who the initial choice to play Ripley was? 

http://www.allscifi.com/aridor/Iboard.asp?celebrity=Warrant+Officer+Ellen+Ripley 

Yes, I am beside myself. Yes, I am kinda disappointed that it's R2, but like it's ever gonna have an R1 release. But it's Ichi, and it's mine. Plus it's got interviews with Takashi Miike and all the principal actors the Japanese press kit, storyboards and all kinds of shit on the second disc. I feel like Kakihara getting the shit beat out of him! 

Funny stuff. 

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=16641

Better still, read the books and you'll save yourself ten dollars and three hours otherwise spent sitting in a dark room with a load of strangers, including several squalling infants and a giggle of teenage girls who are only there to dribble over Orlando Bloom.

(I wonder if, when ROTK finally appears in my local cineplex, there'll be any sound system failures, as happened with the last two in the series?) 

(Which you've probably seen before)

# Stand up halfway through the movie and yell loudly, "Wait... where the hell is Harry Potter?"

# Block the entrance to the theater while screaming: "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"

# After the movie, say "Lucas could have done it better."

# At some point during the movie, stand up and shout: "I must go! Middle Earth needs me!" and run and try to jump into the screen. After bouncing off, return quietly to your seat.

# Play a drinking game where you have to take a sip every time someone says:"The Ring."

# Point and laugh whenever someone dies.

# Ask the nearest ring-nut if he thinks Gandalf went to Hogwarts.

# Finish off every one of Elrond's lines with "Mr.Anderson."

# When Aragorn is crowned king, stand up and at the top of your lungs sing,"And I did it.... MY way...!"

# At the end, complain that Gollum was offensive to Ethiopians.

# Talk like Gollum all through the movie. At the end, bite off someone's finger and fall down the stairs.

# When Shelob appears, pinch the guy in front of you on the back of the neck.

# Dress up as old ladies and reenact "The Battle of Helms Deep" Monty Python style.

# When Denethor lights the fire, shout "Barbecue!"

# Ask people around you who they think is the next "Terminator" sent from the Middle Earth of the future to assassinate Frodo Baggins.

# In TTT when the Ents decide to march to war, stand up and shout "RUN FOREST, RUN!"

# Every time someone kills an Orc, yell: "That's what I'm Tolkien about!"

# During a wide shot of a battle, inquire, "Where's Waldo?"

# Talk loudly about how you heard that there is a single frame of a nude Elf hidden somewhere in the movie.

# Start an Orc sing-a-long.

# Come to the premiere dressed as Frankenfurter and wander around looking terribly confused.

# Remove the top off your drink, then proceed to light the straw on fire and tell people in the seats around you about a great battle that took place in your cup long ago.

# When they go in the paths of the dead, wait for tense moment and shout, "I see dead people!"

# Imitate what you think a conversation between Gollum, Dobby and Yoda would be like. (Maybe Frodo should've given Gollum a sock?)

# Release a jar of daddy-long-legs into the theater during the Shelob scene.

# Wonder out loud if Aragorn is going to run for governor of California.

# When Sam holds Frodo's hand (or otherwise), start singing, "The Ambiguously Gay Duo!"

# When Shelob comes on, exclaim, "Man! Charlotte's really let herself go!"

# See how long it takes before you get kicked out of the theatre. 

a giggle of teenage girls who are only there to dribble over Orlando Bloom

What, you're saying you won't be dribbling over him too? He's SOOOO dreamy! 

Guard with Torch: That'll be ninepence.
Faramir: I'm not dead!
Guard: What?
Denethor: Nothing. Here's your ninepence.
Guard: 'Ere, he says he's not dead.
Denethor: Yes he is.
Faramir: I'm not!
Peregrin Tuk: He isn't.
Denethor: Well, he will be soon, he's very badly wounded.
Faramir: I'm getting better!
Denethor: No you're not, you'll be stone dead in a moment.
Faramir: I don't want to go on the cart!
Guard: We can't burn him.
Faramir: I feel fine!
Denethor: Oh, do me a favor.
Guard: I can't!
Denethor: Well, can you hang around for a couple of minutes? He won't be long.
Guard: I promised I'd be with the rohirrim. They've lost 3000 today. 

Frodo bites Gollums finger off and falls into Mount Doom.

(omg spoilers!) 

 

nice satisfying conclusion to the series, with uber-happy ending! yay!

probably my favorite moment was the Gimli line "that still only counts as one" or something to that effect :) 

I was thinking that same thing during the movie ;) And RotK absolutely kicked ass, especially the battle sequences. And I've completely changed my mind about Sean Astin (Sam Gamgee), who I originally couldn't stand seeing onscreen. His performance was quite good this go around, even better than in TTT. 

I just posted your little routine there on the CHUD forum -- hope you don't mind: http://chud.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=923269#post923269 

Good.

Better than second, not quite as good as first.

Slow to start, but once it got going, it really got going.

Battle-scenes etc were great. Basically anything where special effects were involved, from the Shelob fight to the view of Minas Tirith, was really good. Proper fantasy spectacle bizzness tings.

Although there was the usual "Timoete advert" bollox with the Elves, the hollywoodised wanna-be coolness was mercifully toned down and even entertaining in a couple of places.

The destruction of Mordor and the final secen of Sam & Frodo sitting on the rock in the lava should have been an excellent finale.

Unfortunately all the tediously drawn out CHEESE after that spoilt it quite a bit. After each schmaltzy and unnecessary scene one thought "Ah okay, that's the end"....and then there was another....and another....and... The way this SHOULD have been done was to finish the film with Frodo being carried in the Eagle's claws, and then have just small, silent, sepia snippets of the "wrapping up" scenes during the credits. So obvious, so easy.

But still, a good film....probably a great film. But so easy to improve it by ditching the ending.. 

but way below the standard set by the first. Seemed much more conventional Hollywood in TTT than in FOTR. So if ROTK is better than TTT, I'll be happy. As for the ending, I thought the last 15 mins of FOTR sucked but didnt spoil too much of the movie for me. So it really depends on how long the cheesy ending in ROTK goes for. 

...hope you just skimmed over and don't have too many inappropriate expectations. But one thing...

So it really depends on how long the cheesy ending in ROTK goes for.

Well, it feels like about 8 days when you're watching it... 

I'm not real sure how I feel about the end... On one hand, I see where you're coming from, but on the other hand, they cut alot out of the books just to get it that short! The third book was pretty much all ending, the Ring was destroyed in the first few chapters! (much of the beginning of ROTK:the movie was the end of TTT:the book)

(Book spoilers next paragraph, so don't read if you don't want)

Alot of the things done to equlize the pacing in the movie meant they got rid of things like the trip home with the farewell to Gimli and Legolas (who go to explore Fangorn Forest and The Mines of Moria together, as they had agreed to do with each other), and the Scouring of the Shire (where Sarumon, now stripped of his power, has taken over The Shire but the Hobbits drive him out and he's killed by Wormtongue).

Some of these would have just been anti-climatic in the film, while others are plain boring unless you really want 100% accurency. I feel the movie did a good job of balancing the end to what was important to bring some closure to the story and serves as a good ending to the full trilogy as a whole. 

They could have given Saruman just one of Montolio's lines... just cut five minutes from the biffo at Minas Tirith to deal to him.

(Virtual chocolate fish for whoever works out which line I man.) 

Point and laugh every time a horse dies 

Alien (but not Aliens)
American Beauty
Animal House (I shouldn't put Old School on a list of best ofs because I have just seen it a few days ago, and I am still laughing)
Big Lebowski
Blade Runner
Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas
Fight Club
Fletch
Full Metal Jacket
Goodfellas
The Graduate (The long drive sequence (where Scarborough Fair is played twice!) makes me extremely nastalgic for Northern California)
The Kids are Alright (sonically inspiring, esp. live 'Underture')
The Magnificent Seven
Manhunter
Mean Streets
The Opening of Misty Beethoven (though generally speaking, I prefer 80's poof hair porn over 70's artsy porn)
Oh, Lord Where Are't Thou
The Professional
Pulp Fiction
The President�s Analyst
Taxi Driver
The Terminator
True Romance
The Usual Suspects

Excepting Fear and Loathing, where ever I fealt the book was better I didn't include the movie -- though the The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy deserves some honarable mention, my opinion of it hasn't solidified yet, and The Godfather was better than the trashy novel it was based upon.

If I had to pick one movie that literally changed my life, it would be Office Space. 

If Jackson knew he was going to leave out the unfurling of the elven flag, the healing at the King's hand etc. - as well as the corollary to the return of the king (the Hobbit's battle filled return to the Shire) - then he should have named the thing LOTR: Famous Battle Sequences from the Fight for Middle Earth.

There was at least forty minutes of dead cinema available for chopping if Jackson had wanted to make space to include all the King Returns stuff.

Jackson did exceptionally well to capture the essence of FOTR, he tripped up slightly with TTT and ROTK is a travesty. 

I've been generally dissapointed with how much alteration and chopping the movie has done to the book. The movies, however, are still good, just tainted for me by how much is missing. I just wish they would have gone ahead and made it 6 movies, though I know the big studios would probably develop ulcer's on the spot at the possibility of flopping a six movie series (they're loss now, they could have made six movies worth of money).

I haven't seen ROTK yet, but I agree with distrans that Jackson puts in a lot of dead time. I saw the long version of FOTR and was amazed at how much useless movie time there was. It seems like he could have easily cut the dead stuff out and added in most of what he left out from the book.

Oh, and I heard they never go back to the Shire in ROTK. That part seemed essential to the allegorical nature of the story. Particularly the permanent effect the ring has on Frodo. Oh well. Not enough orc killing and special effects to make that part I guess. As pretentious as the Matrix series was (and good), at least they never shied away from the meaning behind the movies. As it is, the two movies I've seen are good action/fantasy movies, but nothing I need to see again. And that's too bad, because I already loved the story. 

distrans, I disagree. The scenes and sequences you mention work well as a book (especially the scouring of the shire) but not in a movie adaption. All that would have seemed anti-climatic and not really all that engrossing to non-readers as there isnt enough running time to include all that and make it flow nicely.

H-hour, again I disagree. The long version of FOTR was perfect IMHO, it flowed a lot better than the theatrical and the so called dead time was actually stuff that people complained about being left out of the theatrical cut. As for ROTK, they do return to the shire and enough (or pehaps too much) is shown of the aftermath.

In the end, a lot has to be left out and or adapted to make it work as a movie, and different people are going to value the different components left out differently. Some may not care for the scouring of the shire but would have wanted more background on the eagles or the army of the dead.

Personally I loved FOTR, though TTT was pretty good but too dragged out and place ROTK in the middle. There's too much chees to much FOTR but more spectacle to beat TTT. Also, being prepared for the cheesy last half hour, I didnt mind it that much. BUT

*spoiler*

Eowyn killing the witch king and the manner it was done in was absolutely the weakest point of the trilogy IMHO.

Lastly, I thought the more emotional scenes seemed cheesy and excruciating simply because elijah wood and sean astin arent all that comfortable in doing those scenes. ELijah never really fully convinced me as Frodo anyway, but he was bearable enough. 

12 angry men - quality stuff, good script and performances although some of the reasoning wasnt all that convincing.

bad eggs - pretty funny and remarkably well scripted for an aussie film. Well worth a watch, just ignore the incredibly dull trailer.

barton fink - very stylish and thoughtful, albeit quite obscure. John Goodman is great and it looks fantastic.

das boot - There is nother submarine film. Period.

Casablanca - Never seen it before, very glad to have seen it now. Great script and performances, thoroughly enjoyable.

Chasing Amy - finally a proper film by Kevin Smith and an absolute hoot as well. Great stuff!

City of God - Incredibly stylish, virtuoso visuals and raw realism, but nothing much beneath the surface.

A Clockwork Orange - still very disurbing the second time around, still a very impressive film.

Midnight Run - Deniro hols up an otherwise banal film.

Raising Arizona - tone and characters just too obscure and chaotic for me to appreciate the comedy.

big lebowski - john goodman is great again but there's not enough of him to save this otherwise awful film with completely dead laughs.

deer hunter - excellent film all round, didnt notice the length at all. Russian roulette scene is indeed a belter.

donnie brasco - pretty good, nothign new but everything's fairly solid.

finding nemo - enjoyable enough but not Pixar's best (Toy Stories)

Gattaca - quite impressive but the groundwork was there for this to be an evenr great film.

hudsucker proxy - pretty good except for the cheesy ending. Some very memorable scenes though, especially the hula hoop sales.

raiders of the lost ark - great stuff, how an action movie should be done.

indian jones and the temple of doom - terrible movie save the mine cart sequence.

indiana jones and the last crusade - pretty good though very reminiscent of Raiders. 

italian job (2003) - pretty good, nothing like the original save the inclsuion of mini coopers which is good because they could have never captured the tone and mood of the original with the cast they had.

once upon a time in the west - didnt like the end (much too anticlimctic) but a fantastic start, great music and killer visuals.

pirates of the caribbean - didnt like Johnny Depp as much as everyone else, probably because I've seen him do similar stuff before (just not in a rockstar costume). Still, pretty good just not as good as it was made out to be.

to catch a thief - not as absorbing as hitchcock's other thrillers but pretty funny and well made.

deliverance - finally saw it, and didnt like it too much (Sorry Biff). The start was great (dueling banjos was pretty cool) and the movie worked well till the immediate aftermath of the rape (when they bury the first mountain man) but it just petered out after that. Voight was good but this is a one scene film if I've ever seen one.