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I feel all kinds of disgusted by all of this. I think it's also important that we look at the language used here. He didn't say " You're having sex with " he said " You're being FUCKED BY" which gives him even more power and puts this as an act he is committing not one that is being mutually done by both parties. Also that article was very gross the way he talked about several of the women I'm not so sure what he had would have been seen as a consenting above grade time with several of them. On the topic of Michael Douglas the survivor of his supposed harassment and abuse had a letter asking about how to fix sexual harassment in the workplace from the California Women's Law Center from 1993 . So around the time this movie was being made or was in post /starting to be advertised. So... Yeah.

What I couldn't wrap my head around with this movie is how a company that produces what's arguably the most boring and mundane piece of hardware (cd-rom players), and does a bad job of it at that, is also able to produce a fully functioning VR environment, which requires hardware and software about a thousand times more complex, but their main selling point remains those lousy cd-rom players?! Hell, just drop those players altogether and focus on the VR-system, which seems to be advanced even in today's standards! And maybe use it for something else other than as an inconvenient filing cabinet?

You know something, far be it from me to tell personal stories, I'm just here to make stupid jokes and factoids. However, this struck a chord with me. I was walking to get a bus, and I happened upon a group of drunk older women on a hen party. I got groped, had them try to take my jacket off, requesting that I get various body parts out, and various other things, and as I'm trying to walk off, they're trying to stop me. People saw this and laughed and said "Go on, you're in there!" like I'd be interested in a gaggle of drunk older women. I didn't feel threatened or harassed at the time, mainly because I'm 6' and I was 240lbs of pretty solid muscle, so no one's making me do anything I don't want to do. However, in retrospect, if they'd have done that to someone a less physically developed for want of a better term, or someone who maybe had social issues or anxieties etc. It might have had a much worse effect on them, and what are they gonna be greeted with?

I did remember those allegations when I was watching Disclosure. It added a weird layer of irony to the entire film for me. RE: Kirk Douglas...holy shit. I agree, that is just all kind of wrong. Using sex to “punish a woman” (or ANYBODY) is some sort of super-aggressive ego-driven bullshit.

I agree with you. On the one hand, they’re both consenting adults, and as such, they should be able to have sex for whatever reason they wish. On the other hand, he purposefully withheld information in order to humiliate her, only to reveal in a particularly vulnerable moment. Just because she’s a piece of crap doesn’t excuse him for using sex as a weapon of retaliation. Even waiting until she’s “hot for him” to spring it on her is pretty bullshit, imo.

I wanted to thank Gigi-tastic for bringing up that sexual assault does happen to men and that it’s about power and not sex. I would actually like the forums to weigh in on this. It is only tangentially related to this film but it has bothered me since I heard it. You guys may know that there are sexual misconduct allegations against Michael Douglas, and also that there are also long-standing rumors that Kirk Douglas was a sexual predator (it is alleged that he raped Natalie Wood when she was 16). When Kirk was honored at the Golden Globes (apparently as a eff you to the ladies wearing Times Up pins), I read some articles about the rumors around him. There is one story that he readily admits to: Now, obviously, no one likes an anti-Semite and there is some triumph in this. But I was also deeply disturbed with how he used sex as a weapon. Like why not tell her when she’s all hot for you and say, “I can’t fuck you because you are an asshole”. Why do it mid act? It seems like sexual violence in some form. Am I wrong about this? This quote from: https://nypost.com/2016/12/08/how-kirk-douglas-charmed-old-hollywoods-finest-beauties/ I can’t find the original article I read it in.

I mean, this film doesn't understand how anything works: email, computers, forklifts, corporate structure, Prozac, virtual reality, marriage, the law, sex...

I agree that this movie is terrible. I also agree wholeheartedly that so called men's rights activists do not give a flying fuck for male survivors or the well being of men in general. For example On International Women's Day many of them demand an International Men 's Day even though that already exists and is November 19. Ironically the day is rarely googled on its actual date. They care about the fact women have a day at all not that they really want their own day. I also agree that yes women are much more likely to be harassed. I've had several conversations with other female friends about how we do not know *any* women who HAVEN'T been sexually assaulted or harassed including ourselves. However I don't think that negates the fact this does happen to men as well and those survivors deserve every bit of respect and compassion as their female counterparts. It could just be my reading but it feels like you're saying that because a smaller number of harassment is reported it means less? That what they went through isn't as upsetting because women face worse? Again this could be my interpretation. I honestly don't think you can compare this kind of thing. It's deeply personal and affects each survivor differently. I think that our society tends to fail people who speak out but I really think that we fail male survivors in a unique and horrible way. It's bad enough to not think you will be believed because the system is awful. Even worse when you think people won't believe you because of your gender.

Apologies all for being MIA. I got a very serious strep infection in my left foot. I have been in the hospital since 9/16. It appears I will get to go home tomorrow so I hope to be able to join next week’s mayhem.

Ok so let's get to the nitty gritty here. Men can be and are sexually harassed. Much like domestic violence it's 100% something that does happen to men but is not talked about nearly as much as what happens to women. Nearly 1 in 5 ( roughly 17%) complaints to the EEOC are by men. A survey by Quinnipiac University found 20 percent of men surveyed had been harassed. While they government does not track the gender of perpetrators researchers say that men are more likely to harass other men then women ( though women can be perpetrators). The number of men who have reported harassment has stayed pretty steady for the past decade. The movie is correct in the idea that a lot of sexual harassment is about power. It's also a way to punish people who do not meet the ideal gender norms and for men in particular, those who are not sufficiently like the idealized version of their (perceived) gender. Many men do not report their harassment much like many male victims of sexual and domestic assault. they feel they will not be believed because we live in a society that thinks only women can be victims. A 2014 study found that Canadian woman were twice as likely to report harassment Han their male counterparts( 20% vs just 9 %) To quote a survivor who told his story in this really great article from the Washington Post : "Funk, 53, said he was at first hesitant to talk about what he said he was experiencing at work. “ ‘You are a man. You should be able to protect yourself,’ ” he recalled thinking to himself." But even incredibly "masculine" men can be subject to harassment. In 2016 Terry Cruz says he was groped by Adam Venit at a party. Venit is a very well known executive who works at William Morris Endeavor. He's not alone. Brandon Fraser claims in 2003 former HFPA president Philip Berk groped him. These are both famous men, powerful in their own right yet they both have stories about harassment. While this movie is 100% the panicking of rich straight white men in the wake of the Anita Hill Clarence Thomas testimony ( yet here we are in 2019 with another sexual predator on the bench. I'm not going off on that rant) there is a germ of truth in it. Sexual harassment can happen to anyone https://www.canadianwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Facts-About-Sexual-Assault-and-Harassment.pdf https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2502 https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/men-account-for-nearly-1-in-5-complaints-of-workplace-sexual-harassment-with-the-eeoc/2018/04/08/4f7a2572-3372-11e8-94fa-32d48460b955_story.html https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/enforcement/sexual_harassment_new.cfm

Okay after now watching the live show I take back what I wrote originally about it feeling like a punishment of Canadian fans. The live show made enduring this movie actually worth it and it was amazing.

This movie looks INSANE. It’s like a child’s nightmare mixed with a tribute to Elvis Presley as a rooster? How many kids looked up to Elvis Presley in 1991? How many even know who he is now? in terms of Don Bluth movies, I’m actually in the middle of watching The Land Before Time with my 5-year-old nephew (we will finish it tomorrow). It’s a film that is legitimately well-made and only a little scary. Yes, the mom dies, but that’s something that Disney has pulled a bunch of times. Anyway, I’ll defend this particular Bluth film, the others I haven’t seen in a long time.

Fantastic work, Quasar!

More stuff: So Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade has been my favorite entry in the Indiana Jones franchise since I was a kid, as well as being one of my all-time favorite movies. Ever since Raiders of the Lost Ark was covered on Unspooled, as well as listening to the Matts Gorley and Mira debate the series on James Bonding, I've been putting some serious thought into why I hold it in such high regard. This essay is the ultimate result of all that pondering. Enjoy if you so choose! https://www.film89.co.uk/indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade-1989/

@Cinco DeNio I echo the "get well soon" sentiments. I'm sorry you've had to go through these ongoing medical issues, but I sincerely hope you get back to fighting shape soon!

I remember this being much better explained in the book, which is that other users on the VR system show up with their whole bodies, but people who are accessing the system from a normal computer show up as sort of mannequins with their pictures pasted on their heads. It's just that in the movie there is only one scene that briefly shows the VR system and doesn't explain any of that, and in the book there are longer chapters where multiple people are using the system. I mean, the VR system is pretty silly by today's standards anyway, but . . . it was the 90s.

And not only that, but I assumed that when someone signed "A Friend" that they were just being cheeky, but no... it turns out it's actually been sent from "Arthur Friend's" email. As if to say you could only sign an email with the name that matches your email address? But yeah I figure the kid's mom was telling him what to write, especially since she says something in the beginning about being really close to him or talking to him a lot or something? It's a weird reveal that makes very little sense. And why do his kids sign their cutesy email at the very end as "A Famiily"? Do they know about "A Friend"?

Let's talk Corridor y'all: During the climax of the movie, Tom cannot access sensitive business files because his security status has been knocked down to an entry level employee. Since he can't get in on his computer, he goes to where the demo for the Corridor is set up in the Conley's hotel suite. Why in the world would Arcamax allow the guys, who are potentially trying to merge with their company, have such high access? Or why do they keep their actual private business fiiles in the Corridor at all? That seems like it would not be terribly prudent during a negotiation period. Regardless, Tom accesses the pertinent files while Meredith at the same time has decided to log on in her office and delete incriminating files. Why now? Why not right after these video recordings were made... you know... the videos of private phone calls where two parties are openly talking about sabotaging a colleague. That's like white collar prison type shit. All of this leads to the true Ridiculous of this movie: When Meredith shows up as an extra from Dire Strait's Money For Nothing video. She is represented as a physical body in the Corridor itself, stalking Tom like Michael Meyers. There's even a jump scare noise. WTF and Whhhhhyyyyy? What if... Donald Sutherland (or ANYONE) just so happened to be hanging out in the Corridor in this moment ... wouldn't they see her deleting shit? That ain't workin... that's the way you do it... get your money for nothing, and your chicks for free...

I grew up in Seattle and I will give Disclosure this much credit: it was actually shot here. Many movies SAY they are filmed in Seattle but are actually filmed in Vancouver, because (a) it’s cheaper and (b) Washington does a terrible job providing tax breaks and incentives for movies to be able to afford to shoot here. Basically, that’s a long-winded way to say, when a whole movie is shot here (not just exteriors and shots of the Space Needle) that’s a BIG deal. Especially when that movie stars Michael Douglas, Demi Moore, Donald Sutherland and was directed by Barry Levinson. I was in between high school and college when Disclosure came to town. Since I had never seen a film shoot before and loved films, I was very excited. The scene where Dennis Miller embarrasses Michael Douglas at a fancy dinner in front of his wife, that was shot four blocks from the house where I grew up! It was filmed at the Volunteer Park Conservatory at a beautiful old greenhouse made up to look like a fancy restaurant (it was also the greenhouse where Annabella Sciora worked in The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, BTW). My younger brother and I walked up and stared at all the production trucks lining the street, hoping to get a glimpse of somebody, anybody. Time may have distorted this memory, but I still can picture how all the lights made the park seem like it was glowing. December rolled around and people packed into the Cinerama (a giant old-school theater that still exists) to see Disclosure on its opening weekend. Me, (now in college), my parents and my brother (now in high school) were among them. The film started, everyone was excited to see our hometown on film. Two hours and ten minutes later, the vibe of the entire theater was “I guess that was ...good...right?” Rewatching it 25 years later, I can’t even say that. But it is hilarious!

So what was interesting to me about this was that the movie basically took out most of the reason why Moore did what she did, which in the book is explained as she was getting major kickbacks from the Malaysian government who wanted their own changes made in the factory to aid in cost cutting. In the movie it just comes off as a spiteful kind of "fuck him" type of plan for shits and giggles a la Trading Places or Cruel Intentions. Also the ending of the book is A LOT more bleak in that when the machinations of Moore and her conspirators are revealed, it basically tanks the deal that the company was hoping for and the bad guys basically end up with better offers from other companies elsewhere while Douglass' character is left without the promotion and the future of the company is left in question. Crichton was kind of like Stephen King in that he would occasionally redo stories from different focal points but with similar plot threads, in this case his book Airframe which follows a female quality assurance executive at a plane manufacturer who is trying to solve a mysterious incident that happened on one of her company's planes that left two people dead, while a giant merger looms. The tension is so much better and the reasoning behind why someone is trying to screw her is more built into corporate espionage which Crichton writes really well about. It also removes a harassment storyline, making the attack on her more mental and work related rather than dong related. Also hearing that June loved this movie now makes me think there might be some relation to my family as my parents love the most random movies, from classics to utter dogshit. For June I can recall these for the love list: Daredevil, Odd Life of Timothy Green, Grease 2, Teen Witch, Drop Dead Fred, Disclosure, Crank 2 My family's love list: Godfather part 2, Meet Joe Black, The Postman, Jaws

Oh geez! I was going to reach out to you today and ask how you were. I’m sorry about your foot, but I’m glad you’re on the mend! Get well soon!

After a string of live shows it was great to get this in-studio episode. The non-stop banter with Emily and the always-reliable Nick Kroll reminded me of some of the best early episodes before live episodes became more prevalent. With this appearance, Nick moves into third place as most frequent guest, right behind Adam Scott and Jessica St. Clair tied for 1st (JSC moves into 1st if you count the non-canonical episode about Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets, which I usually don't). Disclosure charts onto the top 25 most profitable movies at a modest #17, nicely nestled in between Spice World and Timecop. Demi Moore also makes it onto the list of stars in most HDTGM movies (for Nothing But Trouble, LOL, Striptease, and now Disclosure).

After listening to the discussion about it. I might as well add my expriences as a teenager in the age of the "Adult Movie" laden 90s. Back when I was at school, there was a bustling tape trading scene. One kid would have "Sliver", and is willing to make a deal to get his hands on "9 1/2 Weeks". There was the one kid who was trying to palm off "Naked Lunch", but nobody was gonna take that slop. The kid who had Basic Instinct was the hot hand. If you had that, you can decide your own terms. But, it was also great, because you weren't bringing porn into school, and because it's being taped off the TV, you just label it something like "WWF SuperStars", because who's getting in trouble for wrestling? But, all that changed with the advent of a new network channel, Channel 5. We only had BBC, ITV, and Channel 4, so getting your hands on tapes was much more difficult, because you had to scour the Radio Times, find something that could potentially be considered "dirty", programme it in, hope your mum and dad had gone to bed at that time, and then wake up earlier than everybody else to get the tape out before anybody could catch you, it's especially tricky if you have satellite. There was a real risk/reward aspect to the operation, but, if you could pull it off, you've got a bargaining chip. But then Channel 5 happened, and it just turned that shit on it's ear, because Channel 5 changed the game with the Friday Night Dirty Movie. Or, as it was pronounced where I'm from "The Frahdee Nah't Detty FIlm". With the Frahdee Nah't Detty Film becoming a staple in the listings, it basically collapsed the tape trading scene, because why would you wait around for someone to bring in a relatively tame Sharon Stone movie, when Shannon Tweed was on every Friday? The market was flooded, and now there was no bargaining leverage. And, what happens when an underworld market collapses? A kingpin rises up, and this kid rose up because he had a TV in his room. Not only did he have a TV in his room, he had a VCR... and Cable. British cable channels were weird in the 90s, some of them would just become softcore channels at 10pm. We had this channel called L!VE TV, you ask any man who was a teenager in the 90s, that channel was stuff of legend. You had Grenada Men & Motors, cars in the day, dirty programming at night, whatever took your fancy, cable had it. The market was back, but ruled by one kid. It collapsed again because he got taken down when someone snitched on him to the teachers. Those days were like the wild west, I still miss it a little.

Just for fun... a highlight of the movie, whether you’ve seen it or not! The sunflower dancing is the icing on the cake.

Sorry to hear about your daughter’s fall. Glad to hear she’s on the mend. Yes! I loved the PM Dawn bit!