Oh, The Evolution Of The Trailer!
May 16, 2024
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
A positive evolution. The 1969 and 2010 True Grit trailers back to back starkly contrast too.
I don’t care what anybody says, the first STAR WARS trailer is awesome. The thrill was not knowing ANYTHING about the film. I thought Chewbacca was a villain. And as I’ve said before, obviously the trailer did its job. People came.
Mark Hamil has a great story about the first trailer. He was in a New York Movie Theater where he snuck in to watch the trailer and the last line is “Coming to a theater near you this Summer” and he said some guy shouted “And coming to television that fall”.
Apparently even in 1976, everyone was a critic.
Without getting into a tired debate about the prequels themselves, they all had great trailers.
My favorite was the (online only?) “Mystery” trailer for Attack of the Clones. Really captures the noir atmosphere found in a good portion of the film, something almost every critic failed to acknowledge.
I loved each and every prequel trailer about as much as I adored every 1989-1997 Batman trailer (yes, even the Batman & Robin campaign cut interesting spots, especially as a study in trying to alter course between the campy first preview and the more serious second one). The ‘Mystery’ trailer for Attack of the Clones was intended to be a bonus unlockable feature on the Phantom Menace DVD. Of course, it soon debuted online, which is good since I couldn’t get the thing to work on my DVD-Rom. Ironically, if you go back and watch the two Phantom Menace trailers, they have a good sampling of the campy and kid-friendly humor and obtuse political wrangling that everyone complained about. Come what may, but anyone paying attention to those trailers were adequately warned about the film’s tone and narrative.
STAR WARS (as in the ONE AND ONLY, when it was EPISODE FUCK EPISODES, JUST STAR WARS) is by far the best and awesomest STAR WARS movie, because it’s SINISTER and minimalist and has a little residual THX in it.
EMPIRE STRIKES BACK? Much as everyone talks it up, who watches THAT ever? It’s NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER on television, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEVER, hasn’t been on TV since 1983. It is POSSIBLE to have seen STAR WARS like TEN THOUSAND TIMES in one’s lifetime. By compare, NONE OF YOU have seen EMPIRE more than six or seven times.
Those other ones don’t really even count AT ALL, I mean even PORTMAN isn’t hot AT ALL in them.
Yeah I have seen Empire probably 200 times. Seriously, I have seen all of those films countless fucking times. COUNT… LESS!
ETA: Yeah that’s probably the low-end on Empire because back in the 90s, my friends and I would watch that film repeatedly in order to goof on Luke getting the crap knocked out of him by force flying crates!
EMPIRE is so ground-level and straightforward compared to the INSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANE original. ESB is like an NBC TV movie from 1980. Very straightforward.
AND NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ONE has watched ESB more than twice EVER.
IT’S HARDER TO COME BY than that Jerry Lewis Holocaust movie.
Dude, seriously, it may be a lot higher than 200 times. It may be closer to a 1000 times because again, we would watch it repeatedly at 4 in the morning.
One of these days I’m gonna see STARS WARS a second time.
I’ve also got to check out that documentary THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS, because apparently I’m in it. I played Lucas in a couple of online comedy shorts for a buddy of mine some years back, and he says they pop up in the doc for a few seconds.
Lex, not that it matters but Spike has a star wars marathon like every three months.
I thought the first trailer was pretty good except for the awful voice over. The difference highlights for me the fact that Lucas got extremely good at making 1-4 second bits of film that look totally awesome. Everything related to storytelling just got worse.
“Lex, not that it matters but Spike has a star wars marathon like every three months.”
They didn’t have SPIKE TV between 1983 and 1998, during which time ESB was seen by ZERO PEOPLE EEEEEEEEEEEEVER, and thought of BY NOBODY.
And one of my GREAT THEORIES EVER is my steadfast belief that during those years– 83 to 97, say– NOBODY NOBODY NOBODY NOBODY thought of STAR WARS, ever. It was some kiddie shit from everyone’s childhood and we’d all moved on, NOBODY thought there’d ever be sequels or prequels.
Then when TPM dropped everyone retroactively acted like they’d been COUNTING THE DAYS since summer 1983, but in fact NO ONE cared about, thought about, or watched STAR WARS MOVIES AT ALL during those years.
I AM RIGHT ABOUT THIS.
You are so fucking wrong about this, it’s not even funny. I knew people and even talked to strangers about new Star Wars films happening from like 85. We would talk endlessly about what the prequels would be about because we knew, like in the 80s, that they would be prequels and that’s where you get all of this DARTH VADER HAS TO BE A BAD ASS KILLING people nonsense. You talk about something like that for over decade and you don’t get it until the third film, well, that’s going to lead to disappointment.
Seriously, those prequels suffer from people making up their minds about what STAR WARS is, while totally not even getting it. Why? EMPIRE fans. Empire fans being the absolute worst SW fans because they refuse to give ANH any fucking dap, get all pissy about Ewoks (like those motherfuckers weren’t all about Ewoks), and hold every fucking prequel to the, in their minds, IMPECCABLE EMPIRE STANDARD! Most Empire fans constitute the GEEK INTELLEGENCIA, who are now so depressing to read, because apparently getting everything you ever wanted in film form is too much for their psyches.
That little rambling aside, HBO and CINEMAX ROUTINELY showed the OT in the 80s and well into the 90s. These films were on a lot, Lex. You missing it does not change that they were on all the time and had absolutely awesome promos like this: http://youtu.be/tkFJsbrmrjs , which got me all sorts of jazzed to be able to watch ANH, Empire, or ROTJ as much as possible after I recorded them off of HBO.
http://www.angelfire.com/vamp/shoopshoop/starwars.html
I was looking forward for 15 years to the Star Wars prequels and I wasn’t alone.
Lex, I know you’re in full-on bait mode, but:
How was Empire Strikes Back not bad-ass? I mean, jeez – Han being an dick to Leia, Yoda seeming harmless at first then mind-fucking Luke, Han getting tortured later, Luke getting his hand cut-off, C3P0 getting brutalized, Billy DEE, Vader strangling about a dozen underlings long-distance, etc…..the movie kicked ass, which is why it is so fondly remembered.
And if you’re talking INSANE action sequences, really nothing tops the 25 minutes of screentime in the first third of ESB where you have the snow walkers coming at the rebel base then you have that crazy-as-shit Millenium Falcon chase through the asteroids! No other action scenes in the whole Star Wars series really come class, except MAYBE the the Death Star assault in Episode Four, the Darth Maul showdown in Episode One, and (underrated scene) the elmination of the Jedis in Episode Three.
And yeah, these trailers do represent an evolution, but one thing remained the same – both give away WAY too much of the plot. Vader had like 60 seconds of screentime in Episode Three and they have to show the key shot at the end?
Regardless, let’s be done with this shit, already – it was now five years ago that Lucas insisted he was doing a live-action TV series, that ship has sailed. No more freaking re-releases, either! I am Star Wars-ed out. Hell, how about a Raiders re-release this year? THAT shit I would see, it’s been 30 years.
Not surprising that IO is responding to Lex’s trolling in Pavlovian fashion.
Also, I’m a huge Empire fan who also hates Ewoks and thinks ROTJ is the worst Star Wars film by far. And I love all three prequels.
Consider me an exception to the rule, I guess.
I agree with what’s been said above. Each teaser and trailer for each prequel was top-notch…also considering the fact they well hide how horrid some of these movies are.
this one TV spot for Episode III. I think is brilliant advertising. Well using the score of the third film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRU7rTYmnCs&feature=related
I have a copy of Empire recorded from NBC in the mid-80’s. Encore showed it in the late 80’s/early 90’s. USA used to show them….
I don’t know why or anyone else is bothering arguing with Lex though. Really, when he makes big sweeping declarations like that – they’re almost always wrong anyway. It’s like arguing with Raymond Babbit on a meth binge.
May The Schtick Be With You.
NOBODY was champing at the bit for prequels or sequels or ANYTHING for those years. IO, sure, I believe you but you’re like Captain Franchise Geek Guy.
When it was 1990, everyone was listening to like HUMPTY DANCE and wearing CROSS COLOURS and bringing back that GODAWFUL fucking Righteous Brothers song because of GHOST…
…and NO ONE was thinking there was going to be any more STAR WARS. It was a DEAD FRANCHISE, it was in the past, NO ONE NO ONE NO ONE watched it anymore, and NOBODY thought there’d EVER be more SW movies until like 1997 when they did the re-releases.
Then everyone jumped back on the bandwagon like they were true blue 20 years strong. But they weren’t.
THIS IS FACT.
The Schtick Is Weak With This One.
The Douche Is High With This One.
D’OH!
Who said white kids from the suburbs can’t spit?
Lex, that’s so not fact. It’s not even funny. Seriously, even the scumbag skater kids who stole my ridge racer cartridge, TALKED TO ME ABOUT STAR WARS! People bought VHS tapes in DROVES to see the trailer for the Special Editions. I can go on and on but just because what you think happened happen, does not mean that it happened. You dig?
I was 11 in 1990. Don’t remember anyone talking about Star Wars. I do remember Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being all the rage that year. Purely anecdotal though.
Someone knows their facts.
When does that prequel to THE GOODS open?
The Slightly Okays?
THE NOT SO GOODS.
Yeah, everyone loved the turtles, but while I had to go to every god damn karate tournament in the MID-SOUTH REGION in 1991. All those kids at them, when not practicing katas, were discussing SW, Ghostbusters, and Indiana Jones.
Anyone who has any abiding affection for the original trilogy would be well-advised to seek out the remaining “special edition” double-DVD sets that have the unaltered versions appended as a bonus disc before they’re discontinued. I saw them as recently as last month for like $10 a pop at Target. Once the new Blu-Rays and 3-D versions come along, there will be no historical record of the originals and Lucas’s insane Stalinist purge of his own creation will be complete.
RE EMPIRE: It is an amazing film, on every level. Sadly, though it was less-tampered-with in its reissue than eps. IV and VI, the choices Lucas DID make in changing it are mind-boggling and prove, without a doubt, that he lost his mind and all innate sense of story, character and drama somewhere along the way. Case in point: remember, the first time you saw EMPIRE, how badass and stoic Luke’s decision not to join Vader was? And how he just lets go of his hand and falls down the huge shaft, preferring potential death to compromising his principles? ONE OF THE GREAT HEROIC CHARACTER BEATS OF ALL TIME. So what does Lucas change in the reissue? He adds a dubbed-in BITCH SCREAM and has Luke wailing like a pussy as he falls. WHY? TO WHAT END? WHAT DOES THIS ADD? Was this really something that was bugging him for 20 years? I had forgotten about this until reading this thread, so excuse me for bringing up a decade-out-of-date argument, but I defy one person on this board to defend this aesthetic choice.
Yeah fuck those two discs sets and fuck the non SE versions of the movie. I am militant about this, so check yourselves before you wreck yourselves.
You also have to realize that until Luke accepts his face on that antenna, HE’S A BUSTA, so you better believe Mr. WHINES A LOT, who kept getting himself hit in the head by crates, would scream like a busta going down that hole.
are you guys crazy?
no one EVER re-watched the original ‘star wars’ trilogy after it came out in the cinema. NO ONE.
NO ONE NO ONE NO ONE NO ONE NO ONE NO ONE
whatever i say is A FACT because i’m smarter and a better writer than ALL OF YOU combined.
NO ONE
(also, NO ONE. NO ONE re-watched star wars. ever. NO ONE.)
FACT
if i repeat myself ad nauseum and bully everyone with my AWESOMENESS until you’ll all just shut the fuck up and let me say whatever i like and agree like my bobble-head lapdogs my rule of this blog would be COMPLETE.
FACT.
I always thought the SW renaissance in pop culture happened with Clerks, and that following year when the remastered trilogy came out.
Don’t undersell the power of the force either. Those figures were huge and even Kevin Smith made some fat cash from reselling those figures at his comic book store!
SCREENWRITING CLINIC 101
THIS WEEK’S LESSON: CREATING DRAMATIC TENSION IN THE CLIMAX
Example A) The villains have built a virtually impenetrable space station that has the power to wipe out any planet in the galaxy. Unless it is destroyed, all hope for humanity is lost. There is only one possible way to achieve this goal. IF our protagonist can somehow manage to evade all the space station’s defenses, fly into a trench and fire a photon torpedo into a tiny duct with precision timing, THEN, and only then, there might be hope for our heroes. If the shot is one inch or one millisecond off, all will be lost. Failure is not an option. All of this takes place against the backdrop of one of the most stunning and breathtaking dogfight action sequences ever comitted to film. On top of this, our villain, a pilot and warrior of unmatched skill, is flying right behind our hero, waiting to kill him AND our hero has to decide whether to rely on a targeting computer or to trust his own instincts and burgeoning sense of his own spiritual power when he fires this crucial shot. WILL HE MAKE IT?
EXAMPLE B) The villains have decided to launch an assault with unclear stakes using an army of robot fighters on a large open grassy knoll. The robot fighters are protected by a dome-like energy shield. Unless the energy shield is disabled, there will be no way to stop the robots. Our protagonist, a small child, is playing inside of a spaceship in a hangar and accidentally hits the wrong button on the control panel. The ship starts whirling around and firing randomly and JUST HAPPENS to disable the shield. Once this happens, back at the grassy knoll, our goofy comic relief sidekick rolls down a hill like a bowling ball and knocks some of the robots over like bowling pins. Our heroes emerge victorious!
ONE OF THESE THINGS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHERS. DISCUSS. WHICH IS MORE EFFECTIVE AT UTILIZING STAKES AND DRAMATIC TENSION? DISCUSS. WHICH OF THESE SCENARIOS IS MORE LIKELY TO KEEP THE AUDIENCE ON THE EDGE OF THEIR SEATS? DISCUSS.
http://www.blackfive.net/photos/uncategorized/public20enemy.jpg
Shillfor, the Luke screaming in the ESB Special Edition was removed for the DVD release, if I’m not mistaken. And I don’t know how anyone could call all of Lucas’ additions bad. The longer establishing fly-in to Bespin and turning the walls to windows during the chase scene so you can see the exterior really helps to flesh out that location. And how could anyone complain about having Ian McDiarmid redo the Emperor scene, so we don’t have to watch that weird old lady creature from the original.
I’m with IO on this one. The original theatrical version whiners can go suck it. I’m willing to suffer through Greedo Shoota First (which, again, was slightly fixed for the DVD release–now they shoot simultaneously) for the the good enhancements and streamlined effects.
Lazarus: You’re right! That additional longer shot of the guy in the fake-looking snowbeast costume jumping around with his arm missing makes the whole movie!
Star Bores.
If I have to hear one more USC Beardo drone on and ON about how STAR WARS changed his life when his mommy took him to see it in 1977 and THAT’S when he knew he wanted to be a director…
When I saw SW the first time it was the 1982 rerelease (maybe 83?) and it was pretty cool, but just another movie. It sure as shit wasn’t as awesome as ROCKY II or ALIEN or THE SHINING.
LEX: ROCKY II = MEH
ROCKY III = GODHEAD
Today, on GREAT WARS OF THE HOT BLOG:
Did people watch Empire on TV after it was in theaters?
Empire was and REMAINS mostly unavailable; STAR WARS is on TV or cable six hundred times a year; ESB is on like once a decade. EMPIRE today gets watched about as much as STIR CRAZY– ie, NEVER. NOBODY watches Empire. It’s the one NO ONE CARES ABOUT, and it isn’t better than the original.
ROCKY II has the best fight, AND the awesome stretch where he’s doing commercials.
You are so fucking full of shit on this one Lex. Seriously, epic sized shit and Rocky III and IV have better fights. Hell, the last fight in Rocky Balboa is better than fucking Rocky “OH MY GOD, IT’S ALMOST A DOUBLE COUNT OUT” II!
Shil, http://youtu.be/9mkrnWTal_o, and you sure as fuck can’t make people happy. You give them a practical wompa suit and they still fucking complain about it.
IO: PROFESSOR GRIFF KNOWS “YO, I AIN’T MILKTOAST”
I’m gonna go one further:
EMPIRE STRIKES BACK didn’t really come out in 1980. I REFUSE to believe this. REFUSE. There is NOTHING 1980 about it, whereas STAR WARS is kind of disco’d-out and everyone DOES look like they auditioned for it side by side with the kids from CARRIE (which they did.) Hamill looks straight-up out of BIG WEDNESDAY or THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY, it’s disco and ’70s as hell; REVENGE OF THE JEDI (which is what it was called before they erased it and drew RETURN over the REVENGE) I know for a fact was from ’83, and there IS something about everyone’s hair and the Blue Thunder/Jaws 3 vibe that marks it as distinctly 1983.
But EMPIRE? NO FUCKING WAY that came out the same year as Friday the 13th or GORP or Dressed to Kill or My Bodyguard or Blues Brothers or Stir Crazy, all of which have that graiy, airing on ABC look and giant ‘fros and GIANT YELLOW CREDITS and muddy sound and it looks like the last gasp of the 70s. Nope, only TWO 1980 movies have ALWAYS looked crystal clear and un-dated: Empire and The Shining. Both of which are like they were beamed from another universe in terms of VISUAL SHEEN, though Kubrick’s movie DOES have bell bottoms and Barry Nelson.
But ESB? Has ALWAYS looked like it was shot for NBC in “NBC SHEEN” circa 1997, like it should be paired with THE SINGLE GUY or that Lea Thompson show.
Was it REALLY in theaters in 1980, or do they just lie about that retroactively? I have no memory of it coming out until the 83 rerelases, and you CANNOT TELL ME that’s a movie from the same year as fucking FRIDAY THE 13TH or LITTLE DARLINGS.
Shill, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOaHLsNPM88
ETA: You know it came out in 1997 as well right? I also saw it at a movie theatre next to a 2001 Vision Centre that had a Threepio and a Darth Vader mask in the window. Aw the Parkway Village cinema by the TG&Y, oh the fun times I had there.
It is interesting…
When Star Wars and the sequels came out, the moviegoing concept was completely different. VHS/Betamax existed, but these films were withheld. Likewise, they were not on pay-cable for a very long time.
Back then, broadcast television was making massive deals for the big films. I think ET was $20m a showing, mostly backed by Sears when it finally hit TV screens.
But Lex is wrong to say that no one knew and no one cared. Star Wars, much more than, say, Jaws, was living through merchandising and spin-off materials.
Airplane was the hippest movie in 1980. But Empire more than doubled any other film’s box office… in part because people went repeatedly… as there was no Home Video in 3 months… or 6… or 9. Empire and other films were in release in theaters for over a year.
Thanks for bringing up TV showings because all three SW had big to do TV showings on CBS. Each of them also had their own long intros that I hope show up on the BDs. Seriously, those intros, much like PBS making ofs, need to be on those BDs.
When nobody was talking about STAR WARS in 1990, Disney opened their STAR TOURS ride the same year. A total flop as I recall. Nobody cared anymore.
Yeah, it’s not like that Star Tours ride hasn’t been a huge attraction that’s sold a ton of merch. There’s no way that it’s a Disney institution or anything. Nah, that’s impossible.
It never went away, but Star Wars was more or less dormant for non-fans in the late 80’s. They stopped making toys and mainstream merch for years. Things started to pick up again in the early 90’s, when they launched the book series, which got the fans energized, which led to a new toy line and the THX versions of the trilogy on VHS, leading to a the eventual re-establishment of the series as a general sensation again.
So basically Poland and Storymark are saying that I am right.
Which is always the case.
As much as it pains me to say it, there is a kernel of truth amongst this particular stream of Lexian bullshit.
No, there’s not. He said nobody cared about STAR WARS in 1990 – STAR TOURS opened to great success in 1990.
Stop feeding the wampa. I should too.
Again, in my own life, I talked with countless people about SW in the 80s. COUNTLESS! All you need is one and that alone proves Lex is not exactly right on this point.
Brother doesn’t lie, IO.
Hey I went to Universal Studios in 1986 and they still had an AVALANCHE and an EARTHQUAKE attraction.
Doesn’t mean any kids were still watching that old-ass shit.
And there were no comic books when you were a kid either.
“So basically Poland and Storymark are saying that I am right.
Which is always the case.”
lexg’s reading comprehension lesson no. 587:
DP: “But Lex is wrong to say that no one knew and no one cared…”
“lex is wrong”. what part of those three words escaped you, bright spark?
“It was a DEAD FRANCHISE, it was in the past, NO ONE NO ONE NO ONE watched it anymore”
wrong. wrong. wrong.
FACT
also ridiculously wrong:
“And one of my GREAT THEORIES EVER is my steadfast belief that during those years– 83 to 97, say– NOBODY NOBODY NOBODY NOBODY thought of STAR WARS, ever. It was some kiddie shit from everyone’s childhood and we’d all moved on,”
the original ‘star wars’ came out on VHS for the first time in ’82 to smash sales. so a year later it was kiddie drek and NOBODY NOBODY NOBODY ever gave it a second thought?
yeah right
do you ever get tired of being FoSH?
You mean, Full Of Schtick.
“Lazarus: You’re right! That additional longer shot of the guy in the fake-looking snowbeast costume jumping around with his arm missing makes the whole movie!”
Hell Shillfor, thanks for playing “prove me wrong on a couple points and I’ll just bring up something else”.
DId I say all the additions were great? No. But on balance, Empire is a better film in the DVD version.
But hey, keep thinking that the Special Editions are Lucas’ final version of the films and that everything he does is crap. You have plenty of company with that attitude.
isn’t lucas releasing them all in 3D next? or is that just the prequels. maybe he’s hard up for cash.
further to debunk lex’s ‘nobody ever watched empire again’ nonsense:
“Between 1981 and 1997, “The Empire Strikes Back” was released several times on VHS. These versions are all pretty much identical and only offer minor differences when compared to each other. One of the biggest differences can be found on the last Theatrical Version release – the THX-Edition. For this release, the original footage was completely revised and enhanced. By the standards of the time, the movies seemed to shine like new.”
from movie-censorshipdotcom
‘the empire strikes back’ was freely available on VHS from the early 80’s thru to the late 90’s. i myself still have a VHS copy from the late 80’s.
Next year: http://www.fordhamobserver.com/3-d-makeover-for-star-wars-challenges-fan-loyalty-1.2375472
Laz: My point was that I can’t even comprehend the rationale that went behind some of the aesthetic choices. Add some establishing shots to Cloud City? OK, I get that. Re-do the Emperor/Palpantine shots to create consistency with the prequels? OK. Clean up some of the mattes digitally? OK. Modernize some of the VFX with CGI? Maybe (though “cutting edge” CGI effects tend to date worse and far faster than practical FX work — go back and take a look at the SE’s again, now 10+ years behind the curve, and you’ll see what I mean). Add the scream and disrupt the perfectly-edited and badass samurai style snowbeast fight with the awkward extra shot? WHY GOD, WHY?
The only thing Lucas should have altered was cleaning up matte lines. All the additions look like CG and date it far worse. THX-1138 being another film that did not need CG add-ons.
it will be weird to have them released in proper chronological order; the tech going from sleek and shiny and super-pointy to the inexplicably angular and funky chunky functional design of the original trilogy will be even more glaringly bizarre seen in chronological order, bassackwards. i could understand if it was just the rebellion having to scrounge for older ships/parts explaining the backwards trajectory aesthetic of their tech, but it’s impossible to explain away the empire’s tech likewise.
Allow me to translate Leah’s boring posts for those whom they lulled into deepest slumber:
“bullshit, bullshit, who gives a fuck, bullshit.”
Nobody watched EMPIRE from like ’85 to ’97. No one cared. I can repeat this all night or you can just agree with me, as I am correct about LITERALLY EVERYTHING.
Back to the Future, Top Gun, Die Hard and Batman ALL replaced Star Wars as the cool blockbusters “the kids” cared about and rewatched. If you came of age parallel with me, those were the big guns during those SW-lean years. NO-FUCKING-BODY was still waiting for a fourth Star Wars in the late ’80s-mid ’90s. Anyone who says otherwise is an exception to THE RULE.
Also: Lucas is EPICALLY FULL OF SHIT when he says he ENVISIONED IT AS SOME MULTI-PART SAGA from the get-go. That’s like when Spielberg oversells how he and Kubrick were THICK AS THIEVES planning A.I. all those years. STAR WARS was JUST STAR WARS, a STANDALONE, perfect movie. Empire and all that shit was MADE UP ON THE FLY like two or three years later once the money was rolling in.
I have NEVER believed he was conceiving the whole SAGA all along; Else-wise, what happened to those episodes 7-9 that he supposedly had in mind way back when?
LEX FTW. AS ALWAYS. Get me some WHITE PUSSY for my prize. Ya heard!
“It is a dark time for the Empire. Tax revenues are down and tech is limited…”
Shillfor: Did the Wampa need to be seen full-body? No. But the question is, did he not originally show it because of budget constraints? Regardless, it doesn’t ruin the movie for me.
And as I said before, he obviously had second thoughts about the Luke scream because I’m pretty sure it’s not in the DVD version. So there’s one boneheaded move corrected.
Now let’s have a real argument: I think Hayden Christiansen is more appropriate for Anakin’s Spirit at the end of ROTJ than Sebastian Shaw.
ah, tax revenues…
“Nobody watched EMPIRE from like ’85 to ’97. No one cared. I can repeat this all night or you can just agree with me, as I am correct about LITERALLY EVERYTHING.”
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah I AM RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHIIIIIIIING! blah blah blah
or, you could just shut your huge flapping gob for a change. novelty
(hey sadman: your personal experience is not the universal truth. but this does not compute for narcissistic sociopaths)
and you are correct about .01% of time, if that. 99.99% of the time you are epically FoSH. at least you’re consistent tho.
edited to add, as i missed it out:
“NO-FUCKING-BODY was still waiting for a fourth Star Wars in the late ’80s-mid ’90s.”
if this was your only point and you filtered out all that other absolute ludicrous nonsense, you MIGHT have an arguable point. a slim one, perhaps. but as always your bullshit-metre has you neck deep in pooh burying any valid point you might actually make.
A DINGO STOLE MY BABY!
God I can JUST IMAGINE how annoying Leah’s voice must be, esp with that RETARDED Kiwi accent that they put on for NO FUCKING REASON. Oiiiiiiiiiiiiiii shrimp on the barbie, Captain Kangaroo.
Pipe down hen. This subject is for AMERICANS. Did they even show STAR WARS in that racist, sexist backwater shithole you call a country?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghCTZF61ey0
pipe down psycho-doo, this subject is for GROWN-UPS. did they even show STAR WARS in that racist, sexist backwater shithole you call your home town?
It’s interesting to scroll back through this thread and see where the insults started coming out.
Laz: But aren’t their spirits supposed to be the versions of them when they physically died? Annakin was kept alive in the Vader suit until old age, so when he dies he’s actually Sebastian Shaw, not Christensen. Same reason you see Guiness at the end and not McGregor.
YES, I’M THAT MUCH OF A DORK THAT I’M HAVING THIS CONVERSATION!
yancy, you don’t appreciate my shtick of imitating lex’s shtick as posted in every recent thread? lex doing the baiting: okely dokely. mocking lex’s baiting almost verbatim/debunking his bullying nonsense: how dare you!
You want dorky, shillfor? I’ll bring it.
Cybernetic body parts don’t have an afterlife. If the spirit ascends minus those, Anakin would look like some weird, floating torso. If the Jedi afterlife only lets its spirits look like they were when they are Jedi, the Hayden thing makes sense. But then you have the problem of the robes, which Hayden NEVER WORE in that style, so we must assume they are the equivalent of our culture’s notion of angel robes.
But mainly, how the fuck does Anakin know how to go to the afterlife? The prequels explain that Yoda and Obi-Wan learned it from seances with Qui-Gon, and it’s highly unlikely Vader had any of those. Unless Anakin’s record-high midichlorian count allowed him access to the same knowledge as Qui-Gon, his mere appearance as a spirit makes no sense.
Bottom line, The Force does WHAT IT FUCKING WANTS. And it wanted to bring Anakin back in a guise when he was still a good person.
Also, for future generations watching the films in episodic order, it makes a lot more sense from a closure standpoint to have a guy there who starred in two of the films, not some old dude that not only was in the film for a total of 30 seconds, but looks completely different in his two scenes. In one he’s some Weeble-looking egghead dude, and in spirit form he’s a kindly old grandfather with hair.
LYT, this is kind of ret-con stuff, but if Anakin does have that high of a midichlorian count he’s kind of a Force MVP and kind of deserves the spirit treatment.
Shill, a couple of points:
1) The FX in the OT is as up to date as it comes. WHY? They are being put out on BD this Fall and released in 3D the following Winter. This means that the FX will look better than they ever have.
2) Luke always screamed; “NO.” Lucas just extrapolated it out and guess what? The original minimal “NO” has been returned. Your problem with the Wampa fight is all on you because fans were verbal about having it in there back in the day. Seriously, go read the old Insiders. The Wampa scene got a lot of fans excited.
and now LYT: He’s Anakin Skywalker and he had a meditation chamber. According to Yoda, that’s how you figure out how to do it and seeing that he is the chosen one, he figured it out on his own.
Also, if you really want to get nerdy about it: the last time he’s Anakin Skywalker is on that platform and saying good bye to Obi-Wan. Once he comes back from being Vader by saving his son and the galaxy, he’s the guy on the platform again, and that’s why he’s standing there at the end of Jedi. He’s Anakin again and Obi-Wan gets his friend back.
DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORKS.
Can I get a blow-by-blow breakdown of THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER or EMMETT OTTER’S JUG BAND CHRISTMAS next?
leah: I guess I just didn’t see Lex’s EMPIRE shtick as baiting or bullying. I mean, when he says “I AM RIGHT ABOUT THIS” or whatever, I just think to myself “Not really” (my film school classmates were all “STAR WARS made me wanna be a director” types, so I know a lot of people still cared about the franchise in the 80s/early 90s — psst, don’t tell anyone, but Lex knows this, too. He just likes being hyperbolic). If I really cared about the topic, I’d weigh in with my agreements/disagreements, without invective, kinda like Geoff did. Lex’s responses to him and others reiterated his position, but without name-calling. I have no problem with you and christian or anyone else getting into it with Lex, but I’m a little fascinated that those who hate his “baiting” so much are the first to lunge for it when it hits the water. It’s like ignoring him or just addressing his points aren’t options. Eh, I should delete all the above and just say “same ol’, same ol’.” The twain ain’t ever gonna meet on the topic of LexG.
The whole STAR WARS thing is over. Just like the 20th Century.
The LOST SKELETON trilogy will rule this century. Bank on it. YEP YEP.
Cad, your constant dap giving to those films always makes me smile.
IO, my problem with the Wampa fight is that TAUNTAUNS DON’T BLEED RED. Han eviscerates one to prove it. Yet when the new Wampa eats one, it’s red and bloody.
Retcon that for me.
blech, what a shocker yancy, you don’t see lex’s bullying and ego-tripping. apart from the usual pathetic demeaning of women in the current BYOB, which i read first, also rife with the de rigour I’M SMARTER AND BETTER THAN ALL OF YOU caterwauling/bully-boy whinging, here are some examples of lex ego tripping/bullying/riding roughshod/plain idiocy from his position as god on high of the blog in this thread alone that took me about one minute to find, cut n paste, mostly in the face of rebuttal after reasonable rebuttal of his nonsense wherein he persists on being insufferable:
“NONE OF YOU have seen EMPIRE more than six or seven times.”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ONE has watched ESB more than twice EVER.”
“ESB was seen by ZERO PEOPLE EEEEEEEEEEEEVER, and thought of BY NOBODY.”
“I AM RIGHT ABOUT THIS.”
“Then everyone jumped back on the bandwagon like they were true blue 20 years strong. But they weren’t.
THIS IS FACT.”
“The Douche Is High With This One” (after someone calls out his shtick, ie content, lex goes with the personal insult AS ALWAYS. but of course you don’t notice that yancy)
“Empire was and REMAINS mostly unavailable” (this falls under the idiocy category, available on multiple VHS releases thru the 80/90s)
“…I am right.
Which is always the case.”
“LEX FTW. AS ALWAYS. Get me some WHITE PUSSY for my prize.”
i barely looked and that’s probably not even half of it. my goodness it’s OLD — ego-tripping and riding roughshod with his opinion over and over and over in just one thread. that you can’t see it, well, that’s your problem. so you want everyone to respond to lex’s incessant egomaniacal browbeating like you would, or geoff, with the ol’ kid gloves becuase you think his assholery is amusing, yeah i get it. just a tad self-involved, isn’t it, expecting everyone to see things the way you do and act accordingly? i’m sick to death of lex’s NEVER ENDING nonsense here on the lexblog – oops i mean the hotblog, nearly forgot.
oh, and THIS little nugget is the reason all of this nonsense came spewing out:
lex: “When I saw SW the first time it was the 1982 rerelease (maybe 83?) and it was pretty cool, but just another movie. It sure as shit wasn’t as awesome as ROCKY II or ALIEN or THE SHINING.”
because widdel lex doesn’t really dig ‘star wars’, which he didn’t even see on first release so he has NO IDEA what he’s talking about re: the star wars phenom, as is so often the case — and therefore NOBODY CARES ABOUT STAR WARS BECAUSE LEX DOESN’T. so it’s AAAARRRRGH grandpa simpson time on the blog.
OLD and fucking TIRED.
ok, carry on with star wars geek minutiae, what this thread should have been all along before lex took over with yet another display of chest-beating
LYT, Han opens up belly fat with a LIGHTSABER! If there were any blood, it would be cauterized in an instant THE LIGHTSABER!
Leah, you did nail it there at the end but I am personally not even sure his responses in this thread are in anyway close to reality of his true feelings. That’s not anything else mind you, but the disagreement at hand about SW and Empire.
FWIW, ie nothing, for a guy I used to crack on just a little bit, I really enjoy Cadavra’s postings of late. Seems like a great dude, never takes things too seriously, can give it back but always keeps it in perspective, prone to wheeling out some awesome anecdote about someone like Leon Isaac Kennedy. Awesome.
A model for others to follow.
Still waiting for you prequel defenders to weigh in on my dramatic tension argument above:
http://moviecitynews.com/2011/03/oh-the-evolution-of-the-trailer/#comment-342821
Leah: This is getting very old, getting into it with you every day. A couple days back Yancy had a great post that explained so well why NO ONE takes my rants to heart and is offended, except you and Dennis Wilson:
Because I undercut my own bullshit at EVERY turn, because everyone knows it’s a put-on, because it’s RESOLUTELY ABSURD that I think I’m some know-it-all blowhard… as a COMMENTER ON AN INSIDER MOVIE BLOG. This is my place of power? HOW can you take THAT seriously? Some put-on idiot doing impotent rants where HALF THE JOKE is the acknowledgment that in real life I’m a socially inept, Mr. Rogers Sweater-wearing pasty goober who can barely say hi to the checkout girl at the supermarket, let alone go out ranting and raving with sexist invective. It’s the bluster of a total fool. EVERYONE but you gets this. I can’t even BELIEVE I have to explain a shtick that is both so obvious and SO INCREDIBLY LAME that it’s an endlessly inverting commentary on itself. Which is the whole point, it snowballs then refracts and you never know what is real and what is bluster… THE WHOLE POINT is how hard you can drive something so niche and lame and self-hating into the ground… then beat it down some more.
Lex: Willing to hazard a guess that there are more white women in New Zealand than in Burbank. The occasional Maori sighting will be counterbalanced by the lack of Armos.
I wonder if Leah and Lex would like each other if they ever met in real life. Like maybe it would be like the bizarro blog version of YOU’VE GOT MAIL/SHOP AROUND THE CORNER. They could meet in real life, never realizing that they’re mortal enemies in cyberspace.
Peter Jackson can direct. $500 MILLION at the box office. YEP YEP.
Shill, read: http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2010/12/26/did-george-lucas-change-cinema-with-star-wars-prequels/ .
Lexy, you know damn well that you were taking a shot at SW up above and with that, she did nail you. The rest, well, that’s between you and her and the endless parade loop you two seem to be on.
leah: of course I see everything Lex writes — I just don’t see how most of it is anything to get upset about. So Lex thinks “nobody” has seen EMPIRE; so what? If I were in the same room with him and he had his finger in my chest and spittle flying in my face, I might feel bullied. But reading his rants online, whether I agree with him or not, just doesn’t have that effect on me. That’s not the case for you, and I get that. I thought I had made that clear before, when I wrote “I have no problem with you and christian or anyone else getting into it with Lex…” When I said my own response would be closer to Geoff’s, I meant just that; I wasn’t prescribing behavior for anyone else. Maybe I wasn’t clear, because your response to me was “just a tad self-involved, isn’t it, expecting everyone to see things the way you do and act accordingly?” I expect no such thing; if I did, this would be the last place I’d come to find it. 🙂
IO: I’m sure Lucas is JUST THRILLED to be listed alongside his fellow “pattern recognition” pioneer McG.
Shill, McG has his moments and again, you are missing the point of what’s going on to make your very tired point about a 12 year old movie.
bleh
to lex: i’m hardly the first or likely to be the last person to think you’re a giant assdrip, or tell you off for your idiocy here on this blog (nor is christian for that matter). people besides me tell you to fuck off in various ways on a fairly consistent basis here, tho it’s true that far less do so now because most of the old crew have gradually left the blog, likely rather than have to deal with your occupation of it.
that you believe otherwise, that i’m one of the only two people on the planet who thinks you’re a fucking menace is testiment to your level of denial and lack of self-awareness. i’m fairly certain people decide it’s easier to have your approval rather than risk exposure to your inner slasher, but i’m not intimidated by you IN THE SLIGHTEST, never have been, never will be.
so i’ll lay it out for you, cards on the table time since you persist in this charade, because i got your number and i have done for a while. here’s the thing: i have a degree in psychology – nearly became a developmental psychologist but got distracted by the theatre and things snowballed in a differnt direction for me and i subsequently never finished my PhD. but i’m an astute judge of human nature, and you might fool some people here but i see your pathology for exactly what it is. you can whine and deflect and rationalise and deny and make excuses all you want, claim that all the nasty, demeaning shit you say is just an act and therefor excusable (because you demand it), but that is the oldest rationale in the book and anyone familiar with mental illness knows your particular pathology forwards and back.
you’re inability to realise that: a) you don’t just have the divine right to say whatever hateful, provocative shit you feel like and have it go unchallenged BECAUSE YOU SAY SO, and b) simply because your viscous, hateful thoughts are often followed by self-loathing and self-pitying jags, that such behaviours don’t cancel each other out, and C) your ego is such that you think you can simply excuse away your behaviour on a whim, which is actually symptomatic of the very pathology you deny having, all these are typical of what is likely a manic depressive (or bipolar in today’s lingo) and narcissistic personality disorder.
the truth is, when i first began reading and then posting on this blog, for a brief time i thought perhaps you were just putting it on, but as these long years have unfolded and i’ve seen some of the most vicious, hateful thoughts come tumbling out of your psyche with no provocation other than someone (not me, i’ve removed myself from the equation) having an opinion that differs from yours – not just here but in a couple other places – i recognise you for exactly what you are. you’re fine as long as no-one has the nerve to really cross you, then the mask slips and the rage is unveiled. fact is, people with healthy psyches simply do not engage in the extreme hateful rhetoric you slip into. your raging, latent homophobia – and attempts to emasculate other men both here and on other blogs to compensate for your own feelings of inadequacy; your fear and rage towards women; self-loathing and – pitying to the point of threatening suicide on a regular basis for the most trivial of reasons (likely to elicit pity rather than any actual intention of harming yourself); constant need for attention (even negative attention) and approval — all these behaviours that usually, but not always, manifest when your ego feels challenged or threatened or ignored, these are textbook indications of psychological disorder. that you don’t recognise this in yourself is entirely expected; that you claim you’re some mild-manned guy in real life, and you very likely are, makes absolutely NO difference from a psychological standpoint, because a disconnect between your exterior presentation to the world and the turmoil of your interior psyche is typical.
so there you have it, that’s my deal. spare me the ‘who me?’ routine, i’m not buying it, go sell it somewhere else. if you choose to be a provocative hate-smith egomaniacal bully-boy here on the blog, so be it, but deal with the consequences. that is what mentally healthy people do. choices and consequences. you do not have the luxury of dictating the consequence of your own provocative behaviour, that’s what a narcissist thinks. you can’t have it both ways. you make the choice, then live with it.
Psychiatry is a PSEUDO-SCIENCE. Keep the dime-store BULLSHIT to yourself, I’m smarter than you, I’m smarter than ANYONE, and I am THE most narcissistic person YOU WILL EVER KNOW. Psychology and psychriatry are for ASSHOLES, just a field of TOTAL charlatan chicanery, and any- and everyone on the planet should be able to figure out their own problems. I went to a therapist FOR A LAUGH a while back because I lost my temper in the wrong place and it was mandated, but HAHAHAHAHAHA what a CROCK OF SHIT, I was SMARTER than the guy they sent me to, I talked circles around that guy and at the end the dude was like YOU CANNOT BE ADVISED because You think you know better than anyone.
YEP YEP, I do, BECAUSE I AM SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARTER than anyone, I am fully self aware of all my ups and downs, my depression, my highs and lows, my need for attention, my ability to self-destruct and to NEVER CHANGE. Because I AM AWESOME, I AM GOD, I KNOW WHAT I WANT AND WHAT I WANT IS TO FAIL, and in doing so to make the world JUST THAT MUCH WORSE by lashing out at any- and everyone I can, because if I gotta suffer, you gotta come down a peg too, SINCE I AM BETTER THAN ANYONE.
YEP YEP.
Also HEY HEN (ie LESBNZ) if we’re playing DIME STORE PHONY SHRINK, your every post has the man-hating, paranoid ravings of someone who equates every man with an opinion with fucking Krug Stillo, so check your own creepy issues before you come gunning for the Lexman. I actually AM sorry for you having to go through life thinking every impotent DORK on a message board is an affront to your phony, terrified put-on feminism, but maybe you understand AMERICA instead of that sexist, woman-hating ONCE WERE WARRIORS backwards abusive goon-fest of NZ, you’d know we have a SENSE OF HUMOR HERE, and it’s not a bunch of Jack Jarratt in WOLF CREEK looking creepos looking to put women down.
I’ve NEVER made ANY bones that I have ups and downs, that I am a RAGING NARCISSIST, and that I am ABSOLUTELY UNEQUIVOCALLY TERRIFIED of women. Though for half the years I’ve been playing the LaBute card here, I’ve been in relationships and always have a good posse of female friends. Me being such a low-testosterone pussy that I kind of bristle at hanging out with DUDES and all their stupid ball-busting GUYS’ GUY bullshit, and generally preferring the company of women. Women LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE me in day to day life, but unfortunately they’re usually Asian so they don’t count.
ah.
well hey, at least you don’t repeat yourself
I love EMMET OTTER, Lex. And much to my wife’s chagrin, I could do a complete breakdown and analysis of it complete with how the changes they made for the DVD absolutely ruin the late 70s magic of the original HBO broadcasts. (No joke there — they wrecked it and I impatiently await the day when the Jim Henson Company rights those wrongs, but which will probably never come due to various legalities.) Good times.
Lex, I get hating psychiatry. There are many other avenues. You could go get a prescription for Hindu Kush or Deep Purple or whatever the hell they call it. Like TOMORROW. I’m not saying medicate yourself but at least TRY something and don’t come around with the same sad story every week. You’re a grown man. Try to learn more about yourself and other people. Challenge yourself. If you’ve got time to read a million blog posts and see every new movie, you’ve got time to make your life better. Simply rehashing the sordid details doesn’t make you a clever and witty and super-smart poster. It’s certainly not funny as an act. You’re a smart guy and you often say very smart and funny things about movies, but the whole grandiloquent self-pity act is pretty tiresome. I totally respect your right to be miserable, but let’s not pretend that choice in and of itself makes you special or something.
Plus, you’re not a narcissist. Not even close. A narcissist would have no problem saying whatever bullshit smarm popped into his head when he saw a target.
IO @ 10:43 and Lex @ 12:01–Thank you. 🙂
Well Lex, we may be dorks – but I can guarantee that each and every person in this discussion can score with the ladies far better than you – even Leah if she wanted, I’ve absolutely no doubt. And if you’re as smart as you say – well damn, son – no one has ever done so little with so much.
“Look kids…..”
“We know. Big Ben. Parliament….”
If somebody has to repeatedly tell you they’re an awesome smart god — guess what? Another hijacked thread.
Maybe Lucas can come in and clean it up.
And what in the world did they change in EMMET OTTER’S JUG BAND?
Lex if I had a good pickup line, I’d give you one.
Oh, the shtick. It kills. More of the exact same thing please.
You are being a little self-righteous christian. Careful.
Better that than bullying self-loathing. I’m extra careful.
Oh noes – somebody peed in the pool again!
You are 99% wrong all of the time. FACT.
“Better that than bullying self-loathing. I’m extra careful.”
That’s debatable christian. Although I’m sure some here appreciate your constant sanctimony.
Re: EMMET OTTER — little bits of dialog are cut out, a song is truncated (but included on the extras in its entirety), and Kermit’s narration is completely excised (because Jim Henson Co. sold muppet rights to Disney but kept EMMET OTTER). Only the mental patient who watched it on continuous HBO loop in 1980 is gonna notice most of the cuts, but still…
And paul, I’m sure lex appreciates your denial.
kevin, that’s so silly. I figure they cut out the rock band.
I’m sure that’s how you see it christian. That’s fine. It’s typical.
Your comment is nicely bracketed between reality, paul.
Paul, you’ve got to remember that we are part of the problem. We are in denial and we should be coming down hard on Lex. THERE MUST BE CONSEQUENCES! Why there must be consequences on a blog, is beyond me, but there must be CONSEQUENCES!
Also, we must accept psychological analysis of one of our own from another member of the group, because that’s a part of the consequences or something.
LexG: I’m going to SXSW. And I promise you, I’m not an hipster. Maybe an aging hippie, but not a hipster.
Thank you for the information IO. I will remember that and apply it from now on.
You’re right IO. From STAR WARS to BUKKAKE – I blame myself.
Christian, for all of your anger at Lex, you have never really diagnosed him. Seriously, that diagnosis up there is pretty missed up, considering that we have no idea when he’s really kidding or not. If someone is going to make a diagnosis of someone else. Should they not know the person in some real way and not from their bluster on the internet?
It’s not like she didn’t nail him with the obvious, that he didn’t really get the SW phenomenon, so why on earth add all of this psycho-analysis about a guy she doesn’t even know?
If you two think have a problem with him and believe he has to pay the price, then so be it. I just beg of you to stop trying to psycho-analyze a guy off of blog posts.
ETA: Lex, nice stinger at the end, and I will just add that he has his own website now that’s nothing but misery. Seriously, those folks over there are as miserable as they come.
IO, you make no sense, friend. I can only know you or lex or DP through what they write here (or post on my site) – but you attack everybody you disagree with as OLD or OUT OF TOUCH or MOTHERFUCKERS what have you. Leah’s diagnosis based on lex’s posted personality seem dead on. Why you keep defending his rants but blasting others is your privilege.
“Oh, The De-evolution Of A Thread!”
Christian, again, you see everything as an attack or a viscousness, when it’s not. Seriously, I’ve explained it like 15 times now. Why that just goes right past you is beyond me.
You also seem to think that a post represents every aspect of a person, when it’s just a post. Seriously, your buddy believed she knew my INTENT. MY INTENT. When I stated that she was wrong, she didn’t believe me. She literally wrote that I was lying because SHE KNEW THE ANSWER ABOUT… ME! That’s a problem. You two are buying into what you believe from tiny aspect of a person, when all you should be able to get from his blog posts are maybe when we are making a joke, or needlessly slamming the financials of Inception.
Again, you two are on a jihad the rest of us do not agree with, if you give a shit about the rest of us, you will just let it go. You also should remember, that all three of you have had civil discussions before. It’s not like this is hardcore enemy shit. It’s a disagreement on the internet, where all parties have been a dick to one another, and should just let it go.
“you two are on a jihad the rest of us do not agree with”
And you think that “rest of us” means who, kemo-sabe? Apparently you can project yourself into everybody’s head and heart now. People have stopped posting here because of his rants, a fact that even DP has acknowledged.
Why is the onus on everybody but lex? And how do you know what I’m doing is not schtick?
“when all you should be able to get from his blog posts are maybe when we are making a joke, or needlessly slamming the financials of Inception.”
“His” blog posts are from “we”? Busted IOLEX. Busted!
Let’s see: Yancy, Paul, Story, Joe, David, and myself. That’s who. Also all of the random people who showed up when Lex pulled a wrestler’s retirement.
Also, the people who stopped posting here are assholes. Seriously, compared to the true hate on the net, Lex comes across as a sad guy who needs to get laid. That’s why the onus is not on Lex because he, unlike you two, is endearing. He comes across as a sad sack you hope has his life turned around, or at least gets an erection. You two come across as a couple of killjoys, that want to rain on his parade because THERE MOST BE CONSEQUENCES!
Again, I understand he has been mean to you, but much like with your ridiculous attitude towards me. You seemingly, YOU CHRISTIAN, seemingly lack the ability to let anything go ONLINE! Seriously, it’s not a job, it’s not school, but a blog we all post on daily. Why on earth do you take someone being cross to someone else, on a blog where everyone including the head dude in charge does it, so god damn personally? Let it go, not that it’s easy mind you because what that motherfucker Perm did is still bothersome, but what am I supposed to do? Be pissed about it forever? I can be bothered but I have to press on, but you two seemingly find that attitude impossible even though the both of you have had very civil discussions with Lex in the pass.
You also keep bringing up YOU DOING SCHTICK as if it excuses your bad behaviour. It does not excuse Lex’s either but we at least know, that somewhere in all of his bluster, is a very sad guy. What do we get from you two? MEAN AND PISSED OFF PEOPLE who want to kick the sad kid and excuse some of us for not exactly finding that compelling.
I am profoundly baffled by anyone who actually takes Lex’s whole thing with one iota of seriousness.
I’ll admit it. I freaking LOVE the LexG character. I look forward to when he’s performing and frequently explode with laughter.
And, I feel sorry for those who just don’t get it. It is a character. I don’t doubt there are elements of his real persona wrapped up inside but, holy hell, it’s just a dead-on, hilarious, meta riff on a typical internet commenter. Blog posting is his stage and he owns it when the lights come on. I read these posts and it is like being in the audience when a great improv comedian feeds off the interaction from the audience. Brilliant, funny, over the top stuff.
Keep it up, Lex. Put this on a stage, I’ll watch it. Write it, I’ll read it. Sing it, I’ll listen.
Why? ‘Cuz this shit is funny.
JPK aka “Lex” is funny (especially after he deleted his post above). Telling people to drink cum and yelling at “bait” is so endearing! When do you bring lex over to meet your gal pal, IO? And I’m very kind to him given the vile shit he’s tossed my way. Of course, you KNOW he’s sad so it’s okay to be cruel to all.
But I tell ya what: I’m taking a well-deserved HOT BLOG break. Bullies are just no fun and neither are lex’s rants. There’s too much good stuff happening elsewhere.
So please, discuss among yourselves. Let the joy reign!
IOrony!
Yeah, you never do get that you are the bully. How you miss that, continually, is beyond me.
This place is a shell of what it was before. Maybe DP would be policing the rattle-shaking babies better if he didn’t have a real one of his own to take care of.
You enablers and apologists deserve each other. I’ll say this, though: At least Lex is funny some of the time. IO, you’re just a buffoon who contradicts himself on a daily basis and are without a doubt the biggest hypocrite and sped I’ve ever seen on The Hot Blog. And ironically, the debate here about whether or not people are taking Lex seriously completely disregards the fact that NO ONE here has any confusion about how they process your antics. You aren’t funny, you aren’t intelligent, and you have shitty taste. And trying to have an constructive, logical discussion with you is a lost cause. You just like to play with your own poop and throw it at the wall, as well as your fellow playmates.
Enjoy the monkey house.
DP doesn’t believe in policing thought.
I am not everyone’s daddy.
I prefer when people are respectful of each other. I pulled Lex’s latest drunken stupidity and banned his IP for that reason. He’ll be back when he can not scream about his sex life. It has no place here. But trying to be the referee, in terms of measuring the temperature of arguments in here is not fun or rewarding.
The internal battles are boring to everyone other than the battlers. But people grow from failure, not from being banned and coming back under new names.
I have often said that I would rather stop comments totally than start banning people.
It’s not about banning or heavily editing content, David, but maybe better steerage through your own input? I don’t know, is it wrong to ask people nicely to stay on topic and stop using the place to test out their acts or as their own personal playpens?
To be fair, I’ve been here a while and I’m pretty sure you’ve tried everything under the sun at this point. But surely you can’t tell me that what you have here now is somehow desirable compared to the thoughtful exchange of the old days that only seems to pop up from time to time now. It’s certainly still busy here, but I imagine that’s not wholly satisfying.
“…you can’t kill the boogyman”
–Tommy Doyle – Halloween
Laz, I have been here longer and unlike you, I have never ever wished death on someone or written a screed like that above at anyone. Again, I have shitty taste? Jackass, you don’t even know what I like, who I am, or where I am from. So why don’t you take your intolerant jackhole ass back into the hole from which you came because people like you are the problem around here and always have been. The fact that David let’s jerks like you post violent attacks like that at people, is the problem, and will be the problem until he takes care of people like you.
Everybody sure seems to be awfully upset about Lex’s viscosity. Either that, or they have bad spelling and grammar.
Apparently Lex brought up semen and that… crossed… a line.
Lazarus: “This place is a shell of what it was before.”
I don’t know if I would go quite that far. But I would not dismiss the contention entirely out of hand. It would be interesting to see what might happen if someone set up a blog/website similar to this one, but with somewhat tighter controls over the give and take among posters. Maybe maintaining a reasonable level of civility would encourage more posters discussing a wider range of topics. And, then again, maybe not. Maybe such a site would require more demanding standards for registration — like, supplying a credit card number, and actually paying a nominal membership fee. Now before you dismiss this as a pipe dream of a prudish fuddy-duddy, just think: Would you be willing to pay, say, $25 a year to take part in a forum where “policing” (not of opinion, but of vitriol) was practiced? Before anyone asks: No, I am not looking to establish such a forum. I do not have the time or the financial wherewithal to do so. But if someone else did…
Hey, David: If Hulu can have Hulu Plus, could Hot Blog have Hot Blog Elite? Seriously?
Or just give Lex his own blog.
YEP YEP.
Well, that could be Hot Blog Uncut. Look, for years and years, Coca-Cola allowed the Coke name to be used for just one product. Then there was Diet Coke. And Cherry Coke. And Decaffeinated Coke. And Cherry Coke. And Diet Coke Lime. And Coke Zero. And so on. Something for every taste.
Me? Well, I still like Tab.
“You said Cherry Coke twice”
“I like cherry coke”
LOL. Sorry, meant to say: Cherry Coke Lite.
Joe, we can get along. Why some folks like Laz post shit like they do is really beyond me, because what’s wrong with enjoying a genre movie and The King’s Speech? We can get along but do we want to get along is the question.
“I am profoundly baffled by anyone who actually takes Lex’s whole thing with one iota of seriousness.
I’ll admit it. I freaking LOVE the LexG character. I look forward to when he’s performing and frequently explode with laughter.”
I really don’t care if it’s a character, or we’re seeing deep into his soul. Either way, his shit is tired. Take the best characters ever created, and have them say the exact same shit over and over for years…. they’ll be annoying as fuck by then, too.
Thanks Lexg and the people that hate you for making this blog so fun to read.
There are some interesting deadlines on this article however I don’t know if I see all of them heart to heart. There may be some validity however I’ll take hold opinion until I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we wish extra! Added to FeedBurner as properly