Tag Archives: January Jones

MOV093: “Comparative Exponential Religiosity”

Steven is on hiatus and in the meantime he gives us a Nicolas Cage Spectacular. We start back in time with 2006’s “Ghost Rider.” You know that sounds like a movie that’s out. Oh, yeah, there’s the “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengence” movie. Does either movie have a ghost of a chance to sway Jeff and Ray, or will they just through it back into the pits of hell where it came from? Lastly we take a look at the Futures Past with “Seeking Justice”, a Nicolas Cage movie already released in Europe. This, news featureing Sacha Baron Cohen, The Weinstiens, and Magneto, and even more super hero talk on this the 93rd Reel of COL Movies, “Comparative Exponential Religiosity”

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News:

The Past: Ghost Rider
Rotten Tomatoes: 27% Rotten , 56% Audience

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Director: Mark Steven Johnson

Starring: Nicholas Cage, Eva Mendes, Wes Bently, Peter Fonda, Sam Elliot

Trivia:

  • Jon Voight was attached to the project at one point, but dropped out.
  • Nicolas Cage had to have his Ghost Rider tattoo covered with make-up to play Johnny Blaze.
  • A large group of on-lookers converged on a bridge in Melbourne to watch scenes being filmed in a nearby location. Over four days of filming at that location, the crowds grew so large they disrupted traffic, and public transport operators reported an unusual jump in passenger traffic to the area.
  • Some scenes were filmed near Flinders St Station, Melbourne’s busiest railway station in. Parts of the station were closed for filming, and some train schedules were changed.
  • Nicolas Cage’s hairpiece required three hours to apply every day.
  • The head-on shot showing Johnny Blaze crashing his motorcycle on landing after jumping a long line of trucks is identical to the famous shot of Evel Knievel’s crash after a spectacular jump at Caesar’s Palace on December 31, 1967.
  • Continuing a trend in Marvel Comics adaptations, this film features foes imported from other series. Blackheart debuted in Daredevil; Mephisto in the Silver Surfer.
  • Nicolas Cage’s computer generated skull was made from a three dimensional x-ray taken of his actual skull.
  • One of the bridges being used in Melbourne was months away from completion, so the studio paid to add tar, lines, and lights to the highway for filming. Afterward the work was ripped up and redone to meet Australian safety standards.
  • The shotgun used in the movie is a Model 1887 Winchester lever-action shotgun.
  • Nicolas Cage wrote sections of the script.
  • When Johnny Blaze and Carter Slade ride together to San Venganza, one shot shows Blaze riding in the foreground with Slade just behind him, and slightly off to the side, so both can be clearly seen. This scene pays homage to “Ghost Rider”, a painting by the late David Mann, that has nothing to do with the Marvel character.
  • After Blackheart absorbs the souls of the damned at San Venganza, he says, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” In the Bible, a man possessed by demons says the same thing before Jesus cures him (Mark 5:9).
  • The Johnny Blaze video game in the movie is actually a game called “Crusty Demons” (2006) developed by UK games company Climax Studios. The plot is somewhat similar to the plot of Ghost Rider. A group of hard-riding extreme bikers are killed while performing an insane stunt. Satan offers to resurrect them and make them immortal if they use their motorcycle skills to do Satan’s work. Climax Studios also developed Ghost Rider.
  • The Caretaker/Carter Slade Ghost Rider character is a tribute to the original Marvel Comics Ghost Rider, now called The Phantom Rider to avoid confusion. However, the character in the comics is a regular human who wears a white costume and rides a white painted horse, both covered with phosphorous for a glowing effect.
  • Director Mark Steven Johnson actually put forward his own money to make an action sequence in which Ghost Rider battles a helicopter.
  • When Johnny and Mack are on the tour bus and Mack is watching TV, the motorcycle rider shown is Travis Pastrana.
  • Originally planned for a summer 2006 release. Director Mark Steven Johnson asked for more time to complete more action shots, including the helicopter battle scene.
  • During the shoot, Nicolas Cage was the guest of Ferrari at the Australian Grand Prix race.
  • Sent to theaters under the name “Costly Pact”.
  • To create the Ghost Rider’s voice, sound designer Dane A. Davis recorded all of Nicolas Cage’s lines as the Ghost Rider, and then filtered them through three different kinds of animal growls (played backwards, covering three separate frequencies), then played them through a mechanical volumizer, before finally giving them a fiery crackle. Director Mark Steven Johnson compared it to “a deep, demonic, mechanical lion’s roar” and said “one thing is for sure, his voice will shake the theatre!”
  • Johnny Depp was interested in playing the title role. Eric Bana was also in heavy contention for the title role.
  • Barton Blaze calls Johnny “Hot Shot” in the first sequence. The French subtitle translates this nickname as “tête brûlée” – literally “Burned Head”.
  • One of the few Marvel Comic-based movies that Stan Lee does not appear in. He had absolutely no involvement in the creation of the original Ghost Rider.
  • Nicolas Cage is an avid fan of the Marvel comic, and lobbied furiously to play the part of Ghost Rider.
  • Nicolas Cage is an avid comics fan; he took his stage surname, Cage, from character Luke Cage. His son is named “Kal-El”, Superman’s Kryptonian name. He was previously considered to play Green Gobin in Spider-Man, and Superman in Tim Burton’s aborted film project, but Ghost Rider is Cage’s first role based on a comics character.
  • As the helicopters appear at Johnny Blaze’s stunt, Richard Wagner musical score “Ride of the Valkyries” can be heard playing. This is a reference to the war film Apocalypse Now, which was directed by Nicolas Cage’s uncle Francis Ford Coppola and had a scene with helicopters flying to that music.

The trivia items below may give away important plot points.

  • At the time of filming, the world record distance for a motorcycle jump was 277.5 feet, set by Trigger Gumm in May, 2005. On Dec. 31, 2007, Robbie Madison essentially performed Johnny Blaze’s “Goalpost-to-Goalpost” motorcycle jump in Las Vegas, setting a new world record distance of 322.625 feet.
  • Near the end of the film, Johnny tells Mephistopheles that he will be a “spirit of vengeance.” The plot of the movie centers around a cursed town called San Venganza, which can loosely translate as just that: “Spirit of Vengeance” (literally, Saint Vengeance).

Talking Points:

  • Too Campy?
  • Modern Western

What We’ve Learned:

  • The west was built on legends
  • You Can’t Live in Fear

Trailer
:

Recommendations:
Jeff: This was a fun comic book popcorn movie. It’s also a Nicolas Cage movie so I didn’t expect much from it. I think this is a streamer . . . if it ever gets on Netflix or Amazon Unlimited. Okay to pay the $3 rental from Amazon too, but only if you’re really intending to watch it.
Ray: This movie really inspired me to want to try to light my own head on fire..especially while watching it.

The Present:Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
Rotten Tomatoes: 14% Rotten; 41% Audience

Director: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor

Starring: Nicholas Cage, Violante Placiado, Ciaran Hinds, Idris Elba

Trivia:

  • Eva Mendes turned down the option to reprise her role.
  • The Ghost Rider’s skull has been redesigned for this sequel. The new skull appears to be black and charred, indicating that the skull is actually on fire as opposed to the clean fleshless skull simply cloaked in fire in the previous film.
  • Not screened in advance for critics.
  • The flashing image of the “devil” is Jerry Springer.

Talking Points:

  • The Directors.. Camera Work.. Trailer.
  • What the hell is with this series and picking the WORST looking bad guys EVER.

What We Learned:

  • There are some demons (and movies) you just can’t escape.
  • Jerry Springer is the Devil
  • Wear Your Seatbelt.
  • Twinkies are immune from any form of decay

Trailer:

Recommendations :
Jeff: Interesting . . . Okay, more reason to just go ahead and pay to rent the first one. Something to watch instead of this. I didn’t think it was god awful, just not worth my time.
Ray: To steal one of the awful one liners from the movie….. So… That Happened. Even if you LOVED the first one..and god help you if you did.. I would say avoid avoid avoid at all costs.

The Future: Seeking Justice

Release: March 16, 2012

Director: Rodger Donaldson

Starring: Nicholas Cage, January Jones, Guy Pearce

Summary:

After his wife is assaulted, a husband enlists the services of a vigilante group to help him settle the score. Then he discovers they want a ‘favor’ from him in return.

Trivia:

  • Formerly called “The Hungry Rabbit Jumps”
  • Released last year overseas.

Trailer:

Excitement:
Jeff: Hey, it’s another “deal with the devil movie” I think we have more of a theme to this reel. However, nothing in this trailer makes me want to see it.
Ray: This is not a new story, but the trailer at least looks interesting. I’m not jumping into the theater to see it but I’d definitely rent it

Final Thoughts

Coming Attractions

The Past:

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The Present:

The Future:

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MOV052: “ZeroCool”

In this 52nd Reel, the boys go back in time to revisit “Hackers”. Does it still hold up today? As for what’s currently in the theater, they tackle “Thor” (and they like it! 😉 – haha!). Does it hold up to the plethora of comic book movies that are out there and coming up? Then, speaking of comic book movies, the boys check out the multitude of trailers for “X-men: First Class”. Do any of them actually excite the guys? All this and movie news including updates on the plot of “Expendables 2”, David Hasselhoff in he next “Piranha” movie, “Amityville Horror” goes 3-D, and “Dinosaurs vs. Aliens”? Pikachu…we choose you!!

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The Past: Hackers (1995)

Rotten Tomatoes: 32% Rotten; 66% Audience

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Director: Iain Softly

Starring: Jonny Lee Miller, Matthew Lillard,Lawrance Mason, Angelina Jolie, Fisher Stevens

Trivia:

  • The high school scenes were filmed at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, one of a few elite, exclusive high schools for students gifted in math, science and computers. Real school seniors were extras in many scenes. In the real school, the pool is on the first floor.
  • The computer they break into is a fictional mainframe computer called a “Gibson” – a homage to cyberpunk author William Gibson.
  • The character name “Emmanuel Goldstein” is taken from George Orwell’s novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four”. It is also used as a pseudonym by Emmanuel Goldstein aka Eric Corley, who publishes the magazine “2600, The Hacker Quarterly”. Corley was an uncredited consultant for this film.
  • The “Hacker Manifesto” read by Agent Bob was actually written by a hacker of great renown in the 1980s named Loyd Blankenship, who went by the name of The Mentor. It was published in PHRACK magazine, issue 07, file 03 in 1986.
  • Eugene Belford uses the pseudonym Babbage at the end of the film. Charles Babbage was the inventor of an early form of the computer.
  • Jonny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie were married shortly after the making of the film, and then were divorced four years later.
  • Around the movie’s release, the official website was modified by its webmasters to appear that it had been “hacked into,” and digital graffiti and instructions to “see ‘The Net’ instead” was added to the site’s graphics.
  • All of the hacker handles proposed by the Joey were actual handles already used by real hackers.
  • The game being played in the arcade is a high-quality prototype of the Playstation game “Wipeout” by Psygnosis. It is done on a high-end SGI server and allowed the development team to try out tracks and gameplay, before porting it to the Playstation. As a result, there are features and graphics in the movie that do not exist in the actual game, including the “high score smashing” sequence.
  • The “hacking”-sequences – the scenes where you see the “inside” of a computer – are mostly motion-controlled models, because director Iain Softley thought that actual computer graphics would look too artificial.
  • The poster for this movie shows Acid Burn and Crash Override with various words and ASCII symbols transposed on their faces. Amongst the words are: – 1. Names of hackers in the movie, including Lord Nikon, Acid Burn, and Crash Override – 2. Some of the commonly-used passwords, according to Plague, such as God, Sex, Love, and Secret – 3. Phreak – a “phone freak” – a hacker who concentrates their knowledge on telephone systems. (Phantom Phreak was the main Phreaker in the hacker group)
  • Cyberdelia was built from scratch in an abandoned indoor swimming pool on the outskirts of London, with the center of the club in the depths of what was the pool. Producer Ralph Winter notes, “We never knew why, but the pool was designated an historic landmark, so great care had to be taken not to damage anything and to return it to its original state.”
  • The part of Kate “Acid Burn” Libby was originally offered to Katherine Heigl, but due to prior commitments to Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) had to turn it down. The director auditioned Hilary Swank, Heather Graham and Liv Tyler for the role which ultimately went to Angelina Jolie.
  • At the beginning of the movie when Dade phones the security desk of the television station he is hacking in to he gives the name of Eddie Vedder, the singer of the rock band Pearl Jam.
  • The distinctive ring Kate Libby wears is the “Original Armour Ring” by jewelry designer Marche’ Noir.
  • The film’s writer, director, and some cast members attended the New York City 2600 meeting, a monthly hangout of the local hacker community, to observe and talk with real-life hackers.

Talking Points:

  • The competition

What We’ve Learned:

  • God gave men brains larger than dogs so they wouldn’t hump women’s legs at cocktail parties
  • Spandex is privilege not a right.
  • You wanna be elite you gotta pull a righteous hack
  • Hacking is more than a crime, its a survival trait
  • It’s in that place where I put that thing that time
  • There is no right and wrong, only fun and boring
  • Hackers used a lot of hard copy back in 1995.
  • HACK THE PLANET.

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: Totally unrealistic nerdy film. I adore it. Way dated though.
Ray: The Movie that made it “Cool” to be a computer nerd…. love it, although the tech aspect of this movie really dates it
Steve: Dated, but not as cool as other early computer-based movies like WarGames. To be honest, is early EMO to me. Not my fav, but others may like.

Intermission: Top 5 Computer Themed Films

  1. Tron
  2. WarGames
  3. The Matrix
  4. 2001: A Space Odessey
  5. Hackers

The Present: Thor
Rotten Tomatoes: 78% Fresh; 83% Audience

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hiddleston, Stellen Skarsgarrd

Trivia:

  • Comic writer Stan Lee who created Thor in 1962, appears as the truck driver who attempts to tow Mjolnir out of the crater it landed in… and fails miserably.
  • This is Anthony Hopkins’s first comic book film. He was previously offered the role of Alfred in Batman Begins (2005).
  • The Eye of Agamotto, a very powerful magical amulet, can be seen in Odin’s treasure room. This was a weapon wielded by a Marvel hero, Doctor Strange the Sorcerer Supreme.
  • According to producer Kevin Feige, the Bifrost bridge is the films’s most interesting set: “In the comics, it’s literally a rainbow that extends out from Asgard and pops down on Earth. We’re not necessarily doing that; we’re not having the big hard solid lines of colors. We’re saying it’s some sort of energy, almost a solid quartz bridge that as the light catches it and flows through it, you get some of that rainbow-esque quality to it.”
  • Anthony Hopkins signed on as Odin despite never reading a “Thor” comic or knowing anything about the Thor mythology. It was the concept of the father and son relationship that intrigued him about the role.
  • To prepare for his role as Loki, Tom Hiddleston trained in the Brazilian martial art of capoeira.
  • Thor holds a drawing of a crossroads with nine orbs in it. This is his perception and representation of Yggdrasil, in Norse mythology a great tree around which the nine worlds are tethered, making up the universe.
  • A model of the Infinity Gauntlet, an all powerful weapon capable of controlling aspects of reality (soul, time, space, power & mind) in the “Marvel Comics” universe, was constructed for this film. The model is made from bronze and copper (with jewels made from resin) and weighs 60 pounds. It was built to be operational so that animatronics could be built on it.

Talking Points:

  • There was very little exposition for a origin story film
  • Story – what you expected?
  • Natalie Portman…good or bad?
  • Loki looks like Johnny Weir
  • Chris Hemsworth..hottie or nottie?

What We Learned:

  • What you need is a rainbow bridge
  • I need sustenance!
  • A pet store is not the place to get a horse

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: I really liked it, not the best Marvel movie but not bad at all.
Ray: Tolerable, one of the weaker marvel movies as far as story goes. Don’t waste your money on 3D. Can we have the Avengers already?
Steve: Enjoyed it…was much more pleased than I thought I would be going in. Definitely worth a look…3D unnecessary.

The Future: X-Men: First Class

Director: Chris Miller

Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, January Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Kevin Bacon, Lucas Till, Zoë Kravitz, Jason Flemyng, Edi Fathegi

Trivia:

  • Bryan Singer, who directed X-Men (2000) and X2 (2003), was approached to direct this film in October 2009, but in March 2010 declined due to his commitment to Jack the Giant Killer (2012) and was replaced with Matthew Vaughn in May 2010. Singer however stayed on as producer.
  • Taylor Lautner was considered to play Hank McCoy (aka Beast) but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. Nicholas Hoult was later cast.
  • The uniforms the X-Men wear are colored blue and yellow, in homage to the original blue/yellow suits the X-Men wore in the comics from 1963 (their debut) to 2001 (when X-Men (2000) inspired a change to black leather).
  • Filming was originally to take place on Tybee Island, but a producer browsing on the online map program Google Earth found Jekyll Island to be a more suitable location.
  • Sirs Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen were considered to appear in the film as the elder Professor X and Magneto, but the idea was rejected as the filmmakers wanted to start a new X-Men trilogy, without any connection to the previous films.
  • A telepathic battle between Professor X and Emma Frost was going to be in the film, but upon the release of Inception (2010) the concept was scrapped.
  • This is the first X-Film without Wolverine or Cyclops.
  • Matthew Vaughn instructed the cast to do away with all accents in their performances. James McAvoy had planned to copy Patrick Stewart’s voice (since McAvoy was going to play a younger version of Stewart’s Xavier), but Vaughn quashed it; Vaughn also told Rose Byrne that Moira MacTaggart would not have her trademark Scottish accent in the film (to the Scottish McAvoy’s mild disappointment).

Talking Points:

  • How many versions of this trailer are there?
  • Trailer at least acknowledges the previous films, which I’m surprised at.

Summary:

Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-MEN.

Trailer:

TRAILER #1:

TRAILER #2:

TRAILER #3: International

Excitement:
Jeff: Stoked, but I’m easily stoked when it comes to comic book movies.
Ray: I am skeptical.. X3 really left a bad taste in mouth.. hopefully by going back to the past they can fix what they mucked up in the future.
Steve: Seems like it’s something I’ll like…origins of several characters versus a single movie on one. I’m down for it!

Coming Attractions

The Past
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The Present

The Future

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MOV041: “More Human than Human”

Do androids dream of electric sheep? Can an identity be stolen completely in just a couple of days? Can you really solve a mystery by jumping back to the last 8 minutes of someone’s life? All this and news on this week’s COL Movies.

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The Past: Blade Runner (1982)

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Director: Ridley Scott

Starring: Harrison Ford, Rutger Howard, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos

Trivia:

  • While the film is loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, the title comes from a book by Alan Nourse called “The Bladerunner”. William S. Burroughs wrote a screenplay based on the Nourse book and a novella entitled “Blade Runner: A Movie.”Ridley Scott bought the rights to the title but not the screenplay or the book. The Burroughs composition defines a blade runner as “a person who sells illegal surgical instruments”
  • Although Philip K. Dick saw only the opening 20 minutes of footage prior to his death on March 2, 1982, he was extremely impressed, and has been quoted by Paul Sammon as saying, “It was my own interior world. They caught it perfectly.” However neither Ridley Scott nor screenwriter David Webb Peoples actually read Dick’s novel.
  • Exasperated crews often referred to the film as “Blood Runner”.
  • Titles considered for the film include ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’, ‘Android’, ‘Mechanismo’, ‘Dangerous Days’, and finally ‘Blade Runner’. After the film had changed its name from ‘Dangerous Days’ to ‘Blade Runner’, Ridley Scott decided he didn’t like the new name, and tried to call the film ‘Gotham City’, but Bob Kane (comic book creator of Batman) wouldn’t sell the rights to the name, so it returned to being called ‘Blade Runner’.
  • Originally, the novel (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) was set in 1992, although later editions brought the date forward to 2021. The film makers initially identified the date as 2020, but settled on 2019 because 2020 sounded too much like the common term for perfect vision, 20:20.
  • Ridley Scott cast Rutger Hauer in the role of Roy Batty without actually meeting the actor. He had watched his performances in Turkish Delight (1973), Keetje Tippel (1975) and Soldier of Orange (1977) and was so impressed, he cast him immediately. However, for their first meeting, Hauer decided to play a joke on Scott and he turned up wearing huge green sunglasses, pink satin pants and a white sweater with an image of a fox on the front. According to production executive Katherine Haber, when Scott saw Hauer, he literally turned white.
  • Ridley Scott actually turned down directorial duties on the project as he was about to begin work on another science fiction adaptation, Dune

Talking Points:

  • All the different versions, deleted scenes not withstanding do you feel the studio was right in insisting Ridley Scott put Harrison Ford’s voice over into the movie?
  • Theatrical Release
  • International Release
  • Directors Cut
  • Final Cut
  • Work-print
  • Was this the Inception of its day? (controversy wise, not popularity wise) Is Deckard a replicant or no? Even the cast doesn’t agree…. Scott says yes, Ford and Hauer say no.

What We’ve Learned:

  • In 8 years, Los Angeles will somehow merge into Detroit
  • In 8 years we will have flying cars
  • The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long
  • Nothing is worse than having an itch that you can never scratch
  • “It’s time to die!”
  • It sucks to only have 4 years to live.
  • Adama is good at Origami

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: A sci-fi classic. Must have for any geek.
Ray: A very cerebral sci-fi flick, I don’t think anyone has nailed sci-fi / noir quite as well as this movie. still holding up after almost 30 years!
Steve: Always an amazing movie. However…this particular cut leaves some WTF moments. All depends on which version you cherish.

The Present: Unknown

Director: Juame Collet-Serra

Starring: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, January Jones, Aiden Quinn

Trivia:

  • Principal photography took place in early 2010 in Berlin, Germany, and in the Studio Babelsberg film studios.
  • The bridge the taxi plunges from is the Oberbaumbrücke.
  • The Friedrichstraße was blocked for several nights for the shooting of a car chase.
  • Some of the shooting was done in the Hotel Adlon. Other locations include the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin Central Station, Berlin Friedrichstraße station, Pariser Platz, Museum Island, the Oranienburger Straße in Berlin, and the Leipzig/Halle Airport.
  • According to Andrew Rona, the budget was $40 million. Dark Castle Entertainment contributed $30 million and German public film funds supported the production with €4,65 million (more than $6 million).
  • The film has received mixed to positive reviews, scoring 56% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 5.8/10, with the general consensus being “Liam Neeson elevates the proceedings considerably, but Unknown is ultimately too derivative — and implausible — to take advantage of its intriguing premise”.
  • Considerable praise has been placed on Neeson in the lead role and the unique premise of the film, and has comparisons with Neeson’s 2008 film Taken.
    * Richard Roeper gave the film a B+, reflecting “At times, Unknown stretches plausibility to the near breaking point, but it’s so well paced and the performances are so strong and most of the questions are ultimately answered. This is a very solid thriller.”

Talking Points:

  • So.. we figured this one out a long time ago.. but there was still a twist.

What We Learned:

  • Ask enough questions and the man who is lying will change his story
  • Germans are good at forgetting
  • Sentiment is always the first thing to go.
  • Don’t get your cyanide mixed up with your afternoon tea
  • There are obviously no patrol cars anywhere in Berlin

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: It’s a movie with a nice twist and resolution. Just wish it was better written.
Ray: Not Brilliant, Not Horrible, Once I got over the whole Total Recall thing and just relaxed.. it was entertaining. actors do a good job,… there is a twist at the end if you can stay entertained long enough to stay to the end.
Steve: I was a bad, bad movie reviewer. Life got in the way… I repent!

The Future: Source Code (4-1-2011)

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farminga

Trivia:

  • Topher Grace was considered for lead

Talking Points:

  • A dark version of groundhog day?

Summary:
An action thriller centered on a soldier who wakes up in the body of an unknown man and discovers he’s part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.

Trailer:

Excitement:
Jeff: Interesting, feels like it might be a good movie, but feeling like it might go horribly wrong.
Ray: I think it looks entertaining, enough to go see.. which is why i put it on our list 😀
Steve: Very Groundhog’s Day meets Quantum Leap…but with a higher budget. Looks interesting and seems like something I’d enjoy.

Coming Attractions
The Past

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The Present

The Future

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MOV027: “I Hate L.A.”

A great producer dies. What the hell is Boylesque?, Avatar 2 Spoiler alert, Cloak and Dagger, Skyline, and Unknown.

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The Past:  Cloak and Dagger (1984)

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Director: Richard Franklin

Starring: Henry Thomas, Dabney Coleman, Christina Nigra, Michael Murphy

Trivia:

  • The video game market crashed in 1983 while this movie was being filmed, so although you see a ton of “Cloak and Dagger” video game cartridges for sale, all of them were fake as the 5200 version of this was never made
  • All the scenes of the game come from the arcade version which was released before the movie was filmed, all of the images displayed were streamed to the television when they were “played”
  • The elderly couple in the film, both had parts in the original psycho (1960) Richard Franklin directed the sequel Psycho II in 1983. The Couple were also married in real life for approximately 56 years until John McIntire’s death in 1991

Talking Points:

  • Was this the original “Giant Video Game Commercial” ?
  • Would a modern version (remake) of this movie work?
  • Did we really call game cartridges tapes?

What We’ve Learned:

  • Ingenuity and Contacts are better than bullets…… sometimes.
  • it’s perfectly ok for 9 year old little girls to ride the bus to the airport at midnight
  • Old women missing fingers are scary!!
  • Yep, we really did call them “tapes”.

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: Enjoyable movie.  Some might think it’s dated but for me, it didn’t.  I liked it.
Ray: This doesn’t stand the test of time very well…. if you were born after 1983, you MIGHT find this movie silly.
Steve: Absolutely dated, but the concept is cool.  When you’re a kid playing spy, who wouldn’t want to be a real spy?

The Present: Skyline

Director: The Brothers Strause

Starring: Eric Balfour, Donald Faison, Scottie Thompson, David Zayas

Trivia:

  • Film was completely financed by the directors.
  • Was almost entirely shot at Greg Strause’s condo
  • Shot entirely on new RED Cameras (4K Digital Cinema Camera 4k = 4096×3072 1080p = 1920×1080)
  • There are over 800 VFX shots in this movie…more than most major franchise movies
  • The Directors also happen to own the company that does all the visual FX for this flick (hydraulx)

Talking Points:

  • The Brothers Strause are being sued by Sony Pictures
  • Is it possible that this is just a modern B-Movie?
  • Another schizo movie?  What could have made it better?
  • Ending… W….T…..F…

What We Learned:

  • See those giant naval battleships burning? that probably means its NOT safe to go out into the water…
  • If you discover that you almost DIE every time you go outside.. maybe you shouldn’t go outside.
  • Adding giant vagina mouths to the aliens from ID4 doesn’t make them any better
  • It only takes a few seconds to fill up an enormous penthouse apartment with broken windows with gas fumes
  • An axe cant kill them, a gun cant kill them, hitting them with a car cant kill them, blowing them up with a nuke, cant kill them.. but beating them to death with your fists once you become one of them works like a charm!
  • If you get a tattoo by Kat Von D, make sure you get your money’s worth by constantly showing it in a movie you’re in.
  • Do not walk toward the light

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: They should have shortened this by an hour and just had it as the first part of the story.  Great visuals, but the story sucked.
Ray: Maybe visual effects guys…. should stick to visual effects. I wanted to see the train movie.
Steve: Yeah…overall epic fail.  Had some good ideas, just didn’t succeed in any them.

The Future: Unknown (2-18-2011)

Starring: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, January Jones, Frank Langella, Aidan Quinn

Trivia:

  • based on the novel Out of My Head
  • Originally titled Unknown White Male.

Talking Points:

  • Originality?  (Seems like Total Recall in the present day)

Summary: A man awakens from a coma, only to discover that someone has taken on his identity and that no one, (not even his wife), believes him. With the help of a young woman, he sets out to prove who he is.

Trailer:

Excitement:
Jeff: This time his identity was Taken.
Ray: Looks like a interesting mystery action flick with a great cast! Qui Gon and Skeletor FTW !
Steve: Cast is very intriguing.  Might be worth it!

Coming Attractions:

The Past:
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The Present:

The Future:

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