jjchew@utcs.UUCP (John Chew) (01/23/85)
What? A discussion on bad SF movies without one mention of John Carpenter's
"Dark Star"? An alien mascot made out of a spray-painted beach-ball? Space
effects where they don't bother trying to hide the wires? And Alan Dean
Foster's ... er, marvellous novelization which... er... captured the flavour
of the movie exactly!
--
university of toronto computing services: john j. chew, iii
{decvax,ihnp4,utcsrgv,allegra!utzoo,linus!utzoo}!utcs!jjchewwjr@utcs.UUCP (William Rucklidge) (01/24/85)
> What? A discussion on bad SF movies without one mention of John Carpenter's Not to mention, of course, that classic song: "Benson, Arizona". > "Dark Star"? An alien mascot made out of a spray-painted beach-ball? Space > effects where they don't bother trying to hide the wires? And Alan Dean > Foster's ... er, marvellous novelization which... er... captured the flavour > of the movie exactly! > -- > university of toronto computing services: john j. chew, iii > {decvax,ihnp4,utcsrgv,allegra!utzoo,linus!utzoo}!utcs!jjchew -- William Rucklidge University of Toronto Computing Services {decvax,ihnp4,utcsrgv,{allegra,linus}!utzoo}!utcs!wjr GISO - Garbage In, Serendipity Out. This message brought to you with the aid of the Poslfit Committee.
ted@usceast.UUCP (Ted Nolan) (01/26/85)
<I am not Sargent Pinbeck!> In article <385@utcs.UUCP> jjchew@utcs.UUCP (John Chew) writes: >What? A discussion on bad SF movies without one mention of John Carpenter's >"Dark Star"? An alien mascot made out of a spray-painted beach-ball? Space >effects where they don't bother trying to hide the wires? And Alan Dean >Foster's ... er, marvellous novelization which... er... captured the flavour >of the movie exactly! >-- >university of toronto computing services: john j. chew, iii >{decvax,ihnp4,utcsrgv,allegra!utzoo,linus!utzoo}!utcs!jjchew Not quite fair, _Dark Star_ was, I believe, a student production and quite good , that considered. My favorite moment was when the audience realized that the back packs on the space suits are muffin tins, but given the budget that implies they did very well. BTW, did anyone notice that part of the ending is stolen directly from a Ray Bradbury story? Ted Nolan ..usceast!ted -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ted Nolan ...decvax!mcnc!ncsu!ncrcae!usceast!ted (UUCP) 6536 Brookside Circle ...akgua!usceast!ted Columbia, SC 29206 allegra!akgua!usceast!ted@UCB-VAX.ARPA (ARPA, maybe) ("Deep space is my dwelling place, the stars my destination") -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuqui) (01/27/85)
In article <385@utcs.UUCP> jjchew@utcs.UUCP (John Chew) writes: >What? A discussion on bad SF movies without one mention of John Carpenter's >"Dark Star"? An alien mascot made out of a spray-painted beach-ball? Space >effects where they don't bother trying to hide the wires? EEEKKKK! Scoundrel! Cad! Dark Star is a marvelous piece of fluff. It was really a senior (masters?) project that made it out into the 'real' world. No budget to worry about, so everything was done with ingenuity (I LOVED the spacesuits-- silver trashbags, duct tape (without hamsters), half the kitchen, a few pieces of styrofoam and a popcorn popper. It's funny. It's not bad, and it actually has a number of interesting social statements in it (one of my favorite 'beat society in the head films', along with Dr. Strangelove, Rollerball, and Boy and His Dog). What's even better is watching Dark Star a few times, and then going to a theater and watching the film they did WITH a budget-- I got more than a few funny looks for guffawing through a screening of Alien, but the in-jokes they tossed in pointing back at their 'cult' film to keep you going through most of the movie.... -- From the ministry of silly talks: Chuq Von Rospach {allegra,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA God is a trademark of AT&T Bell Labs --- National Semiconductor does not require useless disclaimers on posted material that is obviously not posted by company spokesmen...
bwm@ccice2.UUCP (Brad Miller) (01/28/85)
In article <385@utcs.UUCP> jjchew@utcs.UUCP (John Chew) writes: >What? A discussion on bad SF movies without one mention of John Carpenter's >"Dark Star"? An alien mascot made out of a spray-painted beach-ball? Space >effects where they don't bother trying to hide the wires? And Alan Dean >Foster's ... er, marvellous novelization which... er... captured the flavour >of the movie exactly! In case you didn't notice, "Dark Star" was a HACK. And a brilliant one at that. I particularly liked the scene where the ship the 'dark star' hurtles away from a planet they were bombing (basically because they had nothing better to do) and stop instantaniously, ignoring inertia ("I never studied law - B. Bunny). This hilarious movie should not be missed if you've never seen it. Brad Miller -- ...[rochester, cbrma, rlgvax, ritcv]!ccice5!ccice2!bwm
hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (Jerry Hollombe) (01/28/85)
>From: jjchew@utcs.UUCP (John Chew) >Subject: Another bad SF movie >Message-ID: <385@utcs.UUCP> > >What? A discussion on bad SF movies without one mention of John Carpenter's >"Dark Star"? An alien mascot made out of a spray-painted beach-ball? Space >effects where they don't bother trying to hide the wires? And Alan Dean >Foster's ... er, marvellous novelization which... er... captured the flavour >of the movie exactly! I must protest. This is one of my favorite films. The effects were obviously intentionally what they were and contributed greatly to the humor of the situation. Note that most of the effects they wanted to be good were ok (the laser looked real enough). The beach-ball alien and the styrofoam-and-muffin-tin space suits were obviously intended as gag items. Ever wonder how they got that enormous elevator shaft into that small ship? I didn't know the film had been novelized. Doesn't strike me as a good, or even feasible, idea, but I haven't read it yet so I can't comment with authority. -- ============================================================================== The Polymath (Jerry Hollombe) Citicorp TTI If thy CRT offend thee, pluck 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. it out and cast it from thee. Santa Monica, California 90405 (213) 450-9111, ext. 2483 {vortex,philabs}!ttidca!ttidcc!hollombe
barnett@ut-sally.UUCP (Lewis Barnett) (01/29/85)
> >From: jjchew@utcs.UUCP (John Chew) > >Message-ID: <385@utcs.UUCP> > > > >What? A discussion on bad SF movies without one mention of John Carpenter's > >"Dark Star"? An alien mascot made out of a spray-painted beach-ball? Space > >effects where they don't bother trying to hide the wires? And Alan Dean > >Foster's ... er, marvellous novelization which... er... captured the flavour > >of the movie exactly! > > I must protest. This is one of my favorite films. The effects were > obviously intentionally what they were and contributed greatly to the humor > of the situation. Note that most of the effects they wanted to be good > were ok (the laser looked real enough). The beach-ball alien and the > styrofoam-and-muffin-tin space suits were obviously intended as gag items. > Ever wonder how they got that enormous elevator shaft into that small ship? > > I didn't know the film had been novelized. Doesn't strike me as a good, or > even feasible, idea, but I haven't read it yet so I can't comment with > authority. > -- > ============================================================================== > The Polymath (Jerry Hollombe) > {vortex,philabs}!ttidca!ttidcc!hollombe I second -- "Dark Star" was fabulous! I was under the impression that Alan Dean Foster's novel came first, but given his penchant for novel- ization, I could be wrong. If it is a novelization, it's possibly his best, though that is perhaps faint praise. Lewis Barnett,CS Dept, Painter Hall 3.28, Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX 78712 -- barnett@ut-sally.ARPA, barnett@ut-sally.UUCP, {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!barnett *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***
@RUTGERS.ARPA,@MIT-MC:ASP@MIT-OZ (01/30/85)
From: Jim Aspnes <ASP%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA> Not to mention the spacesuit backpacks made out of white-painted TV dinner trays. Dark Star served its purpose well, though. What other movie has managed to trash so many SF conventions so well while maintaining a straight face? And I've never seen a talking dead character who was so realistically senile ... Jim "Seargent Pinback, you are null data."
chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) (02/01/85)
>Ever wonder how they got that enormous elevator shaft into that small ship?
Better yet, look closely at the size of the bombs vs. the size of the ship,
and try to figure out where they stored 20 of those things. (Ye Gads, Dark
star was a tardis! They're time lords!)
chuq
--
From the ministry of silly talks: Chuq Von Rospach
{allegra,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA
Life, the Universe, and lots of other stuff is a trademark of AT&T Bell Labsmsb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader) (02/02/85)
> >Ever wonder how they got that enormous elevator shaft into that small ship? > >[in Dark Star] > > Better yet, look closely at the size of the bombs vs. the size of the ship, > and try to figure out where they stored 20 of those things. Last weekend I saw the 1935 movie The Tunnel, also titled The Transatlantic Tunnel. (Incidentally, all prints of this were believed lost. Also inci- dentally, it's a British remake of a 1933 German movie.) For a 1930's sf movie, it wasn't that bad -- but there were some nice howlers. Like... you're digging a tunnel, depicted as about 30-40 feet in diameter, from London to New York. This is somewhat over 3000 miles. Converting to metric, say 10 m diam and 5000 km length. The volume of the tunnel is therefore PI*5*5*5000000 m^3, which is 400000000 m^3. If the rock has only 2.5 times the density of water, that's ONE BILLION metric TONS to be lifted to sea level and disposed of... this was simply ignored! And the 1500-mile trip from the tunnel ends to the working face was depicted as taking a time on the order of minutes, maybe an hour, in vehicles shown moving at no more than 50 mph... Mark Brader
msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader) (02/02/85)
> >Ever wonder how they got that enormous elevator shaft into that small ship? > >[in Dark Star] > > Better yet, look closely at the size of the bombs vs. the size of the ship, > and try to figure out where they stored 20 of those things. Last weekend I saw the 1935 movie The Tunnel, also titled The Transatlantic Tunnel. (It's a British remake of a 1933 German movie. All prints of it were believed lost.) For a 1930's sf movie, it wasn't that bad -- but there were some nice howlers. Like... you're digging a tunnel, depicted as about 30-40 feet in diameter, from London to New York. This is somewhat over 3000 miles. Converting to metric, say 10 m diam and 5000 km length. The volume of the tunnel is therefore PI*5*5*5000000 m^3, just about 400000000 m^3. Even if the rock has only 2.5 times the density of water, that's ONE BILLION metric TONS of spoil (some miles below sea level, too) that you have to dispose of... this was simply ignored! And the 1500-mile trip from the tunnel ends to the working face was depicted as taking no more than, oh, an hour... in vehicles shown moving at no more than 50 mph... Mark Brader
gnome@olivee.UUCP (02/06/85)
Of course they are Time Lords! The beach-ball was their equivalent to K-9! "Let there be light!" Gary