May 8, 2024
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BYOB: 235 Years Of Relative independence
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
Jesus Christ, this man is beyond insane.
http://gawker.com/5289035/how-to-crush-bill-oreilly
Jesus Christ, this man is beyond insane.
http://gawker.com/5289035/how-to-crush-bill-oreilly
I’ve seen that clip and love it – I really don’t know where Bill O’Reilly has all this moral indignation stored up.
In box office news, can ANY ONE explain the numbers for The Hangover???? This thing just did over $5 million yesterday and is probably going to pull in another $20 million from just mid-week numbers.
We’re not talking about some animated kids film, here – just unreal that adults are flocking to a movie like this on work nights.
Gotta be word of mouth at this point.
I wasn’t that interested at first, but after it kept being so popular I ended up going to see if it deserved the hype. And liked it quite a bit, though I did end up wishing the plot had been a bit more convoluted (a rare complaint, that).
The Hangover success is easily explained. The filmmakers sold their souls to Satan: http://mutinycompany.com/unimaginative/666.jpg
Simply idea. Executed decently. Doesn’t veer off track. Bada Boom!
It reminded me of Meet the Parents in a way. Not an incredibly funny film, just a simple idea, easy to comprehend, well put together, enough laughs to keep me going. HUGE success. Every parent I knew at the time wanted to go see it.
IMO, this will go down as the movie that kept Warner Bros afloat after Watchment. I’m sure it’ll be years befor we learn how much they lost on that movie. They were desperate for cheap hit. And they got it.
good god that last post had a lot of typos, apologiez.
The Hangover had one of the best marketing campaigns I have seen in a while. Whoever photographed the actors, chose the colour palette, wrote the catch phrases…bang on.
Before I had even seen a trailer I said I want to see this film! It looks genuinely adult and doesn’t contain a dopey Will Ferrell in sight.
It also has a great title and having the baby in the ads with the Baby Bjorn…genius! All around, this film looks like a classy adult comedy in the vein of Trading Places or such. Too few and far between.
Apatow, Sandler and the by now over exposed Seth Rogen, must really be pissed.
Man-idiot Will Ferrel must be catatonic that this could easily have been Old School 2…which he passed up on. Not at all surprised by the gross but very pleased by what it indicates.
I’m curious…how is The Hangover anything like Trading Places? Which was somehow “classy?”
Personally I think The Hangover’s success is mainly due now to its likeability and lack of any mean-spiritedness which often creeps into these comedies.
I think the marketing was good but the trailer was a lot better than the print campaign, which while simple and effective looked like a retarded version of Three Men and A Baby which I guess it the joke right?
I am very happy its kicked Apatow down a peg or two and shown that you don’t need to stuff a film with your over exposed friends to the point that their humour becomes totally ineffective.
But a classy comedy Nicol? WTF?
Just a thought…Trading Places came out 26 years ago. It’d be like comparing Trading Places to The Geisha Boy.
I put in the word classy – adult – comedy. This is not for teens or kids…although they will probably see it and like it. By classy I mean an adult comedy adults can pay the ticket price to see and not be embarrased. Much like Trading Places; it was the first one that came to mind. It has raunch but requires adult experiences to truly – get – it. It is about adults in situations that many of us in real life can extrapolate on. Yes, there are gross out moments in it…but they are draped in an air of “I can kinda relate to that” on some level.
This is not teens trying to “bang” each other. Nor is it Peter Segal writing himself a wankfest role where he gets naked. Nor is it Seth Rogen raping Anna Farris. Nor is it SB Cohen doing his best Tom Green impression.
It is a few notches above all of those. Classy can still be raunchy. It is all in how you package it. I think the box office backs me up on that.
Great film.
To me the title of the movie couldn’t be more appropriate.
Here we are at the end of The Geek Decade and movie going audiences couldn’t have more of a hangover.
A hangover from ten years of the same old actors, same old characters, same old stories. And the worst… having Las Vegas, Nevada shoved down our throats as the Mecca Of Cool on every goddamn TV channel. (I’ve lived in Vegas, folks… it’s Hell On Fucking Earth. It really is. You have to be dead inside to love the empty pleasures Vegas represents.)
This movie is being rewarded, I think, because it subverts these last ten years… giving audiences a fresh script, fresh actors, fresh characters… and yes, acknowledging how awful everything Vegas is. (Who else thought the Rain Man sequence was just a dream?)
The film is not that great. It’s just as silly as it is genuinely funny. But it has spirit. Real spirit. Spirit that rails against this decade of recycling. It’s aggressively anti-geek.
And I’m pretty sure the studio heads will miss the point entirely and reward its success with a big fat sequel.
Nicol, I think you’re confusing director Peter Segal with actor/writer Jason Segel.
Also, at first I thought you were being intentionally ironic in some of your praise of the marketing campaign.
One thing I don’t comprehend is the appeal of “The Hangover” over “Superbad.” Hangover is going to obliterate Superbad at the box office, yet not a single person I’ve spoken to thinks it’s as good of a movie. Is it the higher target demo? The better release date??? I’ll go with the higher target demo…which just shows that pre-Generation X has just as crude a sense of humor as the Millenial set.
At the same time, I’m not quite sure why the success of this film has taken on a life of its own coverage-wise. Attendance wise, this is what it’s destined to look like among “films of its type,” probably.
1. Animal House
2. There’s Something About Mary
3. Porky’s
4. Wedding Crashers
5. Scary Movie
6. Tossup between American Pie 2 and The Hangover
I guess these films don’t come around too often. I just don’t remember such a box office tumult around Wedding Crashers at the time…
Well Ethan, the easiest argument I’d make is that Superbad was completely overrated by out of touch critics and only appealed to a ‘niche’ demo. Maybe if 45m had been cut out it as well could have helped. I also don’t think your list is an accurate representation of the film and I know you didn’t mean it to be so but I could make a case for each of those films succeeding on completely different terms except for Wedding Crashers. Not sure how old you are but films like Animal House and Porkys were more than successful comedies, they changed the playing field.
Yeah, obviously they did, and I’m not comparing this film to them…I’m just stunned a film that may not outgross “American Pie 2” is being hyped so much. Maybe a slow news cycle….and you’re the first person I know to think “Hangover” is better than “Superbad.” Further proof of a generational gap? If so…I don’t know what that says about the over 30 set. I (and about 15 who went with me) just found this a vastly inferior film…even inferior to “40 Year Old Virgin…”
well, granted, us over-30’s can’t see too well and struggle with the volume on our hearing aids, plus we usually miss the beginning of the movie trying to find a parking spot for our mobility scooters so we’re disadvantaged going in
Not on the same topic, but I was just in the DVD section of Target, and noticed two things…
1. The Blu-Ray of the FRIDAY THE 13TH remake apparently contains a “first look” at the long-shelved TRICK ‘R TREAT. So does that mean it’s finally coming out? It’s a good movie…saw it at Screamfest last year. No idea why it’s been sat on so long.
2. There’s a special edition DVD of the Van Damme STREET FIGHTER? With director’s commentary and deleted scenes? Only ten bucks? Need to have!
I happen to love Superbad – I actually think it’s the best Apatow film, even though he didn’t direct it. Much tighter and just about a perfect ending.
Don’t get my wrong; I really liked 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Pineapple Express were both solid. But I really found each of those films to be a little overlong – you could have easily cut out at least 20 minutes from each film.
The Hangover was the perfect short length – I found it be a very funny movie and am becoming a bigger and bigger fan of Ed Helms. But honestly, I can see it entering the “overrated” territory of There’s Some About Mary and Wedding Crashes, also both overlong comedies. Length is just so key for these types of films and you have to give Todd Phillips credit for knowing when to quite while he was ahead.
That said, I think the funniest films of the past couple of years have starred Paul Rudd – huge fan of Role Models and I Love You, Man. The guy is just comic gold. Even caught the unreleased I Could Never Be Your Woman on cable, the other day – pretty solid and funny movie. Not great by any stretch, but I think it would have been worth releasing. What happened to Michelle Pfeiffer???
“What happened to Michelle Pfeiffer???”
She has a new movie coming out really soon. “Cheri” or something like that.
michelle pfeiffer has never been hotter/better than in ‘cheri’….based on colette, she’s the original cougar…..
While I found The Hangover “very funny!” I did notice one thing that was offputting and it is written about here: http://blogs.indiewire.com/reverseshot/archives/hang_me/
I genuinely think the word “faggot” shouldn’t be used in a movie like this at all.
Maybe no one here will know what I mean and I’d get more of a response asking on a super-techie DVD/TV nerd site, but here goes:
I still have an analog TV but I have digital cable: How come in the last year or two, more and more shows and tv ads (ESPECIALLY movie trailers) look like some un-converted British BBC broadcast from 1983? At the risk of being too techy, the frame rate looks to be way wrong, creating that slightly blurry, “British” look like watching a cheap DVD with a bad PAL speed-up.
Just saw an Away We Go ad during Conan that looked like a 1979 TV print of “Duel,” and that Fox show “Mental” ALWAYS broadcasts like this, all blurry and washed-out and sickly looking.
Is it because they’re broadcasting those programs or spots 100% digital with no conversion for old-school analog people?
(Again, NO ONE will know what I mean. But 40% of network TV looks blurry and shitty on my local channels. I have 500 cable channels and sports channels and movie channels, and they all look fine. Just talking about the major networks.)
Lex, if you’ve got digital cable, they compress the hell out of their signal. So you’re watching a mess of compression artifacts and lousy luma range…. basically a pixelated muddy piece of shit.
Telemachos…
Interesting, and MUDDY is definitely what I’m describing… ON THE NETWORKS. Especially Fox and ABC, which have that blurry, washed-out gauze look at best and look like a 1987 PBS feed of “Benny Hill” at worst.
But Cinemax and Showtime and Starz all look great.
That makes sense (sort of). The premium channels presumably care a bit more about how they look and are less concerned with piping data for a lot of channels down the bandwidth for a few. I don’t know enough about the details to figure out why local affiliates look worse than general cable channels though.
Thanks for the replies, Telemachos. Makes sense… and really, it’s usually just on crappy network ads and random dramas, so not a huge deal. Just kind of a NAKED-EYE EYESORE 1997 YEP YEP LUCIOUS JACKSON… er, or not. That song sucks.
Hey, I can’t wait for the scene in YEAR ONE where RINGO SMASHES THE GIANT BEETLE ON DENNIS QUAID’S FACE
1982 HBO FANS in the house?
HOLY SHIT, sorry for over-posting, but…
DID WE KNOW HORATIO SANZ WASN’T FAT ANYMORE??????
He’s on Fallon now and looks like he lost 200 POUNDS.
kam, your comment re: ‘the hangover’s homophobic undertone is disappointing to hear; i haven’t managed to see it yet, going this weekend so i can’t comment first hand, but i could swear in the trailer that one line in question was changed to ‘paging doctor douche’. i guess airing your dirty homophobic laundry for everyone to see in the trailer is deemed unacceptable but once they got your cash it’s a different story…
caveman!
Lex,
Not sure if this plays into your question about the quality of the movie trailers on broadcast tv, but I do know that Fox has never upgraded to 1080 resolution. Everything they broadcast is still in 720p. They got into the HD game early then decided that investing in 1080 over 720 was a waste. In fact, a friend at Fox told me that it’s their opinion that the human eye cannot tell the difference between 720 and 1080. As a result, they have no intention of upgrading anytime soon.
LYT, Trick r Treat will play some festivals before hitting DVD in October. I have heard nothing but good things about it and really want to see it. Unfortunate that it’s getting dumped to DVD.
Leah, you’re right – I remember that too. I’m not one of those gay people who thinks we should all be humourless drones made to look acceptable for the nice heterosexual people (Bruno is taking a much larger hit in the gay blogosphere than I had anticipated, yet it remains one of my most anticipated titles) and while I understand the character that Bradley Cooper plays is a sleeze and an immature dick, but use of the word “faggot” is just so abhorrent in that context and it’s actually quite shocking that they thought it would be funny (the sad thing is that it probably was to some people). You wouldn’t hear them yelling out “Paging doctor kike” or something, ya know? Interestingly, in the cinema I was in at least, it was the “funny” bit that got the most silence and I wonder how it played elsewhere.
1982 HBO FANS in the house?
New Star Trek, New Caveman/History of the World hybrid, and what looks like an updated version of this http://www.impawards.com/1982/megaforce.html
opening the first week of August, this is looking like 2nd grade sick day all over again.
hcat – I was trying to remember the name of that for weeks! That’s exactly what I thought when I saw the first GI Joe trailer. What’s so messed up is Megaforce was made as a knock-off of GI Joe.
That’s for the pull. Much appreciated.
HooperX, not only is 720p v 1080i indistinguishable on most HD sets (basically, when you have an absolutely ginormous screen or projector you won’t notice), but for broadcast purposes 720p is arguably the better choice: it’s far less compressed than 1080i and so you’ll have less artifacting and cleaner motion.
leah — the one thing that bothered me about ‘the hangover’ was the discrepancy between the trailer and the film in the use of ‘faggot’… and when i called phillips on it and suggested that if he were going to use the word in the film he should have the balls to own it and use it in the ad, he laid the blame on the fcc and tried to make a joke that since ‘douchebag’ was actually a more unpleasant word than ‘faggot’, the laugh was on them…
the weird thing was (and i commented on this to pals as we were leaving the screening) i felt like i should have been offended by the use of the word in the film but wasn’t…perhaps because of the nature of the movie or the silliness of it all…it didn’t bother me until i saw the ad and the omission….
wow..tmi…sorry….
So between Caveman and Joe this is about thirty years of some terrible movies from Dennis Quaid. Not that he hasn’t been in some great stuff, or that he is not a talented guy, but his career seems to be one step up and two steps back and it is sort of a twisted testament that he is able to continue working despite the massive amounts of crap that have his face on the poster. This must give John Cusack confidence for future employment.
And BRUNO is ZORRO, THE GAY BLADE.
Now somebody needs to update Modern Problems and Chevy’s around-the-bed line snorting…
“YES! YES! AHAHAHA IIIIIIIII LIKE IT!”
I have a BOX-OFFICE QUESTION; Last summer didn’t everyone bag on LOVE GURU and Mike Myers for opening opposite another big, similar comedy (GET SMART)? So how come this summer, every other weekend seems to be a “comedy weekend”? Like, why are YEAR ONE and PROPOSAL opening on the same weekend, since they’re both non-action light comedy? And two weeks ago LAND OF THE LAST got owned by HANGOVER.
Shouldn’t they spread them out as counterprogramming on action movie weekends?
I think they figured Land of the Lost and Hangover were two different audiences while Hangover and Pelham would appeal to some of the same age demographics. Year One and Proposal would seem to have a pretty straight male/female split to the audiences and I can’t seem to think of an individual who would be on the fence about what to see (though there might be some couple arguements, but since they probably saw Hangover one of the last two weekends, Proposal might win out).
And of all the things people bagged on Love Guru for last summer I think its release date strategy was about 167th on the list.
Lex – it looks like you have some competition:
http://videogum.com/archives/behind-the-scenes/megan-fox-please-understand-me_074381.html
The possibility of seeing the second coming of Megaforce in my lifetime has now guaranteed that I will wind up at G.I. Joe. I will never question my faith again.
‘leah — the one thing that bothered me about ‘the hangover’ was the discrepancy between the trailer and the film in the use of ‘faggot’… and when i called phillips on it and suggested that if he were going to use the word in the film he should have the balls to own it and use it in the ad, he laid the blame on the fcc and tried to make a joke that since ‘douchebag’ was actually a more unpleasant word than ‘faggot’, the laugh was on them…
the weird thing was (and i commented on this to pals as we were leaving the screening) i felt like i should have been offended by the use of the word in the film but wasn’t…perhaps because of the nature of the movie or the silliness of it all…it didn’t bother me until i saw the ad and the omission….’
scoot, not too much info at all! very interesting, and fascinating to me that someone would claim the word ‘douchebag’ – a ridiculous word that gets thrown around willy nilly and has practically no sting in its tail – is more offensive or unpleasant than ‘faggot’. sounds like a load of malarkey to me but what do i know (is this a common theme, trailers being dubbed to meet fcc approval, or just a one-off type deal)?
kam, i’ll let you know how the ‘faggot’ line plays to the audience here when i see ‘hangover’, since you were wondering
OK, does this mean we’re finally gonna see a movie based on Blackhawk comic books?
Guys say obnoxious and offensive shit when they get drunk together. “Dick” and “cunt” should no more be insults than “faggot,” as all are wonderful things in their own right. But drunk dudes talk like that, and probably say “bitch” a lot too. It’s not nice, but it’s how it is. Guys probably laugh at it in a knowing way, because they can remember the one time someone they knew said or did the exact same thing.
It’s why Stifler in American Pie was a popular character despite the fact that objectively, in real life, he’d be a thoroughly unpleasant, bigoted jerk to be around.
A good point, LYT. And the intention behind guys calling each other “bitch” or “faggot” is essentially the same; implying an absence of masculinity. And “I’m going to make you my bitch” or some similar phrasing includes the insulter and the insulted in theoretical gay behavior.
Faggot has become the more loaded word, obviously, but I don’t see how heterosexuals calling each other that in a raunchy comedy is something to get up in arms about. The gay Chinese gambler/gangster caricature is what they should be pointing the finger at.
Since I haven’t whored myself out lately, I’d like to encourage you all to buy my first short doc, the Award Winning “Stringers” at the following link:
https://www.createspace.com/266806
It’s an interesting look at freelance video journalists who film accidents, fires, disasters, etc then sell the footage to the local news. Plus, one guy has a mullet. I know TRU TV has a TV show called “Stingers: L.A.,” but we were first which is one more reason to buy my lil opus.
Thanks all, CineVegas was amazing but I’m still a mess from it. Nighty-night…and buy my movie!
you return from cinevegas and open with ‘since i haven’t whored myself out lately…’?!?
LYT, I’d remind you that Bradley Cooper’s character is not drunk at the time, but he is stupid, yes.