Last movie watched...

[Professor Bear]

Robocop 3 - when I bought the Robocop Trilogy blu-ray, this was my first choice of viewing from all three films.  It's not good, ruined by actively bad direction from Monster Squad's Fred Dekker, but even gash acting and direction can't kill the odd good moment, especially one sequence where Robo finally stops moping and decides he's going to go kill the English-accented main villain right now even though it's only the second act, a decision which leads directly to Robocop chasing someone in a burning pimpmobile.  Robocop in a jetpack is also great, and "why does Robo need a jetpack?" is the same kind of question as "why does a T-Rex need a flamethrower?" - because there's no such thing as being too awesome.
Momentary brushes with greatness aside, it's still a shite film, which is a shame because it could at least have been better than Robocop 2 with tighter editing, having an objectively interesting turn for the character when he's not just the usual 'hero on the run' cliche but an actual terrorist in what seems to be the final days of the American empire when the implacable OCP monolith of the two previous films (and tv series) finally crumbles at the hands of the capitalist system it embodied.  Robocop 1 was about the excesses of capitalists, 2 was about the excesses of consumers, and 3 is about what happens when all of that has failed and all that's left is for communities to circle the wagons in the streets and defend what little they've been left.
I also can't believe Frank Miller co-plotted this film - not because it's so terrible, but because Robocop 3 is about the failures of capitalism and how it destroys lives and communities without giving anything in return, and I cannot picture such sentiments coming from a soulless corporate whore like Miller.

The Guard.  Essentially an extended Father Ted sketch but without the internal logic stretching whatever way necessary to make a gag, the unassuming mix of the absurd and the tragic is oddly compelling and Gleason is on top form - the deadpan way he danders through the wreckage of a boy racer come off the roads was something I felt guilty for laughing at as hard as I did.  Very funny.

[Roger Godpleton]

What did capitalism ever do to you, jerkface?

[JOE SOAP]

I also can't believe Frank Miller co-plotted this film - not because it's so terrible, but because Robocop 3 is about the failures of capitalism and how it destroys lives and communities without giving anything in return, and I cannot picture such sentiments coming from a soulless corporate whore like Miller.

Didn't he only become the extremist-jingoist-capitalist post-911 whereas he was more of a run-of-the-mill Republican before?

[Beaky Smoochies]

Didn't he only become the extremist-jingoist-capitalist post-911 whereas he was more of a run-of-the-mill Republican before?

With respect Joe (and I mean that sincerely), watching your fellow citizens jump to their deaths from a hundred-odd floors of a skyscraper rather than burn to death after a passenger-laden airplane slams straight into it one sunny September morning would make even the most moderate Republican want to go get the people responsible... and if the rest of the world doesn't like that, well screw them, and I agree!

[Professor Bear]

Didn't he only become the extremist-jingoist-capitalist post-911 whereas he was more of a run-of-the-mill Republican before?

With respect Joe (and I mean that sincerely), watching your fellow citizens jump to their deaths from a hundred-odd floors of a skyscraper rather than burn to death after a passenger-laden airplane slams straight into it one sunny September morning would make even the most moderate Republican want to go get the people responsible... and if the rest of the world doesn't like that, well screw them, and I agree!

If they wanted to "get the people responsible", how come the US still hasn't invaded Saudi Arabia?  Come to that, what does Robocop 3, a film made in 1993, have to do with 911?  "Nine Eleven, man... NINE ELEVEN!"  Is not actually an argument, and if it is, it's not one you want to start here.

I am not sure Miller's views on anti-capitalist demonstrations can reasonably be argued to be informed by his patriotism, otherwise he wouldn't have denounced the ex-servicemen and women who lent their voices to the Occupy movement as rapists and thugs when Miller hasn't served a day in his entire life.  I think the argument you want to be having is Miller's views on Islam, which would be reasonable if they were directed at the extremist wing of an isolationist and regressive religious movement rather than anyone with dark skin, but Holy Terror and Miller's online comments are clearly the work of a cowardly and entitled crybaby who doesn't grasp the idea of what a community is, and thus has no place retreating behind such as justification for being an arsehole much as the vast majority of the American right does when called out on their shit.

[Roger Godpleton]

Plus it cost, like, a trillion dollars.

[DeFuzzed]

With respect Joe (and I mean that sincerely), watching your fellow citizens jump to their deaths from a hundred-odd floors of a skyscraper rather than burn to death after a passenger-laden airplane slams straight into it one sunny September morning would make even the most moderate Republican want to go get the people responsible... and if the rest of the world doesn't like that, well screw them, and I agree!

Agree.

Back to movies I last watched, True Grit, the remake.

Who knew American was a foreign language?! I think I understood maybe 40% of what came out of their mouths. Still, the girl was really impressive, acting wise.

And Paul, which was nowhere as good as Shaun or Hott Fuzz. Shame, since aliens and Roswell and Comic-Con and road-trip sound brilliant, individually, you'd think mashing them up would work too, especially in the hands of Pegg et al.

[JOE SOAP]

With respect Joe (and I mean that sincerely), watching your fellow citizens jump to their deaths from a hundred-odd floors of a skyscraper rather than burn to death after a passenger-laden airplane slams straight into it one sunny September morning would make even the most moderate Republican want to go get the people responsible... and if the rest of the world doesn't like that, well screw them, and I agree!

With respect, that argument doesn't really fit with Miller's recent non-sensically impotent old-man rantings, an act he continues to allow fester and infect his work to an unreadable degree. Things aren't that black & white, the last 12 years of dick-waving, over-stretch, economic collapse and venturous blunderings in multiple Middle-Eastern states that had tenuous links to whatever terror network was in their heads have borne that out.

I find that reasoning understandable in a reflexsive emotional way but short-sighted and ignorant after this amount of time and dead bodies -mostly innocent people from other lands- on all sides

[JOE SOAP]

... and if the rest of the world doesn't like that, well screw them, and I agree!

I'd expect that from a 12 year-old not an adult and indicative of a certain mind-set especially when the subsequent actions actually involve the rest of the world to a great degree and less a bunch of rogue terrorists from Saudi Arabia and of course the dire consequences that followed. They can do what they want within their own borders but not in countries/regions that had no involvement. Using a terrible attack as a pretext for a wider war is not the solution.

Nothern Ireland taught us enough lessons in sustained violence.

[Beeks]

Anyone else watching Gentleman Broncos?

Genius!

[Beaky Smoochies]

I'd expect that from a 12 year-old not an adult and indicative of a certain mind-set especially when the subsequent actions actually involve the rest of the world to a great degree and less a bunch of rogue terrorists from Saudi Arabia and of course the dire consequences that followed. They can do what they want within their own borders but not in countries/regions that had no involvement. Using a terrible attack as a pretext for a wider war is not the solution.
Northern Ireland taught us enough lessons in sustained violence.

I acknowledge and understand your well-made points (as always), Joe dude, but it's not childish to treat terrorism as terrorism, I can't speak for Miller but the U.S. can - and DOES - need to protect their homeland from threats on foreign shores, and if you think Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda were not in cahoots (not on 9/11 specifically), then read Stephen Hayes' The Connection  book, which goes into very specific details about the operational co-operation between the two entities... and just for the record, I happen to disagree with the invasion of Iraq, it simply wasn't worth the amount of blood and treasure spent relative to the goal and/or eventual outcome, period! 

And on the subject of da nort', you wouldn't had sustained violence if the Brits had hammered the IRA into dust when they had the chance in 1921 or 1974, but chose the negotiating route, the terrorist infrastructure survived and innocents paid for it with life and limb (one of my own family members included)...

Anyhoo, back to movies, haven't seen the True Grit remake, but heard seriously impressive things about it, how does it compare to the John Wayne version, Defuzzed dude...?

[JOE SOAP]

and if you think Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda were not in cahoots (not on 9/11 specifically), then read Stephen Hayes' The Connection  book, which goes into very specific details about the operational co-operation between the two entities... and just for the record,

Rumsfeld had a working relationship with Saddam too -after Saddam was removed from the terror list in 1982- and he sold them weapons/hardware to fight the Kurds. In response to the gassing of the Kurds, sweeping sanctions were unanimously passed by the US Senate that would have denied Iraq access to most US technology. The measure was killed by the White House. Do the Kurds have the right to stage an attack on America in retaliation for supporting Saddam?

It is not easy or simple to support a war complex on either side that are ultimately amoral no matter how they paint it because they have prioritised strategies that are not only about punishing terrorists. It never works as a method for justice.

[Professor Bear]

I just thought it was cool when Robocop came into the room and set that guy on fire just after he'd asked someone if they had a light.  Frank should have stuck to doing stuff like that instead of publicly being a huge tool.

[JOE SOAP]

Well Frank always wanted to be like the characters he wrote, too bad he couldn't bring himself to drop the pen, pick up a gun and go fight.

[Beaky Smoochies]

Rumsfeld had a working relationship with Saddam too -after Saddam was removed from the terror list in 1982- and he sold them weapons/hardware to fight the Kurds. In response to the gassing of the Kurds, sweeping sanctions were unanimously passed by the US Senate that would have denied Iraq access to most US technology. The measure was killed by the White House. Do the Kurds have the right to stage an attack on America in retaliation for supporting Saddam?

This particular rotten conspiracy theory needs to be clarified (with all respect intended Joe dude); Donald Rumsfeld did not - and I'll repeat that, DID NOT - sell Saddam Hussein chemical and/or biological weapons in the 1980's, the U.S. did however sell them weapons, ammo, and various military hardware in their conflict with Iran between 1980-88, the reason being to set the two regional powers against each other to effectively keep each other in check, a strategy that actually worked until Saddam decided to invade Kuwait, a foolhardy move that turned the West against him, and which ultimately led to him swinging from a noose. 

It is not easy or simple to support a war complex on either side that are ultimately amoral no matter how they paint it because they have prioritised strategies that are not only about punishing terrorists. It never works as a method for justice.

Tell that to Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden... sometimes to catch a thief, you have to burn the forest down (courtesy of Alfred Pennyworth), sorry if that sound simplistic Joe my friend (meant with all sincerity), but I believe it.