This week Allen explores the differences between Event Films and Blockbusters, while Mark ponders if technology has become too involved in Olympic Swimming.
- Discussed on this episode:
- What defines an event movie? blockbuster?
- Earworms
- Olympic technology
- Bad movie theatre experiences
- Podcast Spotlight: Mondo Movie
- Nightwatch & Daywatch
DVD/Movie Picks
43 comments:
Don't worry, Allen, you can "jump on me" anytime. We can dig it.
Mark: you said that the Passion had the church buying up lotsa tix... in fact, it was very minimal - Actually, 'Left Behind' had more BO residuals from the church because nothing says "Event Movie" like Kirk Cameron & the Apocolypse.
I'll let CraigMunroe explain why Hermaphobia became a must-hear PodCast LOL
Ya kno, the Showgirlz had the best N17 BO of all time... Double the next movie - I wouldnt say that's a failure; Verehoven seems to be playin us along with every movie he makes... that's why the mook from Pi and Requim is bein banjoozled into a Robo Reboot, word
So true. Showgirls was meant to be a sleeper. Verehoven was totally playing us. I guess "Star Wars" isn't EVENT, 'cause Mark bungles the line: "Is that the 'droids you're looking for" hehehh
I bungled the line about the droids? Obi Wan waves his hand in front of the storm trooper's face and says, "These aren't the droids you're looking for."
Isn't that the part I said? I'm going to have to go back and listen to the podcast again now. :oP
Mark
oh yeah... I forgot about The Passion of the Christ. Too bad it's 4 years after the fact and the info is a bit buried now, but I remembered hearing about churches buying up blocks of tickets, etc. in the media at the time. Here are a couple of links to support my oft-spotty memory.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3466985.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3570917.stm
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/februaryweb-only/2-9-41.0.html (paragraph 4 and 5)
I'm curious as to the actual totals for tickets bought by churches and wealthy parishioners (several cases of businessmen buying large chunks of tix <$6000-$40000 in just my quick search> and giving them away) factor in to the gross sales.
Actually, I'm not *that* curious. Heh. Not about to lose any sleep over it.
Mark
good old YouTube
Ok, I thought I heard "This is not the droids you're looking for"... but it was garbled by Allen's giggling and I confess that it might have been "These aren't the droids you're looking for",
as for the Passion tix buying; afterwards there was not this huge influx of of repeat magic for 'Left Behind' & 'Omega Code', but it never impacted the BO... gooo tooo sleep Mark, we won't hold it against you
You say NightWatch and I thought ewww that was a bad movie with Ewan McGregor. It's not the same I think. Maybe this one is better. I look on the amazon.com and they say it's 3 movie trilogy. When will the next one come out, or is it out?
Any new song by Rihanna gets stuck in my head like an earworm. SOS was sooo catchy. Right now it's DisTurbia
Nightwatch and Daywatch are very good visual movies, with story taking a backseat. Timur Bekmambetov got his start directing commercials. Think of him as a Bolshevik version of McG. Hollywood now has him, so Afternoonwatch, Twilightwatch & Eveningwatch are on hold.
You want friends with me, Baltar, but I need to know more about you. Thank you for emailing me about my blog site. I think I will write about Hermophobia review on there later this week and you can send me idea.
"Bolshevik version of McG"... ouch! Ridley and Tony Scott as well as David Fincher started out in commercials too. True, they are all more stylistic directors, and though i haven't seen Wanted yet but have heard it's kinda silly, i am not quite ready to throw Timur Bekmambetov on the McG heap yet.
I read that Fox (Searchlight)acquired the rights to make any further "Watch" films, so if they go further they will likely be made in America.
Has anyone here actually seen any of those Left Behind movies? I have not, but have been a little curious to see what level of crazy they reach! heh heh
Baltar, i loves me some Verhoeven! Especially the early dutch stuff, The 4th Man, Spetters, Soldier of Orange, and yes, i even like Basic Instinct and Showgirls! [ducking from whatever is being thrown at me now>]
man! lots of discussion happening here! too cool! thanx guys!
-Allen
My bad movie time was when I was sixteen during Mothman Prophecies with Richard Gere, some guy beside me keep shouting "Gerbil lover" (?)at screen. Then the usher came and said I had to leave too. They thought I was with him.
LOL LOL LOL
Comma, have you been in any magazines? Youz hawt, girl
Can you post more pics hon?
Why would you go see a movie (talking about the dude shouting at the screen, not you geisha) if you *really* didn't like an actor that was in it? Why waste your money? If you really wanted to see the movie in that case, rent it when it comes out and shout at your tv.
Yeh it was on SL. I saw it 09/08/08
Wasn't Mothman Prophecies painful enough to sit through? The usher probably did you a favour by making you leave.
I goto theatres a few times a week; the fact that a few serve alcohol makes the experience better. 'Wanted' was quite enjoyable to watch if your mind is pickled. It even gave me the cahonies to bud in front of 200 people on opening night to impress this Russian chick I met (she thought Timur is like Spielberg). Annoying things are loud teenagers who need to tell everybody how cool they are, cell phones and PDAs with bright backlights... and that stupid laser show they are now blasting with the preview ads.
For a few years, I didn't go as much (except advance screenings, test screenings)because my girlfriend at the time had a traumatic experience in the theatre. She took her nephew to "Shark Boy and Lava Girl" and there was a guy masterbating a few rows in front of them LOL
Yes you are right. They need to just make a bathing suit with a motor attached because the TYR and LZR are just as bad as using performance enhancing supplements or drug. Someone I know is trying to get the used fabric from some of these suits because poof they get thrown away after few uses. We want to make a dress, or maybe patterned shirt with swatches of the fabric. Michael PHelps is kinda cute, but Ian Thorpe still is best. I saw him in the stands during last weeks event.
Tyler - thanks fo the link man. The PC is pretty good. Movies & Tech right on. Damn Blogspot won't take Facebook or Hotmail, had to reactivate f'n Live Journal to leave comment. Forgot how blogging is like crack. Looks like I missed the epic movie debate - Now you guys talking about swim pants
Uh no prob buddy. Haven't seen you on da internets for ages. Lotsa people having the shits with BlogSpot login
I relistened to Podcast 2 and there's that whole part about the renaissance of Television. What do you new guys think? Is it waning?
There's some pretty cool sh*t coming out from across the pond. HBO coproduced this new series with the Beebs called House of Saddam which totally p*wns anything else right now. Showtime's Bullsh*t is reality based, and going strong. Adult Swim has Venture Bros. - some of the funniest writing on TV. Ronald Moore will keep flogging Battlestar's golden hootchie until at least 2011 with all that new Caprica and Cylon Planet miniseries. Baltar said it best on The Flood's blog when he said it'll become like the Lucasfilm crapfactory. And what about the Wire? It was greatest. Not even mentioned once. For shame, Allen and Mark!
Hehe... I only have so many hours in my day. I haven't gotten to the Wire yet (haven't even watched minute one of it actually). I'm sure that when the series that I'm following are either on hiatus or finished for good, I'll pick it up and give it a go. Although I'm not sure if I can stomach yet another crime drama.
Speaking of which, does anyone remember Boomtown from 2002?
Boomtown was an a-ok show. I remember the one where Doogie Howser was in it and they were filming bums fighting to the death. Then it happened in real life I think in 2003 or 2004. I didn't watch the last season, there were some new actors I did not like.
Allen - You mentioned Fincher earlier in defence of Timur. Makes me think about the Alien 3 review in which you wonder how Fox would produce such damning commentary. Did you seriously like Alien 3? Even the re-cut? It's ok as a Sci-Fi thriller, but fitting it in the Alien franchise was a big mistake.
Is the first preview (1990 Teaser attached to Goodfellas prints) on the DVD with the Alien egg hatching over Earth? Now that would be cool. Even a hollow planet fulla monks woulda been better than Fincher's vision. It was a mess... and conscensus said so for years after. When Seven and Fight Club came out, people started to say "I think Alien 3 is pretty cool now". It even made Fox take some of the blame for the mess - Wouldn't want a studio to (no pun intended) alienate a now-hot director... Oh yeah, Fox distributed Fight Club Hmmmmm.
I know a couple of guys who did second unit on Alien 3. Fincher blew so much budget on special lighting and fancy shots of what was basically a big furnace room that Fox suits HAD to intervene. The costs were astronomical and they hadn't even gotten into Post, which Finch wanted to play around with untested CGI shots (this was circa 1991 remember).
Finch has made some good stuff, but he was very, very lucky to get Se7en... or it would've been back to Madonna videos.
hey Martini...
I am really putting my feet to the fire here, but, yes, I really liked Alien 3... alot! It is my 2nd favorite of the Alien films behind the original. I think Fincher chose to make a film that was closer to Scott's than to Cameron's and I have a great appreciation for that, as i thought Cameron lost sight of what the original was really about and just made an action flick that happened to have Aliens in it. Not that I didn't like Aliens, i did, it just sticks out like a sore thumb in the series.
Don't get the idea either that i am a rabid Fincher fanboy - i loved Se7en, and Zodiac, i really liked The Game, but was very disappointed in Fight Club (despite my affection for Helena Bonham-Carter... ooh! I just felt you flinch! ha!) and Panic Room. And he did make one of my all time favorite music videos, Madonna's Express Yourself (regardless of what you think of Madonna,or the song, you have to admit that the Metropolis inspired video is amazing!).
As far as the production problems on Alien 3 go... as a viewer, they really have no bearing on me in terms of my enjoyment of the movie; they just make a really fascinating story in and of itself.
There are a lot of movies that I love that a lot of people hate and there are a lot of movies that other people love that leave me scratching my head. Movie tastes are so personal, you never know what is going to connect with you, or the public at large; but you really have to like how people will fight to defend the ones they do connect with and fight even harder to rip up the ones they don't! :o)
I am about to give House of Saddam a shot on your recommendation - i know nothing about it and am going in cold.
This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off. :o)
Ok, so why is Alien 3 a personal fave? Story? Visuals? I found it emotionally empty. You cared about the characters in the first two - The third had a buncha criminals you didn't care about in the first place. Ripley was pretty SOL since the start, so her fate was sealed. I was really offended by the wasted demise of Hicks and Newt. Ok ok, that's all script elements - The director had little to do with that. I remember seeing storyboards as far back as 1989 that I think set my mind up for the movie to fail when it finally came out. There were some scenes that would've been cool: Ripley evading the Alien under a bridge, fighting the Weyland Yutani Corporation Soldiers. Maybe I need to rewatch it for other reasons; without expectations.
Howard the Duck man Imz only one who likes it
There was even that AT & T pay per minute number where you can call Howard man / I called for 75 cents when I was a kid and all it said was 'Hi this is Howard, get yur stinky pink paws off me I know Quake Fu'
the aesthetic of Alien 3 definitely appeals to me... everything looks like it is on fire (sort of a constant foreshadowing). i like the quadruped alien - i love how it moves and looks.
i like how the stakes have been raised... in the first film Ripley was out to save herself (and, surprisingly Jones) foremost. In the second one they brought in the matriarchal element and it was Newt, her surrogate child figure, whose survival became primary for Ripley. In the third, she was trying to save the human race from infection of the Alien, even at her own peril (a biblical effort that is sort of visually overplayed by how she descends at the end). Much like her efforts to save Newt are thwarted by Alien 3, these actions are undermined by Alien Resurrection, but such is the price of continuing a franchise that keeps trying to end.
Ripley gets laid!!! For all the poor woman has been through, she deserves to get her groove on a little... though it was with Charles Dance, so it wasn't a total win, but none-the-less... heh heh
i like how the movie demonstrates how Ripley has become so immured in the living nightmare she is in she has detached from her former life ("You've been in my life so long, I can't remember anything else.")
Yes, the planet is populated with murderers and rapists, the scum of the earth, but who better to be given a chance at redemption by helping Ripley rather than pave the way for the company. When Ripley makes the pact with Dillion, she knows he will follow through with it, not just because he has no other agenda, but because he will take pleasure in it.
I dunno man... I just like it alot. I am trying to sell it to anyone who has already made up there minds, and it's really no skin off my ass if no one else likes it... it just makes it more mine! :o)
it is interesting though, after Fincher got some success with Se7en and Fight Club how there has been some favorable revisionist reviewing of Alien 3 - i don't think anyone is proclaiming it a masterpiece or anything, but they are less savage than they were upon it's release. I think too, that is a movie that benefits from a second viewing.
Hermophobia guy - If you had a queen alien growing your stomach you'd probably want to get laid one more time. Even if it was with Charles Dance
Charles Dance was an attractive man back then (looks kind of old and saggy now), so she could have done a lot worse.
As for Howard the Duck... I went to go see that in the theater when it came out, despite being in the 12th grade. I was quite the comic geek back then.
My favorite part of it is when Jeffery Jones is inhabited by the bad guy and they're at the truckstop diner. The waitress takes his plate away and he says something like, "Those are my eggs." A complete throw-away line, but it totally cracked (quacked?) me up.
The sex scene wit Charlie Dance would have saved Alien 3. Hear me out peeps. There was dis WTF scene in the first Alien when John Hurt's stomach explodes. There was da second Aliens, WTF when you think the movie is over and the Queen Bee skewers the android from Millenium. You following me?
Then in Alien 3 Ripley has sex with Charlie Dance and they coulda done a WTF scene. Herez how it I would do it - Charlie all horny because he hasn't had the nasty business for many years except with da dude from Roc. Ripley and Charlie do the doggystyle ('cause that how they roll on Prison World)and SUDDENLY WTF the alien embryo has a bio defense in Ripley's womb that protects her from other species trying to knock her up and a huge HR Gigerism erupts outta Ripley's hootchie and messes up Charlie so badly that he ends up in a bad Schwarzenegger flick. Fincher da man could make it work and not make it too obscene since it was noted in a earlier post that he is the Master of fuckin' Lights and Shadows, word
eeew Baltar I was just finishing dinner!
Hotchie = Sigourney Weaver's Beaver
Amen brother amen ;-)
Aw cmon Sootra
Martini said it first in his post!
Watch it Baltar, I know 'QUAKE FU' ROFL
EastMiamiSizzle taught me, LOL
HA HA
I meant Quack Fu
Hey Mark, Stargate Universe just got the greenlight... But it sounds a lot like Star Trek Voyager, oh well at least the Vancouver studios can stay open for repeat business.
In other Science Fiction News...
MEL C is pregnant!
Are you skipping work Martini? Yowza
Despite protests from Allen, I'll be discussing Stargate during the next podcast. :o)
Well I second a discussion about Stargate despite objections from certain people in my office who listen to the podcast. I have thoroughly enjoyed all incarnations, even getting to meet most of the cast, directors (Peter Deluise - f*ck yeh), and guest stars like Beau Bridges. As it was duly noted in another forum by someone I won't mention: "Let's hope every planet in Stargate Universe doesn't look like North Shore." LOL
BTW Where's Allen? I hope he didn't take the Alien 3 stuff too personally!
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