Tag Archives: Source Code

MOV047: “You’re A Sexist, Egotistical, Lying, Hypocritical Bigot.”

This week we check out the classic Nine To Five, the present Jake Gyllenhaal film Source Code, and look the Kung Fu Panda 2 trailer. This plus movie news all in this reel of COL Movies.

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News:

The Past: Nine to Five (1980)
Rotten Tomatoes: 88% Fresh, 69% Audience

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Director: Colin Higgins

Starring: Jane Fonda, Lilly Tomlin, Dolly Parton, Dabney Coleman

Trivia:

  • Dolly Parton’s first film
  • The TWA flight shown taking Roz to the Aspen Language Center was used in reality on the ill-fated TWA 800, which exploded off of Long Island, NY
  • Violets Fantasy Characters were to reference Snow White, and Robin Hood
  • A VHS Release was planned the same day as the Theatrical release, but was pushed back 3 months due to complaints from Theater owners.

Talking Points:

  • What 3 women would you cast if this movie was made today.

What We’ve Learned:

  • Xerox Machines can be operated by morons
  • Always check for a skull and crossbones when making your bosses coffee
  • Smoking in a hospital is always acceptable
  • Doctors don’t talk to candy stripers… piss off
  • Corpse Stealing, Kidnapping, Hostage Taking, Trespassing, Signature Forging, Credit Card Stealing are all OK as long as you get your boss promoted.

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: It’s a wonderful movie. Had a bunch of parts where I wanted to run and hide but in this case, it’s all good parts of the movie. I think I need this for my collection.
Ray: Another movie I watched over and over in my childhood…
Steve: One I hadn’t watched in a long time. Definitely smiled and reminds me of the female comedies of the 80s like Outrageous Fortune, Big Business, and similar.

The Present: Source Code
Rotten Tomatoes: 90% Fresh, 87% Audience

Director: Duncan Jones

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright

Trivia:

  • The Voice of Colter’s father on the phone was none other than Scott Bakula, from TV’s “Quantam Leap” and he started off his conversation by saying “Oh Boy” his catch phrase from the show.
  • Colter Keeps saying “Everything is going to be ok” a line he also spoke in the Alternate Reality mindbender “Donnie Darko”

Talking Points:

  • Not that you guys would notice, but I kept getting distracted by the things in Chicago that were “not quite right”
  • Quantum Leap on a Train?
  • The Doctor’s character…annoying?

What We Learned:

  • Chicago has WAY fancy commuter rail lines with huge bathrooms!

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: It’s a nice way of doing the Groundhog’s Day thing. Everything was well put together and enjoyable, just not great.
Ray: Although a bit predictable in certain respects.. it was an entertaining film.
Steve: It’s alright. Entertaining. Jake acted well.

The Future: Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom

Starring: Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, David Cross, Lucy Liu, Dustin Hoffman, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Gary Oldman

Trivia:

  • The teaser trailer was shown with both 2D and 3D versions of the films Megamind, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Tangled, and Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. The trailer was then released on the Internet on November 7, 2010. Three posters have been released so far.
  • The trailer was shown numerous times during the commercial breaks of the 2011 Kids Choice Awards.
  • On December 30, 2010, DreamWorks released a fifteen second TV spot for the film.
  • On February 4th, 2011, a thirty second TV spot was released on the internet, and was aired during Super Bowl XLV, on February 6th, 2011.
  • A full length theatrical trailer was shown in front of screenings of Rango and Hop. This was later uploaded on DreamWorks Animation’s YouTube page.

Talking Points:

  • Jack Black is like Will Ferrell

Summary:

Po (Jack Black), now a kung fu master, is fighting to protect the Valley of Peace alongside with Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and the Furious Five; Monkey (Jackie Chan), Crane (David Cross), Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Mantis (Seth Rogen), when a new evil, the emperor albino peacock Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), emerges to take over China with a weapon so powerful, it threatens the existence of kung fu itself. Po sets out with the Furious Five to vanquish this threat, but must first confront his own mysterious past in order to find the strength to succeed

Trailer:

Excitement:
Jeff: Skadoosh!
Ray: Yes Yes Yes!
Steve: Loved the first movie…so I’m going to take the chance on this one, despite Jack Black.

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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News:

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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