Archive for August 22nd, 2008
August 22nd, 2008
Here’s a great little bit of film clip editing from Matt Zoller Seitz (the guy behind the excellent House Next Door blog) with expository scenes from everything from JAWS to PSYCHO to THE MATRIX. (Link courtesy of Jim Emerson’s Scanners blog.)
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I have to admit, it’s been a lot of years (and a lot of bad movies) since STAR WARS, but I still get a little chill when Alec Guinness explains what the heck The Force is. And Reese’s suitably intense description of The Terminator to a terrified Sarah Conner is a sci-fi classic. Hammiest bit? No contest — it’s the late Richard Crenna chewing up the scenery as he tells the cops what a tough guy John Rambo is. A billy goat puke? Really, Col. Troutman? Really?
August 22nd, 2008
Because Warner Bros, has announced that it plans to reboot the franchise and ignore what’s come before.
Says Warner Bros. Group President Jeff Robinov in the Wall Street Journal: ” ‘Superman (Returns)’ didn’t quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to. It didn’t position the character the way he needed to be positioned. .. Had ‘Superman’ worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009. … But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all.”
Robinov is referring to the long-rumored SUPERMAN VS. BATMAN movie that’s had comic book geeks salivating for years. Turns out it’s not going to happen — but that doesn’t mean there won’t be plenty of capes on movie screens in the years to come.
Here’s a surprise — Warner Bros. plans for the next wave of super-hero movies (as many as 8 by 2011, the article says) will be grim and gritty, just like this summer’s THE DARK KNIGHT. You don’t suppose that has anything to do with it becoming the No. 2 American box office champ, do you?
In the same article, Robinov mentions that HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE was moved to July 2009 because the studio needs a big summer release. In other words, exactly what I said here. Where’s my big Hollywood paycheck?!?
August 22nd, 2008
Here’s a short-but-classic bit from DR. STRANGELOVE (OR, HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB). As the B-52 bomber “The Leper Colony” prepares to attack the Soviet Union, its commander, Major Kong (Slim Pickens) goes over the contents of the Army-issue survival kit. As he says, “Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff!”
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Originally, he said “a pretty good weekend in Dallas,” but DR. STRANGELOVE was released in 1964, and with the Kennedy assassination still fresh in everyone’s minds, the line was changed.
