?In Free Willy, I spent the whole movie waiting for his utterly harmless dad character to freak out, cut somebody's ear off, and pour gasoline all over them.

This definitely would have made for a better movie.

where there's no evidence to suggest it

Well, that's where we differ. I thought there was evidence. I'm keeping that in the past tense -- I certainly don't remember enough about the movie to go through it.

I think the coda is crap moviemaking. I just don't think it's optimistic crap moviemaking.

Millennium was a bad movie based on a short story I really liked. Sadly, Varley worked on the movie and loved it, so I don't even have that recourse.

Back to the Future 2 is great. Couldn't happen, according to its own internal logic, but lots of fun

I knew I was growing up the first time when my brother and I watched the Back to the Future movies, which we loved dearly, and realized that it didn't work. It started with a "Heeey...." then snowballed into a full out hour long discussion of how much didn't work.

It started with a "Heeey...." then snowballed into a full out hour long discussion of how much didn't work.

Heh. Only an hour?

Sean and I and some friends had four hours. With flow charts.

We're dorks.

And that was more of an issue in III anyway.

Right, it's III that's back in the old west, and where the forgot a Delorean that might have provided extra parts and gas.

I certainly don't remember enough about the movie to go through it.

You don't want to watch again all the way through to try and pinpoint exactly what pointed to dream sequence for you?

...Also, there are the pressing questions of "Why can they foresee murder but not embezzlement or involuntary manslaughter or accidents?" and "How do 3 people handle all the crimes, or even just all the murders, in a major city? Much less a national expansion of the program? They'd be reporting a crime like every 11 seconds." and "If the crime being prevented is a crime of passion, why does the Time Out last for the rest of that person's life instead of 5 minutes and a valium prescription?"

I mean, okay, let's pretend that law enforcement has become way more important than civil rights, and that nobody raised a squawk about that or the illogical application of law enforcement. But, like, who designed this system, where a guy who has a brief murderous thought goes into Zombie Therapy, and someone like Ken Lay isn't even on the radar? If it's all the same with everyone, I'd far rather spend my energy preventing pervasive crimes like Love Canal and other massive crimes-of-neglect than chase down the odd nutball who snaps and murders his neighbor.

We're dorks.

No really. I assure you that MM and I were the original founders of the Institute for the Study of Temporal Inconsistancies in the Back to the Future Movies.

You don't want to watch again all the way through to try and pinpoint exactly what pointed to dream sequence for you?

I liked it well enough -- I just have 150 movies on my Netflix queue, so no, I'm not going to watch it to fill out an argument I don't feel strongly about.

Michael Madsen's the same way. In Free Willy, I spent the whole movie waiting for his utterly harmless dad character to freak out, cut somebody's ear off, and pour gasoline all over them.

Heh. I am the anti-Sean. I had never heard of Michael Madsen before Thelma and Louise, so I spend the entire duration of practically every other film he's ever done (never saw Free Willy, but now I'm thinking I might) in a state of appalled, heartbroken disbelief at the horrible things the evil screenwriter and director are forcing Louise's flawed but deeply loveable Ole Jimmie to do.

I assure that MM and I were the original founders of the Institute for the Study of Temporal Inconsistancies in the Back to the Future Movies.

DUDE! I should totally join.

I think ita just resigned her position as Argue Girl.