Oh I'm sorry, Did I Break Your Conversation........Well Allow Me A Movie Thread by S&T

[big j 33]

Good... The Office needs to end. I don't have any faith they can miraculously pull off a redeeming final season (especially with the cast/crew that's going to be left). Plus with the show gone, it gives another space for Community to stay and not be cancelled.

 

[hankmoody]

"When the Walt Disney Co said on Monday that it expected its sci-fi movie "John Carter" to lose about $200 million, it very likely shot the intergalactic box office bomb to the top of Hollywood's biggest loser chart."
http://www.chicagotribune...-20120320,0,756258.story


Oy vey.

 

[johnnyredstorm]

Epitomizes the way I feel about Hollywood.

Btw, saw First Class last week. Very nicely done. Entertained throughout the film and not once did I wonder how long it had been.

 

[N41D]

Hunger Games was about what you would expect... Followed the book pretty well but you obviously lost some of the detail because you don't get everything out of Katniss' thoughts like you do in the books...

Jennifer Lawrence is great. And I think they did well given they're catering to a bunch of teenagers. Still would love to see what someone would do with this storyline on a hard R rating though. Feel like you could make this really brutal and get yourself one hell of an action movie.

 

[big j 33]

I certainly don't wish failure on all the little people who were just doing their jobs on that movie.. but boy am I glad to see it flop. I do feel bad for Taylor Kitsch (the star) because he's also in the new Battleship movie.. which can easily be the 2nd worst box office failure of the year. He was great on Friday Night Lights (the TV show) and this could have been a big breakout year for him.

 

[big j 33]

Article from Grantland about Mad Men. I won't post the full article because it contains spoilers, but I found one part to be particularly interesting about TV's Golden Age.

But lo, in time, there was born unto television a savior. The gnomic prophet named David Chase came late to his assumption, after spending years of creative feast and famine toiling in the predictable fields, threshing network wheat and writing episodes of Kolchak: The Night Stalker. But in his 54th year, there came unto Chase a revelation, an otherworldly vision of multifaceted meatballs and grinding goomahs. In 1999, Chase's rapture led him out of the desolate north — or at least Northern Exposure — and into the land of milk and honey: HBO, a place that claimed not to be TV, yet ironically could only be viewed on it. In the last year of the 20th century, David Chase gave us The Sopranos. And we looked upon his creation. And it was good.

The so-called Golden Age of Television began that January night with James Gandolfini stressing over the ducks in his backyard, and it signaled a sea change in popular entertainment. During the roughly 10-year period that followed, the small screen went from being cinema's idiot brother to the last auteur-driven mass medium. What was once seen as a cul-de-sac of hacky cops and laugh tracks became a thrillingly limitless canvas for storytellers and creators. The Golden Age brought us the taut urbanity of The Wire, the soulful rusticity of Friday Night Lights, and the manic insanity of Arrested Development. It put polar bears in the tropics and profanity in the Old West. And then, without fanfare, it was over.

In a conversation last summer, Shawn Ryan, himself the creator of one of the Golden Age's finer scriptures, The Shield, pegged the end of the era to the fall 2010 premiere ofThe Walking Dead. Not as any referendum on the zombie show's quality but more of what it signified: by tripling the potential audience for a cable show and by doing so with genre spectacle, The Walking Dead was television's Jaws moment. Like the flowering of American film in the '70s, TV's Golden Age was the product of new companies (or, in this case, channels) empowering creators because they didn't know what else to do. The blockbuster success of The Walking Dead — along with Game of Thrones and True Blood— provided a way out, or at least around, the complicated power dynamic of the omnipotent showrunner. Vampires and dragons are, after all, far more dependable draws than David Simon's cantankerous take on the social safety net. (To my mind, the Golden Age was also sunk by the rise of prestige simulacra, hollow shows like The Killing and Hell on Wheels that ganked the ponderous pacing and adult themes of contemporary critical darlings without any of the singular wit or perspective.)

Not an insult to The Walking Dead, but I think a Jaws comparison is right on the money. Jaws, arguably the first modern blockbuster, ushered in a new wave of Hollywood movies, effectively killing New Hollywood. We all loved Jaws, Star Wars, Indiana Jones.. just like many of us love The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, etc., but I've never drawn the comparison before to these kind of shows signaling the end of TV's "Golden Age". 

Of course, we still have another season (or two "mini" seasons) of Breaking Bad, then three more of Mad Men.. but that's the last remaining shows from that period.

 

[stringer bell 32]

Just finished this book over the weekend.  Pretty decent, kind of a Moneyball Lite

Should be retitled The History of the Tampa Bay Rays.

If you follow baseball closely nothing here is new to you but it gives you a nice background on the Rays front office and a good recounting of their 2008 season.

3 / 5 

 

[duba169]

Boardwalk empire fits in with that golden age. I'm not entirely sure what you are saying though. You think there will be a drop off in quality?

 

[kevin cleveland]

Johnny, did you ever do anything with your screenplay?

ill, how is yours coming?

 

[CP1708]

Hunger Games was solid to me as someone yet to read the book. Loved the ending, thought it was a solid set up for whatever bad news will be coming in the second one. Woody kills it yet again ( he is on some roll currently) and Lawrence certainly did her job flawlessly. This girl gonna be around a while. I may go back and read the book to pick up details they could not express, just not sure if I'd want to read ahead, I kinda like seeing it first and coming into the movie blind............preview for Dark Shadows looked real good. And the Prometheus and Spiderman previews in a theatre

 

[N41D]

In the theater I was at, everyone was let out a big sigh and a giggle at the Abe Lincoln Vampire Killer trailer.

And yeah, CP... Go back and read the book. Way more in depth at certain points and you'll get a better feel for the story. You can knock it out quick, too. Very easy read.

 

[big j 33]

Originally Posted by DubA169

Boardwalk empire fits in with that golden age. I'm not entirely sure what you are saying though. You think there will be a drop off in quality?

Keeping with the Jaws comparison, there were certainly good films that came after that time, but it marks a shift in Hollywood and the emphasis is placed on the blockbuster. Big spectacles, a lot of style with less substance, driven by ratings, etc. Of course, there are deeper elements to shows like The Walking Dead.. but it's also a show about zombies that comes when zombies/vampires/etc. are insanely popular. I can't predict the future, so I'm sure there will be new series of high quality.. but I'm not expecting another Sopranos, The Wire, Friday Night Lights, Breaking Bad, etc. to come out in the next few years. Boardwalk Empire fits but I can tie that to the Sopranos a bit because Terence Winter and some of the writers/directors/etc. came from The Sopranos originally. 

 

[duba169]

http://www.slate.com/blog...ector_s_first_films.html

for you star wars nuts. early george lucas footage

 

[kevin cleveland]

I came across Battle Royale on iTunes and decided to rent it, not really taking into consideration download time and the fact that I could have found it elsewhere for free. 

Oh well. Not big on subtitled movies, either, but if it really is an R-rated Hunger Games inspiration, I'll deal.

 

[noskey]

smh at using iTunes for browsing anything.



But you wont be disappointed

Or did you already watch it?

 

[duba169]

anybody have any interesting random people to follow on twitter?

i found some good tech ones and a few movie critics

 

[mronegative]

saw Hunger Games...I liked it, they added a good amount that cleaned the story up and it's hard to say they should've added more of the book when, fast as it went by, the movie was already 2 1/2 hours.

still...I wish the director had more flair, cuz some stuff should've been clearer, I hope someone else does the 2nd movie.


read Y: The Last Man again...that comic book is so much more profound and thoughtful than uh...^

 

[kevin cleveland]

read Y: The Last Man again...that comic book is so much more profound and thoughtful than uh...^
I had zero knowledge of what that is, but I just read about it and it sounds so dope. I'm such a sucker for dystopian societies.

Never read a comic book in my life, though. The Walking Dead has me considering otherwise, but it still holds true for now.

smh at using iTunes for browsing anything.
I had an out-of-body experience or something. I don't know what happened. But no, I'm still waiting for it to download. Probably won't watch it until tomorrow now.

 

[japanair21]

Funny you say that, I got the US set today. It's quite nice, it's great to see that they put so much effort into this release. Despite that, I'd still fork down the extra cash and get the limited UK Arrow release, but if you can't be bothered with that, this set is great. I don't know how many of you guys are multimedia *+@%%! like I am, but a nicely presented set is just as appealing to me as a good transfer with a good set of extras, and both sets of Battle Royale have that.

The US Battle Royale deluxe set pictured above is quite nice. Anchor Bay (who is known for putting out a lot of horror classics with great detail) really took a hint from 20th Century Fox's Alien/Star Wars sets by going with the book-style design for the Blu-ray set. Comes with your standard, plastic, high-detail slip cover. The actual quality of the material used for the box set isn't as high quality as the Alien or Star Wars set, but it's still a step above anything else. It's a hard paper quality. All of the art on the inside is beautiful, and really represents the franchise as a whole.

Comparing the two in terms of extras, it's hard to say. The UK set has a ton of extra goodies, including a 32 page comic, 36 page booklet, a 16 page concept art booklet, postcards, and a fold-out poster with an overall much better package. On the back of the sets, comparing the list of extras, the US set has 13 extras to the 20 of the UK set. The US set has the allure of having the second film on Blu-ray, which is nice, but admittedly, it's a much inferior film in comparison to the other film.

If you're a huge fan, get the UK set, if you're a casual fan, get the US set.

Can't wait to hear what you say about it Kev, I hope your experience wasn't dulled by seeing The Hunger Games first.

 

[kevin cleveland]

I haven't seen The Hunger Games yet.

 

[japanair21]

Oh huh, could have sworn you said you had, but I think it was CP's post. Whoops. Well, it'll be interesting to see what you think regardless, especially someone who's seeing it now that it's aged over ten years.

 

[mronegative]

Y: The Last Man is far and away the most accessible comic I've read.
I mean...it's not a comic, it's an HBO show told in pictures.

The writer, Brian K. Vaughan wrote a bunch of Lost episodes before it went off the deep end.

 

[mronegative]

Y: The Last Man is far and away the most accessible comic I've read.
I mean...it's not a comic, it's an HBO show told in pictures.

The writer, Brian K. Vaughan wrote a bunch of Lost episodes before it went off the deep end.

 

[noskey]

Got 'Inglorious Basterds,' 'Good, the Bad and the Ugly,' and 'Sunshine' for $27 yesterday

CP, hit up Fry's NOW.


Kev, or MrO, or whoever was mad last time I didnt tell you about a band (M83). (And everyone else, because y'all dont visit the music forum.)

Watch, listen and love:





And 'To Carry...' is like, the 3rd or 4th best song on the album; that might even be generous to say. Amazing record (Taranta) all together. Played it like 5 times tonight.

 

[johnnyredstorm]

I've got a thin draft down, need to revise and flesh it out some, just haven't found the focus for the screen, though.