May 16, 2024
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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
I just rented The Dilemma, and if it had had a different director and re-cast some of the parts, I think it could have been a really effective dark comedy. As was, it wasn’t a train wreck, more like a three-car pile-up. But it was nice to see Winona Ryder get work, and I don’t think I’ve enjoyed Channing Tatum more.
I can’t believe Ron Howard’s directing The Dark Tower…
Is he really directing it? I thought it was in danger of being shelved a few weeks ago? There are about 25 other directors who would be better for the gig, but I guess you need that kind of aging, safe heavy-hitter to get this off the ground. Still, it’s not worth the trilogy + TV show model they’re planning – can’t really see this being a massive hit.
On another mind-boggling note, I can’t think of the last movie title that sounded as BAD as Larry Crowne. (I guess I can, and maybe another F%$&ing list might be in order, but I digress). What kind of idiotic title is that? Is the story that maudlin, wishy-washy and lame that THAT’S the best title they could come up with? Or is it based on yet another brand that means nothing to no one? Shouldn’t titles mean something? Or at least, if it’s going to be based on a NAME, be catchy?
The Dilemma was close-to-excellent.
I know it’s kind of some film-geek given that “Ron Howard” is some punchline that symbolizes all that is milquetoast and middle of the road, but isn’t that kind of tired? And not to pit two well-liked directors I have nothing against, er, against each other, but if nothing else I’ve always been mystified how Howard is a punching bag for Internet Tough Guys, but Robert Zemeckis gets some lifetime pass. If anything, Howard has a more varied and interesting filmography.
I will be THRILLED when “Larry Crowne” comes out just so I don’t have to see that goddamn trailer anymore. It’s up into “Shutter Island” territory where I can predict every beat of it, from the black chick ogling Hanks’s skivvies to Julia at the bustop with her bare feet to that HATEFUL cross-eyed look she has under the motorcycle helmet to the clincher, Hanks doing the Happy Dance through her peephole, which always gets a laugh from the senior citizens who apparently haven’t already seen that stupid trailer *37* times this year.
Has anyone else seen the xmen first class ad that ends with the Rotten Tomatoes logo popping on screen and the announcer declaring “certified fresh”
Is this thr 21st century “thumbs up”
Its genius if it catches on, because then the studios could screen to a few handpicked critics, get positive reviews, and stamp their ads with “certified fresh” and completely invalidate modern criticism as we know it.
I’ve liked a lot of Howard’s movies. I just felt like he was the wrong choice for Dilemma, and now that I’ve seen it, he REALLY feels like the wrong choice for Dark Tower.
What’s strange to me about the mild lameness of The Dilemma is that Howard should know how to do that stuff! His earlier comedies are human-scale, funny, and fairly prickly for mainstream Hollywood movies — Parenthood, for example, or The Paper, a huge underappreciated favorite of mine. Where I feel like he drops the ball is with the bigger, more epic stuff. I like Apollo 13 pretty well. But I’m not a huge fan of Backdraft, Cinderella Man, Ransom, A Beautiful Mind… yuck. Pretty much any of his wannabe-OLD SCHOOL MOVIE MALE MOVIE STAR movies leave me cold. The Missing is tolerable but could’ve been much better.
But The Dilemma: seems of a piece with the concerns of Parenthood and The Paper, yet he’s lost his rhythm for comedy (though Tatum is pretty funny, and Vaughn is OK) and the serious stuff is kind of maudlin and mishandled, too.
Zemeckis gets a pass because, duh, like Joe Dante, he has film-geekier sensibilities! Time-travel, cross-pollinating cartoon worlds, alien life forms, experimental sections where there’s only one character onscreen… sure, there’s Gump, which seems pretty compatible with mid-nineties-era Howard, but for the most part, he’s just got that playground-geeky sensibility, but without the empty wannabe crowd-pleasing of the Hack Pack guys.
His movies are also just more interesting visually than Howard’s; even something throwaway like What Lies Beneath has some rad camera movements and stuff.
So yeah, I’d put three Back to the Futures, Roger Rabbit, Cast Away, and Contact up against my most favorite Howard pictures, and Zemeckis would probably come out ahead.
i saw Hanna – i liked it . nice action . Saoirse Ronan nails
her role . awesome makeup job cause she looked like a ghost
for the entire movie.
i wanna see Hanna end up in Kick Ass 2.
make it happen.
Rumors I heard was that Vaughn threw his weight around (pun intended) as Producer / Star, demanded lots of script changes and that Howard did the project as a “favor” to Universal, i.e. did it to fill his schedule before the big Dark Tower project.
I think The Missing is a very underrated thriller. Definitely worthy of a look.
No other place to discuss this, but I just saw a commercial for X-men advertising it as “certified fresh.” is this new, or have other movies used this statement? Really odd and jumped out at me. Though I know what it means, my wife basically had a “what the hell was that?” reaction (she knows nothing of rotten tomatoes).
It seems like it defeats the purpose because movie afficionados will already know about the TM rating, non aficionados will wonder what it is.
jason, read up several posts.
So this friend of mine is a theater manager in the Chicago area and says its looking like the midnight Super 8 screening is going to be a wash and wonders if this is an omen for a weak opening
With that I ask the question: does X Men First Class have a shot at beating Super 8 this weekend?
major love for The Missing, his best work.
Midnight screenings of non-sequels/non-comics are never going to be booming, though. Beyond Inception, which had the Nolan brand name following one of the biggest hits ever, can you think of a single movie not based on something (be in comic, book, or other movie) that had particularly strong midnight grosses? Hell, four or five years ago, most cities wouldn’t even be doing Super 8 midnights!
Even if it does open weak, I wouldn’t take soft midnight as an omen.
X-Men could beat it, but this franchise has never dropped less than 50% on its second weekend, even for the well-liked entries. So you have to figure maximum X-gross this weekend even if it has an amazing hold for an X-Men movie is probably $30 million. So yeah, Super 8 could come in under that. But the likelihood of Super 8 going that far under AND X-Men holding that well doesn’t seem terribly high. Could be close, though.
I’m guessing X-Men comes in with $26 million or so and Super 8 high 20’s/low 30’s?
Considering that tomorrow is the last day of finals for most high-schoolers, do you really think they’ll blow off their cramming and stay up late to watch a movie starring a bunch of unknown 13 year-olds?
The question reminded me of the explanation for the failure of Tom Selleck’s AN INNOCENT MAN: men can’t stand Tom Selleck and women don’t like prison movies. So who is the audience supposed to be?
Is the school system really so nationally in-step that a single Friday is the last day of FINALS for “most” high-schoolers? WTF is that? Maybe a majority of high schools have finals this WEEK, sure (although not in NY State) but… really? You’re going to say the majority of high schoolers have their last test TOMORROW?
I don’t know that this movie is really being marketed to teenagers in particular.
In Michigan, the legislature declared a few years back that all the schools in the state have the same calendar.
Even if other states haven’t gone that route, last week was a little early to end the year and next week seems a little late.
This is high school we’re talking about–once exams are over, you’re done. You don’t come back for parties or locker clean-out, because that all happened last week.
And once you cut the teenagers out, who else will be attending a midnight movie on a Thursday night? Younger kids still have school tomorrow and adults have jobs. So the only audience you can hope for are adults who are willing to become coffee-achievers tomorrow and the seniors who took their finals a few weeks ago.
That’s an awfully old crowd for a movie starring a bunch of 13 year-olds.
Heather Graham gets bad photoshopped for Judy Moody movie
http://www.impawards.com/2011/judy_moody_and_the_not_bummer_summer_ver2.html
In Illinois, school ended May 31st (colleges ended mid May). At least in my part of Illinois. You need to research the other 49 states before making a statement like that. Have fun.
And I agree the midnight opening means squat. I think most people aren’t going to sit in a theater until 2-2:30am unless it’s a known entity, like a sequel or franchise thing. You can be reasonably assured you’ll be entertained and it’ll be worth the effort.
So then you have plenty of kids in your state available for a midnight movie, and yet the Chicago showing looks like a wash?
Ut-oh!
You guys wanna let me know what the PTA in-service days are for the month of October 2011? Jesus, this tangent is more boring than trying to fuck rice.
Was your friend commenting on the theater he manages, or all theaters across Chicagoland? Just curious. It’s not even 11pm yet here, so he seems to be saying pre-sale is a flop at his screen, at least.
Regardless, I don’t think it means squat. Midnight screenings are attended by geeks, fanboys and the unemployable. This isn’t a sequel or comic book film, or franchise entry, so it doesn’t have an extended fan base like Harry Potter. Just my opinion but I think it matters.
PTA in-service for October is the 14th, at least in my area. You may return to your rice-fucking, sir.
Jason/Anghus – I’m curious why Fox would use Warners’ new acquisition as the “seal of approval”. I could certainly understand Warners attaching it to one of their own trailers to see what impact it had…
If you’re bored, then keep coming up with new stuff!
To partly support, partly dispute the “hatred of Phantom Menace built slowly” argument, how about “The Five Stages of Star Wars Fandom Grief”: http://www.slate.com/id/2294083/
The initial fence-sitting resulted from the author being such a fanboy that he was in denial over the possibility that the movie sucked; Stage 1.
“Then came anger. I remember the day it happened. I woke up one morning next to my girlfriend at the time and had a profound realization. I didn’t like any of the characters. The plot didn’t make that much sense. There wasn’t a single memorable line or scene in the whole thing. I hated that movie. My girlfriend wasn’t happy that the first thing I thought of waking up next to her was how much I hated a little boy in a movie, but I didn’t care.”
so if the target is teens for super 8 why isn’t DP hanging out outside high schools and giving away free movie tickets
out …DP must have 1000 movie tickets ..
Anyone remember that AICN review by “Joe Hallenbeck” (wasn’t that the AICN writer who ended up in jail?) like a week after TPM was released? Most fans and, well, pretty much even casual fans, had been trying to pretend they loved it up till that point, then this dude just OBLITERATED the movie, and at least in nerd circles it seemed like it was some collective sigh of unity, that it was okay to admit it was a disappointment.
Super 8 never seemed like something that would be a huge draw for Midnight Screenings. I basically asked my friend ‘Why on earth are they screening Super 8 at midnight’, and this was his reply:
“(It’s) Summer Anghus. Teens and college students don’t have school in the morning, on top of the usual batch of jobless slackers, potheads and idiots that will see a movie just because it’s a midnight show.”
I’m not saying this means Super 8 will open weak, but there seems to be a general sense of “meh” from a lot of people on Super 8. Tracking seems to have it around 25-26 million. X-Men First Class has all this positive word of mouth. Does Super 8 even open at number 1?
On the CERTIFIED FRESH ads…
Foamy, it is interesting. I wonder if it was the idea of Fox Marketing or whether Rotten Tomatoes is out there trying to get studios to brand their ads with their stamp of approval. It’s interesting, since there really hasn’t been an attempt and branding critical response since THUMBS UP was coined back in the 1980’s. “Certified Fresh” could be the new buzzword for critical approval.
Instead of 2 guys giving you the reccomendation, you get a pool of a hundred critics. Let’s say it works. Every movie ad starts using “Certified Fresh”…. the individual critical voices begin to matter less. They already take lines from critics and print their names so small you can’t even see who they’re from. Now you have a symbol simple enough to tell people “Yea” or “Nay” in 2 words. We’ll see if it catches on.
does anyone remember anyone at AICN that wasn’t Harry or Drew?
The fact that I recognized the name “Joe Hallenbeck”, without ever having seen The Last Boy Scout (the name of Bruce Willis’ character; thx Google), may indicate just how long it’s been since I’ve visited AICN.
Wait… are “midnight shows” not commonplace for everything now? Or is that just an L.A. thing. In L.A., most of the major theater chains have 12:00 or 12:01 showings on Thursday night for literally every new movie opening that weekend–
There’s opening night “midnights” for, say, Something Borrowed, or The Eagle, or Tree of Life, or From Prada to Nada, or Dylan Dog, or The Dilemma, or Trust, or LITERALLY EVERY MOVIE at the Arclight, the Grove, all the big AMCs, the Americana, all year long.
I know a couple of Theater managers, and most of them started their midnight shows with Fast Five. I think that’s pretty common in most places. You midnight screen in the Summer and for huge Holiday releases.
There always seem to be midnight screenings for Harry Potter films in Novemeber. There were midnight Tron Legacy screenings. But it’s not a common practice in smaller markets outside of the Summer.
Got in to an advanced screening of Attack the Block. Done right, it could be the next Insidious. With simple effects, kids who act like english street brats and look the part, and taking advantage of that R rating with delicious glee, and hey, any movie with a weed growup and Nick Frost scores some automatic points.
It might need subtitles, though. Those accents are pretty thick.
which movies are the mainstream media going to focus on when
there is a midnight movie .. it’s gonna be the next twilight and harry potter. the media loves screaming teenagers.
cnn will have this as breaking news. thats how important these movies are.
Important News (Yahoo top story, in fact): Dakota Fanning graduated high school. Yaaaaay! Cuuuuute! Maybe she’ll have a LITTLE PARTY and invite Kristen!
She’s enrolling in NYU in the fall. Hey, in unrelated news, is 39 too old to go back to college? Or I wish I could be her COOL PROFESSOR.
YEP YEP, YEP YEEEEEEEEP.
Midnight Thursday/Friday screenings are pretty common for almost every movie opening in Houston. Seriously: I reviewed Fireproof at a midnight screening.
And of course there was Disaster Movie.
http://movingpictureblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/its-disaster-all-right.html
it’s winter here
“It might need subtitles, though. Those accents are pretty thick.”
i was going to have a little niggle re: samL’s comment and americans not being able to understand UK brogues, but then i remembered watching ‘the town’ again the other night and still not being able to understand a SINGLE WORD that comes out of blake lively’s mouth between her baaad boston accent and weird drunken drug-addled brain-hemorrhage slurring, so…i can kind of relate
i think the last midnight showing i went to was freakin’ ‘rocky horror’, how old am i. depressing.
Attack the Block isn’t just an accent issue. It has a lot of unfamiliar (to Americans) street slang in said accents.
But I guess Clockwork Orange did too. Not that any studio would release that today.
Attack of the Bullshit.
More British geek crap. Looks terrible. All that stupid cutesy COMEDY and DORK-ASS SHIT. I fucking HATE the genteel/clever “geek” sensibility.
Especially ironic since most of the guys who really talk up all that Edgar Wright/Nick Frost type shit up are the MEANEST and most UNPLEASANT assholes ever. Like, own your assholedom. I hate how there’s this cadre of movie critics/bloggers who are essentially the most loathesome and hostile and ill-tempered group of egotistical dickheads EVER, yet all the stuff they rally behind is so goddamn humble.
GOOD POINT.
interesting point about the slang, LYT. being a british colony we share a lot of the same slang, and having grown up with brit tv shows and working with a lot of (particularly) english peeps i’m fairly good with UK slang, but some of the stuff the young english guys use i need an interpreter, like this one guy gets motormouthing on the piss and babbling on about ‘i don’t adam and eve’ and ‘banjaxed’ and such, and i’m like ‘wtf are you talking about, speak fucking english!’ (which is, of course, ironic given he’s using english slang, but that doesn’t make it any easier to comprehend)
eta, should say that apparently ‘adam & eve’ means ‘believe’, and ‘banjaxed’ is ‘super tired’
Speaking of accents, Brad Pitt in Snatch cracks me up every time
Foreign countries are fucking stupid.
America Number One. Also BLAKE LIVELY is what ALL WOMEN should look like. Try being more like her.
Can’t wait for ATTACK OF THE BLOCK.
Figures. Christian is like Captain New Beverly. You can see it with the YamatoGilchrist crew then scramble back to the internet to be passive-aggressively hateful.
Lex – So I take it you’re not rooting for Cheryl Cole on X Factor?
“back to the internet to be passive-aggressively hateful.”
Irony!
Why wouldn’t I like Cheryl Cole?
She’s SMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKING. Plus I don’t count England as a foreign country.
That was me confusing two conversations – foreign countries/accents.
Although speaking of foreign weirdness, an hilarious (and moderately NSFW) video from Japan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozRYgw6Nlpk
Should I commit suicide?
1) YES.
2) YES.
I will never have sex again. I haven’t felt pussy since 2001. I want to kill myself. I want to hang myself.
I am a piece of HUMAN GARBAGE and I can’t foresee my life ever improving. Every day I go to a TRANSCRIPTION HOUSE and have to TRANSCRIBE 70 minutes of DAVID BOREANZ, typing in his every syllable for 16 dollars an hour. I have worked at sub/cap/transcript houses EVERY WEEKDAY OF MY LIFE for 16 years. It is work on par with being RAPED IN THE ASS.
I think about suicide every fucking second.
Any of you assholes ever work a CAPTION JOB>? How do dudes like Anghus or “BIG PERM” make a living? How come you never had to ROCK THE TRANSCRIPTION to earn 40-70k to stay in an apartment?
Ah, fuck it all. I would rather commit suicide than go to my transcription job in the morning. I am literally dying from blood pressure and health problems caused by my depression and sedentary CUBICLE DRONE lifestyle.
I make 2,100 a month NET, and I owe 4,200 a month in credit card and rent and insurance bills.
Is that healthy?
I JUST WANT PUSSY.
If a movie like X-Men: First Class, part of an established franchise, makes $3 million from midnight screenings, what’s a realistic number for Super 8?
So what did David Boreanz say on his show? Anything good? Like “I think we have a serial killer on our hands!”
“Should I commit suicide?”
No.
“I will never have sex again.”
Not with that attitude.
“I haven’t felt pussy since 2001.”
It hasn’t changed much. Some of them have piercings now.
“I want to kill myself. I want to hang myself. I am a piece of HUMAN GARBAGE and I can’t foresee my life ever improving. Every day I go to a TRANSCRIPTION HOUSE and have to TRANSCRIBE 70 minutes of DAVID BOREANZ, typing in his every syllable….
To be fair, spending that much time with David Boreanz would probably make anyone question the point of their existence.
“…for 16 dollars an hour.”
Welcome to America. There’s a lot of people who do crappy work every day for 16 dollars an hour. A lot more do it for less.
“I have worked at sub/cap/transcript houses EVERY WEEKDAY OF MY LIFE for 16 years. It is work on par with being RAPED IN THE ASS.”
There’s a lot of people who have been raped in the ass that would probably take offense to that statement.
“Any of you assholes ever work a CAPTION JOB>?”
Yup. I spent a couple of years transcribing films for DVD between other gigs to keep the bills paid. It is not very creative or fun. And why are we ‘assholes’?
“How do dudes like Anghus or “BIG PERM” make a living? How come you never had to ROCK THE TRANSCRIPTION to earn 40-70k to stay in an apartment?”
I worked a lot of shit jobs and lived in a lot of shitty apartments. Who hasn’t?
“I make 2,100 a month NET, and I owe 4,200 a month in credit card and rent and insurance bills.”
Congratulations. You’re in debt for more than you make. See my previous “Welcome to America” comment.
“Is that healthy?”
No. None of this is healthy.
“I JUST WANT PUSSY.”
Who doesn’t?
If any of you Hot Bloggers live in Arizona or Texas, we’re bringing our documentary WORST IN SHOW your way starting this weekend!
Saturday, June 11 we’re in Phoenix/Tempe at the Madcap
Monday, June 13 we’re in Flagstaff at The Orpheum
Thursday, June 16 we’re at the Angelika in Dallas
and
Saturday, June 18 we’re doing this awesome outdoor screening in Austin!
All info is at our website worstinshowmovie.com and all the screenings are animal rescue benefits. Come down or send a friend!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diNlKDr9KPk
DJ Leon Botha died – he was part of music group Die Antwoord and was an artist/ painter
he had Progeria syndrome which makes him look real old
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq2r2g4F5UQ
LexG needs to be happy – DP just let him do a dp30 with Kristen Steweart and get it over with.
christian, that was funny.
From AICN, I also remember Uncapie, Quint and FatherGeek.
i watched DP/30 Covert Affairs, actor Piper Perabo
it was pretty much a repeat of the last dp30 .
DP – can you get Tina Fey DP30 or is she too famous…she was on Oprah promoting her book. you can`t beat Oprah.
translation. STOP BEING A WHINY BITCH Lex!!!
Seriously dude! Think your the only one who has to deal with some adversity out here in “the city of broken dreams?!”
I’ve had a nice shitty soul crushing job here in LA for over 10 years trying to “make the nut”. I have the privilege to give out movie passes to people on the street here in “La La Land”. Think having people people looking at you like your “Dog shit” a couple 1000 times everyday is fun dude? I make about as much as you. Want to trade jobs?
But I do that soul crushing job (that yes, I am WAY overqualified for) so I can still go after what I really want out here. If your not, and your job makes you want to literally put a bullet between your ears, why the FUCK are you still doing that job???.
Are you retarded, insane, or just horribly masochistic.
And BTW How do you expect to score any vag if you demonstrate “no balls?”
Hiding in your cubicle and crying about how life sucks will not get one vag wet lex. Because its uninspiring. Its sad. And its pathetic
sorry due. I love reading you (your a super talented guy, its why I’m taking the time to bust your balls at all) but someone has to say it. (several have, come to think of it. I’m probably “feeding the beast” exactly what it wants and realizing now the futility of this, but might as well finish up)
shut up and do something about your situation or accept your fate and leave everyone else alone.
Your talented enough that sticking your head up your own ass and crying about how dark it is makes a lot of people pissed at the waste of it all.
Oh well. Wouldn’t be the first to do so I guess. Nor the last
Onward…
Merkin, I’m guessing you don’t hear this much, but thank you for doing that soul-crushing job of giving out movie passes. I spent several years barely getting by in L.A. when I first moved here, and free movies were my freaking lifeline. If you happen to be doing your crap job in Burbank, let me know and I’ll bring you a pizza or something.
I always make it a point to thank those folks passing out passes when they ask.
What’s the feeling on Jim Belushi’s “Taking Care of Business” (1990)? I classed it with Carvey’s “Oppurtunity Knocks” of the same year, as somewhat amusing but totally forgettable crap. But what’s remarkable to me is that the movie, or at least Belushi in the movie, seemed to have some brief cultural moment. But I struggle to class Belushi. Carvey was a sort of proto-Jim Carrey derived from the Jerry Lewis tradition. Belushi seems closer to the wise-cracking Bruce Willis, but Belushi sort of flops as an action hero. And yet “Hudson Hawk” one year later was a similarly airless cock and bull story. Which doesn’t change the fact that I vastly prefer “Hudson Hawk” to “Bonfire of the Vanities” (also 1990). “BotV” just makes me want to puke.
Attack the Block is nothing like an Edgar Wright movie except for Nick Frost having a cameo. The heroes are total asshole delinquents who become awesome, like Snake Plissken Jr.
I think Lex might actually like it.
Leah, I grew up in Ireland and “banjaxed” was fairly common there.
Jim Belushi was all over the place in the early 90s. It seemed like Hollywood Pictures had a movie coming out every six months.
Mr Destiny also came out in 1990
Trivia: Taking Care of Business was co-written by J.J. Abrams (with Jill Mazursky, who I think is Paul’s daughter).
So who wants to talk about Tracy Morgan?
So the guy who wrote the Facebook post had to come out to his family?
oh yeah Jim Belushi .. my favorite film was the Principal ..
1997
A teacher is assigned to be the principal of a violence and crime ridden high school
sure the movie is outdated but the ending rocked .. they
had a realistic bad guy
here’s the trailer .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8760ji7Ax1k
Jennifer Lawerence on Regis ..
easy movie questions from Regis … seems like
her face got 10% bigger somehow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TcOMH1Wm-M4
Favorite Jim Belushi movie……
Hmmmm.
Red Heat was a piece of high octane
trash I remember enjoying.
His brief part in Trading Places always makes me laugh.
Jim Belushi had a family tv sitcom for like 10 years
called according to Jim ..
nobody from the show made it into movies in a huge way
and DP isn’t rushing out for a DP/30 with him.
some actors just go away without anybody noticing .
Favorite Jim Belushi movie was Red Heat, but he’s popped up in better movies like Trading Places and The Ghost Writer.
LYT, you grew up in ireland? cool bananas
i don’t think i’d ever heard ‘banjaxed’ before this hilarious guy, don’t know how that happened — last night i got confused at first because i remembered it meaning ‘drunk’, but then i thought i’d misremembered because he also uses it the way we use ‘knackered’ here for ‘really tired’, so that’s the definition i went with, then i realised (later on after i’d posted) that he uses banjaxed the way we use ‘munted’ here, which can mean ‘ruined’ or ‘stuffed’ or ‘knackered’ or ‘pissed’ (drunk), so it would appear quite the all-rounder, which is always handy.
ftr, i don’t want pussy
my fave jim belushi movie is definitely ‘salvador’, then embarrassingly would come the romcom ‘return to me’, i’m a huge sucker for that movie, it’s so sweet and lovely and belushi is perfect in his supporting role.
I loved Jim Belushi’s season on SNL with Christopher Guest, Billy Crystal, Julia Louis Dreyfeuss, Martin Short, etc.
That was a funny year.
i’ve gotten shit for it, but ‘salvador’ is my fave oliver stone movie
(i need a new word for ‘fave’, it sounds so high-school or something, it makes me cringe on myself. shudder)
Zach Galifianakis without his beard
http://www.pajiba.com/image/2l9lgr5.jpg
leah: I love RETURN TO ME, too. Really thought it was going to me a whole new career for Bonnie Hunt, but it didn’t make bank, so she went back to TV. Liked that one sitcom she did, too. She should be having Tina Fey level success.
RED HEAT is AWESOME. That Chicago is as gone as the Soviet Union, too.
I had a soft spot for Bonnie Hunt’s talk show, too. The whole Dean Martin aesthetic was charming, and she seemed to be having fun.
Plus, you know…Chicago.
yancy: hooray! i wasn’t that embarrassed to begin with but now i feel vindicated in my adoration of ‘return to me’. but it didn’t do well? i guess that explains why david duchovney didn’t become the romcom king. and ditto on bonnie hunt, she’s exceptional, i love her low-key, wry comic timing in everything she does.
(actually it’s dawned on me that you and i often seem to like the same movies/performances, yancy, perhaps we have similar taste)
so what happens to Tina Fey after 30 Rock ends in a few years …moves on to writing movies / tv shows or does
another sitcom ..
Bonnie Hunt talk show was made for older audiences ..
how she does voices for animated movies ..
After listening to David Fucking Mamet suck up to Rush Limbaugh today, I guess it’s cool for me to say what an overrated dolt I’ve always thought he is. What a flake.
I always thought it was established that SALVADOR is one of Stone’s best – for Wood’s oscar nom perf alone.
Tina Fey level success….
Man, that statemenr sums up the new celebrity status. She said it herself, “the number one book in America and the 86th higjest rated TV show”
There are shows on the USA Network that get 4 times the ratings of the most acclaimed NBC comedies.
Lost was a supposed “cultural phenomenon” whose finale brought in 9 million viewers.
Rebecca Blacks Friday video has been viewed almost 170 million times.
Bonnie Hunt existed in a time where the numbers of her failed shows would dwarf most hit network comedies. And I dont remember any of the half dozen vehicles they created for her.
Tina Fey is well loved by journalists but she generates less revenue for NBC Universal than the Kardashians.
Success aint exactly what it used to be.
e! reruns Kardashians like 24 times a week plus they get on tabloid covers every week
which network will rerun 30 rock 5 times a week … people keep watching friends and seinfeld every day.
First off, syndication aint what it used to be. Mainly because the new shows don’t have viewerships that warrant high syndication rates.
30 Rock is not a show that will make a killing in syndication. whats the last big sitcoms that have been huge syndicated hits. Two and a Half Men? Scrubs?
Im sure it made more from Netflix and Hulu than it ever will in syndication.
“Return To Me” is immortal just for that scene of Duchovny returning home from the hospital and crumpling to the ground in hysterics.
plus he’s covered in blood, which makes his breakdown not only heart-wrenching but sort of gruesomely realistic and shocking for such a sweet, charming movie.
david mamet sucked up to rush limbaugh? ugh, say it isn’t so, that freaks me out. sometimes separating the art from the artist is a freakin’ hard row to hoe.
“I always thought it was established that SALVADOR is one of Stone’s best – for Wood’s oscar nom perf alone.”
oh, really? i always got the impression ‘salvador’ was stone’s little forgotten gem, with the likes of ‘platoon’, ‘4th of july’, ‘wallstreet’, NBK and JFK as his critical darlings/talking point flicks with salvador sort of lost in the shuffle, but maybe i’m just way off-base there.
To connect both the Mamet and Belushi discussions somewhat, THE BELUSH is actually really awesome in ABOUT LAST NIGHT… It’s been a bit since I’ve seen it but I think that movie is actually really underrated, and he’s great in it.
EDITED: Has anyone every read the First Movie series of books, which are interviews with directors about their, you guessed it, first movies?
Well it’s interesting because Stone is one of the participants but his involvement was dependent on them using SALVADOR as his first film, and not THE HAND and the other earlier horror movie whose name escapes me (SEIZURES maybe…?). I’m confused on what to count as a first film. For instance, is DUEL a first feature because it played theatrically overseas or is it SUGARLAND EXPRESS? Anyway, it’s worth checking out for some background on SALVADOR and Stone.
“Real Men”. Belushi + Ritter = Amazingly good fun.
The first 90 seconds of this clip is pretty darn good in and of itself (Belushi taking on the bad guys with an AK made from a cordless drill and vacuum cleaner parts): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyl63tL8ga0
“The milkman is making extra stops at your house.” Sigh, memories.
EDIT: And “Wild Palms”–holey moley, sometimes I think I might be the only person who liked that miniseries. There was merch; I bought it all.
i watched the Red Heat trailer. I had not idea it was a Walter Hill film. You learn something every day.
Oh, and the early projections have Super 8 at 30 million for the weekend.
Belushi has hardly gone away. He just wrapped a full season of THE DEFENDERS on CBS, and is currently starring on Broadway in a revival of BORN YESTERDAY. He does a bang-up job, playing it more than a little like Gleason (who, come to think of it, would’ve been tremendous in the role). He gets a ton of shit because of the sitcom and a lot of crappy movies, but I find him to be a real talent who needs to be given some respect.
jim belishi deserves respect for life for fucking ‘salvador’ alone
Yeah, when I read Belushi was doing BORN YESTERDAY, I thought it sounded like a good fit. Most of the digs at ACCORDING TO JIM seemed to be about its continued survival despite a complete lack of interest from critics, rather than any animosity toward Belushi himself.
nice 1 minute video
http://charlavail.tumblr.com/post/6410188760
yeah, According to Jim suffered from “Diagnosis Murder” syndrome. No one wanted to write about it. The show was on the air forever, and the only words entertainment writers would devote to the show would be about it’s tenure.
I never saw an episode of both. 3 camera sitcoms are where funny people go to die.
Anghus, you’ve clearly never seen THE BIG BANG THEORY.
i watched a couple of episodes and it didnt really click.
I much prefer the IT Crowd for my nerd based sitcom laughs.
I should have said “American 3 camera sitcoms are where funny people go to die”.
Thinking about transcription, anyone ever figure out why the closed-captions for “The X-Files” frequently went off script, occasionally revealing very interesting information? Was it part of the conspiracy?
i missed the whole X Files thing in the 1990’s. I tried watching a season and i just never found myself motivated to keep watching.
But from what i remember, wasnt it a lot like Lost. They kept raising questions but none of them ever get answered.
I tried to watch THE BIG BANG THEORY. I tried.
Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files, was pretty much the creator of the syndrome that killed Lost: set up truly amazing arcs that never pay off and never get explained.
After fans spent years cross-indexing every last detail of all the different conspiracies on the show, he eventually admitted he was making it up as he went along. Fans were understandably pissed, and his career crashed and burned as a result.
yeah whatever happened to Chris Carter … he needs a DP/30 ..give Jim Belushi a DP/30 too
Pretty much nothing, according to his Wiki page.
Half of the big names in his production company (alright, two people–the president and the office manager) left to create a new one and his most recent project is a movie he’s been filming “secretly” for 3 years. The Baltimore Sun says this “personal project may not see release”.
Unless there’s more “X-Files” coming up, he’s over with.
Big Bang Theory had a dynamite season this year. The thing that should have been creative suicide (‘let’s give Sheldon a girlfriend!’) turned out to be a shot of fresh air and a way to introduce a wonderful new dynamic into the series. They basically revamped the show, turning from a show about four nerds and a random hot blonde into an ensemble about four male nerds and two female nerds and their mutual friend, the random hot blonde (who as a result of the changes has much more to do with two female regulars to bounce off of along with the guys). An endless amount of new character combos and storytelling possibilities. It really has morphed into a variation on Friends and an awfully good one. The only real flaw at this point is a slight over-reliance on Jim Parson’s Sheldon, who is such a breakout and inherently comedic character that the writers have to be careful not to use him as a crutch at the expense of the rest of the cast. The show may get press for its occasional geek pandering, but it’s a sharp, well-acted sitcom that celebrates intellectual superiority without being smug.
I tried watching The Big Bang Theory because I kept hearing how good it is. It’s the worst.
hot blond chick = Kaley Cuoco .. on Maxim’s list ..
http://www.maxim.com/amg/girls/girls-of-maxim/86221/kaley-cuoco.html
Kaley is stuck in tv acting .. which was where Mila Kunis was with 70’s show but she broke out with Black Swan…
big bang has 2-3 years left … she could get lucky and
have a few hit movies and finally get a DP30 or do more
tv acting.
Saw the 2009 Star Trek again last night. Was reminded that Scotty says “banjaxed” in it.
Not to start a thing but I saw a few minutes of the “Guy Awards”-a concept I’m not going to touch-and saw Jim Carrey doing a bit about how being violently sodomized by a crazy uncle at a young age made him the comedian he is. The bit seemed to go over well with the crowd. Sean Penn was giggling (but then they could take reaction shots from any moment of the event I suppose). Personally I was in a dilemma over whether the bit was merely very lame or pretty offensive of both. It seemed kind of sad really.
Sean Penn was at the “Guy Awards”?
spike tv guys choice … an award show for
sponsors to sell stuff like
snickers / pizza hut / axe shower gel and
captain morgan
the celebrities are just there to promote their
movies .
http://www.spike.com/events/guys-choice/
I always wondered if Chris Carter suing Fox ruined his career. I did really like the X-Files. It took a couple of seasons I think before I finally tuned in. I thought I wasn’t going to like them cuz I’m not big on sci fi but I was hooked right off. It’s funny how much they made Scully look like Agent Sterling from Silence of the Lambs when the show first came on.
X-Files did throw a few bones out along the way. Carter did a great job using existing myths and folklore and conspiracies and weaving his show into them. Saved in creating his universe. No need to do a lot of backstory which often kills a movie or series trying to set up the world they live in. It would’ve been nice though if he could’ve written to wrap things up but it’s hard cuz who’ll really believe that aliens are in on the conspiracy, if that were the case?? Definite catch 22.
“Saw the 2009 Star Trek again last night. Was reminded that Scotty says “banjaxed” in it.”
crap! now i’m going to have to watch it again and listen real careful just for that one word (i think i’ve seen it twice, clearly it didn’t register either time)
xfiles had 2 movies but could have like 6-8 movies
fox could be cashing in big time
are they still rernning the series worldwide ?
Well, it’s rerunning in England. Movie #2 made back just over double its budget, and those involved are hoping for #3 in 2012.
It looks like another of his projects has a better chance of coming back: “Chris Carter, Lance Henriksen and Frank Spotnitz want return of Millennium”, a headline from just four months ago http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0819487/news#ni7789974
new Lance Henriksen interview … Aliens movie Near Dark and Millenium. Lance is getting old….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekHQv19_YQs
SamLowry: It’s common for closed-captioning to differ from the actual audio (different lines; dialog not actually spoken, etc.). I believe this is because they are done in advance from a supposedly-final script but do not reflect any changes made during actual production or in post.
it’s done a week or two before it airs using a tape that’s not 100% locked, and the show keeps looping and tweaking shit up til the day of air and doesn’t have time to have the caps fixed.
But OF COURSE it’s done after “actual production”; How else would it be timed and placed? It’s done verbatim what the actors say, but like I said, they tweak lines and shit for weeks after the cc is done.
Bradley Cooper on esquire magazine – looks different.
http://justjared.buzznet.com/2011/05/26/bradley-cooper-covers-esquires-summer-issue/
a remix of a Syfy movie .. this looks like a real
movie ..
Stonehenge Apocalypse – Shooting Stars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhvWMmjuqs8
Lex: “Of course it’s done after production.”
Cadavra: Serves me right for staying up past my bedtime. (forehead/desk)
i’m still upset no DP/30 of Drive Angry / Hanna / Limitless
– DP you missed out on too many good movies.
i blame Tree of Life – DP and the super secret movie critic society of 12 critics is going to make sure this is going to win an oscar of some sort …
i get it ..the gurus of gold critics wanna meet Brad Pitt and tell him how awesome he is which means actors in other movies are less awesome and don’t matter like Bradley Cooper and Saoirse Ronan — sorry your losers this year… try again next year
“Of course it’s done after production.”
This reminds me of one of my favorite Simpson’s lines “Very few cartoons are done live Homer, it’s a terrible strain on the cartoonists hands.”
time for a new BYOB .