April 27, 2024
BYOB
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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
So can I be the first to say that when (note it’s not an if) INCEPTION fails to open to $158m, it will be proof positive that DiCaprio’s career is in the toilet. Hasn’t had a nomination in four years and while his salary has gone up, his box office has gone down (put that together with the fact that he now “produces” his own work, and you have another Tom Cruise in the making). Truth be told, he has never even gotten near the Titanic scale appeal and that was thirteen years ago. What is more, Scorsese, his “friend” and “mentor” is now making a kids’ movie instead of “collaborating” with him. Face it, he’s finished. Over.
What time is? I said… figuratively… WHAT TIME IS IT? It’s EDWARD CULLEN TIME! CULLEN TIME! CULLEN TIME! WHERE HE AT? WHERE HE AT? WHERE HE AT? THERE YOU GO! THERE YOU GO! THERE YOU GO! EDWARD CULLEN! EDWARD CULLEN! EDWARD CULLEN WITH A BASEBALL BAT!
Outside of it being EDWARD CULLEN TIME, Inception opening to like 60 million is good for everyone Pope. Come on man, get those predications in order.
Inception aside, Leo is Leo. Again, the dude is just one of our best actours. While I wish he would have shown up with something better than the factually inaccurate movie about a boat sinking, the dude is solid in everything he has ever starred in. If Leo is finished, that’s not good for anyone who likes solid acting, with the right amount of gravitas, and absolutely amazing facial hair. If I could pull off that dude’s facial. Damn. I have got to stop because the knowledge that my facial hair will always be at Keanu level and not Leo level, really depresses me.
IT’S EDWARD CULLEN TIME!
Pope, you’re kidding, right? This is a Wells impersonation?
Speaking of actors-turned-producers, my ridiculous-surprise-of-the-weekend was seeing Matt LeBlanc credited as a producer on Jonah Hex (granted, according to IMDB, he was only 1 of 13).
IOv2:
While I am glad someone on here is enthusiastic about things instead of ALWAYS SOUR, ALWAYS, and while I’m glad someone else is down with BELLA SWAN TIME (seriously, why are you gaying out about Edward Cullen in a movie that has K-Stew, Bryce and Dakota?)…
I’ve been wondering this lately, asked without judgment (though others will leap on you with the usual asshole attitude):
Are you a SUPERFAN of literally EVERYTHING, EVER? Is there any cartoon, superhero, fan, geek property, or even any TV show, that you not only watch or read, but you LOVE with every fiber of your being, know every detail of, and have a compulsion to fight to death (verbally) anyone who isn’t 110% as enthusiastic about it as you are?
It just seems like you are literally a FAN of EVERYTHING. Like if I brought up some long-forgotten episode of CITIZEN BAINES from 1997 or THE EDUCATION OF MAX BICKFORD or SAVANNAH, you’d have a full statistical rundown of every line of dialogue and how it was THE GREATEST THING EVER AND THEY SHOULD MAKE A MOVIE OF IT AND IT WOULD MAKE 100 BILLION DOLLARS BECAUSE IT’S RICHARD DREYFUS TIME, UNLEASH THE SMOKE MONSTER. HIYOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Wonderful news! “Sex and the City” is history!
When a heavily hyped sequel can’t gross $100M in the US — especially with inflated ticket prices — you know it has jumped the shark.
Blam! When a hyped sequel can’t reach 100 mil, I reach for my pistol!
But Chucky, it’s still playing at the AMC Burbank Town 8, which skews mainstream but sometimes has upmarket fare!
Film-geek aside that NO ONE will probably care about:
KILLER INSIDE ME, loved it, but question: I’m watching this awesome movie, then Winterbottom wheels out (like two or three times) what I had always assumed to be the MAIN THEME to WILD AT HEART. I was like, why is this dude using an iconic soundtrack cut from a (similar) movie? Then I get to the credits, and there’s no credit for it anywhere… I think it’s maybe a Mahler piece?
Did anyone know this? For 20 years I’ve thought that opening title music to WILD AT HEART was some GENIUS Badalamenti cue… The instrumentation and progression sounds totally like Angelo B.’s sound. Now I can’t even remember what other Badalamenti cues were from Wild At Heart, but the main one I thought was so brilliant wasn’t an original.
Still, for the zillionth time, kind of odd when a music re-uses any music that’s so identified with another film. Like Scorsese breaking out some SHINING music over the opening title of Shutter Island, or Lynch using that same music in Inland Empire.
Once a song or piece belongs to one movie, using it again is a BAD IDEA.
Chucky, seriously, without the snark you are a decent poster. Keep it up and huzzah for SATC being over. They should have never done a sequel. Yes, I know the first one made money, but that film is a grand send off for that series. It should have ended there but people just had to be greedy.
Lexy G asked; “Are you a SUPERFAN of literally EVERYTHING, EVER? Is there any cartoon, superhero, fan, geek property, or even any TV show, that you not only watch or read, but you LOVE with every fiber of your being, know every detail of, and have a compulsion to fight to death (verbally) anyone who isn’t 110% as enthusiastic about it as you are?”
Lex, it was going to be Bella Swan time later and you screwed it up. I hope you are happy, sir.
That aside, unlike a lot of people in life and this blog, I try to keep my mind open to all possibilities. This means that I am all about giving things chance. Twilight, really, did not appeal to me because it’s literally a Buffy rip-off with weird sex issues, that Buffy luckily did not have.
Once the movies came out, I decided to give them a chance because that’s what I do, and I really liked the romance of it all. Who does not like a good romance? Oh I know, dudes that are just too hard to embrace a bunch of romantic films featuring werewolves and vampires.
So, yeah, I just try to keep my options open when it comes to pop culture. I never really dug classic films, John Wayne, or Bond films (outside of Mr. Dalton’s) as a kid but now I do, because I decided to give them another chance. It’s the same reason that I can read a Green Lantern comic featuring a character in Hal Jordan.
If you keep yourself open Lex. You get into a lot of stuff. If you just stick to a niche then you like four things and that’s good for you, but that has never ever worked for me.
Yes Jeff, I was impersonating a certain blow-hard. I dropped onto HE the other day and wow! What a mess.
For the record, I think Leo is doing just fine and I have a lot of reasons to look forward to Inception.
Hey IO, what’s your favorite John Wayne movie?
Also, do you honestly believe that Chucky’s typical postings about name-checking and New Jersey multiplex listings have some genuine merit?
Pope, thanks for sharing.
Jeff, I would have to go with El Dorado. This flick is the reason why I sort of liked John Wayne and once I met my John Wayne loving lady, she sort of exploited that with films like Big Jake, North to Alaska, and Stagecoach. I also really like the 3 Godfathers.
That aside, Chucky has clearly changed his style and that could mean the way he used to post may have been a shtick. It’s possible Jeff but I am going to go with the guy trying to convey information in a way that just did not work for the folks on this board, and now he’s changed the way he does thing. Seriously, if someone made the IO-O-Matic back in the day, I would have definitely re-evaluating things a lot quicker than I did.
So Twilights return has got me thinking, is there a quintesential Vampire movie? I think we could all name a slasher, western, musical, superhero movie that we could easily defend as the pinnacle of the genre but for the life of me I cant think of a single vampire movie that is universally pointed at as the best. Is it because I never saw the Herzog? Just wondering what others thought.
I’d vote for the first Hammer Dracula. It’s not the best, but it has a certain quintessential quality. Also it’s not as draggy as the Lugosi version or as over-the-top/revisionist as the Coppola one.
Jeff – Is that the one where he ends up trapped in the ice at the end?
Spanish Dracula is one hell of a vampire film. Outside of Dracula, I have to go with Lost Boys because Edward Herrmann as the ultimate vampire boss, puts that film over the edge.
At the end of the one I’m talking about (Horror of Dracula) it ends with Christopher Lee getting stuck in some sunlight and turning into ashes. I’m highlighting it because it has a Dracula that’s both ferocious and charismatic, and because I’d say that Cushing is the best-ever Van Helsing.
Not a big vampire fan but I’d say Coppola’s Dracula…since I don’t care much about the general storyline, may as well thrill me with go-for-broke lunacy. It’s both a high-class movie and still has a ton of monsters.
It also has Tom Waits. That should count for something.
“Still, for the zillionth time, kind of odd when a music re-uses any music that’s so identified with another film. Like Scorsese breaking out some SHINING music over the opening title of Shutter Island, or Lynch using that same music in Inland Empire.
Once a song or piece belongs to one movie, using it again is a BAD IDEA.”
In general I agree with you, but there are exceptions. Fellini used “Ride of the Valkyries” in 8 1/2 but I’m glad that didn’t stop Coppola from using it in APOCALYPSE NOW. And Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” worked well in both THE ELEPHANT MAN and PLATOON.
BTW, the title music for BLUE VELVET is also a piece of classical music, not a Badalamenti cue – I think it’s by Shostakovich (sp?).
Don’t know if it’s the ultimate vampire movie, but THE HUNGER has to be near the top.
And if you put a gun to my head and said pick one, I’d probably go with LET THE RIGHT ONE IN.
So none of these are seminal titles like Halloween or Psycho would be for the slasher genre or either Things would be for the alien invader genre. Something immediatly identifiable like Singing in the Rain or the Searchers are to their respective genres. It just seems strange that we can point to this or that Zombie film as being the best, yet vampires with all the gothic romanticism that they bring have yet to really add a definitive title to the canon.
Is this a case where television, with Buffy, True Blood, and Salems Lot, which gave me White Knuckle Nightmares as a kid, has trumped movies?
YOU WILL BOW:
(And, yes, I know he reused this piece which was in Barry Lyndon extensively, so never mind that earlier rant):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHAn34xWChM
Also, even better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nLxP8DiDT8
BAUHAUS POWER.
hcat I’d disagree because while I wouldn’t say it was the best or my favorite vampire movie, the definitive is the original Dracula. You can still do a Lugosi imitation and not even use any actual dialogue from the movie…just say something like “I vant a drink,” and people know what you’re talking about.
Has anyone who’s buying that “Sex and the City 2” story noticed its origin and “source?” The series may be over, although international would seem to suggest otherwise and DP makes a good point about a more cost-efficient “3,” but this story is meaningless.
Dracula — the original, with Bela Lugosi — mosr certainly is the definitive vampire movie. The best? That’s subject for debate. But it’s the one to which every other vampire movie is compared, because it established the mythos (yes, even more than Nosferatu). And Lugosi’s performance set the standard, established the paradigm. Even for people who want to say, oh, this is so much more believable or credible or whatever than Lugosi’s Dracula…
Man, THE LAST AIRBENDER is getting cruuuuuuuushed on the early twitter reviews from Austin and NY. L.A. crits are in the theater now. Not good for M.
I’m looking forward to Airbender regardless, I like M. Night despite his many detractors, but this is maybe a question for resident Airbender expert IO:
Is it a story that takes place ENTIRELY on a moonlit rooftop at 2am? I’ve seen a zillion trailers for it, and seems like EVERY SHOT is of a bunch of dudes whirling around on some drab, underlit BALCONY.
They should just call it fucking BALCONY, because for whatever the hype or scope or budget allegedly is, IT LOOKS LIKE A MOVIE ABOUT SIX GUYS STANDING ON A BALCONY AT NIGHT… throwing fireballs or something.
Between Airbender and PREDATORS, I’m fearing that we’re in for two weeks of MURK, the kind of movies that take place in some drab locale in the dark where you can’t see anything…
That shit LULLS ME TO SLEEP. I can guarantee Predators is gonna be sleepy, because it’s Fox and it’s in those GODDAMN CANADIAN WOODS, like ALL their movies.
TOM ROTHMAN, ENOUGH WITH THE GODDAMN CHEAP-ASS WOODS. IT’S SO 1998 AND DIRECT TO VIDEO.
I like M, too, but there is nothing other than his name in the closing credits — not one thing — in “Airbender” that would make you think he had anything to do with that dull slog.
I don’t know, all the shots in the trailer seem to have his “nighttime sheen” where the contrast is all low and brown.
I’m writing my review now. The Last Airbender is a tragedy. Terrible writing, atrocious acting, and a choppy narrative that feels far more patched together than even Jonah Hex. Still, the one ‘Shyamalan touch’ is the few action beats, which are shot in refreshingly long and fluid takes. The moments of airbending action are genuinely cool. I’m as big a fan of Shyamalan as anyone (I even respected his noble failures like Lady in the Water and The Happening), but this is something profoundly disastrous, perhaps fatal. I don’t know what he had at Disney that he hasn’t had at Warner, Fox, and now Paramount (someone to tell him ‘no’?), but he desperately needs to find it again. A heartbreaking failure, per and simple.
“Why are you gaying out about Edward Cullen in a movie that has K-Stew, Bryce and Dakota?”
Lex, no love for Anna Kendrick, the only one in those pictures who behaves like a sentient human being? Or have I just answered my own question?
Favorite John Wayne movie: RIO BRAVO.
Best vampire movie: The Lugosi DRACULA is certainly definitive, but on sheer artistic merit, I’ll go out on a limb and say CAPTAIN KRONOS: VAMPIRE HUNTER.
Re: Airbender, and those who’ve seen it:
Any cute jailbait?
So Twilights return has got me thinking, is there a quintesential Vampire movie?
Crazy Safari
TEAM KRISTEN
YOU WILL GO SEE IT NOW, IT IS HERE, YOU WILL BOW BEFORE KRISTEN AND DAKOTA, the greatest package deal since the Smith Brothers.
THEY ARE THE END-ALL, BE-ALL OF HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT, and all shall BASK in their BEAUTY AND CHARISMA.
ECLIPSE 80 MIL WEDNESDAY, 300 MIL FIVE DAY.
GUARANTEED.
Team Bella.
Kristen Stewart is a stunning lady, we get it, but Pattinson knocked it out of the park in this one. He and Lautner really upped their game. It’s a lot better movie than some will have you believe but again, I see all the angles and these films work for me. Why they make Devin Farci’s sphincter invert is beyond me. I just dig them.
That aside, Mr. Mendelson, I have never felt that you and genre films were a match made in heaven but the way you describe A:TLA, gives me pause.
The American Society of Cinematographers listed the top 10 Best Shot films of the last decade (1998 – 2008) according to its readers.
1) Amelie.
2) Children of Men
the rest are here http://www.theasc.com/asc_news/News_Articles/News_304.php
Worthy of LOTS of discussion.
No arguments against anything in the top 10 of the ASC list. As for the rest, I’d rate A.I. and Big Fish more highly than Pan’s Labrynth or Sky Captain.
Labyrinth
“Any cute jailbait?”
Jesus Lex.
IOv2: Given the tone of the early reviews, are you lowering your box-office expectations for The Last Airbender?
You’re saying that particular avatar is a contender for the Razzies. Should that be true, Par may be compelled to rush-release the sing-along version of “Grease”.
Airbender seems to be giving a lot of people the winds. Early word is that it really blows.
Chucky: How do you feel about this sort of cross-promotion?
http://www.cowboysindians.com/blog/post.jsp?id=1652
Hopscotch, that’s a good list…although I’d kick Sky Captain’s ass to the curb and Minority Report should be a top 10.
I would dump Sky Captain and Sin City from that list, seriously demote Pan’s Labyrinth, and I’m a little shocked that it doesn’t include either Sleepy Hollow or Lemony Snicket.
Sleepy Hollow is too early, isn’t it? If not, then it should also be a top 10.
The list says 1998-2008, SH was fall of 1999.
Well, since I predicted big money for Airbender earlier, my box office radar must be permanently broken since if bad word of mouth like this is going to continue, it’ll be squashed flat after the first week. I should never say anything about predicting how much money a movie’s going to make again, but geeze, how many people can honestly say they thought Airbender was going to get a slaughtering on the level of Transformers 2? I mean, it doesn’t get worse for M. Night than The Happening, right? RIGHT?
Yowch, Airbender has 1 positive review out of 18 so far on Rottentomatoes.
That ASC list is cool but I automatically get wary when a “Top ##” list doesn’t include the same person twice; it’s like they’re spreading the wealth rather than recognizing excellence.
Joe, not really. Critics mean about this much… zero point zero… in the current scheme of things. Trending twitter topics and facebook post are more of a barometer of word of mouth than anything now, so let them hate it. If the people on Twitter and Facebook like it then it will be fine. Until then, I am going to go once again with the tried and true staple, for me anyway, about critics: some movies they just do not get and A: TLA might be one of them.
Ride of the Valkyries was also cleverly used in Feris Bueller’s Day Off. I usually have to reference Bugs & Elmer whenever I have to mention the song/that opera to anyone. BTW, LA Opera just ran a cycle of The Ring by Wagner. I really wanted to check out Die Valkure since I missed it last year. Anybody see it?
I really liked Let the Right One In – saw due to the recs here on this site, tyvm! – and Thirst, that Korean flick that came out last year, I guess it was. Thing is, as much as I loved them, they’re more like upper class level work. Someone would have to see a few vampire films before I’d send them to see those because of their building of the common mythology. Not sure if any one film does that but some of those films I saw on tv as a kid from like the 50’s or whenever were great building blocks but I definitely saw them before I’d be able to have any discourse on quality/proper representation et al.
Joe Stratt said “Airbender was going to get a slaughtering on the level of Transformers 2?”
Does that mean its a $400m hit then, cause that slaughtering certainly did not do Trans2 any harm.
No, we’re talking more than critics. We’re talking fans of the show who went in with high optimism (One of the people said to me a few months before, “This is going to be the Avatar that DOESN’T suck ass”), and he got into one of the early screenings, and his reaction is like M. Night Shyamalan ran over his kitten, put it in reverse, ran over it again, and then screeched off laughing maniacally. Yes, geeks overreact, it’s a small sample size, and maybe putting Transformers 2 was the wrong comparison. This is like early reaction to Hulk when there isn’t the group who are struggling to say nice things about it because it’s Ang Lee directing.