Members Idunno Posted January 2, 2015 Members Share Posted January 2, 2015 Pretty neato movie. Moves right along and Martin Freeman, like a nice area rug, pulls it together nicely. I was kinda hoping that Smaug's demise was a bigger part of the story but they did have to quickly kill him off to get on with the movie. Cool fight scenes, creatures, heartstring moments and sense of world community sewing up the ending. Popcorn was a little salty, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Glenn F Posted January 2, 2015 Members Share Posted January 2, 2015 I was hoping the confrontation with Sauron would be a bit longer, but there's always the Extended Edition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Idunno Posted January 2, 2015 Author Members Share Posted January 2, 2015 Yes, but I do think the scene shows Sarumon's capitulation to Sauron quite well and is telling in the way he says "Leave Sauron to me." That little Elf Queen had some grit, no? Always liked Kate Blanchet in that role. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted January 2, 2015 Members Share Posted January 2, 2015 Didn't see it yet. I would like to go in with a fresh perspective even though I read the book a couple of times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Idunno Posted January 2, 2015 Author Members Share Posted January 2, 2015 I went with a 16 year old Tolkien fan who patiently waded through Jackson's interpretation of each significant scene and saved it all up till the end of the movie. Sheesh, you'd thought the German's sank our carriers at Pearl Harbor the way he went off. I won't say any more and spoil it for you. It's a good flick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members katopp Posted January 3, 2015 Members Share Posted January 3, 2015 I went with a 16 year old Tolkien fan who patiently waded through Jackson's interpretation of each significant scene and saved it all up till the end of the movie. Sheesh, you'd thought the German's sank our carriers at Pearl Harbor the way he went off. I won't say any more and spoil it for you. It's a good flick. Ze Dschermenz did sink yer carriers... http://josh-rosenroth.newsvine.com/_news/2013/01/07/16388290-new-german-u-boot-class-212-a-to-challenge-us-carrier-in-exercise-near-azores And in regards to "The Hobbit"... Nay. It was like copy and paste agazillion times. Create Elf - copy and paste. Create Ork - copy and paste. Create Dwarf - copy and paste.And then have a particle algorithm go at each other in droves. For about an hour. Endlessly. That was like the first 10 minutes of "Saving Private Ryan" on repeat. Kill, slaughter, kill again. I could see the reason of turning the whole LotR into three massive movies. But a booklet ony a fraction of the volume of the first part of the LotR ... three movies out of that one?!?! Could you imagine LotR in 15 Movies? If spread out like The Hobbit... Sorry for the pun, but The Hobbit felt ... Thin, like butter streched over too much bread. No brownie points for identifying the quote here.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Idunno Posted January 3, 2015 Author Members Share Posted January 3, 2015 Ze Dschermenz did sink yer carriers... http://josh-rosenroth.newsvine.com/_...se-near-azores And in regards to "The Hobbit"... Nay. It was like copy and paste agazillion times. Create Elf - copy and paste. Create Ork - copy and paste. Create Dwarf - copy and paste.And then have a particle algorithm go at each other in droves. For about an hour. Endlessly. That was like the first 10 minutes of "Saving Private Ryan" on repeat. Kill, slaughter, kill again. I could see the reason of turning the whole LotR into three massive movies. But a booklet ony a fraction of the volume of the first part of the LotR ... three movies out of that one?!?! Could you imagine LotR in 15 Movies? If spread out like The Hobbit... Sorry for the pun, but The Hobbit felt ... Thin, like butter streched over too much bread. No brownie points for identifying the quote here.... Re: Submarines Yes. I know. The old American electric boats beat their modern nuclear counter-parts in hunter-killer roles in the mid 80s. The electric boats were the epitome of the book Run Silent, Run Deep. I work with a retired career submariner (Torpedoman) who's first duty was on one of the electric boats. He said they always won the under water drills. BTW, it is said of submariner crews the world over: 100 sailors go down, 50 couples come up. I don't know if the German crews will take kindly to it as spoken in mixed company so be careful. American crews coined it. Re: The Hobbit Yep, name me a bloody movie that isn't bloody. It's kinda scripted. You hafta accept that kind of logic. Applied, in the Hobbit we have odious creatures trying to do vile things to those outside their own species (because of the human influence, don'tcha know). So, it's the Hollywood bloody doppelganger marketing conspiracy: Blood draws the biggest-est crowd. As far as the story goes, too much bread, too little butter...yep. There were scenes that I could have missed to go relieve inner stresses and still kept the continuity. Overall, despite the cookie cutter stamp and send action figures you lament, it does give a good accounting of the other movies in the series that explain a lot of the from/to of their paths and purposes. Interstellar. That's a movie of a magnitude of horrible in proportion to its title, aside from sleepy, long and miscast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members katopp Posted January 3, 2015 Members Share Posted January 3, 2015 US electric subs in the 80's? Was the Barbel class active for that long? IIRC they've been commisioned in the late 50's??I have to admit, the fate of the US diesel subs sort of passed me by.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Idunno Posted January 3, 2015 Author Members Share Posted January 3, 2015 They were WWII diesel/electric boats still maintained for hunter-killer detection targets. The US nuclear missile and hunter-killer subs played different roles. The H-K roles were to detect and neutralize underwater adversaries to prevent them from detecting and neutralizing our underwater offensive strike capability (missile subs). The adversary was still employing electric boat H-K designs so their detection methods/techniques were developed by employing our own diesel/electric boats in an adversary role for training. I'm pretty sure the electric boats never were detectable under normal running conditions. There's a book I read lent to me by the fellow I mentioned above. It goes on to describe the personalities and events of the Silent Service. It's called Blind Man's Bluff. If you get up the curiosity, read it. There are many things people don't know about the operations of the submarine service that are explained in it including the technical failures leading to the loss of the Thresher and Scorpion. Admiral Rickover was a helluva guy in both good and bad ways but the submarine service architecture was all him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members katopp Posted January 3, 2015 Members Share Posted January 3, 2015 Blind Man's Bluff by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew? Sitting right here on my desk. Not a bad read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Idunno Posted January 3, 2015 Author Members Share Posted January 3, 2015 That's the one. There was one thing I read and did not understand about a hot torpedo on board. I think I read that if that occurs, the captain will put the boat in a gradual right hand turn to match the internal programming of the torpedo. I never did get the reasoning behind it. Was it because if the torpedo did not make contact it followed such a route until it disarmed itself? I was never clear on that. Supposedly, the Scorpion (IIRC) was thought to have experienced a hot torpedo causing its sinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members katopp Posted January 3, 2015 Members Share Posted January 3, 2015 A hot run.Happens, when by mistake or accident the torpedo engine runs while not in the water. At the end of it's run, you do not want to give the opponent crucial information about the design of your weapon, so you let it go off - ka-boom. Prevents it from being found and salvaged. Obviously, you do not want to have that eel cooking off while still aboard. Submarines and holes in the hull does not compute. So you turn back 180 degrees, not gradually but ASAP, this engages a safety mechanism that prevents the eel from exploding. You do not want to sink your own ship with your own torpedo if, for instance, a rudder sticks on the eel, so you disarm it, should it feel the need to get home.Unfortunately, turning while running is as hard in a sub than in a plane. Try your favourite flight sim and you will learn, that while turning the rudders become part elevons and the elevons become part rudder. In short: you are likely to raise or drop the nose while turning. Now, getting out of balance is something you do not want to happen in a sub. All the loose stuff falls down and increases the imbalance and once your nuclear reactor shuts down due to the tilt, you are on a long way down. Until the pressure moves the ends of the sub into the center. Like a syringe and the plunge.Did happen to the Kursk, too .... but there the unspent torpedo fuel ignited and the thing turned into quite an oven.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Idunno Posted January 3, 2015 Author Members Share Posted January 3, 2015 Ah, That's it then. A go-no-go device to self disarm. Airplane turns must be rudder/aileron/elevator coordinated or the slip could lead to uncontrolled flight and a necessary recovery. Been there. Scared the crap out of me at first but then stall/spin recovery should be in the skills set of every type-rated pilot, type pending of course. Yea, I read that on the Kursk that a propellent explosion took her out. All hands lost. I was just doing some cloud scudding a couple minutes ago and found this. Interesting and quite different from the book's account of the Scorpion. It looks like she was taken out by the Russians and not a victim of her own mechanical failures the book tells us. http://www.historynet.com/the-uss-sc...ied-at-sea.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members katopp Posted January 3, 2015 Members Share Posted January 3, 2015 Well, since the cold war was coming to an end - at least until Russia and the USA did re-start the aggression - and the Russians did not disclose anything, we will never know. The position of the wreckage and the stills that I have seen - apparently the video shot by Ballard is still classified - tend to support the hot run/mechanical failure theory.If the Russians would have been involved, there would have been either a torpedo involved - which makes a bloody loud noise and leaves some easily visible compression marks and cracks in the hull, or a Russian Sub must have rammed the Scorpion. Not that THAT never happened - apparently at least one US hunter/killer came extremely close to an opponent and they exchanged paint. Same for at least one British sub.So, I rule out the Russki torpedo and call the collision theory at least a weak theory - there must have been at least 130 Russian soldiers that would have to keep ther moths shut forever about this. But if you then assume a Russki Kamikaze.... And about the coordinated turn... No ailerons on a sub. Have fun trying to get her back into balance while being banked and tilted.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Idunno Posted January 3, 2015 Author Members Share Posted January 3, 2015 Could be, and you're right about the sound. As it was they were placing it based on a hot-run torpedo course change and that's where it was found. Still, the new accounts of being shadowed by a Russian sub are intriguing. Or, it's a ruse. I thought I'd read in the book about a bad batch of torpedo batteries fitted to the Mk37 fish. Why not further that account and weight it with evidence of the recall mentioned in the book? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members katopp Posted January 3, 2015 Members Share Posted January 3, 2015 The battery recall was official and so was the precarious state of the Scorpion. New technology, spread out like too little butter on too much bread.Anyway, we will possibly never learn the full truth. If it is known by someone.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted January 4, 2015 Members Share Posted January 4, 2015 Whuzzis? An airdale and a dolphin talking shop amidst a bastardization of a fairy tale written in the trenches in WWI? Whodathunkit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jamesp Posted January 4, 2015 Members Share Posted January 4, 2015 Saw Birdman yesterday. It was exactly the kind of film I've been wanting to see for the past few months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members garthman Posted January 4, 2015 Members Share Posted January 4, 2015 Santa left DVDs of Part 1 and 2 in my stocking. They shall be watched in the not too distant future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FretFiend. Posted February 21, 2015 Members Share Posted February 21, 2015 Hey vbadmin, You're slipping! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted February 23, 2015 Members Share Posted February 23, 2015 My grandfather was 5' tall and had hairy toes. Does that make ME part hobbit? EDIT: never mind. According to the prologue of Lord of the Rings, Hobbits top out at 4'. Mi nono (my grandfather who was from Italy) must have smoking the stogies at a very young age. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members epi56ebony Posted February 23, 2015 Members Share Posted February 23, 2015 Loved that D-28 Bilbo played in the movie. Beautiful version of Greensleeves! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted February 23, 2015 Members Share Posted February 23, 2015 That was actually Ed Sheeran playing a parlor IIRC. It wasn't just camera trickery; the guy actually IS a Hobbit. He's fourth cousin to the Bullroarer Took, twice removed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Idunno Posted February 23, 2015 Author Members Share Posted February 23, 2015 Well fook, it's just amazing the things we learn that our enhance lives so much more on these errant walkabouts. I had no idea Sheeran was a red-headed step son-of-gout-footed midget. Then that must have been a wee fairy he was twirling in that one video about, well, fairy twirling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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