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-- Review: L.A. Twister (2004) (http://www.vcdhq.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=47408)

Hurray!

I severly enjoyed this film, and would never had seen it if it werent for piracy. For i live in iceland, and all we get are "big" movies that for the most part, should never have been made in the first place.

my favorite scene in the movie would not be the hanging itself, but the scenes running up to that. While Lenny was buying snacks and stuff while Ethan prepared his death.

I laughed hard at that. (Which probably wasn't your intention, but i'm a morbid bastard)

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i have sigs off

Good movie indeed..

I liked it. after reading this review and all the comments i had to see it and after seeing it i can truly say its a shame that not more people are able to see it. its not a typical hollywood movie and i like that and im gonna pickup the dvd when it comes to sweden. i hope to seeing more movies from you and its not everyday you can say thank you to a director or somebody involved in a movie so thank you sven for this movie

How refreshing to see a director who actually cares about the quality of his work instead of the quality of his advertising. Rest assured that in the future, I will certainly take an interest in your work and see your new movies, because you proved that there is still some honor left in hollywood.

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yeah lets just hope mystic dosn't scare him off. Maybe this place will become a hang out for directors/actors/pr0no stars who are not against piracy. Then we can take them and use them as hostages so we can get some hot gear for us to make a movie that would be l33t

The chance of more directors coming here is rather slim, but then again Sven showed up. The issue of piracy has been discussed so many times on this board, my policy still stands at try before you buy. There are many movies that I would have not bought had it not been for getting a rip of it first. ...ing is one that comes to mind. I spent $30 nearly to get the special edition set, and I love it. I imagine 1 out of 1 million people have heard of ..ing and it stands as one of the best movies I've seen to date. LA Twister, in my opinion, belongs on the best of 2004 list. Wether it is because 2004 has sucked when it came to movies, or because it was just that damn good I do not know, but the LA Twister DVD will join my collection as soon as it is retail.

The MPAA is constantly fighting piracy, and putting out loss estimates etc. My statistics teacher once told me that 70% of statistics are made up on the spot. If that is true, then most of the MPAA claims of losing millions are just that, claims, that hold no ground. Piracy is a great promotional tool for both LIMITED and Non-Ltd films. Not only for DVD sales, but also for theatrical releases, as on several occasions I went to the cinema after watching a Telesync of a movie, just because I liked it, and thought it deserved my money. It is great to see someone from the industry who doesn't have their head up their ass, counting money. Sven, I have alot of respect for you now. I hope you enjoy these fine forums, and welcome to the club.


KenshinX, Boxofhate.com

PS.
Sellers are what give this scene a bad rep. All Sellers must DIE!. YES, THAT MEANS YOU, anyone who sells bootlegged movies should die of AIDS.

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Now I haven't had the chance to see L.A. Twister yet, but I have checked out the trailer and reviews for it and it seems this film is going to be a masterpiece of cinematography.

If it were not for M$, these forums, piracy (in a sense), and also Sven, I may of never heard of this film.

I'm just glad to see though, that directors are finally realizing that piracy (again, loosely, in a sense) can help their films become bigger and better things. If I see a film I enjoy I will buy it. I have a job and I still can't afford to see every film that comes out that looks remotely interesting.

But none-the-less, thank you Sven. If I had the chance to go to the cinemas to witness this film, I would, but my cinema isn't too keen with limited films. I will download your film, but I'll guarantee if it is up to my likings, I will also purchase your film. So don't feel cheated by anyone who isn't able to your movie, downloading it.

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.. piracy is just one of many things that helps tip the scales in favor of the lesser guy

giving back a global piece of equality on the most essential part of every day life... which is the sharing of information

from limited and uncut movies sooner (ie UK or US waiting up to 6+ months for the swap of domestic theatre releases) to overpriced music .. to rare classics or out of print stuff...

at the moment piracy has its place . im addicted to the weatlh of information i can be afforded via the scene. not the cool-factor of how many programs i can download or movies i can leech but the addiction to a constant feed of information and education. . there is something so innocent and positive about the rush i get from seeing something that would be censored or ortherwise ignored by the media something that justifies the reasons i do it.

and like many people on this board will a'test to.... i BUY dvds.... i GO to shows... i PAY for the overpriced tickets at the theatre. we DO give back. i assume a very small percent of the piracy scene actually never gives back in some way shape or form.

and in many instances.. we work and participate in the industries we are 'helping to destroy'.. puhhlease!.. the movie and game biz has never been better

sven you are a shining light in a fight for freedom of information and fair business with loyal consumers and fans..
i salute you and found LA Twister to be quite a nice piece of work i wish you well and hope your convictions last with your career =)

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NFO Jones stole my bike

It's not always about what's gonna make more money. I mean if you get down to the basics of it, piracy is stealing. Of course, it's only stealing if the person cares. The "problem" the industry at large has with piracy is that it's here to stay, and they know that. There's no point in wasting millions of dollars trying to prevent something that CAN'T be prevented: take music for example. People have been pirating music since TAPES. People have been pirating movies since VCR's. If the industries would just learn to accept piracy and have a positive look on it they will see the beneficial attributes of it.

I can't speak for movies, but one of the heaviest pirated album of all time, (according to some studies: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-923472.html?tag=fd_top ), The Eminem Show in 2002, had PHENOMINAL sales. I bought the album, because I LOVED it. It's not a coincidence that the highly pirated music and movies are the ones that have such high sales. What is so hard to see about that?

Microsoft swears revenge if they ever find the person who leaked their French release of Halo 2, but when the sales numbers come in, you tell me if that made a significant difference (negative impact). Chances are no, if anything it helped.

So while I don't morally support piracy, I don't see it as a threat or even a bad thing. EMBRACE IT! You will come out a winner.

Back to this movie, I like many people here never heard of it (I live in L.A., but not a big movie fan, don't hear about movies much). But hell I'll probably end up watching this one some time. Thanks to piracy I've heard of it.

(forgot to rate this thread)

:: - Dwaggy

But the actions they are taking against piracy is right...if they did not at least attempt to stop it, then it would become more and more mainstream to do so. And when that happens, sales will start to get lower and lower.

I think its got an ok 'balance' between that right now.

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iNFiNiTY

When the MPAA finally realise they can't stop people downloading films (and shouldn't) films will go the way of I, Robot. One long product placement advert. I, Robot was done well, I'll still buy it when it comes out, but I can imagine alot of films will overdo it.

Anybody that is into movies will still buy the DVD after downloading a film but only if its a good film. I have a huge DVD collection and I download films all the time. For a good film I will go to the cinema too. (Lord of the Rings, Star Wars ect.) The biggest grossing films are the most pirated. Coincidence?

Hollywood should put the effort into making good films not trying to force people to buy bad ones.

After a review like this from my peers, I'll be buying this one too

Mystic has already taken the words out of my mouth But Really Everthings Totally Twisted in the way the American movie industry is running things in response to piracy. We're facing Dangerous Reprocussions Everyday How Everyone Runs to blame the people involved with piracy by having agencies go as far as saying that by downloading a movie you are supporting terrorism.
As far as the "try-before-you-buy" aspect of it, that's a very legitment claim. Why should the consumer have to pay for something they do not enjoy? The fact is that there is a so called "law-amongst-theives" for the true believers of the cause and the fact that we are finally being recognized by someone who is in the industry (and if kept up to this quality of work as in L.A. Twister, will be for a long time) as something more then people just trying to get out of having to pay for something.

Sven, I think I can speak for everyone here that knows the "scene" that having someone as open-minded as you on the other side of the fence is an inspiration of sorts.

i really loved this movie btw... do u have any more projects in mind?

ok now i gotta see the movie

on dvd extras, how i got here, on piracy, etc...

Howdy,

wow, Im amazed to see all the posts in this thread. Thanks for all who care enough to put their fingers to a keyboard.

Mystic you asked about the DVD features. First, we'll publish this thread; next I want to include a test scene we shot 6 months prior to production. It's a 7 minute scene with Zack and Tony (shot on 35mm as well). We did it to figure out what we were doing.

I also want to include a special on the play, the webcast and the premiere at the Mann's Chinese Theatre. This whole event was a great experience in its own, highly interactive with loads of web audience involvement.

I want to do a commentary with Patrice Cochet, the cinematographer. I think it will be especially interesting to describe our journey as filmmakers as we were making a movie about a movie about a movie... and all the parallels we encountered.

Zack and Tony will put the focus on what their experience as actors was. Especially Zack who's been in a ton of stuff since "A christmas story" has a lot of insights on what it is like to be an actor in this town.

DC_MAN, you wanted to know what brought me to this site. Actually through our web-stats we figured that something was up. We started getting more and more traffic from all over the world. A lot of people especially from Europe were googling our site and were typing "LA.Twister" (instead of L.A. TWISTER or LA TWISTER;-) It took us a while to figure out why so many people would repeat the same "typo". It was the file name of the pirate copy. As soon as Mystic posted his review we started getting direct hits from this forum. (Since then our website traffic trippled). I think it's only fair to return the favor and link back.

LoNeR, you wanted some direction for the thread in terms of the piracy discussion. There is actually an idea that I have. Bu I want to wait a couple more days before I bring it to the table. (Suspense!)

I am curious as to what you think as to how many people have already seen the wp version of the film?

I just started playing with an IRC software myself and I'm trying to figure out how I can download L.A. TWISTER. I want to see what the quality actually looks like. (Disclaimer: I'm only going to download my own film, so don't sue me). I haven't succeeded yet, but supposedly im queued up.

Finally, OVERDRIVE wants to know what the next project is. I'm finishing up a rewrite on my thesis script from my film school time(AFI). It is a modern day Hitchcock to be shot in Nova Scotia next year. That story thematically also plays with the perception of reality, but it is not a comedy this time. Growing up the classic suspense thrillers were my favorite movies and I haven't seen a good one in a long time.

Good Times,

Sven
www.snowdogfilms.com

P.S. If you get a chance, visit L.A. TWISTER on www.imdb.com and rate it and/or review it. It would mean a lot to me.

Plug: The film will be in theaters in Madison, WI, Nov. 19-26, Germany (Brunswick), Nov. 12-14, Kansas City, Dec. 10-16 and the Monaco Film Festival Dec. 3-5. Check out our website for details and more screenings.

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unrated - unfiltered - unprecedented
L.A. TWISTER SCENE EDITION DVD

Re: on dvd extras, how i got here, on piracy, etc...

quote:

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Originally posted by Sven
P.S. If you get a chance, visit L.A. TWISTER on www.imdb.com and rate it and/or review it. It would mean a lot to me.

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Statistically... 9 out of 10 people actually enjoy gang rape.

oh and if you're downloading your own wp off irc make sure i doesnt say "TMD" anywhere in the file name. the files should total up to 1gb+. if its around 300 megs you know you're getting a reencode

ps...

any chance of getting a chicago land screening of the film...i'd so go ^_^

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so would i krysiek there are a few of small independantly owned theaters in downtown chicago all very adequate places to hold a screening

It's ironic that the MPAA can at one turn claim massive losses amounting in the billions as a direct result of film piracy, but then at the end of their 2003 quarterly report record amount of theatre revenues. If you want to read some interesting novels from the past that show extreme corrolations to what is happening today, I suggest you read Das Kapital by Karl Marx. The relations drawn in a book over 100 years old are absolutely astounding.

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Loving God.... Vengeful God...

haha ya, quite the considence in a triple of traffic . Thanks for the reply Sven, I appreciate it. I will be watching your movie tonight and will reply back in this thread with what I think as well as vote on imdb just for you. Interesting news about your plans for a shoot in Nova Scotia, ever think about shooting something here in London, Ontario. I would definetely drop by the shoot and shake your damn hand. Think about it!!