May 16, 2024
The Hot Blog
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Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
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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” ā 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 ā 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 ā he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” ā and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging ā I was with her at that moment ā 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 namedā” “Yeah, sure ā 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 Iām on the phone with you now, after all thatās 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 didnāt seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. Thereās not a case of that. He wasnāt using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had ā if that were what the accusation involved ā 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. Iām not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, āYou know, itās not this, itās thatā? Because ā let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. TimesĀ piece, thatās what it lacked. Thatās 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
Poster #1 is better for geeks and old movie buffs, but, as the sublime deco campaign for Johnston’s THE ROCKETEER attested, affectionate homage doesn’t put asses in seats. Poster #2 seems more badass and teenage boy appropriate.
re: the second poster (and other stills i’ve seen), why are they trying so hard to make evans look like channing tatum?
From a purely aesthetic pov – poster #1, by a million miles. And actually, come to think of it, that’s all that should matter. The posters for Raiders and Star Wars (and about 1000 others) were beautiful, artistic and got asses into seats.
Poster number one has the tone nailed better than the elegiac tone of poster number two, which looks like an ad for “Captain Downer-meets-The Road”. And I’m sorry, but if your tagline is “AVENGE”, you need to convey the tone of vengeance, not “MOPE” or “sigh…”.
There’s nothing at all badass about that second image. The only bad thing related to the ass that this poster conveys is chronic constipation.
The top one is artistically beautiful and probably more movie-appropriate and probably manna from the heavens to most film geeks;
But NOOOOOOOOOOO WAY is the average L.A. Mexipino mall-kid audience gonna be enticed by that poster. “Duuuuude, this shit looks all fuckin’ STUUUU-PID an’ shit.”
Also since it’s as good a place as any: I see this trailer all the time, and that final bit where Hayley Atwell fires a gun at Captain America’s shield in a room full of scientists; The bullets ricochet off but NOBODY DUCKS and Atwell doesn’t flinch or anything. Wouldn’t that bullet fly back at the EXACT SAME SPEED and go right through her and kill her? If one of the bullets ricocheted at an angle, wouldn’t it kill everybody in the room? Everyone in that room BUT Evans should be dead from that. It’s idiotic.
They’re pushing this movie all kinds of different ways.
http://movingpictureblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/baseball-apple-pie-country-music-and.html
No, when a bullet hits something, it loses a lot of energy, so the velocity decreases substantially.
The retro poster is awesome but, yeah, as others here have said it would probably just confuse and put-off general audiences.
Case in point: (the very good) SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMMORROW
I just noticed… no writers noted until the tiny credits block on the bottom…
Poster 2 is the call of duty videogame aesthetic, right? Poster 1 is a comic book aesthetic, the punching out Hitler also seems a nod to Kavalier and Clay which was a nod to Superman, iirc, but I’m not certain.
Plus Poster 1 has a goofy headpiece.
They need an Indiana Jones style poster. Sell it as a big,.continent spanning adventure with action and romance.
Who the feck is he avenging? This campaign makes no sense. The new poster is kitschy, and it aint bringing anybody new to the table.
Cap punching Hitler is the cover of Capitan America Comics #1, even before it was Marvel Comics… Here’s the original http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_31TGdXVwLqc/S8uoAQGgq_I/AAAAAAAAAT8/fKuy24SkfyQ/s1600/captainAmericaHitler.jpg
I want to like this movie so much, but it’s just not going to happen if it’s a two-hour advertisement for The Avengers. That stupid subtitle and the lame poster above suggest they’re going to be pushing too hard.
best retro poster ever …. The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin
In poster 2 Captain has that sort of concentrated thinking face like he’s cutting the superhero cheese.
I know the advertising isn’t doing it, but to answer Anghus, since Cap is fighting in WWII, isn’t he basically avenging all the Americans who died at Pearl Harbor? Isn’t that why most people decided to join up back then? That he gets superpowered in his quest turns him from an avenger into the first Avenger? But maybe I’m giving them too much credit.
I like them both. If I had to choose I’d go with the bottom one.
Does anyone else think the top poster is trying to do too much?
Top third almost verbatim Bill Gold’s CASABLANCA art;
http://www.impawards.com/1942/posters/casablanca.jpg
Middle third an old Marvel cover, linked in another thread;
Bottom third makes me wish it actually featured Lt. Aldo Raine…and his BASTERDS.
“since Cap is fighting in WWII, isnāt he basically avenging all the Americans who died at Pearl Harbor?”
The Nazis bombed Pearl Harbor?
Forget it – he’s on a roll.
Atwell holds a gun at a TITANIUM SHIELD that is ONE FOOT AWAY from her and fires off three shots. They would DEFINITELY, ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY ricochet back and shoot her at nearly full force, killing her. If they hit the shield at an angle, they would possibly kill the scientists standing ten feet away.
AT THE VERY LEAST she and they should DUCK. But they just stand there, smirking. It is an ABSURD trailer moment. And should be REMOVED from the movie.
No, the Nazis didn’t bomb Pearl Harbor, but that attack is what got us into the war against the Axis. We only started fighting the Germans after Germany declared war on us per their alliance with the Japanese.
Listen to the vets talk about why they joined up to fight in the war, and a number of them say, “You have to remember, we were attacked…” To Americans at the time (probably because it’s how FDR explained it and the newsreels showed it), they were declared war on by all the Axis powers and not just the Japanese.
Again, I think the avenging theme makes sense if you think about it. Though, I have no idea if the advertising or the movie itself takes the theme all that seriously.
I have a nerd answer for lex.
Cap’s shield is made of vibranium which is supposed to absorb impact of projectiles.
If that’s true I guess I’ll accept that.
I thought it was USAgent’s shield which was vibranium, and Cap’s was an adamantium alloy (Marvel keeps retconning their metals since adamantium is supposed to be indestructible, yet half the stuff made from it has been “broken” over the years so they keep having to make up a new metal).
For retro-style posters, this one’s tough to beat:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LJBbmgDCcNg/TQU7w96ITnI/AAAAAAAAB3s/Om-4U6g2dd0/s1600/walt-and-el-grupo.jpg
“Capās shield is made of vibranium which is supposed to absorb impact of projectiles.”
To provide even more nerd detail – it absorbs impact on the face, and amplifies it on its edge – allowing him to bounce the shield off other surfaces as a weapon.
Holy crap the nerdery is running amok.
And here I thought Cap’s shield was made of titanium…
I’d check but my complete set of Marvel Universe books is in my dad’s attic.
And I thought the Sheild was made of Adimantium, or however its spelled. The same stuff on Wolverine’s bones.
To address the last two – and tick Paul off – I believe current continuity has it that it’s an alloy of vibranium and adamantium (the vibranium giving it the shock-absorption properties previously discussed, the adamantium making it unbreakable), created in a process that no one has been able to replicate, thus making the shield one of a kind.
Oh it doesn’t tick me off. I was just messing around. It’s amusing. I actually enjoy it because I’m learning things I didn’t know.
I know, I was being tongue-in-cheek, is all. No worries. And I enjoy nerding the place up, from time to time.
OK good because I am very geek-friendly and support all lifestyles.
I have always been amused at how terrible the scientific community is in the Marvel Universe. Can’t seem to recreate anything, always having industrial accidents resulting in supervillians and heros. The insurance premiums for a lab must be astronomical.
The worst case of this would be the creation of the Hulk. First there is a Communist spy in their mist, then security is so lax that a teen in an automobile just comes strolling through the test site. Then the bomb itself is a complete failure. Rick Jones gets thrown in a ditch and is completely fine, while Banner gets a huge dose of radiation and is turned into a violent monster. So if you dropped it on a foriegn populace the citizens would either A) completely save themselves from the bomb by ducking or B) become an army of undefeatable beasts who are probably quite angry with the country who dropped the bomb.
“The worst case of this would be the creation of the Hulk.”
Agreed. Which is why I was okay with the changes to the backstory in Lee’s film – as it actually provided a reason why there were not armies of Hulks running about.
And I would love to see a newpaper headline in a Spiderman or Batman film that reads “Crime Report: Muggings and Purse Snatchings down 80%: Incalcuble catastropic property damage reaches all time high”
My degree in nerdery came from playing the Marvel Super Heroes role playing games as a kid. It had all sorts of useless details about every superhero.
I think it’s made out of whogivesashitwhatabunchofdorksium.
Seriously, you guys read COMIC BOOKS?
What a bunch of chumps.
Are we being called chumps by the balding ‘never gets laid’ guy with midnight show tickets to Monte Carlo?
Usually I am up for geek bashing right along with anyone but throwing down ridicule for an activity two decades ago seems a little much.
Your second paragraph makes no sense.
I just know that arguing over Captain America’s COMBAT ALLOY (TM Biehn) is something out of AICN, and I don’t come to the Hot Blog for discussions of precious metals.
I come here for really boring conversations about box office.
@ hcat: laughed out loud for the hulk + spidey/batman posts, excellent š
What, no traces of atmosphereum? Unbelievable!
“I just noticedā¦ no writers noted until the tiny credits block on the bottomā¦”
Reminds me of one of my favorite 30 Rock moments:
Transformers 5: Planet of the Earth
Written by No One
Lex- I was typing that second paragraph as I leaving the office, it is a little incoherent. So while I can imagine the drag out fights that go on at AICN over comic book minutie, no one is arguing here, more like trying to remember what they read as kids. Calling us chumps now for reading comics as youth would be as ridiculous as finding fault with our choice of music as teens (coming from the reformed Great White fan).
And wasn’t it your observation that started this whole conversation?
Okies, after a grand 30 seconds of research *coughwikipediacough* it turns out the current retcon of Cap’s shield is that it’s a Vibranium/Iron alloy that is indeed one of a kind as Storymark pointed out. It was indeed referred to as Vibranium/Adamantium in the comics for a while but Marvel has declared that a mistake, and the shield is distinct from USAgent’s shield which is pure Vibranium. Also, they apparently used a tank hatch as a mold.
Now, all together… NEEEEEEEEEEERDS!
I thought Green Lantern was kinda neat. Even with the 3-D.
“Seriously, you guys read COMIC BOOKS?
What a bunch of chumps.”
Amongst other things, including having sex with women. And we STILL find the time to lead far more fulfilling lives than you. Glad we cleared that up. You can go back to staring the feet of women would would flee if they ever met you.