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Mar 8, 2007 8:38 pm

Ok, people, from the top....

[quote=Whomitmayconcer]

Ok so this is in the General forum and I can tie it to investing given that it is showing at Imax thearters this week end and I'm hoping it gives the stock a boost over $5 a share so that it can be more widely purchased. (I'm not making a recommendation to you to buy this or any other stock. Anybody that would use my opinion on these boards to buy or sell is doing so at their own peril in that I may or may not have been a seller or will soon be one. My investment discipline dictates that I take profits when I have a net 20% move in a stock, and you have no way of knowing where my buy price is/was).

I am SO looking forward to this fricking movie! This looks like it is going to be the most awesome movie of this young Millennium, and Century, and older decade! Thing is, I'm not exactly sure why!

Now that I think about it, is this movie really in black and white?

http://imdb.com/title/tt0416449/  IMDB says it's in color, so at least the blood ought to be so. Not to give it away but I think this is a sort of "Remember the Alamo" sort of movie where the 300 all die, but not before they rip the bunghole out of the invading Persians by the many thousands. Here's the Wikilink  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae

I'm generally not a big war, or action movie fan, but this movie looks like it's gonna ROCK! We are definately going to the localish IMAX theater Saturday to see it.

Blood and guts and gore and fury on the 6 story screen! With 25gazillion watts of digital sound! You can't do that in your home theater!

I'm PUMPED!

[/quote]

[quote=Whomitmayconcer]

Do you think this movie is going to be the cat's ass, or what?

Tough as Nails.

Inspiring!

East meets west kung fu for round eyes!

[/quote]

[quote=blarmston]

300 looks cool. The action seems pretty intense. Lets just hope the Hollywood types didnt create an amazing trailer that leaves the movie to disappoint. Not thinking this is the case here though... Seeing this will definately go on the TO DO list.

[/quote]

[quote=Whomitmayconcer]

A good sign is that this doesn't seem to be a star vehicle.

There's no "Brad Pitt in Troy" or "Russell Crowes IS Gladiator". The director, Zack Snyder has done some _____ Of The Dead sequels but nothing huge.

It is odd, this is early for a blockbuster release, so I might just lower my expectation. Last year this time they came out with V for Vendetta. That plus Poseidon in May indicated a LONG summer for Imax.

Last time I was at Imax they ran this trailer for a movie called India. Wow, eyecatching and all, but the "truth" of that one is that they will provide a copy to each IMAX theater in India, sort of a filler, whenever there is a BO dud in the distribution chain.

India and China are gyenormous markets for Imax. (Not that I'm touting the shares, I'm not! Whether its a good company or not does not always relate to it being a good stock to own.)

[/quote]

[quote=Whomitmayconcer]

'K, great.

Now everybody's spleen been vented? Good.

Did you see? They Killed off Captain America!

Those Commie Bastidges at Marvel Communix! They shot him! (Or they sent him out hunting with Dick Cheney, the real story hasn't hit the news yet. Gee, that Cheney will do anything to deflect attention away from the Scooter Libby verdict!)

I, mean come ON! This is Captain America! Last time he died he went down in a plane (like Joe Kennedy Jr.) over the Atlantic (Like John Kennedy Jr.) and landed in the water (Like Ted Kennedy) but he was froze in an Iceberg (like Maria Shriver) until the the Avengers (?) found him and thawed him out (like Woody Allen in Sleeper)!

I'll bet Saddam and Ossama are in a cave (probably on the set of the movie they used to pretend we landed on the moon! Have you ever seen that argument? It's pretty impressive! It takes faith not to believe that it was faked. faith and some amount of reasoning, but you have to believe that NASA screwed some handling of the evidence very poorly) reading this comic and sharing a good laugh!

(For those impervious to humor, I'm only kidding, but they have shot Captain America!)

[/quote]

[quote=Whomitmayconcer]

Got in touch with Broitmayconcern, he's coming down too. The womanfolk'll go shopping in the megamall structure. The manly men will see the 300 and then we'll reconnoiter and prolly go to Outback (even though I hate Outback, it's right across the way from the Imax!) have an overpriced, undergood meal, with a few watery Saphire Martins and Mrsdamnwellitconcerns will drive us back home!

[/quote]

Mar 8, 2007 9:39 pm

WHO- you have entirely too much time on your hands…

Mar 8, 2007 9:48 pm

Yup!

Isn't this the greatest job in the world!?

Mar 8, 2007 10:11 pm

I don’t even know if 300 is a “rental” for me.



Has anyone seen The Last King of Scotland?

Mar 8, 2007 10:50 pm

Nope, not me.

Idi Amin? No thanks... I'll wait till it's out on DVD, then I'll not watch it!

I don't think I'd rent 300 either. I think this is a job for the Imax Theater experience. The photography look to be spectacular and the action looks to be balleric(?). to me it looks like art film meets classic gorefest! It looks like State Of The Art CGI and manly men bashing, slashing, crashing, smashing, trashing, mashing, clashing, clanging banging, twanging, hanging, strangling, wrangling, wrestling, romping, stomping, chomping, klomping, klunking, bunking, chunking, chopping, bopping, lopping, mopping, popping, sopping, stopping, detopping, untopping and generally whopping the snot out of each other!

I can't hardly wait! Hope it's a big hit, I would like to see IMAX run a bit from here! 

Mar 9, 2007 12:29 am

"But not all the Spartans back in Sparta support their king on his mission. A gaggle of sickly, corrupt priests, bought off by the Persians, consult an oracular exotic dancer whose topless gyrations lead to a warning against going to war. " From A.O. Scott's review in today's New York Times during which he calls this movie almost as bloody as Apocolypto and twice as stupid!

Meanwhile, Imagine THOSE on a six story screen!

"Its digitally tricked-up color scheme, while impressive at times, is hard to tolerate for nearly two hours (true masochists can seek out the Imax version), and the hectic battle scenes would be much more exciting in the first person. I want to chop up some Persians too!"

That's me!

"the lumbering portentousness of the original book, whose arresting images are themselves undermined by the kind of pomposity that frequently mistakes itself for genius."

So is that...

Mar 9, 2007 4:23 am

[quote=Whomitmayconcer]

Nope, not me.

Idi Amin? No thanks… I’ll wait till it’s out on DVD, then I’ll not watch it!

I don’t think I’d rent 300

either. I think this is a job for the Imax Theater experience. The

photography look to be spectacular and the action looks to be balleric(?).

to me it looks like art film meets classic gorefest! It looks like State Of

The Art CGI and manly men bashing, slashing, crashing, smashing,

trashing, mashing, clashing, clanging banging, twanging, hanging,

strangling, wrangling, wrestling, romping, stomping, chomping,

klomping, klunking, bunking, chunking, chopping, bopping, lopping,

mopping, popping, sopping, stopping, detopping, untopping and

generally whopping the snot out of each other!

I can’t hardly wait! Hope it’s a big hit, I would like to see IMAX

run a bit from here!

[/quote]

I like the verbs. Funny.

See, Can’t say anything here (no, I wouldn’t do such a thing as

edit or change joadabroker’s posts just as they do on --------:


“I find your unusually high level of interest in commenting on

whodoneit’s post to be interesting…
forums.registeredrep.com/

smileys/smiley5.gif”> "-joedabroker

just kidding: remember, I told planrcoach he was being too tough

on you, Joedabroke. So no bashing. Geez, if my wife saw these posts,

she’d think I’m on the downlow or something. Hey, I would have glanced

at the nude woman spanking herself a little longer but my wife came

home so I had to quickly login to milretirement digest.com

Mar 9, 2007 1:20 pm

Local(ish) Imax.. Tix all sold out for 5 showings today.

Saturday, 4 shows sold out, tix avaiable for the 11:45am show and the 11:59pm.

Sunday looks available so far>>>

Mar 10, 2007 6:44 pm

Sunday sold out too!

I'm thinking of leaving early on Monday to catch the 4:45 show!

Ragdgnagfasagbrdabit!

BTW. As far as the impact of this on IMAX. From what I understand of the company, the reason they put themselves on the market a year ago was to raise capital so that they could finance the theater owners who wanted to add an Imax (cost is between 3/4 and 1MM+ depending on what you start out with and what you want to end up with).

I think that the idea was that if they were the financing arm then they could retain equity ownership positions in the theaters (which they don't now) and so they could have a greater participation in the profits of blockbuster movies. This was the problem of the auction, at the time there were more Lacklusters than blockbusters on the IMAX calendar.

After the auction failed, Imax decided to try to take this new turn anyway and it will impact earnings for some unknown number of quarters as they reinvest into the business. But, hopefully, eventually they'll have a greater share of ticket sales.

I think they still do make a bit from the part ownership in the film they get for converting it to their 700MM format.

Mar 11, 2007 5:20 pm

Looks like 300 is gonna do $70 MM on 3103 screens this weekend.

That's a strong open for a gladiator movie!

Not exactly a "Date" movie (I don't suppose) and not a family movie in that it is rated R.

My daughter says she hears that it blows chunks.

I don't really care, I'm not going so that I can learn about Thermypolae or about how Xerxes burned Athens to the ground, or about how these guys lead to the Grecification of the city states and defended Democracy itself from the invading Persians (who lost like 30,000 against these 300). The History Channel already did all of that for me.

I'm going for a stupid action film. Reminds me though, I did sort of want to see Apocalypto maybe DVD.

Mar 12, 2007 5:46 pm

Yup, $70MM number 3 March launch (behind Matrix Revolutions and Passion Of The Christ).

Imax cracked the $5.00 level. Bears would rther have it below $5 so that they don't have to deal with margin and with wirehouse buying as much. There might be a capitulation in the offing here. of course there might be a false breakout too.

Oh and they signed a two theater deal with Regal Cinemas. (Two, whoopie! He said, trying to downplay any perceived enthusiasm.)

(Again, I'm not suggesting that anybody buy sell or swap this or any investment.)

Mar 13, 2007 3:43 am

OK, I know you're all waiting to see what I thought of the movie.

4:45 show and the two (at least) shows after it were SRO. AND they owner bumped up the ticket price by 50 cents on MONDAY after the weekend BO.

I had purchased tix online and got there 45 mins early (figuring I'd get on line near the front a half hour before showtime. NO! There was a line to get on line that was fifty people deep (Theater holds about 380 with 220 being side seats and  between 75 and 90 being stiff neck seats, so 50 is nearly half the good seats). We sat down almost right away (I left the office in the capable hands of my associates at around 3:00, it's an hour drive to the IMAX, just so you have an idea how far away they'll draw from) and watched the people flood in. At first it was all boys. Later came guys with dates (bad move, eventually two seats side by side were hard to come by. One pair of guys sat with a seat between them. One guy on the aisle the other two seats in and a seat between him and the next person. What was funny was that two people came along, asked the next person and her date to move over one and then the two guys sat next to the second guy and the recently moved couple. What's funny is that the second guy would sit next to a complete stranger but didn't sit right next to his friend he had come with. Hey I was sitting there for 45 minutes, almost anything was funny by this point!)

One preview, Spiderman III, May,4 (I'm not a Spiderman movie fan (One of my friends in school was a Spiderman fan and always said "I'm gonna work with Stan Lee at Marvel one day. He does. Dreams do come true.)

The movie. On the one hand, it is very easy to make fun of the acting. It's not hard to tell where to start, right at the beginning and right through to the very end. The acting was chortelingly bad throughout. But, then again when you compare this to its genre (We'll call them as the co-pilot in the first Airplane movie called them "Gladiator movies") The acting in those was gawdawful too. Remember in Moses when Yul Brenner mopped the floor with Charlton Heston? This was a tad disquieting in that Leonides (the main character, King of Sparta) spoke with a Scottish accent. I wasn't sure if he was channeling Mel Gibson's Braveheart character or what was going on. The Queen at least tried to put on an accent...however she had the worst accent I ever heard, and it was an English accent!

But I wasn't here for acting lessons or elocution and diction pointers! I wanted blood! I wanted style!

I can tell you for certain, this movie will be shown in basement media rooms of private San Francisco homes from now until the end of time! Beautiful men wearing nothing but a cape and a codpiece, 300 of them! Homeric? No! Homoerotic? Yes! The funny thing is that the guy with all the Swish is Xerxes, A nine foot tall hairless ebon with fabulous gold jewelery from head to toe, even his lip gloss and faux French nails! Darling!

Don't forget that this movie is intended to depict the artistic vision of a comic book artist (Frank Miller, and I guess he'd rather I call it a graphic novel, but he's not here so, I'm gonna refer to it as a comic book). And there is not a frame in this movie that is not CGI'd to the MAX. Certain shots are even given the dot pixelation of comic book printing. Men aren't just strong, they ripple with muscles, even their muscles have muscles. These guys have unlimited unending strength. When they swing a sword at you, it will slice your leg off at the thigh and your ham goes flying through the air as you fall to the ground.

When they swing their sword your head will stay on your shoulders for an eternity, far as you know, before it comes a tumbling down. Your body will just stand there waiting for instructions on what to do next. The thing about the heads is... Remember in The Omen? When the piece of plate glass slices that guy's head off and it goes rolling down the hill. Remember how dumb that looked, and yet remember how that was the state of the art and a dramatic step forward in special effects? No such problem here, heads are popping off left right and center in this moxie. No need to do fancy cutaways for the brief milisecond.

Which brings us to a second point and that's blood. You know how, when you watch action movies there never is lots of blood? Not this movie. Because its based on comix, first of all spears go in one side and out the other, every time! and every time some one gets speared, a half a gallon of blood comes flying out (surprisingly, when your head gets cut off none comes spurting out as the heart keeps beating though, no one knows why) and it always looks the same, exactly as it does in comic books. All the spears go "Fwing" as the pass through a body, for some odd reason.

They messed with the story, the Spartans always break ranks in this movie but the actual battle at Themopylae would make for a boring comic book (The Spartans invented the truth of the saying, "the best offense is a good defense").

Is this the future of moviemaking? There were no stars, there was no acting. The presentation was almost as ephermeral as a fireworks display. Loud noise, pleasing lights some abstract "message" and its on to the next. When it comes down to it, how is that different from Independence Day (a movie chosen for its total uselessness as a film other than a two hour distraction) or anything with Arnold Swartznegger, Bruce Willis or Jim Carrey? My guess is yes, this IS the future of filmmaking. Create a hyper alternate reality, one where I can't see the seams (seems) and let me sit in it for two hours. Don't bother me with faces that I recognize and can relate to other projects. Story telling I can get from old movies or books, I'm looking for the virtual reality that you promised me back in the early nineties. That's what this style of movie making offers.

Question is... How can we make money from this trend?

Mar 13, 2007 2:33 pm

Your life is rather boring, isnt it…

Mar 13, 2007 4:07 pm

As compared to what?

I find and take enjoyment from wherever I am. I'm never wishing I were doing something else. As a result, I'm never bored.

Mar 13, 2007 6:12 pm

[quote=blarmston]Your life is rather boring, isnt it...[/quote]

Seems there should be an offtopic or chitchat forum here; although whomit has made his comments relative to the forum referring to investment basis as he has done.  He probably should post these types of remarks on movie forums.  But blarmston, your comments are insensitive and rude at best.  Your signature indicates you have a boring existance yourself:  maybe you should go to see a good movie and liven up your life a little. 

Mar 13, 2007 6:18 pm

[quote=4luvofmoney]

[quote=blarmston]Your life is rather boring, isnt it…[/quote]

Seems there should be an offtopic or chitchat forum here; although whomit has made his comments relative to the forum referring to investment basis as he has done.  He probably should post these types of remarks on movie forums.  But blarmston, your comments are insensitive and rude at best.  Your signature indicates you have a boring existance yourself:  maybe you should go to see a good movie and liven up your life a little. 

[/quote]

Well how about if you go elsewhere and look for a "offtopic or chitchat forum"?  No need to report back to us to let us know what you find.....
Mar 13, 2007 7:02 pm

"But blarmston, your comments are insensitive and rude at best.  Your signature indicates you have a boring existance yourself:  maybe you should go to see a good movie and liven up your life a little."

Rude at best? Really? What are my comments at their worst? I place value in your thoughts so I will have my assistant hit the refresh button until your response comes back... Ohhhhh... anticipation !!!

Mar 14, 2007 12:04 am

Joedabroker:  mind your own bizwax.  Wow, you must have some influence with the forum moderators to get so many people kicked off of this site as I've noticed!  You must also be blarmston judging by being so concerned here.

First you get the other Suze Orman topic deleted off by the moderators.  Then you get Mr. A kicked off next you have planrcoach deleted off.  Why don't you mind your own business and quit being such a pain in the ass?  If the moderators allow this topic -- then it seems they should allow others to post here.  If they allow one poster to bash another -- then it seems they should allow a poster to come to his defense?

What's next, editing someone's posts? 

Mar 14, 2007 12:29 am

[quote=4luvofmoneytwo]

Joedabroker: mind your own bizwax.

Wow, you must have some influence with the forum moderators to get so

many people kicked off of this site as I’ve noticed! You must also be

blarmston judging by being so concerned here.




First you get the other Suze Orman topic deleted off by the

moderators. Then you get Mr. A kicked off next you have planrcoach

deleted off. Why don’t you mind your own business and quit being such a

pain in the ass? If the moderators allow this topic – then it seems they

should allow others to post here. If they allow one poster to bash another

– then it seems they should allow a poster to come to his defense?




What’s next, editing someone’s posts? [/quote]



I am flattered that you would think I have so much influence here! I

had nothing to do with Mr. A getting kicked off. He went a little off the

deep end in a debate with someone-I can’t remember who-and the mods

apparently pulled the plug on his hijinks. As many know he is still with

us just in a slightly more subdued form.As for you ----, you just keep on

thinking it’s someone else’s fault, ok? I mean after all, it’s served you well

so far in life! Maybe you should call your doc and talk about having your

meds adjusted?

Mar 19, 2007 6:59 pm

For what its worth, I saw 300 this weekend and it is BAD A$$. Just enough of a plot to keep it interesting, and the fight scenes were amazing... The filmmaking and how the scenes were shot (using creative color themes, slow mo for some fight scenes, etc) make this a truly unique film.

Think the best fight scenes from Bravehart, Gladiator, Troy, etc and multiply by 2 or 3.

Go see this movie.