With regard to the latest Star Wars film: I ...
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Missing option (Score:3)
Re:Missing option (Score:5, Insightful)
Also: waiting for quality torrent.
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That, to me, falls under the "home video" option. It's after all not stated how this video is channeled to the home. Bought DVD, rented Laser Disc, streaming, cam-rip torrent, BluRay rip torrent - all are options of getting the video to play in your home. I.e. home video.
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Well ... the system as-written has a limited number of options -- sorry ;)
(But "skipping entirely" does seem to be covered by "I don't plan to see it," right?)
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But "skipping entirely" does seem to be covered by "I don't plan to see it," right?
Sure enough, although the emphasis was on the reading-the-spoilers part. Which I consider a sort of money-saving public service ;-)
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There's a difference.
E.g. "don't plan to see it, but if my friends invite me to join them to the theatre I may just join them and watch it after all". While "skipping it entirely" would imply rejecting that invitation.
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How do people support Disney? (Score:3, Interesting)
This is an IT focused website which would understandably be excited by Star Wars but after Disneys attack on its IT workers I'm shocked that people would be so quick to support their actions with their hard earned money.
I'd love to let my son revel in the world of Star Wars but if I want the world to be a better place I feel irresponsible showing support for Disney to him.
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As a fan of hard sci-fi... (Score:3, Interesting)
I find it very hard to muster any level of interest for western in space.
Re:As a fan of hard sci-fi... (Score:5, Informative)
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It's fantasy in space. There's a princess, knights and magic.
And muppets. It's muppets in space.
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Re:As a fan of hard sci-fi... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:As a fan of hard sci-fi... (Score:5, Interesting)
As a hard sci-fi fan I think maybe you don't understand what sci-fi is about. Sci-fi fiction has a patina of the fanciful but if you look at the classic sci-fi which has survived what sci-fi is really about is de contextualizing a social phenomena and human aspirations and transporting them to a world where you can better see their implications. The justly famous Star-trek episode where the half-black and half-white men chase each other to oblivion is a perfect and plainly obvious example.
Western's themselves ironically were an incarnation of this where primal urges had a context to emerge in campfire conversations before the black hats or indians (i.e. the outside comapssionless pressures) attacked.
What you are thinking of is Buck Rodgers sci-fi. Now that was just popcorn sci-fi. But what made starwars was the first episodes reliance on classic myth and heroics. Allegedly it was until writing the second episode that they realized they could advance this further in a greek tragedy way by making Darth the poppa. (originally he was just going to be all bad). It's worth appreciating that one little tiny script change deeply. It ultimately set the stage for star wars to be the rise and fall of Anikan Skywalker not as we all thought the coming of age of Luke Skywalker. ( Sadly this also set up the plot arc of the prequles. The less said the better about that. )
Star wars is hard sci fi done so well that it looks like candy rather than having all its rough edges exposed.
This amazing reddit thread
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarW... [reddit.com]
becomes a little more amazing as you give it time to breath in your mind, suggests that perhaps the prequels were supposed to have a completely different villan. Namley the anti-yoda. A seemingly harmless bumbling creature who is the most powerful of the Sith, as yoda is to the jedi. I want to believe this was the plan. It would have fulfilled Lucas stated plan to make the prequels all Rhyme with the original trilogy. That would have made the pre-quels have a more mythic structure like the battles fought by the greek gods rather than the battle-battle-senate-senate-battle format which I think even buck rodgers might not have touched.
all hail Jar-jar
Re:As a fan of hard sci-fi... (Score:4, Insightful)
What you describe is ordinary fiction dressed up with trappings of super-science. Science fiction is a story which shows the effects of one or more scientific advances.
A caper flick with bank robbers using light cannons instead of drills and thermite to break into a vault, is not science fiction.
If, 30 or more years ago, a writer posited the effects of everyone having a video camera, and showed people editing videos to demonstrate that murderers were victims of police brutality, that would be science fiction.
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What you describe is ordinary fiction dressed up with trappings of super-science
IOW, 'magic' - a sort of Harry Potter in space, but not as deep or insightful. I don't mind - I went and saw it, and it's good fun. That's all it is - I might even watch it again if it turns up on my tv and there isn't anything better showing. What I don't like - but that is the same in all too many modern movies - is the overuse of heavy bass and infrasound; it just annoys me. Good entertainment shouldn't need that.
Re:As a fan of hard sci-fi... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sci-fi fiction has a patina of the fanciful but if you look at the classic sci-fi which has survived what sci-fi is really about is de contextualizing a social phenomena and human aspirations and transporting them to a world where you can better see their implications.
That is true of softer science fiction, but not hard sci-fi. It is also true of fantasy, but less so because fantasy generally doesn't stray as far from historical social models.
The justly famous Star-trek episode where the half-black and half-white men chase each other to oblivion is a perfect and plainly obvious example.
Star Trek was not hard science fiction. That doesn't mean it wasn't good, or wasn't science fiction.
Star wars is hard sci fi
No, Star Wars is not and never was hard sci-fi. Hard science fiction is science fiction with an emphasis on scientific accuracy and/or technical detail. This means, for example, that space ships do not make looping turns like aircraft. Hard science fiction projects future technology based on known principles. Some hard sci fi takes one or two liberties to enable the story, such as allowing faster-than-light travel, but these are strictly limited and the details of the "new science" is usually elaborated and then rigorously adhered to.
And, actually, Star Wars also doesn't fit your definition of science fiction above, since it's a pretty standard story in a pretty standard social context. "A New Hope" is a rescue-the-girl, defeat-the-bad-guys shoot'em up, in space. "The Empire Strikes Back" and "The Return of the Jedi" are a little more complex, but they still don't do much decontextualization.
I'm comfortable with calling Star Wars science fiction, but it's not remotely hard science fiction, and it doesn't really do any of what classic sci-fi does (unlike Star Trek, which is outstanding science fiction, particularly ToS and particularly in the context of the time it was aired). It's science fiction only because anything with space ships and aliens on other planets and futuristic weapons is science fiction.
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Star wars is hard sci fi done so well that it looks like candy rather than having all its rough edges exposed.
You're playing to the crowd so aggressively, it's almost brilliant. It's also nauseating.
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I enjoy Star Wars, but it is not sci-fi and certainly not hard sci-fi. Adding "space" and "lasers" (esp. without any sharks) to fantasy-fiction does not make it sci-fi. Hard sci-fi is about plausible techno-scientific advances, not Jedi Knights etc. In fact, they did try to make it a bit more sci-fi by "explaining" the mystical/fantasy aspects (midichlorians) and that was a complete disaster. It is a great space-opera, space-themed fantasy or whatever else you want to call it. It is not hard sci-fi and it d
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Star wars is hard sci fi done so well that it looks like candy rather than having all its rough edges exposed.
Holy crap you have absolutely no idea wtf you're talking about.
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It matters not the nature of the story, what matters is the qualities of the story and how well it was told. Stuff the simplest child learns when they are first told stories, something that the idiot child Jerk Jerk A seemed to miss yet again but family connections and money often account more for how that PR factory chooses to present itself and it's members, something they really seem to be struggling with in the internet age. They are burning through new marketing methods faster than ever before, I wond
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It's not even remotely a Space Western. It's actually a Space Soap Opera [cinemablend.com].
Going to see it tomorrow (Score:2)
but it's free.. so I doubt I'm going to feel like I've wasted much but my time.
Backstabbing criminals (Score:3)
I'll wait to see it on NetFlix. The next family vacation to a "Theme Park" will be for Busch Gardens or Sea World. (Now, please dig up some dirt on Busch to tell me I made a bad decision)
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Disney doesn't want to give their money to Americans, so why should Americans be excited to give money to Disney? h1b yada yada yada [breitbart.com]
I'll wait to see it on NetFlix. The next family vacation to a "Theme Park" will be for Busch Gardens or Sea World. (Now, please dig up some dirt on Busch to tell me I made a bad decision)
So, you give money to Netflix, and Netflix gives money to Disney. See how hard it is to be ideologically pure?
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I do subscribe to NetFlix DVD (yeah, DVDs are old-fashioned but the selection is much better than their streaming service). I pay less than $20 per month to see as many movies as I like, and I would pay more than that to take the family out for one night for a feature film.
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re: InBev (Score:2)
As a born and raised St. Louisan, I'm pretty familiar with how Anheuser Busch fit in with the city and local population.
Fact is, the InBev sale itself might have been perfectly ethical and acceptable in a legal sense, but it definitely screwed over St. Louis, Missouri in the long run. While A.B. was family owned, it always seemed to feel a strong responsibility to give back some of its profits to the community. All sorts of charitable projects received at least some funding from A.B. and dozens of building
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So foodies are required to start liking American beer again, and not just the micros?
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It's not really possible to give "good" treatment to large sea mammals, no matter how hard you try. They just don't handle captivity very well.
This is why a lot of zoos that have sea mammals are trying to get rid of them
SPOILER ALERT: (Score:3, Informative)
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Rosebud was the sled.
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Jar Jar was the Sith Lord behind Palpatine.
(seriously... google it. Jar Jar s using drunken master moves in the movie and making 20' leaps that only jedi masters and sith lords make but mouthing what people say and waving his hand around before key promotions). Pretty clear he was to be the dark side Yoda acting like a goof until the big reveal.
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I'm re-watching the movies with my boys leading up to our Force Awakens viewing. We're going in 1-6 order mainly as a "Get Jar-Jar Over With Quickly" maneuver. I've been able to stand him by thinking of his actions as "evil Sith pretending to be the fool to avoid suspicion" just like Yoda acted like a crazy guy living in a swamp before he revealed himself. It doesn't totally redeem the first movie, but it would have totally redeemed the character if - during Episode 2 - they revealed that Jar-Jar was the
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I'm re-watching the movies with my boys leading up to our Force Awakens viewing. We're going in 1-6 order mainly as a "Get Jar-Jar Over With Quickly" maneuver.
I read an article that suggested watching the movies in "machete" order. IV,V,II,III,VI. Prevents spoilers from the prequels and manages to avoid most of Jar Jar. Plus you don't have to worry about the stupid pod race and all that.
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That was another thing I stumbled on.. backed up by footage from the movie.
Guess who fixed the pod racer just in time for the race?
Yup, he's sitting there tinkering with it seriously and then someone walks by and he quickly plays the fool making you forget that he wasn't fooling around seconds before. Likewise in the bridge ambush he's every bit as stealthy as the other jedi until the battle actually starts then suddenly he's a fool again.
I've found two things.
Watching Jar Jar without sound changes my per
Have already seen it (Score:4, Interesting)
Seen it. It was an okay romp, although not particularly inventive. It tries very hard to please fans of the original trilogy, which is not the worst thing you can do. It even has occasional dialog so wooden, you'd think Lucas had lend a hand with the screenwriting. ;-)
Having recently enjoyed Harmy's Despecialized Editions as warm-up, I'd put this roughly on the level of the first Star Wars (and perhaps a bit derivative thereof). I personally find Empire to be the high point, but who knows what VIII might bring.
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Saw it as a freebie. Almost fell asleep. Did like Ford's humor though.
way back in 20th century! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:way back in 20th century! (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember a friend saying, "you gotta see this movie. The special effects are as good as '2001'."
The difference is, 2001 still looks good after all these years, as opposed to the original Star Wars, which looks not much better than Flash Gordon to modern eyes.
Important spoiler (Score:3, Funny)
Frenchie there. Seen the movie last night.
The only important scene in the movie is when Luke Skywalker dies, beaten to death by Han Solo. It was a great idea to induce the cliffhanger ending that episode.
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Really? My wife would never leave the house to go sit in a drafty room full of coughing strangers munching overprized yucky stuff and having to watch a film without having a remote to pause it or turn the sound down to a level where you can talk normally.
If you want to talk during the movie then you shouldn't even be in the theatre anyway.
Missing option (Score:2)
Oblig. complaint about missing poll option: (Score:5, Funny)
"I'm in the movie!"
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In the movie? or in the theater watching the movie?
If it's the first, congratulations I hope to see your name in the credits!
If' it's the latter, I'm in the row behind you and shut of that annoying cell phone or I'm going to pummel you with my toy light saber..
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I'm in Soviet Russia, and in Soviet Russia, movies watch you!
I will never forgive them for the Ewoks or Jar-Jar (Score:2)
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I completely disagree about Disney - at least as it relates to Ewoks/Jar-Jar type missteps. Disney knows how to entertain audiences and how to tell a good story. (They lost their way awhile back - doing pointless direct-to-video sequels to get money - but they've since returned to form.)
Scalzi says it best [scalzi.com]:
Only seeing it because the boss is paying (Score:2)
I'll be seeing it next week but only because it is a company outing. If it were just me and my time and money I would wait until I could see it on TV, free or nearly free. If I really thought I was really going to be wowed then I might do otherwise.
Waitin for NON 3D showing (Score:2)
Where I live it is currently only showing in 3D.
Which gives me a headache and hurt my eyes. So I will not see it before it either shows on a NON 3D cinema or even on DVD...
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Just close one eye....
Not just now. (Score:2)
Missing:Experience It Vicariously Through Spoilers (Score:2)
Wait for the video (Score:3)
I'm not sitting in a dark theater surrounded by sperglords with toy lightsabers.
Never saw a single film of that franchise (Score:3)
Seems like most actors made well without my financial or emotional involvement.
Thanks for sharing (Score:2)
I also never get the hype of films that I haven't seen. Strange, huh?
I'll get off your lawn now.
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It's not like I'm creating a dozen blog-posts per week about it.
Nothing turns me off a product more than (Score:5, Insightful)
Excess marketing and boy BOY does this one have that in spades.
SO over Star Wars, plus the 'universe' I loved feels like a product now (I know all of this shit for entertainment is a product, but some franchises try to keep the illusion)
Nope, not interested. Lucas put the bullet in it for me years ago.
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Excess marketing and boy BOY does this one have that in spades.
It started bugging me when espn.com started running a story about star wars as like baseball card-like lineups.
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ESPN also ran an hour-long special about the swordplay of starwars.
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As far as the hyper hype goes, I'll make an exception for and forgive the Big Bang Theory episode this past week, since it was clearly in character for them to be caught up in the hype. But that pickup truck commercial with the SW theme this past week, seriously guys? There was even a commercial for a Star Wars charm bracelet collection by Kay Jewelers. Yes, even Kay Jewelers was going after the nerd market as part of the E7 hype.
I mean, I had no plans to see it anyhow, but the hype just makes it even more
re: excess marketing (Score:4, Insightful)
The funny thing is, I remember this "excessive marketing" as a hallmark of the original series -- but back then, it wasn't such a negative thing. Basically, when Lucas first got the green light to produce Star Wars, he had the insight to put it in the contract that he retained all the profits from the merchandise. Nobody had really done that before and few people thought it would amount to much. They weren't even anywhere near certain it was a movie that would have much success.
That probably turned out to be the single smartest move Lucas made, and earned him most of his fortune on the Star Wars movies.
And really, it's ALSO a key reason those of us growing up in the 70's remembered the movies so fondly. It wasn't just about really liking the movies as kids. It was the fact we had a whole slew of accompanying toys so we could act out what we imagined after watching Star Wars.
Since everything gets marketed to death these days, it does seem more annoying than anything else seeing Star Wars on toasters, blankets, and everything else imaginable. (R2D2 humidifier? Seriously?) But originally, this was all part of the magic.
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That's a shame. Because it's really good. Weirdly, I haven't seen any marketing beyond a few posters on bus shelters, and the trailers that I've actively sought to watch. Was most of the marketing on the TV? Because if so, and if you dislike megacorp marketing machines so much, maybe don't watch broadcast television. Although you probably don't anyway - so I imagine you're in the US, and it's all over every flat surface you can look at. I'm fortunate enough to live somewhere that hasn't moved quite as far d
Visually beautiful. Target audience is jr high (Score:2)
Visually beautiful.
Definitely Disney-ified.
Target audience: middle-schoolers.
Missing option (Score:2)
I don't want to but I have kids.
Today ... and regretting it. (Score:3)
I should have known better, but some of my co-workers were going and convinced me to come along. How many times can they recycle the same basic script, add in a few new characters and contemporary special effects and convince so many people it's a good movie? :-(
Apparently every 15-20 years.
I can't believe the rave reviews this film is getting. 8.9/10 on IMDB? WTF? This is definitely on the same level of "suck" as The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. Even worse when you consider that the plot elements are worn out to the point where they're physically painful to watch.
It was all downhill after the novelty of seeing the opening text in 3D.
Missing an option... (Score:2)
Spoiler (Score:2)
Han Short First
... I wasn't going to see it this weekend BUT (Score:2)
saw it this morning - wasn't expecting to be blown away and I wasn't, but also wasn't disappointed with the movie. I'll have to see it again (eventually) to decide whether it is a good movie or not (e.g. "Phantom Menace" gets worse every time I stumble upon it)
yes, there are massive plot holes. yes, it is predictable. No Jar Jar, no midi-chlorians, handles the whole "Star Wars universe" burden as well as can be expected - basically a good time ...
I was 11 in 1977 (Score:2)
Star Wars was EVERYTHING! It really was a completely new experience. And it's an experience I cherish. But excitement tempers with age. Episode 1 was horrible. Episode 2 I saw one time. Never did see Episode 3. I saw The Force Awakens with my 12-year old daughter this morning, and very much enjoyed seeing the movie through her eyes. I think the movie is good, quite good actually. Puts the series back where it belongs. It almost has the feel of a successful reboot. But, it is just an enjoyable two hours for
No, Never, No! (Score:2)
Movie theaters are not pleasant places to view video entertainment
In fact, I can't imagine a worse place to watch stuff (OK, maybe Turkish prison)
To go to a theater, I need to drive through traffic, find a parking spot, wait in line, sit in a VERY uncomfortable seat, then watch the thing linearly, with no ability to pause or rewind
I'll wait for Netflix
Re:No comments here (Score:5, Funny)
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Sounds like some kind of netflix.
But not as we know it :D
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Because Redbox doesn't give you access to anything besides mainstream Hollywood blockbusters, plus some really shitty B-grade stuff thrown in.
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(Also, why would you pay like $20 to watch it in a theater when you can watch it from a $1.50 redbox?)
Because 1) the screen and sound setup are MUCH better than what you have at home, and 2) the $20 movie ticket is largely an Internet exaggeration.
Very, very few movie theaters that I know of charge more than $12 for a ticket. The theater I'm going to tomorrow for a matinee is $3.50 per ticket. I'm taking four people (2 adults and 2 kids) to Star Wars for less than $15.
Yeah, I know, I know. The sodas and popcorn. To hear many you'd think it was absolutely impossible to go a couple hours without eating/dr
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Do you think a "video game" is a fixed function device with a pair of paddles and maybe a light gun that plays variants of Pong and nothing else?
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Who the hell waits for a "home video" release anymore? Is that still even a thing? I don't care if it's VHS, DVD or Blu-ray.
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I do. Some movies look good enough to watch but not good enough to deal with a theater. The upper grade of those is "wait for netflix to have the disc", which is closely related to "home video release". (The lower grade is "wait for it to be on cable".)
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"Wait for the Netflix disc" is my interpretation of 'home video'. I cling to my disc subscription because I've seen the ragtag index of streamable features that Hollywood will let Netflix have, and it in no way compares to the depth of the DVD library.
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There's no such thing as "Netflix discs" outside of the U.S.A. so I didn't think about that option.
Video [Re:No comments here] (Score:5, Insightful)
Who the hell waits for a "home video" release anymore? Is that still even a thing? I don't care if it's VHS, DVD or Blu-ray.
I'm not sure what the question is here. All of these are video. Netflix streams video. If you watch it from Netflix at home, it's home video.
Were people interpreting the word "video" to mean "videotape", perhaps?
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"Torrent" is also "home video". Well, assuming you watch it at home. Of course, some people will watch it on home video before they can get tickets to see it in the theater. Meh, this one I'll wait for the theater experience - JJ Abrams makes every movies like he was making Star Wars, so I expect this will be fun no matter how stupid the plot. Even if JarJar shoots first, the action scenes will be worth it.
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I'd be shocked if there were any references to the prequels, beyond some Easter egg involving JarJar's grave.
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"Home video" doesn't specify physical media.
IMHO Home video could be VHS, DVD, or Blue ray . . . . or Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc.
It's video - you're watching it at home. Ergo, home video.
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Actually most hipsters are fixated on a lot of old things, not new. Hence their penchant for vinyl records and outdated film cameras. If anything I'd wager hipsters would be MORE apt to gravitate towards DVD's (or ESPECIALLY Laserdiscs) compared to Netflix.
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Living in a "Developing" Country (Guatemala) finally had its benefits! Got to see the movie last night and it was amazing. I. CAN'T. EVEN.
Is that you Dr.Ropata?
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