Does anyone have a definitive list of those differences??? I've heard Constellation may have been slightly smaller. Any known line art or models???