WiredRacing

This product would have a limited shelf life in Canada. There's a liability shift in March 2011, that would make any fradulent transaction on a swiped/keyed credit card YOUR (the merchants) liability. You need Chip and Pin (EMV) to avoid this and put the liability back to the credit card issuer.

EMV is the standard accross europe now and is now in Canada. The US, eventually, will have to follow suit.

Now, maybe Square's willing to take on the liability (sounds like they're operating as a broker anyhow). But if that's the case... they better have some seriously deep pockets.

*groan*

There's a double standard here and both sides are guilty of it.

Is it Pocohantas(sp?), yes. But.. is that story a good story? A classic story? Yes.

You going to tell me all the Rom Com's out there and most comedies don't follow scene by scene from another earlier work?

Look at all the drooling over The Hangover. Soooo original. Why does it get a pass? Look at Slumdog... one of the laziest stories I've ever seen, and beyond massive babble it wins an oscar.

What makes Avatar different? It's actually a good story, just not original, but as the 2nd poster said.. it's visually stunning. The 3D experience is enveloping and while in the middle of the screening I was noticing all the cliche's and poor one-liners, it didn't really take anything away from it. It's SciFi. Sometimes brilliant writing happens, but I never expect it. Like I don't expect it from Horror or Comedy (outside the jokes).

Still a very impressive movie that I look forward to seeing again... and again... and again. FYI.. the LOTR trilogy... yeah the film was adapted. Remember?

At least Cameron tried something new. I have higher hopes for the writing in the sequels. First movies of trilogies is usually infomation overload anyhow.

I suppose if you already have the game and a set of acoustic drums, this is pretty neat way to converge the two.. that said looks like a bit of install/removal required on the cymbals to provide double duty. Then again you probably have some form of silencer on your cymbals in the house anyhow.

For someone with nothing and only interest in playing the game (and not in a band)... ION Kit + HiHiat + Kick/KickPad/KickBox should get you there for far less with the same features save the hi-hat pedal switching (which you can do with another module the KickBox people sell). Much smaller kit that will make much less noise.

Course if you already have an electronic kit, then as mentioned there are Midi-USB devices that let you do this with one of those.

So it does fill in a market, but I can't imagine it's a big one (acoustic drum owners wanting to mod their kit for gameplay).

But that car came out TWO decades ago. :)

Agreed.

The S2K, at the time, and probably still, offers the most efficient gasoline engine, 120hp per litre. 9,000 rpm redline and it's the most rigid convertible made (thanks to the X-frame). It also runs nurburgring only 1 second off the pace of an NSX which in it's day was largely considered the greatest sportscar ever made.

That gearbox too is probably the best manual transmission ever made. Plus being a Honda they're crazy reliable. Don't burn oil either on track days and blows 0's across the board in emissions testing.

S2K's have dominated SCCA AutoX. I've personally dominated (against Z06's and SAE projects cars on a regular basis, FTD a few times) with a stock one many years ago and now FTD just about every time with my 2nd WTF! one.

And of course, they only made it for.. this decade (despite the fact they were only supposed to produce them 2 to 4 years).

It's a great drivers car and attainable by just about everyone in the used market.

The WRX STi's that were out in this decade are quite a good master of all trades car (mosreso for those dealing with winters) on paper. I know a lot of owners who love them. But I've also heard the car has no soul. If I could only own one car, I'd certainly look at one and probably find little else better or more practical on the market.

But reality is to buy one, I'd have enough money for two cars and one would likely be an S2000.

Without a doubt. DDL in There Will Be Blood. And I would also have to agree TWBB is the best film of the Decade. I love this movie so much. Even Dano is VERY good but he stands out because he's not excellent. Cinematography is perfect, the score is perfect, the character is perfect, the plot is perfect and DDL's performance is jaw droppingly awesome.

I remember walking out of it, a little numb, knowing I had seen greatness.

The fact No Country won that Oscar, still pisses me off. The Cohens have made that movie a couple times already... none of PTA's previous work was like TWWB.

I am though, a huge fan of Swank and MDB. But the film and the performance overall, aren't at the same level. But for someone put off by the intensity of DDL and TWWB, I would put those up.

As for Mickey Rourke... he was The Wrestler. He was great in it, but I don't see a lot of acting going on. It was the right movie at the right time sort of deal.

Oh wait..

How can I forget The Insider and the huge shaft it got.. oh wait.. that's 1999.

Viggo was better in "A History of Violence" IMO

Wow, I was about to completely agree with everything Todd said here.. but now I'm wondering if my recollection of my most recent screening of it (8? years now) is just clouded by a disappointment watching it for the first time then, since I was a child. Maybe if I give it another shot with my lowered expectations I'll find it's a bit better than I'm currently giving it credit for.

I am doubting it though. Todd's comments reflect my most recent memory of it.

Well again on the religion aspect, what Capra thinks is religion and what's really (what I or you define as) religion is perhaps a more interesting discussion.

Most "religious" North Americans (though perhaps many others elsewhere in the world) I think have a really laissez faire approach to religion. Almost a lot like the outward forms of patriotism. It's very backward and ulimtately a perversion of real religious following. It's like getting a 51 in school. It's the bare minimum (In fact I'm sure there's some scoring 20 and thinking they're good with "God") and quite frankly a slap in the face of real practicioners. (Not that I think any form or level of involvement in religion is a good idea. One must also disassociate religion and faith.)

So from my perspective, or perhaps the perspective of modern day society. I would not see this as a religious movie. It may share themes (the same as an morally good atheist may share characteristics with morally good Christians) but it's so weak in it's followthrough that I wouldn't consider it serious in it's religious .. ummm goals (as suggested Capra may have intended).

Course there are so many people who feel you can not be a morally good person without Christ or religion so perhaps what exists in "It's a Wonderful Life" is all that was required in the 1940's to create a religions movie.. the viewer just fills in the gaps believing only the involvment of God in George's life could result in his story.

Fortunately the film does not fall into a piegonhole and the way it executed it's religious themes are open enough that a modern day agnostic/atheist can view it (I think) with little to no offense, further helping the film remain timeless and appealing to a very wide audience. Ironically perhaps. :)

I am not a religious person, but I do not feel in any way the film is religious and the sooner we disassociate good morals and any exclusivity to religion the better off we'll all be.

God and Angels are used in this movie as a plot device. In fact I think the film is extremely agnostic. Afterall this is a work of fiction and no one seemingly behaves in any specific way based on their faith.

This film can be easily summed up. George has dreams. Life gets in the way of those dreams. He's a man of high morals (because of how he was raised, not due to God) and as such often thinks of others before him. That does not preclude him from not being disappointed that his dreams are disappearing while life gets in the way. Clearly George has not identified or absorbed the untangible benefits in life to being so selfless. Basically he's unable to see what he has, but rather mopes on what he doesn't have or rather what got away. He feels alone and while I don't think it's on screen, he probably feels taken advantage of. I don't know about you, but it's is rather identifiable. Perhaps in modern day society his bahaviour is a little immature (your comment about whiny?) but he gets his wake-up call and suddenly discovers his life is quite fantastic rather than a life of missed opportunities.

I think films like this (life affirming) actually have helped people grow up over the years. Which make them all the more important.

I think the only thing that would be different if such a film were made today is someone would step all over him before he came around. We have a tendancy to up-the-ante since we're all rather desensitized to the ideas in this movie due to the 60 years of filmmaking and fiction writing in between.

Sure some of the line delivery is a little clunky.. but I really wish people would understand there is no such thing as the perfect film and more importantly, put aside some expectation seeing as the film is 60 years old. I certainly can't think of any contemporary film off the cuff that achieves what this movie does.

It would be like pissing on Psycho (now 50 years old) because a teenager today wouldn't find it scary. Yet it's an absolute masterpiece of filmmaking.

Considering the movies I've seen from the 40's and 50's, this is certainly up there as the most timeless in terms of construction, dialog and acting.

I understand the theme of this article is "Shelf-Life" but if you dissect every 40-50-60 year old movie in this fashion, a lot of it will not work if compared to contemporary works.

I suppose you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. But I think there are more recent films.. say of the past 20 years that were quite well loved but feel rather dated. Much more so, IMO, than It's a Wonderful Life.

As for those Poo-Pooing "A Christmas Story". I too, for a while, didn't really get this movie having seen it on and off all my life. But in the last decade or so I've really come to appreciate this movie. I'm still laughing at a lot of the scenes.. there's so much in it that's relateable and it's actually specific to Christmas. For a guy that made some really crappy movies later in his career, he was very innovative early in his career.

In fact I would say "The Wonder Years" probably lifted it's entire structure from A Christmas Story. Black Christmas being the first real slasher movie. Porky's being the first high-school hijinx/T&A movie. There's a lot of gold in A Christmas Story if you can get past some of the bits that make the film look and feel dated (it is a period piece afterall). Ultimately I think it's pretty timeless too. I think perhaps the "Benny Hill" techniques used in a couple places (one instead of a montage) are dated production methods but in the spirit of the movie being played out as a memoir.. it's almost like a visual "yadda-yadda".