Random Thread for June

74 thoughts on “Random Thread for June”

  6. Thanks for the b-day wishes! I think it’s fun sharing my b-day with Marilyn Monroe and Morgan Freeman (and Carlos Zambrano).

  10. I would also add our subtitle takes a long time to get noticed…I always feel like it’s been up there for ages before I finally realize it has changed.

  12. I would also add our subtitle takes a long time to get noticed…I always feel like it’s been up there for ages before I finally realize it has changed.

    How about “As read by Roger Ebert”?

  17. A relative started going to physical therapy the other day, to help with his back. Involves lots of stretching and holding uncomfortable positions.

    They give some odd names to those exercises. One of them consists of going down on all fours, stretching your left leg backwards and then sticking your right arm in front of you. It’s called Hitler’s Dog.

  18. Wow, Wells has just called ‘The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3’ remake “unquestionably” better than the original. And considering how good the original was, that’s a major call.

    Although, one should take such predictions with a grain of salt. As someone said here a while back, for all his criticisms of the system, Wells is a pushover for mainstream Hollywood movies.

  19. Yeah, the fact that it’s a well made remake doesn’t negate the fact that it’s an entirely unnecessary one.

    I have the script for this laying around. Read the first twenty pages, found those well written but essentially just an update. And what did they need to update? That it’s a wholly computerized system now? That the response to a terrorist strike would be harsher? It’s not like there aren’t ten action screenplays with more original and more appealing premises around.

    Guessing this got made because Travolta, Washington and Scott thought they could get this made this with their regular salaries and the studio thought it was a sure-fire thing. Looks like they were right. Good for them. Depressing for everyone else as a whole.

  21. Hey Nick,
    Do you by chance ever share scripts with random (but very cool) commenters? (To clarify I mean me.) I’m a fan of Helgeland’s writing and would love to read the Pelham script. And I’d be willing to bribe you with invaluable box-office wisdom that just might help your AGEBOC score…

  24. Nope. All is allowed within the confines of the rules. Unless they’re updated. Until then all is fair.

  25. To be clear, I have no insider knowledge on information that may or may not affect a film’s box-office performance. I have only my wits, a brain built for otherwise useless movie trivia/info, and my love of film.

    As an example of my prowess though I offer the following prediction for free. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is going to do pretty good business.

  30. The trailers in front of The Hangover were all junk: Sorority Row, Orphan, and another Final Destination movie, this time without a number, but it did add the definite article: it’s The Final Destination. Anyone who actually pays money to see this should end up dying in a Rube Goldberg-like accident.

  33. I removed it. It seems that the whole thing is part of someone’s power play or personal vendetta and is not true.

    To quote Tommy Wiseau: “It’s Bullshit”.

  34. Has anyone seen Spamalot? My wife and I are going into it “blind” tonight. I haven’t seen the Holy Grail nor Brian in many years….

    Saw it on Broadway with Tim Curry, David Hyde Pierce, Hank Azaria and Sara Ramirez. The only problem for me (as a life-long Python fan) is that it seemed a little tired. Still enjoyed it a great deal.

  37. The long-awaited Sirius/XM Radio iPhone app is out today.

    The biggest draws for most (Howard Stern, MLB, NFL, Oprah) are absent. They’re also charging $3.00 a month for something that essentially duplicates the functions of other free iPhone applications like Pandora, Last.FM, AOL Radio and Slacker…and adding commercials.

    On the positive side: interface is very nice, the talk channels are decent (listening to their liberal station, Sirius Left, at the moment) and the week-long free trial is a nice incentive.

    Still, this is not going to be the life line the struggling satellite radio business so desperately needs. I expect they’ll see a tiny boost in subscribers for the first couple of weeks followed by a quick drop off.

    The problem is that XM/Sirius are working from an outdated business model that can’t compete against a business that’s going internet-based (and free). Why pay $13.00 a month and spend hundreds of dollars in equipment when I can stream live radio (including customized stations) to my car over the 3G network?

  39. Why is that a Cali story? That’s something Bush the Crusader would have sent someone. I would think Arnie shoulda sent Mountain Lion testicles.

  40. The original linked headline I read was “Schwarzenegger’s testicle gift offends senator” then I saw it as “Schwarzenegger’s testicle sculpture a flop” and I was wondering what he could have possibly sent.
    The article definitely doesn’t live up to the headlines….

  41. Ahhhh….got it. It does sound like there was a big testicle sculpture outside the disney concert hall or something…

  42. James…watched Memories of Murder last night. Incredible. Amazing direction. The scene in the field as they pull the autistic guy away and his father yells for him and they go to a slo-mo tracking shot…astounding. Thought it was better made and more resonant than Zodiac. Top-rate film.

  43. Wow, Wells has just called ‘The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3′ remake “unquestionably” better than the original. And considering how good the original was, that’s a major call.

    Although, one should take such predictions with a grain of salt. As someone said here a while back, for all his criticisms of the system, Wells is a pushover for mainstream Hollywood movies.

    Now that Pelham has dropped away significantly in its 2nd and Wells is quite bitter about it, seemingly exasperated that people aren’t rushing out to see it, seeing it as a sign of the poor taste of moviegoers that Year One made more money than it.

    Hard to believe that Wells is so surprised by this. As Nick said (and probably felt by most of the target audience):

    Yeah, the fact that it’s a well made remake doesn’t negate the fact that it’s an entirely unnecessary one.

    …Guessing this got made because Travolta, Washington and Scott thought they could get this made this with their regular salaries and the studio thought it was a sure-fire thing. Looks like they were right. Good for them. Depressing for everyone else as a whole.

    If anything I’d argue that it’s a good sign that people (or at least those who knew about the original) saw through this as a pointless exercise and have generally avoided it.

  44. James…watched Memories of Murder last night. Incredible. Amazing direction. The scene in the field as they pull the autistic guy away and his father yells for him and they go to a slo-mo tracking shot…astounding. Thought it was better made and more resonant than Zodiac. Top-rate film.

    Love that film. What I’ve come to love most is that it will never ever be remade (except by other Koreans maybe). It can only inspire.

  45. Glad to hear you liked it, Filmman! I prefer it to Zodiac myself.

    Bong’s Joon-Ho’s Mother should hopefully be released stateside sometime this year, it’s already breaking box-office records in South Korea. Unfortunately (unlike ‘Murder’) there are multiple studios bidding for the domestic remake rights.

  46. Speaking of Bong: he’s screening three films that helped shape his artistic vision at the Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival in Switzerland.

    The films? John Carpenter’s The Thing, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Kairo/Pulse and Kim Ki-young’s Housemaid.

  47. Trying not to get my hopes up too high for Mother. By most accounts it’s an understated affair and being hyped up for a film like that can’t help it.

    Haven’t heard of Kim Ki-young’s Housemaid, but that’s an odd selection of films. Not exactly Bergman and Fellini there, bless him.

  48. Whoever wrote that last tweet deserves a spanking. Fierce Creatures over Wanda? The single excuse for a laugh Fierce Creatures has is its existence.

  49. Must warm the heart that Pulse is in there, James!

    And Mr. Nick, ye of the wooden Transformers toys…does every great filmmaker need to be shaped by Fellini or Bergman? Carpenter is a fantastic creator of moods, no matter how cheesy. James can attest to the artistic trappings of Kurosawa and Ki-young, well, I don’t know about that filmmaker, but…are there any books on that subject, influences for popular filmmakers? Would be interested to see who makes whose lists. If someone had said they were influenced by Spielberg, would that be shot down, also?

  50. Ah, you’re taking me for a far dourer and snobbish person than I am, my man Film. I meant ‘bless him’ quite literally, without any sarcasm. I love Carpenter’s eighties work. The Thing is as good a popcorn horror film as one can make and let’s not even get into how many times I saw Escape From New York as a kid. We have enough filmmakers that are, or claim to be, influenced by Fellini and Bergman was what I was trying to get across.

    But I doubt the kids today that are greatly influenced by the Transformers movies will create much beyond brainless cgi mumbo-jumbo. Because, no offense, that’s what they are. Eye candy for kids.

  51. Point taken.
    And I can’t tell YOU how many times I saw Escape from New York as a kid.
    Would you bag on someone who cited Spielberg, though? I’ve always wondered why he isn’t held in higher regard? Is it his later output? His lesser work after the genius trifecta of Duel, Jaws and Close Encounters?

  52. Whoever holds him in a low regard is an idiot. He’s so talented that he almost single-handedly transformed the largest cultural industry in the world.

    In my opinion the only reason people could be resentful is that he’s been too influential, right? Spielberg is something of a god to a lot of people. Him and Lucas raising the quality and profit in spectacle so high that they killed off the studio interest that existed during the seventies in character-focused dramas. I feel like we have enough filmmakers (and studios) influenced by him.

    I’d rather the filmmakers take inspiration from somewhere completely different from their contemporaries so we get something different from what we’ve seen before. Compare Rob Zombie’s Halloween to Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In. Alfredson’s took an original property, had Dutch 18th century paintings as his main inspiration and created a classic. What did Zombie do?

    (I might hold Transformers against Spielberg ;) )

  54. I can tell you how many times I saw Escape from New York as a kid. But I won’t.

    I’m fairly ambivalent about Spielberg myself, because it seems that every moment of genius is counterbalanced with something truly terrible. And usually not terrible in an interesting-misfire kind of way, like say, Oliver Stone, but terrible in a very lazy and cynical, profit-motivated sort of way.

    That aside, I pretty much agree with what Nick said. He’s undeniably influential, in both good ways and bad.

  55. Whoever wrote that last tweet deserves a spanking. Fierce Creatures over Wanda? The single excuse for a laugh Fierce Creatures has is its existence.

    I am quite sure James is the keeper of the Twitter. It is his personal sandbox and litter box all in one!

  56. I’m somewhere inbetween Brian and Nick in terms of rating Spielberg. He has his flaws and made a few oridinary films over the years but he’s delivered a lot of quality too as well as anybody within the confines of the Hollywood mainstream over the past few decades.

    And I think his ability to deliver across such varied genres is underrated; how many other directors would be capable of successfully making ‘Schindler’s List’ and ‘Jurassic Park’ in the same year?

    Also, fans of Spielberg should check out his very early effort (even before ‘Duel’) in directing a Columbo TV movie in 1971, ‘Murder by the Book’. Despite a weak script, his direction is so skilled that it’s one of the best efforts in the series.

  57. Good point about genres, Marco. Take a great director like Michael Mann, and even he has made some major embarrassments when stepping outside of his comfort zone (The Keep is an unintentional laughfest and much worse than Indiana Jones 4, for example).

  58. Murder by the Book. The reflection in Robert Culp’s glasses as he’s killing is genius.
    Well played, Marco. I know where that episode is. Will watch that this afternoon.
    Definitely can see where the great director was beginning.

  59. Got a call last Monday about whether I could come and help out temporarily back at my old job, same section but in a different position. Was cleared for it this afternoon, so that’s nice. The other job wasn’t exactly making me a happy person, early mornings and working in a fridge notwithstanding.

  60. Good one, Nick.

    And I was mistaken, Marco. It’s the one with Jack Cassidy. Don’t remember what that was I saw with Robert Culp…I know it was Columbo…

  65. Yep. Multiple news sources say he is dead. Prepare to be inundated for the next week or so.

    I was never a fan, but I can certainly recognize his importance and genius. But no one can convince me that he wasn’t a pedophile.

  66. Wonder if the Coreys Haim and Feldman will now come forward with what happened…
    That was a great reality show. Where’d it go?
    His girl is smokin’ and the fights between her and Haim were as good as reality tv fights get.

  67. Openings going up sometime tomorrow night. Went to see Moon after work and now I’m too tired to do it. My apologies to all.

  71. Name does ring a bell, but no, just clicked on the link you provided. I assume he was B-list, not an Oprah level superstar. Also assumed you were being slightly sarcastic in your previous post.

  72. This post was hard to find on the last day of the month.

    Does anyone really think Ice Age 3 warrants a midnight showing? Are theaters anticipating overflow from Public Enemies? Or are they inadvertently encouraging parents to bring their kids to the movies late at night? Lord knows we don’t need that.

  74. Realizing that traveling with a 19 month old for two days overnight would necessitate packing my car to the ceiling, I’ve just successfully changed my 4th of July vacation into one of those trendy, Great Depression 2.0-style staycations.

    Essex Stream train, the Port Jeff ferry, maybe a trip into Manhattan instead of fucking Newport.

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Published by Jackrabbit Slim

Location: Vegas, Baby! I’m much older than the other whippersnappers here, a baby boomer. I tend to be more snobbish about film, disdaining a lot of the multiplex fare for “cinema.” My favorite films: Woody Allen’s oeuvre (up until about 1990), The Godfather, The Graduate, A Hard Day’s Night, Pulp Fiction. Politics: Well, George McGovern was my political hero. I’m also a prickly atheist. Occupation: Poised to be an English teacher in Las Vegas. For many years I was an editor at Penthouse Magazine. My role on this blog seems to be writing lots of reviews and being the resident Oscar maven.