Since this is probably bound to come up sooner or later, I'll start it up.
Whad'yall think of Toy Story 3?
Being vintage, I went to see the 2D version over the 3D one.
They incorporated a lot of humour in it, it seemed to flow well with the previous movies, the plot kept getting larger, and so forth. I was satisfied with it, better than all the other junk that keeps coming up; I go Roger Ebert on a lot of movies.
I noticed a lot of subtle hints that foreshadowed other events, like the phone toy kicking woody, the three aliens being hit by a truck (only to use the claw and save the other toys from the incinerator etc). Well I shouldn't spoil it for others.
My only complaint is that TWO LARGE POPS and TWO BAGS OF M&Ms (with peanuts) were $20 frickin dollars. The movie tickets were $25 for two people... Damn! I'm not going to see any movies any time soon after that lol. Well... afterwards I had some pasta at boston pizza, 7-cheese ravioli with pomoromo sauce, it was quite good. And boston pizza uses IBM, can't beat that. Has my "seal of approval".
I liked the ending. You should just torrent it if you're going to watch it in only 2d, and don't want to pay horrible costs for a theater. lol.
I saw it with my three kids last night. I thought it was a perfect ending to the movies. I don't know if it's my advancing years, the fact that I have kids of my own, or some chemical imbalance because of the mind=altering drugs the government is slipping into the water supplies, but I actually teared up (and I mean on the verge of a full on sob, choked up etc) for the last 10 minutes of the movie. There was a nice story arc, a good new villain with a Star Wars homage scene, and a nice "growing up and moving on" theme. The only complaint for me was Buzz Lightyear's "Spanish Mode". I won't go into details, but I thought they could have handled the necessary comic relief in those scenes and developed the romantic undertones of the Buzz/Jessie relationship without the gimmicky Shrek "Puss in Boots" style character.
I don't like doing illegal things... torrents ruin the economy, violate freedom, and the like. Besides, if *I* made a movie or software, I wouldn't want people torrenting it. It also provokes companies to initiate anti-pirating techniques, some of which people are starting to feel the effects of.
Besides, if I play games, I have to have the physical copy in hand.
They used a lot of psychological techniques I believe; to plug at human emotion.
It's not illegal to share in private groups, courts have upheld that since the first computers. If you join a private torrenting group, there's nothing illegal about it. You also won't get trojans or fake movie downloads. You also get to retain the movie, where if you go to a theater you're paying essentially for a service that's the same as burning money. You might as well wait for a dvd, where after watching it you still have something of value in hand.
Artists need to be able to make a living, but that doesn't mean that they have to stick some huge $20-40 fee to the end consumer. The truth of the matter is that the theaters are making money hand over fist, while the artists that make the film are getting paid practically nothing relative to the overall gross of a theater intake. Theaters still show ads and are ad supported but still stick it to customers by hideously overcharging at the counter. Movie theaters can suck it. I used to go to theaters every week for years. I decided I'd rather spend my money on a nice home theater.
The publishing industry, whether it be for music, film, or games, has a long history of ****ing over creative people/groups/companies and controlling and promoting a market where having the same repetitive **** dished out over and over again is seen as a good thing. On a $50 game in retail, the developer might make $5... In this day and age where I can make a game on my laptop and distribute it over a peer-to-peer network, what exactly is it that these publishing and retail companies do that justifies taking 90% of my potential income? Same with music, and film to a certain extent.
Now, I'm far to nihilistic to say that we all should pirate stuff to stick it to the man, rather, when I download something 'illegally', I feel absolutely no guilt and see no reason why I should. As far as I am concerned, I'm stealing from the thief.
#1 if everyone were to pirate movies and software, the big corporations would make no revenue whatsoever.
#3 it doesn't matter if people feel guilty or not, that's just an emotion! The issue is the economy, and the right to earn money when someone is utilizing your intellectual property.
#4 all of this pirating is pushing companies to develop anti-piracy techniques which are highly annoying... so everyone has to suffer, even those who don't pirate.
Torrents are ONLY legal if they are sending non-copyrighted material, or, demos of software. Viruses can be embedded in WMV files last time I checked.
Artists choose to work for a company or a publisher, it doesn't matter the price; often or not theatres themselves modify the price. If arists don't like it, they are free to work for someone else, get a different job, or start a company of their own.
Tear-jerkers do not change the issue. If you download software or movies from a company, it is stealing.
Furthermore, I know a hefty amount of independent developers who are indeed having their software being pirated. Sure it doesn't affect the big companies as much, but it DOES affect the little guys trying to make a living. Ever think of that?
The issue isn't the publishers, it's people becomming insane with pirating things, which adversely affects everything. You keep on pointing to big corporations and say stealing their products isn't harming, well let us deduct this:
#1 if everyone were to pirate movies and software, the big corporations would make no revenue whatsoever.
#2 there are a LOT of independent game developers and publishers who have their products pirated -- they are not big corporations so it really hurts their profits.
#3 it doesn't matter if people feel guilty or not, that's just an emotion! The issue is the economy, and the right to earn money when someone is utilizing your intellectual property.
#4 all of this pirating is pushing companies to develop anti-piracy techniques which are highly annoying... so everyone has to suffer, even those who don't pirate.
Aye, there's the rub. Deciding to steal something because you disagree with who gets what cut within the company will NEVER teach the company how to structure itself. You're not operating for the good of the downtrodden, you're stealing stuff because you're too cheap to pay for it, and want to find some lofty cause to excuse it. If you don't like a company, or don't want to support them, then don't buy their product. But turning around and stealing the product crosses the line.
I'm with IBM on this one.
The "social justice" spin on stealing movies, music, art, literature, software, etc. is sickening. Stealing Transformers via online torrents is not a noble act. Statements against the corporations would carry more weight if they came from a position of integrity. When someone starts taking something that isn't theirs without paying, they're position on the morality of corporations become laughable.
I happen to like going out with friends and doing stuff. So what if the pop is 5 bucks, it's a social outing.
When someone starts taking something that isn't theirs without paying, they're position on the morality of corporations become laughable.
The "dollar on the ground" or the "I wouldn't have paid for it anyway" arguments are shoddy. The "dollar on the ground" just doesn't hold up because you're talking about a single dollar on the ground, that only one person could possibly pick up. Torrents give access to millions of dollars worth of product, to be taken by uncounted numbers of people repeatedly, without any compensation for the people who actually created the product.
The arguments about the price of food and drinks at the theater is just silly. Don't like the prices? Don't buy it. I've never died of starvation or dehydration from lack of popcorn, candy bars, or soda during the length of any feature film. You're NOT beholden to purchase the snacks, or pay the ticket price. However, if you take the product or service, you ARE obligated to pay for it.
Deciding which countries see movies at what time is absolutely the right of the company distributing the movie. That's their job. If they know that another large movie has just released, it makes SENSE for them to hold the release to increase their likelihood of selling tickets. Video game makers do that same thing. If you know the release date of Halo 4, and you are going to release a first person shooter, it would be suicide to release it the same day. I'm sorry, but the people running these companies are professionals at what they do, and there is good reason behind *most* of it. The most important thing that you all keep missing is... let your money do the talking! If you don't like a company that releases movies in Holland before the U.S., then start a webpage, and organize a boycott of all their movies. If there aren't enough of you to make an economic impact on the company, then too bad, I guess Holland gets to see the new Smurfs movie before you. It's not an INJUSTICE to anyone. Seriously, this is starting to get funny. I didn't realize how serious the problem of cheap cry-baby whiners had gotten. Do what you can to control the things that you can with integrity and a steadfast dedication to right and wrong. Complaining about the injustice of the things you can't control (like release dates of films in different countries) comes across as pathetic and childish. We all deal with injustices, challenges, or things we don't like on a daily basis. The question is how you deal with them.
It's the age we live in. I'm an artist. I've had my work stolen, and used by companies to sell their junk, without even crediting me let alone paying me. That's like 1000 times worse than me as an individual happening upon someone sharing a movie, which is essentially the same as me walking along the road and picking up a dollar left on the ground. You may say that I shouldn't pick the dollar up, that it's stealing, but the reality is, if I let it sit there, someone else is just going pick it up, and it's lost money one way or the other.
Art isn't profitable anymore like it used to be. If it's not being stolen by everyone, it's being stolen overseas where it's impossible to sue them.
It's a total loosing battle, and there's no solution to it, so it's best just to go along with it and get what you can before society completely collapses.
Private torrent trackers have files that are verified by users not to have virus's in them. If someone does get a virus, they will report that it does and the file will be yanked.
saw it on friday, really liked it. Was pleasantly surprised, thought it was high quality all around (the animation and the story too).
Was sorrounded by toddlers when we went in, for a moment I thought maybe we should have gone to A Team instead, but was pleasantly surprised by the movie.
3-d was pretty good (tho after a while I tend to become innured to the 3d effects and dont notice them anymore) but i would have liked it just as much in 2d i'm sure.
The story especially was well done, with I think the right amount of pathos and humor mixed in, with a lot of things happening and developing at once. Was a nice layered story, I thought, with plenty there for the grownups to bite into.
I like to see movies in theatres, but not because I feel some sense of pride in paying big corporations.
I happen to like going out with friends and doing stuff. So what if the pop is 5 bucks, it's a social outing.
I've never died of starvation or dehydration from lack of popcorn, candy bars, or soda during the length of any feature film.
It's a time honored tradition in our family to walk into movie theaters with a seemingly poofy down vest stuffed with buttered popcorn and beer bottles in the midst of summer.
One embarassing time my beer bottle tipped over and went rolling approximate 32 rows to the front.
Chink.
Roll.
Kachink.
Roll..
Thunk.
.....
This got quite a laugh from the audience.
Screw the movie theaters. Beat up the old ladies for their senior citizen tickets and bring your own food.
Nelson Mandela, for example, became a hero for getting thrown into jail for blowing people up.
The founders of the United States were the Enlightenment Age's equivalent of Al Qaeda...
pointing out that morality and right and wrong aren't always straightforward as Fox News would have you believe.
I think I'm gonna stick to Roger Ebert and ignore EverthingIBM movie reviews.
Ugly pic is ugly.
Who buys food/drinks in theaters? Pig out before or after, but not during. I'd rather save my $10 for a Double Angry Whopper than for a bucket of disgustingly-salty ****corn.
I'm not going to play a game of relative morality. "Well, it's not as bad as what HE'S doing" is an argument used by children who have no self-control or respect for others. Any comparing of the founders to Al Qaeda is downright silly.
Totoro!
My son and I will be at the Studio Ghibli Museum, just north of Tokyo, on July 30th, just picked up tickets.Show Image(http://www.ghibliworld.com/images/ghibli_museum_christmas_2007_1b.jpg)
My son and I are big fans of the big fella.Show Image(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4143/4739072334_47ccbbaa46_z.jpg)
My favorite scene was when they snuck in Totoro. lolShow Image(http://wearemoviegeeks.com/wp-content/toy-story-3-totoro.jpg)
unfortunately pop and popcorn in manhattan comes out to more like 10 bucks.
Pop? Son, in New York City it's called soda.Show Image(http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1867/popsoda2.gif)
lol, i appreciate what you're trying to argue here, tho I believe mandela is venerated today for having relinquished violence, which indeed he did.
again, while I appreciate your larger point, there are crucial differences between US founders and al queda, including the former fighting for religious tolerance (rather than intolerance) and democracy (rather than dictatorship) -- kind of makes a difference. No, they werent perfect, but that doesnt mean they're "the same" as al queda either. Quite huge differences actually. Nor did they go bomb civilians in London as a matter of stated (and celebrated) policy while using their fight as a pretext.
All violence isnt the same; the justifications and arguments matter, because they dictate the extent and form and shape of that violence and the shape of the regime to come in the wake of it. Its alarming to me to see so many of my friends on the left imply that these differences dont exist. How many of you would rather live with the institutions the founders began, than under the institutions al queda wants (and in afghanistan, helped establish). These differences matter a great deal.
Something else I dont get about the relative morality that has gripped so many of my friends on the left: Even if you (bizzarely) believed that the US founders are the same as al queda, then why wouldnt you condemn both rather than use that to excuse them? Invariably tho, the relativism argument is used to excuse al queda rather than condemn them. Its just bizarre and goes against every leftist value I know of.
Definitely, and he deserves a lot of respect for that. But when he was in jail, there were a lot of people who were like "Oh, look at the terrible injustice that has been inflicted on him" (still something that is painted in a 'bleeding heart' manner in textbooks when I was in school) when in fact, he was sent to jail for doing some pretty dodgy things involving people getting killed who didn't deserve or need to die.
I don't like the idea of cultural/moral relativism, but at the same time, perceived morality is so intertwined with culture and personal experiences that the idea of an objective morality seems impossible...
If someone from the Dark Ages was exposed to our society, they'd be horrified, and I think if we were exposed to society 1,000 years from now, something similar would happen. Obviously moral principles stand up to objective intellectual scrutiny moreso than others, but it would stupid not to recognize that a lot of it is really relative at the end of the day.