list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Jurassic Park on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/Jurassic_Park/18496/default.aspx Title: Jurassic Park
Year: 1993
Director: Steven Spielberg
Plot: Steven Spielberg's phenomenally successful sci-fi adventure thriller is graced by state-of-the-art special effects from the team of Stan Winston, Phil Tippett and Michael Lantieri from George Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic. The film follows two dinosaur experts -- Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Ellie Sattler Laura Dern) -- as they are invited by eccentric millionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) to preview his new amusement park on an island off Costa Rica. By cloning DNA harvested from pre-historic insects, Hammond has been able to create living dinosaurs for his new Jurassic Park, an immense animal preserve housing real brachiosaurs, dilophosaurs, triceratops, velociraptors, and a Tyrannosaur Rex. Accompanied by cynical scientist Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), who is obsessed with chaos theory, and Hammond's two grandchildren (Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello), they are sent on a tour through Hammond's new resort in computer controlled touring cars. But as a tropical storm hits the island, knocking out the power supply, and an unscrupulous employee (Wayne Knight) sabotages the system so that he can smuggle dinosaur embryos out of the park, the dinosaurs start to rage out of control. Grant then has to bring Hammond's grandchildren back to safety as the group is pursued by the gigantic man-eating beasts. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 105
Number of Lists: 104
Number of blog posts: 16
Number of discussion threads: 19
SpoutRating: 3
]]>Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:37:43 GMTJurassic Park1993Steven Spielberg<a href="/players/P___112325/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Steven Spielberg</a>'s phenomenally successful sci-fi adventure thriller is graced by state-of-the-art special effects from the team of <a href="/players/P___117079/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Stan Winston</a>, Phil Tippett and Michael Lantieri from <a href="/players/P___100308/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>George Lucas</a>'s Industrial Light & Magic. The film follows two dinosaur experts -- Dr. Alan Grant (<a href="/players/P____52123/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Sam Neill</a>) and Dr. Ellie Sattler <a href="/players/P____18704/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Laura Dern</a>) -- as they are invited by eccentric millionaire John Hammond (<a href="/players/P____80152/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Richard Attenborough</a>) to preview his new amusement park on an island off Costa Rica. By cloning DNA harvested from pre-historic insects, Hammond has been able to create living dinosaurs for his new Jurassic Park, an immense animal preserve housing real brachiosaurs, dilophosaurs, triceratops, velociraptors, and a Tyrannosaur Rex. Accompanied by cynical scientist Ian Malcolm (<a href="/players/P____27435/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Jeff Goldblum</a>), who is obsessed with chaos theory, and Hammond's two grandchildren (Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello), they are sent on a tour through Hammond's new resort in computer controlled touring cars. But as a tropical storm hits the island, knocking out the power supply, and an unscrupulous employee (<a href="/players/P____38826/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Wayne Knight</a>) sabotages the system so that he can smuggle dinosaur embryos out of the park, the dinosaurs start to rage out of control. Grant then has to bring Hammond's grandchildren back to safety as the group is pursued by the gigantic man-eating beasts. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide105Tag Target (>10)10416193http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t16722k8oly.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/Jurassic_Park/18496/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/Re_Weekly_Theme_for_June_29_Summertime/625/42883/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: leeroy711
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 7/1/2009 1:58:43 AM
Body: [quote user="mercurial"] I feel honored to post this week's theme as it will mark Weekly Theme's One Year Anniversary! Time has sure passed by quickly as it doesn't seem all that long ago that Emery asked me if I wanted to co-moderate this little brainchild of his. Anyways, here's to another year of weekly themes! Currently I'm sitting outside at my local coffeeshop where I come for the tasty caffeinated beverages and free Wi-Fi and am drenched from head to toe thanks to the blistering heat wave that is peaking now at 110 degress. Thusly I felt this week we should talk about all those movies about summer. Not just those movies that take place during the summer months, but the movies that might have been released during the summer or for whatever reason makes us reminisce about all the ups and downs associated with the season. There are those staples of summertime cinema that make everyone (kids and adults alike) think about how exciting the idea of summer was as a kid. The Sandlot, Now and Then, My Girl and White Water Summer all remind me of how much time I spent thinking about summer during the school year and couldn't wait until that last day of school so that I could toss away my school books and spend three months doing absolutely nothing. Getting a little older, Dazed and Confused became a start of summer ritual viewing for me as it perfectly captures those feelings of anticipation and all the possibilities that the summer months can hold. Some other films have tried to capture those same feelings with mediocre results. The Wackness was an interesting coming of age during the summer flick about a lackluster teenage drug dealer coping with the heat in New York after graduating high school. Adventureland had its moments with its colorful cast of outcasts running amuck at a summer amusement park as did Wet Hot American Summer but transplanted to a summer camp. My guilty pleasure summer flick is definitely Psycho Beach Party. Set in a 1950's Beach Blanket Bingo-like setting, this campy horror comedy gets me laughing every time (and a completely nude Amy Adams doesn't hurt either). But ultimately there are two movies that getting me thinking summer without a doubt. The first being one of the first summer blockbusters I saw and the other being because it takes place during summer. I vividly recall lining up to buy tickets for Jurassic Park and how amazed I was at how many people there were and how packed the theater was. Packed in a small hot theater, I was mesmerized by the movie and it still to this day makes me think of how great a summer movie can be. The other film is of course Jaws. I've gone into great detail in other discussions about how this film has pretty much ruined any summer trips to the beach for me (or any body of water for that matter) and I will forever love it for doing that. Any movie that can make a grown man go into hysterics when his friends joke around and push him over the side of a boat into a small lake during an afternoon of drinking deserves some major points. So break out the sun block and lets get talking! [/quote] Hooray for US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!... I've never really thought of this group as a brainchild but whatever works..............maybe like an adopted brainchild that Chris & I decided to raise together in spite of constant adversity and redicule from our friends and family. We named that child Weekly Theme and raised him with all the love his "traditional family structure" never gave him. I'll never forget the day Daddy Chris took off Weekly's training wheels and ran along side of him as Daddy Emery cheerfully snapped photo after photo until he crashed into Mr. Woodril's hedges and skinned his knee. That child grew and grew, everyday becoming more and more of his own man............................. And that child's name was C. Thomas Howell....... And NOOOW you know...... the RESSST of the story... Anyway..... Summer movies are great. Evertime I hear that phrase I recall the time my family and I were standing outside in line for Jurassic Park and a 15 year old girl passed out in front of us from the heat.. I think it was about 117 that day but the lines were packed. I would also mention a couple films that come to mind that I think are great examples of portrayels of the summer heat. Burtolucci's La Commare Secca takes place durring a particularly sweaty Italian summer.... Also, Chinatown is one of my alltime favorite films and it does a great job of showing a hot summer in LA.
]]>Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:58:43 GMTleeroy711Weekly Theme7/1/2009 1:58:43 AM[quote user="mercurial"] I feel honored to post this week's theme as it will mark Weekly Theme's One Year Anniversary! Time has sure passed by quickly as it doesn't seem all that long ago that Emery asked me if I wanted to co-moderate this little brainchild of his. Anyways, here's to another year of weekly themes! Currently I'm sitting outside at my local coffeeshop where I come for the tasty caffeinated beverages and free Wi-Fi and am drenched from head to toe thanks to the blistering heat wave that is peaking now at 110 degress. Thusly I felt this week we should talk about all those movies about summer. Not just those movies that take place during the summer months, but the movies that might have been released during the summer or for whatever reason makes us reminisce about all the ups and downs associated with the season. There are those staples of summertime cinema that make everyone (kids and adults alike) think about how exciting the idea of summer was as a kid. The Sandlot, Now and Then, My Girl and White Water Summer all remind me of how much time I spent thinking about summer during the school year and couldn't wait until that last day of school so that I could toss away my school books and spend three months doing absolutely nothing. Getting a little older, Dazed and Confused became a start of summer ritual viewing for me as it perfectly captures those feelings of anticipation and all the possibilities that the summer months can hold. Some other films have tried to capture those same feelings with mediocre results. The Wackness was an interesting coming of age during the summer flick about a lackluster teenage drug dealer coping with the heat in New York after graduating high school. Adventureland had its moments with its colorful cast of outcasts running amuck at a summer amusement park as did Wet Hot American Summer but transplanted to a summer camp. My guilty pleasure summer flick is definitely Psycho Beach Party. Set in a 1950's Beach Blanket Bingo-like setting, this campy horror comedy gets me laughing every time (and a completely nude Amy Adams doesn't hurt either). But ultimately there are two movies that getting me thinking summer without a doubt. The first being one of the first summer blockbusters I saw and the other being because it takes place during summer. I vividly recall lining up to buy tickets for Jurassic Park and how amazed I was at how many people there were and how packed the theater was. Packed in a small hot theater, I was mesmerized by the movie and it still to this day makes me think of how great a summer movie can be. The other film is of course Jaws. I've gone into great detail in other discussions about how this film has pretty much ruined any summer trips to the beach for me (or any body of water for that matter) and I will forever love it for doing that. Any movie that can make a grown man go into hysterics when his friends joke around and push him over the side of a boat into a small lake during an afternoon of drinking deserves some major points. So break out the sun block and lets get talking! [/quote] Hooray for US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!... I've never really thought of this group as a brainchild but whatever works..............maybe like an adopted brainchild that Chris &amp; I decided to raise together in spite of constant adversity and redicule from our friends and family. We named that child Weekly Theme and raised him with all the love his "traditional family structure" never gave him. I'll never forget the day Daddy Chris took off Weekly's training wheels and ran along side of him as Daddy Emery cheerfully snapped photo after photo until he crashed into Mr. Woodril's hedges and skinned his knee. That child grew and grew, everyday becoming more and more of his own man............................. And that child's name was C. Thomas Howell....... And NOOOW you know...... the RESSST of the story... Anyway..... Summer movies are great. Evertime I hear that phrase I recall the time my family and I were standing outside in line for Jurassic Park and a 15 year old girl passed out in front of us from the heat.. I think it was about 117 that day but the lines were packed. I would also mention a couple films that come to mind that I think are great examples of portrayels of the summer heat. Burtolucci's La Commare Secca takes place durring a particularly sweaty Italian summer.... Also, Chinatown is one of my alltime favorite films and it does a great job of showing a hot summer in LA. http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/Re_Weekly_Theme_for_June_29_Summertime/625/42880/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: Risselada
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 6/30/2009 6:39:43 PM
Body: [quote user="mercurial"] The Wackness was an interesting coming of age during the summer flick about a lackluster teenage drug dealer coping with the heat in New York after graduating high school.[/quote] I've never heard of this one, but when I think of a movie that conveys extreme New York summer heat the best, I think of Do the Right Thing. You can feel the heat. Now if you want to feel the heat both literally and figuratively of being stuck inside and and just wanting to get out, check out 12 Angry Men.
]]>Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:39:43 GMTRisseladaWeekly Theme6/30/2009 6:39:43 PM[quote user="mercurial"] The Wackness was an interesting coming of age during the summer flick about a lackluster teenage drug dealer coping with the heat in New York after graduating high school.[/quote] I've never heard of this one, but when I think of a movie that conveys extreme New York summer heat the best, I think of Do the Right Thing. You can feel the heat. Now if you want to feel the heat both literally and figuratively of being stuck inside and and just wanting to get out, check out 12 Angry Men. http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/Weekly_Theme_for_June_29_Summertime/625/42867/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: mercurial
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 6/29/2009 9:38:41 PM
Body: I feel honored to post this week's theme as it will mark Weekly Theme's One Year Anniversary! Time has sure passed by quickly as it doesn't seem all that long ago that Emery asked me if I wanted to co-moderate this little brainchild of his. Anyways, here's to another year of weekly themes! Currently I'm sitting outside at my local coffeeshop where I come for the tasty caffeinated beverages and free Wi-Fi and am drenched from head to toe thanks to the blistering heat wave that is peaking now at 110 degress. Thusly I felt this week we should talk about all those movies about summer. Not just those movies that take place during the summer months, but the movies that might have been released during the summer or for whatever reason makes us reminisce about all the ups and downs associated with the season. There are those staples of summertime cinema that make everyone (kids and adults alike) think about how exciting the idea of summer was as a kid. The Sandlot, Now and Then, My Girl and White Water Summer all remind me of how much time I spent thinking about summer during the school year and couldn't wait until that last day of school so that I could toss away my school books and spend three months doing absolutely nothing. Getting a little older, Dazed and Confused became a start of summer ritual viewing for me as it perfectly captures those feelings of anticipation and all the possibilities that the summer months can hold. Some other films have tried to capture those same feelings with mediocre results. The Wackness was an interesting coming of age during the summer flick about a lackluster teenage drug dealer coping with the heat in New York after graduating high school. Adventureland had its moments with its colorful cast of outcasts running amuck at a summer amusement park as did Wet Hot American Summer but transplanted to a summer camp. My guilty pleasure summer flick is definitely Psycho Beach Party. Set in a 1950's Beach Blanket Bingo-like setting, this campy horror comedy gets me laughing every time (and a completely nude Amy Adams doesn't hurt either). But ultimately there are two movies that getting me thinking summer without a doubt. The first being one of the first summer blockbusters I saw and the other being because it takes place during summer. I vividly recall lining up to buy tickets for Jurassic Park and how amazed I was at how many people there were and how packed the theater was. Packed in a small hot theater, I was mesmerized by the movie and it still to this day makes me think of how great a summer movie can be. The other film is of course Jaws. I've gone into great detail in other discussions about how this film has pretty much ruined any summer trips to the beach for me (or any body of water for that matter) and I will forever love it for doing that. Any movie that can make a grown man go into hysterics when his friends joke around and push him over the side of a boat into a small lake during an afternoon of drinking deserves some major points. So break out the sun block and lets get talking!
]]>Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:38:41 GMTmercurialWeekly Theme6/29/2009 9:38:41 PMI feel honored to post this week's theme as it will mark Weekly Theme's One Year Anniversary! Time has sure passed by quickly as it doesn't seem all that long ago that Emery asked me if I wanted to co-moderate this little brainchild of his. Anyways, here's to another year of weekly themes! Currently I'm sitting outside at my local coffeeshop where I come for the tasty caffeinated beverages and free Wi-Fi and am drenched from head to toe thanks to the blistering heat wave that is peaking now at 110 degress. Thusly I felt this week we should talk about all those movies about summer. Not just those movies that take place during the summer months, but the movies that might have been released during the summer or for whatever reason makes us reminisce about all the ups and downs associated with the season. There are those staples of summertime cinema that make everyone (kids and adults alike) think about how exciting the idea of summer was as a kid. The Sandlot, Now and Then, My Girl and White Water Summer all remind me of how much time I spent thinking about summer during the school year and couldn't wait until that last day of school so that I could toss away my school books and spend three months doing absolutely nothing. Getting a little older, Dazed and Confused became a start of summer ritual viewing for me as it perfectly captures those feelings of anticipation and all the possibilities that the summer months can hold. Some other films have tried to capture those same feelings with mediocre results. The Wackness was an interesting coming of age during the summer flick about a lackluster teenage drug dealer coping with the heat in New York after graduating high school. Adventureland had its moments with its colorful cast of outcasts running amuck at a summer amusement park as did Wet Hot American Summer but transplanted to a summer camp. My guilty pleasure summer flick is definitely Psycho Beach Party. Set in a 1950's Beach Blanket Bingo-like setting, this campy horror comedy gets me laughing every time (and a completely nude Amy Adams doesn't hurt either). But ultimately there are two movies that getting me thinking summer without a doubt. The first being one of the first summer blockbusters I saw and the other being because it takes place during summer. I vividly recall lining up to buy tickets for Jurassic Park and how amazed I was at how many people there were and how packed the theater was. Packed in a small hot theater, I was mesmerized by the movie and it still to this day makes me think of how great a summer movie can be. The other film is of course Jaws. I've gone into great detail in other discussions about how this film has pretty much ruined any summer trips to the beach for me (or any body of water for that matter) and I will forever love it for doing that. Any movie that can make a grown man go into hysterics when his friends joke around and push him over the side of a boat into a small lake during an afternoon of drinking deserves some major points. So break out the sun block and lets get talking! http://www.spout.com/blogs/the_mow/archive/2009/5/7/42125.aspx Post By: The_MOW
Post To: The_MOW Blog
Post Date: 5/7/2009 6:58:03 PM
Body: Ever since the first dinosaur skeleton was dug up, people speculated on how dinosaurs looked, and how they lived. "Dr. John Hammond" (Richard Attenborough) was one of those who speculated those things, and came up with a way to study them -- by bringing them back to life through cloning. "Dr. Hammond" bought an island 120 miles off of Costa Rica for his cloned dinosaurs to live in a barricaded community, but his investors are not convinced that he has done everything he could do with this park. So, he brings in paleobotanists "Dr. Alan Grant" (Sam Neil) and "Dr. Ellie Sattler" (Lauren Dern), as well as the highly annoying mathematician "Dr. Ian Malcom" (Jeff Goldblum), who specializes in chaos theory. Their job is to endorse the park so that the insurance company and investors will back off. He also brings in two people of his park's target audience -- his grandchildren, "Tim" (Joseph Mazzello) and "Lex" (Ariana Richards). But what they all don't know is that all hell is about to break loose thanks to the disgruntled creator of the park's computer system, who has been bribed by a competitor of "Dr. Hammond" to steal useable dinosaur embryos for their use. The first thing you will notice in this film is the amazing special effects that are perfectly blended into scenes. The dinosaurs are designed perfectly and are quite realistic. There are even things in this film that are CGI that you think are real, unless you saw any behind-the-scenes footage. Even the animatronic dinosaurs are nicely created and do not look like they are covered in a rubber skin. The sound effects of the dinosaur vocalizations are just as good, and help make the creatures seem real. The movie score, written by the legendary conductor John Williams, really helps enhance the suspense in the film. The music he composed is very dramatic and works wonderfully with what is on the screen. With the exception of three performers, the cast is quite strong. They are able to work with a script that has some flaws and make it work. In my opinion, only Martin Ferrero, Wayne Knight and Goldblum, who I personally think is not one of the worst actors Hollywood has to offer, are weak in their roles. The script has some poor dialogue, but those lines do pass quickly. There are some continuity errors, one of which is when the velociraptor baby is hatching (watch the mechanical clamp which is holding the egg as the baby is pushing its way out). However, when the action gets hot, you won't catch them. Steven Spielberg has put together a good cast, amazing special effects and a fairly strong script with good editing to put together a good movie. It would be a good rental for a Friday night.
]]>Thu, 07 May 2009 22:58:03 GMTThe_MOWThe_MOW Blog5/7/2009 6:58:03 PMEver since the first dinosaur skeleton was dug up, people speculated on how dinosaurs looked, and how they lived. "Dr. John Hammond" (Richard Attenborough) was one of those who speculated those things, and came up with a way to study them -- by bringing them back to life through cloning. "Dr. Hammond" bought an island 120 miles off of Costa Rica for his cloned dinosaurs to live in a barricaded community, but his investors are not convinced that he has done everything he could do with this park. So, he brings in paleobotanists "Dr. Alan Grant" (Sam Neil) and "Dr. Ellie Sattler" (Lauren Dern), as well as the highly annoying mathematician "Dr. Ian Malcom" (Jeff Goldblum), who specializes in chaos theory. Their job is to endorse the park so that the insurance company and investors will back off. He also brings in two people of his park's target audience -- his grandchildren, "Tim" (Joseph Mazzello) and "Lex" (Ariana Richards). But what they all don't know is that all hell is about to break loose thanks to the disgruntled creator of the park's computer system, who has been bribed by a competitor of "Dr. Hammond" to steal useable dinosaur embryos for their use. The first thing you will notice in this film is the amazing special effects that are perfectly blended into scenes. The dinosaurs are designed perfectly and are quite realistic. There are even things in this film that are CGI that you think are real, unless you saw any behind-the-scenes footage. Even the animatronic dinosaurs are nicely created and do not look like they are covered in a rubber skin. The sound effects of the dinosaur vocalizations are just as good, and help make the creatures seem real. The movie score, written by the legendary conductor John Williams, really helps enhance the suspense in the film. The music he composed is very dramatic and works wonderfully with what is on the screen. With the exception of three performers, the cast is quite strong. They are able to work with a script that has some flaws and make it work. In my opinion, only Martin Ferrero, Wayne Knight and Goldblum, who I personally think is not one of the worst actors Hollywood has to offer, are weak in their roles. The script has some poor dialogue, but those lines do pass quickly. There are some continuity errors, one of which is when the velociraptor baby is hatching (watch the mechanical clamp which is holding the egg as the baby is pushing its way out). However, when the action gets hot, you won't catch them. Steven Spielberg has put together a good cast, amazing special effects and a fairly strong script with good editing to put together a good movie. It would be a good rental for a Friday night. http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/Re_Weekly_Theme_for_February_16_Tropical_Getaways/625/40492/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: leeroy711
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 2/16/2009 9:08:48 PM
Body: Well, I'll temporarily suspend my man card so I can mention Gidget Goes Hawaiian. But I'd much rather talk about those island trips that didn't turn out so well. Like Jurassic Park, Turistas, or King Kong. Also, I'm a pretty big Lost junkie. Now there's an island you probably don't want to go to.... and it doesn't look like you should leave it either.
]]>Tue, 17 Feb 2009 02:08:48 GMTleeroy711Weekly Theme2/16/2009 9:08:48 PMWell, I'll temporarily suspend my man card so I can mention Gidget Goes Hawaiian. But I'd much rather talk about those island trips that didn't turn out so well. Like Jurassic Park, Turistas, or King Kong. Also, I'm a pretty big Lost junkie. Now there's an island you probably don't want to go to.... and it doesn't look like you should leave it either. http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/12/23/38761.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 12/23/2008 12:00:52 PM
Body: Should special effects only be used to service a film’s story, or is it perfectly fine for movies to feature extraneous spectacle? That’s a debate that comes up often among cineastes, but ultimately there’s room for both functions. Sometimes, in cases like Jurassic Park and The Matrix, both categories of effects may even faultlessly coexist in the same film. Yet there is one kind of effects employment that’s intolerable to all film-loving parties: the gratuitous exploitation for the sole purpose of brazen gimmickry. It’s this kind of effects work that goes beyond spectacle. It’s not so much a show as a show off. For one example of this cinematic sin check out Karina’s review of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, in which she references a scene featuring an inessential and irrelevant rocket launch in the background of an otherwise intimate moment between two lovers on a sailboat. Actually, that’s apparently only a minor citation in a “a film about the feat of its own whiz-bang, Frankensteinian digital imagery, drunk on its own accomplishment to an extent that feels quasi-ethical.” Hardly the first movie to commit such a crime, sure, but Benjamin Button seems to be the most thoroughly guilty exploiter since Forrest Gump (both films, incidentally, were scripted by Eric Roth). So, in (dis)honor of Roth’s repeat offense, let’s take a short look at the worst exploitations of special effects in the last 15 years: Forrest Gump (1994): digital erasure of Gary Sinise’s legs Only a year earlier, we had marveled at Jurassic Park’s showcase of computer effects as the ultimate in movie magic. Then, Robert Zemeckis crushed our imaginations by turning CG into a means for mere tricks. The composites were cool enough, but Zemeckis had to go one step further and flaunt Lt. Dan’s lack of legs, just because he could. Was the effect neat? Yeah, for a minute, but it was also completely unnecessary. Star Wars prequels (1999-2005): computer-generated Yoda Some people believe George Lucas’ greatest effects foul to be Jar-Jar Binks. Others cite his awful CG Jabba in the 1997 special edition of A New Hope. Both were cheap exploitations, no doubt about it, but Lucas’ worst employment of CG was turning Yoda into a digitally rendered character. This isn’t just another excuse for us to defend and celebrate Muppets, either. Rather, it’s a defense and celebration of The Empire Strikes Back, which is a perfect film and is such despite its inclusion of a puppet version of Yoda. Why didn’t Lucas go the extra yard and turn the droids and Wookies into CG characters? Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004): computer-generated werewolf One of the most hated uses of CG, particularly to horror fans, is for werewolf effects. After all, the greatest-looking werewolf of all time, from An American Werewolf in London, was achieved with makeup rather than a computer. Yet just because computer effects exist, filmmakers seemingly attempt to better Rick Baker’s Oscar-winning technique with CG werewolves in movies like Van Helsing, Cursed and this, the third installment in the Harry Potter franchise. Or, is it that computer effects are just cheaper than makeup? Because they do indeed look cheap. Prisoner of Azkaban may have been nominated for a Visual Effects Oscar, but it probably lost because of Professor Lupin’s cartoonish transformation into a werewolf. Even if you believe Azkaban to be the best film in the franchise, you have to admit it could have been all the more exceptional had Alfonso Cuaron only put David Thewlis in the makeup chair and not into the hard drive. The Day After Tomorrow (2004): computer-generated wolves If there’s one thing even lamer than using CG for werewolves, it’s using CG for wolves. The former is at least an imaginary creature that requires some kind of effects to fabricate its existence. The latter can be found at a zoo, in the wild, or through an animal wrangler. It’s not even like the three wolves in The Day After Tomorrow, which appear in one minor sequence, had to seem preternatural like the dogs in Hulk. Apparently there were actually real wolves initially used, but they weren’t acceptable to Roland Emmerich, and so digital wolves were added later in post production. But did they have to be entirely substituted for? Or was Emmerich on a computer-generated power trip? Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008): computer-generated monkeys You’re probably not shocked to see another George Lucas production here. There’s some disagreement over which was the worst part of this latest Indiana Jones film, the “nuke the fridge” sequence or the moment when Shia LaBeouf swings through the jungle with a bunch of CG monkeys. The former scene (pictured, since the internet seems to be pretending the monkey scene doesn’t exist) was certainly the downturn of the franchise, but the latter was its greatest offense. Had it not been in the film — and it truly could have been avoided — a lot of people might have forgiven Lucas and Steven Spielberg for the movie’s other faults. But as South Park bluntly put it, those guys raped their character. And they also raped and exploited the whole visual effects industry while they were at it. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:00:52 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com12/23/2008 12:00:52 PMShould special effects only be used to service a film’s story, or is it perfectly fine for movies to feature extraneous spectacle? That’s a debate that comes up often among cineastes, but ultimately there’s room for both functions. Sometimes, in cases like Jurassic Park and The Matrix, both categories of effects may even faultlessly coexist in the same film. Yet there is one kind of effects employment that’s intolerable to all film-loving parties: the gratuitous exploitation for the sole purpose of brazen gimmickry. It’s this kind of effects work that goes beyond spectacle. It’s not so much a show as a show off. For one example of this cinematic sin check out Karina’s review of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, in which she references a scene featuring an inessential and irrelevant rocket launch in the background of an otherwise intimate moment between two lovers on a sailboat. Actually, that’s apparently only a minor citation in a “a film about the feat of its own whiz-bang, Frankensteinian digital imagery, drunk on its own accomplishment to an extent that feels quasi-ethical.” Hardly the first movie to commit such a crime, sure, but Benjamin Button seems to be the most thoroughly guilty exploiter since Forrest Gump (both films, incidentally, were scripted by Eric Roth). So, in (dis)honor of Roth’s repeat offense, let’s take a short look at the worst exploitations of special effects in the last 15 years: Forrest Gump (1994): digital erasure of Gary Sinise’s legs Only a year earlier, we had marveled at Jurassic Park’s showcase of computer effects as the ultimate in movie magic. Then, Robert Zemeckis crushed our imaginations by turning CG into a means for mere tricks. The composites were cool enough, but Zemeckis had to go one step further and flaunt Lt. Dan’s lack of legs, just because he could. Was the effect neat? Yeah, for a minute, but it was also completely unnecessary. Star Wars prequels (1999-2005): computer-generated Yoda Some people believe George Lucas’ greatest effects foul to be Jar-Jar Binks. Others cite his awful CG Jabba in the 1997 special edition of A New Hope. Both were cheap exploitations, no doubt about it, but Lucas’ worst employment of CG was turning Yoda into a digitally rendered character. This isn’t just another excuse for us to defend and celebrate Muppets, either. Rather, it’s a defense and celebration of The Empire Strikes Back, which is a perfect film and is such despite its inclusion of a puppet version of Yoda. Why didn’t Lucas go the extra yard and turn the droids and Wookies into CG characters? Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004): computer-generated werewolf One of the most hated uses of CG, particularly to horror fans, is for werewolf effects. After all, the greatest-looking werewolf of all time, from An American Werewolf in London, was achieved with makeup rather than a computer. Yet just because computer effects exist, filmmakers seemingly attempt to better Rick Baker’s Oscar-winning technique with CG werewolves in movies like Van Helsing, Cursed and this, the third installment in the Harry Potter franchise. Or, is it that computer effects are just cheaper than makeup? Because they do indeed look cheap. Prisoner of Azkaban may have been nominated for a Visual Effects Oscar, but it probably lost because of Professor Lupin’s cartoonish transformation into a werewolf. Even if you believe Azkaban to be the best film in the franchise, you have to admit it could have been all the more exceptional had Alfonso Cuaron only put David Thewlis in the makeup chair and not into the hard drive. The Day After Tomorrow (2004): computer-generated wolves If there’s one thing even lamer than using CG for werewolves, it’s using CG for wolves. The former is at least an imaginary creature that requires some kind of effects to fabricate its existence. The latter can be found at a zoo, in the wild, or through an animal wrangler. It’s not even like the three wolves in The Day After Tomorrow, which appear in one minor sequence, had to seem preternatural like the dogs in Hulk. Apparently there were actually real wolves initially used, but they weren’t acceptable to Roland Emmerich, and so digital wolves were added later in post production. But did they have to be entirely substituted for? Or was Emmerich on a computer-generated power trip? Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008): computer-generated monkeys You’re probably not shocked to see another George Lucas production here. There’s some disagreement over which was the worst part of this latest Indiana Jones film, the “nuke the fridge” sequence or the moment when Shia LaBeouf swings through the jungle with a bunch of CG monkeys. The former scene (pictured, since the internet seems to be pretending the monkey scene doesn’t exist) was certainly the downturn of the franchise, but the latter was its greatest offense. Had it not been in the film — and it truly could have been avoided — a lot of people might have forgiven Lucas and Steven Spielberg for the movie’s other faults. But as South Park bluntly put it, those guys raped their character. And they also raped and exploited the whole visual effects industry while they were at it. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/12/9/38148.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 12/9/2008 6:01:19 PM
Body: Last week, Roger Ebert finally got around to destroying reviewing Ben Stein’s anti-evolution film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Ebert’s rant is as cerebral as it is merciless, and it’s worth a read even if you haven’t seen the film. He makes some good points about how the film completely misunderstands the concepts of probability and selection, forming flashy but ultimately useless argument. Ebert’s rage is thinly veiled. He’s obviously upset that clear logical fallacies can go unnoticed by so many people. Sure, misreading Darwin while attempting to refute him is a lame move when engaging in scientific debate, but the practice is quite common when it comes to filmmaking. When movies deal with evolution, there’s an unspoken understanding that they can completely distort the theory beyond recognition. It’s kind of like calling someone a pedophile during a Friar’s Club Roast, everyone knows it isn’t true, and it’s all in good fun. When you look at it in this way, Expelled is just the latest in a long line of films that distort the theory of evolution to make a buck. Here are 5 more that are guilty of crimes against the origin of humanity: Evolution This 2001 sci-fi/horror/comedy, directed by Ivan Reitman (of Ghostbusters fame), makes one of the most common errors in depicting evolution on film: the process happens much too quickly. It’s the result of an understandable dilemma. Evolution is cool and scary because species can transform into other species and become more advanced, but it takes too long! In the film, a meteor strikes the Earth and deposits a pile of primordial goo. The goo starts evolving like crazy, so that it’s a serious threat to the world in like, a week. While it’s true that simple life forms, left to there own devices, can evolve into something more advanced, it takes soooooo much longer than that. I know it’s a comedy and everything, but still, the real process is mind-numbingly slow. Planet of the Apes At first glance, Planet of the Apes seems to jive with Darwin’s theory pretty well. Not so fast, there are several problems. In case you haven’t seen it, Chuck Heston and friends have spent 2,006 years frozen on a space mission when they crash-land on a planet inhabited by intelligent apes and savage humans. (Spoiler alert) The planet is Earth, humans lost their superiority due to some calamity, allowing other primates to evolve into an advanced intelligence. There are two big problems here. One, there is no reason why the humans who survived the apocalypse would devolve. Sure, their society was destroyed, but that wouldn’t cause natural selection to reverse. If anything, the tough conditions would speed human evolution by eliminating the weak. The second problem is speed issue again. Heston and his pals were only gone for about one hundred human/ape generations, not nearly enough time to account for the changes to either species. The Descent This killer British horror film features an all-female cast of cave explorers who are attacked by pale humanoids known as “crawlers.” Writer/director Neil Marshall described the crawlers as cavemen who stayed in the caves, adapting perfectly to that environment. Sounds pretty good, except that there were never any cavemen in the Appalachian Mountains, where the film takes place. Humans first sprang up in Africa, and spread out from there, fully capable of dwelling on the surface of the Earth. While the nomads who came to North America probably did duck in caves to avoid rain, there would be no logical reason to stay there, because all the good food was outside. Waiting for wayward spelunkers to eat just isn’t a viable survival tactic in the long term. Jurassic Park The problems with Spielberg’s classic CGI dinosaur romp have more to do with cloning than evolution, but because both rely heavily on a proper understanding of genetics, it still counts. First of all, harvesting dinosaur DNA from mosquitoes lodged in amber would be extremely difficult. The film (and book) accounts for this by stating that missing chunks of the genome are replaced by genes from frogs and reptiles and such. Even if this could work, the resulting animals would not be dinosaurs, they would be part dinosaur and part frog, which sounds cool, but the organism would probably just die right away. Even if they could create a viable dinosaur cell nucleus, they wouldn’t have a dinosaur host cell, or oocyte, to put it into, which you need to make a clone. If that weren’t enough, most of the dinosaurs in the film aren’t from the Jurassic period, but the Cretaceous period. Creature from the Black Lagoon In this classic monster movie, a team of scientists hunt for fossils in the Amazon in hopes of finding a complete skeleton to match a webbed humanoid hand discovered on a previous mission. The hand is said to be a link between land and sea animals, which is total bullshit. If a crafty amphibious humanoid were the link between land a sea animals, the evolution of life would have to be caught in some weird time loop, connecting and overlapping species across hundreds of millions of years (which would actually be pretty cool). If such a creature existed it wouldn’t be a link at all, but a completely separate strand of evolution tracing back to a distant common ancestor, something like a fish with a taste for land-dwelling insects. Despite the obvious differences these separate evolutionary paths would create between the Gill-Man and humans, the monster in the film is sexually attracted to female humans, which makes no sense. Also, he seems to have evolved as an individual, which is impossible. Where was the Gill-Man’s family? Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:01:19 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com12/9/2008 6:01:19 PM Last week, Roger Ebert finally got around to destroying reviewing Ben Stein’s anti-evolution film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Ebert’s rant is as cerebral as it is merciless, and it’s worth a read even if you haven’t seen the film. He makes some good points about how the film completely misunderstands the concepts of probability and selection, forming flashy but ultimately useless argument. Ebert’s rage is thinly veiled. He’s obviously upset that clear logical fallacies can go unnoticed by so many people. Sure, misreading Darwin while attempting to refute him is a lame move when engaging in scientific debate, but the practice is quite common when it comes to filmmaking. When movies deal with evolution, there’s an unspoken understanding that they can completely distort the theory beyond recognition. It’s kind of like calling someone a pedophile during a Friar’s Club Roast, everyone knows it isn’t true, and it’s all in good fun. When you look at it in this way, Expelled is just the latest in a long line of films that distort the theory of evolution to make a buck. Here are 5 more that are guilty of crimes against the origin of humanity: Evolution This 2001 sci-fi/horror/comedy, directed by Ivan Reitman (of Ghostbusters fame), makes one of the most common errors in depicting evolution on film: the process happens much too quickly. It’s the result of an understandable dilemma. Evolution is cool and scary because species can transform into other species and become more advanced, but it takes too long! In the film, a meteor strikes the Earth and deposits a pile of primordial goo. The goo starts evolving like crazy, so that it’s a serious threat to the world in like, a week. While it’s true that simple life forms, left to there own devices, can evolve into something more advanced, it takes soooooo much longer than that. I know it’s a comedy and everything, but still, the real process is mind-numbingly slow. Planet of the Apes At first glance, Planet of the Apes seems to jive with Darwin’s theory pretty well. Not so fast, there are several problems. In case you haven’t seen it, Chuck Heston and friends have spent 2,006 years frozen on a space mission when they crash-land on a planet inhabited by intelligent apes and savage humans. (Spoiler alert) The planet is Earth, humans lost their superiority due to some calamity, allowing other primates to evolve into an advanced intelligence. There are two big problems here. One, there is no reason why the humans who survived the apocalypse would devolve. Sure, their society was destroyed, but that wouldn’t cause natural selection to reverse. If anything, the tough conditions would speed human evolution by eliminating the weak. The second problem is speed issue again. Heston and his pals were only gone for about one hundred human/ape generations, not nearly enough time to account for the changes to either species. The Descent This killer British horror film features an all-female cast of cave explorers who are attacked by pale humanoids known as “crawlers.” Writer/director Neil Marshall described the crawlers as cavemen who stayed in the caves, adapting perfectly to that environment. Sounds pretty good, except that there were never any cavemen in the Appalachian Mountains, where the film takes place. Humans first sprang up in Africa, and spread out from there, fully capable of dwelling on the surface of the Earth. While the nomads who came to North America probably did duck in caves to avoid rain, there would be no logical reason to stay there, because all the good food was outside. Waiting for wayward spelunkers to eat just isn’t a viable survival tactic in the long term. Jurassic Park The problems with Spielberg’s classic CGI dinosaur romp have more to do with cloning than evolution, but because both rely heavily on a proper understanding of genetics, it still counts. First of all, harvesting dinosaur DNA from mosquitoes lodged in amber would be extremely difficult. The film (and book) accounts for this by stating that missing chunks of the genome are replaced by genes from frogs and reptiles and such. Even if this could work, the resulting animals would not be dinosaurs, they would be part dinosaur and part frog, which sounds cool, but the organism would probably just die right away. Even if they could create a viable dinosaur cell nucleus, they wouldn’t have a dinosaur host cell, or oocyte, to put it into, which you need to make a clone. If that weren’t enough, most of the dinosaurs in the film aren’t from the Jurassic period, but the Cretaceous period. Creature from the Black Lagoon In this classic monster movie, a team of scientists hunt for fossils in the Amazon in hopes of finding a complete skeleton to match a webbed humanoid hand discovered on a previous mission. The hand is said to be a link between land and sea animals, which is total bullshit. If a crafty amphibious humanoid were the link between land a sea animals, the evolution of life would have to be caught in some weird time loop, connecting and overlapping species across hundreds of millions of years (which would actually be pretty cool). If such a creature existed it wouldn’t be a link at all, but a completely separate strand of evolution tracing back to a distant common ancestor, something like a fish with a taste for land-dwelling insects. Despite the obvious differences these separate evolutionary paths would create between the Gill-Man and humans, the monster in the film is sexually attracted to female humans, which makes no sense. Also, he seems to have evolved as an individual, which is impossible. Where was the Gill-Man’s family? Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/groups/Natsukashi/Episode_XV_The_5_000_Fingers_of_Dr_T/592/34789/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: usesoap
Post To: Natsukashi
Post Date: 9/5/2008 11:31:43 AM
Body: Film: The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. TRated: PGDirected by: Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel)Starring: Hans Conreid as Dr. Terwilliker Tommy Rettig as Bart Cullins Peter Lind Hayes as Mr. Zoblowdowski Mary Healy as Heloise CullinsTagline: By Scott from He Shot Cyrus Pre-screening memories: The Gilroy Public Library. That’s where I first saw a VHS copy of The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. Belonging to an avid reader, my ten-year-old eyes popped at the sight of a live-action Dr. Seuss movie. It was added to a stack that most likely featured The Rescuers Down Under, two episodes of Ramona and Jurassic Park (which my mom made me put back every week). At that point, I had already seen the Seuss cartoons. Not just the popular ones like Horton Hears a Who. Oh no, my favorite was Pontoffel Pock & His Magic Piano. I was very vocal about this. Obviously, I was destined for a life filled with non-stop social engagements due to my unimaginable popularity. Why they haven’t made a live action Pontoffel movie, I can’t fathom. The chance to watch Dr. Seuss come to life was once-in-a-childhood. How the Grinch Stole Christmas would later pop up during my teen years but failed to appear on my radar. Said social engagements were surely the cause. Once my little brother finally finished whatever BBC “Chronicles of Narnia” mini-series he had checked out (again) it was time to live the dream. Popped the tape in, fast-forwarded past the FBI WARNINGS and the previews and got right to the goods. Apparently, there’s something special about those 5,000 Fingers because certain scenes still stick out in my memory. It’s been ten years since my last viewing, but I can still remember every movement the two brothers-one beard characters make, including their death scene! When I was an undergrad, a professor showed us Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. INSERT: childhood cinematic flashback. I’d bet that the director had some love in their heart for German Expressionism. That being said, Dr. Seuss probably did as well. The sets were so gigantic and magical. There were ladders leading to nowhere, huge doors, and that 500-boy piano. The plot circles around a young boy who somehow gets sent to a magical world. I can’t remember how. An evil piano teacher has devised a plan to enslave 500 little boys (don’t worry, it’s a PG movie) and have them play an enormous piano. Why he wants them to all play one piano, I can’t remember that either. My 5,000 Fingers memories are mostly visual. The plot plays like Swiss cheese in my brain. It’d be interesting to see if the magic is still intact and if the storyline is anywhere as impressive as the cinematography. Addendum: We contacted Bill Davis, the pre-eminent Seuss-ologist whern it comes to ‘Dr. T’ with regards to this podcast, and he replied: “ Probably the most interesting thing about the film is the fact that they cut 10 songs out of the film before it was released. The movie was supposed to be more about how the adults aren’t able to communicate to kids or to each other. I’m not saying the film would have been better received by the public if it had been released in the full version, but it would have been a different film.” - Thanks to Bill and check out his ‘5,000 Fingers’ tribute page for more!
]]>Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:31:43 GMTusesoapNatsukashi9/5/2008 11:31:43 AM Film: The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. TRated: PGDirected by: Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel)Starring: Hans Conreid as Dr. Terwilliker Tommy Rettig as Bart Cullins Peter Lind Hayes as Mr. Zoblowdowski Mary Healy as Heloise CullinsTagline: By Scott from He Shot Cyrus Pre-screening memories: The Gilroy Public Library. That&rsquo;s where I first saw a VHS copy of The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. Belonging to an avid reader, my ten-year-old eyes popped at the sight of a live-action Dr. Seuss movie. It was added to a stack that most likely featured The Rescuers Down Under, two episodes of Ramona and Jurassic Park (which my mom made me put back every week). At that point, I had already seen the Seuss cartoons. Not just the popular ones like Horton Hears a Who. Oh no, my favorite was Pontoffel Pock &amp; His Magic Piano. I was very vocal about this. Obviously, I was destined for a life filled with non-stop social engagements due to my unimaginable popularity. Why they haven&rsquo;t made a live action Pontoffel movie, I can&rsquo;t fathom. The chance to watch Dr. Seuss come to life was once-in-a-childhood. How the Grinch Stole Christmas would later pop up during my teen years but failed to appear on my radar. Said social engagements were surely the cause. Once my little brother finally finished whatever BBC &ldquo;Chronicles of Narnia&rdquo; mini-series he had checked out (again) it was time to live the dream. Popped the tape in, fast-forwarded past the FBI WARNINGS and the previews and got right to the goods. Apparently, there&rsquo;s something special about those 5,000 Fingers because certain scenes still stick out in my memory. It&rsquo;s been ten years since my last viewing, but I can still remember every movement the two brothers-one beard characters make, including their death scene! When I was an undergrad, a professor showed us Fritz Lang&rsquo;s Metropolis. INSERT: childhood cinematic flashback. I&rsquo;d bet that the director had some love in their heart for German Expressionism. That being said, Dr. Seuss probably did as well. The sets were so gigantic and magical. There were ladders leading to nowhere, huge doors, and that 500-boy piano. The plot circles around a young boy who somehow gets sent to a magical world. I can&rsquo;t remember how. An evil piano teacher has devised a plan to enslave 500 little boys (don&rsquo;t worry, it&rsquo;s a PG movie) and have them play an enormous piano. Why he wants them to all play one piano, I can&rsquo;t remember that either. My 5,000 Fingers memories are mostly visual. The plot plays like Swiss cheese in my brain. It&rsquo;d be interesting to see if the magic is still intact and if the storyline is anywhere as impressive as the cinematography. Addendum: We contacted Bill Davis, the pre-eminent Seuss-ologist whern it comes to &lsquo;Dr. T&rsquo; with regards to this podcast, and he replied: &ldquo; Probably the most interesting thing about the film is the fact that they cut 10 songs out of the film before it was released. The movie was supposed to be more about how the adults aren&rsquo;t able to communicate to kids or to each other. I&rsquo;m not saying the film would have been better received by the public if it had been released in the full version, but it would have been a different film.&rdquo; - Thanks to Bill and check out his &lsquo;5,000 Fingers&rsquo; tribute page for more! http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/7/25/33097.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 7/25/2008 7:00:37 PM
Body: 3:55 - Kicking the fans while they’re down: Well, that’s all the time they have. The poor folks who waited in line to ask questions got nada. The end. 3:54 - The Spirit clip #3: They’re introducing yet another clip. Wow, I feel like we’ll get to see the whole movie in bits and pieces. Still talking… please just roll ‘em. Miller: “Folks, here you go. When Titans clash.” The Octopus and The Spirit duking it out in an extremely muddy and watery set. The Spirit gets clocked in the head with a cinder block and quips “You’re giving me a headache, Octopus.” Jackson then gives The Spirit a crotchshot with a massive steel wrench. The Spirit then pounds The Octopus deep into the mud with punch after punch after punch. Literally, like 20 punches. Then The Octopus appears behind The Spirit and crashes a toilet down on The Spirit’s head, pinning his arms in place with the toilet seat. He laughs his ass off (whoops, bad pun) and yells “Come on! Toilets are always funny!” I think that clip just provided all the shark jumping I needed. My hopes for this movie just got drowned in mud and toilet humor. 3:49 - The Spirit setting: a “nevertime” filled with Jews: Del Prete: “This movie is set in a time we call ‘nevertime’. There are things from the 40s in the there, the 50s, but there are also cell phones.” Miller says “I’ve gotta say there are more Jewish characters in two hours of The Spirit movie than there are in one year of The Spirit comic book.” 3:48 - The Spirit clip #2: Another clip is rolling, The Spirit with the love of his life. I just noticed that his mask is painted on. The Spirit and his lady love are making out somwhere in the police station. Wait, I take that back, it looks like his mask is real, and painted on. They make out, and she tells him that he falls in love with everyone he meets. Sure enough, a gruff detective comes in and introduces The Spirit to a rookie cop he’ll be working with, who also happens to be hot. They leave the room, and Girl #1 hurls a scalpel at the closed door and calls him a bastard. Girl #1 was Sarah Paulson as Ellen Dolan, the police commissioner’s daughter. Del Prete says “There’s nothing campy about the movie. You’ll notice that when you see it. It’s just an organic kind of humor.” When asked what Will Eisner would have thought about the scene, Miller said “Well, he probably would have said ‘It was good, but Ellen probably wouldn’t have thrown the scalpel, because it would bend the end of it and she’d have to use it later in surgery.’ He was a picky man.” 3:43 - The Spirit arrives: Here comes Gabriel Macht, The Spirit, from… The Spirit. Jeff “What’s your take on the Spirit? Is he funny? Is he a tough guy?” Gabriel “I think he has a lot of different colors. He can laugh at himself, he can be tough while he’s beating the snot out of Sam Jackson, he loves women… every one woman he meets he just falls in love with.” He’s recapping the origin of The Spirit. For those of you who don’t know, Denny Colt was a young detective who got shot, and later awoke from a sort of “suspended animation” in the graveyard. He contacted his friend, police commisioner Dolan, and became a secret masked vigilante. The “eyes and ears” of the City. 3:39 - The Spirit clip #1: Finally, here we go. Okay, I’m hoping this footage will get out onto the web, because it looks terrible. I mean, really, really, really bad. Remember that James Bond movie where they filmed the underwater scenes dry, and just using a blow dryer to move hair around? Well, this footage makes that amazing. It doesn’t look like they’re underwater at all, and Eva just squints while her hair whips around. They’re about to introduce a new panel member, but I’m still reeling from how bad that footage was. Ouch. Miller is talking about the challenge of finding a “real man” in Hollywood. 3:36 - Introducing The Spirit clip: They’re going to show us a bit more from the movie, and Frank actually wants to introduce this clip. “Sans Saref is a lover of jewelry, and she has a lead on the most unspeakable fantastic treasure of all time. In order to get this, she has to do a lot of swimming, and she’s played by the very gorgeous Eva Mendes. And she’s wearing a very tight swimsuit.” Miller: “We have a technical term for filming underwater, and we call it “A fucking nightmare.” They’ve filmed all of this dry, with Eva in a very tight wetsuit, using a camera that “films slower than death,” according to Miller. They’re speaking a lot about how technically cool this footage will be. So let’s see it already. In fact, they’re still talking about it. Sam Jackson: “By now you know there’s actually no clip, right?” 3:33 - The ladies of The Spirit: Now they’re talking about the women in the trailer, who all look hot in that noirish sort of way. Del Prete “So while Frank was wiring guns together, I was picking out jewelry for all the ladies.” Now they’ve brought out Jamie King onstage, and she plays Lorelei, who Frank Miller told her is like “The Spirit of Death” She goes from extreme love to extreme rage and anger in regards to The Spirit. Miller “One of the ways you realize The Spirit is a noble hero, just take a look at what he’s willing to give up.” 3:28 - Samuel L. Jackson on The Octopus: Jackson talks about the evolution of The Octopus, and how in his mind he’s a man who’s been experimenting with drugs and different concoctions and has lost his mind. Jackson: “I’d come in and show Miller some ideas and I’d be like… okay, here’s The Octopus as a black Nazi, and Miller would go ‘Okay, cool.’ So I’m like, wow, I’m a Nazi!” Miller “Ain’t it a great country?” 3:25 - So many Samuel L. Jackson action figures: Jeff is asking Sam Jackson “what’s the favorite action figure of you?” Jackson: “I think probably Mace Windu, because I have so many different versions of him. There’s small, big, medium, and one that walks across my desk. But, I also have some cool Afro Samurai figures coming out. I remember the first action figure I should have had was Jurassic Park. Everyone except Wayne Knight and me had action figures.” “Now I have action figures everywhere, all over my office. Every now and then I catch The Shaft glaring and Mace Windu, I got Frozone sledding through, laughing at everyone…” Someone yells out “What about Nick Fury?” “Well, you know when I was a kid… Nick Fury was a white dude.” *laughter* “Now I’m glad that he’s evolved into something I can understand! See? You too can grow up to be a black man.” 3:20 - Samuel L. Jackson as The Octopus: Frank Miller wanted the villain to be someone that “Wasn’t very scary… like Herbie.” Does he mean The Love Bug? “So… who’d I pick? Mr. Sam Jackson.” Sam bounds up on the stage, wearing his official costume of glasses and a Kangol hat turned backwards. And he’s wearing a “Badmofokos” t-shirt. Sam is talking about the challenging of auditioning to play The Octopus, since he was only a pair of white gloves in the comic book. They had to try and find a huge gun for The Octopus to handle, and Jackson says “We started with the Desert Eagle, and then we went to these .40 caliber pistols that were just huge. Then we started wiring guns together…” Miller: “Remember that scene in 2001 with the monkeys and bone? At one point I started stacking one gun on top of another, on top of another, on top of another, and I finally just told the props department to wire them together like that. And when Sam wields them, he looks like a Transformer.” Jackson: “Yeah, so I had to work out just to hold these things. Then we had to have wires holding the guns up because they were so heavy. I think I lost some weight that day.:” Jackson: “Miller is totally open and without ego, which is a lot different than most directors.” 3:15 -The Spirit trailer: Jeff asks Frank Miller to introduce the trailer, and Miller retorts “Well the whole purpose of a trailer is not to have an introduction…” It’s rolling. “From writer director Frank Miller, creator of 300 and Sin City.” Okay. I am officially freaked out. This trailer is extremely strange. A tiny man sliding out of a woman’s mouth. A collection of female heads, lined up as if they were on a shelf… It’s mostly all about the femme fatales. Sam Jackson appears on screen and says “What is it with you and women?” It looks very comic booky and over the top, but there are guns galore all over the place. This isn’t your father’s The Spirit, and definitely isn’t the campy fun comic book that Will Eisner used to write and draw. 3:11 - More on getting the movie made: Deborah Del Prete said she’s “been waiting her entire life” to make this make, which makes me think about a two year old toddler, poring over script notes. She says she’s a major comic book fan, and she speaks a million miles an hour. She’s very excited for this movie. Frank and Deborah have both “tried to make this film the way Will would have wanted it made.” Deborah: “We got Eisner, and we got Miller. Those are the only two people I wanted working on this movie.” Now we’re about to get a trailer for the movie, which I hope is better than the lackluster “My city screams” version that ran recently. 3:05 - Frank Miller meets Will Eisner: Frank Miller tells us how he was introduced to The Spirit, and how he finally got to meet Will Eisner at a party thrown by Neal Adams. “Neal Adams used to keep a lot of us comic book artists alive by getting us commercial work while the comic book studios paid us slave wages.” Frank Miller is doing an impersonation of Will Eisner, and I can’t quite tell if it’s touching, or vaguely insulting. Frank said “He was my mentor, and my friend.” So, okay. Let’s go with touching. Frank literally “dropped everything else” to get to work on bringing The Spirit to the screen. 3:02 - The panel begins: I’ve got two names for you… Will Eisner and Frank Miller. There’s no way you can tell the history of graphic novels without those two names. This Christmas, they’ll have an important milestone in that history, on Christmas Day: The Spirit. This is Jeff Boucher from the LA Times, “Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself.” He’s moderating the panel. Frank Miller and producer Deborah Del Prete come out. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:00:37 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com7/25/2008 7:00:37 PM 3:55 - Kicking the fans while they’re down: Well, that’s all the time they have. The poor folks who waited in line to ask questions got nada. The end. 3:54 - The Spirit clip #3: They’re introducing yet another clip. Wow, I feel like we’ll get to see the whole movie in bits and pieces. Still talking… please just roll ‘em. Miller: “Folks, here you go. When Titans clash.” The Octopus and The Spirit duking it out in an extremely muddy and watery set. The Spirit gets clocked in the head with a cinder block and quips “You’re giving me a headache, Octopus.” Jackson then gives The Spirit a crotchshot with a massive steel wrench. The Spirit then pounds The Octopus deep into the mud with punch after punch after punch. Literally, like 20 punches. Then The Octopus appears behind The Spirit and crashes a toilet down on The Spirit’s head, pinning his arms in place with the toilet seat. He laughs his ass off (whoops, bad pun) and yells “Come on! Toilets are always funny!” I think that clip just provided all the shark jumping I needed. My hopes for this movie just got drowned in mud and toilet humor. 3:49 - The Spirit setting: a “nevertime” filled with Jews: Del Prete: “This movie is set in a time we call ‘nevertime’. There are things from the 40s in the there, the 50s, but there are also cell phones.” Miller says “I’ve gotta say there are more Jewish characters in two hours of The Spirit movie than there are in one year of The Spirit comic book.” 3:48 - The Spirit clip #2: Another clip is rolling, The Spirit with the love of his life. I just noticed that his mask is painted on. The Spirit and his lady love are making out somwhere in the police station. Wait, I take that back, it looks like his mask is real, and painted on. They make out, and she tells him that he falls in love with everyone he meets. Sure enough, a gruff detective comes in and introduces The Spirit to a rookie cop he’ll be working with, who also happens to be hot. They leave the room, and Girl #1 hurls a scalpel at the closed door and calls him a bastard. Girl #1 was Sarah Paulson as Ellen Dolan, the police commissioner’s daughter. Del Prete says “There’s nothing campy about the movie. You’ll notice that when you see it. It’s just an organic kind of humor.” When asked what Will Eisner would have thought about the scene, Miller said “Well, he probably would have said ‘It was good, but Ellen probably wouldn’t have thrown the scalpel, because it would bend the end of it and she’d have to use it later in surgery.’ He was a picky man.” 3:43 - The Spirit arrives: Here comes Gabriel Macht, The Spirit, from… The Spirit. Jeff “What’s your take on the Spirit? Is he funny? Is he a tough guy?” Gabriel “I think he has a lot of different colors. He can laugh at himself, he can be tough while he’s beating the snot out of Sam Jackson, he loves women… every one woman he meets he just falls in love with.” He’s recapping the origin of The Spirit. For those of you who don’t know, Denny Colt was a young detective who got shot, and later awoke from a sort of “suspended animation” in the graveyard. He contacted his friend, police commisioner Dolan, and became a secret masked vigilante. The “eyes and ears” of the City. 3:39 - The Spirit clip #1: Finally, here we go. Okay, I’m hoping this footage will get out onto the web, because it looks terrible. I mean, really, really, really bad. Remember that James Bond movie where they filmed the underwater scenes dry, and just using a blow dryer to move hair around? Well, this footage makes that amazing. It doesn’t look like they’re underwater at all, and Eva just squints while her hair whips around. They’re about to introduce a new panel member, but I’m still reeling from how bad that footage was. Ouch. Miller is talking about the challenge of finding a “real man” in Hollywood. 3:36 - Introducing The Spirit clip: They’re going to show us a bit more from the movie, and Frank actually wants to introduce this clip. “Sans Saref is a lover of jewelry, and she has a lead on the most unspeakable fantastic treasure of all time. In order to get this, she has to do a lot of swimming, and she’s played by the very gorgeous Eva Mendes. And she’s wearing a very tight swimsuit.” Miller: “We have a technical term for filming underwater, and we call it “A fucking nightmare.” They’ve filmed all of this dry, with Eva in a very tight wetsuit, using a camera that “films slower than death,” according to Miller. They’re speaking a lot about how technically cool this footage will be. So let’s see it already. In fact, they’re still talking about it. Sam Jackson: “By now you know there’s actually no clip, right?” 3:33 - The ladies of The Spirit: Now they’re talking about the women in the trailer, who all look hot in that noirish sort of way. Del Prete “So while Frank was wiring guns together, I was picking out jewelry for all the ladies.” Now they’ve brought out Jamie King onstage, and she plays Lorelei, who Frank Miller told her is like “The Spirit of Death” She goes from extreme love to extreme rage and anger in regards to The Spirit. Miller “One of the ways you realize The Spirit is a noble hero, just take a look at what he’s willing to give up.” 3:28 - Samuel L. Jackson on The Octopus: Jackson talks about the evolution of The Octopus, and how in his mind he’s a man who’s been experimenting with drugs and different concoctions and has lost his mind. Jackson: “I’d come in and show Miller some ideas and I’d be like… okay, here’s The Octopus as a black Nazi, and Miller would go ‘Okay, cool.’ So I’m like, wow, I’m a Nazi!” Miller “Ain’t it a great country?” 3:25 - So many Samuel L. Jackson action figures: Jeff is asking Sam Jackson “what’s the favorite action figure of you?” Jackson: “I think probably Mace Windu, because I have so many different versions of him. There’s small, big, medium, and one that walks across my desk. But, I also have some cool Afro Samurai figures coming out. I remember the first action figure I should have had was Jurassic Park. Everyone except Wayne Knight and me had action figures.” “Now I have action figures everywhere, all over my office. Every now and then I catch The Shaft glaring and Mace Windu, I got Frozone sledding through, laughing at everyone…” Someone yells out “What about Nick Fury?” “Well, you know when I was a kid… Nick Fury was a white dude.” *laughter* “Now I’m glad that he’s evolved into something I can understand! See? You too can grow up to be a black man.” 3:20 - Samuel L. Jackson as The Octopus: Frank Miller wanted the villain to be someone that “Wasn’t very scary… like Herbie.” Does he mean The Love Bug? “So… who’d I pick? Mr. Sam Jackson.” Sam bounds up on the stage, wearing his official costume of glasses and a Kangol hat turned backwards. And he’s wearing a “Badmofokos” t-shirt. Sam is talking about the challenging of auditioning to play The Octopus, since he was only a pair of white gloves in the comic book. They had to try and find a huge gun for The Octopus to handle, and Jackson says “We started with the Desert Eagle, and then we went to these .40 caliber pistols that were just huge. Then we started wiring guns together…” Miller: “Remember that scene in 2001 with the monkeys and bone? At one point I started stacking one gun on top of another, on top of another, on top of another, and I finally just told the props department to wire them together like that. And when Sam wields them, he looks like a Transformer.” Jackson: “Yeah, so I had to work out just to hold these things. Then we had to have wires holding the guns up because they were so heavy. I think I lost some weight that day.:” Jackson: “Miller is totally open and without ego, which is a lot different than most directors.” 3:15 -The Spirit trailer: Jeff asks Frank Miller to introduce the trailer, and Miller retorts “Well the whole purpose of a trailer is not to have an introduction…” It’s rolling. “From writer director Frank Miller, creator of 300 and Sin City.” Okay. I am officially freaked out. This trailer is extremely strange. A tiny man sliding out of a woman’s mouth. A collection of female heads, lined up as if they were on a shelf… It’s mostly all about the femme fatales. Sam Jackson appears on screen and says “What is it with you and women?” It looks very comic booky and over the top, but there are guns galore all over the place. This isn’t your father’s The Spirit, and definitely isn’t the campy fun comic book that Will Eisner used to write and draw. 3:11 - More on getting the movie made: Deborah Del Prete said she’s “been waiting her entire life” to make this make, which makes me think about a two year old toddler, poring over script notes. She says she’s a major comic book fan, and she speaks a million miles an hour. She’s very excited for this movie. Frank and Deborah have both “tried to make this film the way Will would have wanted it made.” Deborah: “We got Eisner, and we got Miller. Those are the only two people I wanted working on this movie.” Now we’re about to get a trailer for the movie, which I hope is better than the lackluster “My city screams” version that ran recently. 3:05 - Frank Miller meets Will Eisner: Frank Miller tells us how he was introduced to The Spirit, and how he finally got to meet Will Eisner at a party thrown by Neal Adams. “Neal Adams used to keep a lot of us comic book artists alive by getting us commercial work while the comic book studios paid us slave wages.” Frank Miller is doing an impersonation of Will Eisner, and I can’t quite tell if it’s touching, or vaguely insulting. Frank said “He was my mentor, and my friend.” So, okay. Let’s go with touching. Frank literally “dropped everything else” to get to work on bringing The Spirit to the screen. 3:02 - The panel begins: I’ve got two names for you… Will Eisner and Frank Miller. There’s no way you can tell the history of graphic novels without those two names. This Christmas, they’ll have an important milestone in that history, on Christmas Day: The Spirit. This is Jeff Boucher from the LA Times, “Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself.” He’s moderating the panel. Frank Miller and producer Deborah Del Prete come out. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/blogs/leeroy711/archive/2008/7/1/31946.aspx Post By: leeroy711
Post To: leeroy711 Blog
Post Date: 7/1/2008 1:51:12 AM
Body: These may not be the greatest titles of all time, but they're the right movies for right now Allright, it's the middle of the Summer, the days are long and the nights are hot. What are you gonna watch 1. Caddyshack (1980) - Harold Ramis and Bill Murray should probably go down as one of the best contemporary comedic directors/actor teams we have today. I like Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day enough but this one set the standard. 2. Jurassic Park (1993) - This film for me, epitemizes the term Summer blockbuster. I still vividly remember standing in line, in 110+ degree heat in Phoenix for this movie. I also remember the young woman in front of us passing out from the heat as we waited. I think she was from Minnesota. 3. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)- Hey, remember when Tom Cruise wasn't such a joke? Niether do I but this is still one of his best performances and it's not something that comes up in conversation very often so now would be the perfect time to take a second look at one of Oliver Stone's best movies. 4. Dog Day Afternoon (1975) - Al Pacino was destined for stardom after his performance in Sidney Lumet's classic drama about a bank robbery. ATTICA ATTICA!!!! 5. Sexy Beast (2000) - I flat out love this movie. And it just so happens to take place in the wonderful heat of the Summer in Spain. Enjoy! Emery
]]>Tue, 01 Jul 2008 05:51:12 GMTleeroy711leeroy711 Blog7/1/2008 1:51:12 AMThese may not be the greatest titles of all time, but they're the right movies for right now Allright, it's the middle of the Summer, the days are long and the nights are hot. What are you gonna watch 1. Caddyshack (1980) - Harold Ramis and Bill Murray should probably go down as one of the best contemporary comedic directors/actor teams we have today. I like Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day enough but this one set the standard. 2. Jurassic Park (1993) - This film for me, epitemizes the term Summer blockbuster. I still vividly remember standing in line, in 110+ degree heat in Phoenix for this movie. I also remember the young woman in front of us passing out from the heat as we waited. I think she was from Minnesota. 3. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)- Hey, remember when Tom Cruise wasn't such a joke? Niether do I but this is still one of his best performances and it's not something that comes up in conversation very often so now would be the perfect time to take a second look at one of Oliver Stone's best movies. 4. Dog Day Afternoon (1975) - Al Pacino was destined for stardom after his performance in Sidney Lumet's classic drama about a bank robbery. ATTICA ATTICA!!!! 5. Sexy Beast (2000) - I flat out love this movie. And it just so happens to take place in the wonderful heat of the Summer in Spain. Enjoy! Emery http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/Classic/MemberTagFilms.aspxClassic
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