Superman Lives (1998 - Cancel)

Kevin Smith pitched to Jon Peters his story outline in August 1996, in which Peters gave him permission to write a screenplay. However, Peters presented Smith with three rules, such as wanting Superman to wear an all-black suit, feeling the more traditional suit was "too faggy"; not wanting to see Superman fly, saying that Superman would "look like an overgrown Boy Scout." (In order to deal with this, Smith wrote Superman flying as "a red-and-blue blur in flight, creating a sonic boom every time he flew."); and have Superman fight a giant spider in the third act. Smith accepted the terms, realizing that he was being hired to execute a pre-ordained idea. Peters and Warner Bros. forced Smith to write a scene involving Brainiac fighting polar bears at the Fortress of Solitude, and Peters wanted Brainiac to give Lex Luthor a space dog, stating "Chewie's cuddly, man. You could make a toy out of him, so you've got to give me a dog."Smith claims this was because of the recent re-release of the original Star Wars trilogy, and claims that Peters wanted Brainiac's robot assistant L-Ron to be voiced by Dwight Ewell, calling him, "a gay R2-D2 with attitude." Peters was able to recycle his giant spider idea in Wild Wild West (1999), a film he produced.

Smith's draft (titled Superman Lives) had Brainiac sending Doomsday to kill Superman, as well as blocking out the sun to make Superman powerless, as Superman is fueled by sunlight. Brainiac teams with Lex Luthor, but Superman is resurrected by a Kryptonian robot, The Eradicator. Brainiac wishes to possess The Eradicator and its technology. Powerless, the resurrected Superman is sheathed in armor formed from The Eradicator itself until his powers return, courtesy of sunbeams, and defeats Brainiac. Smith's casting choices included Ben Affleck as Clark Kent / Superman, Linda Fiorentino as Lois Lane, Jack Nicholson as Lex Luthor, Famke Janssen as Mercy, John Mahoney as Perry White, David Hyde Pierce as The Eradicator, Jason Lee as Brainiac and Jason Mewes as Jimmy Olsen.

Robert Rodriguez was offered the chance to direct, but turned down the offer due to his commitment on The Faculty (1998), despite liking Smith's script. Smith originally suggested Tim Burton to direct his script, and Burton signed on with a pay or play contract of $5 million and the studio set the theatrical release date in the summer of 1998, the 60th anniversary of the character's debut in Action Comics. Nicolas Cage, a comic book fan, signed on as Superman with a $20 million pay or play contract, feeling he could "re-conceive the character." Peters felt Cage could "convince audiences he [Superman] came from outer space." Burton stated it would be "the first time you would believe that nobody could recognize Clark Kent as Superman, he [Cage] could physically change his persona."Kevin Spacey was approached for the role of Lex Luthor, while Tim Allen claimed he was in talks for Brainiac (a role heavily considered for Jim Carrey). Courteney Cox was reported as a casting possibility for Lois Lane, while Smith confirmed Chris Rock was set for Jimmy Olsen. Michael Keaton confirmed his involvement, but when asked if he would be reprising his role as Batman (as he had done in Burton's Batman and Batman Returns), he would only reply, "Not exactly." Industrial Light & Magic was set for work on special effects.

It was announced in April 1997 that filming would begin early-1998. That June, Superman Lives entered pre-production, with an art department employed under production designer Rick Heinrichs. Burton decided to hire Wesley Strick to completely rewrite Smith's script. In return, Smith was overtly disappointed: "The studio was happy with what I was doing. Then Tim Burton got involved, and when he signed his pay-or-play deal, he turned around and said he wanted to do his version of Superman. So who is Warner Bros. going back to? The guy who made Clerks, or the guy who made them half a billion dollars on Batman?" When Strick read Smith's script, he was annoyed with the fact that "Superman was accompanied/shadowed by someone/something called The Eradicator." He also felt that "Brainiac's evil plot of launching a disk in space to block out the sun and make Superman powerless was reminiscent of an episode of The Simpsons, with Mr. Burns doing the Brainiac role." However, after reading The Death and Return of Superman, Strick claimed he understood some of the elements of Smith's script. Strick's rewrite featured Superman questioning his existence and abilities, thinking of himself to be an outsider on Earth. Superman is threatened by Brainiac and Lex Luthor, who later amalgamate into "Lexiac," described by Strick as "a schizo/scary mega-villain."Superman is later resurrected by the power of 'K', a natural force representing the spirit of Krypton, as Superman defeats Lexiac.

Art designer Sylvain Despretz claimed the art department was assigned to create something that had little or nothing to do with the Superman comic book. Despretz also claimed that Peters "would bring kids in, who would rate the drawings on the wall as if they were evaluating the toy possibilities. It was basically a toy show!" Peters saw a cover of National Geographic, containing a picture of a skull, going to art department workers, telling them he wanted the design for Brainiac's space ship to have the same image. Burton gave Despretz a concept drawing for Brainiac, which Despretz claims was "a cone with a round ball on top, and something that looked like a emaciated skull inside. Imagine you take Merlin's hat, and you stick a fish bowl on top, with a skull in it." Concept artist Rolf Mohr claimed he designed a suit for The Eradicator for a supposed scene when he turns into a flying vehicle.

Burton chose Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as his primary filming location for Metropolis, while sound stages were reserved but start dates for filming were pushed back. A minor piece of the Krypton set was constructed but then destroyed, and Cage had even attended a costume fitting.The studio was considering changing the title Superman Lives back to Superman Reborn. The film's escalating budget (which went from $100 million to $190 million) forced Warner Bros. to ultimately put the film on hold in April 1998, and Burton left to direct Sleepy Hollow. At this point in production, $30 million was spent, with nothing to show for it. To this day, Burton has depicted the experience of Superman Lives as one of the worst experiences in his life, citing various differences with Peters and the studio, stating, "I basically wasted a year. A year is a long time to be working with somebody that you don't really want to be working with

from Wikipedia

Goggle V

Dai Sentai Goggle V (大戦隊ゴーグルファイブ, Dai Sentai Gōguru Faibu), translated into English as Great Squadron Goggle V, is a Japanese tokusatsu television series. It was the sixth installment in Toei Company's Super Sentai series of tokusatsu television dramas. It aired on TV Asahi from February 6, 1982 to January 21, 1983, with a total of 50 episodes. It was the most-watched Super Sentai series in Japan as of 2006.

It got the highest ratings of all sentai (at least up to 1988), but is least popular among Japanese fans(as opposed to Japanese children). Cf. Ultraman Taro, another series unpopular with fans though popular with children. 50episodes Dr. Hongou, founder of the Future Science Laboratory, confirms that Deathdark has begun its nefarious activities at Wolfborg Castle in Germany. Attacked by Deathdark, he is saved by Akama Ken'ichi and returns to Japan, where he has the Comboyputer select five people, including Akama, to become the Great Task Force Goggle V. The team succeeds in their first mission against Shell Mozoo and the giant robot Fankong. After numerous defeats, Fuehrer Taboo revives Grand Marshal Deathmark from a long sleep. To reorganize Deathdark, Deathmark sentences Doctors Zazoriya and Igaana to death. Deathdark creates seemingly indestructible Super Synthetic Beasts, but the team copes with this by devising the Goggle Golden Spear attack. In the end, Deathmark discovers the super energy 'Hightron', which they use to create their final weapon, the Dark Cannon. At the same time, Deathdark discovers the location of Goggle V's base and destroys it. Deathmark sends the Hightron-powered Cheetah and Bear Mozoo / Kongs after the team, but they, like their lesser Mozoo and Kong predecessors fail, even though Deathgiller pilots Bear Kong himself. Dr. Hongou builds the team a new base, from which they set off to break into Deathtopia and defeat Taboo, who reveals and enlarges himself at last, with the eye-poking EarthSword Electron Galactic missile move.

Heroes

Akama Ken'ichi/Goggle Red

World class explorer and mountain climber. By saving Dr. Hongou from Deathdark's Madaramen, he came to realize what peril the world was in. His forehead jewel is the ruby, symbolizing Atlantis. Armed with the Red Ruby Whip and the Red Rope.

Kuroda Kanpei/ Goggle Black

President of the chess club at Touto University. Specializes in strategy. Normally a janitor of Kourakuen Stadium. His forehead jewel is the emerald, symbolizing Asia. Armed with the Black Clubs, Black Emerald Nunchakus, Dynamite Clubs, the Black Shadow technique, and the Black Wind Wheel Whirlwind technique.

Aoyama Saburou/ Goggle Blue

Ice hockey player and would-be inventor. His forehead jewel is the sapphire, symbolizing Egypt. Armed with the Blue Ring, Blue Sapphire Jet Ring, the Ring Waist Break technique, and the Blue Jet Dash technique.

Kijima Futoshi/ Goggle Yellow

Works at a zoo. His forehead jewel is the opal, symbolizing Mu (Lemuria). Armed with the Yellow Ball, Lightning Light Ball, Yellow Opal Megaton Ball, Yellow Hammer, Yellow Holedigging technique, and the Yellow Mole Strike technique.

Momozono Miki/ Goggle Pink

Gymnast who works as an announcer at Kourakuen Stadium. Her forehead jewel is the diamond, symbolizing the Mayans and Incas. Armed with the Pink Ribbon, Pink Diamond Baton, Pink Mirror, Pink Ribbon Bind technique, and the Pink Heart Hypnosis technique.


Arsenal

The team has many combination attacks, such as the Lightning Ropes, the Dynamite Clubs, the Ring Spin Typhoons, the Lightning Light Balls, the Ribbon Sparks, the Goggle Victory Flash, the Goggle Bomber, the Sabre Attack, and the Goggle Golden Spear. All are armed wih Goggle Sabres.












Mecha

Gogglecaesar
flying fortress, launches from a pad beneath Kourakuen Stadium (amusement park featuring Toei heroes)
launches three components of Goggle Robo from numbered drawers


Goggle Jet (Red) + Tank (Blue and Black) + Dump (Yellow and Pink) = Gogglerobo
armed with Earth Sword (Electron Galaxy Cut), Goggle Hand, hand Missile, Goggle Flash beam, and Goggle Spin top.







from Supersentai

Clone Wars

The conflicts leading up to the Clone Wars begin 32 years before the events of A New Hope and during the second half of the film The Phantom Menace. The Trade Federation, a major galactic trade organization under the control of the Neimoidians, blockades the small planet Naboo and demands the capitulation of the world by its queen, Padmé Amidala, who refuses their demands and requests help from the Galactic Republic, the main governing body of the galaxy. The Republic responds by sending two Jedi ambassadors, Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi to oversee the situation and negotiate with the Trade Federation. The Federation, wary of the Jedi and secretly taking orders from Darth Sidious, attempt to murder the Jedi, who escape to Naboo just as the Federation begins a full-scale invasion. Following a brief occupation, the Trade Federation are defeated by an alliance of the Naboo Royal Guard and the indigenous Gungan Tribes, with the help of the Jedi.^[4]

Following these events, Jedi Master Dooku resigns from the Jedi Order and returns to his homeworld of Serenno, taking on his hereditary title of Count.^[5] Unfortunately, the Jedi Council are unaware that Dooku has fallen under the control of Sith master Darth Sidious, who begins organizing a separatist coalition of planets and civilizations with the intention of seceding from the Republic. During this time, the Separatists begin forming their own armies, which primarily consist of battle droids constructed by the Trade Federation and their allies.

Ten years later, following the attempted assassination of Senator Padmé Amidala, Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker's investigation puts them on the trail of Jango Fett, an intergalactic bounty hunter. Tracking him to the world of Kamino, Obi-Wan discovers that the Kaminoans have used samples of Fett's DNA to clone a vast army of soldiers, called Clone Troopers. The order for the soldiers was submitted to the Kaminoans by Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas (Who had been killed before making the order). Meanwhile, the Republic soon faces internal opposition as several thousand worlds publicly secede from the Galactic Republic and form the Confederacy of Independent Systems, or CIS. The Republic Senate deliberates the Military Creation Act, which calls for the formation of an army to serve the Republic in keeping order across Republic Star Systems and preventing further secession. As deliberations stall, Shadow Senator for Naboo, Jar Jar Binks proposes (after suggestion from Chancellor Palpatine) that the Chancellor be granted emergency powers in order to resolve the issue of the Clone Army awaiting approval on Kamino and take decisive action to put down the rebellion. This is greeted by applause from the majority of the Senate Chamber, and Chancellor Palpatine describes it as a 'purely temporary measure'.

The Clone Army of the Republic first saw battle engaging the Separatist forces on Geonosis, which had been discovered and reported by Obi-Wan Kenobi prior to his capture. The forces were commanded by Master Yoda. The Battle of Geonosis marks the end of Attack of the Clones and the beginning of the Clone War.

During the in-universe time period between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, conflict between the Republic and the Separatists increases and expands, which is chronicled in an extensive Multimedia campaign.

Three years after the Battle of Geonosis, the Confederacy attempts to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine from the Republic capital world of Coruscant under the command of the cyborg General Grievous. The Chancellor is rescued and Confederacy leader Count Dooku killed, thanks to the efforts of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker.

At this point in the Clone Wars timeline, the Outer Rim Sieges are in full swing, as well as numerous other battles across the galaxy. The Jedi are considered battle commanders, far outranking clones in terms of battle prowess, and are spread thin across the galaxy. One of the key battles of the Outer Rim Sieges is the Battle of Utapau, depicted in Revenge of the Sith; during the battle, Obi-Wan strikes a crippling blow to the Confederacy by killing one of their most prominent leaders, General Grievous. However, the entire Battle of Utapau is a diversionary tactic, intended to remove Obi-Wan Kenobi from Anakin Skywalker's immediate circle of influence in order for Chancellor Palpatine to draw Anakin towards the dark side of the Force.

Left behind by Obi-Wan on Coruscant, Anakin discovers that Palpatine is also Darth Sidious, Sith leader of the Confederacy. He informs Mace Windu, who promptly comes with a posse of Jedi Knights to detain the corrupt Chancellor. A furious duel ensues in Palpatine's personal chambers, until only Windu and Palpatine are left standing. Skywalker arrives at the Chancellor's quarters to find Palpatine at the mercy of Windu's lightsaber. Anakin, promised by Palpatine enough power to save his wife Padmé from death, cuts Windu's lightsaber hand off, allowing Palpatine to kill Windu. Palpatine/Sidious takes Anakin as his new Sith Apprentice, after losing Dooku, and gives him the Sith name Darth Vader. Anakin has now completely fallen under the sway of the Dark Side.

Utilizing the attack by Mace Windu as a pretext, Palpatine issues Order 66, a pre-arranged military command ordering all Clone Troopers to execute their Jedi commanders. Darth Vader leads the raid on the Jedi Temple with the 501st Clone Trooper Legion and kills all the Jedi in the Temple, including Jedi younglings living in the Temple. The handful of survivors of the Great Jedi Purge include Yoda and Obi-Wan.

With the extermination of the Jedi complete, Palpatine marks an end to the Galactic Republic, naming himself ruler of the Galactic Empire. During this time, Emperor Palpatine dispatches Vader to Mustafar to kill the rest of the Separatist leaders. With the elimination of the Confederacy leadership, Palpatine (as Darth Sidious) orders all battle droids to be shut down immediately, effectively ending the war.

From Wikipedia

Psycho

Plot

The movie opens in Phoenix, Arizona, where discreet lovers Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) and Sam Loomis (John Gavin) want to marry, but cannot, as Sam is in debt and must also pay heavy alimony to his ex-wife. Unhappy and desperate to improve their situation, Marion steals $40,000 in cash from her office and drives to California, where Sam lives. All the while, Marion is nervous and apprehensive, and drives well into the night, eventually parking alongside the road to sleep.

She is awakened by a concerned highway police officer, who warns her that it is dangerous to sleep in a car and tells her in the future to find a motel. However, Marion's agitation and desperation to leave arouses his suspicions. The officer looks at her license and registration, taking note of the plate number. He allows her to go on, but follows her, which agitates Marion further. Realizing that he now knows her plate number, is suspicious of her, and that she can be tracked by the authorities when the money is reported stolen, she trades her 1956 Ford Mainline (and pays an additional $700) for a 1957 Ford Custom 300 before continuing to California. However, the same officer has been watching the exchange from across the street and gotten her new plate number. Marion leaves, worrying that the car trader will express suspicions of his own to the officer.

Marion becomes fatigued from stress and driving in heavy rain and decides to find a proper place to stay for the night, fearing a reprise of the incident with the patrolman. She turns off the main road without realizing it, and arrives at the Bates Motel, a twelve-cabin lodging, rather out-of-the-way with no other guests at present. The young, boyishly handsome and innocent-seeming owner, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), explains to her that business has decreased dramatically since the new road bypassed the motel. Norman does what little work is left, and also looks after his mother in a sinister-looking house on top of a nearby hill. Marion checks in under an assumed name, though she unwittingly gives her real name to him later.

It is still raining, Marion is very tired, and the nearest diner is ten miles away, so Norman suggests that she have dinner at his house. However, from her room, Marion overhears a heated argument between Norman and his mother, who seems to suspect that his meal with Marion is part of a sordid affair. The two eat in the office instead, where Norman keeps several stuffed birds (his hobby is taxidermy). While eating, they have a gentle conversation at first, but Norman loses his temper after she delicately suggests he gets help in looking after his disturbed mother. Norman recovers from his brief outburst and admits that he would like to leave, but can't abandon his mother. He compares his life to a trap and observes that this aptly describes most people. Feeling that the theft of the money has also got her into a trap, Marion resolves to drive back to Phoenix in the morning. She undresses in her room next door while Norman watches through a peephole in the wall of his office.

Resolving to make amends to her employer, Marion makes a few calculations based on how much the escapade has cost her. She then takes a shower. Suddenly, a human figure enters the bathroom — shadowy through the shower curtain — and brutally stabs Marion to death. She dies shortly after grabbing the curtain, which collapses. Norman is horrified when he finds the bloody corpse, but he pulls himself together and wraps it in the shower curtain. He cleans up the room, then places the body and all of Marion's possessions (including the stolen money which is still hidden in a newspaper) into the trunk of her car before pushing it into a swamp, eliminating any incriminating evidence.

Shortly afterward, Marion's lover Sam is contacted almost simultaneously by Marion's worried sister Lila (Vera Miles) and by a private detective, Milton Arbogast (Martin Balsam), hired by Marion's employer to find her and recover the money himself, as her employer does not want police involvement. Arbogast suspects that either of them could know Marion's whereabouts. However, he traces the missing woman to the Bates Motel and questions Norman, who lies poorly. Arbogast wants to speak to Bates's mother but the young man vehemently forbids it. Arbogast then calls Marion's sister from a public phone, and tells her that he is not satisfied with what he has been told. He sneaks into the old house to question Mrs. Bates, but is pushed backwards down a flight of stairs and stabbed to death.

Lila and Sam become concerned when Arbogast does not report again and decide to alert the local police. Deputy Sheriff Al Chambers (John McIntire) is puzzled that Arbogast has claimed to have seen Norman's mother, as she has been buried for the past ten years, having (apparently) poisoned herself and her lover with strychnine. Meanwhile, the Bates' house resonates with a conversation as Norman confronts his mother, urging her to go into hiding in the fruit cellar, as people are already searching for Marion and will eventually search for Arbogast as well. She rejects the suggestion, angrily mentioning the previous occasion when Norman convinced her to stay down there for a long time. She then orders Norman to leave the room. He refuses, picks her up against her will and carries her downstairs to the fruit cellar, with her yelling "Put me down! I can walk on my own!"

Sam and Lila decide to check into the Bates Motel, posing as a married couple. Norman assigns them to a cabin away from Marion's room. They sneak in anyway to investigate, and find that the shower curtain is missing. Lila looks into the toilet and sees a small scrap of paper caught at the edge. The sum of $40,000 is written on it, confirming that Marion had been there. Lila then sneaks into the house with the intention of talking to Norman's mother, while Sam distracts the young man. Sam suggests to Norman that he has killed Marion to get his hands on her stolen money. They argue until Norman realizes that Lila is not present. Furious and panicked, he knocks Sam unconscious and races to the house. Seeing him come through a window, Lila hides from him in the fruit cellar, where she discovers that Mrs. Bates is a semi-preserved mummified corpse. At that moment, Norman (wearing his mother's clothes and a wig) enters, screaming and holding a knife. However, Sam has regained consciousness and arrives just in time to save Lila. He rips Norman's wig and dress during their struggle.

At the end of the film, a forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Fred Richmond (Simon Oakland), explains to Lila, Sam, and the authorities that Bates's mother, though dead, lives on in Norman's psyche. Dr. Richmond explains that while growing up, Norman lived alone with his mother, as if they were the only two people in the world. ("A boy's best friend is his mother," Norman had told Marion early in the film.) Yet when his mother found a lover, Norman became jealous and murdered them both. He was so dominated by his mother while she lived, and so guilt-ridden for murdering her ten years earlier, that he tried to erase the crime from his mind by bringing his mother back to life. Physically, this was done by stealing her corpse ("a weighted coffin was buried," according to Richmond) and preserving his mother's body using his taxidermy skills. This process also created a dual personality in Norman; he incorporated the persona of his mother as a separate part of his psyche. When he is being his "Mother", he acts as he believes she would, talks as she would, and even dresses as she would, in an attempt to erase her absence and with it, his guilt. Because Norman was very jealous of his mother while she lived, he imagined that Mother would be equally jealous of any woman to whom he might be attracted, to the point of murdering them. Norman's psychosis protects him from (consciously) knowing about the crimes the mother figure commits, and it also prevents him from consciously knowing that his mother is long dead. Besides Marion and Arbogast, the sheriff recalls that the disappearances of two other young women in the area have gone unresolved.

The last scene shows Norman Bates seated in a cell. His mind is now completely dominated by the persona of his mother. We hear "her" internal voice as a voice-over. She blames Norman, and plans on demonstrating to the authorities that it was Norman who did the crimes, whereas she is utterly harmless. She knows that people must be observing her, and will show them what kind of a person she is. As a fly crawls on Norman's hand, Mother continues, "I'm not even going to swat that fly. I hope they are watching. They'll see, they'll know, and they'll say, 'Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly'". We see "Mother" give a smile of satisfaction, which shows through Norman's demented stare. (A double exposure shot of Norman's face over a bleached skull.) The film's final shot is of Marion's car being recovered from the swamp.

Awards

Psycho was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress (Janet Leigh), Direction (Alfred Hitchcock), Black and White Cinematography (John Russell), and Black and White Art Direction-set decoration (Joseph Hurley, Robert Clatworthy; George Milo). It did not win any Academy Awards, though Leigh did win a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress, and Perkins tied for best actor in an award from the International Board of Motion Picture Reviewers. Stefano was nominated for two writing awards by Edgar Allan Poe Awards and the Writers Guild of America, East; he won the former only. Hitchcock was nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures by the Directors Guild of America. In 1992, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.

"No other murder mystery in the history of the movies has inspired such merchandising."^[5] Any number of items emblazoned with Bates Motel, stills, lobby cards, and highly valuable posters are available for purchase. In 1992, it was adapted scene-for-scene into three comic books by the Innovative Corporation.^[5] It appeared on a number of lists by websites, TV channels, magazines, and books including the following:

• Its shower scene was featured as #4 on the list of Bravo Network's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.^[28]
• The finale was ranked #4 on Premiere's list of "The 25 Most Shocking Moments in Movie History."^[29]
• #11 in Entertainment Weekly's book titled The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time.^[1]

American Film Institute recognition

• 1998 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies #18
• 2001 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills #1
• 2003 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains:
  • Norman Bates - Villain #2
• 2005 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes:
  • "A boy's best friend is his mother," #56
• 2005 AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores #4
• 2007 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies #14

From Wikipedia

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is a 1978 comedy film directed by John De Bello and starring David Miller. The film is a spoof of B-movies. Made on a budget of less than USD$100,000, the story involves tomatoes becoming sentient by unknown means and revolting against humanity. Writing credits were shared by John De Bello, Costa Dillon, and Stephen Peace. The concept of Killer Tomatoes was created by Dillon.

Plot

The film opens with a scroll dictating that, when Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds (1963) was released, audiences laughed at the notion of birds revolting against humanity, but when an attack perpetrated by birds occurred in 1975, no one laughed. This is followed by a pre-credits sequence of a tomato rising out of a woman's garbage disposal unit. Her puzzlement turns into terror as the tomato draws her into a corner. Following the credits, we see the police investigating her death. One officer discovers that the red substance she is covered with is not blood, but tomato juice.

A series of attacks perpetrated by tomatoes occur (including a man dying by drinking tomato juice made from a killer tomato and a sequence where the tomatoes attack innocent swimmers, in a parody of Jaws). While the President's press secretary Jim Richardson tries to convince the public that there is no credible threat, the president puts together a team of specialists to stop the tomatoes led by a man named Mason Dixon. Dixon's team includes Sam Smith, an African-American disguise expert who is seen at various points dressed as, among other things, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and even Adolf Hitler; Navy diver Greg Colburn; Russian Olympic swimmer Gretta Attenbaum; and parachute-toting Wilbur Finletter.

Smith is sent out to infiltrate the tomatoes, eventually blowing his cover when he asks if anyone could "pass the ketchup." Colburn and Gretta are sent to sectors, and Finletter stays with Mason. Meanwhile, the president sends Richardson to the fictitious ad agency 'Mind Makers', where executive Ted Swan spends huge amounts of money to develop virtually worthless ploys including a bumper sticker with 'STP' for "Stop Tomato Plants' on it. It is revealed that a human is also plotting to stop Dixon when a masked assassin attempts to shoot him, but misses. A senate subcommittee meeting is held where one secret pamphlet is leaked to a newspaper editor who sends Lois Fairchild on the story. While she tails Finletter, he mistakes her to be a spy and trashes a hotel room attempting to kill her. He then chases the assassin as the masked man fails again to kill Dixon, but loses him.

Gretta is killed and further regression has led leaders to bring in tanks and soldiers to the west coast in a battle that leaves the American forces in shambles. Dixon, walking among the rubble, sees a trail of tomato juice and decides to investigate. He ends up being chased by a killer tomato to an apartment where a oblivious child is listening to the radio. The tomato is about to kill Dixon but suddenly flies out the window. Dixon peers out to see if it has died when he spots the assassin hijacking his car. He chases the assassin until he is knocked out when it is revealed that Richardson is behind the tomatoes. He is about to reveal his secret of control when Finletter charges in and runs him through. Dixon, picking up some strewn records, realizes that both times the tomatoes left him the new hit song "Puberty Love" had been on the radio. He orders Finletter to gather all remaining people and bring them to the stadium, which is soon attacked by the tomatoes.

The tomatoes are cornered in a stadium. "Puberty Love" is played over the loudspeaker, causing the tomatoes to shrink and allowing the various people at the stadium to squash them by stomping on them repeatedly. Fairchild, meanwhile, is cornered by a giant tomato wearing earmuffs. Dixon saves her by showing the tomato the sheet music to "Puberty Love." He professes his love to her, in song. The film ends by showing a carrot that rises from the Earth and says "All right, you guys. They're gone."

Critics

The film was poorly received by critics, garnering 27% positive reviews on RottenTomatoes.com

From Wikipedia

Cult Film

A cult film is a movie that attracts a devoted group of followers or obsessive fans, despite having failed on their initial releases. The term also describes films that have remained popular over a long period of time amongst a small group of followers. In many cases, cult films may have failed to achieve mainstream success on original release although this is definitely not always the case. Whilst they may only have a short cinema release cult films often enjoy ongoing popularity due to myriad VHS, LaserDisc and DVD releases. In some cases, these films tend to enjoy long runs on video, thus being issued in video "runs" with more copies than other movies. The box office bomb Office Space (1999) managed to financially redeem itself when word-of-mouth made it a popular video rental. Harold and Maude (1971) was not successful financially at the time of its original release in 1971, but has since nevertheless earned a huge cult following and has become successful following its video and DVD releases. This has also happened with The Big Lebowski (1998), among others. Many cult films were independently made and were not expected by their creators to have much mainstream success. Carnival of Souls (1962), Night of the Living Dead (1968), Pink Flamingos (1972), Basket Case (1982), The Evil Dead (1981) and its sequels and Eraserhead (1977) have all been commonly acknowledged as having become cult films. Sometimes the audience response to a cult film is somewhat different from what was intended by the film makers. Many films that become cult contain unusual elements. Cult films usually offer something different or innovative in comparison to more mainstream films but cult films can also be popular across a wide audience.

A film can be both a major studio release and a cult film, particularly if despite its affiliation with a major studio, it failed to achieve broad success on either the theatrical or home video markets but was championed by a small number of dedicated film fanatics who seek out lesser-known offerings, which can also be said about Freddy Got Fingered. It is also true that the content of certain films (such as dark subjects, alienation, transgressive content, or other controversial subject matter) can also decide whether or not a film is a "cult film", regardless of the film's budget or studio affiliations. An example may be Paul Verhoeven's big budgeted, highly sexualized Showgirls (1995), initially intended to be a drama film about the rise of a Las Vegas stripper, that flopped both critically and commercially. Today, it is a favorite of homosexual audiences and audiences in general have considered it to be a comedy thanks to frequent midnight madness. According to activist writer Naomi Klein, ironic enjoyment of the film initially arose among those with the video before MGM, the films chief marketer, capitalized on the idea. MGM noticed the video was performing all right, since "trendy twenty-somethings were throwing Showgirls irony parties, laughing sardonically at the implausibly poor screenplay and shrieking with horror at the aerobic sexual encounters."

Some cult films garner overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and perform well at the box office, but nevertheless are still considered 'cult'. One example of this is Stanley Kubrick's vision of a grim and disturbing, ultra-violent future in A Clockwork Orange (1971), which won several major film awards and was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture. Another example may be Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946), which was popular on home video while being widely regarded as a flop upon its initial release. Sometimes cult films can be revolutionary for their era, thus becoming far more successful later on, namely Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940).

Example movie:

• Carnival of Souls (1962)
• Easy Rider (1969)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• A Clockwork Orange (1971)
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
• Death Race 2000 (1975)
• Taxi Driver (1976)
• The Warriors (1979)
• Evil Dead (1981)
• Blade Runner (1982)
• Blue Velvet (1986)
• Pulp Fiction (1994)
• Fight Club (1999).

From Wikipedia

B Movie

A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture conceived neither as an arthouse film nor as pornography. In its original usage, during the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature. Although the U.S. production of movies intended as second features largely ceased by the end of the 1950s, the term B movie continued to be used in the broader sense it maintains today. In its post–Golden Age usage, there is ambiguity on both sides of the definition: on the one hand, many B movies display a high degree of craft and aesthetic ingenuity; on the other, the primary interest of many inexpensive exploitation films is prurient. In some cases, both are true.

In either usage, most B movies represent a particular genre—the Western was a Golden Age B movie staple, while low-budget science-fiction and horror films became more popular in the 1950s. Early B movies were often part of series in which the star repeatedly played the same character. Almost always shorter than the top-billed films they were paired with, many had running times of 70 minutes or less. The term connoted a general perception that B movies were inferior to the more handsomely budgeted headliners; individual B films were often ignored by critics. Latter-day B movies still sometimes inspire multiple sequels, but series are less common. As the average running time of top-of-the-line films increased, so did that of B pictures. In its current usage, the term has two primary and somewhat contradictory connotations: it may signal an opinion that a certain movie is (a) a genre film with minimal artistic ambitions or (b) a lively, energetic film uninhibited by the constraints imposed on more expensive projects and unburdened by the conventions of putatively "serious" independent film. The term is also now used loosely to refer to some higher budgeted, mainstream films with exploitation-style content, usually in genres traditionally associated with the B movie.

From their beginnings to the present day, B movies have provided opportunities both for those coming up in the profession and others whose careers are waning. Celebrated filmmakers such as Anthony Mann and Jonathan Demme learned their craft in B movies. B movies are where actors such as John Wayne and Jack Nicholson became established, and the Bs have also provided work for former A movie actors, such as Vincent Price and Karen Black. Some actors, such as Béla Lugosi and Pam Grier, worked in B movies for most of their careers.

From Wikipedia

4Bia Connection

4bia or Phobia is a 2008 Thai Thai horror film in four parts, directed by Youngyooth Thongkonthun, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Parkpoom Wongpoom, and Paween Purikitpanya.

The Connection:

• - Story 3 ("In the Middle"). One of the teenagers' name is Ter.
• - Story 4 ("Last Flight"). Ter is mentioned as the brother of Pim's colleague and fellow stewardess, Tui (not seen in movie) who could not accompany the flight as her brother had drowned.
• - Story 1 ("Happiness"). The girl with the broken leg is seen reading the online news about the Princess's death.
• - Story 2 ("Tit for Tat"). The image we see of the curse is the image of the girl with the broken leg who had died with her eyes open.

List of characters in Watchmen - The Crimebusters era

The following individuals form the primary cast of characters for the Watchmen series. They came together only briefly as "The Crimebusters", a failed attempt in 1966 by Captain Metropolis to form a successor group to "The Minutemen". The Crimebusters concept is inspired primarily by the Justice League.

The Comedian

The Comedian was a member of the Crimebusters and of the Minutemen. He has a highly cynical and nihilistic outlook on life and believes that most individuals are powerless to affect geo-political realities. The Comedian is often motivated by his own desires and is inclined to be autonomous, only aligning himself with others if their motives are similar to his own. A possible sadist, the Comedian often engages in violent activities and became a government agent during the Vietnam War. Near the end of his service in Vietnam, he was attacked and injured by a Vietnamese woman who was pregnant with an unborn child (who is strongly suggested, but not definitively revealed, to be his). Angered when the Comedian stated his intention to leave her behind when he returned to the United States, she slashed his face with a piece of a broken glass bottle. In retaliation the Comedian murdered her (and thus the unborn child) with a single gunshot, an event which was witnessed by Dr. Manhattan. The Comedian's injury healed badly and left him with a large scar across his right cheek, from the corner of his mouth to the outer corner of his right eye.

When they were both members of the Minutemen, the Comedian sexually assaulted Sally Jupiter, the original Silk Spectre. Later he had an apparently brief affair with her during which he fathered a child, Laurie, the second Silk Spectre.

Initially, his "morally correct" actions when fighting crime are contrasted against his abrupt and cruel personality, which portray him as a person lacking empathy for others. However, his actions upon his discovery of Ozymandias' "Alien Island" suggest that the Comedian is not merely a selfish egotist.

Rorschach independently discovers that Edward Blake was The Comedian's secret identity.

According to Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan (Chapter 2: Absent Friends), Blake is not exactly a utilitarian or a nihilist but one who could see the strings and viewed the world as a stage or a joke. Rorschach writes: "But there is no shelter. And the future is bearing down like an express train. Blake understood. Treated it like a joke, but he understood. He saw the cracks in society. Saw the little men in masks trying to hold it together. He saw the true face of the twentieth century and chose to become a reflection, a parody of it. No one else saw the joke, so he was lonely."

The character of the Comedian is loosely based on the original Peacemaker.

Rorschach

An extreme example of moral absolutism, Rorschach (Walter Kovacs) is uncompromising in his answer to evil: it must be punished, whatever the cost - though he admits in his journal to simply "do what we have to do." However, he says that there is no meaning or moral absolutes imposed from beyond, that they are all created in the minds of the individual. His staunch opposition to crime is equaled by his total lack of empathy for criminals, whom he treats as non-human; his disdain for conventional law, government, and the police causes him to become a vigilante, as, in his belief, the law does not do enough to combat crime. He shows little reverence for "conventional morality", willing to take drastic measures to achieve his goals, such as the torture or even the execution of criminals. His "law and order" attitude, coupled with his readership of The New Frontiersman, make clear he values strongly-held and expressed views of society; however, the punishment of crime is the only thing relevant to his personal crusade, and is thus the only thing he expresses. Rorschach is determined not to spend his life as a bystander, thus, like Batman, crime has driven him to become a crusader.

In Rorschach's case, it was the murder of Kitty Genovese (and the inaction of her neighbors) that inspired him to fight crime. Kovacs fashioned a mask out of a section of a dress he chooses to believe belonged to Genovese, its unique shifting white and black pattern originating from a special material created by Dr. Manhattan. The clear division between black and white in the mask mirrors Rorschach's absolutist outlook: things are either right or wrong, black or white; there is no middle ground, no "grey area". However, he was just another masked adventurer, content to leave punishment to the legal system, until one of his investigations led him to discover the brutal murder of an innocent girl. The girl was butchered and fed to two German shepherds by her kidnapper. This heinous act sent Rorschach into a rage; no longer satisfied with merely stopping crimes, Rorschach decided that he would also discern the punishment, where once he was content to simply leave perpetrators of crimes bound and gagged for the police to find. This event is described as the point where Walter Kovacs died, and Rorschach was born. Laws no longer mattered to Rorschach, and he was the only masked adventurer to continue to operate without government sanction after the ratification of the Keene Act. His stance toward the Keene Act was epitomized in his killing of a notorious serial rapist: he subsequently deposited the body in front of a police station with a note attached to it, saying "NEVER!"

The character of Rorschach is primarily inspired by The Question and Mr. A, both characters created by Steve Ditko.

Ozymandias

Although an intellectual elitist who believes in utilitarianism and is willing to murder millions of innocents in the attempt to preserve the lives of billions more, Ozymandias seems to be the most outwardly "good" member of the Watchmen cast. Like Rorschach he believes himself to be exempt from the limitations of conventional behavioral norms and puts himself beyond that of normal human experience. His behavior and self-belief suggest that he may be a megalomaniac or have a messiah complex, while his idolization of Alexander the Great leaves him with something of a "chip on his shoulder." Not even his philanthropy, inventions, or huge, multi-million dollar business ventures can sate his desires for greatness. This viewpoint enables him to have an apparently callous disregard for the lives of "ordinary" people (though he later confides to Dr. Manhattan about his responsibility to shoulder the terrible guilt). If Dr. Manhattan is seen as God, then Ozymandias can easily be seen as the apollonian aspect of Nietzsche's philosophy.

Ozymandias retired from superheroism several years before the Keene Act to start building his "empire"; very successful businesses thanks to his intelligence, whose income would be used to fund his plans.

The character of Ozymandias is inspired by Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt.

Doctor Manhattan

After an accident as a scientist, Jon Osterman was transformed into something non-human, and the only character in Watchmen with superhuman powers (except for possibly those characters whose psychic ability is alluded to). Throughout the series, he becomes increasingly detached from humanity as a whole. As the story progresses, he disavows any interest in human affairs and rejects the validity of any notion of morality. For example he gradually abandons clothes. His ability to see the world outside of time leads him to embrace determinism. Doctor Manhattan is identified as something of a God-figure as Watchmen progresses; after dying and resurrecting himself, he gains near omniscient knowledge and almost omnipotent powers, and in his final scene walks on water and leaves to create human life somewhere else. For all his god-like power, he is as flawed and human as the rest, having difficulties with relationships. He personifies intellect over emotion. Because of his aloofness and somewhat nihilist philosophy, he is vilified by several characters throughout Watchmen. He represents Nietzsche's übermensch in the sense that his actions are completely beyond good and evil, in contrast with Rorschach whose actions are completely driven by the concepts of good and evil (which Ozymandias opined, in an interview, "to be an intellectual limitation").

The character of Doctor Manhattan is primarily inspired by Captain Atom, but there are also clear similarities^{[original research?]} between Manhattan and the Silver Age Superman, as well as the Spectre.

Silk Spectre II

A reluctant hero, Laurel (Laurie) Juspeczyk was pushed toward the vocation by her mother, the first Silk Spectre, who had been a successful crime fighter prior to her daughter's birth. Somewhat reluctantly, she ends up in a relationship with Doctor Manhattan. During the story she becomes increasingly upset with Manhattan's detachment from humanity, and after their break-up, Dr. Manhattan leaves Earth. In the end, she plays a pivotal role in making Manhattan realize the value of human life. She also became romantically involved with Dan Dreiberg, the second Nite Owl.

The character of Silk Spectre (Laurie) is inspired not only by Nightshade, but also by Black Canary and Phantom Lady.

Nite Owl II

Something of a recluse, Dan Dreiberg's strong interest in ornithology manifests itself in some of his inventions, which relate to owls in some way. Detached from his parents, he struggles to find purpose with his life, thus glamorizing the notion of being a costumed crimefighter. He admits to idolizing the exploits of the original Nite Owl and also being quite taken with childhood notions of nobility and adventure. However, he does not have a resolute purpose, such as that of Rorschach, and is quite contingent, often relying on others to tell him what to do rather than following his own desires. Dreiberg seems out of all the heroes to represent the everyman, the pragmatist driven by a waxing and waning standard of ethics that seeks ultimate good but is willing to compromise on specifics. Additionally, his crimefighting pursuits reflect most clearly the ineffectiveness of the costumed heroes of his world, as he spends immense amounts of funding to craft vehicles and specialized garments ready for missile warfare, sub-zero temperatures, radar invisibility, etc. to catch what he dismisses as "hookers" and "purse snatchers". But when he, Silk Spectre, and Rorschach (especially he and Rorschach) begin uncovering the mastermind behind recent events, all his inventions suddenly become integral to their pursuit. He also becomes romantically involved with Laurie Juspeczyk, the second Silk Spectre.

The character of Nite Owl (Dan Dreiberg) is inspired primarily by Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle.

From Wikipedia

List of characters in Watchmen - The Minutemen era

The Minutemen were a group of superheroes that was formed in 1939, before the events of Watchmen, and disbanded ten years later. The Minutemen concept is inspired primarily by the Justice Society.

Nite Owl I

Hollis Mason was a policeman who became a "masked adventurer" after being inspired by the New York Gazette's article on Hooded Justice. After years of serving on The Minutemen, he wrote a book called Under the Hood, which exposed much about the Minutemen, most notably the attempted rape of Sally Jupiter (Silk Spectre I) by The Comedian. After the dissolution of The Minutemen and the rise of Doctor Manhattan, he elected to retire and work on old cars, passing his mantle on to a fan, Dan Dreiberg, who would become Nite Owl II. Later, on Halloween, 1985, during the riot that broke out after Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II freed Rorschach from prison, a violent street gang under the influence of stimulants attacked Mason in his home, and beat him to death in one of the most gruesome scenes in the novel. The character of Nite Owl Hollis Mason) is largely inspired by the original Blue Beetle, Dan Garrett.

Silk Spectre I

Sally Juspeczyk was an ex-waitress and burlesque dancer before becoming a crimefighter on the advice of her agent, and future husband, Laurence Schexnayder. Silk Spectre I was indecently assaulted by The Comedian, but the attack was ended upon Hooded Justice's intervention. An emotionally turbulent second encounter with the Comedian resulted in the birth of her daughter, Laurel, who would become Silk Spectre II. Silk Spectre I was involved in a tumultuous marriage with Schexnayder, which subsequently ended in divorce. Both her appearance in a Tijuana bible and her career as a burlesque dancer suggest she welcomes male attention while her printed interview suggests a seriously low self esteem in that she admits she suspects she brought on the Comedian's assault. She later retires to a rest home in California . The character of Silk Spectre (Sally) is inspired largely by Black Canary and Phantom Lady, as opposed to the Charlton character Nightshade.

Captain Metropolis

Nelson Gardner, an ex-Marine Lieutenant, was one of the more active proponents of The Minutemen group; he suggested that a collaboration of forces would be the most effective way to fight crime. "Social ills" motivate him to fight crime. However, what he defines as a "social ill", for example anti-war demonstrations, promiscuity, and "Black Unrest" show that his motivations for changing the world are selfish, or at least conservative, rather than pro bono publico, although he insists that this isn't true. In 1974, he is decapitated in a car accident according to Rorschach's diary.

He was also involved in a homosexual relationship with Hooded Justice, thus necessitating a need for Sally Jupiter (Silk Spectre I) and Hooded Justice's very public (but sham) relationship as a cover story to avoid any public suspicion of a relationship which would surely damage the image of The Minutemen.

Hooded Justice

An extremely large, imposing figure, Hooded Justice, whose real identity is not revealed in Watchmen but who some claim is ex-circus strongman Rolf Müller, was the first of the costumed vigilantes. His brutality towards criminals rivaled that of Rorschach. It is implied that he was in fact a homosexual. Hooded Justice interferes with The Comedian’s attempt to rape Silk Spectre I, punching The Comedian. Sally Jupiter, or Silk Spectre I, posed as his girlfriend, but this was a sham relationship set-up to avoid anti-homosexual sentiments against The Minutemen. The exchange between Hooded Justice and The Comedian puts a different slant on Hooded Justice's motives for becoming a costumed adventurer, than pure public spirit.

Hooded Justice vanished when The Minutemen were questioned by the House Un-American Activities Committee, and was never seen again. There is speculation that he was killed by The Comedian, the results of the grudge that The Comedian held against him for interfering with his rape of Sally Jupiter.

Mothman

Something of a minor character, Byron Lewis was one of the costumed adventurers that appeared after the appearance of Hooded Justice. Lewis used special wings to glide in the air while battling crime. Lewis was frightened by the idea of the second World War. Lewis was one of the four Minutemen to remain on the team even after the deaths of Dollar Bill and the Silhouette, the Comedian's removal and the Silk Spectre's retirement.

Lewis was investigated by HUAC, and had difficulty clearing his name due to several left-wing friends. The pressure from these investigations is considered to have precipitated his alcoholism and the subsequent mental health problems that eventually consigned him to a sanatorium. He is not a main focus of the storyline, but appears in flashbacks, at one point reduced in his later years to fragile sanity, unnerving the second Silk Spectre. He is regarded fondly by most of the Minutemen, and the first Nite Owl sends the second to visit him, uncostumed, on his behalf. The character of Mothman seems to be very loosely based on Hawkman and take his background story from the actual Mothman.

Dollar Bill

Dollar Bill was originally a star college athlete from Kansas who was actually employed as an in-house super-hero by one of the major, but unnamed, national banks. While attempting to stop a raid upon one of his employer's banks, his cloak became entangled in the bank's revolving door and he was shot dead at point blank range before he could free it. In "Under the Hood", Hollis Mason's tell-all book, he described Dollar Bill as an honest, friendly young man, and rues the stupidity of capes because of this. Interestingly enough, Dollar Bill's clear commercial motivations (public identity, hired by a bank) are never commented on by his peers or the subsequent generation of vigilantes who all seem to regard him as a worthy hero - even Rorschach, who condemns Ozymandias for his commercialization, laments Dollar Bill's untimely death.

In the movie The Specials, the character of U.S. Bill was originally called Dollar Bill. However, DC would not allow the use of the name for a superhero character.

Silhouette

Ursula Zandt became a crimefighter in 1939, and subsequently joined the Minutemen. In 1946 she was expelled from the group when it was publicly revealed that she was a lesbian; six weeks later she and her lover were killed by an adversary seeking revenge. A Jew who left Austria due to the rise of Nazism, she caused Sally Jupiter annoyance by referring to her Polish origins; Jupiter often denied her upbringing in Poland. Along with Mothman, she is one of the Minutemen about whom little is known.

From Wikipedia

Watchmen

Watchmen is a twelve-issue comic book limited series created by writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins. The series was published by DC Comics in single issue during 1986 and 1987, and has been subsequently reprinted in collected form.
Watchmen received a Hugo Award in the Other Forms category in 1988

The Plot
In October 1985, New York City police are investigating the murder of Edward Blake. With the police having no leads, costumed vigilante Rorschach decides to probe further. Discovering Blake to be the face behind the Comedian, a costumed hero employed by the United States government, Rorschach believes he has discovered a plot to eliminate costumed adventurers and sets about warning four of his retired comrades, Dan Dreiberg (formerly Nite Owl), the super-powered and emotionally detached Doctor Manhattan and his lover Laurie Juspeczyk (the second Silk Spectre), and Adrian Veidt (once the hero Ozymandias and now the world's richest man).

After Blake's funeral, Doctor Manhattan is accused on national television of being a carcinogenic threat to friends and colleagues. When the U.S. government takes the accusations seriously, Manhattan instead exiles himself to Mars. In doing so he throws humanity into political turmoil, with the Soviet Union invading Afghanistan to capitalize on perceived American weakness. Rorschach's paranoid beliefs appear vindicated when Adrian Veidt narrowly survives an assassination attempt, and Rorschach himself is framed for murder and arrested.

Jaded with her relationship and no longer kept on retainer by the government, Juspeczyk stays with Dan Dreiberg. Dreiberg and Juspeczyk don their costumes as they grow closer together. With Dreiberg starting to believe some aspects of Rorschach's conspiracy theory, the pair take it upon themselves to free him from prison. Doctor Manhattan, after analyzing his own personal history, places the fate of his involvement with human affairs in Laurie's hands. He teleports her to Mars to make the case for emotional investment. During the course of the argument, Juspeczyk is forced to come to terms with the fact that Blake was her biological father, the discovery of which re-engages Doctor Manhattan's interest in humanity.

On Earth, Nite Owl and Rorschach continue to uncover the conspiracy surrounding the death of the Comedian. They discover evidence that their former comrade Adrian Veidt may be behind the plan. Confronting Veidt at his Antarctic retreat, the pair discover the far-reaching implications of the multiple mysteries. Veidt explains his underlying plan is to save humanity from impending nuclear war between the United States and Soviet Union by faking an alien invasion in New York City, which he hopes will unite the nations against a perceived common enemy. Finding his logic callous and abhorrent, Dreiberg and Rorschach attempt to stop him but discover that Veidt has already enacted his plan.

When Doctor Manhattan and Laurie arrive back to Earth, they are confronted by mass destruction and wide scale death in New York City. Doctor Manhattan notices his abilities are limited by tachyons emanating from the Antarctic, and the pair teleport there. They discover Veidt's involvement and confront him. Veidt shows everyone news broadcasts confirming the cessation of global hostilities, leading almost all present to agree that concealing the truth from the public is in the best interests of the world. Rorschach refuses to compromise and leaves, intent on revealing the truth. As he is making his way back, he is confronted by Manhattan. Rorschach tells Mahattan to kill him, and he is vaporized by the super-powered being. Dreiberg and Juspeczyk go into hiding under new identities, while Veidt asks Manhattan if he did the right thing in the end. Manhattan responds with "Nothing ever ends" before leaving Earth.

From Wikipedia

Norman Bates

Portrayed by Anthony Perkins (Psycho, 1960)

Fictional character created by writer Robert Bloch as the central character in his novel Psycho. The character is based on real-life serial killer Ed Gein.
The characterization of Bates in the novel and the movie differ in some key areas. In the novel, Bates is in his mid-to-late 40s, short, overweight, homely, and more overtly unstable. In the movie, he is in his early-to-mid-20s, tall, slender, and handsome. Reportedly, when working on the film, Hitchcock decided that he wanted audiences to be able to sympathize with Bates and genuinely like the character, so he made him more of a "boy next door." In the novel, Norman becomes Mother after getting drunk and passing out; in the movie, he consumes no alcohol before switching personalities.

Both the novel and Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film adaptation explain that Bates suffers severe emotional abuse as a child at the hands of his mother, Norma, who preaches to him that women and sex are evil. The two of them live alone together in an unhealthy state of emotional dependence after the death of Bates's father. When Bates is a teenager, his mother takes a lover, thereby making him insanely jealous. Bates then murders both of them with strychnine and preserves his mother's corpse. Bates develops dissociative identity disorder, assuming his mother's personality, repressing her death as a way to escape the guilt of murdering her. He inherits his mother's house, where he keeps her corpse, and the family motel in Fairvale, California.

Bloch sums up Bates' multiple personalities in his stylistic form of puns: As "Norman" Bates, the little boy, he is dominated by his mother, and has to do whatever she tells him. As "Norma" Bates, he dresses in her clothes, mimics her voice, and kills anyone who threatens to come between her and her "Norman," especially attractive young women. As "Normal" Bates, he is a (barely) functioning adult who runs the business of the motel and keeps peace between the other two personalities.

Norman is finally arrested after he murders a young woman named Mary Crane (called Marion Crane in the film) and Milton Arbogast, a private investigator sent to look for her. Bates is declared insane and sent to an institution, where the "mother" personality completely takes hold; he completely becomes his mother.

Bates dies in Bloch's 1982 sequel to his novel.

Taken from Wikipedia

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo
If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

Juliet
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.

Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene V

King Kong Roar

King Kong's (2005) roar is a lion's roar played backwards at half speed

Kakushi-toride no san-akunin (Akira Kurosawa) in Star Wars movie

C-3PO and R2-D2 are derived from the characters of Matakishi and Taihei, two farmers/ne'er-do-wells Mifune's character, a samurai general, conscripted to help ferry his princess out of enemy territory. Two characters in the Japanese film were split to produce four in "Star Wars": aspects of Toshirô Mifune's samurai character became Ben Kenobi and Han Solo; and aspects of the Princess's character became Luke and Leia.

The Crew of USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

	Role	Position	Rank
	James T. Kirk	Commanding officer of the Starship Enterprise.	Captain
	Spock	Science officer and second-in-command	Lieutenant Commander/Commander
	Leonard H. "Bones" McCoy	Chief medical officer	Lieutenant Commander
	Montgomery "Scotty" Scott	Chief Engineer and third-in-command	Lieutenant Commander
	Nyota Uhura	Communications officer	Lieutenant
	Hikaru Sulu	Helmsman	Lieutenant
	Pavel Andreievich Chekov	Navigator	Ensign
	Janice Rand	Captain's yeoman	Yeoman
	Christine Chapel	Head nurse	Lieutenant

Wall-E = Apple

• When WALL-E is fully charged by the sun, he makes the same "boot up" sound that most of Apple's Macintosh computers have made since circa 1996.
• WALL-E watches his favorite movie every night on the screen of an iPod
• The villainous Autopilot's voice is provided by Apple's text-to-speech system, MacinTalk
• EVE's sleek design as an evolution of WALL-E's parallels the sleek iMac design having evolved from the boxy, beige Apple IIe.
• Steve Jobs, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Apple Computer, was CEO of Pixar until its acquisition by Disney in 2005, and as a shareholder and member of the Disney Board of Directors is still actively involved with the company.

The Sound of Lightsaber

The sound of lightsaber in Star Wars was created by mixing the humming sound of TV set - tuned between channels - with the sound of an old 35mm projector.

Zecharia Sitchin

Sitchin was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, and was raised in Palestine. He acquired some knowledge of modern and ancient Hebrew, other Semitic and European languages, the Old Testament, and the history and archeology of the Near East. Sitchin graduated from the London School of Economics, University of London, majoring in economic history. A journalist and editor in Israel for many years, he now lives and writes in New York City. His books have been widely translated, converted to braille for the blind, and featured on radio and television.

According to Sitchin's interpretation of Sumerian cosmology, there is a undiscovered planet which follows a long, elliptical orbit, reaching the inner solar system roughly every 3,600 years. This planet is called Nibiru (the planet associated with Marduk in Babylonian cosmology). According to Sitchin, Nibiru collided catastrophically with Tiamat, another supposed planet located by Sitchin between Mars and Jupiter. This collision supposedly formed the planet Earth, the asteroid belt, and the comets. Tiamat, as outlined in the Enûma Elish, is a goddess. According to Sitchin, however, Tiamat was what is now known as Earth. When struck by one of planet Nibiru's moons, Tiamat split in two. On a second pass Nibiru itself struck the broken fragments and one half of Tiamat became the asteroid belt. The second half, struck again by one of Nibiru's moons, was pushed into a new orbit and became today's planet Earth.

This scenario is hard to reconcile with the Earth's current small orbital eccentricity of only 0.0167. Sitchin's supporters maintain that it would explain Earth's peculiar early geography due to cleaving from the celestial collision, i.e., solid continents on one side and a giant ocean on the other. While this is consistent with the giant impact hypothesis for the origin of the moon, that event is estimated to have occurred 4.5 billion years ago.

The scenario outlined by Sitchin, with Nibiru returning to the inner solar system regularly every 3,600 years, implies an orbit with a semi-major axis of 235 Astronomical Units, extending from the asteroid belt to twelve times farther beyond the sun than Pluto. "Elementary perturbation theory indicates that, under the most favorable circumstances of avoiding close encounters with other planets, no body with such an eccentric orbit would keep the same period for two consecutive passages. Within twelve orbits the object would be either ejected or converted to a short period object. Thus, the search for a trans-Plutonian planet by T.C. Van Flandern of the U.S. Naval Observatory, which Sitchin uses to bolster his thesis, is no support at all."^[3][4]

Sitchin's theory "posits that, from an equal start, the Nefilim evolved on Nibiru 45 million years ahead of comparable development on Earth with its decidedly more favorable environment. Such an outcome is unlikely, to say the least, since Nibiru would spend over 99% of its time beyond Pluto. Sitchin's explanation that heat from radioactive decay and a thick atmosphere keep Nibiru warm is absurd and does not address the problem of darkness in deep space. Also unexplained is how the Nefilim, who evolved long after Nibiru arrived, knew what happened when Nibiru first entered the solar system."^[5]

According to Sitchin, Nibiru was the home of a technologically advanced human-like extraterrestrial race called the Anunnaki in Sumerian myth, who Sitchin states are called the Nephilim in the Bible. He claims they first arrived on Earth probably 450,000 years ago, looking for minerals, especially gold, which they found and mined in Africa. These "gods" were the rank and file workers of the colonial expedition to Earth from planet Nibiru. Sitchin believes the Anunnaki genetically engineered Homo sapiens as slave creatures to work their gold mines by crossing extraterrestrial genes with those of Homo erectus. Sitchin claims ancient inscriptions report that human civilization in Sumer of Mesopotamia was set up under the guidance of these "gods", and human kingship was inaugurated to provide intermediaries between mankind and the Anunnaki. Sitchin believes that fallout from nuclear weapons used during a war between factions of the extraterrestrials is the "evil wind" that destroyed Ur around 2000 BC (Sitchin claims the exact year is 2024 BC), described in the Lament for Ur.^[6] Sitchin claims that his research coincides with many biblical texts, and that biblical texts come originally from Sumerian writings.

Taken deom Wikipedia

Nibiru

In recent years, the work of Zecharia Sitchin has garnered much attention among ufologists, ancient astronaut theorists and conspiracy theorists. He claims to have uncovered, through his own retranslations of Sumerian texts, evidence that the human race was visited by a group of extraterrestrials from a distant planet in our own Solar System. Part of his theory lies in an astronomical interpretation of the Babylonian creation myth, the Enuma Elish, in which he replaces the names of gods with hypothetical planets. However, since the principal evidence for Sitchin's claims lies in his own personally derived etymologies and not on any scholarly agreed interpretations (including scholars among the Sumerians themselves), his theories remain at most pseudoscience to the vast majority, if not the totality, of academics.

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Sitchin's theory proposes the planets Tiamat and Nibiru. Tiamat supposedly existed between Mars and Jupiter. He postulated that it was a thriving world in a much differently shaped solar system, with jungles and oceans, whose orbit was disrupted by the arrival of a large planet or very small star (less than twenty times the size of Jupiter) which passed through the solar system between 65 million and four billion years ago. The new orbits caused Tiamat to collide with one of the moons of this object, which is known as Nibiru. The debris from this collision are thought by the theory's proponents to have variously formed the asteroid belt, the moon, and the current incarnation of the planet Earth.

Beginning in 1995, websites such as ZetaTalk have identified Nibiru or "Planet X" as a large brown dwarf currently within our planetary system, soon to pass relatively close to Earth. Sitchin disagrees with the timing of passage.^[2]

To the Babylonians, Nibiru was the celestial body or region sometimes associated with the god Marduk. The word is Akkadian and the meaning is uncertain. Because of this, the hypothetical planet Nibiru is sometimes also referred to as Marduk. Sitchin hypothesizes it as a planet in a highly elliptic orbit around the Sun, with a perihelion passage some 3,600 years ago and assumed orbital period of about 3,750 years; he also claims it was the home of a technologically advanced human-like alien race, the Anunnaki, who visited Earth in search of gold.

Taken from Wikipedia

Di Balik Minuman Isotonik

Oleh Lusiana Indriasari

Minuman isotonik semakin gencar menyerbu pasaran. Melalui iklan, produk ini dicitrakan mampu mengganti cairan tubuh yang hilang dalam waktu singkat. Di balik kesan kesegarannya, minuman isotonik dapat berbahaya apabila dikonsumsi sembarangan.

Sebuah iklan minuman isotonik di televisi mengatakan, ion di dalam isotonik mampu menjaga kelembapan kulit dan tubuh lebih baik daripada air biasa. Iklan lain menyebutkan, kehilangan dua persen cairan tubuh akan menurunkan stamina dan konsentrasi.

Dosen pada Departemen Ilmu dan Teknologi Pangan Institut Pertanian Bogor, Fransiska Rungkat Zakaria, mengatakan, iklan produk isotonik sebagian menyesatkan masyarakat.

Di iklan, seolah-olah isotonik bisa diminum siapa saja dan dalam kondisi apa saja. Padahal, Fransiska mengingatkan, isotonik tidak bisa dikonsumsi sembarangan karena minuman ini mengandung garam natrium (NaCl).

”Coba perhatikan labelnya, pasti ada kandungan Na dan Cl nya,” tutur Fransiska. Ia menambahkan, minuman isotonik itu tidak lain adalah larutan garam. Oleh produsennya, larutan itu kemudian diberi tambahan zat lain, seperti vitamin.

Ion yang disebut-sebut sangat bermanfaat bagi tubuh sebenarnya juga tidak hanya terkandung pada isotonik. Setiap garam yang dilarutkan dalam air, kata Fransiska, pasti akan berubah menjadi ion Na dan ion Cl. ”Jadi, ion yang terkandung dalam sayur lodeh dengan ion dalam isotonik itu sama saja,” tutur Fransiska.

Karena berisi garam, isotonik tidak boleh diminum sembarangan. Apabila berlebihan, kadar garam dalam tubuh akan menyebabkan tekanan darah tinggi atau hipertensi. ”Bila sudah kena hipertensi, tinggal menunggu saja bagian tubuh mana yang jebol duluan,” kata Fransiska.

Dari makanan

Apabila tubuh kita berkeringat, natrium dan klorida yang terkandung dalam cairan tubuh ikut keluar melalui pori-pori kulit. Jika kedua zat itu tidak digantikan, sel-sel tubuh kita lama-lama akan rusak dan mati.

Persoalannya, dari manakah zat natrium dan klorida itu diperoleh? Apakah harus dari minuman isotonik? Jawabannya, tidak.

Menurut Fransiska, makanan yang kita konsumsi sehari-hari sudah cukup untuk menggantikan natrium dan klorida yang keluar bersama keringat. ”Setiap kali masak, kita selalu menggunakan garam. Itu sudah cukup untuk mengganti garam yang keluar dari tubuh. Bahkan berlebih,” papar Fransiska.

Ia mengingatkan, dalam kondisi normal, tubuh orang dewasa hanya memerlukan 2,3 gram natrium per hari, sedangkan klorida hanya 50-100 mg. Pada anak-anak, kebutuhan dua zat itu lebih sedikit dibandingkan dengan orang dewasa.

Apabila kita memasak tanpa garam, kebutuhan natrium dan klorida juga sudah bisa dipenuhi dari bahan makanan. Ia mencontohkan, 1 ons daging merah mengandung 70 mg natrium, sementara setiap 10 ons nasi mengandung 10 mg natrium.

Bahan makanan lain, seperti telur, daging ayam, kacang-kacangan, buah, dan sayur, juga mengandung natrium. ”Karena itu, pada kondisi normal, kita tidak perlu lagi mengganti cairan tubuh dengan isotonik,” kata Fransiska.

Fransiska mengingatkan, isotonik lebih cocok dikonsumsi atlet yang menggeluti olahraga berat. Pada atlet olahraga berat, kebutuhan sodium memang lebih tinggi dari orang biasa, yaitu 5-7 gram per hari.

Meski begitu, sebaiknya dihitung lebih dulu apakah natrium dan klorida yang dibutuhkan atlet bersangkutan sudah cukup didapat dari makanan yang dikonsumsi. Bila masih kurang, boleh saja ditambah dengan isotonik.

Di negara maju, kata Fransiska, ada lembaga yang meneliti dan menghitung berapa jumlah natrium pada makanan yang dikonsumsi atlet. Hasilnya, menu makanan yang dihidangkan tiga kali sehari itu sudah mengandung 6 gram natrium.

Mengecoh

Meski isotonik tidak boleh dikonsumsi sembarangan, beberapa iklan produk isotonik justru memakai model orang biasa (bukan atlet) sebagai konsumen isotonik. Minuman isotonik itu juga ditenggak pada kondisi biasa saja, seperti terjebak macet yang tidak selalu identik dengan keluarnya ion-ion tubuh secara berlebihan. Bahkan disebutkan, tanpa menyebut kondisinya, isotonik lebih baik dari air biasa.

Menurut Fransiska, iklan semacam itu sangat menyesatkan masyarakat. Produsen boleh saja menarik pembeli dengan iklan yang kreatif, tetapi dalam iklan juga harus dicantumkan informasi yang jelas, bukan informasi menyesatkan.

Produsen seharusnya juga mencantumkan peringatan minuman itu mengandung garam. Agar konsumen bisa mengambil keputusan terbaik, harus disebutkan pula berapa jumlah garam yang dibutuhkan manusia per harinya.

”Memang produsen akan ribut. Kalau label itu diberlakukan, produk mereka tidak akan laku. Meski demikian, jangan karena kepentingan ekonomi, kesehatan masyarakat dipertaruhkan,” kata Fransiska. Jadi, meski kelihatannya menyegarkan, hati-hati bila ingin mengonsumsi isotonik.

Taken from Kompas