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"The Box" Contains A Conspiracy Wrapped In a Mystery Wrapped In 70s Retro
Ewan McGregor Finally Made A Decent Star Wars Movie
"The Fourth Kind" Is A Hoax
Smarmy Writers and Battle Stags Defeat Gentlemen Broncos' Bad Hype
Battlestar Galactica Movie Reveals The Cylons Never Actually Had A Plan
Astro Boy: Subversive, Awesome Flying-Robot Action
The Wild Things Don't Really Love You
"Paranormal Activity" Is As Scary As Real Life
Pandorum Delivers Zombie Mutant Banality – In Space!
Your iPhone Is Rupturing Bruce Willis' Spleen

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Torley
11/07/09

In reply to "The Box" Contains A Conspiracy Wrapped In a Mystery Wrapped In 70s Retro
Intriguing how this is setup as a "test", and at the end of the trailer, there's Charlie Clouser's "Hello Zepp" theme as featured in the SAW movies. It has the same dramatic momentum as Clint Mansell's "Lux Aeterna", and relates well here. #thebox
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Bill-Lee
11/07/09

In reply to "The Box" Contains A Conspiracy Wrapped In a Mystery Wrapped In 70s Retro
When the Twilight Zone adapted this same story in 1986 they kept it simple. Their version was about poor people facing the moral dilemma of killing a random stranger for 200,000 dollars.

The original short story went further and ended with the death of the husband...his wife didn't truly know him. #thebox
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RandomFrequentFlierDent
11/07/09

In reply to Ewan McGregor Finally Made A Decent Star Wars Movie
I'm really, truly hoping that when one character mentions "dying of a broken heart" it's a shout-out to Padme's wuss out in the third prequel.

I thought it was hilarious. Plus I’ll see pretty much see anything with Ewan McGregor. Did anyone else notice he seemed to have a hard time keeping his accent under wraps? #menwhostareatgoats
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Trystero
11/07/09

@RandomFrequentFlierDent: I did notice that, actually.

My favorite probably-shout-out was when someone said something to the effect of "Welcome to the Hero's Journey." Oh, Joe Campbell. #menwhostareatgoats
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MargaretMoony
11/06/09

In reply to "The Box" Contains A Conspiracy Wrapped In a Mystery Wrapped In 70s Retro
Hmm, I haven't seen the movie (yet) but I'm getting the feeling this story would have been better if left at it's simplest. #thebox
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PostMarque
11/06/09

In reply to Ewan McGregor Finally Made A Decent Star Wars Movie
now i want feta #menwhostareatgoats
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Sunshineyness
11/06/09

In reply to "The Box" Contains A Conspiracy Wrapped In a Mystery Wrapped In 70s Retro
"We also discover that the button is always pushed by wives, which suggests that women are the culprits holding humanity back from achieving the level of moral goodness that the aliens require in order to spare us from annihilation."

Now, I haven't seen the movie yet but perhaps this is too simplistic of an explanation.

Perhaps what it's saying is that women are willing to do anything for the good of the family whilst the husband is too caught up in their own prideful findings. This statement reminds me of how women are more willing to sign up for welfare, food stamps, etc whilst men find it shameful and proclaim they won't accept charity. Like in Angela's Ashes when Frank McCourt talks about how his father would never do it but his mother was more than willing to go down and grab the scraps of bread being handed out to the poor.

More often women are willing to sacrifice their own personal morals, principles and particularly pride when it is their family at stake than men are.

Granted, this is a very generalized statement but one that I feel has some credence.

Granted, this might have come across better if the family was actually on hard times and not just trying to maintain some haughty lifestyle but, then, I haven't seen the movie yet so this is all conjecture. #thebox
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cylon_conspiracy
11/06/09

In reply to "The Box" Contains A Conspiracy Wrapped In a Mystery Wrapped In 70s Retro
It's hard to read reviews that have spoilers in them for me, I have to scan for the stuff that might appeal to me without ruining the film.

Anyway, this is one I may get out to the theater to see, I love the premise and I just love the idea of recreating the 70s but in a sincere, straightforward way. I'd be willing to see it just because of the production design.

Plus, that Darko movie is a classic. Are there 70s proto-alt songs in the soundtrack? #thebox
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crashedpc - Haifisch
11/06/09

In reply to "The Box" Contains A Conspiracy Wrapped In a Mystery Wrapped In 70s Retro
*bonk bonk bonk bonk bonk bonk* #thebox
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OW-Holmes:Bringer of Fear
11/06/09

@crashedpc - Haifisch: Stop pushing the button

[www.funnyordie.com] #thebox
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OW-Holmes:Bringer of Fear
11/06/09

In reply to "The Box" Contains A Conspiracy Wrapped In a Mystery Wrapped In 70s Retro
Whats in the box?

Pain. #thebox
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Plague
11/05/09

In reply to "The Fourth Kind" Is A Hoax
I think this movie was just marketed all wrong. Just like Jennifer's Body.
HA! SEE WHAT I DID THERE?! #fourthkind
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Annalee Newitz
11/05/09

@Plague: Your cleverness has defeated my evil rhetorical mastermind plans. #fourthkind
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aubreyf
11/05/09

In reply to "The Fourth Kind" Is A Hoax
It's okay to lie about a movie being "real" if the movie is good. For example, see Fargo. #fourthkind
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acrobatic rabbit
11/05/09

In reply to "The Fourth Kind" Is A Hoax
I had small hopes for this movie. I liked the premise. Doesn't surprise me that it would fail though. Their whole marketing for this movie was poorly done and it's no surprise that uncredited actors in the "archival footage", i.e. fake footage, would be crap. For one, it came on the heels of Paranormal Activity, which I thought was really well done and freaked me out. Therefore it was destined to be compared to that. And in the comparison of acting, marketing, and good ol' word-of-mouth, this movie has failed miserably. It's been awhile since we've had a good alien movie. District 9 is excluded because that was more of socioeconomic satire than a genuine alien movie. sigh. #fourthkind
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Pants McCracky
11/05/09

In reply to "The Fourth Kind" Is A Hoax
The thing that bugs me about fake-documentary movies (even the good ones) is that they're never completely convincing. There's always some bit of obvious acting or something over the top that spoils the illusion. Even Spinal Tap, the greatest mockumentary -- sorry, rockumentary -- of all time, falls victim to that tendency. Maybe the problem is that these movies aren't made by actual documentarians. But I would love to see a fake-documentary flick that truly looked and felt like the real thing, and not a parody or half-assed emulation. #fourthkind
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Jonny_eh
11/05/09

@Pants McCracky: It would probably be unwatchable though. Real life is pretty boring. As soon as something interesting happens, it's no longer realistic. #fourthkind
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Pants McCracky
11/05/09

@Jonny_eh: But documentaries (well, many of them) aren't boring! I mean, look at Helvetica -- someone actually made a fascinating, accessible documentary about a typeface. Can we not bring this same level of craft to fake alien-abduction documentaries?

Maybe it's like what you're saying, though -- these filmmakers, deep down, don't really think their subject is interesting enough for anyone to have made a genuine documentary about, so they feel a subconscious need to juice things up and add drama, which translates to a sense of wrongness in the finished product. If even the filmmakers don't actually believe in what they're making, why would we? #fourthkind
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Klebert L. Hall
11/05/09

In reply to "The Fourth Kind" Is A Hoax
"But this footage is so poorly faked that it insults the audience's intelligence. So why are people still calling this movie scary?"

Because the target audience is UFO believers, who are already highly trained to assert the authenticity of poorly faked footage that insults the audience's intelligence?
-Kle. #fourthkind
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gorehound
11/05/09

In reply to "The Fourth Kind" Is A Hoax
Aliens tried to steal my Welsh corgi but he nips people so he gave that alien a mouthful #fourthkind
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