December 14th. "I am Legend." Fucking be there.

[DraconianOne]

But you can't lay the blame for those movies at the feet of stupid American moviegoers (as some are trying to do) when those movies are dominating box offices in other countries as well.

Being the "some" that you're referring to, I've got to say that I'm not really putting the blame squarely and entirely on the shoulders of the American moviegoers.  The studios will make decisions about the content of films based on what they perceive will sell and if that means making Constantine American, giving Tank Girl a first name or even altering history so that it was an American submarine crew that captured the Enigma machine in U-571 then so be it. They do so because they think it will sell to the American moviegoers and believe that the same moviegoers won't be interested in anything which doesn't have Americans in.  Maybe they would be if they got a chance to - we will probably never know.  

As for box-office domination, that's easy and it is to do with money - very much so.  Like who has it.  The answer, of course, being Hollywood.  They are the only people who can afford to throw an estimated $250 million dollars and change at a film production (Spider-man 3).  Was it any good?  Was it fuck!  Did it make it's money back?  Hell yeah - because everyone went to see it.  Why?  Because when it opened in the US on May 6th, it opened on over 4200 screens.  Also take into account the marketing budget which experts put at anywhere between $80m and $120m (and this is on top of the previous figure.)

Consider this: the most successful French film this year was called La Vie En Rose.  It cost about $28m-$30m to make.  It opened in the US at the beginning of June on 8 screens.  Six weeks later - obviously because it was popular and was selliing, it had reached it's maximum of 178 screens.  (It only reached 80 screens in the UK)

The UK Film Industry is the 3rd biggest in the world (behind India and the US).  The most expensive UK film made to date is Atonement.  It cost $35m.  Actually, I'm cheating because it's a joint UK/French production, but still.  It did well in Europe - in the UK it reached 400+ screens (compared to Spidey 3's 500+)  It's officially on limited release in the US from 7th December and I don't know how many screens it'll be on.  Another example?  Hot Fuzz - made for a budget of $16 million dollars.  You could have made 5 Hot Fuzzes just for the marketing budget of Spidey 3.  It did pretty well - got out to 450 screens in the UK and maxed at 1200 screens in the US (which was on the May 6th weekend).

Point is that the reason US blockbuster films dominate box office figures for other countries is because no-one else can compete with the wallets of the studios.  They can throw more money at one film than most countries can for a years worth of home grown production.  They can saturate the theatres with the movies and run huge marketing campaigns so that they're constantly in the public awareness.  Sure people pay to go and see them but it's difficult not to when you don't have much choice.  What's the old saying?  You can have any colour so long as it's black.  

Yes I fell for WUA's trolling and I almost felt the need for a chart AND a graph.  I'm bitter about a lot of this and it's not just from an audience perspective but as someone who's tried to get any money whatsoever out of any of the UK film funding bodies.

Like you should give a fuck from where the movie is if it is good.

Truth.

[Samwise]

Point is that the reason US blockbuster films dominate box office figures for other countries is because no-one else can compete with the wallets of the studios.

You can't tell me that noplace on Earth but Hollywood is there a group of investors who could afford to invest $250 mil (that's what, a couple of Euros and change?) into getting a movie made.

[lamaros]

I take it you've never heard of Andy Warhol schild?

[schild]

I do not understand that comment.

Paintings != Art.

[Engels]

Because she grew up there, talks with a strong British accent, and lives there now, doing a lot of BBC and stagework these days. Figured she's a Brit as much as anyone else there.

Kind of like Sugartits up there, I guess. Born American, but pretty much an Aussie, no matter how often he tries to fool us with that "Riggs" voice of his.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws60MdOaNWU


What's funny is that when she is interviewed for American stuff (like the X-Files), she puts on an American accent. Which is what Bales does too.

Well, we'll call her a hybrid and call it even. My sister's only lived in England for the last 4 years and she's already adopting the accent, and, more atrociously, the vocabulary, but you won't hear her saying she's English.

Thanks for the link tho. I thought I was over her, thought my cross-legged viewing of the XFiles days were over. Alas, boners spring eternal with that woman.

[lamaros]

Please to be informing us of what is and isn't "art", objectively-like, in every field, genre, etc.

[schild]

Please to be informing us of what is and isn't "art", objectively-like, in every field, genre, etc.

I think you missed the point.

This whole thing falls in the vein of:

While all apples are fruits, not all fruits are apples.

If you want to consider ID4 a film, just know that by standard film bastard school definition, there's a difference between movie and film. I'm ok with looking like an egotistical know-it-all chump jerk. But I'm not willing to call shit like Bounce or Miami Vice a film. And I'm not prepared to label something like Clockwork Orange or Glengarry Glen Ross as a movie.

[Margalis]

Liz Hurley image not loading GRRRR.

[lamaros]

I think you missed the point.

This whole thing falls in the vein of:

While all apples are fruits, not all fruits are apples.

If you want to consider ID4 a film, just know that by standard film bastard school definition, there's a difference between movie and film. I'm ok with looking like an egotistical know-it-all chump jerk. But I'm not willing to call shit like Bounce or Miami Vice a film. And I'm not prepared to label something like Clockwork Orange or Glengarry Glen Ross as a movie.

As someone who has done a bit of film study in the past I'm afraid you're just wrong. I'm fine with being called an arrogant aloof egotistical snobby art-fag intellectual academic jerk too, and you have no grounds of argument here. The separation you are trying to identify does not exist.

Also: Your apple example seems to argue that there is a category "movies" of which "film" is a distinction. However your argument then says "films" are not "movies" (more specifiably, that you are not prepared to call them such). Which is contrary to your apple analogy.

Either way, you are still wrong.

[lamaros]

Starship Troopers is a very carefully crafted movie. So is Gosford Park. So is Fifth Element. So is Lost Highway.

I happen to like all of them. By your reasoning only Gosford Park and Lost Highway would probably be called "films". But I challenge you to give me a definition as to why they are films and the others are not. Is Dr. Strangelove a movie but Full Metal Jacket a film?

[stray]

Fuck the both of joo!!! Long live Cinéma!!

[WindupAtheist]

I'd just like to remind the universe that DraconianOne, defender of cinema, previously spent a few days arguing with me over the fight between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones.

[stray]

Wait, I - ME - I just dubbed myself the defender of cinema. Everyone else was talking movies and films.

[WindupAtheist]

/sadf

[stray]

/sadf

Man, I always forget what that one means. Google tells me "South African Defense Force".

[Oban]

/sadf

Man, I always forget what that one means. Google tells me "South African Defense Force".

[stray]

OK, I think got the meaning now. Lum knows all.

..

WUA took me too seriously, I think.

Just to spell it out though: The only way to dispense of an argument between "film" and "movie" is to fag it up with third party called "cinéma".

[Velorath]

just know that by standard film bastard school definition, there's a difference between movie and film. I'm ok with looking like an egotistical know-it-all chump jerk. But I'm not willing to call shit like Bounce or Miami Vice a film. And I'm not prepared to label something like Clockwork Orange or Glengarry Glen Ross as a movie.

Most people I know who went to film school use the word film to describe any movie that was shot on film (as opposed to digitally).  They don't use it to defferentiate between movies made for entertainment and movies made for art.

[DraconianOne]

The only way to dispense of an argument between "film" and "movie" is to fag it up with third party called "cinéma".

I think it's only Schild whose having this argument.  No-one else gives a shit - they just use the words interchangeably.

Most people I know who went to film school use the word film to describe any movie that was shot on film (as opposed to digitally). 

 
What do they call a movie that wasn't shot on film then? 

[Velorath]

What do they call a movie that wasn't shot on film then? 

Just a movie I suppose.  Where they seem to be the most nitpicky with the word in that respect is when you use it as a verb.  In other words, you can't say you're filming a movie if it's digital.  You would instead say that you're shooting a movie.

[stray]

Wow. I talk to a few "film"makers on a regular basis... Glad to say that I've never heard that shit before.

[Merusk]

/sadf

Man, I always forget what that one means. Google tells me "South African Defense Force".

IIRC, It means nothing.  It was the first line of an e-mail about Dawn and has been used ever since in the same sentiment as 

[Ironwood]

There is a difference between USA-centric and jingoistic. ID was just over the top.

Why exactly did you all fall for WUAs trolling and discuss the general merits of movies from different countries? Like you should give a fuck from where the movie is if it is good.

U-571


'Nuff Said.

Cunts.

[DarkSign]

Anytime my Euro friends try to act snobbish about the level of American culture, I just have to laugh. While Europe is quite sophisticated in many regards, their taste is backward in just as many ways. Have you ever seen Italians wearing clothes that have non-sensical English on it, just because they think it's hip? Have you ever seen the French version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" where 58% of the audience can't correctly identify that the Moon revolves around the Earth? Better yet, have you been to the German "Love Parade?" I have. It's full of baffoons.

Now that's not to say I hate Europe. I love it actually. But European snobbery is highly out of place.

[IainC]

Now that's not to say I hate Europe. I love it actually. But European snobbery is highly out of place.

Our lowbrow is better than your lowbrow. Two words: Adam Sandler.


Nonsensical English is not limited to the fashion sense of Italian teenagers, try watching any MTV show that isn't just music videos.
The Belgian guy on WWTBaM was a moron and the audience were taking the piss.
Dunno what your point was about the Love Parade. Don't have an issue with German gay people acting like it's Mardi Gras myself.

[Ironwood]

Fuck it

[lamaros]

Stupid Shit.

You sir are a fuckwit.

[WindupAtheist]

Fuck it

Never doubt my powers again.

[Ironwood]

Heh.  You're flattering yourself.

 

[WindupAtheist]

Are you kidding?  We're like thisclose to a Hitler thread.

[Oban]

Are you kidding?  We're like thisclose to a Hitler thread.

Valkyrie should be a good blend of European and American film values.

[Ironwood]

 

[Miasma]

Smith gives away ending (article doesn't).

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - Hollywood star Will Smith had the producer of his latest film holding his head in anguish on Tuesday after the actor gave away the ending of "I Am Legend."

Speaking at a Tokyo news conference, Smith inadvertently revealed the plot, prompting co-producer and co-screenwriter Akiva Goldsman to shout: "Don't give away the ending!"

Goldsman then pretended to be surprised, but it was all too late, and press handlers asked all present to keep the ending a secret, so as not to spoil it for viewers.

Smith plays a virologist fighting a man-made virus in "I Am Legend," the film adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel of the same title.

The movie premieres simultaneously in the United States and Japan on December 14.

(Reporting by Toshi Maeda; writing by George Nishiyama; editing by Roger Crabb)

[Murgos]

The book has been out for 53 years.  If you want to know what the ending is it is readily available.

Well, except for the part where they leave the tie ins for I Am Legend II: The Hunt For Curly's Gold.

[Mazakiel]

I read an article where they were talking about the movie, and while it 'borrows elements from' the book or some such, it's not a straight adaptation.  More of an 'inspired by' type of deal.  So, the ending revealed could actually be completely different from the book.  Considering how awesome I thought the ending of the story was, I'm rather unimpressed by the thought of it being changed.