Letters to the Editor
Christopher1988
Published Letters: 567 Editor's Choice: 40
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Brian Schlosser: nice to hear from someone else who's read the book.
[Read the article: "The Invasion"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But what's this about the downbeat ending of all the movies, which I keep reading here? The original famously provides a happy ending. Studio imposed it seems, but nonetheless, there it is.
I love Kaufman's movie best. The original is good, but society has changed so much it now seems oddly pointless. All those 1950's suburbanites appear to be pod people even before they've been transformed. I unnderstand this was less the case before the studio started snipping away, but who can say for sure? Kaufman's version, on the other hand, presents us with genunine individuals, and losing them is painful, especially Jeff Goldblum.
Every one of the movies seems to make a huge continuity error. For the majority of the running time, the point is that if you fall asleep next to a pod, you will be replicated and then your body dies, leaving the new being. But then suddenly, the situation is that if the characters fall asleep, they simply change. No pods around, no need for the orginal body to disappear. It goes from replacement to some sort of vampiric takeover of the host body. It doesn't make any sense, but I enjoy the first two movies, anyway.
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Labor Day coincides with the beginning of the school year and so, for many people is the "Start" of the year.
[Read the article: Rabbit Bites: Greg Fitzsimmons defends America]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Don't all businesses start their year at that time, rather than Jan. 1, as well?
This was pretty good, but why hide the fact that it's a Rabbit Bites skit?
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Kitchen Girl,
[Read the article: "Superbad"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I share your sentiments about Michael Cera and Arrested Development. I might have to go to this movie just to see him. But UGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!! this movie looks terrible. Saw the preview at The Simpsons Movie (which was only so-so, itself). I see a movie studio conference: "Okay guys, we got all that money out of American Pie. And then Napoleon Dynamite. We've got to put them together, somehow...somehow...I've got it! We'll make millions. Again! And make sure to film plenty of mildly raunchy stuff that will have to be cut, so we can released a second, unrated version after the initial DVD release has played out."
Personally, I thought Mean Girls was terrible, and only found a few good jokes in 10 Things I Hate About You (Juila Stiles being sent from the room for disrupting the class, even though she hadn't done anything). For me, the only teen movie that captured high school life correctly was Heathers.
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Brian,
[Read the article: "The Invasion"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Facinating about a trimmed-down version. But the one on DVD does contain the flashback structure, thus including an upbeat ending. I would have liked seeing it the other way.
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lpydmblb
[Read the article: "The Invasion"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm wondering if they're going to continue the chain from Kaufmann's version.
That would be interesting. In that one, the implication was that she would be dead in seconds. Matthew is pointing and screeching at her, and everyone else in the area is a pod person. How could she get away? But it's a good idea (maybe the pod people are so emotionless that after someone escapes, they actually forget about it after a while?).
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ievens
[Read the article: "Superbad"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Fairly prominent subtext you say? Wow. Like, if I'm desperate for gay issues to be addressed, I can cherish this, while the straights in the audience likely remain oblivious (and I can also cherish my superiority for "getting it")? That gay themes will be co-opted into a shallow teen picture doesn't make it a better picture any more than addressing drug abuse tuned Diff'rent Strokes into quality television.
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Another "interview" with Hillary in Salon. What a surprise!
[Read the article: Hillary Clinton: Coal isn't going away]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Again and again, easy questions, no challenges, as Salon continues to play the drumbeat cadence to which we are all supposed to march her into the White House.
Afraid not.
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How odd
[Read the article: Ari Fleischer, reporting for duty!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]that you would recall John Kerry's own inept phrase in an attempt to attempt lambasting the Republicans. And just after you dimissed the idea of Democratic strategies being so lame!
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Too many "attempts" in my own.
[Read the article: Ari Fleischer, reporting for duty!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Guess my stategies can be less than perfect, too.
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What's wrong with being judgemental?
[Read the article: I'm so damned judgmental!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I fail to understand this. It's like when I start explaining why I didn't like a movie or book and someone says, "I just don't think about it much." Everything in our world is about evaluation, about what to do and what not to do. When you make any moral decision you are being judgemental. You are passing judgement on fit and unfit behavior.
Now, there is no question that many judgements are outdated or were always wrong. As a gay man, I'm certainly glad our society has released a lot of its prejudices and antagonisms towards people like myself. But the message has gotten confused. It's no longer "what's right or wrong?" It's "I'm too afraid of making a misstep, so I'll just decide that nothing is wrong: except being a Nazi or a child molester." At least everyone is very sure of their moral ground when it comes to these two groups. Glad that they are, but where does that moral assurance come from if it is never backed up by underlying steadfast beliefs?
Investigate what you believe. Contemplate it. Challege it. But also come to a decision about it and embrace it until someone persuades you otherwise. Not about silly things, of course. Not about whether a red dress is "scandalous" or whether speaking with a Souther accent indicates a lack of education. But about how people should or shouldn't treat each other, what is right and wrong.
Prostesting the war in Iraq is a display of judegemental behavior as much as any reactionary "moral majority" spiel. Personally, I'd rather deal with someone who really disagreed with me, who I knew where I stood with and who I could confront and attempt to persuade, than someone who never really said anything but never really attempted to comprehend me because he or she just didn't want to be "judgemental." That seems the colder, more inhumane approach, as far as I'm concerned.
I believe in right and wrong, though I think we can mislabel which is which. Expressing judgements is one way to figure these things out, and try to comprehend reality. An achievable goal, from my standpoint. Of course, that's a judgement.