Podcasts about imax 3d

12 years ago, the property that inspired ‘Star Wars' and ‘Avatar' bombed — and now both those franchises are in the Disney family.It was released in the United States by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures on March 9, 2012, marking the centennial of the titular character's first appearance. It was presented in Disney Digital 3D, RealD 3D and IMAX 3D formats. It received mixed reviews, with praise for its visuals, Giacchino's score, and the action sequences, but criticism of the characterization and plot. It failed at the North American box office, but set an opening-day record in Russia. It grossed $284 million at the worldwide box office, resulting in a $200 million writedown for Disney, becoming one of the biggest box office bombs in history and also becoming the film with the largest estimated box-office loss adjusted for inflation ever, losing $149–265 million. With a total cost of $350 million, including an estimated production budget of $263 million, it is one of the most expensive films ever made. Due to its box office performance, Disney cancelled plans for Gods of Mars and Warlord of Mars, the rest of the trilogy Stanton had planned. Much of the film's failure has been attributed to its promotion, which has been called "one of the worst marketing campaigns in movie history".John CarterWhen Civil War veteran John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) mysteriously awakes on the surface of Mars -- also called Barsoom -- he little expects the adventure that awaits him. Carter reluctantly becomes embroiled in an epic conflict among the red planet's inhabitants, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). As Barsoom is poised on the brink of collapse, war-weary Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that everyone's fate is in his hands.

For thousands of years, humans have wondered whether we're alone in the cosmos. Now, for the first time, we have the technology to investigate. But once you look for life elsewhere, you realize it is not so simple. How do you find it over cosmic distances? What actually is life? As founding director of Cornell University's Carl Sagan Institute, astrophysicist Lisa Kaltenegger has built a team of tenacious scientists from many disciplines to create a specialized toolkit to find life on faraway worlds. In Alien Earths, she demonstrates how we can use our homeworld as a Rosetta Stone, creatively analyzing Earth's history and its astonishing biosphere to inform this search. With infectious enthusiasm, she takes us on an eye-opening journey to the most unusual exoplanets that have shaken our worldview - planets covered in oceans of lava, lonely wanderers lost in space, and others with more than one sun in their sky! And the best contenders for Alien Earths. We also see the imagined worlds of science fiction and how close they come to reality. With the James Webb Space Telescope and Dr. Kaltenegger's pioneering work, she shows that we live in an incredible new epoch of exploration. As our witty and knowledgeable tour guide, Dr. Kaltenegger shows how we discover not merely new continents, like the explorers of old, but whole new worlds circling other stars and how we could spot life there. Worlds from where aliens may even be gazing back at us. What if we're not alone? Lisa Kaltenegger is the Director of the Carl Sagan Institute to Search for Life in the Cosmos at Cornell and Associate Professor in Astronomy. She is a pioneer and world-leading expert in modeling potential habitable worlds and their detectable spectral fingerprint. Kaltenegger serves on the National Science Foundation's Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee (AAAC), and on NASA senior review of operating missions. She is a Science Team Member of NASA's TESS Mission as well as the NIRISS instrument on James Webb Space Telescope. Kaltenegger was named one of America's Young Innovators by Smithsonian magazine, an Innovator to Watch by Time magazine. She appears in the IMAX 3D movie “The Search for Life in Space” and speaks frequently, including at Aspen Ideas Festival, TED Youth, World Science Festival and the Kavli Foundation lecture at the Adler Planetarium. Shermer and Kaltenegger discuss: Carl Sagan and his influence • Sagan's Dragon • ECREE Principle • how stars, planets and solar systems form • how exoplanets are discovered • Hubble Space Telescope, Kepler Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope • The Origin of Life • Fermi's Paradox: where is everybody (the Great Silence, the Great Filter) • biosignatures • technosignatures • Dyson spheres • Will aliens be biological or AI? • interstellar travel • Kardashev scale of civilizations • how to talk to aliens when we can't even talk to dolphins • Deities for Atheists, Skygods for Skeptics: aliens as gods and the search as religion • why alien worlds matter.

As founding director of Cornell University's Carl Sagan Institute and author of the new ALIEN EARTHS: Planet Hunting in the Cosmos, Lisa Kaltenegger is one of the world's most respected cosmologists. She believes that, with our revolutionary new cosmological technologies, we are likely to “discover” non-human life somewhere in the cosmos. What's particularly astonishing about these kinds of conversations is how they no longer astonish us. Fifty years ago, the idea of discovering non-human life somewhere in the Universe was science fiction; today, it's become the mainstream scientific assumption of leading cosmologists like Kaltenegger and the Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb. The issue is not if we'll find these life-forms, Kaltenegger and Loeb are saying, but when. Astonishing. Lisa Kaltenegger is the Director of the Carl Sagan Institute to Search for Life in the Cosmos at Cornell and Associate Professor in Astronomy. She is a pioneer and world-leading expert in modeling potential habitable worlds and their detectable spectral fingerprint. Kaltenegger serves on the National Science Foundation's Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee (AAAC), and on NASA senior review of operating missions. She is a Science Team Member of NASA's TESS Mission as well as the NIRISS instrument on James Webb Space Telescope. Kaltenegger was named one of America's Young Innovators by Smithsonian Magazine, an Innovator to Watch by TIME Magazine. She appears in the IMAX 3D movie "The Search for Life in Space" and speaks frequently, including at Aspen Ideas Festival, TED Youth, World Science Festival and the Kavli Foundation lecture at the Adler Planetarium which was live-streamed to six continents. Discover more about Kaltenegger's work on her wesite https://www.lisakaltenegger.com/Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Louie Schwartzberg, Howard and Michele Hall have a longterm beautiful friendship, the core of which is based in capturing and celebrating nature's wonders. While Louie explores the earth and air, Howard and Michele have magnificently captured the splendors of what lies within beneath our waters. Howard and Michele Hall are perhaps best known for their underwater IMAX films. In 1994 Howard directed the first underwater IMAX 3D feature, Into the Deep. In 1998 Michele produced and Howard directed the IMAX feature, Island of the Sharks, which was an enterprise of Howard Hall Productions. In 2005 they returned to the IMAX 3D format by directing and producing Deep Sea 3D which was awarded Best Picture at the Giant Screen Cinema Association Conference and Best Large Format Film at Wildscreen 2006. In 2009 the Hall's released Under the Sea 3D. This film won best cinematography at the Giant Screen Cinema Association Conference in 2009 and Best Documentary at the Internationnal 3D Society in 2010. Howard was director of underwater cinematography for the Primesco Productions film Lost Worlds, the MacGillivray Freeman film The Living Sea, the IMAX 3D feature Return to Hubble, and was underwater cinematographer for MacGillivray Freeman's Journey Into Amazing Caves. In 2002 Howard was underwater sequence director and Michele was location manager for MacGillivray Freeman's IMAX feature Coral Reef Adventure, a film in which both he and Michele are featured on-camera. Of the five highest grossing 3D films produced by IMAX Corporation, two were directed by Howard Hall. Into the Deep has earned box office receipts of over $70 million and Deep Sea 3D has earned over $96 million. The Hall's recently released Under the Sea 3D has earned over $52 million. Between them, Howard and Michele have won seven Emmy Awards. Howard has produced and/or directed many award winning natural history television films including a National Geographic Special, which he co-produced with Michele, and three episodes of the PBS series Nature. Howard also directed and Michele produced the award winning, five-hour series Secrets of the Ocean Realm for PBS. Howard holds a BS degree in zoology from San Diego State University. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Michele is a Registered Nurse and holds a B.S. degree in Health Sciences. She is a member of the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Women Divers Hall of Fame.

Introduction: Welcome to West Virginia Commonplace and the third part of the "Death of Cinema" series. Introduce the topic of the rising cost of movie theaters and its impact on the cinema experience. Segment 1: Rising Ticket Prices Discuss the significant increase in ticket prices, surpassing inflation rates. Highlight the challenge for families and individuals on tight budgets to afford regular visits to the cinema. Explore the frustration among consumers due to the marked-up prices of movie tickets. Segment 2: Expensive Concessions Address the rising cost of concessions, including popcorn, soda, and candy. Discuss how higher prices have led some moviegoers to seek alternative options such as bringing their own snacks or purchasing cheaper concessions outside theaters. Highlight the traditional reliance of theaters on concessions as a key source of revenue. Segment 3: Premium Experiences and Add-Ons Discuss the introduction of premium experiences like IMAX 3D and luxury seating. Explore how these offerings provide enhanced viewing experiences but at a higher cost. Address the potential impact of premium experiences on pricing some moviegoers out of the traditional cinema experience. Segment 4: Increased Production and Marketing Budgets Discuss the rising costs associated with big-budget films and the need to recoup expenses. Highlight the pressure on theaters to pass on these costs to moviegoers through higher ticket prices. Segment 5: Streaming Platforms and On-Demand Services Explore the role of streaming platforms and on-demand services in declining theater attendance. Discuss the convenience and affordability of streaming platforms as an alternative to movie theaters. Highlight the ability to access a vast library of content through streaming platforms. Segment 6: Potential Consequences and Solutions Address the potential consequences of the rising cost of movie theaters and the death of cinema. Discuss the unique communal experience offered by theaters that cannot be replicated at home. Explore potential solutions and innovations to address rising costs and adapt to audience preferences. Conclusion: Summarize the key points discussed in the episode. Encourage listeners to consider the implications of the rising cost of movie theaters on the cinema industry. Thank listeners for joining West Virginia Commonplace and invite them to stay tuned for more gripping and captivating episodes.

Introduction: Greeting and introduction to the episode on the death of cinema. Highlight the challenges faced by traditional theaters in the modern digital age. Segment 1: Rapid Advancement of Technology Discuss the impact of streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney Plus. Explore how streaming services have made it easier to access a vast library of movies and TV shows from home. Address the convenience and flexibility offered by streaming services, leading to a decline in theater attendance. Segment 2: The COVID-19 Pandemic and Changing Release Strategies Analyze the temporary closure of movie theaters due to the pandemic. Discuss the implementation of social distancing measures and its effects on the cinema industry. Highlight the rise of video on demand and simultaneous theatrical and streaming releases, challenging the traditional theatrical window. Segment 3: Changing Preferences and Personalized Experiences Explore how evolving audience preferences favor convenience and personalized experiences. Discuss the availability of high-quality home theaters and immersive sound systems, allowing viewers to create a cinematic experience at home. Address the convenience of watching movies on mobile devices, enabling viewers to enjoy content on the go. Segment 4: Impact of Streaming Platforms and Original Content Analyze the rise of streaming platforms producing original content. Discuss how streaming services have attracted top talent and challenged traditional studios. Explore the shift in power within the industry and the implications for movie theaters. Segment 5: Revitalizing the Cinema Experience Discuss potential solutions to revitalize the cinema industry. Highlight innovative technologies like IMAX 3D and enhanced sound systems to create immersive experiences. Explore event-driven programming, film festivals, retrospectives, and special screenings as strategies to attract diverse audiences. Conclusion: Acknowledge the unique appeal of the cinema experience and its ability to provide escapism and communal viewing. Discuss the need for theaters to adapt and provide unique experiences beyond traditional movie screenings. Express the host's belief in the decline of cinema and the challenges it faces in the future. Thank listeners for tuning in and invite them to continue exploring captivating topics on West Virginia Uncommon Place.

Welcome to my riveting review of Disney's The Little Mermaid movie! Join me on an enchanting adventure as we explore the breathtaking music, compelling storytelling, and the outstanding performance by Hallie Bailey. While this film boasts many remarkable qualities, I must address my disappointment with the casting of the prince. Don't miss this incredible review of The Little Mermaid movie, where we celebrate its musical splendor, storytelling magic, and Hallie Bailey's unforgettable performance, while also discussing the important conversations surrounding casting decisions. Dive in and join the conversation today! 00:00 - Introduction: Unveiling the beauty and casting choices of The Little Mermaid movie. 02:10 - Monumental Representation: Disney's groundbreaking choice of a black actress in a leading role. 04:19 - Embracing Beauty and Femininity: Hallie Bailey's exceptional portrayal and the impact of Chloe's character development. 06:16 - Must-See Live-Action Magic: Discover why The Little Mermaid is a cinematic gem that captivates audiences. 08:28 - Box Office Success: Disney's live-action adaptation makes waves with an impressive $117 million earnings. 10:38 - Empowering Women and Girls: Exploring the film's targeted appeal and its positive impact. 12:33 - Global Representation Challenges: Shedding light on the limited presence of The Little Mermaid in certain countries. 14:21 - Transforming Media Narratives: Advocating for a shift in the portrayal of black individuals and combatting media propaganda. ► COURSES & INFO PRODUCTS - Book a one-on-one with Kenim: https://www.kenimobaigbena.com/bookasession ► HOW TO MAKE MORE MONEY - If You Want To Be Rich You NEED These Items: https://kit.co/Kenimo/if-you-want-to-be-rich-you-need-these-items ► RÄE MESSENGER - Do you want ChatGPT on-the-go? Start Using Räe Messenger Now! It's Free : https://www.raetheai.com ► HOW I MAKE MY VIDEOS - Kenim's YouTube Studio Gear: https://kit.co/Kenimo/kenim-s-youtube-studio-gear - Productive Content Creation Tools: https://kit.co/Kenimo/productive-content-creation-tools My channels @brandvideopro @universityofmakingmoney @thekenimoshow @raemessenger @ovgafrica @ovgnews * I partner with affiliates so I may earn a small commission from your purchase, which is at no cost to you :)

รีวิว The Super Mario Bros. Movie - เดอะซูเปอร์มาริโอบราเธอส์มูฟวี โดย Filmment . เรื่องราวของมาริโอ้และลุยจิ 2 พี่น้องช่างประปาผู้ถูกดูดเข้าสู่ดินแดนมหัศจรรย์ โดยมาริโอ้นั้นหลุดเข้าสู่อาณาจักรเห็ดอันสดใส ขณะที่ลุยจินั้นหลุดไปสู่ดินแดนแห่งความมืดอันเต็มไปด้วยอันตราย มาริโอ้จึงต้องออกผจญภัยเพื่อตามหาลุยจิ และปกป้องอาณาจักรเห็ดให้ปลอดภัย จากเงื้อมมือของปีศาจร้ายที่หวังจะครอบครองดินแดนอันสวยงามแห่งนี้ . ภาพยนตร์เดินหน้าเข้าเรื่องอย่างรวดเร็ว พร้อมยกขบวนเอาองค์ประกอบจากวิดิโอเกมมาประยุกต์เข้ากับเรื่องราว และสร้างโมเมนต์แฟนเซอร์วิสอย่างต่อเนื่อง รวมถึงบรรดา Easter Egg ที่ปรากฏบนจอมากมาย รายละเอียดข้างต้นนี้ถูกใช้เป็นเครื่องมือในการพาตัวละครออกผจญภัยในแต่ละช่วงของภาพยนตร์ ซึ่งก็สร้างสีสันและความฉูดฉาดให้กับเรื่องราวได้อย่างสนุกเพลิดเพลินครับ . งานด้านภาพของ The Super Mario Bros. Movie นั้นเป็นอีกหนึ่งจุดเด่นสำคัญของภาพยนตร์ครับ ด้วยการผสมผสานงานแอนิเมชั่น 3 มิติอันเปี่ยมด้วยความสดใส เข้ากับภาพจำของเหล่าตัวละครที่ผู้ชมคุ้นเคยจากวิดิโอเกมต้นฉบับ โดยส่วนตัวแล้วผมมีโอกาสได้รับชมในระบบ IMAX 3D ซึ่งผมรู้สึกว่ามันเป็นการยกระดับความบันเทิงได้มากพอสมควรครับ . รีวิว The Super Mario Bros. Movie - เดอะซูเปอร์มาริโอบราเธอส์มูฟวี ของ Filmment จะเป็นอย่างไร กด Subscribe แล้วไปรับชมกันได้เลยครับ . 00:00 เปิดรายการ 00:21 เนื้อเรื่องย่อ 00:46 รีวิวฉบับเต็ม 04:55 ประเด็นตกผลึก 09:02 การให้คะแนนของภาพยนตร์ 10:03 ปิดท้ายรายการ . #TheSuperMarioBrosMovie #เดอะซูเปอร์มาริโอบราเธอส์มูฟวี #Filmment ——————————————————— สามารถติดตาม Filmment ได้ที่ Youtube : https://bit.ly/3eLRUpw Spotify : https://spoti.fi/2GqJyVC Apple Podcast : https://apple.co/2YrJ3ok  Line Openchat : https://bit.ly/3sidIQz TikTok : https://bit.ly/3SexrPh ——————————————————— อย่าลืมกด Like กด Share กด Subscribe และติดกระดิ่งบน Youtube เอาไว้จะได้ไม่พลาด Content จาก Filmment ครับ

Based on the true kidnapping story of wealthy Hong Kong businessman Teddy Wang, 1993's (although shot in 1993, it wasn't released in the US until 1996) Crime Story was an attempt by Jackie Chan to expand his dramatic acting range.  Audiences, and Chan himself, were not completely happy with the results.  The film didn't make much of a box office impression and Chan resented director Kirk Wong for pushing the film to be darker. Your Hot Date hosts discuss the Asian actioner along with alot of recently seen.  Vicky talks about Velma, The Last of Us, The Mandalorian and Missing.  Dan discusses seeing the new Avatar in IMAX 3D and White Lotus season 2.  And both give their very STRONG opinions on Brandon Cronenberg's Infinity Pool.  They also check in on the return of MoviePass and Vicky's various birthday celebrations! Leave us some feedback and reach out to us on social media.   hotdatepod.com FB:  Hot Date Podcast Twitter: @HotDate726 Insta:  hotdatepod

Da Couch Tomato Podcast Season 2 Episode 24, discussing Avatar: The Way of Water. Nagpaka-technical muna kami sa pag-discuss ng bagong paggamit ni James Cameron ng high frame rate o HFR 3D. Pinag-usapan din namin na ang main theme ng pelikulang ito ay "family", at kung paano kami naglu-look forward sa susunod na tatlong pelikula. Sting Lacson's rating: 7.85/10 Rachel's rating: 8.1/10 Final rating: 8/10 Help our podcast and get up to 80% off on Lazada if you shop using this link: https://bit.ly/3p4Ur5K

We're discussing the 80's classic Top Gun and asking all the important questions; Could Tom Cruise be underrated? Is Maverick cocky or overcompensating? Where exactly is the Danger Zone? Who are they fighting? Is this movie good? Is Iceman the hero? Who was the best couple in this movie? Could it be any more 80s? Plus we'll have a short mini review of the sequel Top Gun: Maverick!   Top Gun is a 1986 American action drama film directed by Tony Scott, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, with distribution by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr., and was inspired by an article titled "Top Guns", written by Ehud Yonay and published in California magazine three years earlier. It stars Tom Cruise as Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a young naval aviator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. He and his radar intercept officer, Lieutenant (junior grade) Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), are given the chance to train at the US Navy's Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun) at Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California. Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer and Tom Skerritt also appear in supporting roles. Top Gun was released on May 16, 1986.  Upon its release, the film received mixed reviews from film critics, but despite this, its visual effects and soundtrack were universally acclaimed. Four weeks after its release, the number of theaters showing it increased by 45 percent. Despite its initial mixed critical reaction, the film was a huge commercial hit, grossing $357 million globally against a production budget of $15 million. Top Gun was the highest-grossing domestic film of 1986.] The film maintained its popularity over the years and earned an IMAX 3D re-release in 2013. Additionally, the soundtrack to the film has since become one of the most popular movie soundtracks to date, reaching 9× Platinum certification. The film won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for "Take My Breath Away" performed by Berlin. In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". A sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, was released 36 years later on May 27, 2022, and surpassed the original film both critically and commercially. Danger Zone Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siwpn14IE7E&ab_channel=KennyLogginsVEVO Acoustic Danger Zone from Archer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RPRVMrFoJw&list=RD-RPRVMrFoJw&start_radio=1&ab_channel=YachtRockMusic I Love This You Should Too is hosted by Samantha & Indy Randhawa. We are Members of the Alberta Podcast Network.

On this, our 100th episode, we eschew any silly self-congratulatory show to get right into one of James Cameron's most under appreciated films, his 1989 anti-nuke allegory The Abyss. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT   From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today.   We're finally here.    Episode 100.   In the word of the immortal Owen Wilson, wow.   But rather than throw myself a celebratory show basking in my own modesty, we're just going to get right into another episode. And this week's featured film is one of my favorites of the decade. A film that should have been a hit, that still informs the work of its director more than thirty years later.   But, as always, a little backstory.   As I quite regularly say on this show, I often do not know what I'm going to be talking about on the next episode as I put the finishing touches on the last one. And once again, this was the case when I completed the show last week, on Escape to Victory, although for a change, I finished the episode a day earlier than I usually do, so that would give me more time to think about what would be next.   Thursday, Friday, Saturday. All gone. Still have no clue what I'm going to write about.   Sunday arrives, and my wife and I decide to go see Avatar: The Way of Water in 3D at our local IMAX theatre. I was hesitant to see the film, because the first one literally broke my brain in 2009, and I'm still not 100% sure I fully recovered. It didn't break my brain because it was some kind of staggering work of heartbreaking genius, but because the friend who thought he was being kind by buying me a ticket to see it at a different local IMAX theatre misread the seating chart for the theatre and got me a ticket in the very front row of the theatre. Now, I don't know if you've ever seen a movie in IMAX 3D, but that first row is not the most advantageous place to watch an IMAX movie in 3D. But because the theatre was otherwise sold out, I sat there, watching Avatar in 3D from the worst possible seat in the house, and I could not think straight for a week. I actually called off work for a few days, which was easy to do considering I was the boss at my theatre, but I have definitely seen a cognitive decline since I saw Avatar in IMAX 3D in the worst possible conditions. I've never felt the need to see it again, and I was fine not seeing the new one. But my wife wanted to see it, and we had discount tickets to the theatre, so off we went.   Thankfully, this time, I chose the seats for myself, and got us some very good seats in a not very crowded theatre, nearly in the spot that would be the ideal viewing position for that specific theatre. And I actually enjoyed the movie.    There are very few filmmakers who can tell a story like James Cameron, and there are even fewer who could get away with pushing a pro-conservation, pro-liberal, pro-environment agenda on an unsuspecting populace who would otherwise never go for such a thing.   But as I was watching it, two things hit me.   One, I hate high frame rate movies. Especially when the overall look of the movie was changing between obviously shot on video and mimicking the feel of film so much, it felt like a three year old got ahold of the TV remote and was constantly pushing the button that turned motion smoothing off and on and off and on and off and on, over and over and over again, for three and a half hours.   Two, I couldn't also help but notice how many moments and motifs Cameron was seemingly borrowing from his under-appreciated 1989 movie The Abyss.   And there it was.   The topic for our 100th episode.   The Abyss.   And, as always, before we get to the movie itself, some more background.   James Francis Cameron was born in 1954 in small town in the middle eastern part of the Ontario province of Canada, about a nine hour drive north of Toronto, a town so small that it wouldn't even get its first television station until 1971, the year his family would to Brea, California. After he graduated from high school in 1973, Cameron would attend Fullerton College in Orange County, where would initially study physics before switching to English a year later. He'd leave school in 1974 and work various jobs including as a truck driver and a janitor, while writing screenplays in his spare time, when he wasn't in a library learning about movie special effects.   Like many, many people in 1977, including myself, Star Wars would change his life. After seeing the movie, Cameron quit his job as a truck driver and decided he was going to break into the film industry by any means necessary.   If you've ever followed James Cameron's career, you've no doubt heard him say on more than one occasion that if you want to be a filmmaker, to just do it. Pick up a camera and start shooting something. And that's exactly what he did, not a year later.   In 1978, he would co-write, co-produce, co-direct and do the production design for a 12 minute sci-fi short called Xenogenesis. Produced at a cost of $20,000 raised from a dentist and starring his future T2 co-writer William Wisher, Xenogenesis would show just how creative Cameron could be when it came to making something with a low budget look like it cost far more to produce. There's a not very good transfer of the short available on YouTube, which I will link to in the transcript for this episode on our website, at The80sMoviePodcast.com (). But it's interesting to watch because you can already see themes that Cameron will revisit time and time again are already fully formed in the storyteller's mind.   Once the short was completed, Cameron screened it for the dentist, who hated it and demanded his money back. But the short would come to the attention of Roger Corman, The Pope of Pop Cinema, who would hire Cameron to work on several of his company's upcoming feature films. After working as a production assistant on Rock 'n' Roll High School, Cameron would move up becoming the art director on Battle Beyond the Stars, which at the time, at a cost of $2m, would be the most expensive movie Corman would have produced in his then-26 year career, as the production designer on Galaxy of Terror, and help to design the title character for Aaron Lipstadt's Android.    Cameron would branch out from Corman to work on the special effects for John Carpenter's Escape from New York, but Corman would bring Cameron back into the fold with the promise of running the special effects department for the sequel to Joe Dante's surprise 1978 hit Piranha. But the film's original director, Miller Drake, would leave the production due to continued differences with the Italian producer, and Cameron would be moved into the director's chair. But like Drake, Cameron would struggle with the producer to get the film completed, and would eventually disavow the film as something he doesn't consider to be his actual work as a director. And while the film would not be any kind of success by any conceivable measure, as a work of storytelling or as a critical or financial success, it would give him two things that would help him in his near future.   The first thing was an association with character actor Lance Henriksen, who would go on to be a featured actor in Cameron's next two films.   The second thing would be a dream he would have while finishing the film in Rome. Tired of being in Italy to finish the film, and sick with a high grade fever, Cameron would have a nightmare about an invincible cyborg hit-man from the future who had been sent to assassinate him.   Sound familiar?   We've already discussed how The Terminator came to be in our April 2020 episode on Hemdale Films, so we'll skip over that here. Suffice it to say that the film was a global success, turning Arnold Schwarzenegger into a beloved action star, and giving Cameron the clout to move on to ever bigger films.   That even bigger film was, of course, the 1986 blockbuster Aliens, which would not only become Cameron's second big global box office success, but would be nominated for seven Academy Awards, including a well deserved acting nomination for Sigourney Weaver, which came as a surprise to many at the time because actors in what are perceived to be horror, action and/or sci-fi movies usually don't get such an accolade.   After the success of Aliens, Twentieth Century-Fox would engage Cameron and his producing partner, Gale Anne Hurd, who during the making of Aliens would become his second wife, on a risky project.   The Abyss.   Cameron had first come up with the idea for The Abyss while he was still a student in high school, inspired by a science lecture he attended that featured Francis J. Falejczyk, the first human to breathe fluid through his lungs in experiments held at Duke University. Cameron's story would involve a group of underwater scientists who accidentally discover aliens living at the bottom of the ocean floor near their lab.    Shortly after he wrote his initial draft of the story, it would be filed away and forgotten about for more than a decade.   While in England shooting Aliens, Cameron and Hurd would watch a National Geographic documentary about remote operated vehicles operating deep in the North Atlantic Ocean, and Cameron would be reminded of his old story. When the returned to the United States once the film was complete, Cameron would turn his short story into a screenplay, changing the main characters from scientists to oil-rig workers, feeling audiences would be able to better connect to blue collar workers than white collar eggheads, and once Cameron's first draft of the screenplay was complete, the couple agreed it would be their next film.   Cameron and Hurd would start the complex process of pre-production in the early days of 1988. Not only would they need to need to find a place large enough where they could film the underwater sequences in a controlled environment with life-size sets under real water, they would need to spend time designing and building a number of state of the art camera rigs and costumes that would work for the project and be able to capture the actors doing their craft in the water and keep them alive during filming, as well as a communications system that would not only allow Cameron to talk to his actors, but also allow the dialogue to be recorded live underwater for the first time in cinema history.   After considering filming in the Bahamas and in Malta, the later near the sets constructed for Robert Altman's Popeye movie nearly a decade before, Cameron and Hurd would find their perfect shooting location outside Gaffney, South Carolina: an uncompleted and abandoned $700m nuclear power plant that had been purchased by local independent filmmaker Earl Owensby, who we profiled to a certain degree in our May 2022 episode about the 3D Movie craze of the early 1980s.   In what was supposed to be the power plant's primary reactor containment vessel, 55 feet deep and with a 209 foot circumference, the main set of the Deepcore rig would be built. That tank would hold seven and a half million gallons of water, and after the set was built, would take five days to completely fill. Next to the main tank was a secondary tank, an unused turbine pit that could hold two and a half million gallons of water, where most of the quote unquote exteriors not involving the Deepcore rig would be shot.   I'm going to sidetrack for a moment to demonstrate just how powerful a force James Cameron already was in Hollywood by the end of 1987. When word about The Abyss was announced in the Hollywood trade papers, both MGM and Tri-Star Pictures started developing their own underwater action/sci-fi films, in the hopes that they could beat The Abyss to theatres, even if there was scant information about The Abyss announced at the time.   Friday the 13th director Sean S. Cunningham's DeepStar Six would arrive in theatres first, in January 1989, while Rambo: First Blood Part Two director George P. Cosmastos' Leviathan would arrive in March 1989. Like The Abyss, both films would feature deep-sea colonies, but unlike The Abyss, both featured those underwater workers being terrorized by an evil creature. Because if you're trying to copy the secret underwater action/sci-fi movie from the director of The Terminator and Aliens, he's most definitely going to do evil underwater creatures and not peace-loving aliens who don't want to hurt humanity.   Right?   Suffice it to say, neither DeepStar Six or Leviathan made any kind of impact at the box office or with critics. DeepStar Six couldn't even muster up its modest $8.5m budget in ticket sales, while Leviathan would miss making up its $25m budget by more than $10m. Although, ironically, Leviathan would shoot in the Malta water tanks Cameron would reject for The Abyss.   Okay. Back to The Abyss.   Rather than cast movie stars, Cameron would bring in two well-respected actors who were known to audiences but not really that famous.   For the leading role of Bud Brigman, the foreman for the underwater Deepcore rig, Cameron would cast Ed Harris, best known at the time for playing John Glenn in The Right Stuff, while Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio would be recognizable to some for playing Tom Cruise's girlfriend in The Color of Money, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Other actors would include Michael Biehn, Cameron's co-star from The Terminator and Aliens, Leo Burmester, who had been featured in Broadcast News and The Last Temptation of Christ, Todd Graff, who had starred in Tony Bill's Five Corners alongside Jodie Foster and John Turturro, character actor John Bedford Lloyd, Late Night with David Letterman featured actor Chris Elliott in a rare non-comedy role, and Ken Jenkins, who would become best known as Doctor Kelso on Scrubs years down the road who had only made two movies before this point of his career.   More than two millions dollars would be spent creating the underwater sets for the film while Cameron, his actors and several major members of the crew including cinematographer Mikael Salomon, spent a week in the Cayman Islands, training for underwater diving, as nearly half of the movie would be shot underwater. It was also a good distraction for Cameron himself, as he and Hurd had split up as a couple during the earliest days of pre-production.    While they would go through their divorce during the filming of the movie, they would remain professional partners on the film, and do their best to not allow their private lives to seep into the production any more than it already had in the script.   Production on The Abyss would begin on August 15th, 1988, and would be amongst the toughest shoots for pretty much everyone involved. The film would endure a number of technical mishaps, some due to poorly built supports, some due to force majeure, literal Acts of God, that would push the film's production schedule to nearly six months in length and its budget from $36m to $42m, and would cause emotional breakdowns from its director on down. Mastrantonio would, during the shooting of the Lindsey resuscitation scene, stormed off the set when the camera ran out of film during the fifteenth take, when she was laying on the floor of the rig, wet, partially naked and somewhat bruised from being slapped around by Harris during the scene. “We are not animals!” she would scream at Cameron as she left. Harris would have to continue shooting the scene, yelling at nothing on the ground while trying to save the life of his character's estranged wife. On his way back to his hotel room after finishing that scene, Harris would have to pull over to the side of the road because he couldn't stop crying.   Biehn, who had already made a couple movies with the meticulous director, noted that he spent five months in Gaffney, but maybe only worked three or four weeks during that entire time. He would note that, during the filming of one of his scenes underwater, the lights went out. He was thirty feet underwater. It was so dark he couldn't see his own hand in front of him, and he genuinely wondered right then and there if this was how he was going to die. Harris was so frustrated with Cameron by the end of the shoot that he threatened to not do any promotion for the film when it was released into theatres, although by the time that happened, he would be making the rounds with the press.   After 140 days of principal photography, and a lawsuit Owensby filed against the production that tried to kick them out of his studio for damaging one of the water tanks, the film would finally finish shooting on December 8th, by which time, Fox had already produced and released a teaser trailer for the movie which featured absolutely no footage from the film. Why? Because they had gotten word that Warners was about to release their first teaser trailer for their big movie for 1989, Tim Burton's Batman, and Fox didn't want their big movie for 1989 to be left in the dust.   Thirty-four years later, I still remember the day we got both trailers in, because they both arrived at my then theatre, the 41st Avenue Playhouse in Capitola, Calfornia, within five minutes of each other. For the record, The Abyss did arrive first. It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, the day before we opened the Bill Murray comedy Scrooged, and both Fox and Warners wanted theatres to play their movie's trailer, but not the other movie's trailer, in front of the film. I programmed both of them anyway, with Batman playing before The Abyss, which would be the last trailer before the film, because I was a bigger Cameron fan than Burton. And as cool as the trailer for Batman was, the trailer for The Abyss was mind-blowing, even if it had no footage from the film. I'll provide a link to that first Abyss teaser trailer on the website as well.   But I digress.   While Cameron worked on editing the film in Los Angeles, two major teams were working on the film's effects. The artists from Dreamquest Images would complete eighty effects shots for the film, including filming a seventy-five foot long miniature submarine being tossed around through a storm, while Industrial Lights and Magic pushed the envelope for computer graphics, digitally creating a water tentacle manipulated by the aliens that would mimic both Bud and Lindsey in an attempt to communicate with the humans. It would take ILM six months to create the minute and fifteen second long sequence.   Originally slated to be released in time for the Fourth of July holiday weekend, one of the busiest and most important weekends of the year for theatres, The Abyss would be held back until August 9th, 1989, due to some effects work not being completed in time, and for Cameron to rework the ending, which test audiences were not too fond of.   We'll get back to that in a moment.   When The Abyss opened in 1533 theatres, it would open to second place that weekend with $9.3m, only $350k behind the Ron Howard family dramedy Parenthood. The reviews from critics was uniformly outstanding, with many praising the acting and the groundbreaking special effects, while some would lament on the rather abrupt ending of the storyline.   We'll get back to that in a moment.   In its second week, The Abyss would fall to third place, its $7.2m haul behind Parenthood again, at $7.6m, as well as Uncle Buck, which would gross $8.8m. The film would continue to play in theatres for several weeks, never losing more than 34% of its audience in any given week, until Fox abruptly stopped tracking the film after nine weeks and $54.2m in ticket sales.   By the time the film came out, I was managing a dollar house in San Jose, a point I know I have mentioned a number of times and even did an episode about in September 2021, but I can tell you that we did pretty good business for The Abyss when we got the film in October 1989, and I would hang on to the film until just before Christmas, not because the film was no longer doing any business but because, as I mentioned on that episode, I wanted to play more family friendly films for the holidays, since part of my pay was tied to my concessions sales, and I wanted to make a lot of money then, so I could buy my girlfriend of nearly a year, Tracy, a nice gift for Christmas. Impress her dad, who really didn't like me too much.   The film would go on to be nominated for four Academy Awards, including for Mikael Salomon's superb cinematography, winning for its special effects, and would enjoy a small cult following on home video… until shortly after the release of Cameron's next film, Terminator 2.   Rumors would start to circulate that Cameron's original cut of The Abyss was nearly a half-hour longer than the one released into theatres, and that he was supposedly working on a director's cut of some kind. The rumor was finally proven true when a provision in James Cameron's $500m, five year financing deal between Fox and the director's new production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, included a $500k allotment for Cameron to complete his director's cut.   Thanks to the advancements in computer graphics between 1989 and 1991, Industrial Lights and Magic was able to apply what they created for T2 into the never fully completed tidal wave sequence that was supposed to end the movie. Overall, what was now being called The Abyss: Special Edition would see its run time expanded by 28 minutes, and Cameron's anti-nuke allegory would finally be fully fleshed out.   The Special Edition would open at the Loews Village VII in New York City and the Century Plaza Cinemas in Century City, literally down the street from the Fox lot, on land that used to be part of the Fox lot, on February 26th, 1993. Unsurprisingly, the critical consensus for the expanded film was even better, with critics noting the film's story scope had been considerably broadened. The film would do fairly well for a four year old film only opening on two screens, earning $21k, good enough for Fox to expand the footprint of the film into more major markets. After eight weeks in only a total of twelve theatres, the updated film would finish its second run in theatres with more than $238k in ticket sales.   I love both versions of The Abyss, although, like with Aliens and Cameron Crowe's untitled version of Almost Famous, I prefer the longer, Special Edition cut. Harris and Mastrantonio gave two of the best performances of 1989 in the film. For me, it solidified what I already knew about Harris, that he was one of the best actors of his generation.   I had seen Mastrantonio as Tony Montana's sister in Scarface and in The Color of Money, but what she did on screen in The Abyss, it still puzzles me to this day how she didn't have a much stronger career. Did you know her last feature film was The Perfect Storm, with George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, 23 years ago? Not that she stopped working. She's had main or recurring roles on a number of television shows since then, including Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Blindspot and The Punisher, but it feels like she should have had a bigger and better career in movies.   Cameron, of course, would become The King of the World. Terminator 2, True Lies, Titanic, and his two Avatar movies to date were all global box office hits. His eight feature films have grossed over $8b worldwide to date, and have been nominated for 45 Academy Awards, winning 21.   There's a saying amongst Hollywood watchers. Never bet against James Cameron. Personally, I wish I could have not bet against James Cameron more often. Since the release of The Abyss in 1989, Cameron has only made five dramatic narratives, taking twelve years off between Titanic and Avatar, and another thirteen years off between Avatar and Avatar 2. And while he was partially busy with two documentaries about life under water, Ghosts of the Abyss and Aliens of the Deep, it seems that there were other stories he could have told while he was waiting for technology to catch up to his vision of how he wanted to make the Avatar movies.   Another action film with Arnold Schwarzenegger. An unexpected foray into romantic comedy. The adaptation of Taylor Stevens' The Informationalist that Cameron has been threatening to make for more than a decade. The adaptation of Charles Pelligrino's The Last Train from Hiroshima he was going to make after the first Avatar. Anything. Filmmakers only have so many films in them, and Cameron has only made eight films in nearly forty years. I'm greedy. I want more from him, and not just more Avatar movies.   In the years after its initial release, both Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio have refused to talk about the film with interviewers and at audience Q&As for other movies. The last time Harris has ever mentioned The Abyss was more than twenty years ago, when he said he was never going to talk about the film again after stating "Asking me how I was treated on The Abyss is like asking a soldier how he was treated in Vietnam.” For her part, Mastrantonio would only say "The Abyss was a lot of things. Fun to make was not one of them.”   It bothers me that so many people involved in the making of a film I love so dearly were emotionally scarred by the making of it. It's hard not to notice that none of the actors in The Abyss, including the star of his first three films, Michael Biehn, never worked with Cameron again. That he couldn't work with Gale Anne Hurd again outside of a contractual obligation on T2.     My final thought for today is that I hope that we'll someday finally get The Abyss, be it the theatrical version or the Special Edition but preferably both, in 4K Ultra HD. It's been promised for years. It's apparently been completed for years. Cameron says it was up to Fox, now Disney, to get it out. Fox, now Disney, says they've been waiting for Cameron to sign off on it. During a recent press tour for Avatar: The Way of Water, Cameron said everything is done and that a 4K UHD Blu-ray should be released no later than March of this year, but we'll see. That's just a little more than a month from the time I publish this episode, and there have been no official announcements from Disney Home Video about a new release of the film, which has never been available on Blu-ray after 15 years of the format's existence, and has been out of print on DVD for almost as long.   So there it is. Our 100th episode. I thank you for finding the show, listening to the show, and sticking with the show.   We'll talk again soon.   Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about James Cameron, The Abyss, and the other movies we covered this episode.   The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment.   Thank you again.   Good night.

On this, our 100th episode, we eschew any silly self-congratulatory show to get right into one of James Cameron's most under appreciated films, his 1989 anti-nuke allegory The Abyss. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT   From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today.   We're finally here.    Episode 100.   In the word of the immortal Owen Wilson, wow.   But rather than throw myself a celebratory show basking in my own modesty, we're just going to get right into another episode. And this week's featured film is one of my favorites of the decade. A film that should have been a hit, that still informs the work of its director more than thirty years later.   But, as always, a little backstory.   As I quite regularly say on this show, I often do not know what I'm going to be talking about on the next episode as I put the finishing touches on the last one. And once again, this was the case when I completed the show last week, on Escape to Victory, although for a change, I finished the episode a day earlier than I usually do, so that would give me more time to think about what would be next.   Thursday, Friday, Saturday. All gone. Still have no clue what I'm going to write about.   Sunday arrives, and my wife and I decide to go see Avatar: The Way of Water in 3D at our local IMAX theatre. I was hesitant to see the film, because the first one literally broke my brain in 2009, and I'm still not 100% sure I fully recovered. It didn't break my brain because it was some kind of staggering work of heartbreaking genius, but because the friend who thought he was being kind by buying me a ticket to see it at a different local IMAX theatre misread the seating chart for the theatre and got me a ticket in the very front row of the theatre. Now, I don't know if you've ever seen a movie in IMAX 3D, but that first row is not the most advantageous place to watch an IMAX movie in 3D. But because the theatre was otherwise sold out, I sat there, watching Avatar in 3D from the worst possible seat in the house, and I could not think straight for a week. I actually called off work for a few days, which was easy to do considering I was the boss at my theatre, but I have definitely seen a cognitive decline since I saw Avatar in IMAX 3D in the worst possible conditions. I've never felt the need to see it again, and I was fine not seeing the new one. But my wife wanted to see it, and we had discount tickets to the theatre, so off we went.   Thankfully, this time, I chose the seats for myself, and got us some very good seats in a not very crowded theatre, nearly in the spot that would be the ideal viewing position for that specific theatre. And I actually enjoyed the movie.    There are very few filmmakers who can tell a story like James Cameron, and there are even fewer who could get away with pushing a pro-conservation, pro-liberal, pro-environment agenda on an unsuspecting populace who would otherwise never go for such a thing.   But as I was watching it, two things hit me.   One, I hate high frame rate movies. Especially when the overall look of the movie was changing between obviously shot on video and mimicking the feel of film so much, it felt like a three year old got ahold of the TV remote and was constantly pushing the button that turned motion smoothing off and on and off and on and off and on, over and over and over again, for three and a half hours.   Two, I couldn't also help but notice how many moments and motifs Cameron was seemingly borrowing from his under-appreciated 1989 movie The Abyss.   And there it was.   The topic for our 100th episode.   The Abyss.   And, as always, before we get to the movie itself, some more background.   James Francis Cameron was born in 1954 in small town in the middle eastern part of the Ontario province of Canada, about a nine hour drive north of Toronto, a town so small that it wouldn't even get its first television station until 1971, the year his family would to Brea, California. After he graduated from high school in 1973, Cameron would attend Fullerton College in Orange County, where would initially study physics before switching to English a year later. He'd leave school in 1974 and work various jobs including as a truck driver and a janitor, while writing screenplays in his spare time, when he wasn't in a library learning about movie special effects.   Like many, many people in 1977, including myself, Star Wars would change his life. After seeing the movie, Cameron quit his job as a truck driver and decided he was going to break into the film industry by any means necessary.   If you've ever followed James Cameron's career, you've no doubt heard him say on more than one occasion that if you want to be a filmmaker, to just do it. Pick up a camera and start shooting something. And that's exactly what he did, not a year later.   In 1978, he would co-write, co-produce, co-direct and do the production design for a 12 minute sci-fi short called Xenogenesis. Produced at a cost of $20,000 raised from a dentist and starring his future T2 co-writer William Wisher, Xenogenesis would show just how creative Cameron could be when it came to making something with a low budget look like it cost far more to produce. There's a not very good transfer of the short available on YouTube, which I will link to in the transcript for this episode on our website, at The80sMoviePodcast.com (). But it's interesting to watch because you can already see themes that Cameron will revisit time and time again are already fully formed in the storyteller's mind.   Once the short was completed, Cameron screened it for the dentist, who hated it and demanded his money back. But the short would come to the attention of Roger Corman, The Pope of Pop Cinema, who would hire Cameron to work on several of his company's upcoming feature films. After working as a production assistant on Rock 'n' Roll High School, Cameron would move up becoming the art director on Battle Beyond the Stars, which at the time, at a cost of $2m, would be the most expensive movie Corman would have produced in his then-26 year career, as the production designer on Galaxy of Terror, and help to design the title character for Aaron Lipstadt's Android.    Cameron would branch out from Corman to work on the special effects for John Carpenter's Escape from New York, but Corman would bring Cameron back into the fold with the promise of running the special effects department for the sequel to Joe Dante's surprise 1978 hit Piranha. But the film's original director, Miller Drake, would leave the production due to continued differences with the Italian producer, and Cameron would be moved into the director's chair. But like Drake, Cameron would struggle with the producer to get the film completed, and would eventually disavow the film as something he doesn't consider to be his actual work as a director. And while the film would not be any kind of success by any conceivable measure, as a work of storytelling or as a critical or financial success, it would give him two things that would help him in his near future.   The first thing was an association with character actor Lance Henriksen, who would go on to be a featured actor in Cameron's next two films.   The second thing would be a dream he would have while finishing the film in Rome. Tired of being in Italy to finish the film, and sick with a high grade fever, Cameron would have a nightmare about an invincible cyborg hit-man from the future who had been sent to assassinate him.   Sound familiar?   We've already discussed how The Terminator came to be in our April 2020 episode on Hemdale Films, so we'll skip over that here. Suffice it to say that the film was a global success, turning Arnold Schwarzenegger into a beloved action star, and giving Cameron the clout to move on to ever bigger films.   That even bigger film was, of course, the 1986 blockbuster Aliens, which would not only become Cameron's second big global box office success, but would be nominated for seven Academy Awards, including a well deserved acting nomination for Sigourney Weaver, which came as a surprise to many at the time because actors in what are perceived to be horror, action and/or sci-fi movies usually don't get such an accolade.   After the success of Aliens, Twentieth Century-Fox would engage Cameron and his producing partner, Gale Anne Hurd, who during the making of Aliens would become his second wife, on a risky project.   The Abyss.   Cameron had first come up with the idea for The Abyss while he was still a student in high school, inspired by a science lecture he attended that featured Francis J. Falejczyk, the first human to breathe fluid through his lungs in experiments held at Duke University. Cameron's story would involve a group of underwater scientists who accidentally discover aliens living at the bottom of the ocean floor near their lab.    Shortly after he wrote his initial draft of the story, it would be filed away and forgotten about for more than a decade.   While in England shooting Aliens, Cameron and Hurd would watch a National Geographic documentary about remote operated vehicles operating deep in the North Atlantic Ocean, and Cameron would be reminded of his old story. When the returned to the United States once the film was complete, Cameron would turn his short story into a screenplay, changing the main characters from scientists to oil-rig workers, feeling audiences would be able to better connect to blue collar workers than white collar eggheads, and once Cameron's first draft of the screenplay was complete, the couple agreed it would be their next film.   Cameron and Hurd would start the complex process of pre-production in the early days of 1988. Not only would they need to need to find a place large enough where they could film the underwater sequences in a controlled environment with life-size sets under real water, they would need to spend time designing and building a number of state of the art camera rigs and costumes that would work for the project and be able to capture the actors doing their craft in the water and keep them alive during filming, as well as a communications system that would not only allow Cameron to talk to his actors, but also allow the dialogue to be recorded live underwater for the first time in cinema history.   After considering filming in the Bahamas and in Malta, the later near the sets constructed for Robert Altman's Popeye movie nearly a decade before, Cameron and Hurd would find their perfect shooting location outside Gaffney, South Carolina: an uncompleted and abandoned $700m nuclear power plant that had been purchased by local independent filmmaker Earl Owensby, who we profiled to a certain degree in our May 2022 episode about the 3D Movie craze of the early 1980s.   In what was supposed to be the power plant's primary reactor containment vessel, 55 feet deep and with a 209 foot circumference, the main set of the Deepcore rig would be built. That tank would hold seven and a half million gallons of water, and after the set was built, would take five days to completely fill. Next to the main tank was a secondary tank, an unused turbine pit that could hold two and a half million gallons of water, where most of the quote unquote exteriors not involving the Deepcore rig would be shot.   I'm going to sidetrack for a moment to demonstrate just how powerful a force James Cameron already was in Hollywood by the end of 1987. When word about The Abyss was announced in the Hollywood trade papers, both MGM and Tri-Star Pictures started developing their own underwater action/sci-fi films, in the hopes that they could beat The Abyss to theatres, even if there was scant information about The Abyss announced at the time.   Friday the 13th director Sean S. Cunningham's DeepStar Six would arrive in theatres first, in January 1989, while Rambo: First Blood Part Two director George P. Cosmastos' Leviathan would arrive in March 1989. Like The Abyss, both films would feature deep-sea colonies, but unlike The Abyss, both featured those underwater workers being terrorized by an evil creature. Because if you're trying to copy the secret underwater action/sci-fi movie from the director of The Terminator and Aliens, he's most definitely going to do evil underwater creatures and not peace-loving aliens who don't want to hurt humanity.   Right?   Suffice it to say, neither DeepStar Six or Leviathan made any kind of impact at the box office or with critics. DeepStar Six couldn't even muster up its modest $8.5m budget in ticket sales, while Leviathan would miss making up its $25m budget by more than $10m. Although, ironically, Leviathan would shoot in the Malta water tanks Cameron would reject for The Abyss.   Okay. Back to The Abyss.   Rather than cast movie stars, Cameron would bring in two well-respected actors who were known to audiences but not really that famous.   For the leading role of Bud Brigman, the foreman for the underwater Deepcore rig, Cameron would cast Ed Harris, best known at the time for playing John Glenn in The Right Stuff, while Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio would be recognizable to some for playing Tom Cruise's girlfriend in The Color of Money, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Other actors would include Michael Biehn, Cameron's co-star from The Terminator and Aliens, Leo Burmester, who had been featured in Broadcast News and The Last Temptation of Christ, Todd Graff, who had starred in Tony Bill's Five Corners alongside Jodie Foster and John Turturro, character actor John Bedford Lloyd, Late Night with David Letterman featured actor Chris Elliott in a rare non-comedy role, and Ken Jenkins, who would become best known as Doctor Kelso on Scrubs years down the road who had only made two movies before this point of his career.   More than two millions dollars would be spent creating the underwater sets for the film while Cameron, his actors and several major members of the crew including cinematographer Mikael Salomon, spent a week in the Cayman Islands, training for underwater diving, as nearly half of the movie would be shot underwater. It was also a good distraction for Cameron himself, as he and Hurd had split up as a couple during the earliest days of pre-production.    While they would go through their divorce during the filming of the movie, they would remain professional partners on the film, and do their best to not allow their private lives to seep into the production any more than it already had in the script.   Production on The Abyss would begin on August 15th, 1988, and would be amongst the toughest shoots for pretty much everyone involved. The film would endure a number of technical mishaps, some due to poorly built supports, some due to force majeure, literal Acts of God, that would push the film's production schedule to nearly six months in length and its budget from $36m to $42m, and would cause emotional breakdowns from its director on down. Mastrantonio would, during the shooting of the Lindsey resuscitation scene, stormed off the set when the camera ran out of film during the fifteenth take, when she was laying on the floor of the rig, wet, partially naked and somewhat bruised from being slapped around by Harris during the scene. “We are not animals!” she would scream at Cameron as she left. Harris would have to continue shooting the scene, yelling at nothing on the ground while trying to save the life of his character's estranged wife. On his way back to his hotel room after finishing that scene, Harris would have to pull over to the side of the road because he couldn't stop crying.   Biehn, who had already made a couple movies with the meticulous director, noted that he spent five months in Gaffney, but maybe only worked three or four weeks during that entire time. He would note that, during the filming of one of his scenes underwater, the lights went out. He was thirty feet underwater. It was so dark he couldn't see his own hand in front of him, and he genuinely wondered right then and there if this was how he was going to die. Harris was so frustrated with Cameron by the end of the shoot that he threatened to not do any promotion for the film when it was released into theatres, although by the time that happened, he would be making the rounds with the press.   After 140 days of principal photography, and a lawsuit Owensby filed against the production that tried to kick them out of his studio for damaging one of the water tanks, the film would finally finish shooting on December 8th, by which time, Fox had already produced and released a teaser trailer for the movie which featured absolutely no footage from the film. Why? Because they had gotten word that Warners was about to release their first teaser trailer for their big movie for 1989, Tim Burton's Batman, and Fox didn't want their big movie for 1989 to be left in the dust.   Thirty-four years later, I still remember the day we got both trailers in, because they both arrived at my then theatre, the 41st Avenue Playhouse in Capitola, Calfornia, within five minutes of each other. For the record, The Abyss did arrive first. It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, the day before we opened the Bill Murray comedy Scrooged, and both Fox and Warners wanted theatres to play their movie's trailer, but not the other movie's trailer, in front of the film. I programmed both of them anyway, with Batman playing before The Abyss, which would be the last trailer before the film, because I was a bigger Cameron fan than Burton. And as cool as the trailer for Batman was, the trailer for The Abyss was mind-blowing, even if it had no footage from the film. I'll provide a link to that first Abyss teaser trailer on the website as well.   But I digress.   While Cameron worked on editing the film in Los Angeles, two major teams were working on the film's effects. The artists from Dreamquest Images would complete eighty effects shots for the film, including filming a seventy-five foot long miniature submarine being tossed around through a storm, while Industrial Lights and Magic pushed the envelope for computer graphics, digitally creating a water tentacle manipulated by the aliens that would mimic both Bud and Lindsey in an attempt to communicate with the humans. It would take ILM six months to create the minute and fifteen second long sequence.   Originally slated to be released in time for the Fourth of July holiday weekend, one of the busiest and most important weekends of the year for theatres, The Abyss would be held back until August 9th, 1989, due to some effects work not being completed in time, and for Cameron to rework the ending, which test audiences were not too fond of.   We'll get back to that in a moment.   When The Abyss opened in 1533 theatres, it would open to second place that weekend with $9.3m, only $350k behind the Ron Howard family dramedy Parenthood. The reviews from critics was uniformly outstanding, with many praising the acting and the groundbreaking special effects, while some would lament on the rather abrupt ending of the storyline.   We'll get back to that in a moment.   In its second week, The Abyss would fall to third place, its $7.2m haul behind Parenthood again, at $7.6m, as well as Uncle Buck, which would gross $8.8m. The film would continue to play in theatres for several weeks, never losing more than 34% of its audience in any given week, until Fox abruptly stopped tracking the film after nine weeks and $54.2m in ticket sales.   By the time the film came out, I was managing a dollar house in San Jose, a point I know I have mentioned a number of times and even did an episode about in September 2021, but I can tell you that we did pretty good business for The Abyss when we got the film in October 1989, and I would hang on to the film until just before Christmas, not because the film was no longer doing any business but because, as I mentioned on that episode, I wanted to play more family friendly films for the holidays, since part of my pay was tied to my concessions sales, and I wanted to make a lot of money then, so I could buy my girlfriend of nearly a year, Tracy, a nice gift for Christmas. Impress her dad, who really didn't like me too much.   The film would go on to be nominated for four Academy Awards, including for Mikael Salomon's superb cinematography, winning for its special effects, and would enjoy a small cult following on home video… until shortly after the release of Cameron's next film, Terminator 2.   Rumors would start to circulate that Cameron's original cut of The Abyss was nearly a half-hour longer than the one released into theatres, and that he was supposedly working on a director's cut of some kind. The rumor was finally proven true when a provision in James Cameron's $500m, five year financing deal between Fox and the director's new production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, included a $500k allotment for Cameron to complete his director's cut.   Thanks to the advancements in computer graphics between 1989 and 1991, Industrial Lights and Magic was able to apply what they created for T2 into the never fully completed tidal wave sequence that was supposed to end the movie. Overall, what was now being called The Abyss: Special Edition would see its run time expanded by 28 minutes, and Cameron's anti-nuke allegory would finally be fully fleshed out.   The Special Edition would open at the Loews Village VII in New York City and the Century Plaza Cinemas in Century City, literally down the street from the Fox lot, on land that used to be part of the Fox lot, on February 26th, 1993. Unsurprisingly, the critical consensus for the expanded film was even better, with critics noting the film's story scope had been considerably broadened. The film would do fairly well for a four year old film only opening on two screens, earning $21k, good enough for Fox to expand the footprint of the film into more major markets. After eight weeks in only a total of twelve theatres, the updated film would finish its second run in theatres with more than $238k in ticket sales.   I love both versions of The Abyss, although, like with Aliens and Cameron Crowe's untitled version of Almost Famous, I prefer the longer, Special Edition cut. Harris and Mastrantonio gave two of the best performances of 1989 in the film. For me, it solidified what I already knew about Harris, that he was one of the best actors of his generation.   I had seen Mastrantonio as Tony Montana's sister in Scarface and in The Color of Money, but what she did on screen in The Abyss, it still puzzles me to this day how she didn't have a much stronger career. Did you know her last feature film was The Perfect Storm, with George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, 23 years ago? Not that she stopped working. She's had main or recurring roles on a number of television shows since then, including Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Blindspot and The Punisher, but it feels like she should have had a bigger and better career in movies.   Cameron, of course, would become The King of the World. Terminator 2, True Lies, Titanic, and his two Avatar movies to date were all global box office hits. His eight feature films have grossed over $8b worldwide to date, and have been nominated for 45 Academy Awards, winning 21.   There's a saying amongst Hollywood watchers. Never bet against James Cameron. Personally, I wish I could have not bet against James Cameron more often. Since the release of The Abyss in 1989, Cameron has only made five dramatic narratives, taking twelve years off between Titanic and Avatar, and another thirteen years off between Avatar and Avatar 2. And while he was partially busy with two documentaries about life under water, Ghosts of the Abyss and Aliens of the Deep, it seems that there were other stories he could have told while he was waiting for technology to catch up to his vision of how he wanted to make the Avatar movies.   Another action film with Arnold Schwarzenegger. An unexpected foray into romantic comedy. The adaptation of Taylor Stevens' The Informationalist that Cameron has been threatening to make for more than a decade. The adaptation of Charles Pelligrino's The Last Train from Hiroshima he was going to make after the first Avatar. Anything. Filmmakers only have so many films in them, and Cameron has only made eight films in nearly forty years. I'm greedy. I want more from him, and not just more Avatar movies.   In the years after its initial release, both Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio have refused to talk about the film with interviewers and at audience Q&As for other movies. The last time Harris has ever mentioned The Abyss was more than twenty years ago, when he said he was never going to talk about the film again after stating "Asking me how I was treated on The Abyss is like asking a soldier how he was treated in Vietnam.” For her part, Mastrantonio would only say "The Abyss was a lot of things. Fun to make was not one of them.”   It bothers me that so many people involved in the making of a film I love so dearly were emotionally scarred by the making of it. It's hard not to notice that none of the actors in The Abyss, including the star of his first three films, Michael Biehn, never worked with Cameron again. That he couldn't work with Gale Anne Hurd again outside of a contractual obligation on T2.     My final thought for today is that I hope that we'll someday finally get The Abyss, be it the theatrical version or the Special Edition but preferably both, in 4K Ultra HD. It's been promised for years. It's apparently been completed for years. Cameron says it was up to Fox, now Disney, to get it out. Fox, now Disney, says they've been waiting for Cameron to sign off on it. During a recent press tour for Avatar: The Way of Water, Cameron said everything is done and that a 4K UHD Blu-ray should be released no later than March of this year, but we'll see. That's just a little more than a month from the time I publish this episode, and there have been no official announcements from Disney Home Video about a new release of the film, which has never been available on Blu-ray after 15 years of the format's existence, and has been out of print on DVD for almost as long.   So there it is. Our 100th episode. I thank you for finding the show, listening to the show, and sticking with the show.   We'll talk again soon.   Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about James Cameron, The Abyss, and the other movies we covered this episode.   The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment.   Thank you again.   Good night.

For Season 5, episode 11, Josh and Casey discuss the evolution of the work. Josh shares some personal anecdotes regarding his current job situation/search. Casey chimes in with his thoughts on the market as it stands today. Together, the discuss and debate what has changed and why younger people today are struggling so much to pay their bills and find reasonable work. Breaking into media madness, Josh discusses how much his ticket cost to see Avatar 2 in IMAX 3D. This sparks a debate on the cost of movie theater tickets and whether it is justified or not. Josh also gives his review of the movie, 'The Whale'. Lastly, the guys end by discussing James Gunn's recent take over of the DC Universe, what it means for the franchise, and what the future of superhero movies are.Timestamps:0:00 - 0:59 - Intro 0:59 - 15:50 - Today's 'Work' Problem 15:50 - 21:33 - Most Desirable Jobs 21:33- 25:15 - Crazy Work-Related Facts25:15 - 34:24 - Potential 'Work' Solutions 34:24 - 39:52 - Movie Theater Prices 39:52 - 41:22 - Christopher Nolan Movies 41:22 - 45:15 - Hans Zimmer and Movie Music 45:15 - 46:00 - Star Wars 46:00 - 47:32 - 'Velma' TV Show Ratings 47:32 - 48:35 - 'The Whale' Movie Review 48:35 - 52:30 - Modern Movie Running Time's52:30 - 54:33 - The Movie Theater Experience54:33 - 1:01:44 - James Gunn DC Universe Takeover1:01:44 - 1:03:08 - The Future Of Superhero Movies 1:03:08 - 1:03:57 - Outro________________________________Full, video episodes available on YouTube (@SharedExps)! We also have a YouTube clips channel for episode highlights (@SharedExpsClips)!Please help support us by reviewing and sharing our episodes! To keep updated, check out the Instagram (@SharedExps), Facebook (@SharedExps), and Tik Tok(@SharedExps). If you have questions that you'd like answered on the podcast, you can reach out via email at sharedexps@gmail.com.

In this episode we give our review of Avatar 2.  We saw it in iMax 3D.  Was it controversial?  We discuss the return of Run Disney!  We love the Run Disney events and we tell you how you can get involved even if you're not at the parks.  And we give you our TOP 5 Disney flops of 2022.  Check it out! #rundisney #avatarthewayofwater #paranormalpodcast Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegabandthe... Contact Julie B Spiritual Guide: https://juliebspiritualguide.com Contact Brian: https://www.kettlebellinvictus.comhttps://www.rundisney.com00:00 Intro03:00 Avatar 213:02 Avatar Legos17:17 Run Disney25:56 Rock n Rollercoaster32:16 Top 5 Disney Flops46:10 Ghost Picture?

In this episode of Cruzin we share our thoughts on James Cameron Avatar The way of Water. Seeing the film 4 times in IMAX 3D we decided we were ready to give our thoughts on the sequel and discuss the future of the franchise! Like and subscribe for more!

Episode 115: Nerds Talking Christmas Episode and it's just 2 nerds, Johnny and Lafayette. They fellas talk watching IMAX 3D movies while sitting in the front row. Dance's with Wolves is brought up and how Avatar is a ripoff of other movies but with cool CGI. Carlos is in Vegas spending all his Cypto and Trump NFTs are here. They review 2 new Christmas Movies, A Christmas Story Christmas and Violent Night. The Rock is brought up again and hwo much he sucks as BLACK ADAM and how he's trying to sound like the good guy in the DC films fall out. Steven Segal is Johnnies hero and Santa is a murderer. Finally, Johnny cooks for the crew at work. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/nerdstalking/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/nerdstalking/support

Is Avatar: The Way of Water better than Avatar 1? It's been 13 years since the original and a lot of time and money has gone into this James Cameron fantasy world. Now the most expensive movie ever made, can it live up to the hype? What direction is James Cameron giving us for the world building of Pandora? No matter if you liked or didn't like this movie though...this is a movie you must experience in IMAX 3D at the theaters! 

Hey there.Just Andrew today, but... I had to talk a little about Avatar: The Way of Water. I saw it in IMAX 3D and it was truly beautiful. I also saw trailers and sneak peeks at Oppenheimer and Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1.I also watched some movies from 2022 to talk about in our year end list.Please like, share, subscribe and follow the show. We also ask that you rate and review the show, too. It really helps.You can find the show on Twitter @WAS_ThePodcastNick on Twitter @Supermans_PapaAndrew on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok @AndrewLZCom

Matt and Dereck, millions of movie-goers, and a number of sky-people return to Pandora after 13 years. But is this a place we want to be? Last week, 2009's Avatar was left out of the Action Movie Hall of Fame based on it's weak story, while acknowledging the impressive CGI. Here, the guys review Avatar 2 immediately after watching it in IMAX 3D. Does Pandora offer a deeper experience this time around? Or is it more of the same, just longer? WARNING: this episode contains spoilers starting at 16:40

On the latest episode of the pod, we're returning to the world of Pandora with James Cameron's highly anticipated sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water. It's been thirteen years since Cameron dominated the box office with the original film, and he's back with a 192-minute science fiction opus that promises to blow the original's groundbreaking effects out of the water. Does Cameron pull it off? We break down our feelings about this cinematic event, from the experience of seeing it in IMAX 3D, to Cameron's use of HFR to fully transport his audience to the oceans of Pandora. Elsewhere, we debate the merits of the film's story, and discuss whether it improves on our grievances with the first film, or doubles down on them. It's safe to say that when it comes to the film's stunning visual effects, there's no argument that this level of spectacle only comes around whenever Cameron decides it's time to bless us with a new movie. Was it worth the thirteen year wait? Are we excited for three more sequels? Tune in to Breaking Canon Podcast to find out! Breaking Canon Rating: 8.7/10Hosts:James Callahan [Twitter: @nahallacsemaj]Julius Freeman [Twitter: @A_Lucid_Comic]Julz Saito [Twitter: @julzsaito]Music:Brian Wood [Twitter/Instagram]Follow us on: Twitter | Instagram | TikTokQuestions or comments? Email us at: breakingcanonpodcast@gmail.com

Welcome to MTMU Reviews- a new series where we review newer movies- spoiler free! Our first one if a big one- Avatar: The Way of Water. This is the sequel that has been 13 years in the making. When the original film came out, it revolutionized and changed how we went to the movies. The 3D technology then blew us all away. What about this sequel? Will it do the same? We had the opportunity to screen this film in IMAX 3D on Tuesday evening. In this episode we break down our thoughts on the visual effects of the show, talk about the impact of the original, and discuss how this story compares to the original. Come back to Pandora with us, and find out if this is a miss or a must see.This episode was filmed and recorded at Galaxy of Games, and we appreciate them letting us hang out at the store to record. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

公众号 SMFM2016终！于！来！了！《阿凡达：水之道》12月16日全球同步上映定档消息一出，中文互联网迎来了久违的关于电影的“狂欢”，也让这部真正意义上的世界级大片也成为了某种超越电影本身的“公共事件”。本期节目我们特别请来了中国人民大学新闻学院的刘海龙老师一起从传播学的角度来聊聊，为什么一度被认为“已死”的大银幕院线电影依然充满爆炸性的吸引力，为什么《阿凡达》可以如此成功，以及最重要的，为什么全世界都无比期待这次TA还能延续传奇。0:43 开场2:54 数据说话《阿凡达2》在中国到底有多火10:22 院线电影在媒介上的特殊性，为什么到后来，我们还是想看电影。19:33 我们对《阿凡达》的共同回忆，它当年为什么震撼到我们？27:22 关于电影的放映技术，IMAX、3D这些到底对我们理解电影产生了什么影响？30:39 CINITY 到底什么样的技术？为什么《阿凡达2》会选择推荐CINITY36:01 关于电影拍摄方面的故事，阿凡达对动作捕捉技术产生了什么样的影响？47:18 电影技术对内容创作到底是鼓励还是限制？56:29 为什么《阿凡达2》在中国的成功非常重要？片尾曲：《巴别塔》by 派克特&大狗想做嘉宾，联系我们：w_jkong@hotmail.com孔老师微博@做着学生的孔老师王老师微博@浩浩很含蓄什么电台官方微博@什么FMB站：什么电台孔老师想了解刘海龙教授的线上课程，可以搜索：看理想APP：《生活在媒介中，传播学100讲》B站：《人大刘海龙教授：传播理论通识课》本期阵容：孔老师、大老师、海龙果果

As the Holiday movie season kicks in high gear, one film stands above the rest as the Most Anticipated! Avatar 2 - The Way of Water hits theatres in one weeks time and here to discuss all things Pandora is veteran guest of the show, McNeill Mullikin. Dive into this weeks episode with McNeill and I, as we take a look back at the cultural impact of Avatar, discuss director James Cameron's illustrious career and pick our Top 5 James Cameron Projects. SURPRISES GALORE IN THESE LISTS! Start practicing your Na'vi again ladies and gentleman, PANDORA awaits once again. Don't miss Avatar 2 : The Way of Water when it hits theatres in IMAX 3D on December 16th.

This week the guys dive into the new horror movie from writer/director and member of the Whitest Kids U Know Zach Cregger, Barbarian. But first we pay tribute to the icon Kevin Conroy. What was his audition like to get the role of Batman in the animated series? What scenario was Cody in when he found out the hero had passed? How do we get from Kevin Conroy to today's topic? Did Jake know about 2 Girls 1 Cup before anybody else? How did Cody gaslight Anthony last week? What new Funko POP did Jake get? Are we going to see the Super Mario movie? Do we still hate Chris Pratt? How did the director use casting to throw the audience's expectations through loops? Should the lead character's decision making go down in history as the worst in any movie ever? What are some of our favorite theaters? What movies has Anthony seen in IMAX 3D? Does New Roc City have the biggest and best IMAX screen? Are the guys reuniting in NYC around the holidays to see Avatar in theatres? What do we think about The Mother? Is she less toxic than all of the moms in MCU Phase 4? What scene from this would be fun to splice with The Sopranos? Who would we love to see in a Zack Cregger Batman movie? Would we suck on The Mother's titties to survive? How do we feel about breastmilk? What other animal's milk do we want to try? Is Cody not cool enough to know who Raffi is? Could Black Adam beat The Mother in a fight? Would The Rock win a presidency? What snacks do we order when we go to theaters? Should The Mother be a playable character in Mortal Kombat? Is our ranking system for everybody? RIP Kevin Conroy Check out our website: https://www.comicsandchronic.com/ New episodes every THURSDAY Follow us on social media! Instagram // Twitter // TikTok : @comicsnchronic YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC45vP6pBHZk9rZi_2X3VkzQ E-mail: comicsnchronicpodcast@gmail.com Cody Twitter: @Cody_Cannon Instagram: @walaka_cannon TikTok: @codywalakacannon Jake Instagram: @jakefhaha Anthony Instagram // Twitter // TikTok : @mrtonynacho YouTube: youtube.com/nachocomedy

Da Couch Tomato Podcast Season 2 Episode 21, discussing James Cameron's Avatar Remastered IMAX 3D. Nag-reminisce kami sa aming first movie date as a couple, way back in 2009. Also, nagpaka-technical na naman si Sting Lacson sa pag-discuss ng pagka-3D ng pelikulang ito. At pinag-usapan din namin ang kaibahan nitong remastered version, particularly ang mga remastered high frame rate sequences. Sting Lacson's rating: 7.8/10 Rachel's rating: 8.7/10 Final rating: 8.25/10 Read the original review of Avatar 3D back in 2009. Help our podcast and get up to 80% off on Lazada if you shop using this link: https://bit.ly/3p4Ur5K

This week the nerds talk about their AMAZING experience at GangNam Korean BBQ and discuss their immersive experience watching Avatar in IMAX 3D. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok: @nerdget1 Time Stamps: Intro: 00:00:00 GangNam Korean BBQ - 00:06:44 Game Releases - 00:19:25 Delays - 00:24:25 News - 00:38:00 Main Topic - Avatar - 01:31:20

This Episode of Cruzin Podcast we share the amazing experience of watching Avatar Rereleased in IMAX 3D along with the special preview footage of the sequel Avatar the way of water. which left us speechless and ready for the film when it comes out in December! Did you check out the film ? leave us your thoughts!

In this week's episode, Alex saw Avatar in IMAX 3D. Avatar is better than I remember. An analysis of streaming services in 2022. Rings of Power mid-season thoughts. My fantasy football team has me down bad. Follow Alex: Twitter: https://twitter.com/adsilva005 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adsilva005/ Podcast Links: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/intelligent-moron-with-alex-silva/id1552338016 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/21OITz2NaBqXQ2SmKSEStc?si=wikIxgKkQgKMQNKjU8ozng YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnw1rKX6JUSITRFz2DSXEdQ/videos Epidemic Sound has the best selection of copyright free music for you to choose. 30 day free trial. https://www.epidemicsound.com/referra...

Avatar (also marketed as James Cameron's Avatar) is a 2009 American[7][8] epic science fiction film directed, written, produced, and co-edited by James Cameron and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sigourney Weaver. It is set in the mid-22nd century when humans are colonizing Pandora, a lush habitable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system, in order to mine the valuable mineral unobtanium.[9][10][11] The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Na'vi – a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The film's title refers to a genetically engineered Na'vi body operated from the brain of a remotely located human that is used to interact with the natives of Pandora.[12] Development of Avatar began in 1994, when Cameron wrote an 80-page treatment for the film.[13][14] Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Cameron's 1997 film Titanic, for a planned release in 1999;[15] however, according to Cameron, the necessary technology was not yet available to achieve his vision of the film.[16] Work on the language of the Na'vi began in 2005, and Cameron began developing the screenplay and fictional universe in early 2006.[17][18] Avatar was officially budgeted at $237 million, due to a groundbreaking array of new visual effects Cameron achieved in cooperation with Weta Digital in Wellington.[4] Other estimates put the cost between $280 million and $310 million for production and at $150 million for promotion.[19][20][21] The film made extensive use of new motion capture filming techniques and was released for traditional viewing, 3D viewing (using the RealD 3D, Dolby 3D, XpanD 3D, and IMAX 3D formats), and "4D" experiences in selected South Korean theaters.[22] Twitter Instagram Mack's channel Intro music by Dan Mason

For over 25 years, Brett Leonard has been at the forefront of the digital media revolution - whether it be as Director/ Writer of the groundbreaking hit film Lawnmower Man, which introduced the concept of Virtual Reality to popular culture - or being the first to pioneer modern stereoscopic techniques and photo-realistic CGI in his hit IMAX 3D film “T-Rex” - or introducing American audiences to Russell Crowe and many other talents both in front of and behind the camera. Brett's work as a visionary Director/Producer/Futurist has always pushed the edge of innovation in the entertainment industry, and continues to do so with a project slate at his company Studio Lightship, focused on creation of VX (Virtual eXperience) executed in a hybrid approach with Film and Television. Studio Lightship is dedicated to defining a process and platform for truly interactive narrative VX StoryWorlds for the emerging era of Immersive Entertainment. Brett is currently finishing two feature film projects he has directed- “Hollywood Rooftop”, the first film to be shot in both 360VR and traditional cinema - and “Triumph”, starring Academy Award Nominee Terrence Howard, star of the hit television series “Empire”, and RJ Mitte, star of the groundbreaking series “Breaking Bad”. Highlights of the Episode: 0:00 Introduction 2:13 Tool technologies 5:12 What got you into movies 8:32 Super eight filmmaker 12:28 Advice for people breaking into the industry 15:56 Good way to understand filmmaking 19:58 Creating a narrative 22:10 Streaming services 23:33 Managing storytelling 29:27 The point of storytelling 32:04 Lawnmower Man reborn 36:05 Immersive environments 37:50 Healing Virtual Environments 46:19 Contrast in utopian vs dystopian storytelling 50:37 Immersive experience 55:15 Supporting the metaverse 58:30 Open source community is utopia 1:00:02 virtualpsychedelics.com Quotes: “ Now I will say that in order to break the mold, you gotta know what the mold is you're breaking. You have to know what good narrative is. Knowing how that works in the human conscious and unconscious. That's really important. - Brett Leonard “I mean you don't even need to go to a college and get the tools. You can actually find those tools online. You could shoot with your phone, play around and really find out what works for you and your point of view as a storyteller.”- Brett Leonard “Blade Runner is really a narrative environment more than it is a traditional plot. I mean, the plot is incredibly simple. You know, Android chases other Androids and finds out he's an Android. You don't watch that movie again and again, because of the plot, you watch that cause you're exploring a narrative environment that has such richness in it.”- Brett Leonard Connecting with the Guest: Twitter: https://twitter.com/directorleonard LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettleonard1/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brettleonard1/ Connecting with CG Pro: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/becomecgpro Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/becomecgpro/ Website: https://www.becomecgpro.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/becomecgpro RSVP here for upcoming CG Pro Podcasts: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/cg-pro-39748423833 #virtualproduction#storytelling#filmmaking

"Ancient Caves" was released for IMAX 3D and IMAX Dome theaters just days into the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, but thankfully the cycle for IMAX type educational films is years long, and this film could still be coming to a theater near you!I was fortunate to talk to director Jonathan Bird about making the film, and cave diver Todd Kelly who talked about not only working on this film, but also his decades-long cave diving career.The Caving Podcast is sponsored by https://elspeleo.com/Save $20 any full-priced order over $300 with promo code PODCASTLearn more about "Ancient Caves" at the film's website:https://macgillivrayfreeman.com/project/ancient-caves/  Pre-register for Indiana Cave Capers HERE:http://www.cigcaves.com/indiana-cave-capers/all-about-cave-capers/cave-caper-registration/ Find your local grotto!https://caves.org/committee/i-o/grottos/new_grotto_page-v2.shtml

ALL ABOARD THE POLAR EXPRESS! We may be a few days late for our Christmas episode, but we'll still determined to spread some holiday cheer with our trip to the North Pole on this wacky train full of ugly kids. A technical marvel for the time that demanded to be seen in IMAX 3D, but nowadays looks like an early Playstation 2 game. We talk about the numerous re-releases of this supposed holiday classic, and talk about our favorite animated Christmas movies! FOLLOW US Facebook Twitter Instagram

Jim Bloom's career in the movie and entertainment industries began when he worked with George Lucas on "American Graffiti". Soon after he became an assistant director working alongside many noted filmmakers including Francis Ford Coppola on "The Conversation", Robert Altman on "Thieves Like Us", Sam Peckinpah on "The Killer Elite", Steven Spielberg on "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", Hal Ashby on "Bound for Glory" and "Coming Home", Mathew Robbins on "Corvette Summer", and Phil Kaufman on "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". He rejoined George Lucas to become an Associate Producer on "The Empire Strikes Back" and the first General Manager of ILM. Following this he became a co-Producer on "Return of the Jedi". He produced "Warning Sign" for 20th Century Fox, and "Fires Within", directed by Gillian Armstrong, at MGM. He has also developed movies with Carroll Ballard, Volker Schlondorf, Warren Beatty, George Miller, and Guillermo del Toro. In addition to being a producer, Jim worked as a creative executive at Sony Pictures, leading development and production of two business units: IMAX 3D movies ("Across the Sea of Time" and "Wings of Courage", directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud); and interactive movies. He also worked at Electronic Arts where he was recruited to help leverage EA entertainment properties into EA-TV (an interactive television venture). He later helped found an interactive games company with lead funding from Kleiner Perkins.

Jim Bloom's career in the movie and entertainment industries began when he worked with George Lucas on "American Graffiti". Soon after he became an assistant director working alongside many noted filmmakers including Francis Ford Coppola on "The Conversation", Robert Altman on "Thieves Like Us", Sam Peckinpah on "The Killer Elite", Steven Spielberg on "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", Hal Ashby on "Bound for Glory" and "Coming Home", Mathew Robbins on "Corvette Summer", and Phil Kaufman on "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". He rejoined George Lucas to become an Associate Producer on "The Empire Strikes Back" and the first General Manager of ILM. Following this he became a co-Producer on "Return of the Jedi". He produced "Warning Sign" for 20th Century Fox, and "Fires Within", directed by Gillian Armstrong, at MGM. He has also developed movies with Carroll Ballard, Volker Schlondorf, Warren Beatty, George Miller, and Guillermo del Toro. In addition to being a producer, Jim worked as a creative executive at Sony Pictures, leading development and production of two business units: IMAX 3D movies ("Across the Sea of Time" and "Wings of Courage", directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud); and interactive movies. He also worked at Electronic Arts where he was recruited to help leverage EA entertainment properties into EA-TV (an interactive television venture). He later helped found an interactive games company with lead funding from Kleiner, Perkins.

¡SE AVISA antes de entrar en Spoilers! Reseña de la vuelta de James Cameron a la dirección en 2009, tras doce años sólo como productor, con una versión del 'colonizador renegado' en clave de ciencia-ficción ecologista-indigenista y un fastuoso espectáculo en IMAX 3D que, aún hoy, impresiona. La película obtuvo el récord a la más taquillera de la historia, y aún hoy esperamos la prometida continuación. Eso sí, ojalá Cameron hubiese pulido un poquito más la parte escrita.

On this edition of The Mary Faye Headrick Good Deed Segment, I am talking with Thom Benson with the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. Thom shares how families can once again visit the facility as well as many other attractions in and around Chattanooga. Listen & share.

Bendis is Leaving - Podcast e20* R.I.P. to Denny O'Neil, we talk about some of his major accomplishments.* San Diego ComicCon (SDCC) will be FREE online!!* Matt Reeve's "The Batman" sequels news about The Joker.* Brian Michael Bendis is leaving Superman. What's next?* A LOT of HBO-MAX news and why it might not be worth keeping; even with Doom Patrol season two.* Skulls for Justice and if Marvel should keep The Punisher.* Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge.* Movie theaters are about to reopen and Amazon wants a bite.* Captain Marvel in IMAX 3D.* WWE is a garbage company.* "The Matrix 4" discussion.* Spider-Man: Miles Morales video game talk.Support the show (https://www.paypal.me/comicbookuniversity)

On this week's The Drill Down podcast, Google unveils new Pixel, Nest & Stadia products, Facebook launches its cryptocurrency without some major players, Apple & Hong Kong, Fortnite gets sucked into a black hole, ...and much, much more. What We're Playing With Dwayne: iPhone 11 Pro (addendum) Tosin: Star Wars D-O Interactive Droid (Target Exclusive) Andy: Gemini Man in IMAX 3D+ in HFR Headlines Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay all quit Facebook's Libra in one day Facebook and partners move forward with Libra cryptocurrency after string of exits Apple removes app used in Hong Kong protests after pressure from China Tim Cook's Company-Wide Memo on HKmap.live Doesn't Add Up Apple Safari browser sends some user IP addresses to Chinese conglomerate Tencent by default Here's Apple's statement on Safari Fraudulent Website Warning and Tencent Audible Book of the Week Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America by Christopher Wylie Sign up at AudibleTrial.com/TheDrillDown Music Break: Chinese Democracy by Guns n' Roses Hot Topic: Google Pixel Event 2019 The biggest announcements from Google's 2019 Pixel event Pixel 4 Cameras Nest WiFi Nest Mini Pixelbook Go Pixel Buds Stadia Google Pixel 4 event in 10 minutes Music Break: Supermassive Black Hole  by Muse Final Word The entire Fortnite ecosystem has been sucked into a virtual black hole, and the game is down The Drill Down Video of the Week Fortnite "THE END" Full Live ROCKET Event Subscribe! The Drill Down on iTunes (Subscribe now!) Add us on Stitcher! The Drill Down on Facebook The Drill Down on Twitter Geeks Of Doom's The Drill Down is a roundtable-style audio podcast where we discuss the most important issues of the week, in tech and on the web and how they affect us all. Hosts are Geeks of Doom contributor Andrew Sorcini (Mr. BabyMan), marketing research analyst Dwayne De Freitas, and Vudu product manager Tosin Onafowokan.

有奖互动参与方法1.订阅本专辑。2.在本期节目下方以#IMAX双子杀手#为开头，在评论区写下你对本期节目中印象最深的一段话和你对这部电影最强的期待。3.小麦将在2019年10月17日，选出5个优质评论发放IMAX2个IMAX全国通兑券。PS.收到中奖通知后七天内未回复视为自动放弃更多福利请移步IMAX中国官方电台粉丝群，群内有线下观影招募、影票赠送、周边抽奖等花式福利。添加管理员微信：IMAXminimai，备注IMAX电台粉丝，小麦会拉你进群。【小麦提示】您在IMAX数字和一代激光影院观看《双子杀手》时，可以看到2D 24帧版本；在IMAX二代激光影院观看本片，可以看到3D 60帧版本。剧情简介 美国国防情报局特工Henry（威尔·史密斯饰），准备退休之际意外遭到一名神秘杀手的追杀，在两人的激烈较量中，他发现这名杀手竟然是年轻了20多岁的自己，一场我与我的对决旋即展开，而背后的真相也逐渐浮出水面。精彩看点强强厮杀 重启归来顶尖杀手Henry Brogan被一位神秘的年轻杀手追杀，两届奥斯卡最佳导演奖得主再次重启归来，影片经过IMAX DMR数字原底翻版技术的逐帧强化，直面100%特效制作的23岁版本史密斯，使观众在IMAX高大宽广的巨型银幕上沉浸式见证老少史密斯同框对决。硬核双子 再造奇观当50岁与23岁史皇正面冲突，展开一场生死对决。激燃爆裂的打斗镜头、高速驰骋的炫酷杀手；IMAX激光校准的强大音响系统，精致展现冲突细节，声声入耳，机车轰鸣炸裂响彻IMAX影厅的每一个角落，带领观众和李安导演共同探索新的数字电影加持下呈现的非凡炫酷体验。

Trick or Treat! Our Strange Halloween episode begins with a crash-course on Doctor Strange, from the original 1963 comic to the brand new Marvel film out November 4th. Prepare to be enlightened in the mystic arts as we take you to a special press conference that included Benedict Cumberbatch, Mads Mikkelsen, Tilda Swinton, producer Kevin Feige and director Scott Derrickson. We'll also give you our spoiler-free review of the film and a “Doctor Strange Name Primer” to help you better enjoy the film from the get-go. This episode will prepare you to see this film as it is meant to be seen: in IMAX 3D! (30:13) Ric Peralta of LiningUp.net is back to give us some NEW details and late-breaking news about lining up for Rogue One at the premiere party site - the TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX in Hollywood. Prices are announced and excitement mounts! (1:49:12) It's almost Halloween night when we all spend the better part of the evening knocking on neighbors doors asking for candy. We want to make sure everyone is safe this holiday season so C-3PO is back to give some safety tips on trick or treating. In fact, some Skywalkers may just be trick-or-treating early on this episode! Tweet at them, if you dare. Also on this episode: Things We Want To Share - Our Star Wars / Disney Masquerade Ball Wedding, October 25, 2009. Journal Of The Rich Guess the Costume Skywalker Shout-outs and Skywalker of the Week WHERE WE WILL BE (IN REAL LIFE) November 5, 2016: Rancho Obi-Wan THE GALA STRIKES BACK Meet-up at 3pm, followed by the Gala itself that evening. November 6, 2016: Disney Family Museum at 11am. September 17-22, 2017: Skywalking HALLOWEEN ON THE HIGH SEAS Disney Cruise! To get more info, go to storiesofthemagic.com/cruisequote and click on the orange "Get a Quote" button in the upper left to get a free, no obligation quote. You're not committing to anything, just getting information with that request. In the Comments section mention "Skywalking Through Neverland" so Randy Crane knows you want to be part of our group. SUPPORT THE SHOW Skywalking Through Neverland T-Shirts at TeePublic! Check them out HERE. Shopping HerUniverse? Click here! CONTACT US tweet! tweet! @SkywalkingPod. We have a Facebook Group. Follow Skywalkingpod on SnapChat. Join us every week on Periscope for a behind-the-scenes look at our show. We also bring you to Disneyland, Red Carpet Events and Theme Park Openings. Send emails to share@skywalkingthroughneverland.com and follow us on Facebook. If you dug this episode, click over to iTunes | Stitcher | YouTube and leave us a review! Never Land on Alderaan!

【微信公众平台】搜索“英语口语每天学”，每日获取笨老撕不一样的分享。Brief Introduction简介Mojin: The Lost Legend is a 2015 Chinese action adventure fantasy thriller film based on the novel Ghost Blows Out the Light.The film was released on December 18, 2015.The film was released in 2D, 3D, IMAX and IMAX 3D formats in China on December 18, 2015legend n. 传奇action adventure fantasy thriller film动作、冒险、魔幻、惊悚片release v. 发行，发布3D format 3D格式Synopsis剧情概要The story cuts to New York City in the late 1980s, where Wang and his two partners, Hu (Chen Kun, 陳坤) and Shirley (Shu Qi, 舒淇), now live, having retired from tomb raiding. Tired of hawking（兜售） “Chinese treasures” in the city's backstreet, Wang returns to his old trade by taking on a mission for a mysterious, wealthy businesswoman (Liu Xiaoqing, 劉曉慶), who wants an ancient meteorite（陨石[ ˈmitiəˌraɪt ]） called the Equinox Flower（彼岸花）, which has the power to resurrect（复活 [ ˌrezəˈrekt ]）the dead and is believed to be buried in an ancient tomb of a Khitan（契丹） princess in Inner Mongolia.cut to 场景转变到tomb raiding/raider 盗墓(者)Critical reception评论接受度The performances of the cast, special effects and action sequences have been praised.In Douban and Mtime, China&`&s leading reviews sites, it scored a terrific 8.0 and 7.7, respectively.cast演职人员action sequence动作场景reviews site评论网站respectively分别地

【微信公众平台】搜索“英语口语每天学”，每日获取笨老撕不一样的分享。Brief Introduction简介Mojin: The Lost Legend is a 2015 Chinese action adventure fantasy thriller film based on the novel Ghost Blows Out the Light.The film was released on December 18, 2015.The film was released in 2D, 3D, IMAX and IMAX 3D formats in China on December 18, 2015legend n. 传奇action adventure fantasy thriller film动作、冒险、魔幻、惊悚片release v. 发行，发布3D format 3D格式Synopsis剧情概要The story cuts to New York City in the late 1980s, where Wang and his two partners, Hu (Chen Kun, 陳坤) and Shirley (Shu Qi, 舒淇), now live, having retired from tomb raiding. Tired of hawking（兜售） “Chinese treasures” in the city's backstreet, Wang returns to his old trade by taking on a mission for a mysterious, wealthy businesswoman (Liu Xiaoqing, 劉曉慶), who wants an ancient meteorite（陨石[ ˈmitiəˌraɪt ]） called the Equinox Flower（彼岸花）, which has the power to resurrect（复活 [ ˌrezəˈrekt ]）the dead and is believed to be buried in an ancient tomb of a Khitan（契丹） princess in Inner Mongolia.cut to 场景转变到tomb raiding/raider 盗墓(者)Critical reception评论接受度The performances of the cast, special effects and action sequences have been praised.In Douban and Mtime, China&`&s leading reviews sites, it scored a terrific 8.0 and 7.7, respectively.cast演职人员action sequence动作场景reviews site评论网站respectively分别地

“Sit down, man. Acclimatize.”The Film Board gathers! This month the gang of thugs has come together to answer the age-old question that has transfixed adventurers time immemorial: why do we see Everest? Because it's there. It's an IMAX 3D exclusive this week which might make you think it's something of a...you know...spectacle. We're going to tell you all about that, and we're going to say some really good things about the cast, some moderate things about the director and writers, and some downright lousy things about the film's title card.So LOOK OUT! If you can't tell from our tone here, Balthasar Kormákur's latest film has failed to wrap us around its little finger, but that doesn't mean there aren't some interesting vectors for approach (see what I did there? Mountain climbing language!). So join Andy Nelson, Steve Sarmento, Justin 'JJ' Jaeger, and Pete Wright for the trip of a lifetime, and you won't even have to pay 65 grand to take it!Film SundriesOriginal theatrical trailerOriginal poster artworkInto Thin Air by Jon KrakauerFlickchart Find source material for The Next Reel's family of podcasts – and thousands of other great reads – at AUDIBLE! Get your free audiobook and 30-day free trial today.Learn more about CODA and how it can work for you!We spend hours every week putting our shows together for you, our dear listener, and it would sure mean a lot to us if you considered becoming a member. When you do, you get early access to shows, ad-free episodes, and a TON of bonus content. To those who already support the show, thank you. To those who don't yet: what are you waiting for?BECOME A MEMBER HERE: $5 monthly or $55 annuallyJoin the conversation with movie lovers from around the world on The Next Reel's DISCORD channel!Here's where you can find us around the internet:The WebLetterboxdFlickchartCheck out poster artwork for movies we've discussed on our Pinterest pagePeteJJOceanSteveTommyAndyWhat are some other ways you can support us and show your love? Glad you asked!You can buy TNR apparel, stickers, mugs and more from our MERCH PAGE.Or buy or rent movies we've discussed on the show from our WATCH PAGE.Or buy books, plays, etc. that was the source for movies we've discussed on the show from our ORIGINALS PAGE.Or renew or sign up for a Letterboxd Pro or Patron account with our LETTERBOXD MEMBERSHIP DISCOUNT.

The latest entry to the juggernaut that is the Marvel super-hero franchise will seem very familiar to anyone that has been on this ride since the beginning of their blockbuster trend. Michael Douglas is Hank Pym, a brilliant scientist who has created the “Pym Particle”. This invention allows him to condense or expand the space between the atoms of matter. Knowing, as all genius inventors do, that this technology is too dangerous in anyone's hands but his, he keeps his secret formulas from everyone. This includes his former employer SHIELD, his own daughter, and protege turned rival, Darren Cross (Corey Stoll). When Cross looks to be on the verge of recreating Pym's work, with designs of weaponizing it, Hank recruits ex-con Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) to take on the mantle of the “Ant-Man”. Queue training montages and budding friendship banter while evil-doer shrinky-dinks anyone and anything in gooey fashion, that stands in his way. I don't think it is a stretch to say that Marvel dipped into a box of scripts and pulled out a draft of Iron-Man. Maybe they were hoping that the audiences have forgotten how this all began so far back in 2008. It is a good story, certainly a tried and tested one and it is still fun, but…yeah… Time will tell if anyone else recognizes it for what it is. Story aside, it looked good! I saw “Ant-Man in an IMAX 3D theater. The 3D conversion wasn't obtrusive, but it didn't exactly help the film either. They looked to be adding some depth to the backgrounds more than giving the foregrounds or the characters any presence. That seems a waste when you have all the microcosm of the insect world to play with. A man was riding a flying ant!! Why was I not ducking? I'm not a huge fan of the gimmicky, “make it fly out of the screen at you”, but honestly, if you aren't going to do that, then why bother with the conversion at all? The upcoming Fantastic Four film as reportedly been denied the up-conversion and I wonder if it won't be the better for it. 3D or not, the special effects where what you have come to expect from Marvel at this point. They don't break any new ground in Ant-Man, and they instead actually give their actors something to do to cover up the lack of FX-innovation. Dialog and entertaining situations surrounding the effects where a welcome change from the all too often trope of letting the effects do the talking. Michael Douglas was a great choice for Hank Pym. I'm honestly sorry we could not have had Ant-Man 40 years ago with Douglas filling the suit. Douglas' Pym picks Rudd's Scott Lang as his successor and that too made for a good fit. Rudd is an actor that I could imagine as Jack Colton in 1984, Romancing the Stone. This sort of art imitating life, or life imitating art, thing between the two actors made for a more believable film. (Well, believable for a movie about a man that talks and rides ants anyway) Evangeline Lilly plays Hope, Pym's daughter and eventual love interest of Scott's. Her scenes with Rudd are some of the highlights of the non-man/bug elements of the film. They have a great chemistry and if the pre-credit teaser is any indication, we will get to see more of that chemistry in the future. So, yeah… Ant-Man. Not a GREAT movie, but far from horrible, and still a lot of fun. Watch it for the effects, hope that we get more from a great cast, and cross your fingers that they get more to do than montages. Ant-Man opens nationwide July 17th. If you'd like to comment on our review or share your thoughts on Ant-Man, please join our Facebook group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/timeshifters/

The 3D blockbuster film Transformers: Age of Extinction is currently screening in most of the major cinemas across China. The box office results have been very good for the first few days. Today our movie review Laiming will check out the movie for you. One important criterion we Chinese use to evaluate blockbusters is something called a pee-point. It describes the part of a movie where nothing exciting happens and therefore the viewers could safety embark on a journey to the lavatory without missing anything significant. Often some nice amateur critics online would kindly pinpoint these pee-points so other viewers would know when to visit the loo. And of course, the more pee-points there are in a film, the worse it is considered to be. "Transformers: Age of Extinction" have no pee-points for first time viewers: all viewers should be willing to exercise control of their bladders in anticipation of exciting moments. But for those who care to look back after 166 minutes of boredom, they'll regret having endured so many pee-points and wonder what's happened to the spectacles promised in the trailer. Indeed, there is a marked downgrade in a film which is supposed to be all about spectacles. Instead of giant machines smashing at each other, viewers get to see tiny, paranoid humans hunting down friendly Autobots. It can be quite an impressive scene to see a swarm of ants bringing down a giant elephant, but that sensation is missing in Michael Bay's latest outing. According to a popular joke about his fiasco, Michael Bay had started this film with a one-page story on his left hand, and a voluminous manual on the right hand which outlined all the products and faces that absolutely have to appear in the epically long film. With all due respect for the storywriter Ehren Kruger, and whoever and whatever must appear in the movie, I think the obsession with product placement destroyed every possibility for "Age of Extinction" to develop a decent story. The viewers are fully aware that they are buying the tickets for a sensational experience, not a seriously intriguing story, but nonetheless the mediocre sensations should at least make some sense, "Age of Extinction" hardly makes any sense. The last part of the film is set in China and is particularly unnecessary. This shift of setting may help Paramount squeeze out more shares of the box office in China, but it also creates a dent in other markets. I don't know the math behind it, but I certainly hope Michael Bay have worked that out before turning on the cameras. Besides, the move also fuels the egocentric hallucinations on some part of Chinese critics who have begin to entertain the idea that even Hollywood is trying to lick our boots. That's exactly what is needed to stifle China's meagre creative strength in the movie industry. The only improvement about "Transformers: Age of Extinction" is: the viewers could finally distinguish one giant machine from another, but that's probably because there is a much smaller number of them. Michael Bay's effort to reduce cost and boost profit have yielded an awfully long commercial in IMAX 3D, moviegoers and companies may continue paying for its sequel, I will not be part of that again when it returns in 2016.

(NSFW!) Reverse Missionary. Y'all need Jesus. We are IN Harley Quinn. James Gunn wants you to see GotG in IMAX 3D. Dr Strange. Waking Dead. Luthor's twitch. Better Call Saul. Electric Harley? The Mandarin argument…again!? Lots more.

(NSFW!) Reverse Missionary. Y'all need Jesus. We are IN Harley Quinn. James Gunn wants you to see GotG in IMAX 3D. Dr Strange. Waking Dead. Luthor's twitch. Better Call Saul. Electric Harley? The Mandarin argument…again!? Lots more.

[Hobbit] The new Hobbit movie is out across China today in Imax 3D. "The Desolation of Smaug," is the second part of Peter Jackson's trilogy. It sees Thorin and company continue their dangerous mission past the dangers that lurk within the Mirkwood forest. If they make it through then the Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, must fulfill his contract with the 13 Dwarves who accompany him and seek out the Secret Door at Lonely Mountain. There they will try to reclaim the treasure taken by the cunning dragon, Smaug. The film stars Martin Freeman in the title role along with Sir Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage and Orlando Bloom. Though Bloom could not be at the premiere in Beijing yesterday, he did leave this message for fans. "Hello, I'm Martin Freeman and I play Bilbo Baggins in the "Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" I'd like to wish all my Chinese fans 'ma nian da ji, gong xi fa cai'" That was 'good fortune in the year of the horse' for any non Mandarin-speaking listeners.

Film director Pou-Soi Cheang, producer Liu Xiaoguang and actor Hai Yitian attended the premiere. The film is adapted from the first of eight chapters of the classical Chinese novel "Journey to the West" written by Wu Cheng'en in the 16th century. The film mainly tells the story of the Monkey King, played by Donnie Yen, who is determined to be a celestial being, as he tries to learn the skill of making the dead come back to life and rebels against the Jade Emperor of Heaven after being seduced by demons. Director Cheang expressed his gratitude to IMAX and his excitement towards his new film. "It should present a different visual effect to audiences. Just now, we mentioned that 3D effects make audiences feel as if there is no screen. With IMAX, the effects are better. It makes the audience more involved in the film. What's more, I want to express my thanks to IMAX for truly presenting my original imaginations and all the pictures. I am really moved that when I was busy with the post-production of the film and wasn't able to go to the U.S., my fellow colleague adjusted each scene of film with IMAX. He told me that it felt totally different and what you wanted to see have been realized in IMAX 3D. So I'm excited and hope movie goers could spend a bit more money to see the IMAX 3D version of the film. " The film stars Donnie Yen, Aaron Kwok, Chow Yun-fat, Peter Ho, Hai Yitian and Xia Zitong. Donnie Yen plays the leading role of Monkey King and Chow Yun-fat plays the role of the Jade Emperor. Commenting on the two famous film stars, film director Cheung said they did an amazing job. "Maybe the Jade Emperor played by Chou Yun-fat is different from the one you imagined. But that role features characteristics of Chou. If another actor played the role, I would not be able to imagine it like this. This time he just holds a sword and becomes a huge dragon. At the time of filming I was not sure about the final effect but it turned out to be great. The two merge into a whole. I thank him a lot. As for Donnie Yen, I could feel his efforts when making the film every day. Every time I saw him act, I knew what I am filming is about the Monkey King. He makes one feel as if he was the Monkey King." Films or TV series about the Monkey King have been made many times before. Liu Xiaoguang, producer of the film told the press that thanks to modern technology, the visual effects are much better in their new film. "To make it straight, the most difficult thing when presenting the image of Monkey King is to separate him from gravity. Before, actors turned somersaults and later they adopted rope wire. The film 'The Monkey King: Havoc in the Heavenly Palace,' actually makes use of modern digital picture technology and separates actors from gravity." The film is to hit screens on January 31st in China and many other countries and regions.