🚀 go-pugleaf

John Cooley (jcooley@world.std.com) wrote:
: Warning: MOVIE SPOILERS FOLLOWING!
: 

: Last night I went to see the much touted Spielburg/Lucas/Crighton movie called
: "Twister" (which is taking 5 out of the 12 viewing rooms in my local theater
: with all its hype) and it was LAME, LAME, LAME!

: Basically the story   <see original post>
:                                                           Of course, the
: guy eventually tells his bride-to-be to take a hike because he wants to
: stay with his old wife now that they've chased tornados together again.

     No, actually, the new bride-to-be tells him to take a hike and
     leaves. Now what does this inversion in your retelling mean :-) ?

: ....

: As usual, the "good" guys win through their superior skills and hoaky gut
: instincts; while the "bad" guys can only follow the "good" guys and make
: their progress only through copying the "good" guys.

: Other than some good special effects, this was one truely LAME, predictable
: Hollywood-following-a-formula movie.

: That is, it was a twister movie without a twist!    :^)

     Leaving after the film, the California audience seemed to have
     liked it - or rather the tornados. I actually heard a couple of
     people say that their preferred disaster was earthquakes..

     Hugh ---

Hugh Bonney <hbonney@netcom.com> wrote:
>John Cooley (jcooley@world.std.com) wrote:
>: Other than some good special effects, this was one truely LAME, predictable
>: Hollywood-following-a-formula movie.
>
>: That is, it was a twister movie without a twist!    :^)

Damn!  Talk about movie spoilers!  And *I* thought it was about
that game where you have the plastic mat with the big, colored spots.

>
>     Leaving after the film, the California audience seemed to have
>     liked it - or rather the tornados. I actually heard a couple of
>     people say that their preferred disaster was earthquakes..

Those may have been people that have actually experienced both.

As a native Californian, who has lived through a few major quakes, felt
uncountable minor ones, and _also_ lived in Texas for most of ten years,
where I experienced* two tornadoes within a mile of my own house**,
I would have to say that earthquakes don't scare me much in comparison.
 


     Bob O`Bob

(*)up close, one doesn't just "see" either of these things, they
involve a few more senses than that.
(**)and it'd probably be worse if I'd owned a "trailer house"
--

*>Damn!  Talk about movie spoilers!  And *I* thought it was about
*>that game where you have the plastic mat with the big, colored spots.



Talk about spoilers?..read last weeks "Newsweek" about "Last Dance"
-- 
   I am: mom, attorney, fathers' rights advocate, founder of F.R.E.E.(tm)
*--> Fathers' Rights & Equality Exchange info: http://www.vix.com/free/
    To join the Fathers' Rights & Equality Exchange:  free-join@vix.com
		    1996 - a great year to be F.R.E.E.!

Newsgroups despammed a bit.

rrk@rahul.net (Bob R. Kenyon) writes:
>In article <3198BCCA.3E40@hitchcock.org>, John R Moore
><john.r.moore@hitchcock.org> wrote:
>
>>Haven't seen Twister, so I won't try to defend it, but please point
>>out the technology used by Spielburg in:
>>
>>Sugarland Express
>>Continental Divide
>>The Color Purple
>>Empire of the Sun   and
>>Schindler's List.
>
>Just because you don't see the special effects doesn't mean they aren't
>there. Most movies made today have some amount of SFX going on, if only to
                                                   ^^^
Looks like a typo.

>make a sky more beautiful or to take out rigging or mistakes. Many times
>it's cheaper to digitize a scene and have someone paint out a mistake
>instead of reshooting it.
>
>Schindler's List certainly was full of effects. I don't remember enough of
>or haven't seen the other films.

Several of the outdoor crowd scenes in Empire of the Sun were artificial.
They haven't actually hired anywhere near that many extras since, oh, The
Ten Commandments.

And in The Color Purple, Whoopi Goldberg's character is actually a
computer-generated cartoon. 

-rich

In article <obrienDrCrqE.BF7@netcom.com>,
No parking EXCEPT FOR BOB <obrien@netcom.com> wrote:
[...]
>Damn!  Talk about movie spoilers!  And *I* thought it was about
>that game where you have the plastic mat with the big, colored spots.

By the sounds of it a better movie could be made about the big colored 
spots.  There could be a plot with two groups of twister players.  The 
good guys dont cheat or anything like that and the bad guys wear black 
and have a loaded spinner.
-- 
--
kensmith@rahul.net   forging knowledge

Ken Smith  <kensmith@rahul.net> wrote:
>No parking EXCEPT FOR BOB <obrien@netcom.com> wrote:
>[...]
>>Damn!  Talk about movie spoilers!  And *I* thought it was about
>>that game where you have the plastic mat with the big, colored spots.
>
>By the sounds of it a better movie could be made about the big colored 
>spots.  There could be a plot with two groups of twister players.  The 
>good guys dont cheat or anything like that and the bad guys wear black 
>and have a loaded spinner.

Quick!  Line up a producer!  I'm headed for Toys'R'Us...
 uh, I mean for the prop department.

 

     Bob O`Bob
--

obrien@netcom.com (No parking EXCEPT FOR BOB) wrote:

>Hugh Bonney <hbonney@netcom.com> wrote:
>>John Cooley (jcooley@world.std.com) wrote:
>>: Other than some good special effects, this was one truely LAME, predictable
>>: Hollywood-following-a-formula movie.
>>
>>: That is, it was a twister movie without a twist!    :^)

>Damn!  Talk about movie spoilers!  And *I* thought it was about
>that game where you have the plastic mat with the big, colored spots.

>>
>>     Leaving after the film, the California audience seemed to have
>>     liked it - or rather the tornados. I actually heard a couple of
>>     people say that their preferred disaster was earthquakes..

>Those may have been people that have actually experienced both.

>As a native Californian, who has lived through a few major quakes, felt
>uncountable minor ones, and _also_ lived in Texas for most of ten years,
>where I experienced* two tornadoes within a mile of my own house**,
>I would have to say that earthquakes don't scare me much in comparison.

Hmmmm ... I grew up in semi-rural Missouri and lived for several years in
Kansas, just outside Lawrence -- a total of 26 years in "tornado alley."
My first experience with a tornado was the one that blew the roof off our
house when I was 5 (in 1957) and sucked the tablecloth off the dining
table, killed 49 people (we found someone's arm in our backyard), and
destroyed just about everything in a mile-wide path from Baldwin, KS to
Lee's Summit, MO (60 miles).  I've had probably 4
"up-close-and-waaaay-too-personal" encounters with twisters, and seen a
BUNCH.  Even with all that, I'll take a tornado ANY DAY over an earthquake.
You *ALWAYS* have some warning that a tornado is on the way.  You at least
have a chance to get yourself somewhere reasonably safe.  Earthquakes just
... happen.  I've never been more scared than I was during the Loma Prieta
shaker in 1989.  YMMV, of course!

>     Bob O`Bob

>(*)up close, one doesn't just "see" either of these things, they
>involve a few more senses than that.

NO KIDDING!  The stories you hear about "freight trains" don't tell the
whole story.  Try freight trains + a couple of 747s revving up, and throw
in a fog horn or two.  Then there's the sudden tremendous change in air
pressure. (Windows literally explode.)

>(**)and it'd probably be worse if I'd owned a "trailer house"

Which is my biggest argument with the movie -- NOT ONE TRAILER PARK!
Everyone in the midwest KNOWS that trailer parks attract tornados (or breed
'em, or something).  I mean, really -- absolutely NO realism there!

Cheers!  Lana  (who has also experienced a couple of hurricanes -- kid's
stuff by comparison)

Lana Mountford <lsmntfrd@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>You *ALWAYS* have some warning that a tornado is on the way.  You at least
>have a chance to get yourself somewhere reasonably safe.  Earthquakes just
>... happen.  I've never been more scared than I was during the Loma Prieta
>shaker in 1989.  YMMV, of course!

What would you do with a warning?

Maybe I'm somewhat of a fatalist, but as far as I can tell, like you
say, "Earthquakes just ... happen." and there really isn't anything
useful you can do in time.  The main shock of Loma Prieta lasted, what,
fourty-five seconds?

Prepare, certainly.  But when it happens, I've always just tried
to enjoy the ride.  Usually, there's some disappointment because
as soon as I realize what it is, it's over. I was in Texas when
Loma Prieta hit - on the phone with my ex-girlfriend who was at
work in Mountain View - less than a mile from where I live now.
She said "We're having a major earthquake and all the alarms are
going off; I'd better go."  I turned on the tv to see if they'd
mention it on the World Series coverage, and they were joking,
talking about a "little" earthquake.    Then they went off the air.
In about an hour, all channels were showing the fires.

I have a tremendous respect for earthquakes.  But possibly because
of my opinion that there's practically nothing you can do at the
time they hit, they don't scare me much at all.


>>(*)up close, one doesn't just "see" either of these things, they
>>involve a few more senses than that.
>
>NO KIDDING!  The stories you hear about "freight trains" don't tell the
>whole story.  Try freight trains + a couple of 747s revving up, and throw
>in a fog horn or two.  Then there's the sudden tremendous change in air
>pressure. (Windows literally explode.)

Those can be pretty painful to those of us who spend most of our
lives stuffed up with allergies.  Although, I recall one time when
the low hit where I was and my sinuses cleared, seemingly by themselves.
I could suddenly breathe freely, but I was momentarily more intent
on finding a box of tissues than seeking shelter.



     Bob O`Bob
--

In article <4nbobd$rca@Networking.Stanford.EDU>, rich@c2.org (Rich Graves)
wrote:

>rrk@rahul.net (Bob R. Kenyon) writes:
>>Just because you don't see the special effects doesn't mean they aren't
>>there. Most movies made today have some amount of SFX going on, if only to
>                                                   ^^^
>Looks like a typo.

SFX = Special Effects.

>Several of the outdoor crowd scenes in Empire of the Sun were artificial.
>They haven't actually hired anywhere near that many extras since, oh, The
>Ten Commandments.

Same goes for the Anti-War Rally on the Mall in Forrest Gump.

>And in The Color Purple, Whoopi Goldberg's character is actually a
>computer-generated cartoon. 

Ooo. I don't remember that. Where any of the Animaniacs in it?
-- 
Bob R. Kenyon, Beautiful Downtown San Jose, CA
http://www.rahul.net/rrk/

obrien@netcom.com (No parking EXCEPT FOR BOB) wrote:

>Lana Mountford <lsmntfrd@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>>You *ALWAYS* have some warning that a tornado is on the way.  You at least
>>have a chance to get yourself somewhere reasonably safe.  Earthquakes just
>>... happen.  I've never been more scared than I was during the Loma Prieta
>>shaker in 1989.  YMMV, of course!

>What would you do with a warning?

In the case of an earthquake, you do have a point.  I guess at least I
could *mentally* prepare for it.  Not much one could do to distance oneself
from it, is there?

>Maybe I'm somewhat of a fatalist, but as far as I can tell, like you
>say, "Earthquakes just ... happen." and there really isn't anything
>useful you can do in time.  The main shock of Loma Prieta lasted, what,
>fourty-five seconds?

I think it was less time than that -- I seem to recall 20-25 seconds?  I
think for me, it's probably a "control issue."  In a tornado, I get time to
choose how to respond.  In an earthquake, it's thrust on me with no
warning.

>Prepare, certainly.  But when it happens, I've always just tried
>to enjoy the ride.  Usually, there's some disappointment because
>as soon as I realize what it is, it's over. 

I'd actually enjoyed all the smaller 'quakes I experienced prior to Loma
Prieta -- the largest was, I think, about 5.6.  The experience in '89 was
totally different, though -- it felt different and even *sounded*
different.  You knew almost immediately that it was serious.  I'm much
better prepared now, so I guess that's a "good thing."  Bookcases are
bolted to the walls, house is bolted to the foundation, extra stocks of
food/water/etc.  

Cheers!  Lana

On Wed, 15 May 1996, Bob R. Kenyon wrote:

> >And in The Color Purple, Whoopi Goldberg's character is actually a
> >computer-generated cartoon. 
> 
> Ooo. I don't remember that. Where any of the Animaniacs in it?

Check out the water tower in town next time you see it.

Sarah
Da WB