JsARCLIGHT

Well, out of the gate you came at folks (me included) with some rather harshly worded things. I feel that you can agree to disagree like almost everyone else in this thread has been doing in polite ways without reverting to tactics like "Or is it what you bought into the overall media, the hype, and shallow expectations dictated by the media of what a Tarantino film should be?". To be honest, you added nothing to the debate that was going on other than to slap us around a bit for not liking the movie you liked. I felt the unwritten subtext of most of your first post was: You guys are too stupid to know a good movie from bad one. You didn't offer any points of contention we could respond to in any meaningfull way other than your questioning our "haus factor". In my eyes a good deal of your post came off hostile, you may not have intended it to but it came off that way. Personally I enjoy debate but when I pick up on hints of harsh emotion in folk's posts I tend to back off so the situation does not degrade into one of "you suck, no you suck more". I know that everyone who posts says "my posts have no emotion and I am only stating facts/opinions" but some people (like me) pick up on things that you may not have intended in the way sentences and words are used. I chose not to continue the debate fearing an escallation. My thoughts of your reaction were based on the tone and verbage of your post, not on my knowledge of you as a person as to be honest I am not too familiar with you to know if you are joking, being "yourself" or if you really wanted to cave my head in with a phone pole. I apologize if you think I pidgeonholed or belittled you by my reaction but it was a gut reaction to what I saw in front of me rather than a "oh I know her and I know what she really means" sort of thing. Getting back to the topic at hand... I just called and bought my ticket for the 7:30 show so I'll let you all know how I feel in about 3 hours or so.

I would have to say my favorite all time sci-fi space fighter would have to be the Gunstar from Last Starfighter. It works on so many levels... not only do you have two crew and separate the jobs of attacking and piloting so you can have two people giving their full attention to both duties but you have a figher that has a 360 degree firing arc above, behind, below, everywhere. Comeplete with missles and cannon turrets you have one badass fighter... A handfull of Gunstars with Ace Starfighter pilots could hand almost anyone their ass on a platter.

Starchaser- the Legend of Orin is still out there in good numbers on VHS and much like Rock & Rule it appears every so often on eBay as a bootleg DVD. There are times I have wanted to buy both the Starchaser and R&R boots just to have them on some sort of DVD but when you find out they are just rips like my current copies your interest in them soon fades. Good backstory on R&R, Barpharanges. I've heard most of what you have said from a few sources. For anyone who is a massive R&R junkie like me the Marvel Super Special movie comic book is a goldmine. They show up on eBay every now and then for really reasonable prices (I just bought another one in better condition last week for $5). The comic is basically just still pannels from the animation with word balloons put in. The shot above that I posted is from that comic. The book also has a lot of great behind the scenes and making of info like pencil tests, color charts and such... most of which are supposed to be included on the DVD. Unearthed actually has a Rock & Rule Yahoo group going for their release of this movie and they are keeping the die hards notified of what they are doing and they are even asking for input on things like extras and liner notes.

I tend to choose flight rather than fight on message boards and by the tone of your first post and your choice of words I was preparing for a lot of negativie energy to be thrown my way, as well as to a few other people. I'm not really full of "sour grapes", I was just predicting the tyical MW backlash of "you don't like what I like so you die joe" that tends to happen around these parts. Some people just can't take criticism of their favorite things and suddenly the thread devolves into "well if you think it's stupid then you must be stupid too" shenanigans. I'm actually planning to go see part 2 tonight... without the fiancee as she told me "under no circomstances will I see more of that movie". She was also very put off by all the blood in the first one. So I guess then the second part will be the lynch pin that either solidifies my distaste of this movie or it could turn my opinion around.

Now this is a thread worthy of a complaint I'd say as now we are pretty much three man catapulting religion bashing into a certain someone's face. I know I and a lot of other people can make and take jokes till the cows come home but some folks on this site are as touchy as the trigger on a trip mine. Countdown to offense and delete: 10, 9, 8, 7....

If by this you mean "I saw all his previous films and fell in love with his kitchy writing and directing style and was dissapointed that those elements were not really seen so promenantly in Kill Bill" then yes I am guilty. For the record I saw Hellboy and thought it was crap and I am a long outspoken critic and disliker of the Matrix. I myself could see no real "errors" made by any of the actors in the movie but instead I was put off by the ammount of blood in the fight scenes and not the choreography. Then again I have some things in my past that I remember when I see huge spraying pools of blood and I feel uncomfortable. If it means anything I qualify with my cop friends every year they take the SLCP police department physicals... they sort of let me do it while they qualify, I do it just to have fun and hang out with them... the shooting accuracy is my favorite. I admit that crazy ass jujitsu and chop-socky are well beyond my abilities and I'd like to think that people can critisize the appearance of it without being able to do it themselves. Look at olympic judges... how many of them are ex-ice skaters or ex-gymnists? Very very few. And on topic how many movie critics or people with opinions on movies have actually made movies? My guess is about the same number. I myself work in an industry right now where my company has made a few TV commercials and animatics (which by no means make me a guru or specialist) but I know what I like. I was not that fond of Kill Bill. My opinion is based on my personal experience and feelings just as yours is and that opinion is just as valid as yours in this situation. I did not like it that much whereas you liked it. I think my presence here is just pissing people off as it appears once again I can't "not like" something that everyone likes on this board. I'll just take my lunch to go then and back out of the bar slowly lest I get shot in the back running away.

That's my kind of toy... so inflamatory you need asbestos gloves to play with it.

I just noticed something while putting my Max 1J into the display case... the head lasers are blue. The head lasers on the 1/60 are dark grey... why did they make the head lasers blue on the 1/48? I decided to paint mine a nice shade of dark grey so it looks like the 1/60... plus that blue on the lasers was driving me nuts.

In Afghanistan when fighting the Russians the Mujahdeen used to recover Soviet S-5 57mm unguided rockets from downed helecopters and such and make their own crude firing tubes like the one above and turn them back on the Soviets. That device above looks to be something of that ilk... after all, it has been proven that at least a few of the insurgent fighters in Iraq right now are vets from the Mujahdeen so it stands to reason that some of them brought their blowtorch, duct tape and know-how into the fight. And yes, he does look like a Mac-II Monster...

That is sort of an unheard of business practice though... think about it. That would be like Chevy making a car that goes with a Ford Truck so they look good together in your driveway. Basic Business Greed 101 points to one tactic-> there is no one but us to get your product from. By even remotely giving Yamato any recoginition or foothold would be self-destructive to HG. That would be like someone who makes really expensive crappy toys letting the uneducated masses know about some really nicely made toys that are just a wee bit more expensive... even stupid people would rush to spend a few bucks more to get a much higher quality toy. I'm thinking HG has other plans up their sleaves... I'll even go so far as to predict that we still don't know what sort of shenanigans are going on and for all we know HG has signed a deal with BW that gives them rights to distribute DYRL merchandise and the movie in R1 areas... who knows, they could also have gotten some under the table deal for Toynami to make all the new macross toys for R1 or possibly to release Yamato toys in their packages in the states (like Matchbox and Revel did in the '80s). As Alice said: Things are getting curiouser and curiouser.

Hey gang, this may be old news to some but I just found out about it a little while ago. Apparently a little known DVD house called Unearthed is slated to release this very very cool and very very rare '80s animated rockarama sometime in 2004... possibly as early as summer or as late as christmas. They have plans to release TWO versions of the DVD, one for the common schnook and a special limited collector's edition complete with large book and both versions of the movie! (True Rock and Rulers know that the movie was released in two different versions, one for america and the world and another exclusively for canada which had a different voice actor for Omar and several different/edited scenes). I myself am stoked to hell and back about this as this movie was never widely released in the early '80s when it first came out on video and has never been seen since. Outside of the uber rare LD I have sitting in my closet and the VHS rip I made of it back when I had access to a LD player I really am looking forward to seeing this movie fully restored (which Unearthed is doing) to letterbox format and they are also hunting down the director for a commentary track, they have found and are including the making of doccumentaries and TV/theater promo spots as well as rumors are flying about them licensing all the kickass '80s music on a CD! When I was growing up you had Heavy Metal and Rock & Rule... and that was about it for kickass "adult" animated movies. R&R is not the sexfest that Heavy Metal is but the movie is just one badass throwback to the days when you could make a movie about a superrocker conjuring the devil in the distopian mutant future and people would not look at you weird.

Judging by what people are saying and the reviews I'm reading Part 2 may be (to some degree) the Tarantino movie I was expecting. I'm now thinking of going to see it this weekend if I can muster the fiancee into going. She was really, really put off by all the blood in the first one so convincing her the next one will not be as bad may be an uphill fight. Someone please let me know if the blood budget in the second part is at least half if not much less than the first one?

Well, I for one did not get a single one of the movie's "inside references". I'm not what you would call a chop-socky or samurai movie watcher... never had any interest in them. When I heard about Kill Bill the first thing I heard was that it was a film by Tarantino... my mind immediately began filling with images of circular conversations about french fast food names, a man named Zed and his being dead, rambling stories of entering the mens room with a pocket full of chronic only to find four policemen and a police dog, weapons that can absolutely, positively kill every mother f'er in the room and pestering lewis where he parked the van. To me, Tarantino is witty banter, kooky sideways editing and a snaking story that never comes together until the last ten minutes. Kill Bill part one had only one of those: the kooky editing... and even that was very bland and straightforward. I myself am just chalking this movie up to "some people "get it" and some don't", myself being in the "I don't get it" camp. To me, not knowing all the supposed references and draws, the movie is just a long drawn out confusing mess with way too much blood. It almost seems like the qualifications for being in the movie are A) can you scream real loud and run around with a sword, B) is your blood and other internal organs at about 4,000 PSI and C) can you speak japanese with no subtitles accented with the occasional blurb of pigin english... Which brings me to another complaint about the movie (I know, I know, shut up already you not liking the movie buttpipe): WTF is with the sound editing on the DVD? This movie has to be the worst volume tripper I have ever seen to date. What does this rambling fool mean by "volume tripper"? Well that is what I call a movie that has such terrible sound mixing that the music, sound effects and background elements drown out the dialogue on my 6.1 system at home and I have to keep cranking the volume up to hear what people are saying and then quickly turn it back down when some action happens lest I blow out my speakers. And no, my system is calibrated just fine and only certain movies have this issue when I watch them. It also does not help matters much that most of the cast in this movie mumbles or speaks unsubtitled japanese. Half of the time on some scenes, like the intro when Bill is wiping the blood of the bride's face, I had to rewind and rewatch the scene two or three times with my ear to the speaker just to make out what the hell Caradine was trying to say. Was he talking with gum and walnuts in his mouth for half this movie? Same goes for Uma and the rest of the cast. Outside of Buck who likes to F##k everyone barely opens their mouth when they talk and when they do open their mouth it is usually a scream or a yell in unsubtitled japanese. I just keep getting this feeling that people like me where simply not ment to "get" this movie.

Sounds to me like they are once again late to the party and ripping up their invitation rather than suffer the embarrasment of walking in late with their mom as their date.

Taking a page from the new Muhammad Ali book "GOAT" My DVD will come in a special collector's edition UH-1D Huey Cobra gunship piloted by Willem Defoe in his costume from the movie and retail for $1.4 million dollars... of which only four will be made (as cloning is expensive) and sold at auciton. The DVD set will be the movie, the making of, the making of the making of, the behind the scenes making of, the making of the behind the scenes making of, the TV spots, the movie trailers, lobby cards, a special limited edition greeting and speach from the director, candid shots of the director napping on his couch, candid shots of the test audience napping during the movie... ... you get the picture... Now back to your regularly scheduled Kill Bill lovefest. Can someone tell my why when Lucy Liu's head was whacked askew the brain was still neatly tucked inside and not cleaved off like her scalp?

... and it will be called "Hearts of Dumbass: the Making of the Making of the Writing of the Screenplay for Apocalypse Wow!"

What are you blind? My whole movie is just one big 4 hour long commentary track!

Everyone knows that the movie I make would be a combination of Bergman and Fincher with symbolism, metaphor and subdued dialogue that film and english students everywhere would analyze and find hidden meanings in. The chopping off of the legs symbolizes the Brides' own frustration with moving her big toe which is a metaphysical representation of her motivating herself to kill bill which itself is a metaphor for her hatred of her father who is not in the movie because of Tarantino's own father complex... so the movie Kill Bill is really about Tarantino avoiding his father at dinner. Who am I kidding, I'd make a 'Nam movie so technically accurate it would bore the pants off of census takers and rocket scientists.

Well, that is my problem then. The monkey danced for me and I loved it. I want the monkey to keep dancing, not play the piano. Director's change to stay fresh all the time and still keep their edge. Look at the Coen brothers, their movies are all "alike" but still different and I love every one of them and so do a lot of people. I think Tarantino just gets off watching blood spurt from stumps. Edit! Edit!: I have my thoughts in a nice package now: This movie is Tarantino's "Jersey Girl". He has changed his mythos in new directions and I am not with him.

That's the problem though, outside of swords and samurai combat it looks nothing like the old samurai movies. It has some of the themes of those movies but not the feel or the look. To me, the movie feels far too "rip off" and less "homage". Too much blood... way too much blood. I guess people are supposed to laugh at that sort of thing but it just put me off as being stupid. It works in anime but not in a live action movie. Even when the big fight scene went into black and white it still came off as a shallow imitation of anime, not a classic samurai movie. Plus the dialogue! Ugh! "I will collect your F**king head."... my ass. Lucy Liu came off as wooden as she has in every other movie she has been in... I'm actually glad they killed her. One positive note to this movie: while watching it I wanted all the characters to die... and guess what, they did! If the movie was supposed to be this shallow, cliche and predictable then Tarantino did a good job. As for this being the movie he always wanted to do I would have rather seen this be his first movie... if it was he most likely would be directing cereal commercials or writing for Fangoria today rather than making more movies. Seriously, compare this movie to his first movies... they are so different it is not funny. I liked Tarantino's first offerings and this one is nothing like them. This movie is all hollywood celluloid sellout and not the quirky, subtle evil of his first films. I fell in love with the young, eager, ear cutting, shooting Travolta on the can Tarantino... not the "Tarantino doing Tarantino doing the old movies" person that made this movie.

I got mine in the mail from VEX yesterday and I must say that I like it. I'm not noticing all the issues that others seem to have with theirs. The only complaints that I have about the toy are that the white seams (on the chest) are noticable in fighter mode and a bit ugly and my catch-all complaint about the 1/48 RMS bombs that they just don't stay on the racks. As for the colors of the Max pilot he looks right to me. Max's flight suit colors have always been a sort of light blue. And you have to remember that the Hory Froating Head himself signed off on these toys so the color that Max is must be right.

I was on the fence about seeing this movie as I really liked Reservoir Dogs a lot, I liked Pulp Fiction, I didn't care too much for Jackie Brown and I was anticipating the sliding scale of enjoyment of Tarantino films would continue with this one as well. I bought it on DVD last night and decided to pop it in the player. Two words: Terribly Dissapointed. This is not a Tarantino film. I don't know what it is but it is not Tarantino. The trademark witty banters? Not there. The Trademark stranger than fiction plot twists? Not there. The quirky characters? Not really there either. I now know why I did not go to see this film in the theaters. It's shallow, self absorbed and all it's "style" and "substance" that people kept attributing to it are merely stolen from other, better movies. The action is played out, the dialogue is boring and completely un-funny and the plot is just about a straight arrow with little to no twists, turns or suprises... all things I would not expect in a true Tarantino film. I generally do not put much faith in movie critics but they where mostly right on this one. The movie almost feels like someone trying their hardest to imitate Tarantino's style but failing miserably in the process. Tarantino seems to be using special effects, editing tricks and quick camera cuts rather than his talent in this movie... I rate this movie as Tarantino's Phantom Menace. I know the man can do better but he basically phoned this one in IMHO. If you like to see nonsensical cartoony hack and slash then this is the movie for you. I think I will go see KB2 just to see if perhaps all the plot, quirky dialogue and true Tarantino film making went into the second part of this movie... because so far part one is just a blood-soaked mess.

But that goes against the true spirit of war! All is fair in love and war my good man. If washington could find a way to make our planes invisible, carry infinate ammo, have star trek shields and auto aim then they would do that... and they would foist those planes on people who just learned how fire works if the winds blew that way.

Well crap on a crap cracker... Now I have to win that orignal CAR-15 upper on eBay and just build a real one!

Hey Solscud007 you seem to have a grip on the airsoft thing, can you answer me a question? I just recently found out that they made an airsoft of the original prototype CAR-15 Colt Commando rifle and I wanted to get one... seeing as the originals are all either destroyed, super uber rarest of the rare class III weapons or in some collector's safe with a sign saying "don't touch for any reason" but everywhere I go no one carries them or is not carrying them. Are they "out of print" or something? Does anyone know where I can get one of those?