My favourite Jim-from-Taxi incident: Iggy is on vacation the entire episode. Show opens with Danza, Henner et al. playing Charades. One of the characters, standing in the middle of the shop floor, mimes out a wall the way a mime would. <snip> After end credits roll Iggy, just arriving from the airport, enters empty shop with his duffle bag and promptly thuds into the Charade "wall" and says "Now who put that there!"

*quality *thud*

Hello! Just back this minute from seeing the film. I have a few comments to make which may involve SPOILERS.

SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS


Hmmm.

The short review is - what a load of disappointing and quite frankly tedious crap.

Oh Nolan why are you getting worse with each film? Who honestly thinks LDC is an actor with enough charisma to hold a film like this? He really wasn't enough for this role. Why the fuck does Nolan insist on having that thuddingly monotonous soundtrack pounding over virtually every single scene of dialogue? Why not give the actors some space instead of making it feel rushed and forcing them into layering soundbites for only the sake of exposition? Why not make this about the performances rather than worship the god of pacing? (it certainly didn't feel like 148 minutes I'll give him that).

Sorry, that girl he hires? Where was that maze she designed? Oh fuck that, we want a shortcut now. And why is Leo's dad (Michael Caine again for some reason) offering up students to do dodgy work? And what was she studying? Extraction 101? What world is this that dreams can be hacked in this way? This is never explained. Should we expect to see the flying cars out the window? Has cancer been eradicated in this world? How many other people are doing this shit?

And Leo with a bad case of dead wife syndrome (DWS). You know if you want to keep pulling that trick you might want to make it better than it was in Memento. Which is hard to do. Mainly because Guy Pearce is a better actor who makes you feel something about his character. Sympathy, disgust, shock, whatever. Something. LDC is like balsa wood in comparison.

But maybe I'm being too hard on Leo. Maybe the problem is with the script. I was surprised to find I had no problems following what was supposed to be a twisty, layered plot. I didn't see multiple plots criss-crossing and tying my mind up in knots - you want that? Try a James Ellroy novel. I still find Memento a mind-bending watch. The dream within a dream scenario is as hard to imagine as a box within another box. And here that's all that Nolan is concerned about. He loves the techie aspects of this. How does box C behave in box B. Oh B is jiggling about so C is getting all shook up. And do we get to care much about the inception itself? Nope. I thought this was a big missed opportunity to play the complex mind-games required to crack the subject. But in between explosions there wasn't much time for that.

Nolan has become a slightly more sophisticated version of the recent fanboy directors. But he's still thoroughly crass and obvious and doesn't have the talent to explore the spaces between what initially seem like promising ideas. But dreams? Hell, I enjoyed the more straightforward japes of Dreamcape and that was a long time ago.

But I am surprised that so many love this - I'd ask that you think about the characters. State what was memorable about them and what made them interesting. What did this film actually say that was of substance? Strip away the artifice and what are you actually left with?

I saw Total Recall, again, a few days ago. It was better than this.

Dolphin internal monologue:

So long suckers, thanks for all the fish!
*thud*
F***. wrong side

Had he even practiced?

That thud thud thud... now I know what fail sounds like.

And as for you mentality - that's a hard one. Discworld of course are his best books (he has done some others), and within that series of books there are different spin-offs. Some are written from the perspective of the witches of discworld, some on the wizards (unrelated to the witches), some on the police, some are randomly based on a few individuals.

My dad started with the book about the police (or The Watch, as they're known in discworld). I let him start from the 1st book and he really didn't enjoy it, too fantasy for him, but fortunately he quickly realises comedy rather than fantasy is his niche. So while the very early books are a good read if/when you love discworld or fantasy, they're not always the best starting point.

I'd recommend therefore the City Watch books, as i did with my dad. They're an easy starting point. In order:
* Guards! Guards! 1989
* Men at Arms 1993
* Feet of Clay 1996
* Jingo 1997
* The Fifth Elephant 1999
* The Truth 2000
* Night Watch 2002
* Monstrous Regiment 2003
* Thud! 2005

I would recommend starting at the start if you mean to go on. The characters become more familiar and often you find the stories more sentimental and humorous if you know the characters. This list includes my top 3 favourite books of his, so definitely a good starting point. The books about Death (the character Death) are very good too.

In reply to this comment by dannym3141:
And as for you mentality - that's a hard one. Discworld of course are his best books (he has done some others), and within that series of books there are different spin-offs. Some are written from the perspective of the witches of discworld, some on the wizards (unrelated to the witches), some on the police, some are randomly based on a few individuals.

My dad started with the book about the police (or The Watch, as they're known in discworld). I let him start from the 1st book and he really didn't enjoy it, too fantasy for him, but fortunately he quickly realises comedy rather than fantasy is his niche. So while the very early books are a good read if/when you love discworld or fantasy, they're not always the best starting point.

I'd recommend therefore the City Watch books, as i did with my dad. They're an easy starting point. In order:
* Guards! Guards! 1989
* Men at Arms 1993
* Feet of Clay 1996
* Jingo 1997
* The Fifth Elephant 1999
* The Truth 2000
* Night Watch 2002
* Monstrous Regiment 2003
* Thud! 2005

I would recommend starting at the start if you mean to go on. The characters become more familiar and often you find the stories more sentimental and humorous if you know the characters. This list includes my top 3 favourite books of his, so definitely a good starting point. The books about Death (the character Death) are very good too.

Thanks for the recommendations!

No offence r1ok, but terry pratchett is an intellectual of the highest order. Easy for me to say 'genius', but i won't because it's bandied around too much. His books are filled with such amazing philosophies and opinions, explained and parodied in such subtle ways often and never preachy, he always shapes it into the fiction of his novels. In the genre in which he writes, he is unparalelled. He's one of the greatest wits in the world. He's friendly, he's caring.

To attempt to ridicule THIS MAN because he has read the same material as you but forms a different opinion borders on the farcical. You engender the 'bible-thumping' stereotypes by doing this at all. Terry is more intelligent than you or i, more witty, far more experienced, he's read more than most of us ever will - yet when he expresses his opinion on a writing, you try to call him small minded.

SMALL MINDED? Terry fucking Pratchett? Who the fuck are you anyway?

And as for you mentality - that's a hard one. Discworld of course are his best books (he has done some others), and within that series of books there are different spin-offs. Some are written from the perspective of the witches of discworld, some on the wizards (unrelated to the witches), some on the police, some are randomly based on a few individuals.

My dad started with the book about the police (or The Watch, as they're known in discworld). I let him start from the 1st book and he really didn't enjoy it, too fantasy for him, but fortunately he quickly realises comedy rather than fantasy is his niche. So while the very early books are a good read if/when you love discworld or fantasy, they're not always the best starting point.

I'd recommend therefore the City Watch books, as i did with my dad. They're an easy starting point. In order:
* Guards! Guards! 1989
* Men at Arms 1993
* Feet of Clay 1996
* Jingo 1997
* The Fifth Elephant 1999
* The Truth 2000
* Night Watch 2002
* Monstrous Regiment 2003
* Thud! 2005

I would recommend starting at the start if you mean to go on. The characters become more familiar and often you find the stories more sentimental and humorous if you know the characters. This list includes my top 3 favourite books of his, so definitely a good starting point. The books about Death (the character Death) are very good too.

>> ^Drachen_Jager:
I don't know about fake, that would be pretty difficult for a bunch of kids to fake and it doesn't look viral. Plus I did a similar number on a bully in Jr High once, though it was the back of his head on a chalkboard not face first in a desk (and there was no handy chair nearby), so things like this DO happen.


His head was based on his own arm + the bashing made a rattling sound, not a concussing thud. Very WWF like.

*terrible for the "thud" when the baby hit the ground

Tags for this video have been changed from 'americas got talent, crash, dance, bang, thud, unconscious' to 'americas got talent, jump, chair, chairs, crash, dance, bang, thud, unconscious' - edited by SlipperyPete

The thud is somewhat satisfying...for some reason...

replay

Did you hear the sound of that thud?

I'm a bit suprised by that score. The chief criticism is that, as ever, the game isn't long enough. It's an thuddingly moronic observation when you realised how clever this game is with truly diverse gameplay elements and extremely well crafted team play that for once utterly demands cooperation.

As Valve states the game is designed to be played again and again. And this is completely true if my experience is par for the course. It's so relaxing to blast away on easy and have fun, switch between the weapons and see how many kills you can rack up. On normal and above you can have a very tense and thrilling experience. I mostly play two player offline but Live is great as well. The review neglects to mention that audio is also a key gameplay element as you'll often hear the special infected before you see them.

If you buy your games by the yard then by all means pass but you'll miss one of the most fun and well designed games in recent years.

I love the guy on the PA system.."Heads up everyone, heads up". Anybody standing at ground zero would have had about enough time to think 'which way should I run' before .....well that thud about says it all.