2005 Sweet Corn Queen Lindsey Eilbacker
Public Knowledge – June 20, 2007:
Thanks to NBC, we now know who would be most endangered by a free and open Internet – our nation’s corn farmers.
If that argument seems a bit illogical, here’s the reasoning. In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission calling for far more regulation of the Internet than even the most vociferous advocate of Net Neutrality, NBC Universal (the combo network and studio) painted a picture of an Internet overflowing with evil peer-to-peer traffic carrying pirated movies that lead to losses of money and jobs in the movie industry.
Now the money shot: “Because of our nation’s interlocking economy, two-thirds of the lost earnings and lost jobs are in industries other than motion picture production. For example, in the absence of movie piracy, video retailers would sell and rent more titles. Movie theatres would sell more tickets and popcorn. Corn growers would earn greater profits and buy more farm equipment.”
#64 – Yes… But all the Golden China Buffets are different and all the Starbucks are the same 🙂
You know, I want to see a study of Chinese Buffets. They all SEEM to be individually owned, but many obviously order from the same restaurant supply company… And where do all those non-English speaking off the boat Chinese waitresses come from, especially in Indiana and similar places? No matter what time of day or day of the week it is, the Chinese girl named “Betty” is at the buffet adding more General Tso’s chicken to the pan… But I never see her anywhere else in the community. Does she get shut down and stored at the buffet overnight?
Those places are mysterious to me 🙂
65—Where else better to hide non-Engrish speaking illegal slave labor immigrants? I think my last waitress was Betty as well? I know I followed her back to the break room and there was a wall of 100 vcr’s chugging away making copies of vcr tapes.—I was afraid to go farther back in the hallway for fear of crashing an opium den.
[Duplicate post. – ed.]
I haven’t been inside a theater since Crocodile Dundee. I don’t remember what year that was, but I didn’t get my first computer untill 1998. My use of pirated material has NEVER had an effect on an industry I stopped supporting before the technology was available. It doesn’t matter what the MPAA/RIAA claim. they were NEVER going to get a dime from me- with or without the internet.
68. But, but, LtJackboot: are you aware your conduct is unfair to the person whose imagination and hard work created that which you enjoy?
Let me save you the time of responding:
“Yes. I don’t care. I only care about myself. I take whatever I want, whenever I can.”
RBG
69–Yea, I havent seen a Will Ferrel picture yet I liked, but I’m reserving judgment. Escapism when tired can have you watching really bad stuff.
I’m watching Children of Man right now. I wouldn’t call it Sci Fi. Not in the same genre as Blade Runner at all. No existential themes. Man on the run thriller is all it is. Well done for that genre. Clive Owen has been good in everything I have seen. “Never” kill off Julianne Moore so early in a film.
OK, after that list, I’ll assume your earlier post about what great values movie theatergoings are was sarcasm.
#69 – Miami Vice? Talladega Nights? 300? c’mon!
Comment by pedro — 6/27/2007 @ 5:10 pm
Did you see Miami Vice. It wasn’t a remake of the TV show. It’s the best qualities of Michael Mann with swagger and that brooding male bravado, and a style of storytelling that puts in the mind of guys like Lumet and Frankenheimer when they were at the top of their game.
Ferrel may be an acquired taste for some, but I find the over the top nature of his comedies often refreshing. And Talladega Nights was the most honest and realistic portrayal of NASCAR I’ve ever seen 🙂 It’s really hard for me to to believe you’d find fault in the comic turns of Gary Cole in that film.
300… I didn’t say these were on my list of greatest movies ever made that I must watch daily for a year… Only Paul Thomas Anderson films get on that list. 300, however, masterfully produced, beautiful to look at, and I think it’s great when someone makes a homoerotic epic without religious overtones (Passion of the Christ). Plus, you know serious home theater geeks are gonna be saying “Listen to this” to their buddies with that film in their Blu-Ray trays for years to come.
#71 – Some people like film… Some only think they like film. You are obviously not in the people who like film group.
74–So to like film you have to enjoy Will Ferrell and think Children of Men is as good as/better than Blade Runner? AND you have to equate liking a flim to thinking it is good? But, I rarely meet any high standard.
So, Children of Men was very “intense” and a good watch. No where near as complex, layered, or sci-fi as Blade Runner. I will enjoy watching it a few more times. Excellent recommendation, evaluation needs to be rethought.
#75 – Ack!
I was responding to #72… Not #71
And I think it would have been justified had I attributed the correct number to it. 🙁
Sorry about that…
76–Thats “almost” unbelieveable. There was a film touted as a shot for shot, line by line, remake of “Postman Always Rings Twice.”
Should have been a good exercise in acting skills, or lighting or whatever . I don’t recall now if it was shot for shot, or just very close with slight alteration. No observable reason for that film (the dupe) to have been made and maybe, the least creative film ever made (other than warhol of course!)
I like any film with Piscapo and Devitto==they should buddy up more often.
#75 – Blade runner has had since 1983 to become ingrained as a cult classic, and please remember that it opened to mixed reviews and tepid box office. Blade Runner’s fanbase is growing smaller as they get older, as one would expect, but they are no less rabid in their furious defense of a film that is not universally recognized as a classic (though I would argue that it deserves every once of praise it gets)
Children Of Men is not just another last fertile woman movie. It isn’t Besson’s Last Battle. I’m not even sure its about the last fertile woman. Upon repeated viewings you’ll see that it bears many commonalities with Blade Runner, or rather that they both attempt to pull off similar future prognostication tricks with similar success though wildly different methods. Thematically, they are far closer to each other than they are to other dystopian films.
We’re talking about film. Your mileage may vary.
79—Humor to follow: Children of Men is about a man who can’t be hit by bullets or bombs until he rows a boat across an ocean and its time to die. Its about a man who can stand in full view of other people looking at them flat on and can’t be seen or heard by them. Its a futuristic film with London looking exactly like it does today (cheaper to make except the film was touted for special effects on one review I read) , except the cars are 10 years older (cheaper to crash?).
Both are good films with my vote going for Blade Runner as top dog with Terminator, Aliens ,Predator and Children of a lower rung.
The atmosphere/filming of BR is more complete and realistic. The theme of BR is “what is it to be human.” Should/can robots be thinking beings, what rights should they have?” What is love?
What is the theme of Children? I don’t see it. For some reason it is “a given” that Clive has to save the fertile woman, and thats all the movie is about.
#76 – So what Pedro? Has there been a time in history when some of Hollywood’s products weren’t gimmicks?
Pointing out that somebody has greenlighted a bad idea in no way proves that no one is working on a good idea or that everything new is crap. And any critical (and honest) appraisal of past decades will show that the quality to schlock ratio is roughly the same.
And who cares if they remake a movie. They should. Musicians cover songs.
Directors are nothing more than the 20th Century’s version of the tribal shaman. He/she tells a story. Using actors, scripts, sets, cameras, and lights, they are nothing more grandiose than storytellers. Some of them are very good at it.
Actors are merely interpreter’s of characters.
And stories? Well, since the Big Bang, mankind has only written about seven stories. Each story is just a rearranged assortment of other ideas, hung on a story frame and its been than way since morality plays were first used by the Church to teach the masses. (teach, control, brainwash, pick whatever word you like there)
I like remakes. A remake allows me to enjoy what a different storyteller does with familiar material. Much like seeing different stagings of Hamlet. I do question why anyone would make a remake of All Of Me… But whatever. There will be 500 other movies for you to see next year. You won’t be forced to watch that one.
#82 – And this post was to point out how hollywood is losing its grip on reality when they try to appear as the saviors of agricultural US instead of really making what they should be doing: better movies.
I agree. Hollywood is losing its grip.
Writers, directors, producers, actors, cinematographers, etc…. They make movies.
What you guys call Hollywood is just Harvard MBAs and assorted beancounters. Managers. Those who can’t do, manage. It is not filmmakers who are making all these bad decisions about piracy. You don’t really think Martin Scorsese is pressing lawsuits against bootleggers do ya?
The MPAA is simply not part of the creative process. It might be valid as a subjective argument to say that Hollywood is losing its creative edge… and if you say it, back it up with a lot of data, because its a hard debate to win. But as a point to be made in defense of piracy, it just isn’t even related.
My ultimate point? Treat the the movies as movies and the business as business. They should not be tied together for the purpose of these debates.
As for me… I have to do that. Maybe others can boycott Hollywood, but to me its like asking George Clinton to boycott cocaine. I’d rather have Bush in office for a third term than to live without movies.
Well, I guess we have plenty to argue about… But one thing we’ve learned in this thread is… What OhForTheLoveOf actually cares about talking about 🙂
#85…OFTLO…..You are the 4th person to say Children of Men would be worth a watch. I guess I’ll put it on my list.
I’m a die hard Sci/Fi and horror guy. But I don’t like movies like Freddie Kruger or the hockey mask guy. I like monsters, believable monsters. I like Sci/fi with a message, even if the message is BS.
I live for 1950’s sci/fi , horror, so many of them had a message, political as well as moral. It is amazing to watch these so called *B* movies, sometimes directed by obscure directors, that pack a whallop with it’s societal message. If they had been upfront about the message, the movies would never have been made or censored, so it was hidden in a horror or sci/fi silliness.
I don’t have your enthusiasum for going to a theater, I can be very happy watching them at home with a group of friends or alone. I have never pirated a movie, they are paid for. I know a movie is a good one, when I realize that my popcorn bowl is empty and I don’t remember eating the popcorn.
Someone on this blog turned me on to a sci/fi series that I think is one of the best ever made, and the movie that came from the series. I can’t remember who it was, either Eideard or Alix. The Firefly series, and the movie Serenity. Just amazing stuff.
I do have a t.v…..but it’s to run my films on(and the occasional Animal Planet or History Channel show), nothing more.
There were a lot of films on your list that I probably wouldn’t watch. But several that I have and enjoyed. I do NOT ever watch love story’s….lol…..I don’t know why(some deep seated flaw I guess), but they bore me to death. I would much rather watch a good alien eat the happy couple, than see them live happily ever after. 🙂