Posted Jul 14th 2009 at 5:11 am in Open Thread |
18248685 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bighollywood/2009/07/14/open-thread-tuesday-6/Open+Thread+Tuesday2009-07-14+12%3A11%3A35Big+Hollywood
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The Porkulus is a train-wreck… these jobs figures are far worse than the ones the White House warned us about if we DIDN’T pass the bill- so it was passed, and then unemployment soars anyway?
Instead of creating jobs, interest rates were bumped up, the dollar slid… and it didn’t help anybody get any work. Much of this is due to the fact that Obama’s agenda has mortified almost every source of job-and-growth creation in the country.
The Dear Leader couldn’t deliver the type of “temporary, targeted, and timely” bill that he promised repeatedly. Regardless of his image in the MSM, Obama lacks the the political stature to control Pelosi and Reid… who hit the trough hard, while bickering like children.
And the lack of GOP co-conspirators exposed Obama politically… this legislation now looks to be a HUGE gamble. And when all this pork-n-welfare fails to generate any real economic gains, the Democrats face a bloodbath in 2010.
While I would love seeing the predicted bloodbath occuring in 2010, I am much too aware of the 'intelligence' displayed by the voter in this past presidential election, and I see nothing yet that suggests 2010 will be any improvement.
Too many voters, both rich and poor, are only interested in how much the government can give to them, and care less that they are killing the goose laying the golden eggs or eating the seed corn instead of planting it.
My skepticism runneth over……………
I think the teleprompter was tired from working so much and depressed by the "sky is falling" speeches the President has been giving that it just fell to its demise.
Well if you thought the original version was preachy, you most likely won't enjoy the Director's Cut. It's longer when the beings show Harris' character their opinions of the planet and it's inhabitants.
I disagree with you to a point. At the end of this flick it takes a strange liberal turn, but as kid who thinks of such things and this movie has always been on my top, hmmm, 20.
ooh.. i like the "to catch a thief" poster… that one is fantastically done.
jshub - July 14th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
I remember seeing "The Abyss" at a theater and leaving in a cranky mood. The special effects were fantastic (and hold up well today) and it is always fun to watch Ed Harris do his steely-jawed man of action schtick. However the supporting characters and plotting were strictly out of "Screenwriting 101." The salvage crew were the usual collection of warm, jolly, iconoclastic, can-do rebels while the Navy SEALS were all tight-assed automatons. (This formula would be repeated ad nauseum and reach it's zenith in 1998 in "Armageddon.") For the life of me I couldn't understand why Michael Biehn went nuts except to propogandize the view that all military guys immediately want to blow up what they don't understand. Well at least the film is a potent metaphor for the current administration's financial policies.
I think the movie was great for a theatrical release, but the director's cut made some marked improvements. The movie was well paced, but I think the ending was a mixed message. Personally, I would have liked a sad ending with the aliens having gone unexplained, and for the most part unseen. I almost felt they let all the mystery out of the film at the end. In some respect I was hoping for tragic hero.
The TOTUS couldn't take the pressure anymore. I guess it was tired of propping up an "elegant" speaker, and it fell over in exhaustion. From what I hear, the hours are long, and the pay is pitiful. Maybe the TOTUS is finding that it has a conscience, and it wasn't going to lie anymore.
If I recall correctly, the original ending, as envisioned by Cameron, is that the water people killed all the humans of earth with a humongous tidal wave. The backers didn't want that ending. When screened, the people who saw that ending hated the movie. The people who saw the released version loved the movie.
Michael Biehn is one of the better supporting actors out there. I never understood why he didn't have a bigger leading man type career.
Cole - July 14th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
The Abyss is one of my all time favorite science fictions movies, up there with Alien. Great cast with memorable characters and great story. The cgi was amazing for when it came out, come on who doesn't like the water alien. However, the one thing I didn't like was the liberal slant. The liberal slant included stereotyping the Navy Seals. These guys are top notch and do NOT lose it. Yet "typical jarhead" loses and goes on a homicical missio to destroy what he sees as "evil aliens". Plus them shooting from the hip and not having a good unit cohesion. Also, I'm quite sure that the other seals would have stopped the "mad" seal a long time prior.
Dennis - July 14th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Keeping with an aliterative theme…the Abyss was abysmal as was Armageddon (though I have always enjoyed the song Armegeddon It by Def Leppard…even if I don't have any idea what it means). I digress. I liked the movie the first time I saw it…I think. But the true measure of how good a film is (though not always) is "rewatchability"…and I just don't ever need to waste another hour of my life on the neverending ending. A Director's Cut you say? I'll pass…unless you tell me Ed Harris actually implodes when the pressure of being 4 miles down in the ocean…oh, never mind.
Maybe I'm just overly sentimental, but Field of Dreams gets me in the end every single time. I'm pretty sure Kevin Costner lost me after this movie (though I didn't know it at the time…I thought Dances with Wolves was pure cinematic genius back in the day)…but those last 5 or 10 minutes of "Field" are just brilliant. God help me if I watch alone and don't have to worry about those embarrassing tear ducts…:)
Ed Harris is dead to me. Between his ridiculously agressive advocacy for NARAL (you'd think he was impregnated by a familial rapist) and his angry-faced, folded arms episode during the Oscar award for Elia Kazan, he hasn't gotten a penny from me in many years.
I think the Michael Biehn character went crazy due to the Hollywood varient of 'high pressure nervous disorder', where the most convenient character in a deep sea adventure flick goes psycho.
In the real world, you would get a few muscle tics and maybe temporary blindness from too much pressure on the optic nerve.
You know, you are right about the preachiness factor, I had forgotten about that and got hung up on the "production values," (which in all fairness is easy to do with Cameron.)
I was six when this film came out but I remember my dad watching it on HBO and I was absolutely transfixed by what I was seeing: not just the pseudopod (one of the first CGI creatures) but just the sheer scale of it all – rooms flooding and so on and so forth. Per usual for a Cameron film, the craftsmanship is top notch and this might be one of his better screenplays. The acting is also excellent. Ed Harris has never been better and the supporting cast gives the film a real lived-in, blue-collar vibe.
The DVD was the first 2-disc set I ever bought after purchasing my first DVD player ten years ago. I had heard about the longer version but this was the first time I ever saw it. I enjoyed it. I'm waiting patiently for the Blu-Ray (or at least a remastered DVD – the existing transfer was sourced from the laserdisc and is not enhanced for widescreen displays). The extras are excellent and quite candid. The still galleries (text/photos) are basically "film school in a box."
I wish the GOP would grow a spine and actually make me want to vote FOR them instead of just AGAINST the Dems.
The GOP has lately been reminding me of the sterotypical bad boyfriend. Treats his lady (the constituents/voters) poorly, never apologizes, and then, when she gets fed up and leaves him, his response is "ahhh… she'll see what else is out there and then she'll be beggin' me to take 'er back.."
I intend to vote Conservative/Independent this time unless I get some stron gindictaions that the GOP really wants my vote and is willing to return to conservative principles. We don't need a GOP that is for all intents and purposes just a "moderate" Democratic party.
I really should just get a jar, and dump $1 into it every time they slam Palin. At the end of the month, I donate it all to SarahPAC. Repeat each month.
So what? Same tactic Obama used is in play here: "Lie your butt off, do whatever it takes to get elected/confirmed."
And the GOP is doing what exactly? Anything?
They better dang well reject her, especially given that Barack rejected Roberts out of hand.
There's a story on FoxNews.com about a billboard in Houston which says, "Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican!" It was paid for by RagingElephants.org ("Leading America's 2nd Emancipation"!)
Naturally, not everyone is happy about this. "Martin Luther King may have very well believed in some of the Christian principles of the Republican Party, but Dr. Martin Luther King was not a Republican or a Democrat," said Quanell X, who heads the New Black Panther Party in Houston."We were insulted … by the billboard because it was a blatant lie." Quanell X was enraged and he held a press conference late last week to rally against the sign and ended up in a shouting match over the legacy of the murdered civil rights icon. The sign was then taken down.Quanell X told FOXNews.com he was pleased that he had succeeded in getting the billboard removed. He added that King would never have embraced the present-day GOP, which he said had "racist elements."
The new Black Panthers will keep the blacks properly enslaved if they try to wander off the plantation.
Long before Titanic was Abyss. This was incredibly well shot for it's time and had a nice cast (Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio jump to mind.) This is one of those movies where the so-called Director's Cut is much superior to the theatrical release. Definitely worthwhile for people who enjoy the genre
Michael Biehn: love him!!!!!!!!!!!
Navy Seals, Aliens (heart flutter), Tombstone (awesome), The Rock, others I'm going to kick myself for forgetting when I submit.
Look forward to seeing him whenever he's in something.
the ending was an extreme letdown. I really like the rest of the movie (M Biehn plays a GREAT crazy guy, let the military thing slide). but the aliens' ship sucked!
"Sotomayor pushes back hard on racial bias charges"
"Sotomayor backed away from perhaps the most damaging words that had been brought up since Obama nominated her seven weeks ago — a 2001 comment suggesting that a "wise Latina" judge would usually reach better conclusions than a white man. She called the remark "a rhetorical flourish that fell flat."
Her "rhetorical flourish" that ruled against the firefighters fell kind of flat, too. With someone like her on the Supreme Court for a lifetime, who is going to repair the "rhetorical flourishes" that fall "flat" next time?
And I still stand by my original premise: Cameron took a fantastic premise, special effects, and movie.. and by the end of the movie, it was "quit preaching and please just end already (as much as Ed Harris tried to salvage the ending (and almost pulled it off)?"…. I don't know about the Director's Cut (haven't seen it) though.
I loved the Biehn character as he went through the "deep-sea claustrophobia" stuff… you could just see the fear building in him from the beginning when he went into the "tank"
I kicked ass at my gig today! Had to take an Aleve for my over-practice-induced tennis elbow (I love that stuff: Only thing stronger than aspirin I'll take), but I was on it, man. Debuted three new pieces, and they all went well. My new arrangement of Unchained Melody was particularly well received (Original film score version: C major and 12/8 time, not the later adulterated versions).
I probably made more per hour for that gig than most lawyers too. ;^)
Think I'll start drinking early this afternoon.
jshub - July 14th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Thanks – I appreciate it. It sounds like a variant on the tumor that daytime soap characters get when the producers want to write them off the show.
speaking of directors cuts, has anyone seen "Payback" directors cut? A true directors cut, with 2nd half of film completely different from the theatrical and original DVD release….Brian Helgeland's vision of the book so much better…watch it and watch the extras for all the info on how it came to be.
If memory serves, Abyss, the book, was written by Orson Scott Card on the set while the movie was in production… it was a fine book & introduced me to Orson Scott's other works.
Dan - July 14th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Me too. That was such a well-done scene. I've watched it so often, trying to catch how it gathered so much emotion… I especially liked the reaction shots of the crew when she started breathing, after they had given up hope.
Wikipedia says otherwise, see the "History of the Special Edition" at the bottom. Of course, like they say, never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
Well, I am glad to see all that time with the Administration's "handlers" have so well prepared her for the hearing.
"Now you stay on message and do our Leader proud or we will break the other foot as well!"
ooman - July 14th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
There are two impressions of the Abyss that have stuck with me from when I first watched it…
One is that when I saw the special effects it occurred to me that there was no longer any limits to what can be rendered on the screen. If it can be imagined, it can be delivered visually. No longer would directors be limited by physical set, models, or locations. It was also clear tat even actors could someday be replaced by CGI. At the time I wasn't taking a guess on when that would be, but a few years later Terminator 2: Judgment Day confirmed that even human beings could be realistically generated.
The 2nd impression was that all the CGI in the world can't save a bad story. I haven't watched the Abyss since its release, so I' sketchy on the plot line, but I just remember hating the last 15 or so minutes, when the critter broke the ocean's surface. Can't recall why I was so disappointed, just remember I hated the ending.
I'm with you on this. I'm not sure I liked this movie when it first came out so I watched it again several years later. I had to turn it off midway through. It was just……boring…….
One movie that is rewatchable IMHO is Glory with Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington and a few other notables…..the scenes toward the end still move me to tears.
The unemployed will have copius time to contemplate the "improvements" that their support for Obama and his SS Panzer Division know as the Congressional Democrat caucus have made in their lives. That is, while they're not busy feeding the pigeons in the parks and downtowns of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana….
The opposite happened to me. I was a Card fan who read the novelization just before the movie came out. That introduced me to Cameron and his other works. I'm pretty sure it was also the movie that I first noticed Ed Harris in. Hell of an actor whose performance in this film is second only to the legendary Chris Elliott.
I saw Abyss for the first time last december, and although I like sci-fi I was less than satisfied. My main gripe with the movie is that the plot elements just didn't fit well together at all. I mean, a deep sea operation goes wrong, and aliens just happen to show up? Then the aliens disappear, and a bunch of other completely non-alien stuff happens. Then the aliens aren't seen for the rest of the movie, but then predictably show up again just in time to save Ed Harris from certain death?
In short, the aliens seemed completely pointless, they had virtually nothing to do with the story. Its like James Cameron made the movie as an underwater disaster thriller, and then at the last minute decided "Hey, I know! Why don't we throw in some aliens!? Then it will be a sci-fi movie! And then we'll round it out with a pointless subplot about a Navy SEAL going crazy, which is surely not intended to be political commentary in any way shape or form."
The novelization of the movie (not the movie version of a novel) was written by Orson Scott Card, and it's quite good. He goes deeply (so to speak) into the mechanics and physics and such of the crushing ocean depths, and he also explains the aliens much better than is done in the movie.
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85 Comments
Look! The debt hole.
over a trillion deep!
With three months left in the year.
The Porkulus is a train-wreck… these jobs figures are far worse than the ones the White House warned us about if we DIDN’T pass the bill- so it was passed, and then unemployment soars anyway?
Instead of creating jobs, interest rates were bumped up, the dollar slid… and it didn’t help anybody get any work. Much of this is due to the fact that Obama’s agenda has mortified almost every source of job-and-growth creation in the country.
The Dear Leader couldn’t deliver the type of “temporary, targeted, and timely” bill that he promised repeatedly. Regardless of his image in the MSM, Obama lacks the the political stature to control Pelosi and Reid… who hit the trough hard, while bickering like children.
And the lack of GOP co-conspirators exposed Obama politically… this legislation now looks to be a HUGE gamble. And when all this pork-n-welfare fails to generate any real economic gains, the Democrats face a bloodbath in 2010.
http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com
While I would love seeing the predicted bloodbath occuring in 2010, I am much too aware of the 'intelligence' displayed by the voter in this past presidential election, and I see nothing yet that suggests 2010 will be any improvement.
Too many voters, both rich and poor, are only interested in how much the government can give to them, and care less that they are killing the goose laying the golden eggs or eating the seed corn instead of planting it.
My skepticism runneth over……………
Your comments on the DVD quality are spot on. They did remaster the sound. I suspect it will go Blu-Ray before another DVD treatment, though.
Ok favorite moment yesterday was when the TOTUS committed suicide…
Oh the comedic possibilities for that one.
Oh and I think I have actually seen the abyss.
Ok favorite moment yesterday was when the TOTUS committed suicide…
Oh the comedic possibilities for that one.
Oh and I think I have actually seen "The Abyss".
Great movie…..
TOTUS, jumped and went KA PLEWWWWE…
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/13/whoops...
Seeing the president befuddled???
"PRICELESS"
Ahh.. but was it suicide.. or a secret CIA plot? Conspiracy theorists of the world unite, we must know the truth!
I think the teleprompter was tired from working so much and depressed by the "sky is falling" speeches the President has been giving that it just fell to its demise.
Well if you thought the original version was preachy, you most likely won't enjoy the Director's Cut. It's longer when the beings show Harris' character their opinions of the planet and it's inhabitants.
I disagree with you to a point. At the end of this flick it takes a strange liberal turn, but as kid who thinks of such things and this movie has always been on my top, hmmm, 20.
IMO, the love story trumped the last part.
CIA conspiracy…. that is priceless….. just ask Pelosi to see if it was true!!!
trooth!! :-O haha
ooh.. i like the "to catch a thief" poster… that one is fantastically done.
I remember seeing "The Abyss" at a theater and leaving in a cranky mood. The special effects were fantastic (and hold up well today) and it is always fun to watch Ed Harris do his steely-jawed man of action schtick. However the supporting characters and plotting were strictly out of "Screenwriting 101." The salvage crew were the usual collection of warm, jolly, iconoclastic, can-do rebels while the Navy SEALS were all tight-assed automatons. (This formula would be repeated ad nauseum and reach it's zenith in 1998 in "Armageddon.") For the life of me I couldn't understand why Michael Biehn went nuts except to propogandize the view that all military guys immediately want to blow up what they don't understand. Well at least the film is a potent metaphor for the current administration's financial policies.
I think the movie was great for a theatrical release, but the director's cut made some marked improvements. The movie was well paced, but I think the ending was a mixed message. Personally, I would have liked a sad ending with the aliens having gone unexplained, and for the most part unseen. I almost felt they let all the mystery out of the film at the end. In some respect I was hoping for tragic hero.
The TOTUS couldn't take the pressure anymore. I guess it was tired of propping up an "elegant" speaker, and it fell over in exhaustion. From what I hear, the hours are long, and the pay is pitiful. Maybe the TOTUS is finding that it has a conscience, and it wasn't going to lie anymore.
If I recall correctly, the original ending, as envisioned by Cameron, is that the water people killed all the humans of earth with a humongous tidal wave. The backers didn't want that ending. When screened, the people who saw that ending hated the movie. The people who saw the released version loved the movie.
And plenty more time left in the Congressional schedule to spend even more money that hasn't been printed yet.
Michael Biehn is one of the better supporting actors out there. I never understood why he didn't have a bigger leading man type career.
The Abyss is one of my all time favorite science fictions movies, up there with Alien. Great cast with memorable characters and great story. The cgi was amazing for when it came out, come on who doesn't like the water alien. However, the one thing I didn't like was the liberal slant. The liberal slant included stereotyping the Navy Seals. These guys are top notch and do NOT lose it. Yet "typical jarhead" loses and goes on a homicical missio to destroy what he sees as "evil aliens". Plus them shooting from the hip and not having a good unit cohesion. Also, I'm quite sure that the other seals would have stopped the "mad" seal a long time prior.
Keeping with an aliterative theme…the Abyss was abysmal as was Armageddon (though I have always enjoyed the song Armegeddon It by Def Leppard…even if I don't have any idea what it means). I digress. I liked the movie the first time I saw it…I think. But the true measure of how good a film is (though not always) is "rewatchability"…and I just don't ever need to waste another hour of my life on the neverending ending. A Director's Cut you say? I'll pass…unless you tell me Ed Harris actually implodes when the pressure of being 4 miles down in the ocean…oh, never mind.
Yes, avoid the Director's Cut by all means. . . or at least the last twenty minutes.
I haven't seen him in years until he appeared in Grindhouse (Planet Terror). I was happy to see him again though, as I've always like him as well.
We need a second stimulus to plug the deficit gap!
I went to the TOTUS website and he had an entry "I'm Ok." LOL!!
Nice. Good find. Thanks Scott.
Open Thread/Big Hollywood Fun:
http://www.broadway.com/Sarah-Palin-Spoofed-in-L-...
Caught this now up on the BH Marquee. Thought I'd take a shot of my own. Others feel free to tap into your creative juices. Play nice…
B.Obama
B.Obama
Go away
Go away
You are not a leader
Teleprompter reader
Go away
Please, today
(Rick Holmes, you have my permission to use this any old night…won't hold my breath)
Abyss
That is the place Hollywood will remain long past the end of the 21st Century.
I liked Biehn, too. Arnie may have gotten all the attention, but I thought he was the best part of The Terminator.
Maybe it just couldn't stand the bull shit any longer.
Who would have thunk? The first member of the administration to finally have up to "here" was a machine.
Loved the Abyss. I'm still haunted by the scene where the person drowns herself in the hope she'll be revived later.
I always felt bad for the Coffey character in The Abyss. Sure, he wasn't a nice guy, but the man did what he did because he got sick.
The Abyss was pretty good, but that ending was just dreadful. It looked like one of Spielberg's more self-indulgent disasters.
That scene sounds just like one in Vanilla Sky………..
Ok, that scene was pretty intense…..
OPEN THREAD…
good read!!! and I am actually floored that she denied this….. tongue and cheek!!!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_sotomayor_senate
She denies bias, even though any one with an ounce of integrity knows she is a racist. The wise latina statement is as racist as it can get.
Joe, look at this morsel..
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090714/ap_on_go_su_c...
Settled law? What does that mean? Sounds like the Global Warming hype with "Consensus".
your telling me, I am at work and wish I could watch all of this unfold!
This is from the Drudge Report, Forced Stimulus, Armed Robber Sites Economy as reason.
It leads to this.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/breaking/6527...
It made laugh
Don't let this get you into trouble at work.
That is PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe I'm just overly sentimental, but Field of Dreams gets me in the end every single time. I'm pretty sure Kevin Costner lost me after this movie (though I didn't know it at the time…I thought Dances with Wolves was pure cinematic genius back in the day)…but those last 5 or 10 minutes of "Field" are just brilliant. God help me if I watch alone and don't have to worry about those embarrassing tear ducts…:)
Ed Harris is dead to me. Between his ridiculously agressive advocacy for NARAL (you'd think he was impregnated by a familial rapist) and his angry-faced, folded arms episode during the Oscar award for Elia Kazan, he hasn't gotten a penny from me in many years.
I think the Michael Biehn character went crazy due to the Hollywood varient of 'high pressure nervous disorder', where the most convenient character in a deep sea adventure flick goes psycho.
In the real world, you would get a few muscle tics and maybe temporary blindness from too much pressure on the optic nerve.
On a personal note, I've always enjoyed GAH's movies. She makes pretty good sci-fi flicks…for a girl. However, not the warmest person I've ever met.
You know, you are right about the preachiness factor, I had forgotten about that and got hung up on the "production values," (which in all fairness is easy to do with Cameron.)
I was six when this film came out but I remember my dad watching it on HBO and I was absolutely transfixed by what I was seeing: not just the pseudopod (one of the first CGI creatures) but just the sheer scale of it all – rooms flooding and so on and so forth. Per usual for a Cameron film, the craftsmanship is top notch and this might be one of his better screenplays. The acting is also excellent. Ed Harris has never been better and the supporting cast gives the film a real lived-in, blue-collar vibe.
The DVD was the first 2-disc set I ever bought after purchasing my first DVD player ten years ago. I had heard about the longer version but this was the first time I ever saw it. I enjoyed it. I'm waiting patiently for the Blu-Ray (or at least a remastered DVD – the existing transfer was sourced from the laserdisc and is not enhanced for widescreen displays). The extras are excellent and quite candid. The still galleries (text/photos) are basically "film school in a box."
I wish the GOP would grow a spine and actually make me want to vote FOR them instead of just AGAINST the Dems.
The GOP has lately been reminding me of the sterotypical bad boyfriend. Treats his lady (the constituents/voters) poorly, never apologizes, and then, when she gets fed up and leaves him, his response is "ahhh… she'll see what else is out there and then she'll be beggin' me to take 'er back.."
I intend to vote Conservative/Independent this time unless I get some stron gindictaions that the GOP really wants my vote and is willing to return to conservative principles. We don't need a GOP that is for all intents and purposes just a "moderate" Democratic party.
Oh no! Four years' bad luck! LOL!
I really should just get a jar, and dump $1 into it every time they slam Palin. At the end of the month, I donate it all to SarahPAC. Repeat each month.
So what? Same tactic Obama used is in play here: "Lie your butt off, do whatever it takes to get elected/confirmed."
And the GOP is doing what exactly? Anything?
They better dang well reject her, especially given that Barack rejected Roberts out of hand.
There's a story on FoxNews.com about a billboard in Houston which says, "Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican!" It was paid for by RagingElephants.org ("Leading America's 2nd Emancipation"!)
Naturally, not everyone is happy about this. "Martin Luther King may have very well believed in some of the Christian principles of the Republican Party, but Dr. Martin Luther King was not a Republican or a Democrat," said Quanell X, who heads the New Black Panther Party in Houston."We were insulted … by the billboard because it was a blatant lie." Quanell X was enraged and he held a press conference late last week to rally against the sign and ended up in a shouting match over the legacy of the murdered civil rights icon. The sign was then taken down.Quanell X told FOXNews.com he was pleased that he had succeeded in getting the billboard removed. He added that King would never have embraced the present-day GOP, which he said had "racist elements."
The new Black Panthers will keep the blacks properly enslaved if they try to wander off the plantation.
Long before Titanic was Abyss. This was incredibly well shot for it's time and had a nice cast (Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio jump to mind.) This is one of those movies where the so-called Director's Cut is much superior to the theatrical release. Definitely worthwhile for people who enjoy the genre
Michael Biehn: love him!!!!!!!!!!!
Navy Seals, Aliens (heart flutter), Tombstone (awesome), The Rock, others I'm going to kick myself for forgetting when I submit.
Look forward to seeing him whenever he's in something.
Loved this movie too.
the ending was an extreme letdown. I really like the rest of the movie (M Biehn plays a GREAT crazy guy, let the military thing slide). but the aliens' ship sucked!
"Sotomayor pushes back hard on racial bias charges"
"Sotomayor backed away from perhaps the most damaging words that had been brought up since Obama nominated her seven weeks ago — a 2001 comment suggesting that a "wise Latina" judge would usually reach better conclusions than a white man. She called the remark "a rhetorical flourish that fell flat."
Her "rhetorical flourish" that ruled against the firefighters fell kind of flat, too. With someone like her on the Supreme Court for a lifetime, who is going to repair the "rhetorical flourishes" that fall "flat" next time?
As i recall.. this one discussed before…
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/0...
And I still stand by my original premise: Cameron took a fantastic premise, special effects, and movie.. and by the end of the movie, it was "quit preaching and please just end already (as much as Ed Harris tried to salvage the ending (and almost pulled it off)?"…. I don't know about the Director's Cut (haven't seen it) though.
I loved the Biehn character as he went through the "deep-sea claustrophobia" stuff… you could just see the fear building in him from the beginning when he went into the "tank"
I kicked ass at my gig today! Had to take an Aleve for my over-practice-induced tennis elbow (I love that stuff: Only thing stronger than aspirin I'll take), but I was on it, man. Debuted three new pieces, and they all went well. My new arrangement of Unchained Melody was particularly well received (Original film score version: C major and 12/8 time, not the later adulterated versions).
I probably made more per hour for that gig than most lawyers too. ;^)
Think I'll start drinking early this afternoon.
Thanks – I appreciate it. It sounds like a variant on the tumor that daytime soap characters get when the producers want to write them off the show.
"Sotomayor calls abortion rights 'settled law.'"
At least the law is "settled" for the aborted baby.
speaking of directors cuts, has anyone seen "Payback" directors cut? A true directors cut, with 2nd half of film completely different from the theatrical and original DVD release….Brian Helgeland's vision of the book so much better…watch it and watch the extras for all the info on how it came to be.
I saw this last night. TCM is doing their Summer Under the Stars promotion and had a design firm do modern posters for classic movies.
Cool stuff! http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/tcms-summer-...
"Jane Roe" stands up for the babies aborted…
If memory serves, Abyss, the book, was written by Orson Scott Card on the set while the movie was in production… it was a fine book & introduced me to Orson Scott's other works.
Me too. That was such a well-done scene. I've watched it so often, trying to catch how it gathered so much emotion… I especially liked the reaction shots of the crew when she started breathing, after they had given up hope.
Exceptional and highly underrated film. I've seen it several times over and cry like a little girl twice every time while watching it.
A shame it doesn't get the credit it's due.
Wikipedia says otherwise, see the "History of the Special Edition" at the bottom. Of course, like they say, never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
Dear God, you must be rich!!
It just means the precedent has stood for so long that no judge would seriously consider challenging it. You know, like how slavery was settled law?
Well, I am glad to see all that time with the Administration's "handlers" have so well prepared her for the hearing.
"Now you stay on message and do our Leader proud or we will break the other foot as well!"
There are two impressions of the Abyss that have stuck with me from when I first watched it…
One is that when I saw the special effects it occurred to me that there was no longer any limits to what can be rendered on the screen. If it can be imagined, it can be delivered visually. No longer would directors be limited by physical set, models, or locations. It was also clear tat even actors could someday be replaced by CGI. At the time I wasn't taking a guess on when that would be, but a few years later Terminator 2: Judgment Day confirmed that even human beings could be realistically generated.
The 2nd impression was that all the CGI in the world can't save a bad story. I haven't watched the Abyss since its release, so I' sketchy on the plot line, but I just remember hating the last 15 or so minutes, when the critter broke the ocean's surface. Can't recall why I was so disappointed, just remember I hated the ending.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/14/billbo...
"Quanell X"
*smirk*
I'm with you on this. I'm not sure I liked this movie when it first came out so I watched it again several years later. I had to turn it off midway through. It was just……boring…….
One movie that is rewatchable IMHO is Glory with Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington and a few other notables…..the scenes toward the end still move me to tears.
You're right- I'll need to apply for stimulus funds!
You guys don't understand!!!!!!!
This is my favorite film of 1989!!!!!
I. Frikkin'. Heart. "The Abyss"!!!!
Trivia Test: What film is this quotation from?
"Ding, dittly ding, dittly ding dang dong!"
I love that movie.
The unemployed will have copius time to contemplate the "improvements" that their support for Obama and his SS Panzer Division know as the Congressional Democrat caucus have made in their lives. That is, while they're not busy feeding the pigeons in the parks and downtowns of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana….
HARRY POTTER!!!
The opposite happened to me. I was a Card fan who read the novelization just before the movie came out. That introduced me to Cameron and his other works. I'm pretty sure it was also the movie that I first noticed Ed Harris in. Hell of an actor whose performance in this film is second only to the legendary Chris Elliott.
*first post….yay…*
I saw Abyss for the first time last december, and although I like sci-fi I was less than satisfied. My main gripe with the movie is that the plot elements just didn't fit well together at all. I mean, a deep sea operation goes wrong, and aliens just happen to show up? Then the aliens disappear, and a bunch of other completely non-alien stuff happens. Then the aliens aren't seen for the rest of the movie, but then predictably show up again just in time to save Ed Harris from certain death?
In short, the aliens seemed completely pointless, they had virtually nothing to do with the story. Its like James Cameron made the movie as an underwater disaster thriller, and then at the last minute decided "Hey, I know! Why don't we throw in some aliens!? Then it will be a sci-fi movie! And then we'll round it out with a pointless subplot about a Navy SEAL going crazy, which is surely not intended to be political commentary in any way shape or form."
The novelization of the movie (not the movie version of a novel) was written by Orson Scott Card, and it's quite good. He goes deeply (so to speak) into the mechanics and physics and such of the crushing ocean depths, and he also explains the aliens much better than is done in the movie.
I'd recommend the book before the movie.
Re: the new Darwin biopic creation: A world where God has no place, but apparently ghosts do. WTF?
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