h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm sure it was ground-breaking when it was made (early 40s?) - photograhpy etc.

But it belongs to another age and although there are some things in it that I can appreciate, it does have a dated feel to it (as is to be expected I suppose). The main story line though is as relevent today as it was then. I watched it a while back on TV and started to get restless half way through.

The point about Citizen Kane is that it used a lot of techniques that today were innovative at the time, but today are commonplace. Welles wasn't the first to use these techniques, but he was the first to put them all together in one film. For example, there's a scene where you have one character talk about CF Kane while behind him you see Kane dancing, but reflected. It looks great, and is hugely effective.

Anything by David Lynch. I completely agree with whoever said he was taking the piss. His popularity is completely a case of people being too scared to say 'I didn't get it.' Actualy, I be happy to see the man himself go up in smoke for what he did with Dune. And I don't care if Frank Herbert OK'd it. He may have been a great writer (when he was doing Dune at any rate), but his taste in movies stunk.

An Event Horizon. God I've got a huge list now I've started...

*buys Frogbit a *

Is that another black and white? I don't like black and white films much. Something about the imagery...can't read it as well as colour...

That is such rubbish about David Lynch...I like him because of the atmosphere (partly made by the fantastic soundtracks he has assembled) and the visuals he creates. Lynch's films are never really about the plot...but then I don't write 100% because I want to tell a story, I write because I like to assemble the words. That's just how some people work.

If we're getting on to the subject of films that we thought were overhyped, I'd like to nominate 'E.T.' Ever since it was first released I kept hearing about how wonderful it was. When I finally got to see it, my only thought was, 'So?' The film is OK, but it's not brilliant and it has made me wary of the hype that is dished out about films. Whenever a film is hyped like that, such as LotR, Harry Potter, Star Wars (Notice any similarities?) I always ask myself, "Would I go to see it if it wasn't hyped?" If the answer is no, I avoid the film. If the answer is yes, I go, but I don't expect much. The film can't be that great if it needs that much hype.

Very good point.

Which is my point Sat, do you go around beating people up?

Nah, I'm way too weak. I also don't sleep around like the girls in the film do (and that could be interpreted as a generalisation). But that's not to say groups of people don't. The film focuses on a particular group of people. It wasn't a generalisation - it was just a film about a bunch of inner city kids...it was more about sexual promiscuity anyways. Just because a bunch of kids have skateboards (and lots of kids in the street I grew up in had them, and bikes too) it doesn't mean to say they were a part of skater culture. I mean, you can buy a pair of baggy pants and a hoodie, but that doesn't make a you a metaller, does it? If it were a specific subculture - say goths, then I *would* be offended. But it's not. It's not about that...

hmmm, i dont know about anywhere else but in Bristol (a couple of years ago now anyway) there was a proper community. Yes people were beaten up by groups of kids with skateboards... But only when they were trying to start something, any gang of kids doing that for no real reason would be fully ostrasized(sic). From reading skatemags years ago I took this scene to be prevalent across the world, Ive even been to a foriegn country where I automatically hung around with skaters, the scene seemed the same. Foreign skaters used to come up to us on college green and it seems certain things are key to the scene. And yes, i used to know some American skaters, and the impression was that the scene was constant worldwide, one of the bonds we had...

So Kids wasnt about skaters, it was about sh*tty little scabs, and it was a film aimed to shock. But a point is made how they all gang together with skateboards to beat someone up. A tactic that is familiar to skaters. Except it is used as a defence and part of the solidarity, no-one would expect support starting on anybody, but if you were a skater and someone started on you, god help them...

Which is how times are changed... Skating is now a fashion, and large amounts of 'really' little kids do it. This has wrecked the community and solidarity. Old places we used to skate where muggers etc wouldnt dare come are now havens for muggings. Late last year a well known skater was stabbed to death trying to protect the little fakeskate kids from being mugged. Someone was abducted and raped from COLLEGE GREEN. this wouldnt have happened a couple of years ago.


*Wanders how he managed to go from Kids to the collapse of skater culture under mass-market pressure*

Bob, you've missed the point entirely...*pats him on the head* I know exactly what you are saying. But there was absolutely no connection with the skater culture whatsoever.And anyway, it was a scene that wasn't even five minutes long that you are ranting about.

It really annoys me when people start going *Oh, it was designed to shock*...like that somehow makes it irrelevant. Or that somehow that is the only point of a creation. It only ever seems to come out of people that have not one creative bone in their body... Things come about for numerous reasons. It was hardly a Hollywood funded film...

Can't believe it hasn't been mentioned yet, so here goes: Blair Witch Project.

Reddy Freddy

Oh yeah, Blair Witch, I went to see it and sat bored...

What's wrong with Blair Witch? It's f**king amazing for an amateur film...I know someone that saw it on the 'net before it was revealed to be a student project...scared him s**tless!!

Well it might have done, but I saw it and thought it was rubbish, so did everyone I know, apart from one person. And hes a techno-goth now so he doesnt count...

Ok, so it may be good for a student film? But leave it for the students then not mainstream cinema, twas a waste of money...

Blair Witch was truly awful. I kept on waiting for it to start properly. Then it ended. Thanks God.

I'd rather the Blair Witch than any of the 'Scream-if-you-don't-care-what-happened-last-valentines-day-now-the-babysitters-dead' oh-so-clever, oh-so-dull 'post-modern' horror films that we are beseiged with now...

I did not like Blair Witch either. I have to had it to the actors and actresses for making it even remotely watchable. For one thing, I had a real hard time not believing that people would never think to follow a river instead of crossing and re-crossing it, wondering why they're lost.

- JD

Blair Witch was ace. Sorry, but it was very frightening. I caught the very end of it, with the camera 'falling over', on its own quite recently, and it still sent a shiver up my spine. Not metaphorically, an actual shiver.

Brr.