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Back to the Future Reminder (October 21)
26 years ago, Marty McFly and Doc Brown climbed into their time-traveling flying DeLorean and set the controls to the distant future — October 21, 2015 — which happens to be this week.
This is a fun post about the predictions that Back to the Future got right, the predictions they got wrong, and the amazing technologies we have today that they just completely left out.
Meanwhile, in New York:
Ride-hailing service Lyft is offering free DeLorean rides Wednesday, October 21st in New York City to celebrate Back to the Future Day, when Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled to the future in the (let's face it) middling sequel to the 1985 original blockbuster. The company is partnering with Universal and Verizon for the promotion, which will be offered to users from 11AM to 5PM via a "McFly Mode" toggle on the app.
Rides will be free, but the ability to travel either forward or back through the timestream is dependent on reaching 88 mph, and the speed limit in the Big Apple was just lowered to 25 mph, so don't get your hopes up.
Star Wars Ticket Demand Crashes Cinema Websites
Huge demand for tickets to the first screenings of Star Wars: The Force Awakens has put a strain on cinema websites.
Odeon and Picturehouse said their sites were affected, with Picturehouse saying it had seen "unprecedented" demand. However a Vue spokesman said it had sold 10,000 tickets in 90 minutes, adding "our customers continue to purchase online with ease".
The new film, which hits cinema screens on 17 December, is one of the most anticipated titles of the year. It reunites stars from the original trilogy of films including Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher. Advance tickets went on sale this morning, but the volume of people trying to buy them was too high for website servers to cope.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday October 20 2015, @07:06PM
Proving once again that Americans are more stupid than ever, and will consume anything like flies on shit. Here, I'll play the audio from the preview:
Goo-goo, ga-ga. Poo-poo, pa-pa, Ook ook eek EEK! Boobooboobooobooboo! Phblbnhlbgbhlgblblht. OOga-chaka. Ah-ah-ah-ah-AH-AH-AH. Errrgleberrrgle.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 20 2015, @07:07PM
For a second there I thought I was on that website with the slanted line and the little dot. Turns out it was just Ethanol-Fueled!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday October 20 2015, @07:57PM
Yeah back to the future had its moments. Oh wait you're talking about the latest star wars cash in.
I admit to being very suspicious that the supply chain is already flooding with star wars christmas toys and "wisely" the movie isn't being released until a week before christmas so even if its a total dog it'll be too late to return gifts and get new gifts. That would seem to indicate they know its a dog of a movie.
Is there gonna be a new Jar-Jar?
The narrowcasting is so intense I had no idea BTTF had a movie coming out tomorrow... Admittedly I don't watch much TV and when I do I skip commercials, so I had no idea. Speaking of Jar-Jar is BTTF going to have its Jar-Jar?
I am too lazy to watch movies but I assume someone out there in SN land has already downloaded the torrent or whatever of both movies, are either any good?
(Score: 2) by tibman on Tuesday October 20 2015, @08:51PM
Disney seems to do sci-fi pretty well. I have the feeling it'll be more action-packed and tropey than we are all use to (for the originals) but the overall quality will be high. It'll be better than episode one, for sure. If they want a successful reboot (ie, people buy the new SW toys and not the old ones) then they'll have to avoid what happened with the Star Trek reboot. The ST reboot didn't seem to do much for the series but does stand-alone pretty well. But when you want to get someone Star Trek swag you don't go for the new stuff, you go for the old stuff.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 20 2015, @09:14PM
> I admit to being very suspicious that the supply chain is already flooding with star wars christmas toys
I wouldn't. Every star wars movie, except perhaps the first, have been marketing tour de forces. You are probably just old enough to see through it better.
(Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday October 20 2015, @11:31PM
I don't know if I'd worry about the merchandising. Allow Yogurt to explain. [youtube.com] They're just being a good little corporation and milking consumers for all they've got.
Let's hope J.J. knows better than to include Jar-Jars or even the cringe-worthy Trade Federation. I might give Ewoks a pass at some point in VIII or IX just because I think they're cute, but I doubt we'll see any of those either. Let's also hope they scrap midichlorians.
J.J. might actually be the right choice for this movie. It looks exciting. If his two Star Trek movies had been Star Wars instead, I might have even forgiven the protagonist's ship [Enterprise/Millennium Falcon] entering the atmosphere from cislunar orbit in a matter of minutes with the people inside falling faster than the ship before it even gets close to the atmosphere.
(Not to start a Star Trek vs. Star Wars flamewar, but Star Trek: Renegades is the 11th Trek film as far as I'm concerned.)
Where do you see a new BTTF movie? If you're talking about cinemas running the trilogy back-to-back, more power to them I guess, but the local one isn't (and I have to work anyway, but somewhat surprising since they usually have 1 weekly screening of a classic from Metropolis [Fritz Lang's, not the awful anime one] to Casablanca to 2001, even did the Star Trek II-IV trilogy once iirc, wouldn't be surprised if they do Star Wars ep. IV-VI before VII comes out). If there is a new BTTF film, it had better darned well include the continuity and characters from this game series [wikipedia.org]. It's worth a play though even if some of the puzzles are lame.
(Score: 2) by arslan on Wednesday October 21 2015, @01:25AM
a new Jar Jar?
I doubt it, there is a new droid though. Also lots and lots of lens flare... although to be fair based on the trailers out so far they are more like diffused glares. JJA mellowed down a little, mus be getting old. That or the full on lens flare cometh during the full movie...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Tork on Tuesday October 20 2015, @08:23PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 20 2015, @11:56PM
The neat thing about elitism is that standards are so low that it's ridiculously easy to be an elitist.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday October 21 2015, @12:15AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday October 21 2015, @12:18AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday October 20 2015, @09:59PM
Ethanol-fueled:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGbxmsDFVnE [youtube.com]
JUST LET IT IN
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 21 2015, @04:08AM
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-34583416 [bbc.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday October 21 2015, @04:25AM
A conspiracy of Jews using the latest Star-Wars film as race-mixing propaganda to dilute the pure White race into a more-easily-controlled underclass?
Not so much -- the answer, simply, is that forced diversity in media sells more shit to more people. That minorities have more equal representation, and/or that the film appeals to sexual interracial undertones, is incidental. The primary objective is to sell more shit to more people. A marketing type might say, "accessible to more demographics" or some shit. Anybody with half a brain can see it for what it really is -- pandering. It's why New Captain America is Black [marvel.com] and why New Ghostbusters are all Female. [usmagazine.com] It's not about equal or even proportional representation, it's about making more people wanna buy or otherwise consume your shit.
Much in the same way the big push in STEM isn't about a more scientifically-educated populace, it's about raising the labor supply and driving wages down courtesy of those big benevolent tech companies lobbying your lawmakers.