April 26, 2024
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BYOB: 235 Years Of Relative independence
BYOB Weekend: Hop, An April Fool’s Gag?
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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
Anyone catch Tom Cruise on Jay Leno the other night? After Tropical Thunder, I thought Cruise just might have a sense of humor. Nope. I was wrong. He doesn’t.
Guess what comes out this weekend? Ladies and gentlemen, the best reviewed film of 2009!:
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/35shotsofrum
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/35_shots_of_rum/
Go support Claire Denis at the Film Forum, if you live in NYC this weekend!!!
So this is the first time I’ve had time to just chill for awhile and I’m watching tv, and Krull is on. So I figured why not see it…it sort of bored me as a kid but I liked it okay, and how does it stand up?
And man…there are few movies where every single element sucks, but Krull is one of the few.
Krull is awesome. The Horner soundtrack is killer. The “glaive” (or whatever) is one of the coolest weapons ever designed. The girl in the flick is bonerific. It’s a first rate cast of both known and unknown UK character actors. The scene with the spiderwebs is epic tension. The set design is inventive. The location lensing is beautifully epic. Did I mention Horner’s score? I did? Well I’m mentioning it again, because it rocked.
It’s an underappreciated classic of ’80s kiddie adventure and should be praised to the heavens.
(and this isn’t childhood nostalgia coloring my opinion. I saw it for the first time a few years ago. Very, very impressive.)
I posted this in another BYOB but whenever I post a link, my post gets sucked into the ether. I landed a new gig at Gordon and the Whale! Great site, great and excited kids running it. I added the link in my sig so check em out!
KRULL was a huge disappointment. In the pages of CFQ, the spfx, costume and production design looked fantastic, and the talent involved was impeccable. But it doesn’t work. Liam Neeson though! I’ll check it out again.
Krull was one of those early/mid-’80s Saturday afternoons that you remember, but don’t quite remember alongside: Yor, The Beastmaster, Sheena: Queen of the Jungle and Dreamscape…
DREAMSCAPE is still terrific, with cool sfx, a clever engaging plot and nifty performances.
Hey, you Aussies, what’s the buzz on Van Diemen’s Land? I remember reading the story of Alexander Pearce a long time ago and thinking it would make a great movie. Just happened to stumble across the fact that a movie has been made and opens in Australia next week.
Krull is just so pathetic…it sooo wants to be Star Wars and have some kind of mythology to it, but they pay no attention to plot, character, story or antyhing that made Star Wars good. The whole movie is sluggish. Okay, I will give it production design cred, the Slayers are good and the ninja star.
Dreamscape is still good. Beastmaster was fun as I recall. Yor was always a piece of shit, no matter what age you saw it.
“Metalstorm: The Desutruction of Jared-Syn” FTW.
And don’t forget that cheesy “Treasure of the Four Crowns” with the melting face finale; Or Buddy Repperton and Steve Sandor in “Stryker.” Or, of course, “Spacehunter.” Even though “Krull” was much more A-list and kiddie-friendly, I still get all those weird 1983 sci-fi movies mixed up.
Spacehunter was 3D…
I saw that in the theater and the two projectors weren’t properly aligned…
Unless it was an old duel projector house, you probably saw a single projector print with an over/under lens. Those can very easily misalign.
Congrats, Don! They looking to hire anyone else?
It was an old theater. Not a multiplex. I’m pretty sure it was two projectors, that’s how I learned as a kid it was done with two. I saw multiple 3D movies there and my father was always cursing the projectionist for getting it wrong.
I still remember watching the 3-D re-issue of DIAL M FOR MURDER on a Friday nightin a suburban mall — and the film wasn’t properly projected because the damn thing wasn’t in 3-D at all. I was the only who complained. People sat wearing their glasses.
Spacehunter is a huge pile of crap but it’s breezy and pretty fun, and at least it’s not boring and ponderous like Krull. I like it. And Michael Ironside with the huge claws is a pretty awesome design.
I can’t believe they used to release movies like that in theaters. Were they wide releases? I wonder what the budgets were on movies like that. They seem cheap but they can’t all be.
Luke- “if you mean *$hiring$* no. But soon me thinks. Email or call me if you want an intro…
Unrelated to Krull but still ’80s-related:
I’m on a big James Toback run lately since “Tyson.” Has anyone ever seen his 1982 movie “Love & Money,” which is apparently 1000% MIA from this planet? In the DVD age, how can a movie by a (somewhat) name director who’s usually all over his special features have disappeared so wholly? I don’t remember the thing playing cable since the early ’80s, if ever; “Exposed” isn’t on DVD either, but it’s on cable all the time. There aren’t even YouTube clips or video stills of “Love & Money” anywhere. It’s like it doesn’t exist. Ray Sharkey, Klaus Kinski, ORNELA MUTI, and Armand Assante? That sounds like pure early ’80s awesomeness. Apparently it was on VHS a hundred years ago…
You know what movie is AWESOME? The 1984 “Against All Odds.” That needs to be reconsidered and find a new appreciation. At the time it was judged poorly in comparison to “Out of the Past,” which is very, very good. But “Against All Odds” has that very distinct mid-80s coke-fueled sleaze vibe, like “8 Million Ways to Die” or “Mike’s Murder.” Bridges and Woods are killer in it, Rachel Ward rules, WIDMARK OWNS… Like all Taylor Hackford flicks it has this “big” feel to it; I think at the time, its sunny L.A. gloss seemed too much for noir purists, but today it takes on a whole different kind of period flavor and nostalgia. GOOD MOVIE.
Plus the end credits and song playing over Ward’s tentative face is great stuff.
I just bought Against All Odds a few weeks ago and agree. It is very underrated. The kind of adult thriller they do not really do today. Rachel Ward was a goddess.
But for real early 80’s cheese I am surprised nobody has mentioned Timerider: The Adventures of Lyle Swan.
Nor has anyone mentioned the masterful Hawk the Slayer. Jack Palance’s greatest performance.
djk, am seeing Van Diemen’s Land tonight. Some people who’ve seen it say it’s amazing, others say it’s terrible. Arthouse, minimalist horror.
What I remember most about AGAINST ALL ODDS was Kael’s opening sentence: “God how I’ve come to hate car chases.”
And didja know that the original director of SPACEHUNTER was replaced by Lamont Johnson and much footage re-shot with new designs? How bad could it have been before?
I’d also like to see the original footage from ENEMY MINE before its director was replaced.
i love 80’s fantasy, from cheezeball to epic, the golden age. time bandits, dragonslayer, legend, clash o/t titans, excalibur, willow, labyrinth, dark crystal, conan, buckaroo banzai, secret of nimh, princess bride, enemy mine, flash gordon, flight of the navigator — tho some of that is drifting into sci-fi/fantasy, but still. oh, the days of yore
speaking of jeff bridges, the idea of el duderino taking on the role of rooster in a coen ‘true grit’ in line with portis’ novel told from the daughter’s POV sounds rather intriguing. i’m ‘for’ it
(and sharlto for ‘mad dog murdoch’. not that i’m a big ‘a-team’ fan or anything, but with neeson and bradley cooper and sharlto on board, you never know. that’s a lot of fine manhood at any rate)
I wonder what the movies will be that kids today will look back on with nostalgia. Harry Potter for sure, probably Batman. They’ll look at Pixar the way people looked at the Disney animations like Little Mermaid. But it seems like they don’t have many out of left field weirdo movies like Flash Gordon.
Flight of the Navigator was my big childhood movie, Leah.
djk, Van Diemen’s Land is shit and boring and a waste of talent. The end.
Thanks, Nicol. I will now have Phil Collins’ theme to “Against All Odds” stuck in my head all day. Possibly longer.
“Take a look at me now ow! Cuz I’m just an empty face! But to WAIT FOR YOU! Is allll I can dooo! Then that’s what I’ve gotta face…..”
Urg.
Could be worse. You could have Queen’s Flash Gordon theme stuck in your head: “Flash! Ah-ahhh… Savior of the universe!”
The Flash Gordon theme is always in my head.
Kids nowadays have access to way more stuff thanks to Netflix. My younger brothers (ages 7 and 10) seem to enjoy the stuff from my childhood just as much as the current stuff from their own.
Various Aliens, Predators, and the Burton/Schumacher Batman are faves.
Good for them. Aliens and Predator are two of the greatest movies ever made. I love Burton’s Batman but the Vicki Vale scenes drag the movie down. Sooo boring, I hate the obligatory love stories that obviously even the director isn’t interested in.
Does anyone keep getting that AWESOME trailer for the remake of The Stepfather?
In addition to the presence of SMOKING-HOT Amber Heard, you know what RULES beyond belief even though it seems to give away the game if you haven’t seen the ’87 film?
When Dylan Walsh shakes his head and goes, “Wait a minute… Who am I here?” HOLY SHIT is that some awesome acting and a great line and will assure that this thing makes serious bank.
GOOD TRAILER.
Lex, your box-office predictions are the kiss of death. Keep it down.
The big problem with the trailer for The Stepfather ’09 is that IT LOOKS LIKE EVERY OTHER GODDAMN SCREEN GEMS HORROR MOVIE THAT THEY’VE EVER MADE. I defer to Lex in the ‘recognizing a studio look’ department, but he should be as bored as I am with the standard Screen Gems ‘high-contrast big-lighting-units’ look as I am. It’s boring and stupid.
Not to mention Dylan Walsh’s moment in the trailer is a far cry from Terry O’Quinn’s similar moment in the AMAZING 1987 original.
Jeff, the screen gems people obviously have one trailer editor over there, that makes every one of their movies seem similar in trailer form. Nevertheless, remaking fucking Stepfather is just stupid. Walsh is not Quinn, and that right there takes away a lot of the menace from the original film.
I’m not just referring to the trailer, I’m saying that every Screen Gems movie looks like it was shot in the same upscale suburban house, with the same cast of generically good-looking teens and background actors, using the same high-sheen, too-many-lights cinematography.
I HOPE THEY SERVE BEER IN HELL looks funny as FUCK. Watched that trailer six times and each time was ROLLING.
Finally some shit that gets it RIGHT.
TUCKER MAX = AWESOME.
HEY POLAND you need to GET ON YOUR KNEES AND BOW.
A certain rivalish site has just posted a TRAILER for some shit called VALENTINE’S DAY.
Let me INFORM YOU that THIS MOVIE stars:
(HOLD ON TO YOUR ARMREST FOLKS AND GRAB YOUR KLEENEX:)
All in ONE MOVIE: Jessica ALBA, Jessica BIEL, Anne HATHAWAY, Emma ROBERTS, Jennifer GARNER.
Holy fucking fucking fucking fuck. This isn’t just a movie… THIS IS MY ULTIMATE FANTASY. THERE WILL BE BEYOND BOWAGE, this is the BEST CAST EVER ASSEMBLED TO FILM, can you even BELIEVE that there is ALBA and BIEL and HATHAWAY in ONE SINGLE MOVIE?
I don’t believe in God, but he is COMING TO EARTH ON VALENTINE’S DAY.
BIEL POWER. ALBA POWER. HATHAWAY POWER. GARNER POWER. EMMA ROBERTS POWER. HOLY SHIT, I HAVE NEVER BEEN THIS EXCITED ABOUT ANYTHING IN MY ENTIRE LIFE.
GIANT BOOOOOOOOOOOONER. BOW. BOW. BOW.