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SkyPilot

Member since 3/10/2006, last signed in 3 days ago.

"That's - just like - your opinion, man."

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Personal statement:

One of my professors says "Education, at its best, makes you less susceptible to manipulation. It doesn't enlarge your circle of friends though, does it?"

That may be true in a lot of ways, but not on Spout. As I've seen more movies, Spout has enlarged my circle of friends.

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SkyPilot's movie tags

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Re:Who is your favorite of the ...
By SkyPilot in Movie Polls
"I've seen their first 7 fims, which are supposed to be their best, and here's my order of preference: Top 5 Marx Bros. Movies 1. Duck Soup - In their madcap prime, they were invincible. 2. Monkey Business - The one where they're stowaways. They're a whirlwind of trouble and laughter. A big step forward from their first movie, The Cocoanuts. 3. A Night at the Opera - Probably their best "film" (it has really good production value and some believable characters). Very funny, but I miss their unpredictable and crazed exploits from earlier movies. 4. Animal Crackers - The one at the mansion where a painting is stolen. Nearing their prime here, they seem effortlessly funny. 5. Horse Feathers - The one at the college. Very funny, but not quite as funny as I'd hope a Marx Brothers college comedy would be. 6. A Day at the Races - Their second best "film," but to me it felt kind of tired compared to its predecessor, A Night at the Opera. 7. The Cocoanuts - Pretty rough; looks like it was al ... " [More]

Slumdog Millionaire

Re:3/13 - New movies - Oscar no ...
By SkyPilot in Coming Soon
"[quote user="Risselada"] I guess Oscar noms don't really determine how much distribution a movie gets as much as I thought. At least I spoke with a girl last night who has a friend in a smaller town who she talked to very recently. This person sees movies at the theater somewhat regularly, and she had never even heard of Slumdog Millionaire. [/quote] Wow, that's kind of hard to believe. By now, I've heard the words Slumdog Millionaire way too many times... " [More]

Re:81st Oscars - Sh!t or Shinola?
By SkyPilot in It's a Wonderful Night for Oscar!
"[quote user="Risselada"] It seems like the Academy is kind of a club that you have to know someone in the club or impress someone in the club to get in. No wonder people find them so predictable. There aren't many dissenting opinions?? [/quote] Yeah. I guess one could try to argue that the Oscars are therefore like a "trial by one's peers"... But on a jury, one's "peers" are supposed to be disinterested. It's hard for me to imagine that a bunch of people in the movie business would be disinterested voters when they have something to gain from receiving nominations and awards for movies they produced, directed, starred in, etc. So to put it very cynically, the Oscars resemble a beauty contest held at an in-bred family reunion. " [More]

Re:3/13 - New movies - Oscar no ...
By SkyPilot in Coming Soon
"[quote user="tadiv"] I am so looking forward to my copy of this arriving later this week. I really enjoyed it at the theater. Tom Cool, I think it was in the theaters here for about one day. I guess I can't complain, because some of my Michigan friends who live in smaller towns never even had The Wrestler come to town! Even after its Oscar noms! " [More]

Re:3/13 - New movies - Oscar no ...
By SkyPilot in Coming Soon
"[quote user="mercurial"] ...Repo! The Genetic Opera... too much and became rather grating. I'm not discounting it entirely - another viewing might just make everything mesh... Let The Right One In - Incredible film. Dark, intimate and definitely worth its labeling as one of the best vampire movies of recent history. [/quote] Thanks for the reviews, man. Let the Right One looked like something I could really savor with red wine, while Repo! looked like something that goes with beer nuts and pickled eggs. " [More]

Re:Faye Dunaway :(
By SkyPilot in Movie Polls
"[quote user="Tenenbaums"] Please, nobody vote for Barfly. It's a terrible movie. [/quote] Does it seem weird to anyone else that he selected Faye Dunaway and not Mickey Rourke? ______ I ended up voting for Sterling Hayden just because I like him so much in Dr. Strangelove. ("I don't avoid women, Mandrake . . . but I do deny them my essence.") Also because I've seen almost none of these movies, except Barfly and Leaving Las Vegas, and they both make me feel gross. " [More]

The Butterfly Effect

Re:Weekly Theme for March 9: Ti ...
By SkyPilot in Weekly Theme
"[quote user="mercurial"] The Lake House reunited Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves with its time traveling mailbox. Click was just bad. The begin of Adam Sandler's decline. [/quote] First, your Lake House should become the standard Lake House film summary in all TV guides! Secondly, Adam Sandler's decline began with Click...as recently as 2006?! I guess I always took it for granted that The Wedding Singer was the end of his prime. (It was followed by The Waterboy, Big Daddy, Little Nicky, Punch-Drunk Love [which was actually great], then Mr. Deeds, Anger Management, and The Longest Yard before getting to Click.) Thirdly, a time travel movie I didn't enjoy very much was Ashton Kutcher's The Butterfly Effect. I remember it mostly melodramatic, a typical "I'm in love" teensploitation flick. The theme was kind of interesting, though: it's not just singular events that determine the path of one's life, but entire environments, and the daily grind of circumstances. So going back in time to ... " [More]

WATCHMEN Poll: Raddest character?
By SkyPilot in sci-fi
"Watchmen this friday... [I'm rubbing my hands together and drooling, like a cartoon wolf who's spotted a flock of sheep] Watch the trailer. Read Kevin Buist's review on SpoutBlog. Then for buzzkill, check out Chris Campbell's 5 Reasons a Watchmen movie was unecessary. &amp;lt;a href ="http://answers.polldaddy.com /poll/1427635/" &amp;gt;WHO'S THE RADDEST WATCHMEN CHARACTER?&amp;lt;/a&a mp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;lt;br/&am p;gt; &amp;lt;span style="font-size:9px;" mce_style="font-size:9px;"& ;amp;amp;gt; (&amp;lt;a href ="http://www.polldaddy.com"&am p;amp;amp;gt; polls&amp;lt;/a&am p;amp;gt;)&amp;lt;/spa n&amp;gt; The Comedian is almost as fun to read about as the Joker, but I have to go with my man Rorschach. My favorite Rorschach moment comes when his brainstorming gets increasingly wacky, and he's like, "All this Egyptian imagery is making my logic fuzzy..." PS - Hats off to my man Risselada, wh ... " [More]

Re:What is your favorite movie ...
By SkyPilot in Movie Polls
"The New World was the closest I've ever come to falling asleep in the theater. So I'd like to see Tree of Life, but unless it's better than the last one, I'm going to stop looking forward to his movies. When I saw The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford with a friend, he said "I thought I was watching a lost Malick film," and I could see what he meant. " [More]

Re:81st Oscars - Sh!t or Shinola?
By SkyPilot in It's a Wonderful Night for Oscar!
"[quote user="pippin06"] Yes--of course--they are making a value judgment. They're making a widely recognized, highly sought-after, decades-acknowledged value judgment. But that's my point: you're looking at it from a movie-viewer's perspective. The Oscars are still ultimately for the movie-makers (even if the broadcast is designed to rope in viewers and their ticket-buying dollars). [/quote] Great point. [quote user="pippin06"] Now, if you, as a viewer, are looking for solid recommendations for your own viewing purposes, and if you've disagreed with past choices (i.e. Titanic), then you are not going to agree with the Oscars...However, the Academy is comprised of people within the motion picture-making community, and the members voted for Slumdog Millionaire. Is it the best of the year? Maybe not in your opinion...but the Academy's opinion certainly matters to the people ultimately providing their membership and being eligible for their nominations...and to a few others too. ... " [More]

Re:81st Oscars - Sh!t or Shinola?
By SkyPilot in It's a Wonderful Night for Oscar!
"[quote user="pippin06"] ...I don't think Academy and Awards are a contradiction in terms... [/quote] I wasn't very clear here, was I? I don't think authority ("Academy") and entertainment ("Awards") are a contradiction in terms. I just didn't think the Academy was particularly authoritative or entertaining this year. It's no mystery how I can say I wasn't entertained, but I must defend my claim that the Academy wasn't authoritative. I will do that below. [quote user="pippin06"] I guess I'm trying to understand who you are speaking about, who sees the Awards "as doing work -- or attempting to do work -- of real substance." [/quote] Academy: authoritative? The Academy claims authority. Would you agree that calling an award "Best Picture" signifies that they're making a value judgment? That they believe some movies are actually better, more accomplished, more deserving of praise than other movies? This being my assumption, many of the Academy's value judgments (for example, Titanic as ... " [More]

Re:81st Oscars - Sh!t or Shinola?
By SkyPilot in It's a Wonderful Night for Oscar!
"[quote user="pippin06"] ...as far as I'm concerned, the Oscars will never win. To be fair, it will never be a show of substance, and why should it be? They're awards for entertainment, movie entertainment, and, let's face it, movies are still entertainment. Movies can be a valid, thought-provoking, and intelligent medium for entertainment, but that's what they are at their core. [/quote] I disagree with you, pippin -- it seems the Academy has made continuous attempts to be seen as doing work of real substance, albeit in an entertaining format. But you're right that the Oscars can never please everybody, especially when they're trying to be two things at once. Aren't the two words in the title, "Academy" and "Awards," like signposts toward the dual goals of the whole enterprise? Academy? If anyone views the Academy Awards in just the first way--as weighty words from an authoritative Academy--then such a person has much to be disappointed about. The Titanic of 2008 has just won Be ... " [More]

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Films I've seen

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These get my mojo workin'!

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Low budget glee

Westerns I Have Seen - My thoughts in haiku (21)
Sometimes I say too much, so I limit myself to 17 syllables.

Nerd Triumphs (18)
When nerds finally get recognized, show more courage than the popular kids, or just act like sol ...

B+ is the new B (13)
Roger Corman once said he could've made Top Gun with a Carradine brother for less than $10,000 d ...

Movie Beats the Book (14)
A lot of people think the book always trumps the movie. Here are counter-examples.

Educate An Alien (35)
...about film and human experience.

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