January 26, 2011
— Ace Green Hornet's the sort of movie that disappoints me more than a straight-up failure. A straight-up failure -- nothing salvageable. It's like getting beaten 42-3 -- there's no point worrying about this or that mistake you made because, hell, what did any particular mistake matter?
The Green Hornet's like getting beaten in overtime 24-21 when you had three opportunities to salt the game away in regulation. The mistakes may not be as huge in the 42-3 route, but they hurt all the more, because, hell, it was almost in the grasp.
I'm not a Green Hornet fanboy -- I saw the show like once or twice, years ago, and wasn't impressed. I never read the comics (if they have comics). I do know the basic gist of the idea, though, and the bit of trivia that Brit Reid (the Green Hornet) is actually the descendant of John Reid (the Lone Ranger), as they'd been created by the same radio-show team. So, I sort of like the idea of the Green Hornet, but not enough to have every actually taken an interest in the old show or the character in another medium.
I give it the two and half star rating, for a movie barely worth seeing, just on the right side of the good/bad divide. But honestly, they had a three star movie lurking around here. Here are the problems:
They said Seth Rogen couldn't play a superhero. They were right, it turns out, but for the wrong reasons. Rogen, I think, become defensive and skittish about people taking him seriously as a superhero that he turned the movie into almost a parody of the genre (almost); a sort of defensive move on his part, as he feared people saying, "Oh, where does this chubby slacker get off thinking he's a superhero?" So the movie is a huge goof on him and his character Brit Reid aka The Green Hornet.
The movie makes a joke of Brit's basic unseriousness/incompetence/stupidity, which is fine, but it lives on that joke. It never moves off of it. Even at the very end (I won't say more), when it seems like they should turn the corner and let poor Brit have his moment of heroism, they can't help themselves from piling up further exhibitions Homer-Simpson-level doltishness.
You may have heard -- the joke here is that Kato is ominicompetent, the actual superhero, and the Green Hornet is really the goofy sidekick (but he and the press mistake him for the superhero). Kato is amazing in combat, whereas the Green Hornet is lucky to get in a solid punch, and in fact the Green Hornet's main contribution to the duo's fighting prowess is kicking men already on the ground (thanks to Kato) while yelling his idea of a heroic catch-phrase-- "Eat shit!"
Is that funny? Yes, it is... for a while. At some point you sort of want the Green Hornet to show he's even in the ballpark of Kato. He doesn't.
So, Kato's the skilled fighter of the pair. That means Green Hornet must be good with gadgets. No, Kato does the gadgets (nice ones, too!); Brit calls Kato a "human Swiss army knife" due the many skills and tools he brings to the table. On the other hand, the Green Hornet doesn't even know how to work the controls of the car.
So, okay, Kato's the fighter and the tech guy; then the Green Hornet must be the brains/tactician Well, no, he's not that either. The pair sort of doesn't even have that. "We don't know what the hell we're doing!" Brit says at one point in the movie. (This is an amusing idea, really: without spoiling any of the movie's small pleasures, they figure out a way of basically cheating off the smart girl in class as far as brains and tactics.)
Really the Green Hornet only brings one thing -- money, and it's not even his money, it's his father's.
Again, I sort of like this basic idea and think it could have worked if not for the fact they just could never get past constantly hammering the idea that the Green Hornet is the World's Worst Superhero even when a point comes in the film where you're really rooting for the hapless Brit Reid to finally do something... but still, they won't give you that.
I actually was willing to buy into Seth Rogen as a superhero early in the movie. Sure, he starts out as a spoiled partyboy (but then, so did Tony Stark, sort of). And sure, he isn't what you'd think of as a superhero. But neither was Robert Downey Jr.
But why not? Sure, why not Seth Rogen? Isn't it true that what unites all heroes isn't a particular skill-set or body-type but just that they have 1 guts and 2 moral purpose? And that those two, guts and moral purpose, seem, in heroic fiction, to magically confer the ability to do a great many things that seem impossible, like dodging hundreds of machine gun bullets fired at short range? (Kick-Ass called it "optimism and naivete," same idea.)
I mean, so what if Seth Rogen is a little overweight (he's slimmed down for the role, here, though); it's not as if it's more plausible that heroic-build Daniel Craig can move faster than a bullet just because he has well-rounded shoulders.
But... here's where the naysayers were right: Whereas I was actually ready to buy into Seth Roegen as a superhero, Seth Rogen himself never was; I don't think he ever had the confidence to say, "Sure, damnit, I can be a superhero like any of those male-models type," and thus sabotaged his script into a spoof because he didn't dare make a case for himself as superhero.
Which is a shame. As I say: Why not Seth Rogen? Rogen himself bought into the conventional wisdom that he couldn't play the Green Hornet, and he doesn't play the Green Hornet -- what he plays here is a joke version of the Green Hornet invented by a different movie (Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story featured the joke of Kato as superhero and Green Hornet as hapless sidekick).
Instead, he should have taken it as an acting challenge, that he would actually convince people he could be a superhero: And if he had taken it as a challenge, he actually would have pulled it off.
As it is, he sets his sights low and, well, when you aim low, you score low.
You might say, well, isn't this a comedy then? What's wrong with a straight-up comedy or parody?
Well, nothing's wrong with it, but in fact this isn't a straight-up comedy or parody -- it's really an action-comedy (or comedy-action) in which they just completely fail to deliver on the action/adventure/drama part.
Besides, even in a straight-up comedy, they rely upon the tropes of real drama to help the movie. I mean, look at Stripes: as goofy a comedy as you could want, but at the end, if you're telling me you aren't rooting for Winger & Co. to beat the Russkies, I say you're a liar. Even in a silly comedy like that, they do use an essentially dramatic, not comedic, situation to conclude the movie and give it a Rocky-type underdog-makes-good ending.
I can list dozens of straight-up comedies that rely at their conclusion on a more-or-less dramatic ending: Even Anchorman, with Will Ferrell's (admittedly silly) redemption. Waterboy? He wins the game, doesn't he? Happy Gilmore? He wins the Masters (or whatever they call it in that movie.)
The movie never really commits to any kind of serious action premise with a genuine dramatic threat, even in Act III. They make the most basic mistake in an action-comedy-- they make the villain ridiculous. Heroes can be ridiculous, heroes' love interests ridiculous, heroes' friends and families ridiculous... everyone can be ridiculous except the villain. If the villain is to pose a credible threat -- necessary for any dramatic tension in the climax -- he can't be ridiculous.
Hans Gruber was funny, not ridiculous. A villain can be funny. He can't be silly/absurd, though. Hans Gruber could crack jokes but Die Hard never suggested for one second that Gruber wasn't very clever, ruthless, and dangerous. Quite the opposite.
In the Green Hornet -- keeping with the "subvert the whole dramatic arc of the heroic narrative" thing -- the villain is ridiculous and cannot be taken seriously at all. Christoph Waltz (the Nazi from Inglorious Basterds) plays a mild-mannered but supposedly dangerous LA crime figure named Chudnofsky, but from the first moments we see him, he's absurd -- he's told that he's "not scary enough," and spends the rest of the moving worrying about how scary he is (or isn't) and ultimately begins proposing some very silly ways to seem "more scary," but these idea are in fact silly and stupid, and not scary-- he decides to become an idiot's idea of a first-draft supervillain, along with bad, overwrought catch-phrase.
You see what I mean? How can you possibly be worried at the end of the movie that such a ridiculous creature can kill the heroes? It's hard to believe that he's capable of living on his own without state assistance.
I think what happened is they said "We can't have a great actor like Waltz playing a cookie-cutter Heavy Menace, so let's give him some funny lines," but seriously, serve the story, guys. In the end, even in a silly movie, the villain has to be a villain. The Russian interrogators in Stripes weren't silly -- they were menacing and cruel.
The insertion of comedy where it shouldn't be (as in silly bickering banter during what is supposed to be a deadly car chase -- yes, they make that mistake too*) is almost never funny -- you usually can't even hear the lines over the bombast of music and explosions, and it isn't funny even if you do hear it -- and it destroys any kind of weak dramatic tension you're building towards.
Save the funny lines for when it would actually, plausibly happen -- right after the danger has passed. (Die Hard observes this rule, for example: McClane doesn't quip when he's under fire, only after he gets out of it.)
Anyway, while it sounds like my views on this movie are overwhelmingly negative, in fact, they're not. It is a funny movie. I laughed a lot, and smiled at the stuff that wasn't laugh-out-loud funny but still pretty funny. There weren't too many jokes that failed to land at all. (Minus the stupid banter during the car chase.) Both leads, plus Cameron Diaz, were fun enough.
It's sort of a good idea for a movie -- a non-super hero somewhere north of Kick-Ass in ability, but well, well south of Batman. The basic idea of that, the well-equipped vigilante, offers, potentially, a good mix of grit and swashbuckling.
And the car-- the Black Beauty -- is terrific. It's a gangster-looking black 65 Chrysler Imperial, tricked out as you'd like (all armor, heavy machine guns, flame-thrower, self-inflating tires, anti-tire blades). But what keeps it from being a classic is, again, it's just never used in a really tense moment to save the heroes, as, say, the Millenium Falcon was. It, too, lacks a real Hero Moment, a moment when things are serious and we've only got one shot, because the movie really doesn't ever trust itself enough to try for one. So, in the end, it's just a cool-looking car. The car can't actually be cool or bad-ass because the script is too unsure of itself to permit real bad-assery.
80% of this movie works just fine, including portraying Brit Reid as a callow, selfish, dimwitted partyboy who basically becomes a superhero only for immature thrill-seeking reasons -- he (and Kato) basically just do this as a kind of early-midlife-crisis joyride. It's refreshing to see a different sort of reason to go out super-heroing. And it's also welcome to see a "hero" who is actually not heroic at all in terms of personal character or virtue -- sometimes it takes a scoundrel.
All of that stuff could have worked (and to some extent does).
But at the end of the day, you have to trust yourself and believe the story you're telling, and Seth Rogen just didn't. So the whole movie is filled with defensive, protective self-parody and don't-worry-I'm-not-taking-this-seriously distance.
He really should have just bought into and committed to his own idea of stunt-casting himself as a hero. It was working.
* I call this the Tango and Cash Fallacy -- hey, if we tell jokes during an exciting car chase, our chase will be both funny and exciting!
Nope. It will turn out to be neither funny or exciting. Decide on a tone for the scene, a goal, and commit to it. There is no a little from Column A and a little from Column B. A scene needs a point and a goal.
Posted by: Ace at
12:05 PM
| Comments (219)
Post contains 2185 words, total size 13 kb.
Posted by: BumperStickerist at January 26, 2011 12:14 PM (h6mPj)
Posted by: toby928™ at January 26, 2011 12:14 PM (S5YRY)
Posted by: t-bird at January 26, 2011 12:15 PM (FcR7P)
Posted by: USA at January 26, 2011 12:15 PM (YZISw)
Okay, I didn't read the whole opus (I'm unlikely to watch the movie) but this was really the point of the movie. The Green Hornet was a pulp hero (more The Phantom, or The Shadow than The Lone Ranger). Pulp is silly. It was even thought of as silly at the time it first became popular. It's predecessor was "the penny dreadful."
As for Kato being the "star" of the movie... you did know that the Chinese called The Green Hornet: "The Kato Show," yes? In the TV series, Kato was always the awesome one, and Green Hornet was, more or less, trying to keep up. They may have played that up even more in the movie than in the series, but it started there.
Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at January 26, 2011 12:16 PM (8y9MW)
Posted by: t-bird at January 26, 2011 12:17 PM (FcR7P)
Posted by: Unclefacts, Confuse A Cat, Ltd at January 26, 2011 12:17 PM (eCAn3)
Posted by: mpfs at January 26, 2011 12:17 PM (iYbLN)
Posted by: Unclefacts, Confuse A Cat, Ltd at January 26, 2011 12:18 PM (eCAn3)
Posted by: Dr. Varno at January 26, 2011 12:19 PM (QMtmy)
Posted by: Iblis at January 26, 2011 12:20 PM (9221z)
Sure they can. KAOS from Get Smart were completely ridiculous, and if they weren't the show wouldn't be nearly as funny. Dr. Evil is another example.
Posted by: Bevel Lemelisk at January 26, 2011 12:20 PM (TpXEI)
It's what made my movie Under Siege 2 a classic you know.
Posted by: Steven Segal at January 26, 2011 12:21 PM (tf9Ne)
Posted by: nickless at January 26, 2011 12:21 PM (MMC8r)
The movie makes a joke of Brit's basic unseriousness/incompetence/stupidity
The idea of a Brit superhero is unserious in the first place.
Posted by: Dr. Varno at January 26, 2011 12:22 PM (QMtmy)
PAGAN from the Dragnet Movie, as another.
Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at January 26, 2011 12:22 PM (8y9MW)
Posted by: Hans Gruber at January 26, 2011 12:22 PM (h6mPj)
Posted by: tsj017 at January 26, 2011 12:22 PM (4YUWF)
I guess for me this will be a "rent" first.
Thanks for the review Ace.
Posted by: Vic at January 26, 2011 12:23 PM (M9Ie6)
I don't mind playing around with the whole concept of what a hero is, and movies with casting like this can do that: what if a hero doesn't look or act like one? Can he still be a hero? If so, what is it about him which is heroic?
I think the defining virtue of any hero is the ability to get things done he wants to get done. This is true for anti-heros as well as classic "good" heros. Once the hero has decided on what to do, it's just a question of how: Brains? Luck? Charm? Money? The hero possesses one characteristic which separates him from the pack and allows him to do something maybe no one else could do.
Does the Green Hornet do that? Haven't seen the movie, but I'm thinking no, partly because of what you're discussing about the villian. It's not that he's ridiculous, it's that anyone could take him out because we don't take him seriously. So what's the thing the GH (or Kato) did that anyone else couldn't?
Posted by: The Voice of Reason at January 26, 2011 12:24 PM (UpqKo)
Posted by: ace at January 26, 2011 12:25 PM (nj1bB)
Posted by: Sabba Hillel at January 26, 2011 12:26 PM (u3r63)
Posted by: Iblis at January 26, 2011 04:20 PM (9221z)
Yeah but Burton kills Lo Pan right? Also Burton never sees himself as half assed. he thinks he's a hero.
Posted by: Rocks at January 26, 2011 12:27 PM (aFrfB)
;-)
Posted by: Y-not at January 26, 2011 12:27 PM (pW2o8)
Posted by: USA at January 26, 2011 12:28 PM (YZISw)
Posted by: mpfs at January 26, 2011 12:29 PM (iYbLN)
Posted by: Rocks at January 26, 2011 12:29 PM (aFrfB)
I liked 'Spies Like Us'.
Also, 'The Three Amigos'.
El Guapo is the archetype for Comedy / Action Villain.
Posted by: garrett at January 26, 2011 12:29 PM (gNwHV)
Posted by: garrett at January 26, 2011 12:30 PM (gNwHV)
Actually, I meant the movie as an example of something Hollywood has no faith in , so they fuck it up into a 'comedy.'
Posted by: nickless at January 26, 2011 12:30 PM (MMC8r)
Posted by: t-bird at January 26, 2011 12:30 PM (FcR7P)
Posted by: Ditto Head at January 26, 2011 12:30 PM (YZ0iV)
I thought Judy Garland was outstanding as the villain in Meet Me In St. Louis.
Clang, clang....damn trolley.
Posted by: mpfs at January 26, 2011 12:30 PM (iYbLN)
Yeah, the Radio show was more serious. As were the original Lone Ranger, The Shadow and other radio shows of the era. The TV series took itself seriously, but that didn't stop it from being ridiculous.
OTOH, all of them were based on, or morphed into, 30's pulp fiction. Pulp fiction is mostly silly. Today we might call a slightly more serious version of the genre "wish fulfillment fantasy" (think anything by Tom Clancy or the Dirk Pitt novels). Even when they're serious, they're hard to take seriously. They're much more fun if you take your brain out and put it on a shelf while you listen/read/watch.
Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at January 26, 2011 12:31 PM (8y9MW)
Mmmmm... Robert Conrad and those tight pants.
Now where did I put those old Baa-baa Blacksheet DVDs?
Posted by: Y-not at January 26, 2011 12:31 PM (pW2o8)
But El Guapo was still the straight man for his henchman..
There wasn't any doubt that he wasn't serious when he said, "these guys are funny. Just kill one of them"
Posted by: Dave C at January 26, 2011 12:33 PM (kjG5B)
Posted by: mpfs at January 26, 2011 04:30 PM (iYbLN)
I remember they told that little girl who played Garland's little sister that her dog died to get her to cry on film.
That would be too kind for the likes of you...
Posted by: garrett at January 26, 2011 12:33 PM (gNwHV)
who was the original Kato you ask ?
Bruce Lee ...
Yep ... that is why you should have watched it ...
Posted by: Jeff at January 26, 2011 12:33 PM (A3tpD)
Mmmmm... Robert Conrad and those tight pants.
Now where did I put those old Baa-baa Blacksheet DVDs?
Yeah those pants were something else. He had kick ass boots too.
Posted by: mpfs at January 26, 2011 12:33 PM (iYbLN)
"Would you say I have a plethora of pinatas?"
Posted by: Rocks at January 26, 2011 04:29 PM (aFrfB)
So bad, it's good.
Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at January 26, 2011 12:33 PM (8y9MW)
Here are the problems: They said Seth Roegen
Just stop there.....everything he does is pretty much, wait till it's pirated and some friend of yours, who does that sort of thing, downloads it and watch it for free cuz it's really not worth the money spent to rent it......
Posted by: Sponge © at January 26, 2011 12:35 PM (UK9cE)
Nah. Jack gets knocked out of the fight in the warehouse, while Wang kicks a dozen guys' asses. Remember, he flings the knife from him boot out of his own hand when he pulls it?
Then in the big battle at the end he winds up getting stuck under a big guy when the guy falls on him.
And he almost buys it when he's in the wheelchair.
Posted by: Y-not at January 26, 2011 12:36 PM (pW2o8)
I would have eaten ice cream in front of her and pinched her till she cried.
That's more my style.
Posted by: mpfs at January 26, 2011 12:36 PM (iYbLN)
And it's also welcome to see a "hero" who is actually not heroic at all in terms of personal character or virtue -- sometimes it takes a scoundrel.
Hey! That's the title to my wife's upcoming book.
Posted by: Bill Clinton at January 26, 2011 12:36 PM (TAjuH)
Hahahaha, I haven't been to a downtown movie theater in over 20 years. I can't imagine blowing 50 bucks to watch a damn movie and eat stale popcorn, all while listening to babies and kids screaming and your feet sticking to the floor. Shit $50 would buy me a bottle of good Woodford Reserve.
As for movies that everyone else loved an I absolutely hated I'll throw Hangover in that mix. I thought it was unfunny and a POS.
Posted by: Vic at January 26, 2011 12:37 PM (M9Ie6)
I would have eaten ice cream in front of her and pinched her till she cried.
That's more my style.
I would have kissed her on the Veranda.
Posted by: Roman Polanski loves the classics at January 26, 2011 12:38 PM (gNwHV)
Posted by: Dr. Varno at January 26, 2011 04:19 PM (QMtmy)
That's AWESOME! Didn't they do the song 2000 Bee? You wouldn't happen to have THAT on vinyl, would ya?
Posted by: Sponge © at January 26, 2011 12:38 PM (UK9cE)
Posted by: Rocks at January 26, 2011 12:39 PM (aFrfB)
Posted by: Yip in Texas at January 26, 2011 12:39 PM (SyLEU)
Posted by: moi at January 26, 2011 12:40 PM (Ez4Ql)
"Pulp Fiction"
Pretty much every Woody Allen movie he ever made, the nadir being "Purple Rose of Cairo"
Posted by: Y-not at January 26, 2011 12:41 PM (pW2o8)
Posted by: ace at January 26, 2011 12:41 PM (nj1bB)
Posted by: nickless at January 26, 2011 12:41 PM (MMC8r)
Hey, we had our share of good ones too.
Posted by: The makers of Caddyshack at January 26, 2011 12:41 PM (kjG5B)
Posted by: nickless at January 26, 2011 04:25 PM (MMC8r)
Yeah.....that movie really ruined it for me. James West was white, so that movie having Will Smith as James West is like casting Will Ferrell as Shaft.......FAIL!
Posted by: Sponge © at January 26, 2011 12:42 PM (UK9cE)
if I did that sort of thing I would download from one of those torrent sites after its out on DVD ... IF I did that sort of illegal activity of course ... just saying ...
Posted by: Jeff at January 26, 2011 12:43 PM (A3tpD)
The Chinese have a lot of hells.
That's why they make such excellent mothers.
Posted by: Y-not at January 26, 2011 12:43 PM (pW2o8)
Review longer than movie, an Ace Special!
You bucking for a job with the NY Slimes, dude? Their movie reviews -- and book reviews, and theater reviews, for that matter -- can drive even the most avid reader to a life of Valu-Rite-guzzling and hobo-trapping. Or put 'em to sleep....
Posted by: MrScribbler© at January 26, 2011 12:43 PM (Ulu3i)
Yeah, it goofs on the Green Hornet. Even during the original series everyone remarked how bad ass Bruce Lee (Kato) was compared to the Hornet himself. I loved the fact that the movie flipped the whole concept around to acknowledge what many of the original series watchers already thought.
In any case, drink more while watching and you can enjoy most any movie.
Posted by: DiogenesLamp at January 26, 2011 12:43 PM (/G5LI)
That was a great review.
Y'all, check out what I wrote last September.
The Lone Ranger was competent. I don't like the look of this movie at all. They're making a movie based on the biopic of Bruce Lee, not the actual series. For a brief moment in that biography, they made it look like Lee was running the show and that the guy playing the Hornet was an idiot. Looks like they just extended that idea. "We'll just make the story about a bumbling fool, not just the actor like in that Bruce Lee movie."
My first thought was this new hornet guy is way miscast. But not if you're going to make the story about a bumbling fool.
More Hollywood brilliance.
Got that from the trailer.
Posted by: rdbrewer at January 26, 2011 12:43 PM (vkxIO)
That's AWESOME! Didn't they do the song 2000 Bee? You wouldn't happen to have THAT on vinyl, would ya?
Posted by: Sponge © at January 26, 2011 04:38 PM (UK9cE)
Yes. I forget the "Green Hornet" b-side but "2000 lb. Bee" I have on the "Live in Tokyo" LP.
Actually it's not really a live record. Audience sounds were overdubbed from what I hear.
Posted by: Dr. Varno at January 26, 2011 12:44 PM (QMtmy)
Posted by: BumperStickerist at January 26, 2011 12:44 PM (h6mPj)
Posted by: t-bird at January 26, 2011 12:44 PM (FcR7P)
My husband loved that movie (in part b/c he loves Kevin Klein), but I hated Kenneth Brannagh in it which ruined the whole thing for me.
I actually thought Will Smith was pretty cool in that movie. And I love the title track.
Posted by: Y-not at January 26, 2011 12:44 PM (pW2o8)
Again, it was all in the reflexes
I got to say that to Kurt Russell at a Tucson Toros game!
Someone threw a bottle of beer to a friend of mine and it nearly hit him (KR in the row behind us) in the face. I snatched it before it made contact and when he thanked me I busted that line out.
he laughed and asked us for a beer.
Posted by: garrett at January 26, 2011 12:45 PM (gNwHV)
Posted by: BumperStickerist at January 26, 2011 12:46 PM (h6mPj)
I did not read the thread but Ace's post reminded me of what was done in "Big trouble in Little China." The 'hero' was not the white guy but rather the kick-ass 'sidekick.' But in that movie the even the 'hero' had a few good moments & one winning move at the end.
It sounds like they tried that here but failed.
Posted by: ArandomPerson at January 26, 2011 12:46 PM (MSMPS)
Posted by: Soona at January 26, 2011 12:47 PM (3tZCe)
Posted by: fb at January 26, 2011 12:49 PM (G60Nl)
Posted by: USA at January 26, 2011 04:28 PM (YZISw)
I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me why Jugears McFuckstick refuses to use the word WIN when it comes to the war in Afghanistan or the war on terror, but will use it in some dumbfuck slogan against some fictional character named 'the future'..........
Posted by: Sponge © at January 26, 2011 12:49 PM (UK9cE)
As for Kato being the "star" of the movie... you did know that the Chinese called The Green Hornet: "The Kato Show," yes? In the TV series, Kato was always the awesome one, and Green Hornet was, more or less, trying to keep up. They may have played that up even more in the movie than in the series, but it started there.
Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at January 26, 2011 04:16 PM (8y9MW)
I hate to date myself, but I used to LOVE watching the Green Hornet when it was on television.
Posted by: DiogenesLamp at January 26, 2011 12:49 PM (/G5LI)
LOL, Pulp Fiction was OK for a single watch. As for Woody Allen, I don't know anyone who likes any of his crap.
Posted by: Vic at January 26, 2011 12:49 PM (M9Ie6)
Thirded.
I despised that movie. I couldn't even force myself to finish it (a friend had rented it- I refused to pay movie theater money to see it).
Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at January 26, 2011 12:49 PM (8y9MW)
My suggestion?
Either see it in IMAX 3D... or wait for DVD...
The real star of the picture is the Car.. and the Flame thrower and rocket firing chase scenese it allows...
Posted by: Romeo13 at January 26, 2011 12:49 PM (AdK6a)
Posted by: nickless at January 26, 2011 04:25 PM (MMC8r)
Kevin Smith seems to have tuned into a douche bag as of late but there was some talk of his where he was doing a write up of Superman for one of the producers (Name escapes me now) and he was saying that Spiders were f*cking cool and needed to be in the movie.. He eventually passed on the Superman movie and that summer, Wild, Wild West came out and.. lo and behold.. A giant spider was in it..
Same movie producer..
Posted by: Dave C at January 26, 2011 12:50 PM (kjG5B)
Posted by: ace at January 26, 2011 12:50 PM (nj1bB)
I recently watched Seth Rogan's movie Observe and Report. That was just bizarre, and I think it was summed up by a character in the movie, "I thought this was gonna be kinda funny, but it's just kinda sad, so I'm gonna take off."
They tried to play up the whole Seth Rogan aspect when the script, or premise, or attempted tone were going for something more dramatic or serious.
Being too timid to go all in sounds like a problem for both of these flicks.
Posted by: Z Ryan at January 26, 2011 12:50 PM (cMo6P)
Except both Carpenter and Russel say that the joke of the movie is that Burton is the sidekick. He can't fight, doesn't know how to work his gun, knocks himself out for the big battle, and barely kills the warrior who falls on top of him. But Burton does have his heroic redemption at the end when he kills Lo-Pan. His skill/power is "Its all in the reflexes". EggShen's power is magic and knowledge, Wang Chi is fighting ability and knowledge.
Posted by: Iblis at January 26, 2011 12:50 PM (9221z)
How? Aren't you supposed to be blind? (Sorry, I've wanted to say that since I first saw your name).
Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at January 26, 2011 12:51 PM (8y9MW)
As for Woody Allen, I don't know anyone who likes any of his crap.
Read 'Side Effects' and 'Without Feathers'.
Everything else he has done is superfluous.
Posted by: garrett at January 26, 2011 12:52 PM (gNwHV)
Posted by: t-bird at January 26, 2011 12:52 PM (FcR7P)
Posted by: ace at January 26, 2011 12:54 PM (nj1bB)
Posted by: Commissioner Gordon at January 26, 2011 12:55 PM (L00d6)
Kurt Russel's character was a perfect example of what my friends and I call "The American Ninja."
There are three kinds of ninja, all with different powers:
Oriental Ninja: Don't Get Hit.
European Ninja: Don't Fall Down.
American Ninja: Get Back Up.
You can see this in all kinds of movies (look to things from Chuck Norris if you want movies that took themselves seriously, KR, Mel Gibson, and others for movies that didn't).
Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at January 26, 2011 12:55 PM (8y9MW)
Note to self: Go rent 'Big Trouble in Little China' again. Barely remember that movie.
Posted by: Dave C at January 26, 2011 12:55 PM (kjG5B)
Ryan: Santa Ana
Naaa. William Travis knew what he was doing, and achieved his actual goal.
Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at January 26, 2011 12:56 PM (8y9MW)
Meh, the only time I laughed was when he shot the flasher.
Posted by: Iblis at January 26, 2011 12:57 PM (9221z)
Yes. I forget the "Green Hornet" b-side but "2000 lb. Bee" I have on the "Live in Tokyo" LP.
Actually it's not really a live record. Audience sounds were overdubbed from what I hear.
Posted by: Dr. Varno at January 26, 2011 04:44 PM (QMtmy)
I need a copy!! That song is REALLY hard to find. Don't ask why I want it.....it's a childhood thing involving me, my brother, 2 reel to reel decks, a turntable and playing DJ in the basement........
Posted by: Sponge © at January 26, 2011 12:57 PM (UK9cE)
On Observe and Report:
I liked the concept of the complete sociopath mall cop protagonist, and it wasn't supposed to be a true comedy. But when they have soft emotional music playing while Ronnie's mom recites over the top lines about being drunk and ****ing his father on their first date, it comes off as an uncertainty about how to play any individual scene.
Posted by: Z Ryan at January 26, 2011 12:57 PM (cMo6P)
Naaa. William Travis knew what he was doing, and achieved his actual goal.
You're right of course. But that was the only example I could think of off the top of my head to do the reversal joke.
Posted by: IllTemperedCur at January 26, 2011 12:58 PM (TAjuH)
Posted by: DiogenesLamp at January 26, 2011 04:49 PM (/G5LI)
Yep, and the only reason I read the Sunday comics was for "The Phantom"...
But then, I also used to stay up late as a teenager to catch the old Serial Reruns... Rocketman... Buck Rogers... good stuff...
Posted by: Romeo13 at January 26, 2011 12:58 PM (AdK6a)
Yeah, pulp Fiction sucked hard.
Posted by: Rocks at January 26, 2011 12:58 PM (aFrfB)
Posted by: ace at January 26, 2011 12:58 PM (nj1bB)
How? Aren't you supposed to be blind? (Sorry, I've wanted to say that since I first saw your name).
Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at January 26, 2011 04:51 PM (8y9MW)
I think you are confusing me with Justitia the blind goddess of Justice or perhaps Nikephoros Diogenes. (Not the guy with the lamp.) Diogenes of Sinope could see perfectly well. As a matter of fact, when Alexander the Great came to see him, Alexander asked him if there was anything he could do for Diogenes.
Diogenes replied, "Yes, you can move. You are blocking my light."
Besides, I'm the lamp!
Posted by: DiogenesLamp at January 26, 2011 12:59 PM (/G5LI)
Note to self: Go rent 'Big Trouble in Little China' again. Barely remember that movie.
Posted by: Dave C at January 26, 2011 04:55 PM (kjG5B)
You must have used my technique for enjoying a movie. LIQUOR!
Posted by: DiogenesLamp at January 26, 2011 01:01 PM (/G5LI)
Good flick.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo (NJConservative) at January 26, 2011 01:01 PM (LH6ir)
Posted by: wooga at January 26, 2011 01:02 PM (2p0e3)
I need a copy!! That song is REALLY hard to find. Don't ask why I want it.....it's a childhood thing involving me, my brother, 2 reel to reel decks, a turntable and playing DJ in the basement........
Posted by: Sponge © at January 26, 2011 04:57 PM (UK9cE)
Supposedly they played that song at Belushi's funeral.
Posted by: Dr. Varno at January 26, 2011 01:02 PM (QMtmy)
Posted by: Captain Atom at January 26, 2011 01:03 PM (EY4wh)
Ryan: Jonny Quest
Posted by: Cherry π at January 26, 2011 05:01 PM (+sBB4)
I'd put Obama as Hadji.......if Hadji was muslim..hehehe.
Bandit was useful.
Posted by: Sponge © at January 26, 2011 01:04 PM (UK9cE)
Supposedly they played that song at Belushi's funeral.
Posted by: Dr. Varno at January 26, 2011 05:02 PM (QMtmy)
Hadn't heard that, but that's friggin funny if true.
Posted by: Sponge © at January 26, 2011 01:04 PM (UK9cE)
Just all part of the narrative.
They cast the American, as a useless, overweight, lazy, listless, goofy, incompetent, liability whose only positive attribute is that he has money he never earned, who insists on being the "lead" of the team. His money from his inheritance is more than implied by the whole angry father beheading scene to have been made by exploiting others.
They cast the Chinese man, as a incredibly smart, competent, and fit crime fighter willing to keep his head down and be part of the "team"
And your surprised the script never let the "American" prove any value beyond having hoards of cash he didn't deserve? You keep acting as if movies aren't made to enlighten and teach you the new ideals but are made to entertain you or something.
Posted by: MīcÞeMūß at January 26, 2011 01:05 PM (0q2P7)
Shit, for that, you have Mr. Skin..
You must have used my technique for enjoying a movie. LIQUOR!
Posted by: DiogenesLamp at January 26, 2011 05:01 PM (/G5LI)
No, not that, I'm sorry to say.. It's been almost 20 years since I've seen BTiLC last.
Damn, I feel old now.
Posted by: Dave C at January 26, 2011 01:06 PM (kjG5B)
Yeah, win the future, but totally fuck-up the present. Cloward Piven.
Posted by: grognard at January 26, 2011 01:06 PM (NS2Mo)
Posted by: ace at January 26, 2011 01:07 PM (nj1bB)
Oh you hit the nail on the head here. "An Evening with Kevin Smith" spends 40 minutes on Smith working on a treatment of "Superman Returns" for a director who insisted on having Smith have Superman fight a giant robotic spider. Both were eventually removed from the film; the spider lived on in the above-referenced work.
Posted by: Kevin in ABQ at January 26, 2011 01:07 PM (U4m5q)
No. It gets painted with a very different camp brush. They never once showed the actual onomatopoeias in The Green Hornet.
And I didn't take away from 'Dragon' that Van Williams was a jerk, but that the producers/directors were.
Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at January 26, 2011 01:07 PM (8y9MW)
http://tinyurl.com/4tqaqb6
I thought I had seen that, I have that Walk Don't Run CD.
Posted by: Vic at January 26, 2011 01:08 PM (M9Ie6)
Posted by: Dr Spank at January 26, 2011 01:09 PM (45DBC)
It's what made my movie Under Siege 2 a classic you know.
Posted by: Steven Segal at January 26, 2011 04:21 PM (tf9Ne)
LOL, I failed to make the link between Steven Seagal and high speed trains until now. Pity too, as I'm on a pre "On Deadly Ground" Seagal kick. I must have watched Out for Justice about ten times this past week.
There is good reason for the morons to bear through watching Under Siege 2 - it also stars has a young Katherine Heigl with midriff showing.
/Decadent! I denounce myself.
Posted by: Kratos (Ghost of Sparta) at January 26, 2011 01:10 PM (c0A3e)
Guess it never dawned on me to check Amazon......Thanks.
Posted by: Sponge © at January 26, 2011 01:12 PM (UK9cE)
Posted by: Buffalobob at January 26, 2011 01:12 PM (GwH6h)
Posted by: Monty at January 26, 2011 01:12 PM (4Pleu)
Where, besides AoSHQ can you find people to have philosophical/historical discussions about a Seth Rogen movie?
Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at January 26, 2011 01:12 PM (8y9MW)
If you like the Ventures that entire CD is good.
Posted by: Vic at January 26, 2011 01:13 PM (M9Ie6)
Sorry for the tangent but why do the reboot in the middle of the series?
If you're going to reboot, start over from the beginning.. Not the middle.. Or pull a Star Trek and have a 'space time' continuum accident where you can start the series all over again.
Did the producers not think they can start all over again with Clark? Scared to walk over 'Smallville'?
Posted by: Dave C at January 26, 2011 01:13 PM (kjG5B)
And ballerinas
Posted by: Cherry π at January 26, 2011 01:13 PM (+sBB4)
I loved The Green Hornet. Grew up on the tv series and never liked Brit Reid. Kato was the star of the show. Reid was always... just there. He was stiff and neither likeable or unlikeable. I'll admit to bias going in to the film - I loved the Bruce Lee Kato and I loved the Jay Chou Kato as well.
This new version gives Reid character. You might not like him, but by the end he seems to shape up a bit. He's still an ass, but maybe, just maybe, he'll grow up a little bit. At least he had characteristics that defined him. It was a good characterization of what I, at least, see my generation as being. He overcomes some of it, but not all.
Kato was still the kickass guy. Sure, it would have been a little better if Reid ended up actually planning something out, but it made sense, seeing as he spent his entire life not using his brain. Kato spent his life using his brain, so his being faster on the uptake was not far fetched..
Chudnofsky was good, I thought. Here's a guy who has never had to "be scary." He just took over the crime world by being a ruthless son of a bitch. Now, he comes up against the dumb kiddie generation and wonders if he needs to have an "image" to go along with his own brand of evil. It was an absurd commentary on the superficiality of the younger generations brought up on Hollywood's terms.
Also, the action/fight scenes were great. I like visual gags and tricks, so the effects rated high.
The only thing I hated about the film? Cameron Diaz. She needs to stay out of the sun - looking about 10 yrs older than her actual age. It was like watching Kato and Reid hit on their elder aunt.
Also, the journalist love-fest was a little... behind the times. I would almost say it admitted that mainstream news organizations are worthless and in bed with certain politicians (wink-wink).
Posted by: soulpile is... expendable at January 26, 2011 01:16 PM (gH+Hj)
How much Spider-Man have you read? The movies did pretty well, but they didn't really give him the depth that he has in some of the better-written comics.
Admittedly, though, if you want a HERO from Marvel, you've got to look to Captain America. Of course, I love Captain America, so I'm okay with that, but Marvel has always been about looking at social/political phenomena through its characters, and Spidey is the embodiment of the idea of the Nerd in HS who ends up being the "go-to-guy" out in "the real world."
Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at January 26, 2011 01:17 PM (8y9MW)
Posted by: Dr Spank at January 26, 2011 01:17 PM (45DBC)
Did the producers not think they can start all over again with Clark? Scared to walk over 'Smallville'?
Posted by: Dave C at January 26, 2011 05:13 PM (kjG5B)
Well, they're probably taking the Lucas approach. The technology just isn't there for me to do what I want to, so I'll just make something NOW, so in the future, when we WIN, I can really make my movies!!!!
Posted by: Sponge © at January 26, 2011 01:17 PM (UK9cE)
Posted by: Vic at January 26, 2011 01:18 PM (M9Ie6)
Sorry for the tangent but why do the reboot in the middle of the series?
The producers took a calculated risk. Most people enjoyed Superman and Superman 2, but Superman 3 (Richard Pryor!) and Superman 4 are universally despised. By restarting the series at the end of Superman 2, you don't alienate all the older audience who enjoyed the first two movies and you get to recon the last 2 bad movies out of existence. Best of both worlds!
Too bad Superman Returns sucked longer and harder than Obama's SOTU speech.
Posted by: Kratos (Ghost of Sparta) at January 26, 2011 01:18 PM (c0A3e)
They wanted to pretend that nothing after the first Superman movie had ever happened. Also, everyone already knows the Superman origin, and that would have been seen as competing with Christopher Reeves.
Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at January 26, 2011 01:19 PM (8y9MW)
Spider-Man was a douche when he first received his powers.. Betting on himself against pro wrestlers then cashing in by using his spider strength to win..
Until his uncle was killed. All of the crime fighting he has ever done wasn't out of some lofty set of morals or standards.. But of guilt. From the fact he could have prevented the death of his uncle.
That would weigh on a person..
(and I just realized that you probably know all this anyway.. so..
Posted by: Dave C at January 26, 2011 01:20 PM (kjG5B)
I always looked to the Punisher. I know he's supposed to be an anti-hero, but he would routinely go up against super powered beings as a normal human. Plus he actually tried to do something about regular crime, whereas everyone else was busy fighting their secret wars and whatnot.
Posted by: Iblis at January 26, 2011 01:20 PM (9221z)
Posted by: toby928™ at January 26, 2011 01:22 PM (S5YRY)
BTW, a great action-comedy (stretching "action" a bit) was The Princess Bride. The villain was very much of the Hans Gruber type, though ridiculous. But it still worked ... because he had a neat accent.
Wait -- wasn't the villain named Count Rogen? Coincidence??!!
Posted by: Dr. Varno at January 26, 2011 01:23 PM (QMtmy)
Posted by: ace at January 26, 2011 01:24 PM (nj1bB)
Posted by: Monty at January 26, 2011 01:24 PM (4Pleu)
The producers took a calculated risk. Most people enjoyed Superman and Superman 2, but Superman 3 (Richard Pryor!) and Superman 4 are universally despised. By restarting the series at the end of Superman 2, you don't alienate all the older audience who enjoyed the first two movies and you get to recon the last 2 bad movies out of existence.
It worked for Batman Begins...
But I digress..
Still think they should have a 'Superman Starts' movie..
Posted by: Dave C at January 26, 2011 01:24 PM (kjG5B)
Posted by: Rocks at January 26, 2011 01:26 PM (aFrfB)
Posted by: ace at January 26, 2011 01:28 PM (nj1bB)
Until his uncle was killed. All of the crime fighting he has ever done wasn't out of some lofty set of morals or standards.. But of guilt. From the fact he could have prevented the death of his uncle.
While Peter Parker's motivation to fight crime (in the movies) might not be very altruistic, he still had a very positive role model in his uncle and thus had a stronger penchant and reason to become a crime-fighter than say Ben Affleck's Daredevil character. His captivation to fight crime came after he lost his drunk, loser father who was also a mob enforcer.
We (the audience) cared about and mourned the death of Peter Parker's uncle, but felt the complete opposite about Daredevil's dad dying. Hell, I was glad when that drunken lout was expedited from this world.
Posted by: Kratos (Ghost of Sparta) at January 26, 2011 01:28 PM (c0A3e)
Posted by: Cherry π at January 26, 2011 01:29 PM (+sBB4)
That explains it. It was better in the 90's. They did a "grown-up" (he was in his 20's, married to Mary Jane, etc) take. He's much less of a douche, and understands better that "responsibility" doesn't just mean "beat up super-powered bad guys." The Venom (and then Carnage) story-lines really highlighted some of that growth: he had to accept that being an arrogant jerk as a super-hero could, in some ways, be even worse than being actively evil.
As for Cap -- Marvel turned him into some leftist multi-culti douche after 9/11 in The New Deal, and I swore never to read another Cap book again. Fuck those guys for taking Cap away from me. Marvel is dead to me.
More or less agree. I choose to remember the old Captain, and the Captain from the new "Ultimate" universe.
My real problem with Marvel is that their politics are still stuck in the 60's and 70's.
Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at January 26, 2011 01:31 PM (8y9MW)
I loved The Green Hornet. Grew up on the tv series and never liked Brit Reid. Kato was the star of the show. Reid was always... just there. He was stiff and neither likeable or unlikeable. I'll admit to bias going in to the film - I loved the Bruce Lee Kato and I loved the Jay Chou Kato as well.
...
The only thing I hated about the film? Cameron Diaz. She needs to stay out of the sun - looking about 10 yrs older than her actual age. It was like watching Kato and Reid hit on their elder aunt.
Posted by: soulpile is... expendable at January 26, 2011 05:16 PM (gH+Hj)
Amen! That's the way I saw it too. The Original Green hornet was pretty boring. Kato was the man. The new movie took the lemons of the original series and made lemonade!
Posted by: DiogenesLamp at January 26, 2011 01:32 PM (/G5LI)
Posted by: Captain Atom at January 26, 2011 01:33 PM (eCWYx)
We (the audience) cared about and mourned the death of Peter Parker's uncle, but felt the complete opposite about Daredevil's dad dying. Hell, I was glad when that drunken lout was expedited from this world.
Guys-I expect to get flamed for this, but really, who GAS, it's a COMIC book, not Shakespeare. And Kirsten Dunst really isn't hot. At all.
Posted by: pep at January 26, 2011 01:34 PM (P18+/)
Posted by: ace at January 26, 2011 01:34 PM (nj1bB)
Indeed. Both Daredevil and Punisher started out as Spidey characters. They were both used to show slightly darker sides of Spider-Man.
Daredevil basically shows what he would have become had he not had is Uncle Ben and Aunt May, and Punisher shows what he would have become had he become obsessed with "revenge."
Punisher doesn't really have one, but Daredevil's "defining phrase" (vice. "With great power comes great responsibility) was "I'm not the badguy."
Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at January 26, 2011 01:35 PM (8y9MW)
He was also a stone killer. Like I always teach my boys, put one in the brain.
Posted by: toby928™ at January 26, 2011 01:40 PM (S5YRY)
Posted by: soulpile is... expendable at January 26, 2011 05:16 PM (gH+Hj)
So, she's looking like her neighbor in "There's Something About Mary"?
Posted by: Kevin in ABQ at January 26, 2011 01:41 PM (U4m5q)
Posted by: Monty at January 26, 2011 01:41 PM (4Pleu)
"Hans Gruber was funny, not ridiculous. A villain can be funny. He can't be silly/absurd, though. Hans Gruber could crack jokes but Die Hard never suggested for one second that Gruber wasn't very clever, ruthless, and dangerous. Quite the opposite."
Plus Alan Rickman is teh sex.
Posted by: specious at January 26, 2011 01:42 PM (S52Sn)
Posted by: BearFlag at January 26, 2011 01:43 PM (u+8Vv)
If you think I get obsessed over comic book movies, you have no idea of the breath of my obsession with God of War,
. And Kirsten Dunst really isn't hot. At all.
This to the millionth power. And she's made her share of stupid comments over the years, thus my moniker for her of Kristen Dunce.
Posted by: Kratos (Ghost of Sparta) at January 26, 2011 01:44 PM (UY5KX)
As for Chudnofsky: You're wrong. They SAY he did ruthless things (and he SAYS he murdered lots of people).
SAYING someone did something doesn't register dramatically. What counts is what the audience SEES them actually doing. ANd what he does is fret about being scary.
yeah, he kills a couple of people, comically. He does the standard kill-the-subordinate thing.
But he's a goof.
[...]
But if they just SAY he did some bad thigns a while ago, the audience doesn't feel it or believe it, and so the supposedly dark hero is intellectually called "Dark" but in fact the audience knows him as light.
Chudnofsky's the same way. Claiming in dialogu that this absurd person did some shit off-screen a while ago doesn't reallly register very much.
What registers is what I see, and what I see is that he's a ludicrous goof.
Posted by: ace at January 26, 2011 05:34 PM (nj1bB)
I'm not wrong. My opinion just differs from yours.
They showed him cutting off a guy's hand with some sort of saw, blowing up a nightclub, shooting the Armenians (I think that was the group identity), shooting various other people, and acting pretty unhinged. If they spent more time showing him cutting up bodies and the like, the movie would have been about Chudnofsky, not The Green Hornet (and Kato).
Just because some of his behaviour was goofy, it didn't make him less of a bad guy. The film was camp and the villain was darkly campy. I did not just see a villain, but also a comment on the state of our youth and the older people who want to get along with them by appealing to them. While Reid went through an early mid-life crisis, so did Chudnofsky in a parallel storyline.
Besides, the real cold and calculating villain reared his head at the end. Chudnofsky was really another pawn in the chess game of politics. You're supposed to hate him, but you're supposed to really hate the other guy.
Posted by: soulpile is... expendable at January 26, 2011 01:46 PM (gH+Hj)
"I think a lot of the reason that Nolan's Batman movies are so much better than that crappy Superman remake by Bryan Singer was that Batman is a hard-ass, whereas Superman is a nebbish, conflicted, neurotic douche. "
I'm not a big comic book person, but I do love the Batman movies of Nolan's. They're full of interesting characters with undercurrents.
except for Rachel Dawes. She was the sucky.
Posted by: specious at January 26, 2011 01:48 PM (S52Sn)
Get off my fucking Internet. Right now.
Posted by: Monty
Monty is serious about his snaggle-toothed chicks.
Posted by: Z Ryan at January 26, 2011 01:52 PM (cMo6P)
Posted by: Seth Rogen at January 26, 2011 02:01 PM (9Pzy7)
Posted by: ace at January 26, 2011 02:21 PM (nj1bB)
Posted by: rdbrewer at January 26, 2011 02:25 PM (vkxIO)
Posted by: ace at January 26, 2011 02:29 PM (nj1bB)
The blackguard in question still needs to seem at least somewhat competent at some point in the story, or you really won't care what happens to him.
Posted by: Gen. Sir Harry Flashman, VC at January 26, 2011 02:29 PM (QHL0B)
Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at January 26, 2011 05:35 PM (8y9MW)
"The guilty will be punished." It wasn't in the comics much but has come up in the movies, promotional materials, and I think a video game as kind of a "motto."
Fits in with the themes.
Posted by: Merovign, Bond Villain at January 26, 2011 02:32 PM (bxiXv)
This series brought me more joy and taught me more history than my entire high school career.
Posted by: pep at January 26, 2011 02:34 PM (P18+/)
They'd certainly rather do that than actually come up with a new plot.
There is sort of a schism developing between Hollywood thinking and "the rest of us" thinking - the less Hollywood stuff I watch, the worse what I do watch seems to be getting.
We definitely need a new revolution in film production - some people think it started with 300, but it hasn't really happened yet.
Posted by: Merovign, Bond Villain at January 26, 2011 02:35 PM (bxiXv)
Posted by: whatever at January 26, 2011 02:39 PM (+Tgsi)
It's already happening. They can't get people into theaters anymore. They'd rather stay home and watch it on their big screen. The whole movie system is collapsing, and none too soon. We don't have to pick from what's on the menu in theaters anymore. Either they get more responsive to their customers or they die.
Posted by: pep at January 26, 2011 02:41 PM (P18+/)
Posted by: president b.h. obama at January 26, 2011 02:43 PM (2rOwc)
This.
I'm still amazed at how hated Mel Gibson was after We Were Soldiers and The Passion of the Christ came out (pre-anti-Semitic/drunken rants). It was like he was showing the rest of Hollywood, "Here's how you make money," and they stuck their fingers in their ears and started yelling "nya, nya, nya!"
Posted by: AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) at January 26, 2011 02:47 PM (8y9MW)
My wife got me a copy last Christmas I watched and I said meh, this will be one I will not watch again. This year in a box with some other junk movies I got another copy this time in BluRay.
Someone should tell people that movies picked out by other people don't make good presents.
Posted by: Vic at January 26, 2011 02:48 PM (M9Ie6)
I'm afraid you are right: they are more concerned with what the overseas reactions to characters like Capt. America would be in countries where few people have big-screen TVs. We are being relegated to the DVD market because of that.
Posted by: Gen. Sir Harry Flashman, VC at January 26, 2011 02:48 PM (QHL0B)
Posted by: moi at January 26, 2011 02:49 PM (Ez4Ql)
I loved We Were Soldiers, but Passion of The Christ after seeing the previews I just said I'll pass on that one.
Posted by: Vic at January 26, 2011 02:50 PM (M9Ie6)
Posted by: moi at January 26, 2011 02:51 PM (Ez4Ql)
Posted by: moi at January 26, 2011 02:52 PM (Ez4Ql)
Posted by: Quicksilver Madness at January 26, 2011 02:59 PM (N5cBw)
Posted by: moi at January 26, 2011 03:02 PM (Ez4Ql)
Well ... The music was good!
Posted by: Stoop Davy Dave at January 26, 2011 03:04 PM (Gl4ki)
I have.
It's great. And even better, the network that showed it in Canada ran it uncut while I noticed that the Buffalo PBS station that ran it had some stupid cuts made that weren't over sexual or foul language content--as there isn't any of that--but stupid, minor things.
For example, from the first episode when the lady in pink is discovered, there's a scene where Watson gets into the sterile suit not to contaminate the murder site as all the cops are wearing and Holmes refuses to get into one, giving a snide comment in response. And Watson tries to pick up the beautiful government agent and gets shot down, badly, while driving him back to Baker Street.
A friend thought that maybe it was to market the DVDs in the States as "having 3 minutes of never-before-seen scenes!" but I thought that maybe it was the Canadian network had the North American broadcasting rights or the rights including for border areas broadcasting into Canada so the changes were made to satisfy their rights to show the uncut version here.
Posted by: andycanuck at January 26, 2011 03:24 PM (2rOwc)
Posted by: CoolCzech at January 26, 2011 03:29 PM (tJjm/)
And the aerial rescue, it was good.
And the giant Lionel train set up, that teh awesome.
Posted by: Stoop Davy Dave at January 26, 2011 03:38 PM (Gl4ki)
Posted by: moi at January 26, 2011 03:41 PM (Ez4Ql)
Posted by: moi at January 26, 2011 03:43 PM (Ez4Ql)
And the BBC has confirmed that it's doing a second series of three episodes of Sherlock although I can't recall when it's due. A timeframe's probably online somewhere like IMDB or Wiki.
Posted by: andycanuck at January 26, 2011 03:51 PM (2rOwc)
Posted by: moi at January 26, 2011 03:54 PM (Ez4Ql)
Thank you for telling me all the things I could care less about a movie I already know I will never see.
Seth Rogan sucks.
Posted by: JDubya_az at January 26, 2011 03:55 PM (rs1XT)
Posted by: moi at January 26, 2011 03:55 PM (Ez4Ql)
Posted by: Sean at January 26, 2011 03:58 PM (IbJy3)
Either they get more responsive to their customers or they die.
Or, they pay lobbyists some big bucks to get some federal laws passed to keep their failing business models alive. It worked for RIAA.
Posted by: DngrMse at January 26, 2011 04:02 PM (ZYrFK)
Posted by: moi at January 26, 2011 04:09 PM (Ez4Ql)
On the side of hill in the deep forest green, Tracing of sparrow on snow crested brown. Blankets and bed clothers the child of maintain Sleeps unaware of the clarion call.
I like moncler jacket , moncler coats ,outlet moncler!
So I usually buy moncler jacken , moncler doudoune in moncler online!
Posted by: Denise at January 26, 2011 04:32 PM (8ytPb)
Posted by: macbrooks at January 26, 2011 05:21 PM (K1Rlm)
Posted by: Dr. Heinz Doofensmirtz at January 26, 2011 06:47 PM (Xs2y3)
Posted by: Spurwing Plover at January 26, 2011 08:20 PM (vA9ld)
Posted by: Spurwing Plover at January 27, 2011 10:54 AM (vA9ld)
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I didn't realize they were making The Ted Kennedy Story!
Posted by: Kevin in ABQ at January 26, 2011 12:13 PM (U4m5q)