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Post by Cducharme on Mar 21, 2015 16:34:25 GMT -5
Fulci's zombi 2. Great film of course
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Post by lugnut on Mar 22, 2015 11:07:22 GMT -5
Yeah, it's not that I didn't like Friday 2 at all, it just seemed so cut up to me. A few scenes were very effective (the shrine, the sweater, etc. - hey wait, this was the basis for the damn NES game, wasn't it?!), but mostly I didn't feel like any character lasted long enough to make you give a fuck, and the actual kills were so obviously cut-down that it became distracting. From some Googling it looks like nobody's found any versions of this with the cut footage, just "urban legends," but some poor quality cut footage for Parts 3 and some high-quality footage for Part 4 (or 5, I forget) is known to exist, so they definitely should have access to more of this footage than they're admitting or willing to even look for.
Anyway, a new list:
Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) - Well, I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't exactly this. I enjoyed it a lot, I just didn't fall completely in love with it like so many seemed to. The comedy element is much more subdued than I figured for something with such a goofy premise. Definitely worth a look, though.
Beer (1985) - Godawful beer-company/ad-agency satire with a decent cast (Rip Torn! Hot Lips! David Alan Grier! The dad from Boy Meets World!) who can't save an awful, nearly laughless script. Oh, it's trying to be funny throughout, it just hardly ever is. Basically crap.
Charlie Victor Romeo (2013) - Well, this is different. It's just six or seven re-enactments of various airline disasters based on verbatim transcripts from the cockpit voice recorders. It has its origins as a stage play, and apparently this is just a filmed version of it, which shows. It's gripping stuff, but it looks like it had a budget of about $30, especially since it re-uses the same handful of actors for each new segment. Because of the fact that it's all strictly what was on the tapes, you never see anything that happens outside the cockpit, which kinda hurts it as a "movie." It also means there's lots of plane/flight-related terms both technical and slang that are mostly utter gibberish to someone like me who's never even been on a plane, so you may want to turn on subtitles to catch it all like I had to. Worth seeing though, but the first segment (which didn't end in disaster) is rather slow.
Cocoon (1985) - Good lord. For some reason someone gave my family this on VHS for Xmas when it was new (I think this is about the time the first "cheap" VHS tapes were appearing in stores, and they were still $40-50 usually). Anyway, for even more confunding reasons...I liked this movie! I hadn't seen it probably since around then (though I watched it several times because it was one of the only tapes we had at the time) and I probably should have kept it that way. This is pretty awful Ron Howard-wants-to-be-Spielberg stuff. Performance from the cast of old bastards is all fine, but the story itself just seems fuckin' hokey.
National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) - Still love this movie, don't care what anyone says. Seen it a million times, never stop enjoying it.
Misery (1990) - Now here's one I hadn't seen in a minute that didn't quite hold up as well this time around. It's still very good, it just seemed to drag a little more here and there than I had remembered. So was it this or A Few Good Men that wound up being Rob Reiner's last good movie? I've never seen AFGM somehow so I'm not sure if it has much to offer beyond the famous courtroom scene, but man, what the hell happened to this guy's ability to pick scripts?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2015 11:20:48 GMT -5
Broken, 2006, starring Heather Graham and Jeremy Sisto. Always a great watch.
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Post by lugnut on Mar 25, 2015 7:15:49 GMT -5
Don Friesen: Ask Your Mom (2012) - Terrible. I guess this guy is some big "clean" stand-up, which is all fine and well, except he's also not funny. Material is stale, dull-ass shit that even your grandma would find dated and unoriginal. It's highly reviewed on Netflix, and since all the 4/5-star reviews point out how great it is because it's "family friendly" or "good clean comedy," I at first thought they were probably fake planted reviews by someone at the studio or on Friesen's staff. Then I noticed many of those reviews, even recent ones, compare him favorably to Cosby...that's probably not good right now (plus his material isn't remotely similar). A bunch of others complain that he makes fun of Bush but not Obama and mention they're only rating it 4 stars instead of 5 because of that. So I doubt they're fakes. I guess there's somehow an actual audience for this crap - well, maybe there is, it's hard to tell since it has a fake laugh track that's of roughly the same credibility as Alive II's audience track. Anyway, I laughed exactly once and now I don't even remember what the hell the joke was (and as I'm writing this the credits are rolling, so not much time has passed here.) TLDR; This guy sucks.
Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield (2007) - Oh boy, now it's an awful horror movie instead of an awful stand-up special! Totally fictionalized with very little connection to any events in the actual Gein case, turned into a dull as hell slasher movie. Couldn't keep my interest anyway. And I'm sure if you've ever seen pictures of Ed Gein, you'd agree he looked just like Kane Hodder!
Shakespeare Was a Big George Jones Fan: "Cowboy" Jack Clement's Home Movies (2005) - Brief documentary that offers up pretty much what the title implies. Clement was a highly influential country songwriter and producer from the earliest days of Sun Records up 'til he died in 2013. This is basically just a bunch of home movies he filmed with various (mostly also now-decased) country legends when they were at his house or studio. Clement almost seems like the Prince of country music, recording tons of never-finished TV specials for himself and other artists, hundreds of songs, etc., basically all just because he had his own studios in his house. Some interesting footage of Johnny Cash here, which almost certainly has to be in his '80s relapse period, because the man sure don't come across as sober.
For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism (2009) - Meh. Mostly a bunch of critics blowing each other for an hour and a half with production values that woulda looked dated in 1999, let alone 2009. Not entirely worthless, but...yeah, not recommended.
Flowers in the Attic (1987) - Hadn't seen this since it was new, but something about the piece of crap made enough impact to stick with me. Looking back now, I'm betting it was teenage Kristy Swanson in a bathtub rubbing her legs more than anything. Based on the VC Andrews "young adult" novel of the same title about an evil mother who lock up her kids with her even-eviler mom so she can connive her way back in the family to collect on her father's will after being kicked out of the family for marrying her own uncle and... y'know what, it don't matter. This thing is stupid and put together like a bad soap opera or TV movie, despite a pretty great performance as the evil bitch grandma from Louise Fletcher. Now that these "YA" books are all the rage in films, I'm amazed nobody's remade this one yet.
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Post by Cducharme on Mar 26, 2015 19:10:32 GMT -5
Watching castle freak for the first time in years. Love this era of full moon
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Post by I'm Almost Human on Mar 27, 2015 6:57:20 GMT -5
Watching castle freak for the first time in years. Love this era of full moon Love Stuart Gordon.. Wish he was more productive in recent years. Loved King of the Ants and Stuck.
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Post by Cducharme on Mar 27, 2015 17:50:44 GMT -5
Today's films so far:
Head of the family: another full moon classic, this one starring one of the hottest porn stars ever in Sara st James. Many loads and potential children were wasted in my younger days watching her less mainstream films. All in all this movie is as insane as I remember. Wish band would make that sequel he keeps promising.
House (86): I had forgotten just how fucked this film actually is. Lots of cool scenery within that house and Richard moll is fantastic as always.
House 2: Fuck it, I decided to watch this, the much maligned sequel to house 1 which has nothing to do with the plot of the first one, the critics have this all wrong, it may be bad but 0% on RT bad? Nah! Royal dano is great (surprise right, I mean he was only one of the greatest supporting actors ever) as gramps the reanimated good zombie in this more lighthearted but still batshit insane film, plus it was ahead of its time casting bill Maher as a smarmy cocksucker.
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Post by lugnut on Mar 29, 2015 1:27:32 GMT -5
Back Issues: The Hustler Magazine Story (2014) - I dunno. This doc has great reviews, but if you've seen The People vs. Larry Flynt, you've basically already learned everything that it has to offer up. That's not to say it's not an entertaining watch, because it is, but I was surprised at how I kinda already knew everything and it seemed to sorta drag as a result.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) - Oh lord. This might well be my 300th viewing for all I know, but this time I watched it with two very fucked-up gay male friends and christ almighty it was annoying. Stop dancing in my living room, ya drunk-ass queens!
Paul Williams: Still Alive (2011) - I coulda sworn I'd seen this already, but I guess not. Very good doc, as everybody probably already knows.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) - Aw, maaaannnn.... this is so close to being a good NOES movie that it's frustrating. I'd avoided this up to now, but figured fuck it and gave it a shot. It's really not a terrible slasher flick, it's just that nobody can convincingly be Freddy except Englund. The new makeup design didn't distract me like it did for a lot of people, but Haley's voice sure did. Throw Englund into the same movie and it would improve considerably. (And why didn't they just use him? The age doesn't matter, makeup and CGI can cover all..)
School of Rock (2003) - Saw once when it came out and remembered enjoying it, so figured what the hell, I'd check it out again. Wellll... it's okay. Too long, not half as funny as I'd remembered it being. I guess if it's on TV and nothing else is on, it'll do.
So Wrong They're Right (1995) - Occasionally pretentious, but mostly kinda cool documentary I think most music fans would enjoy about 8-Tracks and their obsessive collectors. A few real kooks here (one guy swears they sound better than CD), but a lot of cool stuff to see along the way too. It would be neat to see a follow-up sequel 20 years later with the same individuals because I bet their huge 8-Track collections have largely since succumbed to roller-rot and pad disintegration, heh.
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Post by Cducharme on Mar 29, 2015 11:34:28 GMT -5
The 2010 nightmare film really could have been great, but Haley was all wrong for the part.
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Post by lugnut on Mar 29, 2015 13:23:48 GMT -5
The 2010 nightmare film really could have been great, but Haley was all wrong for the part. Think they'll ever make another with Englund? All they'd have to do is bring him back and the audience would come back, too.
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Post by Cducharme on Mar 29, 2015 14:17:51 GMT -5
Unlikely while platinum dunes has anything to do with the franchise. They truly are the death knell of quality
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Post by R&ROVER on Mar 29, 2015 17:53:08 GMT -5
Not a movie, but the six part series on Robert Durst The Jinx.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2015 17:57:57 GMT -5
The 2010 nightmare film really could have been great, but Haley was all wrong for the part. I thought Haley was the only good thing about it.
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Post by Cducharme on Mar 29, 2015 21:23:47 GMT -5
The 2010 nightmare film really could have been great, but Haley was all wrong for the part. I thought Haley was the only good thing about it. He made the part his own, or at least attempted to. I personally wasn't that much of a fan, despite actually being excited for him in the role. I did appreciate the effort he put in, but Freddy really is the kind of character meant to be played by the only man that to that point had played him. That said, I did like the changes to the story as Freddy was originally going to be a child rapist/molester and I like the return to serious horror versus quips galore. That said englund couldn't just be plopped into this story, as remaking a film with the same villain and basic story with the same actor as the villain is abit on the cunt side.
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Post by lugnut on Mar 30, 2015 12:00:44 GMT -5
That said englund couldn't just be plopped into this story, as remaking a film with the same villain and basic story with the same actor as the villain is abit on the cunt side. I actually didn't think it was as much of a "direct remake" of the original as I'd been told. Definitely some similar scenes and deaths for sure, but it wouldn't have took *too* much to adapt the script to accomodate Englund I don't think.
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Post by Cducharme on Mar 30, 2015 12:35:56 GMT -5
It's a retelling of his first post death victims, aka the same story as the first. Is it a DIRECT scene by scene remake like that unnecessary psycho remake? No, but it was a complete retelling of the origin.
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Post by lugnut on Mar 30, 2015 13:30:46 GMT -5
It's a retelling of his first post death victims, aka the same story as the first. Is it a DIRECT scene by scene remake like that unnecessary psycho remake? No, but it was a complete retelling of the origin. True, but I still think you could kinda do the origin again in a different way even if you did use Englund. Say, now almost 30-some-years later, this new generation of kids is only now hearing about Freddy for the first time (kinda like in Part 2, which I still don't know when is supposed to take place exactly), and so they're either hearing a slightly different version of the story that may or may not contradict things in the previous films after having been passed down through so many generations, or maybe they're learning new details that the previous kids didn't know at the time (such as him truly being a molester). I dunno, I just want another Englund NOES, dammit!
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Post by Cducharme on Mar 30, 2015 14:59:33 GMT -5
It's a retelling of his first post death victims, aka the same story as the first. Is it a DIRECT scene by scene remake like that unnecessary psycho remake? No, but it was a complete retelling of the origin. True, but I still think you could kinda do the origin again in a different way even if you did use Englund. Say, now almost 30-some-years later, this new generation of kids is only now hearing about Freddy for the first time (kinda like in Part 2, which I still don't know when is supposed to take place exactly), and so they're either hearing a slightly different version of the story that may or may not contradict things in the previous films after having been passed down through so many generations, or maybe they're learning new details that the previous kids didn't know at the time (such as him truly being a molester). I dunno, I just want another Englund NOES, dammit! I don't think that particular story as it was would work, however they could easily have altered the actual storyline. Afterall the only reason we watch NOES is to see Freddy kill and wisecrack.
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Post by lugnut on Apr 3, 2015 16:30:04 GMT -5
Super Duper Alice Cooper (2014) - I liked this quite a bit, but it seems like I remember a lot of big Alice fans being disappointed with it for some reason or another. Yeah, it sucks that Bruce & Buxton were basically written out, but what's here is still entertaining enough. I imagine that Gene & Paul-sanctioned KISS documentary (if it ever even fucking comes out) will be in a similar mold.
Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982) - Well, I liked it a little better than Part 2 for some reason. I was hoping Netflix would have the 3D version, but alas, no. I hadn't seen this since the heavily-cropped VHS version, so it too was "almost new" to me. Cheesy 3D effects aside (Oooh, that guy's pointing a stick at me! Popcorn is coming right at me!), I thought it was a decent enough "Jason flick" overall. From Wikipedia's entry it sounds like it was just as hacked-up by the MPAA as Part 2, but it seems less noticeable here to me. What's with the disco-ish soundtrack and Chong ripoff, though? Was this one actually made in 1979?
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015) - Maybe I've just read too much shit about Scientology already, but I didn't think this was quite as shocking or surprising as most reviewers seemed to have indicated. Not a lot new to learn if you've read some stuff, but a must-see if you haven't, and still a great watch for those who have, too.
Atari: Game Over (2014) - Better than expected documentary on the digging of the infamous "E.T. dump site" and the downfall of Atari in 1983 in general. At only around an hour, they definitely could have expanded it a bit to cover the "video game crash" as a whole, since the movie would almost leave an uninformed viewer with the impression that only Atari suffered problems in the early '80s and not the entire industry, but what's here is good.
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Post by lugnut on Apr 12, 2015 13:45:42 GMT -5
American Jesus (2013) - Fun documentary looking at various ways of "selling Christianity" throughout the US, from a former Power Ranger who now sells "Christian MMA clothes" to "porn churches." Sort of a companion piece to Bill Maher's Religulous in some ways, but not as smug and self-satisfied. These people hang themselves, they don't really need a push to (mostly) look ridiculous.
Hollywood After Dark (1961) - Rifftrax Version - Aka Walk the Angry Beach, which is apparently its original title. For some reason it was inexplicably re-released in 1968 under the more common Hollywood title - I say re-releasing it then is inexplicable because who possibly wanted to see a very dated (it feels more like it's from the '50s than anything) shitty B&W B-movie with Rue McClanahan as a good-girl actress forced to do nudie pictures by generic sleazy film industry types? Some of the skin on display might have been mildly titllating in 1961, but it wouldn't have held much appeal to audiences in 1968. Did Rue McClanahan fever sweep the nation in '68 and it's just been forgotten by the history books? Anyway, this is godawful.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) - Turns out I liked this one too, so I guess Batman Begins is just the anomaly. It's almost certainly a tad too long, but overall I'm not sure why people bitched about this one so much. Hell, I've seen a lot of people just flat out call it shitty. It's certainly not perfect, but it seems like a worthy followup to TDK to me, and I was quite skeptical going into it since A). I have little patience for 3-hour blow-em-up movies, and B). The fan reaction seemed so mixed on this one. I dunno, it worked for me. For those of you around here who didn't like this one very much, what did you think were the problems? (And hell, I dunno, maybe I need to go back and try Batman Begins again. I found it boring as hell last time I tried to watch it, but I was also stuck with a 4x3 pan-&-scan DVD which I'm sure didn't help matters, and now that I know I like Nolan's followup Batfilms maybe I'd look at it differently...)
Sinatra: All or Nothing at All - Part One (2015) - The first part of Alex Gibney's new HBO Sinatra doc, it seems a little overly reverent or "PBS-ish," but it's an entertaining enough watch, and I'm sure someone who's a bigger Frank fan than I am would get more out of it. This first part only covers his early career, so perhaps the second half will be a little more interesting.
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Post by lugnut on Apr 13, 2015 11:39:07 GMT -5
Oh come on, no thoughts on Dark Knight Rises, ya bastards? I'm only three years late!
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Post by I'm Almost Human on Apr 13, 2015 11:52:05 GMT -5
Oh come on, no thoughts on Dark Knight Rises, ya bastards? I'm only three years late! I really enjoy Rises.. I think Hardy was fantastic as Bane. I didn't much care for the Selena Kyle character and I really didn't like how they took Bane out, otherwise I have no real problems with it.. Also, I really love the sewer fight scene.
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Post by lugnut on Apr 13, 2015 19:03:08 GMT -5
Oh come on, no thoughts on Dark Knight Rises, ya bastards? I'm only three years late! I really enjoy Rises.. I think Hardy was fantastic as Bane. I didn't much care for the Selena Kyle character and I really didn't like how they took Bane out, otherwise I have no real problems with it.. Also, I really love the sewer fight scene. Heh yeah, I hadn't thought about it, but Bane really is dispatched in such a blink-and-you-miss-it way that the preceding seventeen hours does seem a little pointless.
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Post by Hey Man on Apr 13, 2015 19:50:22 GMT -5
I really enjoy Rises.. I think Hardy was fantastic as Bane. I didn't much care for the Selena Kyle character and I really didn't like how they took Bane out, otherwise I have no real problems with it.. Also, I really love the sewer fight scene. Heh yeah, I hadn't thought about it, but Bane really is dispatched in such a blink-and-you-miss-it way that the preceding seventeen hours does seem a little pointless. Now that you have seen them all, does Batman Begins score more points at all in terms of being part of a 3 movie story?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2015 20:46:57 GMT -5
Oh come on, no thoughts on Dark Knight Rises, ya bastards? I'm only three years late! Other than a few plot holes they don't bother to explain (how did Bruce get back to Gotham so fast after escaping the prison and without being seen?), I really enjoyed it.
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Post by Hey Man on Apr 13, 2015 20:55:58 GMT -5
Oh come on, no thoughts on Dark Knight Rises, ya bastards? I'm only three years late! Other than a few plot holes they don't bother to explain (how did Bruce get back to Gotham so fast after escaping the prison and without being seen?), I really enjoyed it. Do you like any of these explanations? 1. The Bat. If you recall, the last he used it before being broken by Bane was when he rescued Selina from the rooftops. After that, he flew it back to the batcave and parked it on the pedestal. He managed to direct the autopilot to his position and flew it back to Gotham. That's why, the next time we see it, it's parked on the roof of a tower (where, uncoincidentally, Bruce and Fox talk specifically about the autopilot). In fact, I'm thinking Bruce contacted Fox directly, given Fox's comment about remembering where he parked. Recall also: when Bane ordered the reactor core removed, and Dr. Pavel objected and stated the core would decay in a matter of months, Bane said he calculated it would do so in 5. Flash forward to the end of the film, following the aftermath of the battle, and the tech tells Fox the autopilot had been patched 6 months prior. That explains how Bruce both returned to the US mainland and got back into Gotham. 2. Bruce used his knowledge from his time spent living as a "criminal" to procure the necessary funds to purchase airfare. 3. Bruce called one of his non-Gotham residing friends (surely he has some) and had money wired to him or borrowed a jet. 4. After climbing out of the pit, Bruce is seen walking off. Let’s just say, despite all of his injuries, he keeps walking. He walks for maybe the rest of the day and stops at the first city he finds. Even though Bruce Wayne has lost all of his money, he still has a famous face, meaning people will definitely know him. Even in India, people will see him and associate him with his wealth. In our world, news travels fast, but maybe the news of his bankruptcy didn’t quite make it to India yet, or maybe it did. But, if it didn’t, then Bruce has the perfect opportunity to lie. Now, in India, it is very common to see large cargo planes dropping off goods for trade, let’s say that Bruce was there on trade-day. It would have been really easy for him to talk to the pilot (who would recognize him), and offer the man some money. Let’s say Bruce tells the pilot to fly him to Gotham for the pay of one million dollars (once they land in Gotham). Of course, we know that Bruce can’t pay that, but the man doesn’t know that. Someone (such as the pilot) who needs money and knows who Bruce Wayne is, would make the deal in a heartbeat. This transaction part of the story would require a translator, or, because the pilot trades between many cities it is possible for him to speak English. All that’s left is buckling up for the incredibly long ride back to Gotham. Some of you might say: “He’s Batman, he wouldn’t lie and cheat this innocent man!” The answer to that question is yes, yes he would. What’s more important, one man getting paid, or the lives of thousands?
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Post by lugnut on Apr 13, 2015 23:17:47 GMT -5
Heh yeah, I hadn't thought about it, but Bane really is dispatched in such a blink-and-you-miss-it way that the preceding seventeen hours does seem a little pointless. Now that you have seen them all, does Batman Begins score more points at all in terms of being part of a 3 movie story? Eh, I dunno, because I don't even remember much of it - in other words, I never felt like at any point during the other two I was "missing" anything even if I hadn't seen it at all. TDKR definitely seems like one would need to see TDK first, but it seems like you could skip BB altogether and not really lose much as long as had a very basic idea of who Ras al-Ghul was in the first place.
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Post by Vandelay Industries on Apr 14, 2015 20:36:31 GMT -5
Atari: Game Over.....enjoyable if somewhat short documentary about the rise & fall of Atari, while also answering the urban legend: did Atari really bury all those 'ET' games in a landfill? I really did sympathize with the guy who was saddled with the unreasonable responsibilities of getting the ET game out in such a small time frame, but at least he's doing well with his life these days, so kudos...
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Post by Cducharme on Apr 14, 2015 20:46:33 GMT -5
I liked that doc, but more context about the whole fall of the video game industry as it was up to that point would have made it seem less like Atari existed in a vacuum where only they had hardships then.
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Post by Hey Man on Apr 14, 2015 21:05:36 GMT -5
Atari: Game Over.....enjoyable if somewhat short documentary about the rise & fall of Atari, while also answering the urban legend: did Atari really bury all those 'ET' games in a landfill? I really did sympathize with the guy who was saddled with the unreasonable responsibilities of getting the ET game out in such a small time frame, but at least he's doing well with his life these days, so kudos... I am surprised that a documentary about Atari was only deemed worthy of an hour documentary. I am quite sure there is much that could be told about the Atari company from when they started until now. Hell a Commodore documentary would probably be 2 hours.
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