Uni

I'm probably the very last person qualified to recruit for the weekly chat, but it'd be cool to see some people in there today.... - Uni

I can't believe I didn't respond in that other thread--especially considering I was the other half of the conversation that was its seed. Man.... The film used to make me ad nauseous too (), but it's grown on me. I went through a similar experience with the score, Edag; I ignored it for a few years (and I even had it in my collection, too), until a few multiple listenings gave it a chance to take root and grow into one of my favorite scores. (I believe I gave it third place for the official Top Ten list.) While I'm now able to "find the magic," Jeff, I still found your thoughts well stated and very valid (as usual). I'm going to have to give it another look, to see if that cut-before-the-musical-number-starts bit is as pronounced as you say. And in the long run, I'm just as disappointed we'll never see the full, musical version of their original vision. Pity. - Uni

Forgotten?? Not by me, I love this film. Peter Cushings best work! "Souvenirs, Novelties, Party Tricks! Souvenirs, Novelties, Party Tricks!" Without a doubt, the best work the Zucker/Abrams trio ever did. One of the most stylish and downright hilarious parodies of all time. Great stuff! "Let me know if his condition changes." (Hangs up phone.) "He is dead." - Uni

Big change from last year, I think. The first anniversary of the tragedies was a day for allowing ourselves to deal with the events again, to bring it back to the surface for a brief time. It assured we wouldn't forget, but it also helped us realize how much growth and good change can happen in a year. (It was also the first time I heard many of the inspiring, heroic, and even positive stories from that otherwise awful day for the first time.) I wondered if that would be the mood again today....but it really wasn't. We commemorated the date, certainly, but it was far less overwhelming. Even the little footage I saw from Ground Zero looked different than a year ago; there was grief, to be sure, but also much more of a palpable sense of slow healing and even hope. We're getting past those horrors--even doing our best to battle toward their future prevention--and it's a relief to see it's not something that will dominate our lives for the forseeable future. All the same, the losses cannot be forgotten, and I would wish all the best, for now and the days and years to come, to those who suffered them most severely. - Uni

Saw Insomnia last night. What a film. Superbly made, magnificently written and conceived, top-notch performances. Too cool. - Uni

Y'know....with so many of us looking at London '05, what we might ought to do is talk to Williams' people about this. If we could demonstrate that enough people were going to be there, and somehow give it an "official" angle (as a part of JWFan), we might--just might--find a way to convince them to leave a smidgen of his schedule open for a quick meeting. If we show our best face on this, really generate some interest and support, I think it could have a slim chance of coming off.... - Uni

Walter Murphy's E.T. and More is a lot of fun. It's basically Williams classics (along with some ST material) done up like Hooked on Classics. Since Hooked was a favorite series of mine growing up, I had a blast with it. - Uni

Cool....that was the last movie I saw in the theaters. Very good, very involving film. I'm not much for horror films, but then, this really wasn't a horror film. (That's a huge misrepresentation--they're not really zombies. Which is something I liked, since there wasn't any nonsense about brain-eating or trying to kill them over and over again and they just keep coming.) As for home entertainment....I dunno. Mrs. Doubtfire, I think. (I'm with you, Ross; no time for that stuff.) - Uni

Oh yeah....you're right. That reminds me of another good one. There is a virtuoso Williams piano moment during the stealth raid aboard the Death Star--perhaps one of the only moments a film character actually gets involved in the effect, too. When Ben Kenobi needs a quick distraction, he lifts a finger and uses the Force to influence the "weak-minded" LSO pianist into tapping a note in the higher range. (Pretty cool that the stormtroopers heard it, too, considering the score was recorded months later.) How much more clever can it get than that? "Look at the size of that phone!" "Cut the chatter Red Two!" ... Sorry, couldn't resist. ;) ROTFLMAO - Uni

When I was about eight, my next-door neighbor brought me into his clubhouse and showed me one of his prized possessions: the old Heavy Metal comic adaptation of Alien. We took turns reading the narration and dialogue. From the first few pages, I was morbidly fascinated; by the time Kane's chest went Vesuvius, I was completely hooked. (I tracked down a copy of the comic for myself a few years ago....) Then I got the Alan Dean Foster novelization when I was ten. Because I went cover-to-cover with it repeatedly back then, even after years of finer literature I'm pretty sure I've read that novel more times than any other (probably five or six times more than the closest runner-up). Foster's style--clipped dialogue, altered scenes, and a trite love affair with fragmented sentences--reads pretty goofy today, but to an engrossed preadolescent he was able to create absorbingly vivid images for the mind's eye to feed on. It was a few years before I actually got to see the movie, but when I did....oh, man. It was a captivating experience, watching the true form of a story I'd already pictured for myself in so many different fashions. While I can't deny a certain measure of predetermind bias toward the film, I'll staunchly defend it to my grave as one of the finest cinematic experiences of all time. There aren't many films I can think of that have been able to create such a palpable atmosphere, a sense of place and time and foreboding that so completely transcends the visuals alone (though those are brilliant in their own right). Even disregarding the horror elements, it's a tour-de-force accomplishment; add those elements to the mix, and you have something that's gripping, exhiliarating, terrifying, fascinating, and deeply, deeply moving on every level. Aliens was a great sequel; Cameron managed to approach the core idea from a different, unique angle, while remaining more or less faithful to the original conceptions. Alien3 and Resurrection were perfect examples of what happens when a narrow-minded fan base gets their hands on good material. Both were Dark Horse comic, gangrenous, plebian sci-fi dreck. But even their failures couldn't take away from the dazzling triumph of the original. Alien easily makes my top five list of best films of all time. - Uni

You've all hit the good ones. I dunno about total score consistency, but I think I'd have to give highest marks to Always, with Presumed Innocent and Stanley and Iris close behind. I'm ticked, though--I thought I would get to be the first to cite Williams's most intruiging use of piano (one of the most intruiging by any composer, I think), but ymenard beat me to it. That "Battle of Hoth" intro, simple as it may seem, is brilliant, if only for the use of a piano in lieu of another, more common bass instrument. - Uni

I looked for several years, never did find it in a store. Wound up having to get it online. - Uni

While we're on Star Trek, here's another one: In the middle of the piece "Klingons," after the Bird of Prey destroys the smaller freighter and the music fades from a deep rumble into silence, there's half a second before the music starts to build again (following the Enterprise toward the spacedock in orbit)....and in that instant the entire orchestra (even the string section, from the sound of it) takes a deep breath in preparation for the long crescendo. It's such an effervescent, organic sound, and a vivid reminder of how much of the wind of life is poured into the music we love. - Uni

Or like that time in Star Wars, when the Tusken Raider is attacking Luke. You can totally hear some dude walking through the studio, cracking a whip or something. Can you believe how rude...? Seriously....the noise that always fascinates me the most is valvework. In a piece or sequence with a lot of woodwind (and a pause in the rest of the orchestra)--the flighty bridge to "Summon the Heroes," for instance--you can hear the soft clacking of dozens of instruments, almost like they're whispering to each other. That's what really puts you in the recording hall with them.... As for those inadvertent sounds, there are many....but the one that pops instantly to mind every time the subject's brought up is from the moment in Star Wars when Artoo knocks Luke on his kiester and first displays Leia's message. There's something like a soft hoot, changing inflection in the background. I've never been able to figure out whether that's an intentional effect or if it was accidental....and if it wasn't meant to be there, what the heck made that sound, anyway? I could be wrong, Marian, but I got the impression when I was watching that shot of him conducting that it wasn't actually the piece playing on the track--more like it was stock footage of him conducting (maybe from the first film), and they just matched it to music from COS. However, like I said, I could be way, way off on that. - Uni

Yeah....Bienvenido buckets, oceans, even.... Welcome to the board. Enjoy yourself! - Uni

THANK YOU, JOE! I was scrolling through this thread in disbelief, completely floored that no one had brought up the piece I thought sure would appear somewhere in the first couple of posts. "The Abduction of Barry" gives me chills to this day (especially in the dark...!). - Uni

I'm not concerned one way or another about the new cut....but to see Alien again in a theater, after all these years....DAMMIT! It's still two months away! - Uni

In my opinion, it's pretentious to adopt an attitude of vicarious familiarity with artistic works of which you have little cultural or spiritual connection. Don't you think Penderecki deserves the level of respect of you, a young composer, reffering to his pieces by the full title he gave them? Especially in this case, being a profound and grave composition, concerning one of the most significant tragedies of all time... Ah....good thing this little passage bears none of the earmarks of pretentiousness; people might be led to consider you a hypocrite. :roll: Help me out, folks....At first, I thought he was kidding--y'know, poking some fun at Jeremy 'n' all (though if that were the case, he could use a little "vicarious familiarity" with the finer points of bantering sarcasm). I'm beginning to think differently now. The tone's just a little too harsh. Still....it's hard time believing someone could actually be so obsessed with making sure the knife was twisted just so--especially around here. Am I missing something? And if not....do we need this? - Uni

Wow....two sides, and I can't disagree with either. Cool.... Joe, this was far and away your best post in years. I'm clipping and keeping it with my quotables. Seriously. Whether or not I agreed with everything you said (although, if y'wanna know, I did), the way you said it was too great. Especially points 1, 2, 3, and 16. One point stood out in particular, though: I thought that was Ernest Borgnine....oops. On the other hand: HAH....yes!!! I don't know how long you've been lurking in the wings, SevenYears, but I'm glad you decided to speak up. Your writing style's great, and I can't deny you made some very good points in your thesis--and it was refreshing to see, as opposed to an "offended" party lashing back in anger, someone respond with wit and pinache equal to the opening remarks. So here I am....agreeing with both of you. All I can say in answer to your question, Seven, is that frustration often breeds hyperbole. I don't think anyone hopes, expects, or believes any of these people will be fired. What would that solve? It would be infinitely better if they could, as people have said, learn from their mistakes and make a better film. At the same time, I don't think anyone hopes, expects, or believes that will happen either. So we're left with venting, and no blame to anyone who feels the need to do so (especially if they're this clever in doing it). What we really need is our own Chicken Soup book.... - Uni

Well done, Joe....very well done indeed. Of all the ways you could take a stand against something you disagree with, this is probably as clever as you could get (a little blunt, I guess, but not as vitriolic as you tend to get sometimes--which makes this an improvement). I'm impressed. I think you know what I'm talking about.... - Uni

I went with TNG, because I got to know it the best of all of them. DS9 was a close second--but then, it really didn't have an equal chance to compete, since I still haven't seen the last three seasons, and I don't have the Dominion War to balance the argument. However, in most respects (and from all I did see), it was within inches of being every bit as good as its predecessor. Voyager was pretty good to start with, and had some really good episodes thrown in there, but it failed its general (and most promising) premise. The idea was that this starship was stuck on the other side of the galaxy, with no Starfleet spacedocks or Federation supplies within reach. And yet, seven years passed....and the ship didn't change at all. Every week, no matter how much damage the thing sustained during the previous episode, it looked as new as the day it left Utopia Planetia. It sold us short on the whole "Robinson Crusoe/wandering survivors" bit, and took the shorter (and easier) route of just using their little excursion as a way to introduce new races and situations (and even that went south eventually, since they fell back on the ol' Borg after a while). In the end, I felt cheated of what should've been a seven-year hiatus through a galactic Gilligan's Island (a little more mature, obviously, but you get the point). The Original Series was okay, but just a tad to dated and goofy for me, even when I was younger. Enterprise sucks dirt. It's hard to believe someone could actually make Trek that boring. They must really be working at it. So Picard and Co. get the gold star, for what I considered not only the most compelling group of stories, but the finest character development as well. - Uni

Absolutely the finest run-on sentence you're ever likely to see....thanks, charles. LOL - Uni

Pirates will be a quick LOTR (and Orlando) fix for those anxiously awaiting Return of the King later this year....I can't see how Tomb Raider 2 could possibly do any better than the first, and that wasn't anything special (this is a sequel for the sake of a sequel alone; this movie didn't need to be made)....I have high hopes for League of E.G.--but then, I had high hopes for Reloaded, which proved how disappointing it is for high hopes to be dashed. Is it worth going through that again?....I have an interesting theory on why Nemo is pasting Reloaded: The former was entertaining; the second was not. Word of mouth has the power to bouy or sink a film, and I think that's all that happened here (although I can't entirely disagree with the "separate audiences" argument). Summer used to be the best time of year for movies. Now it's the season for dead-headed bombast, and late fall has replaced it as the primary season for films loaded with entertainment and substance. I guess it doesn't make that much difference, other than a slightly longer wait for the good stuff (or, I suppose you could look at these movies as coming out a half-year earlier, if you wanted....). - Uni

I desperately wanted to jump in with my own responses and opinions to the points Ross made initially, but I don't have time right now. (I probably won't be able to rest until I get in on it, though.... ) However, there are a couple of cents jangling in my pocket I just couldn't help throwing in real quick, and Alan summed it up the best. We've ground away endlessly about how everyone's opinion is valid, we all have a right to speak our mind, yada, yada (although it still seems to be a select group who will never come around to believing that....tsk, tsk). I'll steer away from that tack this time, and try another--to wit: How many times have I heard people on this board, after someone has made a generalized, sweeping criticism of a popular film, respond vehemently that, "It isn't enough to just say you don't like it; if you knew what you were talking about, you'd back it up with intelligent argument!" (Often followed--implicity, if not verbally--by a resounding, "SO THERE!!!") So here comes Ross with a bone to pick about one of our favorite films, and what does he do but present his viewpoint in a lucid, precise manner, just like we always wanted....and what does he get for it? "SHUT UP! I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU SAY, YOU'RE STILL WRONG!!!" I'm sorry--am I the only one who doesn't get this...? For myself, I don't agree with Ross's personal take on the movie (although he made a couple of points that were admirably hard to contravene outright). But I have a total appreciation for his feelings, and an even greater appreciation for how he presented them. This is the sort of thing we used to demand on this board--reasonable, sound logic to support peoples' theses. And regardless of how anyone feels about the movie....how can we crucify him for wanting to "vent" a little? (Interestingly enough, most of the people protesting the loudest have done plenty of venting themselves over films they didn't like....and why not? I've done it too. It's fun...! ) Now....that having been said, Ross, I still mean to take you to task over your observations, however competently you reported them....your day is coming. - Uni

What a way to return to the board.... Kate was one of the few women in cinema--ever--who could communicate entire soliloquies of emotional content without ever saying a word. She was almost like the female Ben Kingsley of the silver screen: silence was as valuable a tool in her repertoire as words ever were. She will be missed.... - Uni