Phosphor

http://www.jedimaster.net/ And if you don't like that link, just Google "Star Wars Kid" and you'll get many options of locations at which to watch your favourite internet geek.

Hardware Wars was the first thing that jumped into my head upon seeing the title of this thread. Spaceballs is also of course brilliant. One of my absolute favourites though is the Star Wars Macbeth. Some high school kids made it for an English class project, setting Macbeth as Star Wars. Really well done, too.

Of course the Pentagon "accidentally" destroyed any records that could prove or disprove that Bush did his required military service.. Document destruction and "mis-placement" is par the course in politics. It's funny talking about Edwards as creepy.. Look at Cheney! The guy radiates evil. He's the absolute archetype of the Evil Politician we see in films and television.

Another question Americans should ask themselves is how do you want the US to be viewed on the world stage? Because at the moment, the view of the US is pretty poor, and a change of leadership could certainly turn things around. As for Bush/Cheney being in-your-face and the two Johns being sneaky, I think the Bush/Cheney leadership is as sneaky and deceptive as it is aggressive. Bush is the frontman and Cheney the power behind the throne, so to speak. At least Kerry isn't going to lead via twisted religious ideology and continue to narrow the divide between church and state. That counts for a lot from my perspective.

I haven't seen that. The only other Kafka-based film I've seen is The Trial, with Anthony Hopkins and Kyle MacLachlan. I thought it was a rather accurate telling of the story, but really, really boring.

Schizopolis is extremely annoying, made doubly so by the fact that it's the sort of work film snobs like to espouse for it's brilliance, and so if you didn't like it, you just didn't get it. Kafka is a fictional biography, basically putting Franz in a world that resembles the world he writes about. I love Kafka's work, and his sense of humour. "Gregor woke up and... wait for it.. he was a giant bug! Ha ha!" But despite his humour, he did paint a very critical and bleak image of bureaucracy and order and how it smothers life. And yes, that's Gray's Anatomy. I can't believe he killed himself; it's so sad.

I think that's probably fair. Have you seen Schizopolis? Gods, what an irritating film. It's pretty much his peak of attempting significant or thought-provoking film. Oh, I forgot he did Kafka, which was spectacular. He also directed Spalding Grey's "Grey's Anatomy", but there's not exactly a lot of direction there, as the film is a monologue (excellent stuff though).

I'll be more inclined to believe that if Bush loses this election. If he wins, I'll lose all hope for you guys in the US.

Bush certainly is extreme, particularly in his religious ideology and how he uses that to run his government. It's not even accurate ideology; he has a nasty case of twisting biblical passages to suit his political ends, and I don't recall any US president believing that God wants him to be president. The concept of the Divine Right Of Kings died off a few centuries ago. Bush is scary, and dangerous.

That's not the problem. The problem is that hundreds of thousands were denied their civil right to vote. It's not that they didn't want to, or were lazy, but the Florida system did not allow them to vote. But it didn't bite them on the arse. It gave the state some unwanted scrutiny, but their system did allow Governor Jeb's big brother to get elected president. Hardly a bit on the arse. The vote this year is going to be just as terrible with the voting machines. Far too much can go wrong there in such an important event. What's wrong with marking an X beside a name on a piece of paper? It's what we do here in Canada and it works just fine. The vote counts are often quite accurate. As for the electoral system, I think it's too broad. The system we use is similar though on a smaller scale, with each province having a certain number of ridings in each of which a person runs for Member Of Parliament, and 155 seats (ridings) are required for a party to claim majority victory. I like it better than the electoral college in the US.

I thoroughly enjoyed Starship Troopers. It was an excellent interpretation of 50's pulp science fiction while presenting a modern appearance. There's a direct-to-video sequel that I've heard mixed things about.

I went to school with a lot of people, including my partner. Does that mean we're related? Anyways. I agree the current administration is bad, and they should go. However, it's stuff like you post that gives the left a bad name, Cosmos, and prevents it's concerns from being taken seriously. Arguing that there's no difference between Bush and Kerry, that they're both corrupt, is the very reason people use to not vote and so nothing changes. There are immense problems in the US in regards to voting and in regards to the actions of the Bush administration, I'm not disputing that, and this year is no different, and this election is going to be just as problematic as 2000's, if not moreso. Which is the very reason people that want change have to make it happen by playing well within the rules, by acting responsibly and rationally.

The remake of Ocean's Eleven was surprisingly good. I'm not a fan of Soderbergh and while the cast looked good, heist films don't often do it for me. But, when they're good, they're very good and this was very good. It kept such a feeling of cool throughout the whole film, and the cast was spectacular.

I suppose that it would have to be legally proven that the Bush administration is indeed oppressing the people. And I somehow doubt that would actually make it to court, let alone through and ultimately to a verdict in favour of those retaining their taxes. I hate Bush and his administration, and think he's doing more harm than good and isn't acting in the best interests of the American people, but oppression is a stretch. Half the US population supports Bush, and as sick as that makes me it's not an indicator that he's oppressing the people.

I hope Enterprise continues, as I do like the show. Thing is, I think it's fate has already been decided by the network; the move to the Friday night death slot pretty much confirms that. Even if it somehow improves in ratings this season, I don't think that'll change it's cancellation.

Isn't not paying taxes a crime called "tax evasion"? I wish I could decide where my tax dollars go, and what they fund, but that's just not possible. If you don't like the leadership of your country, you use your power to vote to attempt and change that leadership. And with low voter turn out, I wonder how concerned people really are. It's the same in the US and Canada, with record low voter turn-out at elections. People complain, but then can't be bothered to vote. If these people want to effectively change things, they should be out there getting people on-side to register and vote in the election.

Indeed it seems to be just that: Network Says Profile of Director Shyamalan Was Hoax Mon Jul 19, 7:08 PM ET Add Entertainment - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Sci Fi cable network and parent company NBC Universal acknowledged on Monday that a special purported to be an unauthorized documentary on director M. Night Shyamalan was really part of a "guerrilla marketing" hoax that went too far. The three-hour program, which aired on Sunday, was falsely promoted as a "disturbing expose" of the filmmaker that Shyamalan first cooperated with, then tried to have shut down when producers delved too deeply into his personal life. It turns out Shyamalan was in on the entire production, cooked up to generate publicity for his upcoming film, "The Village," a supernatural thriller set for release July 30 by Walt Disney Co.-owned Touchstone Pictures, according to Sci Fi Channel and NBC Universal. The faux documentary, titled "The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan," was concocted as part of a "guerrilla marketing" campaign emulating a promotional strategy that helped turn the low-budget 1999 thriller "The Blair Witch Project" into a box office hit, Sci Fi spokeswoman Jean Guerin told Reuters. In this case, the strategy worked a bit too well, leaving a number of entertainment journalists grumbling after they were duped into writing stories reporting the purported conflict between Shyamalan and "documentary" producers as fact. Guerin said Sci Fi has often presented its promotional campaigns and ads as "a puzzle for people to figure out." "The intention is never to hurt the press, to have them go along with you, so I think that's where it sort of took a wrong turn," she said. By aiming to deceive journalists, "this particular campaign went one step too far," NBC Universal spokeswoman Rebecca Marks said. "It's not consistent with our publicity and marketing policy. It's misleading." Sci Fi insisted that Touchstone was not involved in the campaign, but studio officials were not immediately available for comment. Shyamalan, whose previous films include "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs," issued a statement suggesting the cable channel merely got carried away "by thinking out of the box." "I was, of course, involved in the production of the special but had nothing to do with the marketing of it," he said. "If the Sci Fi Channel erred in their marketing strategy, it was totally out of enthusiasm." Marks said development of "Buried Secret" began before the Sci Fi was acquired by NBC as part of the broadcaster's recent merger with Vivendi Universal Entertainment. NBC Universal is owned by the General Electric Co. . Asked when NBC Universal became aware of the nature of the special, Marks said, "They're reviewing the situation to find out and taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen again." The special was directed Nathaniel Kahn, who earned an Oscar nomination for a documentary about his father, the late architect Louis Kahn.

Unfortunately refusing to pay taxes is undertaking lawlessness as well, so this group is being rather hypocritical despite their noble stand. Taxes support social programs and infrastructure which benefits everyone; it doesn't all go into the president's personal bank account. If a growing number of people are truly as concerned and upset as this group claims, the election in November can rectify that. I hope to high heaven that Americans give Bush the boot this year, but I'm not optimistic.

X-Men without Singer would not be a good idea... I was also looking forward to his Logan's Run. Both X-Men 3 and Logan's Run I want more than a Superman film.

But it wasn't even good B-horror or pulp action. I fully expected B-horror and pulp action like the director/writer did in The Mummy films, but that just wasn't there.

*ignores Kinbote* Though gives credit for liking Polanski.

For surprisingly bad recently I'd have to say Van Helsing. Now, I didn't expect it to be great, but I had really liked the Mummy movies so I assumed VH would have that same kind of humour and overall adventurous fun. And I like Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale, so I figured it would be good, tongue-in-cheek adventure film. But gods, it was poor. Horrible dialogue, no characterisation at all, not a trace of the humour that made The Mummy good (the laughably bad faux Hungarian accents were not good humour).. Some nice visuals here and there, but that was about all it had going for it.

The latter moreso than the former. The government agent bit makes a nice background but his reverence for the Earth provides for a far deeper character and potential development blueprint.

Recently, I'd have to say Second Hand Lions was suprisingly good. I thought it would be rather schmaltzy and sweet, but it was extremely well done. I think that was due primarily to the strength of the cast (Michael Caine, Robert Duvall, Haley Joel Osmet). A remarkably good film.

I liked the Superman character when I was little, but it's not a character that really evolves with time - he doesn't really grow and mature. So I've not been terribly interested in a new Superman film. However, if anyone can make Superman interesting and relevant, it's Singer. To tie this in with the Batman thread, it'd be neat to see this Superman be influenced by Miller's interpretation in the Dark Knight Returns.