Ray Harryhausen is without a doubt one of the all-time legendary greats in the FX industry who opened the door and inspired so many FX and filmmakers.  I grew up watching many of his films on tv including the sinbad movies.  He will never be forgotten and his work will live on forever as it should.  RIP.

Hey that's alright Wise, I think I know how you feel in a way.  I mean I haven't written on mania for quite some time and no big surprise it was the Nolan Batman that you used to pull me in!!  But hey, after all no one is perfect are they?  LOL!!!

Wise, my friend, just because a movie is grounded in the comic book universe doesn't necessarily mean it's good.  A few examples would be Batman and Robin, the Fantastic Four films and to a lesser extent Iron Man 2.  The Nolan Batman films weren't grounded in the Batman DC Universe but despite that they still were excellently written, directed, casted and produced and still captured the overall essence of what Batman is supposed to be.  Although it would've only added to the series, placing the Nolan Batman in the DCU wasn't a necessity.        

Hey guys!  Sorry to be repeating these comments for so many threads now.  Anyway, I uploaded a couple of videos on youtube recently, one is called "Josh the little dancer" and the other is "Love lives on in the heart."  They're not long.  Please watch them and spread the word!  Thanks!

I uploaded a couple of videos to youtube recently, one is called "Josh the little dancer" and the other is "Love lives on in the heart."  Please watch them and spread the word, I'm hoping they both go viral!  Thanks!

Hey guys!  I uploaded a couple of videos to youtube recently, one is called "Josh the little dancer" and the other is called "Love lives on in the heart."  Please watch them and spread the word, I'm hoping they both go viral!  Thanks!

Hey you guys!  I've posted two videos on youtube recently, one is called "Josh the little dancer" and the other is "Love lives on in the heart."  Please watch them and spread the word, I'm hoping they both go viral!  Thanks!

Hey you guys!  I've got a couple of videos that I've posted on youtube, one is called "Josh the little dancer" and the other is called "Love lives on in the heart".  I kindly ask you guys to watch them and spread the word about them, I'm hoping they both go viral!  Thanks!

Just because a movie gets nominated let alone wins any Academy Awards doesn't necessarily mean that its great, especially given the Academy's history.  Too often they snub films in various categories and yet nominate films like Avatar (although I don't hate it) IMO shouldn't be nominated for best picture.  To me, Avatar is a 2 and a half star movie out of 4 at best.

I've read about that so well said Davewriter!  I am a big fan of Cameron but I'm still able to criticize things he's done that I haven't liked as much Avatar.  Mind you, I don't dislike or even hate the movie like some do but I thought there were flaws in it that could've been done away with when they were making this.  I think Cameron has some ability as a writer but maybe more so as a co-writer (the lawsuit with Ellison as mentioned earlier as well as having written with Gale Anne Hurd and William Wisher on Terminator, Wisher again on T2, Randal Frakes helped him with the story idea on True Lies).  He wrote a brilliant sequel like Aliens and the underwater great The Abyss so we should give him some credit.  Even if he didn't come up with the Terminator concept, he still helped write a great spin to that story.  Having said all that, I think his best talent is directing.  I acknowledge like others here that it's fairly hard to come up with a totally new idea for a movie at this point in entertainment history and maybe filmmakers don't necessarily have to.  I believe it's the spin on a relatively known concept that may be at least as important if not more so than the idea it's based upon.