Posts Tagged ‘Starship Troopers’
Houston, we have a problem
… then maybe you haven’t noticed anything at all. Well let me fill you in because to quote Starship Troopers ( oh yes, THAT’s where we’re at ) “Someone made a mistake, someone made a big goddamn mistake.”
Well actually that’s a little more melodramatic than the situation currently is at but it isn’t too far off.
You see I got sick of Quit Your Day Job getting hijacked by malware sites through Google Reader and the site has always run a bit slow on its host so I decided …
Tags: Blog Quit Your Day Job Starship Troopers WordPress
I’m reasonably certain that I have bought Star Trek 2 the Wrath of Khan five times now with a potential sixth time around the corner.
First of all I’ve bought it on VHS twice, the first time was a ex rental copy followed by a home video version, then when the first DVD versions came out I bought it again with no special features or anything good. Then the special edition came out and I bought that version which was cool because it was slightly recut and had cool menus etc. Then the Star Trek movie pack came out with all the special edition movies at a reduced individual cost and a neat smaller box so I got that and replaced the couple of movies I already had in special edition.
Now I’m considering buying it on Blu-ray.
I don’t care that I’ve had to upgrade it several times as I love the movie and want it in it’s best possible format. What I do object to is the absolutely ridiculous price of the Blu-ray considering a couple of points:
- The film cost $11.2 million to make.
- It made $78,912,963 at the domestic box office
- I’ve bought five versions of the film, I don’t believe that I’m alone I’m sure there are a lot of Star Trek fans who have purchased at least two copies.
- I read somewhere that it costs around 20 to 25 cents to physically produce a Blu-ray (happy to be corrected here).
- The cheapest I can find Star Trek: Wrath of Khan on Blu-ray is $39
- I can buy Terminator 2: Judgement Day – Skynet Edition for $19.95
Now around the Sargent household an ugly thing has raised its head. An ugly horrible thing that makes me want to hide in the cupboard clutching my rare Evil Dead figurines shaking in terror.
Budget.
ARRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!
I know it’s almost too horrible to even think about!!
Apparently if we want to go overseas, eat and remain clothed with a roof above our heads battle damaged Iron Man helmet replicas have to be cut back on as well as some other ‘luxuries’.
By luxuries I guess I’m talking about bloody price gouging Blu-rays.
But there is a way you can help!
After contacting my local Blu-ray price gouging… I mean store and offering to draw them pictures in exchange for over priced Blu-rays they advised me that it was against store policy and preceded to lecture me on the nature of commerce and the exchange of money for goods and or services.
So it got me thinking.
How about I draw pictures for you guys? I mean I do anyway but this way you can get some original art from me and I can get some sweet Blu-ray money without hurting the budget.
But I also know that a lot of you are in the same boat as me, the HMAS Budget (it’s a garbage scow) and I’m not about to start gouging you too so there are other ways to help too.
So in support of high definition KHAAAAAAAAAN!!!! I have drawn a five card set inspired by Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan which I’m selling for $25 AU including postage anywhere!
Buy the set of cards in the Quit Your Day Job shop.
These are the original cards not reproductions, each signed on the back by me so there is only one set available and so it’s a first in situation. Remember these are inspired by the film and I am not affiliated with Paramount Pictures so please don’t ask me to do reproductions or prints.
Now if you don’t want these cards or are stuck on board the stoopid HMAS Budget you can still get in on the action.
I’m giving away one Star Trek themed artist sketch card of any character or scene in the Star Trek universe of the winner’s choice.
All you have to do to go into the draw is to mention the Wrath of Khan card set on your blog or Twitter or Facebook or Forum etc. and leave a comment here telling me about it. Competition will run until the card set is sold and then I shall drop all names into a hat of some sort and select a winner at random then email them and ask what they want the card to look like.
You can enter as many times as you like, each mention gets you an entry (but you got to tell me about it to make sure!).
Of course it should be mentioned that you could have your cake and eat it too, buy the card set and mention that on your blog quickly and you’ll go into the hat as well (a very quick buyer could guarantee themselves a win *wink).
***UPDATE – The cards have already been sold!***
We were pretty harsh on Air part 3 last week, I expect it was because the first two episodes were so full of promise and we’ve been supplied with such average Stargate material for so long. So when a filler episode showed up in the second week it hurt, a lot.
Action, excitement, innovative ways to develop characters and an exciting storyline.
These are not qualities to be found in the Stargate Universe episode Darkness. In fact I sought out the promo for this episode just to see how the hell they marketed it:
Oh yeah they managed to make that look real tense and exciting… actually I’m a poor judge since seeing the episode, if you break that preview down it all amounts to some tense music and I don’t even think they had that in the episode.
Spoilers to follow, you’ve been warned, twice.
So this episode was marginally better than the last one, which isn’t really saying that much but maybe we can say at least they are trying… forget it. There were some really strong scenes in the beginning of the episode where the commander guy with the busted up knee had some really cool briefings with the crew/survivors. The scenes felt really natural and actually made me interested in the day to day running of the ship and what they are doing.
Of course my now least favourite character in Stargate history Dr Rush shows up and apparently no one but him can do anything at all, his standing around staring at consoles is such riveting stuff I dearly hope the powers that be continue to follow that.
So what did we learn this week:
- Nothing at all about last weeks shuttle taking off
- Dr Rush is an unbelievably giant jerk who is unpleasant to watch.
- That the commanding dude, who if next week’s show is better I’ll bother to learn his name is a cool leader who makes people naturally laugh at staff briefings.
- Lou Diamond Phillip’s character is a big jerk too (I don’t know if Lou himself is a jerk so I won’t speculate)
- The chef has his work cut out for him.
- That Eli is a completely bearable character who I actually don’t mind, however, he does need to stop playing with those balls… umm that’s isn’t… nevermind.
- That the woman with large breasts is a woman with really large breasts, I don’t say this to diminish her in any way shape or form I just wish the producers wouldn’t and I’m surprised that they didn’t use the hallway shot in the promo.
- I don’t even care what the medic’s problem is or why she quit, I actually want them to reveal it just to stop the hints at it, I mean really guys, subtle much!?!?
- Skimming a gas giant is not as cool as seeing the Serenity fire up her engines on half the budget.
- The senator’s daughter is a poor man’s Summer Glau
- They can’t fix the power problems but they can get the plate to recharge torches… dudes!? Really??
- The cliff hanger is pretty weak, I don’t expect them to plunge into the sun like Disaster Area’s Stuntship*
I’m willing to go out on a limb here and suggest that maybe some new blood in the producing and directing area might be called for, none of this feels very fresh right now… oh scratch that, last time someone else took over Stargate we got Stargate Infinity… shudder.
So what did you guys think this week? Am I being too harsh? Any things that you learnt?
*If you got the reference then you are a hitch-hiker geek!!
