The Star Wars Stories Need to End

Before the hate mail comes flying in, let me clearly state that I love Star Wars. The 1977 film is my favorite movie of all time and I even loved the prequels. Sure, they had their problems, but overall they were fun to watch and I've spent a lot of time defending them. But the point of this article is to say that George Lucas needs to let it go. We had the prequels, the animated movie, the cartoon and now maybe even a live action TV show. Didn't Lucas learn anything with the Star Wars Holiday Special? Star Wars on TV doesn't work.

As the past few years have rolled on, it gets harder and harder to defend Lucas. At first, I justified the marketing tie-ins with the new movies as a way to generate revenue and promote the films. But the films came and went and the merchandising is still crazy. Did you know that you can still buy Star Wars shampoo? There's a whole toy section at Wal-Mart dedicated to Star Wars toys. The merchandising is almost as rampant today as it was several years ago.

But the thing that's bugging me about Star Wars nowadays is talk of the live action TV show. Supposedly, it's going to take place between Episode 3 and 4, but it won't feature any of the characters we've grown to love. On one hand, I'm glad he's not going to be ruining Han Solo, but on the other hand, I'm wondering how he expects a show without recognizable characters to be successful. We don't want to be introduced to a whole new slew of characters, we want to follow the old characters. No, scratch that; we don't want to watch anything except the DVD's of the films we already have.

While we're on the subject, what about the events after Episode 6? We have about 100 books chronicling the further adventures of Luke, Leia, Han and the rest of the gang. How about a movie or TV show featuring Han and Leia's twins? If they're going to insist on continuing the Star Wars saga, at least give us something interesting. Watching twin Jedis run through the galaxy fighting bad guys sounds like a good time to me.

Overall, we've had Star Wars propaganda jammed down our throats for the past 12 years or so. I was down with the release of the original trilogy and I was excited for the prequel trilogy. But that's where it stops. I've had enough of the Star Wars universe and I'd rather them spend their time and money on a Blu-ray release and let the TV show die in development.

Brad Sturdivant - Founder, Flix66.com.

Brad is the Founder/Editor of Flix66.com, a movie news, reviews and features website that is the place for all your movie kicks.

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Is Taxi Driver - With Robert De Niro - One of the Best Movies Ever Made?

The classic movie "Taxi Driver," starting Robert De Niro is arguably one of he most dramatic character studies ever put on film. In this review I'll describe why you absolutely cannot not miss this movie.

Our movie begins with the main character, Travis Bickle, played by De Niro, driving a taxi during the night shift on the mean streets of New York City. Travis is disgusted with the filth and depravity he sees on a nightly basis, and longs to clean up the mess somehow. He years for a rain that will come and clean the streets of their human filth.

We get to see some of the people that take Travis' taxi, and can sort emphasize with the way he feels, and how he has come to see people in such a negative light.

It appears that poor Travis may have a hope of a normal life when he meets Betsy, who is working for a reelection campaign for a politician. After several attempts, he convinces her to go on a date with him. Unfortunately for the disturbed Travis, this entails taking her to a pornographic movie theater, which obviously ruins any chance he has with her.

This seems to accelerate his tailspin into insanity. He plans to kill the senator she is campaigning for. He buys four handguns from a illegal gun dealer. In what is likely one of the most famous and well-known scenes in Di Nero's career, he stands in front of a mirror and practices deftly pulling out a concealed handgun against an imaginary assailant.

As he sets out to kill the Senator, things completely unravel, and Travis finds himself in a gunfight with the pimp of girl who he earlier unsuccessfully tried to convince to stop her life of prostitution, and return home and go back to school. After the gunfight, Travis miraculously survives, both being killed and being arrested.

Later, he is recognized as a hero who saved the girl from her evil pimp. He receives a letter from the girl's parent, thanking him for returning their baby girl back to them.

In what is likely one of the best roles of his career, De Niro expertly shows what can happen when one slowly loses his grip on reality. We get to travel along with Travis as his descent into insanity becomes inescapable, in what is definitely a movie that should be considered must see. If you haven't seen "Taxi Driver," you should. If it's been a while since you've seen it, you should rent it, and see it again.

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"Titanic" - Still a Romantic Classic

Here is one of my ongoing series of classic movie rental recommendations. Quite possibly you already have this one on your shelf. Why not get it out and dust it off to watch with your significant other?

"Titanic" is one of those rare and wonderful films that remind us of why we like to see movies. Since the sinking of the famous ship in April 1912, there have been several films on the subject, including "A Night to Remember" in the '50s. However, this later effort benefits greatly from contemporary movie making technology and a fresh, fictional love story, and it is not true that if you've seen one you've seen them all. It may be helpful to know something of the background of the movie to more fully appreciate what you see.

At a cost of 200 million dollars, it was one of the most expensive movies ever made, but the money clearly was not wasted on big-star salaries. The money was accounted for with a detailed and quite precise re-creation of the ship and its palatial interiors, with stirring actual footage of the ship where it lies today at the bottom of the north Atlantic, and with carefully researched period trappings from the hand-sewn beads adorning women's gowns to the stamped silverware and china, exact replicas of those used on the ship. Such details may not be individually noticeable to many viewers, but it's knowing that a filmmaker would take time and care for such things that insures that he will do right by the bigger aspects of his work. The scenes of men working in the steamy boiler room and of the colossal shiny new gears and machinery powering the massive ship are pure art.

The story begins as a treasure hunter (Bill Paxton) and his crew are descending in a tiny submarine to search the interior of the wreck of the Titanic on the ocean floor. They are looking, in particular, for a diamond believed to have been part of the crown of Louis XVI. Instead they find a drawing of a nude woman who is wearing the diamond. When the drawing is shown on the evening news, a 100-year-old woman named Rose Calvert (Gloria Stuart, a former star who was acting for the first time in 50 years) comes forward, claiming that she is the woman in the drawing. She and her granddaughter join the treasure hunters on a ship which takes them to the wreckage site. Rose's emotion at seeing some of her personal effects for the first time in 85 years leaves no doubt that she was Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet), the fiancée of rich businessman Cal Hockley (Billy Zane). She then takes her eager listeners back in time for a spellbinding story of love, vengeance, and destinies changed forever during the course of a terrifying two hours during the sinking of the great ship herself.

Rose was being forced into an engagement she didn't want when she meets the dashing Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) aboard ship. He is a third-class passenger with only 10 dollars to his name, a carefree drifter who loves life and the uncertainty of it. In four days aboard Titanic, Jack introduces Rose to the real world and real love for the first time.

The film worked with audiences because it possessed all those traits we enjoy most. There is humor as the division between the stuffy upper classes and the immigrant passengers in steerage is shown. Kathy Bates appears as Molly Brown, who, although rich, is down-to-earth and likable. There are amazing action sequences, unbelievable photography of this page of history we could only imagine until now.

But at its heart, "Titanic" is a passion-filled love story between two people who, ironically, live the happiest days of their lives aboard a ship no one knew was doomed. At three and a half hours, "Titanic" is longer than it took the real ship to sink, but the time flies by.

Shelly Greenhalgh-Davis is the author of two historical fiction novels, Eagle Shadow and its sequel Eagle Rising. Visit her at http://www.shellygreenhalghdavis.com.

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Twilight Edward Lifesize Standup - Life of the Party

Even the best of themed parties can go awry if there is a lack of continuity and purpose, and as the host it becomes a huge responsibility to firmly establish your theme. Twilight-themed parties and movie nights have grown in popularity equal to that of the Twilight franchise itself, and if you, your friends, or your children are fans, then the Twilight theme is an easy one that has numerous possibilities. One thing I have noticed with Twilight parties is the tendency for the theme to become subordinate to the whims of the party-goers, not because of any lack of interest, but because people do not know how to express and incorporate it into the party. Because of this it is often advisable to look for a few props to help set the mood. Probably the best way to do this is with lifesize standups of the main characters, Edward, Bella, both, or any of the others really. These are ideal as they are so versatile and add a larger-than-life/real-life aspect to the event.

First impressions create the mood, so you might position your Edward standup in the entry-way to the party so that guests are greeted by both Edward and you; when everyone has arrived you can reposition him into the main gathering area. Depending on the type of party, you can use a lifesize standup in ways other than decoration as well. For a birthday party you could have the standup itself be a take home gift for the birthday person. If you are entertaining teens and are looking for an incentive to keep them all at the party and out of trouble while under your supervision, you could do a raffle with everyone's names in it. At the end of the party whoever is still present and has their name drawn gets to take the Edward standup home. This is a fun way to keep the evening interesting as well as subdue excited groups of teens without appearing overtly controlling. Additionally, if you have other memorabilia that gets raffled as well (posters, Twilight nick-knacks, etc), as the host your burden of cleaning up after the event is lightened.

If, however, you intend to keep your Edward standup, you might instead supply a camera and take a picture of each guest with him. All you'd have to do is print the pictures, give them to their respective owners, and you would have quick and memorable party favors, your Edward still intact. If you're having a dress-up Twilight party, you might consider either providing or inviting your guests to bring red or amber color tinted contact lenses to wear (and maybe avoid the sun) so that they can be a vampire too for their picture. If you plan to invite them to bring their own color contact lenses, be sure to include that information in their invitation well ahead of time, and provide extras yourself so that nobody will be tempted to loan their used contact lenses to a friend without. As the host you do need to clearly communicate that contact lenses cannot be shared, as doing so is a potentially dangerous health hazard.

Twilight standups have been a huge favorite among standups, especially this Edward lifesize standup. Jacob Black has also been very popular and Zurchers always keeps both of these standups well in stock. Along with Twilight, Zurchers supplies a huge variety of other cardboard standups, one that will surely fit any themed party.

Zurchers is always ready to provide you with discounted items that will fit any festive occasion. Look us up at our online party store.

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Alias Final Season Disappointments

Now that the Television show Alias has had all its seasons released on DVD, it is a better time then ever to either purchase the show or rent it on Netflix. For a while, Netflix even had Alias available to stream online or through the Xbox 360 which means you do not even have to waste one of your DVD rentals. The show itself is certainly worth renting or purchasing. All the seasons are action packed and amazingly fun although there are some adult concepts so it might not be the ideal show for children.

The first few seasons focus on the CIA with a sci fi twist. The final season is no different except that many of the major characters seem to disappear without a good reason. Two of the best characters, Vaughn and Weiss seem to disappear randomly without any really good explanations. It seems to leave a deep hole in the show. In addition, Jennifer Garner is pregnant throughout the season so the action has to be way decreased for obvious reasons. It is fantastic that they have a pregnant lady acting on TV because TV producers seem to never want to allow pregnant women on TV shows. However, it severely limits action scenes so that no harm is caused to the baby from accidental karate kicks that could effect the baby. It has the feel that the show is slowly moving towards drama without any real explanation as the first few seasons were so action packed.

The ending of Season 4 is quite satisfactory although there is a tad bit of a cliffhanger. But still, you will be much better off just stopping before the final season while all your favorite characters are still playing a major part. Although Jennifer Garner show a lot of spirit and tries really hard in the final season to show that she is the main character, something is lost without those critical supporting actors. In addition, the show randomly introduces a whole bunch of new characters that do not seem to fit very well with the original cast that stays. Although there is a mild amount of interesting characteristics about the new characters, the audience has a hard time trusting and relating to these characters. They seem very cold and reserved without the passion that was created with the other characters in the first four seasons.

Overall, the final season of Alias is a true disappointment. Whether it is the lack of sci fi in the final season or the lack of actions when compared to the previous seasons, there is just something missing. Many people attribute this to J. J. Abrams leaving the show, but it seems that it might be a combination of this along with the loss of critical supporting actors.

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