1 This is a freaky smart mil blog geek scene. Bacon anyone???

2 Does anyone else find it disturbing that the leader of the Moron Nation of geeks and dorks knows so much about romantic comedies?

3 so..you were pitched a Harrison Ford-ish dramatic-adventure but were sold a Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan dramedy?

4 Hey is anyone else seeing massive amounts of struck-through text? It's like The Chairman disagreed with Ace or something.

5

I saw the same ones you did. Dark City meets Bourne.

There's no way on Earth I would expect a romantic comedy of any kind.

Maybe they ran the other commercials on O or on the Cooking Network and this is why we missed them.

6 But the ads also included Terrence Stamp telling Damon "you're not supposed to be with her" and Damon saying "I won't ever give up on her, ever."  So the "danger" was the danger that Damon and Blunt would be separated forever, their true love thwarted.

It's the Orpheus and Eurydice story, the lover defying the gods to be reunited.  What Dreams May Come with Robin Williams is a movie of this type, where lonely Robin Williams waits in Heaven for his wife to die, only to learn that because she committed suicide, she's damned to Hell and they can never be together again -- he quests for her and vows to be with her even if he has to stay in Hell forever.

In The Adjustment Bureau, were the obstacles the "Angels" placed in Damon's and Blunt's way more frustrations than actual dangers? 

7 I was going to go see this movie. But now you've fucking ruined for me, Ace. 

8 Honey Badger doesn't give a shit about Ace's lines through everything.... he just takesss what he wantssss

9 So what your saying is that this movie was more about chicks than submarines?  Advertised as a submarine and you get a chick.

10 If there isn't a splitting maul cleaving through Matt Damon !!!!!!11!!!!'s skull, why see it?

11 I wonder how "Erasure Head" was advertised.

12 Again, I can't believe anyone goes to films any more. Television is where it is at. Better when you can watch an entire season on DVD.

13 I'll see this stupid movie when Rifftrax makes a riff track for it.

14 I saw the same trailers you did Ace. I would never have thought that was a comedy, romance, or a combination of those. But what prevented me from watching it was, assuredly, a Matt Damon flick.

15 So glad I lost interest in Hollywood long ago.

16 The scariest movie of the 1960's :  Mary Poppins.

17 *yawn*  I'm going back to the previous thread.

18 11 I wonder how "Erasure Head" was advertised.
---------
http://tinyurl.com/49x5kfv

19 But it's MATT DAMON !!

20

Two things Ace.

 

It's been a while, but last time i read the Philip K Dick story, wasn't it kinda a love story where god didn't want the character to be with the women he wanted.

 

And from the commercials I saw, I thought it was an updated remake of Dark City which was a decent movie.

21

2 Does anyone else find it disturbing that the leader of the Moron Nation of geeks and dorks knows so much about romantic comedies?

****

Not once you think about it. He is the leader of the Moron Nation of geeks and dorks, and thus would know his stuff.

22 Ace, I saw the same trailer you did. I thought I was looking at a cool sci-fi thriller that had the drawback of starring Matt Damon, I had actually considered seeing this last night, but we saw Rango instead. Thanks for the warning, now I just have to convince the girlfriend to see something else.

23 >>>In The Adjustment Bureau, were the obstacles the "Angels" placed in Damon's and Blunt's way more frustrations than actual dangers? Yes, I answered you in the earlier thread, there is a suggestion of menace when the angels first appear because you don't know what they are, but within 15 minutes it's explained they're angels, so, they're not scary. One of them is genuinely nice and the rest are meddlesome. Beyond the first appearance of the angels and the suggestion of menace, there is no real threat to anyone. They attempt to break up the couple via frustrating circumstances (not permitting Damon to call her by shorting out all cell-phone coverage in the area, causing her appearance at a dance-practice studio to be cancelled in favor of another venue so Damon shows up at the wrong place). Stuff like that. Their first intervention was supposed to be spilled cup of coffee that causes Matt Damon to miss his bus. (Why a Senatorial prospect working for a high-powered venture capital firm is taking the bus, I dunno. I guess it's because he's green and really wants to build solar panels which he admits are unprofitable, because, as he says, "If we don't do it, who will?")

24 I see both "Shining" and "Scary Poppins" were linked. Funny, those are the recut trailers I linked myself as the best examples of outrageously deceptive trailer-cutting. Both are brililant.

25 I saw the same previews as Ace. It was only last weekend when I saw Unknown (the movie with Liam Neeson) that I got a 3-4 minute preview and realized "Aw damn. This movie is nothing at all like they marketed." Sorry you got suckered Ace. At least I had fun watching Unknown after being shown what a turd this movie would be.

26

Myster solved -- sort of....

It's common for movies to have two sets of advertisements for its genres, but usually they go with one until it's released, then after a week or two they launch the second campaign.

Why would they use both sets of ads now?

(Unless they tell city people one thing and forest people something else.)

27 >>>. At least I had fun watching Unknown after being shown what a turd this movie would be. How was it? Any good? Decent? Actually, I think Unknown sounds more like the sort of movie I was expecting when I saw The Adjustment Bureau.

28 Whoreyweird has been deceptive for a long fucking time on how they market movies.  The worst I can remember was seeing "The Company of Men" at the theaters, which was a pretty creepy movie, and subsequently seeing a trailer on a DVD for it where they tried to sell it as a comedy.  I was just shaking my head.

29 How much longer do we get til Roger Ebert is a coblogger?

30
Why does the trailer for a light romantic comedy have all those banging noises going on in the soundtrack? I thought that was supposed to create a dark, suspenseful effect-- but it seems to be so overused these days that maybe they put them in without noticing. They used that so much in "I Am Legend" that it was like suddenly getting hit by a car every couple of minutes.

31

 I wonder why Hollywood hasn't made the Man in the High Castle yet. It's one of Dick's most famous works. It feels like it was written to be a movie as well.

I'm sure they'll get to it, but I'm suprised they haven't yet. It seems like it would be more interesting than the Adjustment Bureau was.

On that note, I like the short story "We'll Remember it for You Wholesale" more than the Total Recall movie.

32 From the previews I saw, put me in the paranoid mind-bender Dark City or The Forgotten camp.

33 I first noticed the deceptive trailers that Hollyweird makes with The Village, one of M Night's screw-ups.  They made that look like an action movie, when it was more an era/drama flick. 

34

How was it? Any good? Decent?

Actually, I think Unknown sounds more like the sort of movie I was expecting when I saw The Adjustment Bureau.

I liked it. I'd give it around 3 1/2 stars. If you saw/enjoyed Taken, it's that sort of movie. And yes, it's definately in the same vein as what The Adjustment Bureau billed itself as only better. I'm borderline on whether or not it's worth it to see it in the theater, but I'd lean toward yes. Definately worth the rental if not seen in the theater.

35

 Oh and Lord of war with Nicholas Cage is another movie I think had a deceptive marketing campaign.  I remember expecting a lot more action in that movie than there was. 

 

That was a decent movie, althought i found it funny that Hollywood made Cage's character an American so that they could bash America. The real inspiration for the story was a Russian(or Ukrainian) Victor Bout.

36 I continue to wonder that if they knew a paranoid mind-better would draw in audiences -- why the hell not just actually make that movie? I don't get it. This was not a prestige film or a work of art or the type of movie someone has been fighting for to make his own life. It was a commercial money-maker (or supposed to be; it will tank). So why not just do the paranoid thriller you're going to sell it as? It's no more expensive. Or barely more expensive -- I guess you do need to pay for one car-chase scene. (They all have one.)

37 funny, buzzion. New to me. I liked that and Must Love jaws, which is also pretty good. Especially the part at the end with the Evil Shark Poacher Quint.

38 Just saw Unknown which I enjoyed more than I expected. Unknown has (spoiler) that same Bourne Identity  jumbled identity trope where a good progressive liberal also gets to be a bad-ass killing machine without having to explain why, if they are such a good peaceful liberal, they apparently spent years learning how to be bad-ass, fascist killing machine. Hey, why did Captain Bleeding Heart learn 200 ways to kill man with his own shoelaces? Tough question. But, hey, bump on the head and Killer Kowalski becomes Do-Gooder McGee (while still retaining all the fun to watch skills of Colonel Kill'em All). Have cake + eat cake = winning.

39 Thank you, Ace! I saw the same trailer as you did, and thought the same thing you did. I'm glad I found out the truth before I suggested that my husband watch this with me. I have a record of picking bad movies for us to watch and I don't want to add to it. Might go see Unknown this weekend instead. We have a gift card for the theater. But, I don't know, I might just save it. Seems like there's nothing that good out right now.

40 Conspiracy Theory Part 2, I like it.

41 Best post in a long time.

42 So why not just do the paranoid thriller you're going to sell it as? It's no more expensive. Or barely more expensive -- I guess you do need to pay for one car-chase scene. (They all have one.)

Posted by: ace at March 05, 2011 04:18 PM (nj1bB)

You have the chronology wrong.  They make the movie and then the marketing people figure out what they think will get the most asses into the seats on the opening weekend.  (Apparently it worked, because you went to see the thing - which means you contributed to the only thing that matters to the marketing department,  namely the opening weekend gross.)

43 I think the last romantic comedy I saw with the wife (at the theater) was Hot Tub Time Machine. Which, btw, was an awesome fucking movie. As rom-coms go anyways...

44 All the the previews I saw made me think Dark City not City of Angels.

45 >>>Posted by: Big Fan of Single Sentence Paragrpahs heh

46 43 I continue to wonder that if they knew a paranoid mind-better would draw in audiences -- why the hell not just actually make that movie?

I don't get it. This was not a prestige film or a work of art or the type of movie someone has been fighting for to make his own life. It was a commercial money-maker (or supposed to be; it will tank).

So why not just do the paranoid thriller you're going to sell it as? It's no more expensive. Or barely more expensive -- I guess you do need to pay for one car-chase scene. (They all have one.)

Posted by: ace at March 05, 2011 04:18 PM (nj1bB)

Seriously, the paranoid mind-bender looked pretty cool to me, Matt Damon notwithstanding. If that movie was too expensive, fire Damon's pricy ass, put a no name in, and everybody's happy.

I really should have been a Hollyweird producer...

47

You're really sore about that $10 bucks  you shelled out for the movie, aintcha?(plus the $167.00 for the large popcorn and drink- after upsizing for just a quarter more)

It's a movie with Matt Damon....you know it just was gonna suck

48 >>>You have the chronology wrong. They make the movie and then the marketing people figure out what they think will get the most asses into the seats on the opening weekend The people making the movie are not stupid when it comes to marketing or what puts asses in theaters. If the marketing people realized this was a more salable genre, the studio and filmmakers knew that too. The type of genre it is -- angelic intervention in a romance -- actually has a long history of box-office disaster. There was an Olivia Newton John/John Travolta movie called "Two of a Kind" with this basic idea. BOMBED. Terrible. And that was off the heat of Grease. Then there was A Life Less Ordinary which also bombed. The point isn't that you should never try to make this kind of movie. Well, I guess that is my point. Or l guess it's that this kind of movie has not worked in the past. Why go with a high degree of difficulty for somethint that in the the end is just a commercial endeavor anyway?

49 When can I work the red carpet for the AoS Golden Flaming Skull Awards?  I know I can still do it!

50 I just saw on my computer home page that "Avatar II" is in the making.  This time it's set up to be underwater.

51 Kids movies are even worse. You expect the book and get two hours of crappy CGI effects and enough scary parts to keep you kid up for a week.

52 Thanks, Ace.  Before I read your review, I had no idea this movie even existed.  Now I know, and I'm nostalgic for the days when I had no idea this movie existed...

53 Side-note -- did Philip K. Dick actually suffer from schizophrenia? I've read that he did. At least a mild or intermittent form. The kind that lets you function enough to regularly write cool paranoid sci-fi stories without becoming convinced the mail-man is poisoning your Cheerios.

54

Went to the theater with another couple, wife wanted to see some fucking rom-com, but the rest of us wanted to see Inglourious Basterds. I have a great wife.

55 Yes, I answered you in the earlier thread, there is a suggestion of menace when the angels first appear because you don't know what they are, but within 15 minutes it's explained they're angels, so, they're not scary. One of them is genuinely nice and the rest are meddlesome.

Posted by: ace at March 05, 2011 04:03 PM (nj1bB)

Oh, great, now I get a ration of shit for not doing research in a previous thread!  Man, you're strict!

So The Adjustment Bureau is an inverse of Serendipity in which instead of random chance we have angels working an active plan and in which the conspiracy is driving the lovers apart instead of ultimately bringing them together.

I am writing an "Orpheus and Eurydice" fantasy with a character in a painting looking for his long-lost love who used to be in the painting with him.  It's a very satisfying tale type because it raises the audience's tension and anxiety as the reunion of the lovers comes tantalizingly close and then gets snatched away time after time, and the lover has to keep recommitting to his quest as the obstacles get higher and higher.

56
36 Ben

I wonder why Hollywood hasn't made the Man in the High Castle yet.

I'll bet they can't figure out the ending! Or they figure that nobody else will. It would still make a good movie (or miniseries), though.

"The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich" has been optioned for years and years (I think John Lennon owned the film rights for a while), but nothing has been done with that either... at least not as far as I know.

57  Side-note -- did Philip K. Dick actually suffer from schizophrenia? I've read that he did. At least a mild or intermittent form. The kind that lets you function enough to regularly write cool paranoid sci-fi stories without becoming convinced the mail-man is poisoning your Cheerios.

Posted by: Clubber Lang at March 05, 2011 04:30 PM (QcFbt)

 

C'mon.  Doncha' know everyone in Hollyfuckingwierd is schizophrenic?

58 When can I work the red carpet for the AoS Golden Flaming Skull Awards?  I know I can still do it!

Posted by: Joan Rivers at March 05, 2011 04:28 PM (/izg2)

Can you give me some tips on how you keep your body parts from falling off?  How do you manage it with so many?  I can barely do it with just one.

59 Ace, love ya man, but.... aw, no, I'm not going to criticize this. You're right. It's just that this is an =awfully=long= post to make this point. =cocking an eyebrow=

60 58 I just saw on my computer home page that "Avatar II" is in the making.  This time it's set up to be underwater.

It was inevitable, no?  Can't Cameron and Lucas just disappear and retire together on some island chains that they bought with their ill-gotten fortunes?

61 65
36 Ben

I wonder why Hollywood hasn't made the Man in the High Castle yet.

I'll bet they can't figure out the ending! Or they figure that nobody else will. It would still make a good movie (or miniseries), though.

"The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich" has been optioned for years and years (I think John Lennon owned the film rights for a while), but nothing has been done with that either... at least not as far as I know.

Posted by: Golem14 at March 05, 2011 04:33 PM (2X8VA)

I'd film "High Castle" inside out. Make it a film-within-a-film of  The Grasshopper Lies Heavy

62

Kids movies are even worse. You expect the book and get two hours of crappy CGI effects and enough scary parts to keep you kid up for a week.

Toy Story 3 was a sad, sad movie about kids growing up and leaving their toys behind. It's the only movie I've seen in the theater this century and it made me want to wait another 10 years before going again.

 

63

Or you expect the series in a live action format, and instead get M. Night shitting over everything with his idiocy. 

Posted by: buzzion at March 05, 2011 04:32 PM (oVQFe)

 

"The Village" should have been done by anyone but M. Night.  That movie really had a potential to be very very good.

64 73

Kids movies are even worse. You expect the book and get two hours of crappy CGI effects and enough scary parts to keep you kid up for a week.

Toy Story 3 was a sad, sad movie about kids growing up and leaving their toys behind. It's the only movie I've seen in the theater this century and it made me want to wait another 10 years before going again.

 

Posted by: Mama AJ at March 05, 2011 04:37 PM (XdlcF)

Despicable Me was a pretty good movie. Saw that with my kid and it was fun.

65 Best angelic romance movie -- Wings of Desire. Granted I saw it in college when I was much more left-wing. And I saw it with my roommate and his two (!) beautiful, sensual bisexual girlfriends --  so the movie mainly reminds me of how painfully jealous I was. And how beautiful his artsy, blonde gf was. She was damn near the physical feminine ideal. The closest I've even come across in real life anyway. I would have liked any movie that she let me sit on the same couch and watch with her.

66 This reminds me of that Demo Moore movie where she was a stripper with a kid. The first trailers made it look like a movie about a single mom struggling to raise her kid. When those polled poorly they released some that made it look almost like a screwball comedy.

67 Can you give me some tips on how you keep your body parts from falling off?  How do you manage it with so many?  I can barely do it with just one.

Super Glue, darling.  It keeps a body together.

68 Editing.

Is there nothing it can't do?

69 58 I just saw on my computer home page that "Avatar II" is in the making.  This time it's set up to be underwater.

Posted by: Soona at March 05, 2011 04:29 PM (h2D1x)

James Cameron is a theif, a theif, I tells ya!

70 I'm re-watching "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly".  Now this is a good movie.

71 Like a dog worrying a bone Ace masticates on a subject untill he gets to its juicy soft morrow.  It's probably good for him to vent his spleen on something other than politics so he doesn't end up chewing off extremities of liberals.  Do we have any pics of Ewoks with long fang dripping with blood and gore?

72 I think M. Night fancies himself as the new Hitchcock. He's not.

73 >>>I am writing an "Orpheus and Eurydice" fantasy with a character in a painting looking for his long-lost love who used to be in the painting with him. It's a very satisfying tale type because it raises the audience's tension and anxiety as the reunion of the lovers comes tantalizingly close and then gets snatched away time after time, and the lover has to keep recommitting to his quest as the obstacles get higher and higher. Or are you? I have seen that referenced in describing this movie. Orpheus and Eurydice. Based on the track record with that genre, it's probably tough -- and on that score, The Adjustment Bureau did you no favors, because it's not very good, and thus will tend to push studios away from that material. If it had been good, of course, it would have impelled them to buy that type of script. My point is less that "This genre is doomed to fail" then "I was misled as to what genre this was." First, it's a Philip K. Dick story, which implies it's going to be similar to Paycheck, Next, Minority Report, Total Recall, Imposter, and Blade Runner. All danger-filled thrillers. (All contain a light romantic subplot, of course, as 90% of thrillers do.) Then the trailers strongly suggest it's like Paycheck or Minority Report. They feature danger. There is no physical danger in the film. So I understand why you're arguing -- you don't want to see this genre written off. I get that. I shouldn't have implied that you *can't* do this genre. But it does indicate a certain lack of faith in the genre that they didn't sell it as this genre, but a more guns-and-car-chases-and-light-sci-fantasy-premise near-future conspiracy thriller. I'm annoyed that they did that, particularly since I really like that genre -- even when it's done rather poorly (as in Paycheck and Next), I actually like it. I like Philip K. Dick movies, even (maybe ESPECIALLY) the ones no one else likes. I have seen Paycheck and Next like five times each. Flawed but I dig the cool premises in both enough I give them some wiggle room as far as quality. Anyway, given that, I'm going to be a guy who especially resents a bait and switch here, because I really was totally in the mood for a Philip K. Dick paranoid conspiracy sci-fantasy thriller.

74

James Cameron is a theif, a theif, I tells ya!

Posted by: Kevin "Waterworld" Costner at March 05, 2011 04:44 PM (BvBKY)

 

He's a thief too.

75 >>>It's just that this is an =awfully=long= post to make this point. As a man once wrote, "I am sorry to have written such a long correspondence; I did not have the time to make it shorter."

76

Despicable Me was a pretty good movie. Saw that with my kid and it was fun.

Cool. Added it to the Netflix queue.

77 I meant "Oh are you?" to stueic, not "OR are you?"

78 As a man once wrote, "I am sorry to have written such a long correspondence; I did not have the time to make it shorter."


You can quote me anytime.

79 ah okay, I didn't know that was you, Ben.

80 All the commercials i've seen for it made it look like a Dark City type supernatural thriller where some group of powerful people/aliens in people form/whatever were manipulating other people. It didn't look one bit like a romantic movie unless you think Damon running through the streets dragging along some chick by the hand is a romantic movie.

81 The point isn't that you should never try to make this kind of movie. Well, I guess that is my point. Or l guess it's that this kind of movie has not worked in the past. Why go with a high degree of difficulty for somethint that in the the end is just a commercial endeavor anyway?

Posted by: ace at March 05, 2011 04:28 PM (nj1bB)

Every studio production combines a set of "elements" to create what the studio thinks is going to be a salable movie.  Of course, The Producers shows how that backfire: "I don't understand -- we had the worst script, the worst director, the worst actor!  Where did we go right?"

I am sure that the studio looked at the elements here -- Philip K. Dick story, adapted and directed by the same guy who adapted The Bourne Ultimatum and who wrote Ocean's Twelve, and Matt Damon and Emily Blunt as romantic leads -- and figured they had a great moneymaking movie in the works.  And maybe when they saw what the end result was, they panicked -- or maybe they decided to try to sell it like Inception, which was a big hit with a few similar elements.

It's common for studio/distributor marketing departments to try to sell movies to the public as something they aren't, based on the marketers' assumptions that "the public will never go for [the real kind of movie this is]" or "this movie is kind of like [an entirely different genre altogether], and we know how to sell those."

Note that there are more than a few movies that get made and never get released, because the studio feels that there's no way to earn back even the money they would have to spend on marketing.  They decide to write off the cost of production as a sunk cost and choose not to throw good money after bad.

82 I have to give up my Trump sock and return to Ohio Dan.  That's the closest I will ever get to being a billionaire.

83 I wonder why Hollywood hasn't made the Man in the High Castle yet.

Pitch meeting:

"It's sort of The Straight Story, but with a crazy hippie slut instead of a lovable codger, meets Lost in Translation—you know how that doesn't end and it's just all sad and uncomfortable? That, but with a Japanese Nazis! Fuck yeah! It's science fiction. Not the kind with space battles and toys and shit. It's science fiction like one of those What If...? comics, you know? But if it was written by Frederick Barthelme. Remember him? No? Maybe kinda like Crash, you know? Not the Oscar one, but the one that got banned everywhere? Like that, but without fucking. That kind of science fiction."

"Security."

84 In a romance or romantic comedy, the danger consists of circumstances (and rivals and interlopers and lies) keeping the pair apart. There's nothing wrong with that -- it works virtually every time it's tried. But you have to concede, stuiec, that if I was expecting physical danger and heavy menace from real villains, it's understandable that I'd be annoyed by a bait-and-switch for a romance, where there is not physical danger but, as you term it, frustration at circumstances.

85 I have never seen a movie that deals with going back in time that I didn't have trouble with the paradox relative to the plot.

86 Frequency made a valient attempt and was a good movie.

87 Brokeback to the future is also a good parody trailer.

88 sigh

No love for the goldbricker.

89 >>>All the commercials i've seen for it made it look like a Dark City type supernatural thriller where some group of powerful people/aliens in people form/whatever were manipulating other people. It didn't look one bit like a romantic movie unless you think Damon running through the streets dragging along some chick by the hand is a romantic movie. exactly, and it hurt the movie. I saw it in a fairly well-attended theater, but the audience seemed to mostly be people like me expecting a serious-danger thriller, because when the movie began taking a light-comedy joking tone about the premise (quite early), there were nervous laughs, like people did not know if they were supposed to laugh at an intended joke or if the movie was just going off the rails. A lot of the early humor was greeted that way. I think many people, like me, were just surprised that this was a comedy (a very light one) and just didn't understand early on we weren't SUPPOSED to take this seriously at all. Some people saw the right trailers, I guess, because some people seemed more prime to laugh. But a lot of people had my reaction-- befuddlement.

90 There sure is a lot of commentary on what is apparently a shitty movie.

91 My Best Friend's Girl was hilarious, and I probably wouldn't have seen it if not for ace's review (Of course, it was no Wicker Man.  heh), so I appreciate the movie posts.  Never planned on seeing this one, though. 

92 97 I have never seen a movie that deals with going back in time that I didn't have trouble with the paradox relative to the plot.

Posted by: Ohio Dan at March 05, 2011 04:53 PM (EH4cc)

Not a problem.

93 97 I have never seen a movie that deals with going back in time that I didn't have trouble with the paradox relative to the plot.

Posted by: Ohio Dan at March 05, 2011 04:53 PM (EH4cc)

I've just returned from "The Future", don't go see Adjustment Bureau!

94 Do we have any pics of Ewoks with long fang dripping with blood and gore?

Posted by: Trump

 

Kat Von D  + "Ace of Spades"  = Ewoks with long fangs  dripping blood and gore

 

And that's all I have to add to this mole hill of a  mountain excercise.

Why Philip K. Dick?  Why not?  He was sometimes imaginative, but it helps that he was an anarcho-leftist, which apppeals to  the mental outlook of a lot of the people that make movies in Hollywood.  That's how they see themselves, when in reality they are Trotskyite  (or crypto Mussolini)  corporatists.

"Hey, look at me rebelling against the Man.  And I just got this juicy three picture deal from Paramount" .

James Cameron is the PERFECT amalgamation of this kind of non-think, double-think.  Which is why most movies made these days don't make much sense, because there is not attractive coherent world veiw within the story. 

95 >>>Frequency made a valient attempt and was a good movie. Great underrated movie. Also one of the hardest-to-market genre-blending movies every made -- It's a time-travel/father-son reconciliation family drama/fire-fighter/serial-killer/mystery/police procedural science fantasy. Now that's a terrific movie, but you can tell from how difficult it is to categorize why the movie didn't make any money -- despite being pretty wonderful.

96 It's just that this is an =awfully=long= post to make this point.

It wouldn't be AoSHQ if Ace didn't periodically grace us with incredibly long, nerdily trainspotting movie reviews that hint at his obsession (both as a viewer and as an attempted screenwriter) with film.

Haven't you ever noticed that he's far more committed to mixing it up in the comment threads of these posts than most others he writes?  That's revealed preference for ya, right there.

97 that shinin' recut is hysterical.

98 >>>Ace, definitely give that trailer to Source Code I linked a look. Might be more of the type of movie you wanted this to be. yeah I saw that-- the trailer ran before the Adjustment Bureau. I dunno. I don't dig that actor and I'm not sure I'm loving the premise. But yeah, that is more like the sort of movie I expected.

99 Can somebody sell me on Frequency?  It's really little more than a movie title to me.  My gf and I are kind of ga-ga for Phillip K. Dick-like philosophical sci-fi films, so can someone explain to me if/why I should hunt this one down?

100 What are the Ace top ten movies?

101

Probably.  I was thinking of the Last Airbender though since it was about children's movies.  I considered Avatar: The Last Airbender to be a pretty good animated series with humor lightness and seriousness all done really well.  And most reports are that he sucked all the life and humor out of it for his movie. wg

Posted by: buzzion at March 05, 2011 04:48 PM (oVQFe)

 

I liked Avatar for the art of the setting.  Just for that it's worth seeing.  I'll probably want to see the next one for the same reason.  As for the Last Airbender, I didn't know it was a children's story.  And I certainly didn't get that impression from the movie.

102

>>>Frequency made a valient attempt and was a good movie.

Great underrated movie. Also one of the hardest-to-market genre-blending movies every made --

It's a time-travel/father-son reconciliation family drama/fire-fighter/serial-killer/mystery/police procedural science fantasy.

Now that's a terrific movie, but you can tell from how difficult it is to categorize why the movie didn't make any money -- despite being pretty wonderful.

so it's a science fiction Field of Dreams?

103 I've been fooled by pron trailers before too.

104

 I saw it in a fairly well-attended theater,

The thought of Wicket patiently seated in a crowded Theatre, with a tub of Popcorn on his lap, makes me smile. 

105 1) Matt Damon running Error #1: Matt Damon. That nearly voids any reason to see it. Matt Damon running: ghey. 2) Men in suits and fedoras capturing him and dragging him to an interrogation chair in a dark, forbidding sub-basement better, but so commonplace 3) Matt Damon running some more, in the rain um ok. now its le ghey. 4) A man in a suit using some sort of psionic power to lift a panel in the floor and cause Matt Damon to trip ok this almost makes it worth watching and 5) A man escaping through a door into a busy city street, while the next person to open that door finds it no longer leads to a city street but a small coat-closet uncommon enough to be quirky-interesting, but not original and regards to the recuts, along with the overarching false ad meme... dude, they do that with all visual entertainment. tv is probably the worst. everytime i see/hear one, all i can think of is South Park's derpy derpy derp

106

>>>All the commercials i've seen for it made it look like a Dark City type supernatural thriller where some group of powerful people/aliens in people form/whatever were manipulating other people. It didn't look one bit like a romantic movie unless you think Damon running through the streets dragging along some chick by the hand is a romantic movie.

exactly, and it hurt the movie. I saw it in a fairly well-attended theater, but the audience seemed to mostly be people like me expecting a serious-danger thriller, because when the movie began taking a light-comedy joking tone about the premise (quite early), there were nervous laughs, like people did not know if they were supposed to laugh at an intended joke or if the movie was just going off the rails.

A lot of the early humor was greeted that way. I think many people, like me, were just surprised that this was a comedy (a very light one) and just didn't understand early on we weren't SUPPOSED to take this seriously at all.

Some people saw the right trailers, I guess, because some people seemed more prime to laugh. But a lot of people had my reaction-- befuddlement.

I find the best way to gauge the audiences feeling is to get up at the end of the movie and say really loudly, "boy that sucked" if people turn and nod their heads, then its fair to guess they felt the same way.

107 We need more romantic-comedy-turned-romantic-tragedy movies, like Basic Instinct, or Fatal Attraction.  You know, with a thematic familiarity amongst the populace approaching 60%, - or as I would call it, - the story of my life. 

Too depressing?  Could we throw in a few more fart jokes?

108 116 I've been fooled by pron trailers before too.

Posted by: robtr

A "Vivid" imagination usually fills in the gaps.

109

Ace:

The couple of ads I saw on T.V. definitely gave me the impression that this movie was some sort of thriller involving some shadowy government organization. 

I didn't plan to see it because of Damon's lefty politics -- I figured it would be some sort of drivel where Tea Partiers = evil nazis and Democrats = saviours of mankind.

110 >>>Can somebody sell me on Frequency? It's really little more than a movie title to me. My gf and I are kind of ga-ga for Phillip K. Dick-like philosophical sci-fi films, so can someone explain to me if/why I should hunt this one down? See my post above. It's a great movie, actually. Terrific movie about time paradoxes or, I don't know, not really paradoxes per se but how information from the future, transmitted to the past, then immediately changes the timeline to alter the future. The movie is set in two eras, the modern day, where Jim Caveziel is a grown man and a homicide detective, and the fall of 1969 when his dad, Dennis Quaid, is the same age he (Jim Caviezel) is just a little kid. They talk on a ham radio due to a scientific-magic disturbance in the aurora borealis and Caveziel gives his dad, who'd died in a fire-fighting mishap, the key information to avert his death -- but that change causes his MOTHER to die, murdered by a serial killer who is active in both 1969 and the present day, and the rest of the film is an attempt by both men, acting in both time-frames, to stop the murder and catch the killer before the mom/wife is killed. And there is some frustration because some of there further attempts actually prove counterproducive in creating new timelines with new difficulties. Really a very good, tightly-plotted time-twisty movie with a really treacley-sweet father-son reconciliation sort of thing running through it. None of this should work, but it does.

111 Hey, ace, I understand ... I have an editing problem myself.

112 Or are you? I have seen that referenced in describing this movie. Orpheus and Eurydice.

Based on the track record with that genre, it's probably tough -- and on that score, The Adjustment Bureau did you no favors, because it's not very good, and thus will tend to push studios away from that material. If it had been good, of course, it would have impelled them to buy that type of script.

Posted by: ace at March 05, 2011 04:46 PM (nj1bB)

It could have something to do with the filmmakers all having seen Jean Cocteau's Orpheus and Marcel Camus's Black Orpheus in film school and being convinced that this is a great plot for arty films.  As you have observed, it's not always easy to pull it off.

Cocteau also made a Beauty and the Beast, and now we have the new movie Beastly coming out as a modernized version of the fairy tale.  And of course there were a whole slew of Cinderella-type movies made a few years ago -- Ella Enchanted, EverAfter, etc.  And this year we get yet another Red Riding Hood.

Hollywood loves to go back to the same stories over and over on the principle that asking people to wrap their minds around original material is too commercially risky.  But sometimes going back to the same well over and over is a bad commercial decision.

113 A new feature? Updates on The Adjustment Bureau? Maybe Over Night Updates (ONUs). The smart New Military blog. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Apparently many prefer the smell of metrosexual to napalm in the morning. Me, not so much.

114

 (JuWS+)

Now with Leavening!

115  We need more romantic-comedy-turned-romantic-tragedy movies, like Basic Instinct, or Fatal Attraction.  You know, with a thematic familiarity amongst the populace approaching 60%, - or as I would call it, - the story of my life. 

Too depressing?  Could we throw in a few more fart jokes?

Posted by: Fritz, shopping a script for the ages at March 05, 2011 05:03 PM (/8mBu)

 

"Play Misty For Me" was really the first in the line of this genre.  It made me start rethinking about picking up strange women.  Nah.....not really.  

 

 

116 Frequency is a movie that doesn't need to be seen in a theater to be appreciated for stunning effects.  It relies on it's plot and the actors for its value.  It may pull on the heart strings for a middle aged generation that understands the love of a child and loss of a father more than other generations.  I would put it on the level of Second Hand Lions but in a completely different way.

117 We need more Breakfast Clubs.

118 1 This is a freaky smart mil blog geek scene. Bacon anyone???


So I'll ask the freaky-smart geeks here:  I need to convert some dvds to avi/mpegs.  I'll looked and there are a bunch of programs I can download for free...can anyone recommend one as being the best out there?

And yes, please pass the bacon.

119 I love frequency. I'm gonna watch it again. I just saw the last half on ION a few weeks ago. Now, just talking about, I want to see the whole thing.

120 But you have to concede, stuiec, that if I was expecting physical danger and heavy menace from real villains, it's understandable that I'd be annoyed by a bait-and-switch for a romance, where there is not physical danger but, as you term it, frustration at circumstances.

Posted by: ace at March 05, 2011 04:51 PM (nj1bB)

Not only do I concede that, it was the point I was driving at.  You were sold "if I don't get this tricky choice right, they'll kill me" and instead you got "if I don't get this tricky choice right, I'll have to find some other cute chick."

Which is one reason that the Orpheus tale type depends on Orpheus really having a deep and unshakable life bond with Eurydice, such that if he can't be reunited with her, his life will be completely not worth living.

And being Greek, the original teller of the story had Orpheus fucking up at the very last second and dooming his Eurydice to return to Hell, parted from him forever.  Those Greeks loved them some tragic endings.

121 >>See my post above. It's a great movie, actually. Terrific movie about time paradoxes or, I don't know, not really paradoxes per se but how information from the future, transmitted to the past, then immediately changes the timeline to alter the future.

Okay, I'm going to watch it. 

But it better not be anything like the fucking Butterfly Effect, I'll tell you that much. 

122 Last Airbender is one of the best American animated series of the last decade. It was very well done and succeeded at telling a series long multi-season epic story  -- something that is very rarely done well.

As an animation buff another great cartoon of the 2000s was Kim Possible.

Speaking of animation, Dwayne McDuffie died last week out of the blue. He did the Justice League cartoon and Ben 10, among others. His claim to fame was creating the first black-owned comics company (Milestone Comics) and the black-hero-starring cartoon Static Shock. But I liked him cause he didn't ghettoize himself and just write "black" stories (as opposed to the Boondocks writer who seems to only be interested in "black" stories). McDuffie's interest was mainly in telling good stories. He was very talented and wrote and produced some of the best Batman and Superman animated stories.

I grew up on DC Comics and the DC animated universe (cartoons and direct-to-DVD movies) has mainly been crafted by three men - Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and Dwayne McDuffie. I guess Alan Burnett, too. So, four men. McDuffie died the same day his latest movie - All-Star Superman - was released. All-Star Superman was very good. It's really hard to write a good Superman story since he's basically an indestructible, nearly omnipotent god. Grant Morrison wrote the original comics and McDuffie adapted it and condensed it down to movie length.

123

Let me try that first sentence again.

 

Frequency is a movie that doesn't need to be seen in a theater to be appreciated.  It doesn't use big special effects.

124 It really is so complicated in plot that it's hard to explain and it sounds, probably, clunky and contrived, but it's not. Given all the plottiness of it, it's surprisingly smooth. Yes, there is, as you may expect, a fair amount of exposition in the beginning as they set up what the timeline is *supposed* to look like before the father and son begin attempting to cheat it, but they handle that well enough. Once all that is established, it's a race against time, unfolding, "simultaneously," in two time-frames, where the son in the future has the information needed to allow the father in the past to actually take the *action* needed to avert a bad future. But they just keeping digging a bigger hole, as if fate has already decided their lives are going to suck and keeps punishing them for interfering. Such a good movie. Also mostly a family-friendly one... well, except there is a serial killer, and women are being killed, and... okay, it's not really family friendly because there's a fair amount of murder.

125 So we always get movie review threads, but goddammit when are we going to get a RADIOHEAD thread?  Or one on music in general?  (I can talk about pretty much everything from the '60s to the early '90s.)  

I want this smart military blog to take up my other obsessions.

126

"Play Misty For Me" was really the first in the line of this genre.  It made me start rethinking about picking up strange women.  Nah.....not really. 

Posted by: Soona at March 05, 2011 05:14 PM (h2D1x)

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers and The Letter both had leading ladies who were gradually revealed to be such controlling bitches that they were willing to kill to preserve their lifestyles.  And in both cases, the bitches got what was coming to them.

127 So we always get movie review threads, but goddammit when are we going to get a RADIOHEAD thread?   

Posted by: Jeff B. at March 05, 2011 05:22 PM (NjYDy)

Don't the transistors leave nasty scratches?

128 Frequency is a fantastic movie.  (Doesn't need to be seen in a theater, but I'm glad I did anyway.)

129 The girl that cuts my hair said she was getting turned off by what the ads were showing now. Originally she thought it was something like the matrix and some other movie and was interested but now it's some sort of romance thing.

130 >>Also mostly a family-friendly one... well, except there is a serial killer, and women are being killed, and... okay, it's not really family friendly because there's a fair amount of murder.

And yet I pretty much understand what you mean.  It seems like it's built around solid core values like father/son relationships, etc. 

Man, if this movie is really that good I'm kind of wondering how I missed it the first time around.  Well, actually, I think I know how that happened...as you said, it's pretty hard to market.

Hmm...Rotten Tomatoes seems to like it in the aggregate as well.  Okay, I'm sold.

131 >>Don't the transistors leave nasty scratches?

Not if you insist on the use of a dental dam, my friend.

132 Okay, I'm going to watch it. 

But it better not be anything like the fucking Butterfly Effect, I'll tell you that much. 

Posted by: Jeff B. at March 05, 2011 05:18 PM (NjYDy)

 

"The Final Countdown" is a good time-paradox movie only for the really cool military airpower sequences.  Again, I'm like some people here that I spend most my time trying to make logical the paradox that's been presented.

133 Oh, also, the only Dick adaptation I haven't yet seen is Paycheck.  (Was turned off by the uniformly negative reviews...it has a 28% on Rotten Tomatoes, oof.) 

Worth it?  I mean, REALLY worth it, or just guilty-pleasure worth it?

134 Frequency was excellent. Dark City has some great, moody, freaky scenes  -- and a 20-something Jennifer Connelly. The big drawback is the lead actor who just isn't a very good actor. The special effects are a weird mix that sometimes hold up really well. And sometimes don't.

135 As a fan of time-travel stories in general, one of the things I enjoy about Frequency is that it explores the ramifications of time-travel paradoxes, the changing of history, etc. -- without any actual time-travel being involved.  The Caveziel and Quaid characters are both being pushed relentlessly forward as Quaid changes his own destiny and Caveziel's world transforms around him; sometimes the changes are for the better, sometimes they're disastrous; but the changes to history are permanent and cannot be undone.  There is no nice-and-neat "we'll just travel back in time to before _____ happened and undo our mistakes" component to the story.

136

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers and The Letter both had leading ladies who were gradually revealed to be such controlling bitches that they were willing to kill to preserve their lifestyles.  And in both cases, the bitches got what was coming to them.

Posted by: stuiec at March 05, 2011 05:22 PM (JuWS+)

 

Don't forget "Misery". 

137 USA has signed onto an adaption of John Sandford's Certain Prey. Is the book worth reading?

138 Why does Tuco call Clint "blondie" when Clint's not blonde?

139 141  That's what I'm talking about. 

Two hours of emotional crescendo with a climactic payback.  Ughh!

...and I'm spent.  <bitch had it coming>

140

 Again, I'm like some people here that I spend most my time trying to make logical the paradox that's been presented.

Couple years ago I was reading a book set in the future. They made a sports reference that I'd never heard of, so I figured it was in their (imaginary) past, not the real (and shared by them) past.

Then a while later, I heard someone in real life use the same reference. The first thought that went through my head was "Oh, that already happened?"

The second thought was, of course, "I need a drink".

141 yeah, as Undead notes, it's not a time travel movie because no physical being can actually move through time. The only thing that is crossing time is voices on the radio, a.k.a. information. Pure information is the only thing that time-travels from future to past.

142 That is, history is fluid throughout the movie, but changes to the timeline are permanent and can only be addressed via further changes.

143 Dark City has some great, moody, freaky scenes  -- and a 20-something Jennifer Connelly. The big drawback is the lead actor who just isn't a very good actor. The special effects are a weird mix that sometimes hold up really well. And sometimes don't.

I'll tell you, I fucking loved Dark City to pieces and you know who I have to thank for pointing me towards that movie?  Roger Ebert.  If it hadn't been for Ebert pimping that movie to pretty much anyone who would listen (he even recorded a commentary track for the DVD, one of only I think three he's ever agreed to do...and the other two are Citizen Kane and Casablanca) I never would have discovered it.  I think Rufus Sewell is excellent as the lead actor in the film, and in particular I think William Hurt's acting decisions are *brilliant* once you understand the full context of the film.  It's Kiefer Sutherland's weirdly raspy performance (the anti-Jack Bauer!) that doesn't really work IMO.

If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend watching the Director's Cut, which makes one really valuable change (removing the narration at the beginning) that makes the movie vastly more satifying.

144 >>>Why does Tuco call Clint "blondie" when Clint's not blonde? yeah.. but he kind of is, when light shines through his hair. Gold highlights. I'm not gay, I've just seen the movie 20 times and wondered about that. I also think that to the Mexican Tuco, anyone who's anglo is sorta "Blondie."

145

Reading through the thread and someone mentioned Despicable Me

...do it...just do it...funny as hell

146 Undead, oh yeah, right, I thought you were making a different point. The two time-frames unfold in time at the same rate so, as you say, Day One of the disturbance in the modern day matches with Day One of the disturbance in 1969, and day two in modern day matches with day two, etc. Caviezel can't in Day Two go back to Quaid's day one. They have four or five days to do this in both periods and both are "time-locked" in that way.

147 Why does Tuco call Clint "blondie" when Clint's not blonde?

Posted by: 48%er at March 05, 2011 05:33 PM (gJNMj)

 

I grew up with an Arapahoe indian friend, and he called everyone who wasn't indian "blue eyes".

148 I really enjoy finding a movie that got by me that I can enjoy at home.  I just watched Due Date with my wife. We both got some good laughs from it.  Same theme as Planes, Trains and Automobiles though not quite as childish and slapstick. Two guys that would never have anything to do with each other take a road trip.   I did have a little trouble with the drug references in it due to Downey's nearly destroying his life and career with them.   

149 All of this is moot as I refuse to give one dime to line that Howard Zinn protege commie sphincter.

I will probably pick it up on a Free Movie Monday at Red Box.  It's my way of sticking it to those Hollywood Hypocrites.  That way, I have only wasted a few minutes of my time if it sucks and I turn it off early.

150 according to that cocksucker Lulu in Brazil we're all blue-eyed devils

151 Remember Cornelius' chimp-chick in PLANET of the APES? She called Taylor BLUE EYES and threw POOP on him and NOVA.

152 re: 137 I'll second that on Last Airbender, but I wouldn't limit it to just the last decade. It is absolutely brilliant with its incorporation of universal issues that face youths as they grow up, what it means to become an adult, and the rather extensive philosophy that is worked into it. The only leeway I give M Night is that even a single book (season, for those not familiar) cannot possibly be done in 90 minutes. It would be like cutting out nearly 2 hrs from each of the LOTR movies. If done in the style of a grand epic - which it is - I think the movie might have come off far better.

153 Yeah, I'm probably too hard on the Dark City lead actor. He wasn't bad, just not what I wanted. His eyes often had a vacant look which, I know, can be explained as an acting choice, but his eyes still seemed a bit vacant after the point in the movie when he realizes who he is and he shouldn't have that vacant look anymore. I think he was cast because of his semi-vacant eyes (which are appropriate for 95% of the movie).

I'm very forgiving on sci-fi movies though, so I highly recommend Dark City just for it's unique vision, warts and all. Sci-fi noir is always fun.

154

"The Final Countdown" is a good time-paradox movie only for the really cool military airpower sequences. 

The CAG and CICO on my boat had the claim to fame that they were in that movie, their squadron supplied the Ready Room extras. I always wondered what an F-14 would do to a Zero.

155 stop FACT CHECKING me

156 Is Eli Wallach still dead?

157 but I'm right about the poop part, right?

158 I thought Eli was still alive.

159

Ace,

I just saw the Adjustment Bureau and, while I enjoyed the film, I agree that it was a little too lovey-dovey for my tastes, and a tad light on the sci-fi element that led many a single man to spend 7.50 on this movie, no doubt.  Romantic comedies can be put together in a way that appeals to both men and women (think the movie "Hitch" for an example of this), usually by ensuring that the female lead is actually someone that single men would pursue, as opposed to the ridiculous chick flicks where Renee Zellwiger (spelling?) is being chased by multiple dashing actors, something that would never happen in any universe.

But that's not the point.  The point is that we were sold on a movie that was supposedly largely sci-fi, and got a film that was maybe only 50 percent sci-fi.  That said, it is a good movie, and I would recommend it, despite a few hokey plot elements.

160 Speaking of Director's Cuts, I can think of at least one movie whose "Director's Cut" is a terrible piece of shit that nearly ruins an otherwise classic film, and that's Donnie Darko.  Ace was bitching in the earlier thread about how the Final Cut of Blade Runner kills the cool ambiguity of the movie by explaining too much and forcing the viewer towards one specific interpretation (I disagree), but man if there's one situation where that's entirely true it's with the awful, awful redo of Donnie Darko.  It's almost as if Richard Kelly had no idea what was so wonderful and mysterious and moving about the film in its theatrical release.

Also, I can never forgive the replacement of Echo & The Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon" in the opening scene of the theatrical cut with that stupid Depeche Mode song.  Arrgh.

161 >>>I just watched Due Date with my wife. We both got some good laughs from it. Same theme as Planes, Trains and Automobiles though not quite as childish and slapstick. What? It's not as childish and slapstick as planes, trains? I think it is, or it's childish and slapstick in a different way (gross-out joke involving coffee). Due Date is okay. I'd recommend it, but not rave it. It is suuuuch a huge ripoff of Planes, Trains, including premise, specific jokes/plot points, emotional turn near the end (not even close to the real tearjerking emotional turn in planes, trains). I don't mind that it's a ripoff because I think great movies should be ripped off. I looked forward to seeing Knight and Day precisely because it was a legally-actionable ripoff of The In-Laws. But while Due Date's good (not wasting your money and time), the jokes are fewer and less big than I was expecting.

162 >>>Romantic comedies can be put together in a way that appeals to both men and women (think the movie "Hitch" for an example of this), usually by ensuring that the female lead is actually someone that single men would pursue speaking of surprisingly great movies. Hitch is really a very good movie, and I don't think it's just because as you mannishly imply because Eva Mendes is hot. The Kevin James romantic subplot is so cute, even for a cynical guy.

163 Is it just me or is the original In-Laws one of the most underrated films of the past several decades?  I say this because it seems like Hollywood is ripping off huge elements of that film every five years or so (Knight & Day and Meet The Parents, to name but two), but nobody ever bothers to go back and talk about how hilarious the original was.

164 I also think that to the Mexican Tuco, anyone who's anglo is sorta "Blondie."

That's what my wife thought. makes sense.

165 I don't think The In-Laws is underrated. It's beloved. It's a 40 year old movie so it's not on the tip of people's tongues but most people have seen it and recall it fondly.

166 I like a lot of drama where people are cussing, scratching each other's eyes, out, screaming, throwing tantrums and on some occasions, brutally slaughtered.  That's why I like commenting here.

167 A larger point is that fantasy is taking over the sci-fi market (especially in books and TV). I love sci-fi thrillers. I love sci-fi TV. But the younger generation of geeky dudes who are the audience for this stuff are spending their free time playing World of Warcraft. And when they do watch sci-fi they just pirate it. Chicks still read books and dudes don't -- so we get the death of Asimov and the rise of Twilight. Chicks still watch TV at night on their actual television and dudes increasingly don't. So we get the death of Star Trek and Stargate (which is already pretty chickified and light-hearted) and the rise of Warehouse 13 and Being Human.

The producers are just going where the eyeballs and the money are. I can't blame 'em. And I do like the Warehouse 13 chicks (especially the hacker chick), but it has only the flimsiest of sci-fi surfaces. Being Human, on the other hand, seems entirely geared to chicks. It's Melrose Place with a hunky vampire, a neurotic werewolf, and love-sick ghost.

Sci-fi still does decent at the box office, but otherwise sci-fi seems to be sinking back into the geek ghetto. Especially anything with a touch of hard sci-fi.

168

I like a lot of drama where people are cussing, scratching each other's eyes, out, screaming, throwing tantrums and on some occasions, brutally slaughtered.  That's why I like commenting here.

And time travel, don't forget. A post travels through time and is presented as new when in fact...it is not.

169

 I saw the same trailers you did, and I thought the same way - this looked like a sci-fi/suspense movie where a guy suddenly happens on the behind-the-scene string pullers who are malevolently manipulating his life.  Sort of  "The Truman Show" made by Hitchcock.  Never would have guessed the romance was anything but a subplot, like in 'The 39 Steps'.

There's also another type of comedy you omitted in your list, though: the dark or black comedy.  I guess I'd put 'The War of the Roses' in that category.  Once again, it was something the ads led me to believe would be a light comedy, but it turned out to be grim and ugly. Only one good laugh that I can recall, when the wife insisted that it was better to let kids eat candy, because if you said no, it would give it the 'forbidden fruit' aura and they'd end up eating way more.  Cut to a few years later, and both her kids are way overweight!

170 What's this? You complainin' that Hollywood don't tell da truth? In their <i>trailers?!</i> Come again? Are you serious?

171 And why can't your comments thingy take HTML tags?

172 So I'll ask the freaky-smart geeks here:  I need to convert some dvds to avi/mpegs.  I'll looked and there are a bunch of programs I can download for free...can anyone recommend one as being the best out there?


I  use handbrake, it be free.

173 192 So I'll ask the freaky-smart geeks here:  I need to convert some dvds to avi/mpegs.  I'll looked and there are a bunch of programs I can download for free...can anyone recommend one as being the best out there?


I  use handbrake, it be free.


Oh, and a tip on using handbrake, before you convert, click on subtitles and make sure the foreign language is added and the forced only box is checked, otherwise subtitles will be burned onto the file without anyway to remove them.

174 Thanks for this Ace. I thought I was the only one who reacted exactly the same as you did 10 minutes in. (BTW I have not read your review yet, but as I too live for films based on Phil Dick novels I was positively repulsed at what I saw) Cheers!

175 Sci-fi still does decent at the box office, but otherwise sci-fi seems to be sinking back into the geek ghetto. Especially anything with a touch of hard sci-fi.

Posted by: Clubber Lang at March 05, 2011 05:59 PM (QcFbt)

I wrote a hard sci-fi screenplay with a female protagonist that won a screenplay competition at a sci-fi film festival -- there's also a time-travel element but coming from my belief that actual time-travel leads to irresolvable paradoxes.  The protagonist is an ambitious and selfish politician who gloms onto a time experiment to spy on her opponent's past peccadilloes and gain political advantage.  She ends up destroying all life on Earth: sucks for her.

176 I guess you'd better start watching We if you want to know if it is a romantic "comedy"?

177 Here here re. Best friends girl.
I hate rom-coms, gross out jokes, and the very idea of Dane cook, but that movie right there was funny.

178

Jumping in here late:  I was a bit puzzled by the earlier post because, having seen the theatrical trailer at least three times, my impression was much closer to Ace's second version, the real one.  For one thing, I think it was clearly shown that the mission of the Adjustment Bureau was the stop the relationship between Damon and Blunt because it would interfere with their destinies.  The line about their controlling everyone's destinies also caused my impression to lean toward the idea that they were supernatural, or at least had superhuman abilities.  I did not get any impression about them being after technology Damon created.  I was wondering if Ace was seeing the movie he wanted to see.

On the other hand, it was not depicted as a romantic comedy, and romance does not always mean comedy.  I gather that it actually is something lighter than what was shown?

179 Actually, I didn't read Ace's point #5 clearly enough before posting 199 above; so there really were different trailers that framed the movie differently.

180 Wife and I just saw the movie today and it's not so much a romantic comedy as it is a story of how far people will go to be with the one they love.  There were some funny moments interspersed, but it wasn't the overall theme of the movie.  It was also very apolitical, so even though he was a politician, there were no references whatsoever to a specific political party or agenda.  That was the most refreshing thing about it to me.  Overall, an entertaining film that we both enjoyed.

181 youtube.com/watch?v=4Vy2aJY6rq8 Another movie clip.. Making Ferris Bueller's Day Off look to be a bit more menacing.. Closer to being a horror rather than a light hearted romp...

182 Let it go, Ace.

Let it go...

183 Why dont they go after all those eco-wacko like ENVIROMENTAL DEFENSE and GREENPEACE that use this global warming poppycock in their misleading ads them and T-BONEHEAD NOSEPICKER

184

the re-edited previews were brilliant.  And Frequency is an awesome movie.