Last movie watched...

[Spikes]

but it's a well-enough done story, if treading a lot of familiar ground to the point I think it might be a remake of something else

It is. Not seen the Belushi version, but i remember the 1943 original being decent enough. Very watchable on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

[HdE]

I really want to watch Lexx now...

Do it! I've just started on the series proper now, and I've been pleasantly surprised by the upswing in production values. Loadsa fun!

[SmallBlueThing]

A little-known flick called "The Star Wars: Part Four, Hope and Glory", or something.

No- haven't seen it in a good while, and realised- on catching the kids playing with their Millennium Falcon in completely the wrong way that they hadn't ever really seen the original properly. Oh, they've been plunked in front of it many times in their short lives, but not recently and not since getting to "the right ages" (seven and nine). As a result the prequels have been their number one Star Wars thing and the poor old original trilogy has languished in the backwaters of their popularity for far too long. Tonight we put that right.

As a result, I now have two boys upstairs playing properly with figures and vehicles, and youngest has borrowed my "Classic Star Wars A New Hope" Thomas and Chaykin adaptation as well as the more recent Dark Horse re-do version. Eldest, keen to show his superior knowledge, has borrowed Shadows of the Empire- by our Mr Wagner- causing me the panic of finding I'm missing an issue. Bollocks! Both demand Empire Strikes Back within the week.

Niggly bit: Matte squares around TIEs- never noticed them being so bad! We were watching the silver-spined boxset version of Special Edition from 2004. Dreadful. Havethey been cleaned up for the Blu-Ray?

Anyway- yay!

SBT

[shaolin_monkey]

Yeah, those matte squares really detract from the overall effect!  I'm glad it's not just me that is irked by them.

Watched 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' last night, 2008 version. My god, it was appalling.  I think the best thing in it was John Cleese.  Will Smiths son performed well too.  Otherwise, wooden performances all round, no sense of drama, shonky effects and a by the numbers ending.  If my daughter hadn't been so keen Ro watch it to the end I would have turned over 30 mins in.

[JamesC]

A little-known flick called "The Star Wars: Part Four, Hope and Glory", or something.

No- haven't seen it in a good while, and realised- on catching the kids playing with their Millennium Falcon in completely the wrong way that they hadn't ever really seen the original properly. Oh, they've been plunked in front of it many times in their short lives, but not recently and not since getting to "the right ages" (seven and nine). As a result the prequels have been their number one Star Wars thing and the poor old original trilogy has languished in the backwaters of their popularity for far too long. Tonight we put that right.

As a result, I now have two boys upstairs playing properly with figures and vehicles, and youngest has borrowed my "Classic Star Wars A New Hope" Thomas and Chaykin adaptation as well as the more recent Dark Horse re-do version. Eldest, keen to show his superior knowledge, has borrowed Shadows of the Empire- by our Mr Wagner- causing me the panic of finding I'm missing an issue. Bollocks! Both demand Empire Strikes Back within the week.

Niggly bit: Matte squares around TIEs- never noticed them being so bad! We were watching the silver-spined boxset version of Special Edition from 2004. Dreadful. Havethey been cleaned up for the Blu-Ray?

Anyway- yay!

SBT

It'll be interesting to see what their favourite of all six films is at the end.
I'm firmly of the belief that Return of the Jedi is best with Empire a close second. I find the first Star Wars (can't get used to calling it 'A New Hope'!) is actually a bit boring and all the really good story stuff begins in Empire.

[Spikes]

Niggly bit: Matte squares around TIEs- never noticed them being so bad! We were watching the silver-spined boxset version of Special Edition from 2004. Dreadful. Havethey been cleaned up for the Blu-Ray?

Yep, its funny that Lucas/film probably went through ANH frame by frame with a fine-tooth comb, yet missed those - plus some other little bits and bobs throughout.
Never went the Blu-Ray option for these, but i think i read somewhere they were cleaned up.

I'm firmly of the belief that Return of the Jedi is best with Empire a close second. I find the first Star Wars (can't get used to calling it 'A New Hope'!) is actually a bit boring and all the really good story stuff begins in Empire.

Thats a bit of a rarity regarding Jedi. Was Jedi the first SW film you caught?

[JamesC]

Niggly bit: Matte squares around TIEs- never noticed them being so bad! We were watching the silver-spined boxset version of Special Edition from 2004. Dreadful. Havethey been cleaned up for the Blu-Ray?

Yep, its funny that Lucas/film probably went through ANH frame by frame with a fine-tooth comb, yet missed those - plus some other little bits and bobs throughout.
Never went the Blu-Ray option for these, but i think i read somewhere they were cleaned up.

I'm firmly of the belief that Return of the Jedi is best with Empire a close second. I find the first Star Wars (can't get used to calling it 'A New Hope'!) is actually a bit boring and all the really good story stuff begins in Empire.

Thats a bit of a rarity regarding Jedi. Was Jedi the first SW film you caught?

No, I saw Star Wars first - on telly, then Jedi at the cinema and then Empire on VHS.
I think Empire is a close second to Jedi and it's probably the most important regarding the whole mythology but I think Jedi is the best film overall.
The whole Solo rescue at the beginning is just bloody brilliant, then the Sarlac sequence is even better (the fact that it digests you over a thousand years was something that really freaked me out when I was younger) - Jabba is probably the best puppet/model work in any film ever.
The forest of Endor is a great location and I love the speeder bikes and scout walkers. I actually like the Ewoks too and think that the whole 'Ewoks are crap' thing has just become received wisdom that people say without thinking about it.
The film ends with the best, most satisfying, space battle of the trilogy intercut with the best light-saber fight and the Emperor showing you just what a nasty git he is.

The one thing that should be cut from Jedi is the Chewbacca Tarzan call but it doesn't ruin the film for me.

[Hawkmumbler]

Watched a little known movie about some chap's stuck in a shopping center filled with zombies last night. Dawn of the something-or-nothing. It is, of cause, a classic.

[Jim_Campbell]

but I think Jedi is the best film overall.

I agree with pretty much all of this.

The whole "Ewoks are crap" thing is a particularly annoying bit of adult fan retro-think. I was a die-hard SW fan when 'Jedi' came out, and pretty much all my friends were, too. None of us, not one of us, had a problem with the Ewoks and the idea that we, as adults, are required to retroactively claim we didn't like things as kids because we now think they're a bit silly infuriates me.

Cheers

Jim

[SmallBlueThing]

Sorry Jim, i was also a die-hard Star Wars fan when Jedi came out, and ALL OF US had a huge problem with the ewoks. So much so that saying "ewoks are just teddy bears and star wars is for babies" got a kid in my class a black eye from my year's biggest fan. My old school books from 1983 are covered with doodles of ewok teddies chasing said kid and the wider concensus was that lucas was just repeating and "trying to make money" (gasp! no!)- The death star- again! Tattooine- again! Ewok teddy bears! More aliens to make into action figures!

At 12 and 13, we were the original SW generation on the cusp of teenage cynicism. Those of us who still loved Star Wars and hadnt dumped it for football and girls just yet were under attack from the cooler kids- and the evidence of the ewoks was the killing blow. None of us could argue the point- they were, and are, a fucking disgrace. See Battle for Endor and Caravan of Courage for more proof.

My favourite is the original, then ESB. Jedi sits below TPM for me.

SBT

[Daveycandlish]

I agree with James and Jim here - and I saw all of them on their original releases, yet still love everything about Jedi most of all (but you know what annoys me most of all? Changing the ewok victory song on the re-issue dvd's. Boils my piss that does. I love that tune)

[Jim_Campbell]

My favourite is the original, then ESB. Jedi sits below TPM for me.

Yes, but you are such a rampant contrarian hell-bent on projecting your personal opinions onto the wider world as 'fact' that I pretty much ignore everything you say these days.

I unreservedly acknowledge that I could be the one who is consistently and brain-meltingly wrong about almost everything, but it's the only sane option for my blood pressure, TBH.

Sorry...

Jim

[Professor Bear]

The Ewoks were so universally reviled they spawned two tv movies, a cartoon series, a comic book, and their own line of toys.  Clearly no-one liked them.

[SmallBlueThing]

Jim, if you are so stuck developmentally in 1983 that you are prepared to get PERSONAL over ewoks, then you're not the man i thought you were, and you can consider yourself ignored from now on.

SBT

[JOE SOAP]

I actually like the Ewoks too and think that the whole 'Ewoks are crap' thing has just become received wisdom that people say without thinking about it.

I think that attitude just comes from someone announcing to the fan-boys the original intention was for them to be Wookies which really just sounds more arsom in comparison to however good the Ewoks are. If they had been Wookies the only difference to the scenes would be taller fur-bags otherwise they'd still be acting cute.

The film ends with the best, most satisfying, space battle of the trilogy intercut with the best light-saber fight and the Emperor showing you just what a nasty git he is.

I do think the sabre fight in Empire is better directed and plays better by not being interrupted.