Cam Bert

I won't use the spoiler tags for this, but what is the call on fan theories being deemed spoilers? I know Cameron H. and Taylorannphoto have expressed fear that their theories on the next movie could be perceived as spoilers, but can you spoil something that at this point is just a thought? I think one of the good things about the new Star Wars was the fact it raised a lot of questions and you could just sit around with friends and have "Do you think that... Who was... What's going to happen to..." type discussions. However, I've seen on this forum and other places and podcasts people not wanting to speculate about the next movie out of fear of it being a spoiler for the next movie. Sometimes something is obvious but you missed it, and sometimes hearing other people's theories make you go back and watch the movie in a different way, so I'm fine with hearing those things and don't think it's a spoiler until it's filmed and picture locked. Just curious what others thought about this.

I agree. It's not perfect still better than the prequels though. All I know is when I left the theater I was jazzed to go see Episode VIII. Also does this new theory have to do with anti-First Order propaganda by any chance?

Oh my god! Bird on A Wire was filmed in my home town, or parts were, and my mother was obsessed with Mel Gibson at the time. She was so eager to run into him in town and would bring it up all the time. I've never seen the movie, but every time I think of it I just hear my mother in my head saying "Maybe I'll ask him if they'll ever do another Lethal Weapon movie."

This has been part of my holiday tradition for the past seven years and I came up with a theory, probably not the first, that makes this whole thing a little easier to watch and explains away a lot of the oddness. The Star Wars Holiday Special is actually... a propaganda film made by the rebel alliance to help their cause. Think about it, you can't get the heroes of the Republic who just destroyed the Death Star to show up in your film, so what you have to go out and cast them. They found spot on lookalikes for Han and Leia but their Luke looked a little off. Also because they wanted realism, they went for looks over acting ability which explains the phoned in performances. It also explains why Han and Chewie are sitting in a closet and not on the actual Millennium Falcon. The Imperial forces come off as much more fascist and evil than in any of the movies. That's because the Rebels are making it and heavily vilifying the Empire to support their cause. They gave Chewbacca a made up family to make him more likable and sympathetic, and an emotional hook to get people in. The Tatooine bar scene? You think this would be hard to explain but it's not. The story about a bunch of aliens, just like their target audience, having their favourite drinking establishment taken away from them by Imperial decree serves to show how nobody or nowhere is safe from the tyrannical rein of the Empire. This also explains why a bunch of officers would stop to watch TV while in the middle of searching a house. I also assume they got some sort of funding from the tourism board of Tatooine. The cartoon is clearly aimed to get kids attention, because Lumpy watching a story about his father doesn't make sense. It also doesn't make sense that R2D2 who had met Boba Fett and his father wouldn't say anything. Also in the new canon Luke and Boba Fett first met in Ben's old house, so this contradicts the cartoon as well. Basically the cartoon, a moral message for the children watching. The music numbers? To make it seem like an actual "special" and not just a blatant propaganda film. The only thing I haven't touched upon is the overall reaching aspect of Life Day. Now as discussed on the show there are a bunch of reasons Life Day makes no sense. A holiday which is about a life tree that is in a weird pocket dimension on the Wookie home planet that is only able to get to via crystal balls but yet is celebrated by humans and Wookies alike is just down right insane. Also how Luke and Leia can go from systems away and show up just in time and yet Chewbacca couldn't do the same further adds to the insanity. None of it makes sense! However, again through the lens of a propaganda piece, Life Day is just the idea that we are all one and only by coming together we can be strong and free. As their target audience is hundreds of planets in many different systems I doubt any of them has been to Kashyyyk or know the customs of Wookies to call this out as being bullshit. It's just a rallying cry aimed to get people to unit and stand against the Empire and not an actual holiday. In summation, the Star Wars Holiday Special is a piece of propaganda from a war that took place a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away that just now is making it's way to Earth satellites and we're seeing it now. View it this way it makes the whole thing a little easier to get through.

Hey all! My vacation finally begins today I can come back to chat with you all! I hope you all enjoyed The Force Awakens, and I couldn't be more excited that this is this week's episode because for the last seven years watching the Star Wars Christmas special has been part of my Christmas routine. So it's a bit early but I want to wish you all a pleasant Life Day and maybe leave this for those of you that have never heard it...

Okay, I have some extra time so let me dissect the John Hawkes scene and why it bugs me. So as any old school comic fan knows there is the classic scene of the hero stopping a robber and leaving them for the police. Some use their super human strength to wrap them in steel girders or lampposts, others like Spider-Man tie them up and leave a note. Steel seemingly does this with John Hawkes and tells the opera couple to tell the police where he is. Two things about this. First, Steel pinned John Hawkes off the ground to a metal post via a steel pin that went through his flannel shirt. If John Hawkes were to simply raise his arms he'd slip right out of the flannel shirt, He may be cold on the walk home, but he'd be free. Also, even though he's a slight man his entire weight is being supported by the neck of the shirt. Between a combination of gravitational forces and the stress put on the shirt via his struggling chances are the shirt would begin to rip and he'd be free yet again. This was by no means a slam dunk, or should I say free throw in the case of this movie, way of detaining the mugger. Secondly, Steel tells the couple the let the police know where the mugger is. He's not privy to the information that 911 is going to a recording so he has no idea that the police are not on their way. So the burden then becomes for that couple to stay by the pay phone calling 911 repeatedly until they can get through, and then they have to wait for the cops to arrive and take them to where the mugger is pinned. Now given the average response time to 911 can range from 4 minutes to 20 minutes we have to factor in that this is a simple mugging in downtown LA where the items have already been returned and suspect potentially detained. I would be hard pressed to imagine that this is a priority for the police. So between phoning and waiting that couple could have to wait up to 30 minutes to guide the cops to where John Hawkes is hanging, assuming his hasn't slipped out of his shirt or have it rip on him, and for what? For his lawyers to cop a plea and him to serve probation on electronic monitoring? Seems like a lot of work for little gain.

Hey everybody. Last week of work for me before winter break, so not sure how much time I'll have to talk here, but while I have some time this evening I just want to point out two quick things that really left me scratching my head a little. 1. I can't recall if this was mentioned on here earlier or on the show but where exactly is the camera mounted on Steel? It can somehow broadcast imagines of things happening in front of him, behind him, and wherever pertinent information is being had without Steel or the camera moving. 2. Was it just me or were there more references to Batman in this movie than Superman? I know they said that the comic stuff was all junked, but Sparks is clearly Oracle and Batman is referenced like three times. I mean even the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films had more Superman references than a movie based on a Superman character. Also, I don't really get what the guy was saying about seeing it as a Rashomon situation. Typically this refers to multiple stories about a singular event from different points of view of eye witnesses or those enveloped. Anyway, that's it for now. No funny Japanese name this week, will miss talking to you all.

I was born with red hair and then over time it went like dirty blond. However, my beard when I started to grow it came in red. Over the years it went more of a dark red, so my beard and my hair have never and still don't match which makes everybody assume I dye one of them.

I too have returned after a week of holiday events and parties. As much as I love the holiday season I enjoy free time more. So many things said and so much to comment on... First off, given the general comics love of the majority of us here I highly look forward to the super nerdy and specific discussion that will come from this travesty of a comic book movie. I'm counting on you Fister as maybe the biggest DC fan here. Secondly, I too do not get the Nicolas Cage idolization or I should say the love of him as a good bad actor. He is actually a talented actor who always makes interesting choices. He's in some of my favourite all time legitimately good movies like Wild at Heart and Raising Arizona in which he gives great performances. However, much like a lot of actors as their career goes on and they make questionable financial choices the need to do some roles for the cash. This leads to a certain career path where you say yes to things you'd probably say no to. In fact if you look at his filmography when he's with a talented director and writer the results are great performances and good movies. The main reason I think that Nic Cage gets this kind of attention is that he is so versatile. He's the leading man who is actually a character actor. He can also slip into any genre. If you take somebody like Arnold, he can't really do that many genres even though he tried. To see him in something like The Room or Xanadu he'd just feel kinda odd and out of place but Nicolas Cage seems like he could fit. Again proving that he is probably a better actor than most give him credit for. That said if I had to pick the best bad actors... hmm... maybe Bruce Willis. I have to think more on this. Thirdly, EllenM. Rankin and Bass's Santa and Disney's Robin Hood? Seems like somebody has a thing for gingers. Did you have a crush on Ron Weasley as well? As for me, well I don't recall any weird cartoon crushes. The first fictional character I remember having a crush on was Kelly from Saved By The Bell. The first non-living crush I remember is probably Fairchild from Gen13. Oddly not so much for the way she was drawn (and J Scott Campbell can draw women) but I was so attracted to her smarts and nerdiness more. It also probably deep seeded in my love of Ninja Turtles growing up and her looking like a less 80s April O'Neil. Edit: Now that I thought on in a bit my vote is note Bruce Willis but rather Samuel L Jackson.

Edit: Joke sounded more mean than funny. I didn't want any accidentally offend my friends on her so enjoy this gif from the Hackers making of or something.

I just assumed that when they first made the bet she wasn't all that into him. However, as they went along in this "hack off" her interest and feelings grew to the point where she'd be actually into going on a date with him. She would give him his date because that's not repulsing anymore and the new perimeters were "We're going on a date regardless, winner decides who the dress wearer will be." I think at that point the slave thing is kinda off and it's just weird flirting. Maybe not. As evident from me being 32 and single, I am not good at flirting nor fully understand it.

Now, that's the movie I want to see! Hackers 2: The Hacked Planet Zero Cool was the first mutant born on the planet. Much like Doug "Cypher" Ramsey whose mutant ability to intuitively understand any language be it human, alien or computer, Zero Cool can instantly "hack" into anything at anytime. While hacking into some top secret pentagon files he got by going through some backdoors with his 32 RAM and light up modem he stumbles across some garbage files on a top secret time travel project. As he goes in to further hack them he accidentally time slips himself into the far off future of 2323! Regular humans are now enslaved to their mutant overlords. A lowly slave whom he tries to save upon entering the future by using his rollerblading skills, that's right Prayer of the Rollerboys totally came true but with mutants and not Corey Haim, dies in his arm and leaves his wrist computer with Zero Cool. He hacks into it to find out that he wasn't the first mutant, he was the second. The first mutant was... The Plague. In the year 2000 due to the dreaded Y2K bug The Plague using a computer at his minimum security prison was able to harness his mutant power and transfer his consciousness on to the internet. He's been there the entire time controlling the human race by hunting out other leet haxor mutants and awaking their powers. Now Zero Cool must teach the non-mutant humans how to hack the planet and win it back. He raises and army of people to hack into the mainframe of earth and finally take down The Plague for good. Victory is bittersweet as he wishes he could go back in time and be with his true love Acid Burn. One of the slaves tell him that the mutants had been working on a time travel program of their own. He hacks into their backdoor kernels and 64 baud modems and finds out how to go back in time. Unfortunately he put a full stop in the wrong place and goes back in time to the year 996! Setting up the threequel, Hackers 3: Hack to the Future!

Time for my weekly: How Did This Get Named? Sadly not so funny or interesting this time. Hackers is simply Cybernet (Saibaanetto). You might think to yourself, "Oh, do they call the internet the cybernet?" Nope. In fact the The Net is The Internet and it came out at the exact same time. Dante's Peek and Volcano all over again you guys.

Also what's doubly funny about this is the fact when he's working on Acid Burn's computer he's typing a mile a minute which prompts Acid Burn to say "I hope you don't make love like you type." At this point he slows down to about the same speed he was using to hack the TV station. Maybe we are led to believe that after not using a computer for five years his typing speed had been reduced and he was slowly getting back into the speed of things. Also, if you are a "l33t haxor" like he supposedly was, being out of the game for five years would be a huge set back wouldn't it? Technology and internet moves pretty fast so the technology of his first hack would be somewhat outdated or changed by the time he turned eighteen. I'm sure he could read magazines and things to stay in the loop but reading and learning and actually putting into practice are two different things. Maybe he was such a rebel that he was using computers that whole time!

I've been a bit busy and missed out on some great comics talk but again I will repeat this until I'm blue in the face, but I can't express my love for The Superior Foes of Spider-Man enough. It doesn't tie into any Spider-Man title, Spider-Man isn't a character, it's just a smart and goofy heist story. I've gotten people who've never read any Spider-Man to read it and they have enjoyed it and found it accessible. Also I second Slott's time on She-Hulk. I think it gets forgotten a lot nowadays about but is very excellent.

I honestly did not get that until now. Granted I haven't thought about them since I was like 10. I always seemed to conflate them with Kris Kross though. I think Kris Kross was earlier though.

Maybe early 90s fashion is more your style. I mean look at all those colours! Edit: Last one couldn't hotlink so instead enjoy Clarissa explaining 90s fashion to you.

Oh Hackers. Like I needed an excuse to see this movie for like the hundredth time. Funny story maybe for only me but years ago a friend and I were talking about this movie. He brought up how much he loved the movie and how the music really got him electronica music. I couldn't remember the music at all when he starts to sing it remind me. He then proceeds to start singing the Mortal Kombat music but in place of shouting "Mortal Kombat" proceeds to shout "hack the planet." When I told him that was the Mortal Kombat music he was confused and then called for his girlfriend to come in. He started doing it again and when it came time to shout he pointed at her and she too said "hack the planet." Every time I watch Hackers now I am confused why the Mortal Kombat music is not in it.

Hey it's been busy the last few days so I haven't been able to check in. Let's seen what I missed. Best guess would be something one of the guys said in the park. Reminds me of when I found some old notes I'd written about one of the movies and it simply said "Roof stairs?" Don't recall the movie or the context.

In thinking about my last comment another glaring question popped into my head. Was it even the space vampire's plan to come to Earth all along? They wouldn't be on Earth if this very special first of its kind space shuttle hadn't made it's way out to Halley's Comet and decided to go aboard their ship in the first place. However, when they awake on Earth somehow they know that their ship will be coming by Earth in Halley's Comet's wake, and that they must transfer life force energy to the ship. Did these space vampires place their ship behind Halley's Comet as not to be detected until it was too late, and did they have some system to awake them when the approached Earth? This makes little sense as Halley's Comet orbit is basically around the Sun, out past the outer orbital path of Neptune and pack around again. An orbit that only takes it past Earth once every 75 years or so. They'd have to fly all the way to our solar system, hide, and wait 50 years, give or take on where in its orbit it is, just to happen by Earth. What a horribly inefficient plan. It also begs the question why are they collecting life force energy in the first place. Their ship has hundreds of those crystals aboard but only three of them are filled. In fact when the crew of the Churchill first enters their ship it is full of dead vampires. Are they unaware that their fellow comrades are dead and are collecting all this precious life force in vain? Is anyone even piloting the ship because at the end of the film the ship is no longer behind Halley's Comet and is in fact not heading to it perpendicularly which means it would have had to leave the tail down a loop around the Earth at a high speed.

You know I thought about that too when they said she scanned his mind for ideal beauty. However, based on the other creepy astronaut she was his idealized woman too. Maybe she was a composite of the two straight men that entered that part of the ship and they just have very similar types. The one male space vampire was from the woman's mind, and the third from the forth member out on the space walk who may have been homosexual. However, like you said this does not really play a part in the movie overall. In fact the other two space vampires could have been written out of the movie completely and it would make just as much sense! What exactly do they do to advance the plot? One gets killed by Fallada so he can explain to the heroes how to defeat them. That's about it. A conclusion that could have come naturally to one of the many scientist characters in this film.

The more I think about it the more I'm confused about the curious case of Dr. Fallada.If we go back to the middle of the movie when the two male vampires awake from their pods they are immediately shot by the security guards. The spirits of those vampires makes it's way into the bodies of the guards that killed them. Then one of those guards goes to Dr. Fallada in his office to try to turn him. Luckily earlier that day he happened to be delivered a sword from the Amsterdam Museum and was able to kill the guard. However, based on when Caine confronts him at the end of the movie we know that he too is a space vampire. What I find curious is when did this happen? If like the original male vampire the spirit left the body upon death and entered him, why did that spirit not enter Caine when he killed Fallada? For that matter after killing the guard if he was possessed by the spirit why would he message Carlsen and Caine and tell them in very specific detail how to kill the vampires? We know that he was a thanatologist, was he so obsessed with the drive for death that he told them how to kill himself so he'd have a greater understanding? Or did he get turned by some random vampire after killing the guard and then decided to just chill in his lab until the end of the world? Also if Caine could just shoot and kill a vampire why did he grab the large and clunky sword? Surely he could have just shot the doorman vampire.

Time for my semi-regular contribution to the comments with How Did This Get Named? This one is pretty straight forward actually and a bit more catchier if you ask me. In Japan Lifeforce is called スペースバンパイア(Supesubanpaia) which if you sound it out is "Space Vampire" which if you read the oral history was the original title anyway. Additionally there is one more interesting thing I think about the Japanese version. There was some discussion in the episode over future Mrs. Mantzoukas's credit as "space girl" but I think her Japanese credit is a bit more telling. In Japanese she's credited as 女形バンパイア(onnagata banpaia) which can be read to mean "Female form vampire". The interesting part is that the term 女形 was used in kabuki to denote a male actor in a female role as women are not allowed to perform kabuki. So in a sense they acknowledge that the vampire is not really female but rather some creature possibly male or otherwise posing as female.