To boldly got where Anne Hathaway has gone before

[LeeVanCleef]

So, Interstellar, eh? That was something! I'm not gonna be all spoilery (not like those cockblocks at tne NY Times. Thanks for letting me know Robert Durst admitted to the murders in the last episode of The Jinx... I'm on episode 5, jackasses!!!), but I will say that it starts out all Kubriky, all of a sudden it gets a little Hitchcocky, then it goes full-bore Speilbergy! I can't say I was bored... most of the time. And I understood about 75% of what was going on... good luck trying to figure out if it's the robot talking or if there's a crew member you just forgot about while the camera's spinning around like a TiltaWhirl. Or you could just try watching it not high. Thumbs up!

 

[sleepy]

Gotta love egos in possession of Nothing who reach for Glory because they seek Empowerment...by spoiling the plot in imdb threads, reviews, and everywhere they can brag about it to death.

On the other hand, when I am full of the local's Hype and abuses, I often seek out moviespoiler.com to just blow off 'the current masterpieces' so I can get back to what is real for me. Like letting the song burn out on the radio instead of spending more money. That is also my quickest means of determining their latest IP theft, but then I get depressed when it's true (because they often turn great ideas to pablum for $$$, or as 'a goad' to action) and then I only end up dumping the whole damn business. I do that so I can stop burning my brain cells to smithereens just to retain what they have already taken.

Their answer: "Well, you can always create another one...". Nope.

Just like VP used to be. I'd aim at a favored table or an original and burn my brains for over a month in preparation, but dang! Somebody puts out a rushed 'WIP' version of same. So now I sit Boo-boo. Uh-uh. Nope.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

so that's a SF film, then? i barely pay attention to contemporary movies any more. haven't seen a good SF film in ages...


then again the international film festival is coming here in a couple days i think. lot of good international films to see... i wonder if i can summon up the gumption to get downtown as opposed to watching from the comfort of the home theatre.

 

[sleepy]

Interstellar is a Christopher Nolan allegory using SF as a basis, I believe.
But you can correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[sleepy]

okay, I blew it off. This "Interstellar" sounds like an updated episode of "Lost in Space" gone horribly wrong. Let's say "Loused in Space".
Did he rip off Elton John's/Bernie Taupin's "Rocketman" for this? I see that somebody did a remix of the trailer at YouTube using the song. I am not alone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ6WuelVVMs

 

[sleepy]

And that "Age Trick" rightfully belongs to one "Mr. Renfield", an appropriate candidate "for social rehabilitation", as a former child who was assigned "for his own protection" to the asylum as a Ward of The Court due to domestic cruelty inflicted by his Aunt, a cat killer, now a Man-Child of uncertainties, in exchange for lucrative medical grants to Mr. Seward and his medical corp. Ltd..

Yessir. The folks are feasting on bits and pieces of practice story treatments, as A Goad, though I can remember suggesting "Equipment Failure" in 1960, in regards to a bunch of Apes, possibly in control of the studios. I guess.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

I would call it the most hard-core sci-fis I've seen in quite some time, as far as bringing a sense of realism to the idea of interstellar travel. I'm not smart enough to vouch for the basic science behind everything they do in the movie, but it sure seems like they took their Deep Space Exploration 101 class pretty seriously. The ending, for me, is one that keeps you thinking long after the credits have rolled.
Man, that home theater is quite the trap, is it not? I don't think I've gone to an actual theater... damn, when was the last Batman?

 

[sleepy]

Well they're making one now vs. Superman, with Ben Affleck as Batman.
The last one was The Dark Knight Rises. I skipped it.
The one before was The Dark Knight Returns. I look like Joker sans make-up. So I skipped it.

Batman Forever used the song that WB fenced to Seal to rip. The Kiss From a Rose tune. So I passed.

I haven't bothered with Batman since Nicholson, and then only because I suggested updating from the William Dozier tv series, also ... nevermind.

Here's a song from 4:30 A.M. one morning on a sleepless night in late '77. Also not from the U.K., in spite of what they have to say about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-Yi762sQTo

 

[Shooby Doo]

I liked Interstellar and thought it was pretty good. It kind of fooled me because I thought I was watching something really epic and hard to understand (like 2001), but it turned out not that epic and not too hard to understand, it was just long. Both "2001" and "The Black Hole" seemed like inspiration. Even the robot in the movie kind of reminded me of the Slim Pickins robot in TBH.

It definitely had me thinking for a few days after seeing it, though I still haven't watched it a 2nd time. I don't think it was Nolan's best work and even kind of a strange topic for him to tackle, though I can't say anything bad about it. It's a pretty solid film and I'm planning on watching it again soon.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

there was a robot that talked like slim pickens...?!? man, i've gotta sees me a youtube clip.

btw can't remember if i mentioned this before, but they're pretty close to a sequel on bladerunner, after harrison ford heals up of course. i think it's based on the sequel books that another author came in and wrote.

PKD's most awarded work "the man in the high castle" is also being developed as a 4-part miniseries. so far they did the pilot... i'm hoping the money comes in to make the rest.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

haha just saw this in the news. some guy had this conversation on a dating app...

and it turned out to be:
https://www.yahoo.com/movies/ex-machina-tinder-sxsw-stunt-text-113788219202.html

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Yeah, that was pretty much my feelings, Shooby... not Nolan's best, but watchable, thought-provoking and a welcome break from the endless stream of capes-and-tights flicks.
I'm holding out for a Pat Buttram robot, myself.
Ah, Man In the High Castle. One of Dick's more, shall we say, inscrutable offerings. Meaning it bored the crap out of me and I never finished it. Hope the series is better!

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

bill...

if you didn't like that novel...

if you didn't like that novel...

yow... oh well. we can't all like the same stuff.

 

[sleepy]

Oh my.
I usually require some reference to reality to really enjoy a book. I'm not a heavy reader, and I haven't gotten around to PKD. I wasn't aware of him, with apologies.
However, as I was saying, for instance, I remember devouring Orwell's "1984" and detesting Huxley's "Brave New World". But then I savored "Steppenwolf".

Because I found reality in two of those stories, but found Huxley to be too much in advocacy of his plot schemes. I appreciate that he is considered to be aiming for revulsion, or should be, but without any trace of humanity. And that some of his book is fast becoming the norm, and not the cautionary tale.

I used to spend a Lot of time at the corner library, reading Bradbury and Poe, but then they closed the library. And then we moved far distant to the alternate sites. Miles away.

 

[Shooby Doo]

there was a robot that talked like slim pickens...?!? man, i've gotta sees me a youtube clip.

He did the voice but was apparently uncredited for it. His robot death:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bGOsQFMEbs

btw can't remember if i mentioned this before, but they're pretty close to a sequel on bladerunner, after harrison ford heals up of course. i think it's based on the sequel books that another author came in and wrote.

PKD's most awarded work "the man in the high castle" is also being developed as a 4-part miniseries. so far they did the pilot... i'm hoping the money comes in to make the rest.

I knew they were doing a bladerunner sequel, though it's hard for me to imagine it... I guess Harrison Ford wasn't a replicant. Or replicants age like humans. Though PKD didn't care for the original movie, he said they got it to look almost exactly as he had imagined, but he thought they butchered his story. Hopefully Ridley Scott will do it right. At least better than what he did with Prometheus (which I still like).

I had no idea they were doing Man in the High Castle. I really hope they can pull that off.

 

[sleepy]

Wasn't Ford a replicant in the Director's Cut, but not a Replicant in the Studio Cut?

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

@bill,
sorry, mate. i admit it's a bit hard for me to be open-minded about high castle. it's arguably the grestest work by arguably the most influential SF author of all time. in any case he's my favorite author and i find the book brilliant in many ways. oh well. we're not supposed to be the same across life.


yeah ford being a replicant or not is one of those cult-discussions that go back and forth endlessly. to me it's more of a maguffin than anything else. i mean, it really matters very little to the story or the significant themes involved. i don't think it was in the book at all.

but yeah-- i don't see how PKD could have been thrilled with bladerunner. they left out mercerism, the penfield mood organ, and the deep human longing for animal companionship... even if it involved keeping a synthetic droid pet just for ego and show. three utterly fascinating themes from the book gone just like that.


wow thx for finding that clip, shooby. amazingly poignant scene even tho it was so odd and almost cartoony. i'll have to check out more from that movie.


been a long time since i read those books, sleepy. no idea what i'd think about them now. geez, so much stuff to read... so much stuff to read.


btw i've been watching land of the lost episodes recently just for fun. they're so campy, yet often filled with mind-bending concepts... a fairly rare combination.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

@bill,
sorry, mate. i admit it's a bit hard for me to be open-minded about high castle. it's arguably the grestest work by arguably the most influential SF author of all time. in any case he's my favorite author and i find the book brilliant in many ways. oh well. we're not supposed to be the same across life.

My main problem with Man In the High Castle, to quote Homer Simpson: "Too much artsy, not enough fartsy." But I dug on Electric Sheep and A Scanner Darkly... although even that one started to lean a little heavy on some of Dick's rather dense, hallucinatory writing. But, hey... he's responsible for some pretty good Hollywood! Except for either version of Total Recall. I remember at the time really digging that film despite Ahnold's presence (although his line reading of "Considerdihdahdibors" is worthy of a special Oscar), when I watched it about four years ago it seems a little too dated to stand up as well as... well, Blade Runner. I am betting against the chance that the remake from... last year was it?... is the greatest movie ever made, but I'll just let someone else fill me in, rather than put myself through another "pointless Hollywood remake" wringer.
BTW, wasn't that Colin Farrell in that recall of Recall? Sure enough! Man, he's really sinking his teeth into the whole "shitty, needless remake thing"... Recall, Miami Vice, SWAT, Fright Night... maybe he can play the glob of snot ghost in the Ghostbusters remake!

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

they'll never run out of movies to make out of PKD stories. his short story collection is possibly even more impressive than his novels because each short story is generally so well-developed that it could rather easily be turned in to a novel by any particular writer.


when i saw the matrix film, it came off to me as a collection of warmed-over ideas from PKD and other writers from his generation. "the past does not exist... we must all worship the great leader"... my fellow audience members seemed to murmur beneath their breath en masse.

 

[GSGregg]

Man in the High Castle, huh? I guess I'd better hit Wiki and at least have an inkling.....

The last chunk of reading I did before my aging eyes got to the less-than-comfortable stage was the Nightsdawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. Three standalone novels, each split and published as two books, all tied together by the main story for roughly 4,000 pages. Many ideas were explored, some old and some new, but well-integrated.....

Living starships genetically bonded to their human captains, and expiring ships 'procreating' by downloading their life experiences to baby ships.....can you grok organic molecules comprising warp reactors?

Living habitats (Rama, anyone?) likewise linked with their populations both alive and deceased (the 'Consensus').....

Armies of synthetic heavy-set badasses with beetle-carapace-based exoskeletons each with their own 'consensuses' {what the hell is plural?}

Quinn Dexter, an evil motherfucker in command of an almost infinite supply of non-sentient, but extremely catalytic, displaced creatures who give their infectees incredible skills without realizing they're doing so.....

I could go on for days, and I thought Hamilton had done exactly that; it took me almost six months to get through it.
_________________________________________________________

During my reading stint, I covered almost all of Robert Heinlein and some of Arthur C. Clarke and others, but when I hooked up with Larry Niven (and his collaborations with Dr. Jerry Pournelle) I was in the bag. And I shouldn't forget Greg Benford, the late Dr. Charles Sheffield, and Vernor Vinge (A Fire Upon the Deep). Long story short (too late!), PKD isn't among the cluster of authors I spent time with, but I DID like Blade Runner and wouldn't mind feasting my eyes on Rachael again (was that her name?).....

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Damn, Greg... you read everyone but PKD! In fact, it's almost like you were deliberately trying to avoid him! :D
I'm gonna have to shout the praises of the ebook reader once again... there's no way I'd be reading as much as I do without adjustable fonts! I just happened to crack open a book Barb got for Xmas and it was trying to point out which ant on the hill was scratching his head!
I couldn't find the Peter Hamilton thing you were talking about, but I was intrigued. What I did find was an audiobook called Pandora's Star, the first book of the Commonwealth saga. And, at 37 hours long... well, that's one hell of a book! I'll have to give it a test-drive!

 

[LeeVanCleef]

LOL! Be careful of what you wish for... Rachael was played by infamous Hollywood nutjob Sean Young, who went around on talk shows in her own homemade catsuit in a bid to get the role of Catwoman in Tim Burton's film. Cuckoo for Cocopuffs! Give me a tender, young Darryl Hannah as Pris.

 

[GSGregg]

Yo, Ruby! After the Trilogy, back in about 2005, I picked up Pandora's Star but never got to it.....as time passed, he kept adding to it, and it wound up as ponderous (or involving) as the Trilogy. (Inside the front cover of Star, They promo'ed "Judas Unchained", coming January 2006, as "the conclusion to this epic adventure", but I think there was yet a third title---Hey! I'll look it up! Be right back! ___________________________
I'm not that fond of typing, so I'll just suggest you look up The Commonwealth Saga (Pandora's Star is the second of three titles, which are followed by The Void Trilogy.....Jeez! This guy's more verbose than Asimov! (But well worth it if you have lots of reading time).

Maybe you can find the trilogy with a few titles under the belt:

The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, and the Naked God.

Enjoy, if you can find the time.

 

[GSGregg]

LOL! Be careful of what you wish for...

Hahaha...I thought you'd get s kick out of that. Remember her in No Way Out with Costner? She was about as well suited for that role as Charlie Sheen was for Charlie Harper!

OOPS! Didn't read closely enough to see that you are already hep to Commonwealth.....

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Aw, man... No Way Out! That was a pretty good movie. Great ending! Not even a tag team of Costner and Sean Young can spoil a good Gene Hackman performance!

Jeezum Crow... so The Void books continue what looks to be the 58-hour audiobooks of the first two entries? That is why I don't get too involved in sci-fi series series... that's like my whole reading schedule for the year! But I'm still gonna give the Pandora one a shot!