At the movies...

[Polysorbate80]

Can anyone clue me in on why TENNIS would be CG?

Two reasons off the top of my head, either or both of which may apply:

1)  Movie/TV types often feel the need to use the latest gadgets or gimmicks, even when absolutely unecessary. Years in the video business has convinced me that they often don't even realize there *IS* another way.  It's annoying, but that's the way they think.

2)  The actors can't play tennis worth a damn, and using doubles to play tennis just didn't work out properly.

It's also possible they wanted shots that were physically impossible to shoot in reality (dunno, haven't seen the flick), but that would only justify a little CG, not a lot.

[schild]

It looks better in CG. Quit your bitching. It's wimbledon - doubles wouldn't even be Wimbledon caliber players. Much like the CGI Ping pong...in the movie Ping Pong. It was necessary and appropriate.

[MrHat]

I will second (or third?) the vote for Wimbelton if you dont' mind tennis.  The acting is great, the plot is ok (chick flick), and the tennis is actually fun to watch for being CG.

CG Tennis...are you serious? WHY? What next, CG of someone eating a sandwhich. Is it that hard to just film tennis?

Can anyone clue me in on why TENNIS would be CG?

Because they could?

[Ironwood]

Because they could?

They were so busy thinking about whether they could, they didn't stop to think about whether they SHOULD.


/end brundlefly.

[Merusk]

One thing I haevn't seen mentioned anywhere about Skycaptian was that there's a few nice nods to other Sci-fi culture sprinkled through it.  My wife caught the first one, and I started looking from there, but I'm not a big, big sci-fi buff, so we might have both been imagining it.

Ref 1. - When they're going through Skycaptian's warehouse of robots.
Mwife pointed out that the deactivated robots along the wall looked like the robots from one of the 1950's Superman cartoons.

Ref 2. - The address of Jennings' lab was 1138. Lucas' first film, and the numbers he slips into every film he produces.

Ref 3. - The tiny elephant in Jennings' lab. In the novel version of Jurassic Park, Hammond had a tiny elephant as a pet & way to drum-up money for InGen.

Ref 4. - Olivier as 'the wizard'.  Big, big Wizard of Oz reference here when the giant floating head appears. I almost missed it, it was so obvious.

Those were the biggies I noticed.  Quickly searching the web it looks like there's a lot more, which just makes the movie more fun, IMO.  Anyone catch some other glaring ones I should be ashamed I missed?

[SurfD]

Well, not sure if this counts, but the Anime geek in me practically SCREAMED Laputa: Castle in the Sky by Miyazaki when I saw the flying robots.

[Zetleft]

The giant robots lazer beams sounded pretty damn close to those used in the old War of the Worlds alien ships.

[Polysorbate80]

It's wimbledon - doubles wouldn't even be Wimbledon caliber players.

A non-factor.  It's not live TV; a little careful shooting & editing to remove flaws and tighten up the play would accomplish the same thing for less time & money.  Which could actually make even doubles for the stars irrelevant, unless the actors totally and completely suck at tennis.

(They made a movie about ping-pong? What the hell?)

[schild]

It's wimbledon - doubles wouldn't even be Wimbledon caliber players.

A non-factor.  It's not live TV; a little careful shooting & editing to remove flaws and tighten up the play would accomplish the same thing for less time & money.  Which could actually make even doubles for the stars irrelevant, unless the actors totally and completely suck at tennis.

(They made a movie about ping-pong? What the hell?)

The Ping Pong movie is a coming of age story. And still stands as my favorite sports movie of all time.

Here's where you can buy it.

[WayAbvPar]

Finally caught Sky Captain last night. It was fun, and I enjoyed it for the most part, despite wanting to choke the living shit out of Polly Perkins.

[Polysorbate80]

Finally caught Sky Captain last night. It was fun, and I enjoyed it for the most part, despite wanting to choke the living shit out of Polly Perkins.

As a combination of "over-the-top psycho reporter" & "attractive-but-irritating girlfriend" stereotypes, I think her character's meant to get on your nerves :)

[Ardent]

Ref 4. - Olivier as 'the wizard'.

I absolutely loathe those insipid vacuum cleaner and beer commercials where they rape the corpses of Fred Astaire and John Wayne to push their stupid products ... but I didn't mind so much that they used a dead actor for this role. It seemed to fit. I guess I don't object to the idea of using technology to bring back the dead, depending on the context.

I think they should have used a dead actress to play Polly. She couldn't have been any worse than Gwenyth Paltrow.

[Polysorbate80]

I think they should have used a dead actress to play Polly.

Perhaps if they made her an actual zombie; that would seem somehow appropriate to the genre :)