You're right but at the same time I have quite enjoyed television movies and low budget films with that special someone in the cast. For example, I thought the Amityville Horror with Patty Duke (the 4th movie, I believe) was pretty interesting, and not even despite its low budget, because of it.

Besides you're not 100% correct about how the single star drains the pool of resources. Oftentimes these stars act as investment magnets, so people are more willing to help produce the film if it has a star such as Shirley MacClaine. Look at Reservoir Dogs -- did Harvey Keitel detract or attract from the success of the film, and the long term successes of Quentin Tarrantino, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth and Chris Penn? Like international acclaim -- for a low budget flick from a nobody.

I'm always very curious about these types of films. It requires, for me, an almost scientific, socioeconomic evaluation of the film making process to fully appreciate, or just a curiosity of film and social interactions portrayed in film and around film sets and the bureaucracy of generating the funds and jerryrigging devices to fulfill smaller budget scenarios which drive such a project as this to fruition.

I'm very interested in seeing this movie because it looks like it could actually be good and not just a thing to pan because of the limitations.

I had a film professor who wrote a couple Jean Claude Van Damme direct to DVD movies and his view of film projects was that they are nearly impossible to complete objectives that require self sacrifice and a warrior spirit to fully realize.

Films remind me of how different societies growths are based upon resource allocation, so some societies become empires and some remain scattered tribes and disparate families. Same as in film; this is like a missing link. Strange and curious to behold but human.

Besides, you don't give a fuck about mermaid movies. This is being made for kids that like mermaids lol -- I grew up watching Disney's Little Mermaid, had every word of the film memorized, but I'm certain it didn't matter that it had a better staff and bigger budget because I also had a made for tv dinosaur movie's rap song memorized and written down in phonetic child sound language.

Trivia:

Everyone's missing a key point here: The reason this is so great is it isn't a refrigerator; it's a cold pantry.

That should clarify what's happened in the last 60 years: just like with DVD and VHS, these things were pushed off the market by Big Pantry. Why spend a ton on a cold pantry when you can have a room-temperature pantry at 2/3 the price, amirite?

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Straight to DVD with this one, I assume.
I love the moustache.
*promote

That's my kind of party!
I also didn't see it in theaters. We probably also saw it on hbo and fell in love, I don't really recall. I know I taped it back then, and may still have the vhs copy in the garage, but I bought the directors cut DVD for my wife when it came out.

The Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken scene is one of the best scenes in modern cinema imo.

EDIT: btw, I'm still confused....what exactly is a Drexel?

Very interesting, but I have some questions about the efficacy of those rules/laws with regards to actually keeping the uncensored versions out of German hands.

Here in Thailand, since 2008 all GTA games are specifically banned (after a nutter who killed a taxi driver said he was influenced by GTA), along with any games with "excessive violence" or sexual content. In spite of that, the majority of male students in the High School where I teach have played GTA5 or other GTA games. There are no legit physical copies for sale in stores (I assume they are also removed from Steam for Thai users but I dunno), but like with all media here piracy is rampant and kids either torrent/download pirated copies of the games for themselves or buy a pirated copy of the game on DVD from vendors that can be found in markets in every city or village.

The rampant piracy also circumvents Thai censorship laws that require movies to blur out people smoking, drinking alcohol, or nudity / sexual content. Legit copies (which are rare) adhere to the rules, but most people end up with pirated copies that are more often than not sourced from uncensored versions and therefore don't follow the local rules.

Pretty weird situation. Makes me wonder if now in the internet age many German consumers might have no moral qualms with buying legit German-censored versions of things and then downloading pirated / cracked versions from the internet that circumvent the censorship.

I loved the DVD extras! Check out Reloaded's too.

Sigh. We had two really awesome video rental places nearby that survived until around 2008. They always had all the good indie and classic films from decades ago, but at some point in the 2000s people just stopped returning the rarer vids. I remember calling every video rental store in the area looking for Kids and Gummo and being pissed off because people who rented those movies usually just kept them and never came back.

I stopped going after the locals spots started offering to sell you a rental if it wasn't a new release or if it was a VHS (even if it was not released on DVD yet!). Not that I didn't like new releases, but sometimes you just want to watch something like Commando but you don't want to add it to your collection because maybe you'll watch it once every ten years or so. Then you go to the store and there's no Commando available because someone snatched it up. That ruined the concept of video rental for me. I would just end up ranting with the clerk for like an hour about good movies and rental blues, then head home empty handed.

Now I have Netflix -- but it doesn't even have a comment section any more. Oh well, IMDB boards ftw.

I don't mind if you criticize Dr. Greger at all. But your criticisms aren't valid. They're based on your own agenda.

Those DVD's are the same as his free videos , and the book is just the written form of the videos. Nobody has to buy any of it at all. That's how charities work.

What merch??? he doesn't sell any. You're the only one misrepresenting the facts here.

He's not there to make himself rich. Because as mentioned earlier in the topic, there are many easier ways to make money as a doctor.

He is not lying and misrepresenting facts, or promoting a bias. You're the only one saying that, and it's based on a technicality and poor research on your own behalf.

Nobody is attacking Greger for claiming others should eat more fruits and vegetables, in fact, that isn't even controversial. He is being CRITICIZED, which I don't know if you know what that word means, for LYING, MISREPRESENTING FACTS, and PROMOTING A BIAS. Nobody is attacking the Cardiologist because the Cardiologist isn't a shill who is misrepresenting facts in order to sell more books. Yes, his videos are free, but his books and merch are not. Neither are his DVDs

In fact, the fact that the Cardiologist isn't being attacked blows your victim mentality out of the water.

I am sorry if your god being criticized hurts you for some reason, but no, Greger is not some being who is infallible, and he is adult enough to not need you to get pissy FOR him.

God, fanboys are annoying.

I fail to see how the depiction of the luna dance is offensive to Hawaiians. I wonder if she would be offended by my DVD copy of Lilo & Stitch? Or my wife's Lilo bobblehead.

Some history: Protestants banned hula in the 19th century, so the celebration of this traditional dance seems to me to be empowering versus the censorship of what the Protestants called "heathen". Sure, the introduction of the Portuguese ukulele and other Western aesthetics changed the art form, but it's practiced in both modern and traditional forms today.

You also can't simply demonize the cross-pollination of cultures, because cultural values are always changing. Hawaiian and Polynesian culture went through many changes and forms long before anyone from the West showed up on their shores. The luau itself is partly symbolic of women's rights (as well as lower class rights) in Hawaiian culture, as before the luau, women were not allowed to eat the same food as men, and commoners could not eat with royalty or eat their royal Hawaiian food.

This change didn't happen until the 1800s, so it's likely that this level of equality within the Hawaiian culture is due in part to European contact, including the the King who himself became a Christian -- and yet also encouraged the luna dance.

When cultures make contact with each other, they become entangled. They influenced us and we influenced them -- and they're Americans now so deal with it. I once had pictures of Italian Americans on my wall (Godfather/Scarface posters) and my grandma has a Jew on her crucifix. Neither of us are Italian or Jewish. LOL

I loved Firefly, truly I did. Sure, The Wire and I had longer together but with Firefly...Firefly always felt like we left something unfinished. But, you know, I'm beginning to feel like I can let Firefly go now. I've accepted that in this life some truly beautiful things will be cut short - and that stings like a mother, but its _O.K_ because we were privileged to share those fleeting moments, and we still have our memories and the DVD box set.

ps. True Story, my current employer revealed to me that I became his first choice for the job after I correctly identified an idly muttered Firefly quotation. (two by two, hands of blue).

pps. Did anybody else watch Castle purely because it was easy to imagine Castle was Mal in an alternate universe. Well, maybe not purely - Stana Katic is very easy on the eye, but it was like, maybe 75% of the reason.