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Wildcatblue7
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« Reply #6360 on: May 07, 2010, 11:32:35 PM » |
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Iron Man 2
OMG I AM SUCH A NERD I LOVE IT SO MUCH
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Brenden
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« Reply #6361 on: May 08, 2010, 02:37:41 PM » |
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Iron Man 2
Enjoyed it immensely.
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Vlad!
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« Reply #6362 on: May 09, 2010, 04:53:12 PM » |
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Iron Man 2.
Sort of like the first one, intensified. If you liked the action/explody bits, this one has more. If you liked the goofy and occasionally rough humor, this one has more. If you liked the romantic tension, this one has more. If you were amused by the utter impossibility of Tony Stark's engineering achievements, his achievements in this one are even, um, impossible-er. If you liked the crazy rock-fueled soundtrack, this one's is crazier and rockier.
I liked the first one for three reasons: first, because it was lighthearted and obviously didn't take itself too seriously; second, because it was well-cast and the characters were interesting and believable; and third, because it involved a lot of explosions. Apparently this is what the focus groups said too, because the second one tries to outdo the first along all these axes. For the most part, though, it just ends up feeling like it's trying too hard.
There are scenes where it feels like everyone's in a one-liner competition, so what is lighthearted banter becomes an out-of-place comedy routine. There are extra characters, mostly added just to create a larger cast and add star appeal (And the bumbling antagonist character, while certainly well-cast, is so over-the-top that it's obvious the writers had no confidence that we the audience would "get" his pathetic and incompetent malignancy unless we were beat across the brow with it in every scene he's in). The explosions and special effects are larger and cooler, but so what? Give me a budget that large and I too can get ILM on the horn to give me explosions and lasers and flying scenes to my heart's content.
Iron Man 2 is not a bad flick, but it doesn't exactly raise the bar for superhero movies either. It's about what I would expect to see as a sequel to a blockbuster; very much like X-Men 2 or Spider-Man 2. Could they redeem the series in the third movie by making it interesting and worthwhile? Sure, it's not like Iron Man 2 pilots the series into the ground. But they're going to have to try, because I'm not sure they did with this one.
Also, in case you don't feel like sitting through nine minutes of credits to see a 30-second ending scene, it's basically a teaser for what is presumably a Thor movie.
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« Last Edit: May 09, 2010, 09:04:44 PM by Vlad! »
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If you don’t have freedom as a principle, you can never see a reason not to make an exception. There are constantly going to be times when for one reason or another there’s some practical convenience in making an exception.
rms
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murlough23
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« Reply #6363 on: May 09, 2010, 05:13:54 PM » |
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Vlad!, you just summed up my problems with most movie sequels.
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murlough23
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« Reply #6364 on: May 12, 2010, 04:45:33 PM » |
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Hubble 3D, an IMAX movie that I just went to see with some co-workers at the California Science Center, 'cause we're nerds like that.
Edward James Olmos was there, apparently with his daughter/granddaughter's Catholic school on a field trip. I was a bit too intimidated to go up and talk to him, but some of my co-workers got pictures with him. He knew we were from JPL/NASA since he could see our badges, and actually mentioned to our group after the film that we did good work. (None of us were directly involved in creating the 3D imagery, nor were we astronauts, but we work for NASA in a roundabout way, so close enough.) It was this weird sort of reciprocal thing where I guess he was kind of in awe as well.
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Wildcatblue7
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« Reply #6365 on: May 14, 2010, 02:38:05 PM » |
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Inglorious Basterds, or however Tarantino spelled it
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murlough23
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« Reply #6366 on: May 14, 2010, 02:44:38 PM » |
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The Blind Side. 'Twas alright. Sandra Bullock was good - I don't think Oscar-worthy, but since I normally dislike her, it's to her credit that I liked her in this film. I don't normally get into sports movies, especially when they're about football, because I totally don't understand football. But I was glad that the "big game" wasn't the actual climax of the film, and that while some aspects of football that were analogous to the main character's life were explained, they didn't dumb it down by explaining every little thing that was going on when the sport was actually being played on screen. It was OK to not totally understand the sport, because that wasn't actually the main story thread of the film.
NP: "Orbital", Josh Ritter
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murlough23
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« Reply #6367 on: May 16, 2010, 12:41:08 AM » |
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Just watched Keeping the Faith, which I'd seen before many years ago, but apparently forgot that it was one of my favorite romantic comedies. That's not a film genre I get into that much any more, but this movie still has that special something.
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RavishingJohnny23
Inphrequent Poster
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« Reply #6368 on: May 22, 2010, 07:26:32 PM » |
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MacGruber. Funny, and outrageous. >.<
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Living outloud.
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Life is too short live it all out for The Lord and enjoy yourself in the process. You only have one life so there is no use in being miserable.
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RavishingJohnny23
Inphrequent Poster
Posts: 88
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« Reply #6369 on: May 22, 2010, 07:28:35 PM » |
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The Blind Side. 'Twas alright. Sandra Bullock was good - I don't think Oscar-worthy, but since I normally dislike her, it's to her credit that I liked her in this film. I don't normally get into sports movies, especially when they're about football, because I totally don't understand football. But I was glad that the "big game" wasn't the actual climax of the film, and that while some aspects of football that were analogous to the main character's life were explained, they didn't dumb it down by explaining every little thing that was going on when the sport was actually being played on screen. It was OK to not totally understand the sport, because that wasn't actually the main story thread of the film.
NP: "Orbital", Josh Ritter
You should read the book it's a really enjoyable read. |
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Living outloud.
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Life is too short live it all out for The Lord and enjoy yourself in the process. You only have one life so there is no use in being miserable.
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ajyouthguy
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« Reply #6370 on: May 22, 2010, 10:03:05 PM » |
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The Imposter (Starring Kevin Max, Kerry Livgreen and Jeff Deyo)
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"When we spend so much time promoting everything we're against that the message of who we are for gets lost, when Christians are putting everyone else down, how is Jesus lifted up in that?." Doug Fields
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Brenden
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« Reply #6371 on: May 23, 2010, 06:57:24 AM » |
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Shrek 4
I liked it more than I was expecting.
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enemy anemone
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« Reply #6372 on: May 23, 2010, 08:24:26 PM » |
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Cheburashka idyot v shkolu
Shapoklyak
Cheburashka
Krokodil Gena
fun times
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Silvah
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« Reply #6373 on: May 26, 2010, 02:49:31 PM » |
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Finally watched Up all the way through. So beautiful. My favorite Pixar film is still the Incredibles, but this one is up there, too.
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RedcoatJones
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« Reply #6374 on: May 27, 2010, 09:43:05 PM » |
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10,000 BC - eh.
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NinjaRob17
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« Reply #6375 on: May 27, 2010, 11:09:07 PM » |
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Been working through the first season of Dexter.
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murlough23
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« Reply #6376 on: May 29, 2010, 10:03:03 PM » |
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Shrek 4. Best in the series since the first. I think it's more than logical to end the franchise here.
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bloop
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« Reply #6377 on: June 04, 2010, 06:43:28 PM » |
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"Lord, Save Us From Your Followers"
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Enjoy our pub. user/pw: thephorum Follow me on Grooveshark or Spotify. username: iceybloop |
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enemy anemone
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« Reply #6378 on: June 04, 2010, 09:10:22 PM » |
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Alice in Wonderland
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Vlad!
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« Reply #6379 on: June 04, 2010, 11:06:21 PM » |
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Invictus.
I thought it was an interesting twist to frame a sports movie in the context of the surrounding political events, but the sports movie shtick bled into the surroundings rather than the other way around. Morgan Freeman did a great job, but ultimately I found little of substance. I expected better of Eastwood.
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If you don’t have freedom as a principle, you can never see a reason not to make an exception. There are constantly going to be times when for one reason or another there’s some practical convenience in making an exception.
rms
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murlough23
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« Reply #6380 on: June 06, 2010, 10:28:48 PM » |
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Once. Or more accurately, Nonce. But I still liked it. The song that won the Oscar is so totally stuck in my head now.
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RedcoatJones
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« Reply #6381 on: June 07, 2010, 04:16:41 PM » |
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On TV:
T2: Judgment Day
The Incredibles
Both great movies in their own way.
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murlough23
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« Reply #6382 on: June 08, 2010, 02:52:30 AM » |
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Started watching the current season of Ice Road Truckers, just because I am fascinated with Alaska and with visiting extreme and harsh parts of the globe without actually physically being there.
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ajyouthguy
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« Reply #6383 on: June 08, 2010, 10:49:22 AM » |
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The River Within
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"When we spend so much time promoting everything we're against that the message of who we are for gets lost, when Christians are putting everyone else down, how is Jesus lifted up in that?." Doug Fields
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RavishingJohnny23
Inphrequent Poster
Posts: 88
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« Reply #6384 on: June 11, 2010, 03:01:24 AM » |
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Frost Nixon. Greatly intriguing.
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Living outloud.
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Life is too short live it all out for The Lord and enjoy yourself in the process. You only have one life so there is no use in being miserable.
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murlough23
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« Reply #6385 on: June 12, 2010, 01:57:09 AM » |
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Charlie Bartlett. Film about a entrepeneurial high school kid who attains popularity by selling prescription drugs and dispensing psychiatric advice. On the one hand, amusing. On the other hand, it gets bogged down with typical high school movie cliches and tries my suspension of belief one too many times. But Anton Yelchin and Robert Downey, Jr. were pretty good in it. I had to chuckle at one scene where another kid asks Yelchin's title character if he's still selling drugs, and he responds, "I'm going to look for new enterprises." (Yelchin would later be cast as Chekhov in Star Trek.)
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murlough23
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« Reply #6386 on: June 13, 2010, 12:28:40 AM » |
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The Namesake. Long, saga-ish film starring Kal Penn and a bunch of Indian actors whose names I can't pronounce, about an Indian couple who immigrates to the U.S. and their son's embarrassment over the name he was given, and... a lot of other stuff. Felt like I had watched an entire dramatic TV series in two hours, which isn't totally a bad thing. It probably should have been a miniseries to properly flesh out all the plot threads, but I guess miniseries don't make it to theaters. (For Lost fans, Zuleikha Robinson (Ilana) is in this, and she heats things up a bit in the final third of the film.)
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T-Bone
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« Reply #6387 on: June 17, 2010, 02:49:13 PM » |
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Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - Mindless fun, which I enjoyed more than I expected. The leads were both quite good, although Alfred Molina stole the movie.
Shutter Island - dark, surreal, and disturbing. I had to talk my wife into watching this with me (she's not a "horror" movie person), but we both ended up quite liking it, since it was less a horror film and more a thriller/mind game. The cast was absolutely brilliant.
*I just realized Ben Kingsley was in both of these. Heh.
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murlough23
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« Reply #6388 on: June 19, 2010, 01:23:34 AM » |
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Uncertainty. The rare film that has the audacity to waste my time twice.
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murlough23
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« Reply #6389 on: June 19, 2010, 11:48:11 PM » |
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Toy Story 3. I cried like a little girl.
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enemy anemone
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« Reply #6390 on: June 20, 2010, 02:46:49 AM » |
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just reading the description of the movie made me sad and mad. dumped. in a day care. HOW COULD YOU, ANDY?!?!  I watched LotR again. it's weird; I used to like movieArwen, but now I kind of hate her. re-reading the appendix to refresh my memory on "how things really happened" has perhaps jump-started my re-read of the books though. \o/ |
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Brenden
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« Reply #6391 on: June 20, 2010, 08:57:58 AM » |
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just reading the description of the movie made me sad and mad. dumped. in a day care. HOW COULD YOU, ANDY?!?! Without spoiling anything, let me say what was shown in the trailer. It wasn't Andy's fault. |
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enemy anemone
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« Reply #6392 on: June 20, 2010, 09:59:38 AM » |
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oh, good! that makes me feel better.
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Brenden
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« Reply #6393 on: June 21, 2010, 09:51:44 AM » |
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Toy Story 3
Loved it, can't think of anything to complain about.
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enemy anemone
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« Reply #6394 on: June 22, 2010, 10:58:41 PM » |
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The Italian Job (2003)
more Prime Suspect
more Stephen Fry in America
some I'm in a Rock 'n' Roll Band! (I wasn't familiar with many of the bands. or I don't like them. so it was interesting but also annoying.)
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AldaForPresident
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« Reply #6396 on: June 24, 2010, 11:05:32 PM » |
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Toy Story 3
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murlough23
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« Reply #6397 on: June 26, 2010, 12:51:10 AM » |
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Alice in Wonderland. Better than I expected, but still kind of meh.
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enemy anemone
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« Reply #6398 on: June 26, 2010, 11:21:47 AM » |
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Fantastic Mr. Fox
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Vlad!
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« Reply #6399 on: June 26, 2010, 05:28:00 PM » |
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Fantastic Mr. Fox
I've been thinking about renting that one. Opinions? |
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If you don’t have freedom as a principle, you can never see a reason not to make an exception. There are constantly going to be times when for one reason or another there’s some practical convenience in making an exception.
rms
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