Tag Archives: Larry Crowne

MOV061: “Mellow Greetings – What’s Your Boggle?”

In a COL Movies first…Jeff and Ray run the show alone while Steve sends in his thoughts. The boys give their thoughts on the Sylvester Stallone classic, “Demolition Man”…then head to the theater to check out the Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts flick, “Larry Crowne”. They wrap the show up with a review of the trippy trailer for the Americanized, David Fincher version of “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”. All this and news about changes to Netflix, how Harry Potter may be linked to a remake of Stephen King’s “The Stand”, as well as new images from Captain America. It’s the 61st reel of COL Movies…Mellow greetings – what seems to be your boggle?

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News:

The Past: Demolition Man (1993)
Rotten Tomatoes: 63% Fresh; 60% Audience

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Director: Marco Brambilla
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes and Sandra Bullock

Trivia:

  • For some non-American releases, references to Taco Bell were changed to Pizza Hut. This includes dubbing, plus changing the logos during post-production. Taco Bell remains in the closing credits. In the Swedish release the subtitles still use Taco Bell while the sound and picture has been altered as above.
  • In the strange attempt to entirely replace the Taco Bell name with Pizza Hut (the name was dubbed over and computer generated images of the logo were pasted over), the editors missed a spot. At the start of the battle outside the restaurant, when everyone is flocking to the window, one pane still holds the logo for Taco Bell and the Taco Bell sign is visible in the first shot of the van (in the background when people are running) on the door.
  • Many of the cars in the movie were prototypes of future models, supplied by General Motors.
  • Sandra Bullock replaced Lori Petty after a few days filming.
  • Sylvester Stallone wanted the Simon Phoenix character to be played by Jackie Chan. Chan refused, since Asian audiences don’t like the idea of actors who have always played heroes suddenly playing evil characters.
  • The “ray gun” used by Wesley Snipes in the Museum Armory sequence is based on the Heckler and Koch G11, a prototype weapon for the German army that would have been the most advanced rifle in the world, firing caseless ammunition (bullets, not death rays).
  • The building used for exterior shots of the SAPD building was the California Headquarters of GTE in Thousand Oaks.
  • The title was taken from The Police’s song of the same name. Hence, the use of Sting to remake the song for the film.
  • In Kuwait the Arabic title of the movie in the cinemas was “Rambo The Destroyer”. The idea is that, seeing the Rambo movies were very popular, associating Sylvester Stallone to Rambo in the title would perhaps sell more tickets.

Talking Points:

  • Would taco bell have won the franchise wars? what FF restaurant would have been featured if this was made today

What We’ve Learned:

  • Don’t trust the thermal scans
  • All restaurants in the future will be Taco Bells
  • Be prepared for the 3 sea shells
  • It takes a maniac to catch a maniac!

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: Classic action movie. Some might say it’s a bad movie, they may be right but I can’t help myself but like it.
Ray: This was 90’s action film at its peak, When Joel Silver still produced movies that were entertaining.
Steve: I remember that when I first saw this movie, I thought Wesley Snipes was just a major badass – but today he just looks like a cartoon character. I do like the whole evolution of Huxley (Bullock), where she becomes much more confident in her abilities and training. I still haven’t figured out the whole shell thing…LOL! Definitely a good romp in the genre of the other 80s & 90s action movies like The Running Man, Total Recall, and Judge Dredd.

The Present: Larry Crowne (2011)
Rotten Tomatoes: 36% Rotten; 51% Audience

Director: Tom Hanks
Starring: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Sarah Mahoney

Trivia:

  • Tom Hanks wrote the film with Nia Vardalos

Talking Points:

  • George Takai – awesome
  • Use of text messages
  • Scooter Gangs

What We Learned:

  • A College Education will help you not only get a better job, but keep your current one.
  • Getting kicked in the butt hurts no matter the language
  • Tai Chi cures Diabetes
  • A deed in Lieu never goes that fast
  • Tucking in your polo shirt makes you look like a cop
  • There are only two things you cant do in college.. smoke in the building, and use YOUR PHONE IN MY CLASS!

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: The first half of the movie was hard for me to get through. The second half well made up for it. Wonderful date movie.
Ray: they lost me at the kiss… movie is cute, somewhat schitzo
Steve: This felt like my every day at work…lol! It felt a little like Tom Hanks was playing Forrest Gump going to College, but I liked the cast of characters around him. Pam Grier was fun in the movie and George Takei was the perfect Economics professor who thinks he’s funny!!

The Future: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Director: David Fincher
Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara and Stellan Skarsgård

Trivia:

  • Remake of swedish film based on the novel.

Talking Points:

  • Remake of swedish film, again.

Summary:

Journalist Mikael Blomkvist and rebellious computer hacker Lisbeth Salander team up to investigate the unsolved disappearance of wealthy Henrik Vanger’s teen niece, only to uncover dark secrets about Vanger’s powerful family. Niels Arden Oplev directs this Swedish thriller based on the first novel from Stieg Larsson’s best-selling trilogy.

Trailer:

Excitement:
Jeff: The trailer was thrilling and hooked me with the shiny but didn’t really tell me anything about the movie.  Excited to see it though.
Ray: Excited because its a david fincher movie.. but think I should check out the original first
Steve: Holy crap…my eyes hurt after watching that trailer. Felt like I was watching images from a subliminal movie clip or something. Don’t feel that I really learned anything about the movie, but the music did make it seem like something exciting was going on. Clearly, I need to either read the book or watch the Swedish version before deciding if I’m going to see this.

Coming Attractions

The Past
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The Present

The Future

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