Box office roundup

[Evil Elvis]

So... Cloverfield is opening in 2 weeks or something.  Is anyone still interested in this movie?  It looks like War of the Worlds without Tom Cruise, for better or worse.  It's got JJ Abrams behind it, but I have this gut feeling it's going to be total ass.

The Orphange looks like it might be a better thriller, but I think it's in Spanish (despite the Americanized trailers).  Thriller + subtitles just hasn't worked for me, especially since I'm near-sighted.  It'll probably end up as a rental next year for me.

[schild]

Monster movie. Art is out the window. Day 1.

[Evil Elvis]

I'll settle for not wanting my money back after I leave the theater.  I'd blow M. Night for something half as entertaining as The Thing. 

[stray]

That avatar is the shit, EvilElvis.

[stu]

I saw one of those Cloverfield trailers when I went to see Transformers and the theater audience was pretty buzzed about it at the time. Looked cool to me. If it's half as entertaining as The Thing, it'll still be one of my all time favorite monster movies.

There are some strange Japanese inspired commercials for a drink called Slusho floating around which are related to the movie.

^_^The Official Slusho Wonderland ^_^



edit: they even stuck Engrish into the Slusho page

[HaemishM]

I'm still jazzed about Cloverfield. I intend to hit that one in the theater.

[Mazakiel]

Just got back from Juno.  I found it to be pretty enjoyable.  One of the quirkier comedies I've seen recently, but definitely worth seeing.  My only complaint would be all the 14 year old girls who came and couldn't shut the hell up. 

As to Sweeney Todd, I was kinda underwhelmed.  Maybe my expectations were too high, but Depp/Carter just didn't seem to have strong enough vocals to pull it off.  Of the three of us that went, I was the only one who felt that way though.  The old cast recordings I've given a brief listen to since sounded a hell of a lot better, though.  And while the production values were nice and all that, when like 98% of the movie is sung, the vocals need to really stand out. 


And on a final note, I'm definitely looking forward to Cloverfield.  I'm not expecting deep plot development or anything, I just want to see a giant monster fuck shit up, and all indications are go that it'll pull it off. 

[Engels]

Sorry, but Cloverfield looks pretentious as hell. Its like Godzilla as seen though the eyes of some Blair Witch Project dorks. The trailer makes me want to vomit.

[naum]

Tim Burton has done some good flicks, like Big Fish and Edward Scissorhands,  and even the Batmans were decent (but inferior to the latest series incantation)… …but Planet of the Apes and Sleepy Hollow are suck.

Extremely disappointed in Burton Planet of the Apes even though in some ways (though others it deviated more) it was more true to the book. Just figured that they could model the hi-tech society of the Apes much better (as in the Charlton Heston version, set cost considerations had them throwback apes to 19th century tech, in the book, they have jo-cars, and other advanced tech, but not all the late 20th century tech of humans…)…

Sleepy Hollow had the right cinematography look, feel and mode, but he altered the story into something unrecognizable (other than a few scenes) to the original story, and it didn't make it for the better…

Probably get 99% disagreement, but think Big Fish is his best flick (and Pee Wee Hermans Big Adventure #2 ;)), one that even after multiple viewings, you can ask "who's the dick?", the son or the father, and get a gamut full of different responses… …it was well done and the fantasy elements were fitting and gave humorous light hearted fare…

Haven't seen Sweeny Todd, but the experience of listening to Depp/Carter sing is not an enticing one…

[stray]

Big Fish would be my second favorite of his. Can't understand why you wouldn't mention Ed Wood at all though. Seriously? Pee Wee? I liked it when I was 9 -- and that was in secret.

[HaemishM]

I've refused to watch Big Fish simply because it was Burton. No matter how good a flick it is, his style just pisses me right the fuck off.

Cloverfield does look like big monster fucking up New York via the Blair Witch filter. I'm ok with that.

[tazelbain]

Could Cloverfeild be Cthulu?

[sidereal]

I think it's a film adaptation of Black & White

[naum]

Big Fish would be my second favorite of his. Can't understand why you wouldn't mention Ed Wood at all though. Seriously? Pee Wee? I liked it when I was 9 -- and that was in secret.

You know, I've not seen Ed Wood, but have always wanted. Will have to see if it's available (yes, I'm a cheap fuck) at the local library…

[HaemishM]

Ed Wood is definitely worth seeing. It's got the least "creepy weird guy style" that Burton's ever done.

[stu]

And Bill Murray!

[stray]

I love the part where Murray gets baptized.

"Welcome. Praise the lord, brother. Do you reject Satan and all his evils?"

"Sure."

Heh, has to be seen, I guess. It's one of those great lackadaisical Bill Murray moments.

[stu]

Bill Murray: Master of Smug

added: Teeth   Vagina Dentata

[HaemishM]

added: Teeth   Vagina Dentata

WHAT... IN... THE... FUCK? WHO GIVES THESE IDEAS FUCKING MONEY??

[Engels]

From Amber Night's blog on Teeth:

How did the pitch go, I wonder?



PRODUCER
Coming of age story, yadda yadda, bored now. What else ya got?


WRITER
Her vagina has teeth.


PRODUCER
Teeth you say.


WRITER
We’re talking molars, canines, the works.


PRODUCER
Here’s 10 million dollars.


WRITER
We’re gonna need 15. Prosthetic vaginal teeth and all.


PRODUCER
Hell, here’s an even 20.

[WayAbvPar]

Is that an Ann Coulter biopic?

[shiznitz]

No. Ann Coulter has teeth in her ass. She doesn't have a vagina. Because SHE'S A MAN, BABY!

[WayAbvPar]

Touche.

Back to movies- caught The Last King Of Scotland the other night on HBO. Pretty good flick, and Forest Whitaker was amazing. It was distracting to notice that they really made him up to look darkskinned, but it was accurate. Did a bit of reading about Idi Amin after watching this and learned something interesting- he was the Ugandan light heavyweight boxing champion for like 9 years when he was younger!

[DraconianOne]

he was the Ugandan light heavyweight boxing champion for like 9 years when he was younger!

Probably because he had all of his opponents killed and then told the referee what the result of the fight was.

[MrHat]

Haven't seen any praise for Juno in here.

I fucking loved it.

[WayAbvPar]

he was the Ugandan light heavyweight boxing champion for like 9 years when he was younger!

Probably because he had all of his opponents killed and then told the referee what the result of the fight was.

It was about 20 years before he took over, but your theory may still hold water 

[Abagadro]

Funny review of Uwe's latest turd

[SurfD]

I love the Pullman books (the last gets a bit much) but the film version of The Golden Compass is just shitty filmmaking at almost every level except for the visual design and effects. Terrible screenplay, awful direction. If you haven't read the books, you won't know what's going on and you won't care whether you do or not. The conclusion was also just insanely bad, and probably is where the studio shat on the film in the worst way.

Golden Compass had some good bits and some meh bits.  The visuals were for the most part great, particularly the steampunky sets and the daemons.  The script... I have to agree, weak.  Very little character development.  I vaguely remember caring what happened to Roger when I read the books, but in the movie he was just a funny-looking Princess Peach that I sort of hoped would die so there would be more screen time for polar bears beating the shit out of each other.  Also Sam Elliott, who does not require on-screen character development time because he plays the same character in every movie he's in, and that's okay.

I realize this is digging back a tiny bit in the thread, but i figured I would chime in on this one also.  I somewhat agree.  Overall, I thought the movie was fairly good, when taken on its own.  But if it is supposed to remain faithful to the book, I just cant understand how, with the Author himself supposedly heavily involved in the production, they could manage to fuck up a few scenes / ideas that are TOTALLY crucial to the entire concept the books are exploring.

I wasn't too pissed about the fact that they removed nearly the entire Gyptian swamp meet sceen (easily skippable), or that they swapped the order of occurance between the "kingdom of ice bears" scene and the "bolvangar labs" labs scene, since their order of occurance wasn't THAT important, but three things REALLY, REALLY fucking pissed me off.

- First, the Daemons are NOT physical incarnations of people's SOULS you fucking tards. They are physical incarnations of your "will" or "spirit".  Body, spirit, and soul, and their distinctions were KEY elements to the overall themes Pullman was exploring in the books, and they manage to completely fuck that up within the first 20 seconds of the movie?! (how the hell they are going to shoehorn that little screwup into later moves is beyond me; i'm looking at you, book 3)

- Secondly, if they had added the two minutes worth of scene time it would have taken to do the "You cant trick an Ice bear" dialog between Iorek and Lyra, and then used that to do the exposition on the actual reason why Iorek was able to beat Ragnar in their duel, they would have given that scene the moral it was supposed to have and made it 1000x more meaningful, instead of turning it into a largely meaningless filler scene of 2 bears beating each other up.

- Lastly, WHY THE FUCK COULDN'T YOU END THE MOVIE WITH THE HUGEASS IMPORTANT FUCKING CLIFFHANGER THE BOOK ENDED WITH.  That missing 10 or 15 minutes worth of scene at the end of the book is TOO FUCKING IMPORTANT to tack on to the beginning of the next movie instead of the end of the first one.

[Rasix]

Funny review of Uwe's latest turd

From the trailers, that movie seriously looks like one of the worst things ever possibly made.  It's a bad sign when you've got a boring, nonsensical trailer.  I can't even tell what the movie is about other than Jason Stratham giving incredibly lame speeches.

[Riggswolfe]

I still want to know how come Uwe Boll manages to get semi-decent actors in his movies. It blows my mind. Ray Liotta? Jason Statham? Lelee Sobieski? John Rhys Davis? Really? WTF? Were they all about to be evicted? Had Davies blown his money from LOTR on crack or something?

[HaemishM]

I still want to know how come Uwe Boll manages to get semi-decent actors in his movies. It blows my mind. Ray Liotta? Jason Statham? Lelee Sobieski? John Rhys Davis? Really? WTF? Were they all about to be evicted? Had Davies blown his money from LOTR on crack or something?

It's all about paychecks. Hell, every one of Boll's films has been profitable, despite being shittastic films and abysmal bombs at the box office. I can only guess he gives the good actors a piece of the DVD sales.

[Abagadro]

Man, they are really pumping the hell out of Jumper. Major ad campaign. I haven't read the book but it seems to have a decent rep. Good screenwriters (guys who wrote Fight Club and Dark City), good director (Doug Liman), decent cast (Hayden Christensen excepted). My curiosity is piqued.

[lamaros]

Good screenwriters (guys who wrote Fight Club)

??

[Murgos]

Good screenwriters (guys who wrote Fight Club)

??

He said screenwriters.

If you ever read the Stranger Than Fiction by Chuck Palahnuik he actually talks specifically about the experience of seeing "FIGHT CLUB" and under it "Written by Jim Uhls".

[HaemishM]

Man, they are really pumping the hell out of Jumper. Major ad campaign. I haven't read the book but it seems to have a decent rep. Good screenwriters (guys who wrote Fight Club and Dark City), good director (Doug Liman), decent cast (Hayden Christensen excepted). My curiosity is piqued.

The original book is WAY different from what they are selling on the screen. I haven't read it, but a buddy of mine loved it, and told me about the differences. In the book, the main character is the only one who can jump. In the movie, there are a bunch of jumpers, and they get together and fight. It might be good, or it might be Underworld without the hot chick.

EDIT: Finally saw Sunshine on DVD. I loved the flick, but I can't understand why they chose the plot twist that they did. It didn't kill the movie for me, but it sure did stretch credibility.