MOV062: “I know you are, but what am I?”

Take off those training wheels and go on a whimsical bike ride back to 1985 where we examine the silly campy and sometimes creepy Pee-Wee Herman in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. Was this Tim Burton / Danny Elfman debut a match made in heaven? or does it crash and burn in hell like a bad twisted sister video? Next the boys dissapperate to Hogwarts one last time to discuss the spectacle that is Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2. Does the film live up to expectations and end the franchise in a way fans of the movies and book series were hoping for? Or does the movie cast a killing curse on the future careers of its child actors? Next we bound into the future to take a look at the film Abduction, does twilight start Taylor Lautner have the chops to be an action star or will we be putting this one down with a silver bullet? All this and news about Dwarves, Kryptonians, Eco-Terrorists and Gunslingers on this reel of COL Movies! I know you are, but what am I?

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News:

The Past: Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
Rotten Tomatoes: 92% Fresh; 66% Audience

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Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Paul Rubens, Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton, Diane Salinger

Trivia:

  • Tim Burton’s Directorial Debut, Danny Elfman’s first film score.
  • Jan hooks improvised her dialogue for the Alamo scenes
  • During the magic shop scene, Mario shows Pee-wee heads of different sizes. The largest head that he shows Pee-wee last is actually Aleister Crowley.
  • The Drive-in sequence was filmed at the Studio Drive In, formerly located in Culver City CA. The Studio was built in the 1930s, and was the first Drive-in Theatre constructed in California. It served as a set for several films, including Grease. It was closed in 1993 and demolished in 1998. No trace of this Drive-in remains.

Talking Points:

  • Who does this appeal to OR was it supposed to appeal to when it came out?
  • Who even knew this was a Tim Burton film back in the day? I can totally see it now…but had no idea then.

What We’ve Learned:

  • Don’t cut the tags off your mattress
  • The Alamo doesn’t have a basement
  • Never let Pee-Wee drive your car
  • Convertibles have built in parachutes
  • You can’t just wish and hope for something to come true you have to make it happen
  • Tell em Large Marge sent ya!

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: This was a well put together movie. That being said, this was a complete waste of my time.
Ray: A film that combines the child like zaniness of Pee-Wee and the slight tinge of the bizarre ala Tim Burton and what do you get? A film you can’t go wrong with.
Steve: Pee Wee is Pee Wee. You either love him or hate him. I like the quotables and cameos in the movie, but don’t much care for the movie in is entirety.

The Present: Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2
Rotten Tomatoes: 97% Fresh; 93% Audience

Director: David Yates
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes,

Trivia:

  • When David Heyman was asked if there were any actors that he wished had been in the series but never were, he answered Eileen Atkins, Ian McKellen, Daniel Day-Lewis, Daniel Craig, James McAvoy and Anne-Marie Duff. He now wished to work with them in future projects. Daniel Radcliffe would have loved to see Helen Mirren, Judi Dench and Stephen Fry (the narrator of the UK Harry Potter audio-books.)
  • The last of eight movies based on the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling.
  • This film is the only Harry Potter film to be released in 3D in cinemas in their entirety (only select scenes were available for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and only in IMAX).
  • It had been reported that, due to her commitment to Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, Emma Thompson would be unable to appear in this film. However, she was able to return shortly before the end of filming to once again play Professor Trelawney. She joins her real-life sister Sophie Thompson, as well as her Nanny McPhee cast mates Maggie Smith, Rhys Ifans and Ralph Fiennes.
  • It was reported that a huge blaze wrecked the Hogwarts set after a battle scene went spectacularly wrong. According to the report, explosives used in action sequences set light to scenery for the wizardry school, and that firefighters battled for 40 minutes to bring the flames under control but the set – centerpiece for the film’s Battle of Hogwarts climax – was left badly damaged. It was later confirmed that the fire was greatly exaggerated, and that the set that had been damaged was going to need be rebuilt anyway for use in another scene. Some actors were still filming at the studio but none of the movie’s biggest stars – Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione) or Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) – were involved. No one was injured.
  • Kate Winslet was first considered for and reportedly offered the role of Helena Ravenclaw. The role was rejected by her agent before she was able to consider it, believing that Winslet would not want to “follow suit with every other actor in Britain by being a part of Harry Potter”. The role subsequently went to Kelly Macdonald.
  • John Hurt and Jim Broadbent previously appeared together in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. George Harris appeared in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
  • In the two parts of this movie, Hermione impersonates both Mafalda Hopkirk; played by Emma Thompson’s sister Sophie Thompson; and Bellatrix Lestrange; played by Helena Bonham Carter, who played Emma’s sister in Howards End.
  • Most of the events in this film – from the raid of Gringotts to the Battle of Hogwarts – take place over the course of a single day.
  • In the story, Voldemort has created several Horcruxes in an attempt to cheat death. Appropriately, his name is French for “Flight of Death” or it can also mean “Stealer/Cheater of death”.
  • Alan Rickman, Bonnie Wright, Devon Murray, Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe, Geraldine Somerville, James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Matthew Lewis, Robbie Coltrane, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, Josh Herdman and Warwick Davis (as Prof. Flitwick and/or Griphook the Goblin) are the only actors to have appeared in all eight movies.
  • As with the first half of the film, Warwick Davis’s company, Willow Personnel Management, was called upon to provide little people to portray the goblins at Gringotts.
  • When Harry goes into the Room of Requirement in the bottom left hand corner there is the knight that Ron rides from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
  • In every shot in which Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange appear together, she always moves so that she stands on his right, traditionally the position of the most loyal and trusted follower.

Talking Points:

  • Are we happy its over?
  • Now that it is over, will the actors be able to break out into new things?
  • Lack of exposition..did you like that or not?
  • 3D conversion… any good?
  • Did the Battle of Hogwarts live up to our expectations?
  • David Yates Letter to projectionists

What We Learned:

  • Do not pity the dead, Pity the living.

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: Amazing ending to the HP saga. Well worth the see. I paid for the 3D and it was well worth it. Not for the 3D, but because I like the movie that much.
Ray: A movie that mostly lived up to my expectations, if I had any complaints is that they should have made each of the last two films a little longer and gotten a little more character development in, I felt a little robbed of some of the more emotional scenes from the book. I thought the 3D was non existent for most of the film.
Steve: I definitely enjoyed it. Took on more of a horror tone and coloring for this film, which got me interested. Definitely not a kids movie. 3D was nice, in my humble opinion.

The Future: Abduction

Director: John Singleton
Starring: Taylor Lautner, Lily Colins, Alfred Molina

Trivia:

  • Principal photography began on July 12, 2010 in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. Lionsgate returned to the region due to tax benefits from Pennsylvania’s tax credit program, after filming My Bloody Valentine 3D, Warrior, and The Next Three Days there in 2008 and 2009.
  • An open casting call for extras held at Carnegie Mellon University drew over 900 people in June, many of whom were teenage fans of the Twilight film series.
  • Many of the film’s scenes were shot in suburban Mount Lebanon, and some others in Forward Township. Scenes were shot at Hampton High School in Hampton Township, a suburb north of Pittsburgh. The school’s name and mascot, the Talbot, will appear in the film, as well as real students, cheerleaders, and the marching band.

Talking Points:

  • Remind anyone of The Bourne Identity?

Summary:

For as long as he can remember, Nathan Price (Taylor Lautner) has had the uneasiest feeling that he is living someone else’s life. When he stumbles upon an image of himself as a little boy on a missing persons website, all of Nathan’s darkest fears come true: he realizes his parents are not his own and his life is a lie, carefully fabricated to hide something more mysterious and dangerous than he could have ever imagined. Just as he begins to piece together his true identity, Nathan is targeted by a team of trained killers, forcing him on the run with the only person he can trust, his neighbor, Karen (Lily Collins). Every second counts as Nathan and Karen race to evade an army of assassins and federal operatives. But as his opponents close in, Nathan realizes that the only way he will survive and solve the mystery of his elusive biological father is to stop running and take matters into his own hands

Trailer:

Excitement:
Jeff: This trailer SCREAMS horrible movie. It looks fun, action shiney, but unlike Transformers, still tells me not to go see it.
Ray: This smells too much like a Bourne Franchise rip-off with a Twilight star thrown in to draw in that fan base.
Steve: Doesn’t look awful…but does seem like it’s just an opportunity for Lautner to do a solo project away from the Twilight gang. He has the goods to be an action star…now the question is if he can carry it.

Coming Attractions

The Past
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The Present

The Future

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