[Drawnblud]

when people complain about Star Wars and how it sucks and they know that the new Star Wars will suck, but yet they spend their $7.00-$8.50 to go see it just so they can complain about something they already knew was going to suck.
If you see a pile of shit on the sidewalk and you know it is shit, do you pick it up and smell it or taste it? No, you leave it alone. So if these people knew the movie was going to be shit, why did they go and see it?
I loved the movie and will see it 600 more times. Yeah, it had it's flaws, but I still think that it was a wonderful movie.

[James Bradford]

I wouldn't let it bother you so much. From what I can tell most people did not like the film because it lacked good acting or the story was not good. Although I think in some regaurd, even for those who did not like it, everyone walked away from it with something that amazed them.

Sometimes a person can forget the movie's base purpous is for entertainment value. When you go nitpicking about something like a movie you are letting a lack of imagination get to you.

[Giant Hamster]

"So if these people knew the movie was going to be shit, why did they go and see it?"

Because if the person didn't go see it then people use the, "Don't knock it till you've tried* it" excuse.


*'Seen', in this case.

[Loki]

drawnblood: oh - boo hoo!

[ruler protractor pen penc]

looking at it in a wide angle view, i do like how it's such a huge story. interesting indeed. but, My God, do you have any idea How MAny Flaws this movie Had??

that seriously bugs me.

other than that, it could've been an epic masterpiece.

[Goldabar]

$8 paid here, 2.5 hours of thorough entertainment has been had, so did the movie suck for me? Nope and I couldn't be bothered wasting time whinging and whining about bad acting when the movie did for me what it was supposed to...

(Um...entertain me )

[Basse_Ex]

I haven't seen it yet, but as someone who actually enjoyed "The Phantom Menace", and found nothing wrong with it as a film, I think it's pretty safe to say I will like it.

You see, I didn't like Star Wars as a kid. When I was six years old and saw the first one for the first time, all I could think was "Gee, look at those silly plastic helmets? Did they buy them at Ringo(The Norwegian answer to Toy'R'Us)?"

I was a special effects nut, and in 1986, Star Wars was primitive(OK, I actually didn't see a single special effects film that had me reasonably convinced before "Jurassic Park").

It's just a couple of years ago that I started to like Star Wars(Before Phantom Menace, though).
So I want to say something to all you old timer Star Wars fans out there:

STAR WARS HAS ALWAYS BEEN CHILDISH AND SILLY! And that's why people like it. Phantom Menace was in no way more childish than the others. It just featured a child, that's all. What's wrong with the new Star Wars films is not that the franchise that has gotten more Disneyfied, or that George Lucas has lost his touch, but that the audience has gotten older.

Deal with it, or simply don't go to see it.

I know I'm going.

[ May 20, 2002: Message edited by: Basse_Ex ]

[Minefield]

star wars has never had a fascinating, intriguing storyline with exciting twists and witty plot devices. it's just visuals. i haven't expected anything else from it. and I enjoy it. i know the storyline is full of shit. i almost fell off my chair when the first piece of dialog (or monologue ;p) was done with. but i still enjoy it, because it looks so f*cking cool.

[Awetopsy]

I love Star Wars... Always have.

I enjoyed Phantom Menace to the extent that it was an entertaining movie. I just hated Jar Jar Binks.

I loved episode 2. I loved it! I thought It was a great movie.. with flaws.. but what movie doesnt have its flaws? You cant please everybody. George knows this and so hes making a movie to please himself and as many people as possible.

I forgot what my point was so...

[klaivu]

<rant>

Star wars ever an epic masterpiece ? Dull, commercial and force-fed steaming poo spreading from america to all over across the world. It's pouring out of the tv, papers, internet .. ggghhh.

Hard work and loads of money to further assimilate the whole of the world to a cultureless, homogenic throng - Stalin would have loved American culture - it's doing everything he could not with his seven-year plans.

</rant>

Bah, I liked star wars when I was ten.

[Steven Stahlberg]

Klaivu -
Cultureless? How do you define culture?
I don't really see 'culture' disappearing, whatever you mean by it.
Do you have any examples of it? I know that chinese kids prefer MacDonald's food to traditional chinese food, but come on, who can blame them, have you ever tried boiled chickens feet? (well j/k - sort of...)

Whenever there's a trend, sooner or later comes the counter-trend, never fails. Like the swing of a pendulum. So I never worry about that kind of crap, especially if I can do nothing about it.

[Waldo]

Not a comment on Star Wars, but the first thing that came to mind when reading your post was how it is the same with the idiot/flame threads that occur around here...

A bandwagon, good or bad, is fun to jump on as the quality sideshow gets barely a glance? Guilty as charged.

I don't know. Back to Sociology class.

[edraket]

Native americans.
Aboriginals.
Inuit

And probably countless others.

I am sure their counterreactions are quite interesting. They might even open their own souvenir shop. But mostly they will just continue to be the aimless scum of society. If you lose your roots you lose your future.

(One thing I have to say is that aboriginal art is one of the most fascinating art movements of these times and yes..certainly a counter"trend")

People don't choose to have a McDonalds in their country. People don't choose to have McDonalds advertise them to death.
The McDonalds just goes in with big budgets and brainwashes the people to think it is somehow cool to go eat an overpriced slab of bland meat on a damp bun.

You can call it advertising or you can call it propaganda.

Culture according to the dictionary:

These patterns, traits, and products considered as the expression of a particular period, class, community, or population: Edwardian culture; Japanese culture; the culture of poverty.

So if you ask me going into a country and shaping their world to be like yours instead of theirs is indeed destroying culture.

[ May 22, 2002: Message edited by: edraket ]

[Steven Stahlberg]

You can't compare what happened to native americans and the inuit with what Hollywood, Britney Spears and MacDonalds are supposedly doing to poor Finland, France, China, Egypt and the rest of the world. Aboriginal minorities in Japan, Australia, Scandinavia and many many other countries have been treated badly; it's nothing new or typically American.

What's so damn bad about MacDonalds anyway, that's what I want to know. It's cheap, clean and quick, great when you have kids, not the healthiest food but not the unhealthiest either. And if I think it tastes great, and you don't, that doesn't prove I'm a brainwashed idiot, just that our tastes differ.

Once I got sick from some raw chicken away from home in Singapore, was sick to death for 2 weeks (though I still had to work there), and the only damn thing I could find close to the office that I could keep down was a Big Mac, some fries and a coke. Thank God for the golden arches, without them I would have starved, been unable to work, and probably lost out on a 10,000 USD contract.
Nobody makes better fries, when they're fresh, and they do their best to ensure that. That's the real reason big M is everywhere.
LOL If people could be brainwashed into buying stuff, no product would ever flop on the market. Yes, large masses of people can be sheep - BUT - it's a VERY fickle complex flock, divided into sub-flocks and sub-sub-flocks, constantly changing. Make a bad product and they leave you like that [snaps finger]. Ask anyone in marketing, it can be a total nightmare.

What you wanna do, forbid people to open certain kind of restaurants in certain countries? You do know that MacDonald's is a franchise, right, that it's citizens of the same country that stand in line, begging on their bended knees, to be allowed to buy the franchise? (Because it invariably makes the buyer very very rich.)
That's another reason they're so huge, they're the ones who invented the franchise business model, way back in the fifties.

[ May 22, 2002: Message edited by: Steven Stahlberg ]

[Coaster]

Im sorry I'm not the type of person who takes the words of otheres and can see into the future, if I was I would've known it was bad.

[Drawnblud]

Well, I didn't think that my rant about Star Wars and piles of shit would turn into this!
Isn't freedom great?
Speaking of McDonalds, I am a Manager there while working my way through College. A lot of people think that any monkey from NASA could do that job, but the people that think that have never worked at McDonalds. That is some hard work. True, most of the people that work there are morons (I said Most, not All!), but have you ever had to listen to some poopy-head fat ass piss and moan because their sandwich has pickles on it? Pickles for cryin' out loud!! I could understand if you bought a Lincoln and it didn't have any seats. That is something to complain about. But Pickles?
Sorry. I'm a little passionate on the subject. McDonalds is a pretty okay place to work.
Anyway, cheers everyone. The McDonalds Reich will last a thousand years!!!

[Akolyte]

I like Fruit Roll-Ups

[Trance-R]

Say, purple is a funky color eh?

[edraket]

I know how McDonalds works. I know you can't forbid them.
That doesn't mean that I like the fact that nowadays progress of civilisation is often measured by how westernised you are.

That said I have to admit that there has been a moment in my life where I was actually happy to find a Mac. I had been lost in the mountains somewhere in romania for a few days. When we got out finally after days of sleeping in the mountains with creepy gypsies wandering around our tent just having a soda and a burger in a safe environment was actually close to heaven.
(nice tidbit: The romanian MacDonalds has a beertap next to their soda machine)

I know the history of the people I mentioned before is different. But I do think that they show now what can happen to people if you strip away their roots.
The same thing is happening all over the world. Just in a less pronounced way.

Nobody makes better fries

You think so? Man I honestly can't believe you are saying that. Thats sad..ever been to belgium?
I don't see how it's cheap either. In the US..sure..but not here. What I pay for a Big Mac meal gets me a full meal with fresh vegetables and a piece of tasty meat in a cheap restaurant.

What is marketing other than an attempt to brainwash people? You are influencing peoples choices. Often to buy products they don't even need. Of course it fails often..that doesn't change the intent.

About starwars. Anything that promotes a fantasy world and is successful is a good thing in my opinion. It makes the world more fun!

[Lunatique]

I gotta back Steven up on this.

If you end up in a country where your stomache can't handled the local food due to their use of exotic spices, or just unsanitary preparation, you'll be DAMN happy to find that big M. It's either that, or starve on your vacation.

Franchises themselves are not evil. You can choose NOT to eat their food.

Jamaba Juice is a franchise, but no one bashes them. There are other franchises too, but people pick McDonalds to bash because they are the biggest. Reminds me of the way people bash the United States.

McDonalds is in the business of real estate, not food. The food thing is just the icing on the cake. Some of the best real estate properties are owned by the big M. Those land properties makes them more money than their entire fast food operation. Next time you pass by a big M, look at WHERE it's located--a very valuable piece of land.

[Steven Stahlberg]

Edraket, good point about loosing your roots, that's true... at the same time we have to expect the world to change, we can't freeze time, not for long anyway. Everything just keeps changing. One after another they come, they change things, they fade: the Sumerians, Persians, Alexander, Rome, Byzantium, the Mongols, Britain, Germany...

About Belgian fries, sorry I didn't mean to compare the american food with foreign food (I think Belgium invented the 'frites' right?), I know there are things in every country that only they can do well... I meant to compare franchises, to find why MacDonald's is the most successful one. It's the quality of the food and service, nothing to do with brainwashing.

You have a funny definition of brainwashing. The term was coined back in the fifties to mean what the americans thought the communists were doing to their soldiers. Nowadays it's been bastardised and used for almost anything, but to me it's still a very strong term. Advertising - I hate the industry, but I must say that there's no brainwashing involved. Huge billion dollar campaigns flop all the time, and heads roll over it.

Do you call it brainwashing when we try to sell ourselves to a prospective employer? Or try to pick up a girl? Because in a way I'm trying to influence her decisions, her brain.
Bringing up children would be much closer to real brainwashing, IMHO.

[jr]

Speaking as a semi outsider, I think it's a very western thing to say everything from the west is evil. It�s young people speaking out about what they think they know. (jejune maybe?) Stalin would have liked America? Hmmm, maybe Hawaii, but who doesn�t like Hawaii? I know those damn communists love the warmth!
My girlfriend is Japanese, traditional Japanese culture is not lost. To an outsider that expects some walk back in time when they look at Japan maybe.
The only thing fast food companies are guilty of is feeding the inherent laziness of the humans. We�re all guilty of that. And that�s from market research not from brainwashing.

Oh and btw, Star Wars is science fantasy, kind of a allegory, which means it, won�t happen and you should know it won�t happen, it�s not science fiction. i hear people saying the silliest things about what could happen and what couldn't happen. Lucas is actually trying to recycle old hero stories. He�s not the greatest storyteller but I think he�s doing a good job with these movies because I find them entertaining. I find that people have these crazy expectations for the prequels. But dudes, they�re just like the original three! Only backwards! 1. Ewok=jake loyd, 2. luke arm=anakin arm, I wonder what�ll happen with the next?
Hmm, that�s my rant.

[edraket]

Of course people influence each other. Thats pretty normal. Thats is still different from companies that spend money on making people believe things that are not true.

If I take someone elses portfolio and get myself a job with it I am lying and it is immoral.
But when a company says their burgers have fresh vegetables on them while in truth the vegetables are days old and kept green by nasty chemicals it's all ok.


Belgian fries are a world and half apart from any french fries. They are thicker..freshly cut and fried twice in the booth. They have about 20 different sauces. Of which mayonaise of course is the most common used one.
They make them in holland too. But they somehow taste less good. Must be the fat or something.


When I went to the US I went through the effort of sampling as much fast food as possible. I'd say the Burger King and Jack in the box are tastier. The service..I don't really notice any difference.

[jr]

there's a place in manhattan that sells only french fries. they cater to college students and are run by them. they have the best french fries i've ever had. their secret? you guest it, every fry is cooked in hot steaming oil, and love.