i gotta say, i love the fact that you created your username on a lark due to a random comment thread a long time ago, and are still around and posting with it. awesome.

In reply to this comment by aceofkidneys:
That bear is wasting a lot of calories that it could be using for hibernation...

>> ^Hybrid:
Thank God the dramatic music kicked in half way through, or we'd be watching a video of a bear simply having fun and running around excitedly.


If it had happy music it would be less scary. That guy was probably doing fine until he heard the music.

Congratulations! Your comment has just received enough votes from the community to earn you 1 Power Point. Thank you for your quality contribution to VideoSift.

Your video, Close encounter with brown bear in Swedish Forest, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Broken Waltz: 33808,0,0,16,0,8464,24,0,0,16916,0,16,80,128,8,67872

Groove w/o downbeat: 0,0,122882,0,240,61440,0,0,15360,0,2,7682,482,2,0,2

Close encounters: 20744,0,0,4228,0,0,16912,0,36864,0,16896,32768,2112,65536,4096,0

Cannon: 8712,0,8192,256,17416,2048,1032,8320,33040,65536,32768,4104,8480,64,288,4

Reich: 74896,37448,18724,74896,37448,37448,74896,18724,37448,74896,18724,18724,74896,18724,37448,74896

Your video, Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Classic scene, has made it into your personal Highest Rated Videos listing. Congratulations on a job well done. For you contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

John Williams is SO the man.

He has created more iconic themes than you can point several sharp sticks at (He had already had an extensive career before here, but let's just stick with themes most will know):
Jaws
Star Wars (All 6)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Superman
Raiders of the Lost Ark (All 4)
ET
Empire of the Sun
Hook (Hey, I love the film, don't care what you think... nerr)
Jurassic Park
Schindlers List
Harry Potter (All of them)

And the fact the many of them have multiple themes and songs that you will instantly recognize just shows how brilliant he is as a composer.

edit: In fact, it inspired me to go and look for youtube tributes with clips from the actual scores. Here's a good collection I found.

Definitely sea lions and dolphins in mexico...time for a change of the ol' avatar. Maybe the coolest was a seahorse, but I didn't have a camera and no one felt like responding to my flailing limbs to come see...

In reply to this comment by Octopussy:
I saw a few of them (we were really lucky) last year at the Galapagos and they're indeed incredible (like a bus going by u/w).

Btw, don't tell anybody, but -- so far -- I've never managed to get a crab drunk, so my avatar is not my own pic either.

So what is the coolest creature you did have a close encounter with (and do you have pics)?

In reply to this comment by sharkie:
It's actually not my pic, sadly. As a diver I have seen a lot of cool creatures, but I am absolutely dying to see one of these myself!

In reply to this comment by Octopussy:
Is that avatar your own pic? If so, it's mighty impressive: where did you take it? If not, why did you choose a whale shark (asks Octopussy who has the lamest avatar evar)?

I saw a few of them (we were really lucky) last year at the Galapagos and they're indeed incredible (like a bus going by u/w).

Btw, don't tell anybody, but -- so far -- I've never managed to get a crab drunk, so my avatar is not my own pic either.

So what is the coolest creature you did have a close encounter with (and do you have pics)?

In reply to this comment by sharkie:
It's actually not my pic, sadly. As a diver I have seen a lot of cool creatures, but I am absolutely dying to see one of these myself!

In reply to this comment by Octopussy:
Is that avatar your own pic? If so, it's mighty impressive: where did you take it? If not, why did you choose a whale shark (asks Octopussy who has the lamest avatar evar)?

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
Thanks for the advice. We didn't have quite enough time to make it to Devil's Tower, which is too bad since Close Encounters is one of my favorite films.


I only ever went once, back in 1990? 91, maybe? Anyways, if you take Rt 14 up from I-90, you'll actually go by the dirt mound where they did the infamous crane shot. You know, Roy slams on his brakes and they both get out of the car and climb that little hill. I was actually driving with my mom at the time and did the same thing (ie. the slamming on of the brakes) Scare the crap out of her! Anyways, if you ever get the chance, very cool to go see. Also, you could hit Meteor Crater in Winslow, AZ if you haven't. Also, very impressive.

Great and overlooked film. One thing that confuses me about McQueen: Steven Spielburg has said in interviews that the one reason McQueen didn't want to play the lead in Close Encounters is that he'd have to cry at the end. But in Papillon, made 6 years earlier, he emotes so much more. Me scratches head.

Ok, I've been a really big, nerdy Indiana Jones' fan and trust me when I say, my expectations were really, really low. Despite all that, I found myself agreeing with everything that's written below. It's a rant/review by another Indy fan which I found via imdb boards. In a nutshell, if I have to sum the film up in one word: meh. And a weak 'meh' at that.

This is probably (most likely) (pretty sure), the last time we will ever be able to see our childhood hero Indiana Jones in a new adventure. After years of waiting and wishing; after all the excitement, we get "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". The last chance for a new adventure and this is the waste we recieve. Digital prairie dogs, digital monkeys, and digital fire ants. I feel like I watched a cross between Caddyshack, Jumanji, and Close Encounters. Nothing can begin to describe how retarded this movie is.

The only thing epic about this film is it's fail. EPIC FAIL!!! Somewhere, someplace, some fan boys are killing themselves. This rant is coming from somebody who was quick to desregard nay-sayers and detractors of this film before it's release.

From a die hard Indy fan who honestly set his expectations low for this film, nothing could even begin to compare to how low expectations need to be for this film to be enjoyed. George Lucas should be ashamed and Steven Speilberg now strikes me as a man past his prime making movies just to kill time because he has too much money and nothing better to do.

SPOILER ALERT!!
When the flying saucer takes off, if Jar Jar Binks showed up in the window waving good bye, I would have expected it. At least it would have been satisfying to know that the film was just a big joke to begin with.

How many did you guys count? Let's list them all in here!

I caught:
1. Close Encounters of the Third Kind -- mash potato
2. Star Wars Episode V (Empire Strikes Back) -- Luke, I'm your father.
3. Terminator -- I'll be back.
4. Jaws -- You're gonna need a bigger boat.
5. <forgot the name of it> -- You talking to me?

It’s a good thing I checked the paper besides looking at MovieTickets.com. Instead of Sunday, the last movie on the list was shown Saturday night. I called the theater confirm the schedule just to be sure.

Before I review the Horrorfest, I wanted to mention the theater where I viewed the films – Hollywood 9. It used to be part of a chain called General Cinema. Some older folks will remember the music that used brushes on a snare drum with an electric guitar to announce “Coming Soon” and “Feature Presentation.” Then stadium-seating theaters were introduced ten years ago. They managed to kill a majority of movie theaters in this area. A local family bought this theater from the chain. It continues to run first-run films. We used to have a network of second-run film-theaters. They were good for when a film left the first-run-theaters. Plus they were cheaper.

Audiences have been small for the Horrorfest – maybe four to twelve people at most. Horror films are more fun with a full theater of raucous younger folks.

And now for my rankings . . . . I organized them from most favorite to least favorite. The films included for 2007 cover certain standard genres:

The Deaths of Ian Stone (R)
Ian Stone keeps dying and jumping to another life. Each time he interacts with the same girl. Before each death a clock suddenly stops. I like this one best because the film takes time to reveal the context of events and characters.

Mulberry Street (R)
This could have easily been called “Rat People.” The film is set in New York City in a rundown apartment building. Rats across Manhattan bite people spreading a contagious “rat virus.” Once bitten, people morph into rat-faced-like-humans. This flick has a style similar to “28 Days Later.” These carnivorous rat-people move fast and gnaw at their human prey. The newscast vaguely covers events as the infection becomes widespread. Other than the rats spreading the virus, there’s not much of an explanation for the virus’s existence.

Crazy Eights (NR)
Six young adults gather together after the death of someone they all knew. Twenty years earlier their parents left them at mental institution as guinea pigs for human experiments. The name given to their group was “Crazy Eights.” Prior to the group reuniting, they started having nightmares. A last request by the deceased takes them on an odyssey to locate a time capsule they made years ago. OK, that’s seven people; so what about the eighth one?

Borderland (NR)
Of the eight films this is the only one based on a true story. It is more consistent than some of the others. Three American guys in their early twenties cross the border into Mexico. In the course of seeking young women, they cross paths with drug dealers who perform Santeria human sacrifices. In this area near the border, the drug dealers have police intimidated. There is one cop, however, who helps two of the guys when the third one goes missing. He’s been investigating the drug dealers for a while. Also, They killed his partner.

The murders in this film are brutal. Sean Astin plays a bad guy – I was expecting him to yell for Frodo. He has a beard that helps a little with his baby face.

Tooth and Nail (R)
Set in the year 2012 (how Mayan ), civilization has collapsed because there is no more gas. People are forced to survive without technology. Two guys and a girl are exploring when they rescue a girl from an armed man. They bring her back to their group. Right away the group does not trust her. Then one night the group’s leader is murdered. Soon group learns that cannibals are intent on feeding on them. Considering the beginning of the film I expected more cleverness in the lines and the battles to survive. I would have thought the hospital, where they are living, would have some neat props and/or rooms to do battle in – I felt like more could have been done. The cannibals dress like medieval warriors. Axes, knives, swords, spears all make for a bloodbath. There are some later twists in the plot that redeem this movie a little. Otherwise, the film just has a body count.

Mike Madsen and Vinnie Jones ham it up a bit.

Unearthed (R)
Unless I missed it, I’m not sure what group of Native Americans the characters are descended from in this movie. Anyway a young male Native American is digging in a cave where a sacred burial ground is located. Unfortunately his efforts release a monster that his ancestors managed to knock out for many centuries.

A female Native American is sheriff. She’s still trying to live down a circumstance in which she was not able to prevent a young girl from being shot. She investigates a vehicle crash site involving a truck. She locates a piece of something that was caught in a truck’s grill. When a biologist analyzes this something, she determines that it is not of this earth and it has been collecting samples of living things.

As the body count adds up, the sheriff does her best to protect those left. In the course of things she becomes covered in some black liquid in the cave. This stuff ends up protecting her in a close encounter with the creature. She and the guy, who unleashed the creature in the first place, figure out that uranium is what they need to make the protective liquid. Someone else will have to comment on the science or lack of science involved here.

The creature behaves a bit like the ones from “Alien.” It is scarier when you don’t see it. However, it does move fast.

Nightmare Man (R)
A woman orders her husband a primitive mask with horns. She gets more than she bargained for in this tale. Although this one starts off hokey, filmed with video, it does improve with some plot twists. This couple runs out of gas on the way to a mental hospital. He leaves her alone while he goes for gas.

She becomes scared by a demon in the darkness. After a bit of cat ‘n’ mouse, she manages to run to a house in the woods. Two couples are enjoying each other’s company until this woman arrives frantic about what is chasing her and the pills she dropped in the forest in the dark. Listen when someone tells you that pills help control a demon inside. : )

Lake Dead (NR)
A grandfather to an incestuous family is killed. Three granddaughters want travel to see the property they inherited. Their father warns them not to go. The kids are mad at him because saying their grandfather was dead long before he actually was dead.

One of the girls skips the funeral and goes to Lake Dead by herself – bad news. Lake is the family’s last name. Anyway the two girls arrive with a couple and another guy. There is a shallow manmade pond on the property. Characters in the story refer to it as a lake.

So then the body count starts. The gene pool in this town is a bit shallow too.


OK, there are the “8 Films to Die for.” When I’ve seen the eight from 2006, I’ll do a synopsis and ranking of them as well.

From http://www.xenvideo.com/2006/08/14/silverback-gorilla-close-encounter-in-rwanda/ ...