I recently rewatched Beginners, and I really like that movie, but Ewan McGregor's American accent really bugged me.

I kind of wonder what influences film students have these days. I watch older movies when I can, and there is such an absolute mastery of visual control, probably because everything had to be carefully planned out thanks to technological limitations. I would love for someone to ask Abrams if he revisited Lucas's…

I'm not talking about the prequels. I actually think they did a nice job of connecting back to Lucas's original sources of inspiration, which you point out. He even had Yoda rub his head in homage to Kambei from Seven Samurai.

"The problem with just about everything spun off of Star Wars, and the reason why it all can’t help but underwhelm, is that its primary influence is Star Wars."

I was being a little facetious. I agree that the diversity of accents across the British Isles is pretty damn impressive. But I will say that I used to teach English as a second language, and when I asked my student which English speaking country's accent they preferred, they would almost always say the American…

Thanks for the recommendations!

"Head Full of Dreams"? Jesus Christ.

The New York Times Article I read about Lucas's attempt to bring low income housing into his community was priceless. Half of it was basically a bunch of limousine liberals complaining that there might be—gasp!—poor people living near them, and what impact will this have on their home prices! Lucas really earned my…

Isn't premiering this on Presidents Day a little off color, or at least a little on the nose?

That Jar Jar remark is some trolling on a near mythic level. Bravo, Lucas. Bravo.

Yeah, it is kind of weird that they don't let him use his English accent. It reminds me of when Idris Elba was on American The Office. Supposedly, he wanted to use his real accent, but the producer wouldn't let him. It's like Americans can't fathom that Africans aren't either directly from Africa or America. And I'm…

I'm still cautiously optimistic about The Force Awakens, but Abrams was such an uninspired choice as a director. I don't hate everything the guy has done, but Star Trek into Darkness showed that either he too easily gives into studio pressure or he's desperately trying to give fans what he thinks they want. Either…

I've said it before, but Lucas had some interesting ideas in the prequels that were poorly executed. In concept, I liked the idea of seeing how an innocent boy could turn into space Hitler. But in practice, it meant that Episodes II and III had to do a lot of heavy lifting that they just didn't have time for. We…

I too would put AOTC at the very bottom of the list. For me, it's that the love story is supposed to be so central to the film, and it is without a doubt the most cringe-worthy thing I've seen in the theaters. I appreciate certain things about AOTC, especially the Obi-Wan parts. And I didn't mind the lengthy action…

For all of the prequels' faults (and there are many), they could only have been made by a single auteur. Despite the claim that Lucas is trying to sell toys, I really think he made those films how he wanted, for better or worse. I rewatched the prequels this year, and with some distance I was able to enjoy both the…

I didn't know that Billie Jean King was Hawaiian. (Are we still doing this?)

"Maybe it’s the novelty of puppet/human relationships or maybe I’m just a sicko"

I actually have a hard time of making the evil choices in these sorts of video games. I just feel bad if I'm playing an asshole the entire way through the game. There's nothing liberating about it for me. It's just depressing.

Apparently, the term was around pretty early on. It was used in the novel adaptation of A New Hope where Darth Vader was referred to as a "dark lord of the Sith" or something to that effect.

The EU was hit or miss to put it mildly. I understood this even when I was really into reading those books at age 12 or 13. I also never considered any of them canon, even the good ones, so it never bothered me when Disney whipped it all. I mean, the books still exist, and you can still read the stories if you want…