Movies

As you can clearly see, I have added a little frame down at the bottom for archives. I also was kind enough not to stick in NO RESIZE, so if it bugs you, feel free to squish it into nothingness. Now that that's there, you can look through the archives chronologically if you want.

Last time, I made a reference to The Fly. Honestly though, I'd never seen it myself until yesterday. I just have one thing to say about it. Icky! Seeing a monkey be turned inside out and seeing Jeff Goldblum have a social life (almost)... it's just wrong! Right now The Shining is on in the background. You know that odd little cartoon by Howie Mandel... think it's called Bobby's World? The intro to that show is a dirrect rip-off of one scene in this! Funny huh? I've actually been seeing a number of old classic movies lately, not like I'm on a kick or anything, they just happen to be comming on TV. Earlier today there were two Ernest movies on that I'd never seen... they really sucked. What happened here? I mean all the older Ernest movies have giant diabolical machines and stuff, and those two wierdos, and a bunch of annoying little kids, but the newer ones are just Ernest annoying some normal dorks with some stupid crime subplot or something.

Speaking of movies, here's a question for you: Why is it that movies are always accredited to the dirrector and not the writer? Similarly, games are always accredited to the publisher. I mean, when you pick up a book, all that's really on the cover is the title and the author, which one is bigger is dirrectly dependant on how popular the author is (look at say... The [blank] of Shannarah series to see what I mean, you can actually SEE Terry Brooks' ego grow right before your eyes!). However, let's look at some movies. If you ask a random person who made Jurrasic Park, they are going to say Steven Spielberg. These people are wrong. Jurrasic Park was based on a book by Michael Critchton. It was then changed around a LOT by some nameless screenplay writer. You want another example? OK, tell me this, who made Monopoly? Everyone knows it was published by Milton Bradley, but there must be SOME person who just sat down one day and came up with the thing. I think that guy deserves some credit!

The worse aspect I've seen to this little problem is in the video game industry. Granted lately we HAVE been seeing developers on credits, but there are still some MAJOR problems! Who remembers the original Breath of Fire? Sure, NOW everyone knows it's by Capcom, but it was originally released in this country by Squaresoft because Capcom knew it would sell better. I have a problem with this. When I see that a game is by Squaresoft, I expect all the things that make Square games so popular. Even worse is the fact that the right to make a sequel to a game belongs to the publisher, not the developer. That's just unbelievably wrong! Case in point, the upcomming Lufia 3. I never could track down the original, but Lufia 2 is a very good game. Granted, it's not THAT much to look at, but it has the most and the best puzzles I've ever seen in an RPG. Lufia 3 however is not being developed by the original team. This means that the people who made all those excellent puzzles have nothing to do with this game. Awful isn't it? Even developers whose names ARE well-known occasionally face this sort of problem. Since Sid "Civilization" Meier no longer works for Borderbund (or was it Microprose?), which is why Alpha Centuri isn't called Civilization 3. Also, Shigero Miyamoto didn't make Metroid, just thought I'd mention that.

Well, I just spent a long time in preach mode it seems, sorry. Why don't I make it up to you by giving you a list of movies that you probably haven't seen but should?

• Transformers: The Movie- Don't give me that look! It really is good! I'll probably rant about it some time!
• Dark City- I have a list of movies that are truely original. It's very short. Also, it's more or less all on this list. This is on that list, and underlined.
• The Matrix- This one's currently in theaters! Before you say anything, yes, it IS cyberspace. I personally hate the whole cyberspace genre with a greater passion than anyone I know of, but I still liked this, alot. It comes up with a very sound, logical excuse for all the unrealistically stupidity associated with cyberspace. By that I mean it's not just that some people decided to replace all the computers in the world with some 3D garbage where you're stuck using all these metaphors and you can't use passwords you have to use monsters and your computer can kill you. They have GOOD reasons. Oh, and the characters aren't confused the whole time either.
• Labrynth, and while I'm at it, The Dark Crystal-Jim Henson has done some WEIRD stuff.
• Time Bandits- Time traveling british midgets who steal stuff. Also, it's WRITTEN and dirrected by Terry Gilliam, the guy who does the cartoony stuff for Monty Python.