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Podcast

MOV108: “White Trash Even Feels Sorry For Me!”

The boys kick off their annual tribute to Pride Month with a look back at Del Shores’ play brought to the big screen in “Sordid Lives”. From there, they head to the theater to see if Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones still have it in the 3rd installment of the “Men in Black” franchise. In trailer-land, you know it’s a Steve-based show when they are forced to see another trailer for a based on true events paranormal flick…and this time it’s “The Apparition”. All this and news about a Justice League film, all you need to know about the Alien universe before you see “Prometheus”, as well as a Foo Fighter gets a big role. It’s the 108th reel of COL Movies…”White Trash Even Feels Sorry For Me!”

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News:

The Past: Sordid Lives (2000)
Rotten Tomatoes: 37% Rotten; 86% Audience

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Director: Dell Shores

Starring: Delta Burke, Bonnie Bedelia, Leslie Jordan, Beau Bridges, Kirk Geiger, Sarah Hunley, Beth Grant, Ann Walker and Olivia Newton-John

Trivia:

  • The original stage play premiered in Los Angeles on May 11, 1996 and ultimately won 14 Drama League Awards.
  • This film contains many of the original actors from the long running stage-production, with the actors who originated the Bonnie Bedelia and Beau Bridges roles (Mary Margaret Lewis and Mitch Carter) playing the receptionist Ethel and security guard in the mental institution.
  • Delta Burke’s role was originally suppose to be played as a larger woman, but when she showed up on the set having lost a lot of weight, a pivotal scene was played as if she had lost the weight, but her neglectful husband hadn’t noticed. (The role was originally to be played by Patrika Darbo.)
  • To keep the stories going, Logo produced twelve episodes of Sordid Lives: The Series. The television version begins at a point before that covered in the film, with Rue McClanahan as the mother, Peggy Ingram. Much of the film cast returned, including Leslie Jordan and Olivia Newton-John. Delta Burke was replaced with Caroline Rhea, while the part of Ty Williamson, formerly played by Kirk Geiger, is now portrayed by director Del Shores’ husband Jason Dottley.
  • Dottley has been on the national tour of the stage production of Sordid Lives since September 2007.
  • The television series began airing in July 2008. It ended after one season.

Talking Points:

  • Does it feel too much like a play?…flow.
  • Acting.
  • Ty’s coming out story
  • Brother Boy’s role in the film

Critic Notes

  • Positives: A trainwreck you can’t help but watch, While the film has large flaws the laughs are just as big!
  • Negatives: Shrill and unfunny, clumsily acted, did not translate well from play to screen, the straight-to-video quality is apparent with poor set choices, overacting, and too much going on.

What We Learned:

  • Any man who hits a woman is no man at all.
  • If you’re gonna play a homosexual, don’t waste it on theater.
  • When escaping the booby hatch, make sure to wear flats.
  • When in the house of the lord, cover up your titties.
  • Thelma was the one with the shitty husband.
  • Turn on the light when you get up to go to the bathroom!

Trailer:

Trailer provided by Video Detective

Recommendations:
Jeff: *clears throat* “Good lord this has a star studded cast. One of the best parts about this film is that the actors know exactly what this film is and act it out exactly how it should be. This is a fun romp around a serious situation but you cannot help but enjoy the film. Olivia Newton-John’s part is minimal, seems like she’s just there to sing, but the little nuances she puts in there are perfect. I think this movie would surprise and delight most straight people as well. I can’t recommend this enough.” Hmm, how come I feel like I’m repeating myself.
Ray: I really enjoyed the story, and would have loved to have seen the actual play. The “Shot on handycam” feel was a bit of a bummer, but I’m able to overlook that. I kinda wish maybe someone would attempt to re-make this. Highly recommended.
Steve: It’s not a conventional film and that’s why I like it. I can look at this film and see characters from throughout my Tennessee family. Steel Magnolias in a trailer park! Love it!

Flickchart

The Present: Men In Black III
Rotten Tomatoes: 69% Fresh; 75% Audience

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld

Starring: Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin

Trivia:

  • Michael Bay expressed interest in directing.
  • Screenwriter David Koepp, who was originally involved with Men in Black II but left to write Spider-Man, signed on permanently for this film.
  • Sacha Baron Cohen was considered for the role of Boris.
  • This is Will Smith’s first film in 3.5 years, since the release of Seven Pounds in December 2008. This is the longest he has gone without appearing in a movie since his film career started in 1993.
  • Gemma Arterton was originally cast as young Agent O, but scheduling conflicts prevented Arterton from taking the role.
  • Josh Brolin plays a younger version of Tommy Lee Jones’s character Agent K. Brolin’s wife Diane Lane appeared with Jones in Lonesome Dove. In the sequel Streets of Laredo, Lane’s role was taken over by Sissy Spacek, who played Tommy Lee Jones’s wife in Coal Miner’s Daughter and is the cousin of MIB co-star Rip Torn.
  • The previous film Men in Black II released the same year as Spider-Man. This film, the sequel, releases ten years later; the same year as the reboot The Amazing Spider-Man.
  • This is the second threequel Steven Spielberg produced that involves Apollo 11 in its storyline. The first was Transformers: Dark of the Moon which focused on a Transformer ship discovered by Apollo.
  • According to the trailer Agent J travels from 2012 to 1969, 43 years into the past. He wakes up and sees a young Agent K, played by Josh Brolin. Brolin is only 21 years and 5 months younger than Tommy Lee Jones, who plays the older Agent K.
  • Yuri Lowenthal, who voices Knuckles the graffiti alien, had voiced Ben Tennyson in the Ben 10 cartoons; the Tennyson family is connected to the Plumbers, an organization similar to the Men in Black.
  • Special makeup effects artist Rick Baker makes a cameo in the film as an alien with an exposed cranium.
  • Will Smith’s personal makeup artist Judy Murdock appears as a blue-skinned alien.
  • Nicole Scherzinger listened to Led Zeppelin to get her in the mood for the role of Lily Poison.
  • The number CRM-114 makes two appearances in this movie in the form of text that appears on the outside wall of the Lunar Max prison (seen after Boris breaks out) and the ID for the bunker on the beach at Cape Canaveral. These numbers are a nod to director Stanley Kubrick, who used this number in his movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
  • The zip line escape system shown at the Apollo launch pad really did exist. It was installed for the Apollo program and enhanced for the Space Shuttle program. In some pre-launch emergency scenarios, the crew would have ridden steel cages down the zip lines to explosion-proof bunkers. Astronauts practiced using the system as part of their training, but it was never used in an actual emergency.
  • Will Arnett plays J’s alternate timeline partner, Agent AA.
  • Lady Gaga appears on a holographic monitor as Agent J searches for Agent K in the MIB headquarters.
  • Director Barry Sonnenfeld appears on screen as one of the people watching the Apollo 11 launch on a couch, drinking a cup of coffee.
  • The film’s premise was first proposed to director Barry Sonnenfeld by Will Smith during the filming of Men in Black II in 2002, with Smith suggesting that his character, Agent J, travel back in time to save his partner, Agent K, while at the same time exploring Agent K’s backstory. Sonnenfeld said the idea “turned out to be a very long process of development, mainly because of the knotting [sic] issues of time travel…”.
  • Unlike the first two films, Men in Black 3 was filmed in 3D
  • For the film, the Ford Taurus SHO was selected as the MIB’s official car, replacing the Ford LTD Crown Victoria and Mercedes-Benz E-Class from the first two films. For the 1969 scenes, a 1964 Ford Galaxie was used as the MIB’s official car.
  • This is the first time Frank the Pug was absent in a Men in Black movie, as well as Chief Zed or Jack Jeebs. Zed is written in the story as having passed away and immortalized at MIB Headquarters. A portrait of Frank can also be seen in J’s apartment. An advertisement for Frank the talking dog can be seen as Agent J enters Coney Island.
  • Both Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones have said that they would “consider” appearing in a Men in Black 4. Director Barry Sonnenfeld joked, “…for Men in Black 4, Will is out and [his son] Jaden Smith is in.” Jones said it would be “easy to pick up where we left off. We know what we are doing, we know how to do it. It’s just a hell of a lot of fun.”

Talking Points:

  • Entertaining?
  • What was up with TLJ’s Face?!
  • Acting
  • Did the storyline (aka ending especially) surprise you?
  • How does it compare for you to the other 2?

Critic Notes

  • Positives: Entertaining, better than MIB2, Josh Brolin’s impression of Tommy Lee Jones was excellent, Nice shot in the arm for a dead franchise, Better than the first one! (Ebert)
  • Negatives: Lifeless and pointless, simply made to be a summer blockbuster to bring in cash, all the excitement of the movie and CGI could not make up for a pointless story

What We Learned:

  • There are things out there that you don’t need to know about.
  • To time jump, you really have to jump.
  • All models are aliens.
  • The bitterest truth is better than the sweetest lie.
  • Sugar (Regret?) is the most destructive power in the universe.
  • A miracle is something that seems impossible but happens anyway.
  • The secret to living a happy life is not asking the questions you don’t want answers to.
  • Trust the pie

Trailer:

Recommendations :
Jeff: I’m just a fan of the Men In Black movie. The Men In Black movies have a certain style which I always enjoy. I feel biased in saying, totally go see it. 3D is okay but there really isn’t much to it.
Ray: ugh. I had a hard time with this one.. it felt very much pieced together and sloppy. Josh Brolin was AMAZING as a young Tommy Lee Jones though. I’d say skip it and wait for Blu-Ray or netflix.
Steve: I found it to be entertaining and much better than the 2nd installment. Where the first one really set the tone, this one should have probably followed it so that you were more invested in the characters and their stories, before the 2nd movie came along. I have to admit I was surprise they decided to “reinvigorate” this franchise, but it’s a nice way to end it.

The Future: The Apparition

Release: August 24, 2012

Director: Todd Lincoln

Starring: Ashley Greene, Sebastian Stan and Tom Felton

Summary:

When frightening events start to occur in their home, a young couple discovers they are being haunted by a presence that was accidentally conjured during a university parapsychology experiment. The horrifying apparition feeds on their fear and torments them no matter where they try to run. Their last hope is an expert in the supernatural, but even with his help they may already be too late to save themselves from this terrifying force and death.

Talking Points

Trailer:

Excitement:
Jeff: Is it just me or do trailers for horror movies just make me yawn. Same old, same old.
Ray: Looks like it could have some good scares.. which to me is what it’s all about. The trick is not giving away all the good ones in the trailer. I would watch this, not sure I’d go out of my way to see it in the theater, but Id definitely watch it on the home theater system.
Steve: OK…it’s not anything amazing. But, I did like that it seems to take the haunting genre into a different place. I thought it was an interesting premise, although I doubt it will take it to new heights. I am over the “true events” side of things, though. If you can’t give me the background – leave it be.

The Past:

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The Present:

The Future: The Hobbit

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MOV016: “Bunny, Ball Ball”

This shows recording bandwidth brought to you by Starbucks.  Jeff just turned 30 so he though we should review his favorite movie, Hudson Hawk, but did they all like it?  We also reviewed Takers and the trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.

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News:

The Past: Hudson Hawk (1991)

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Director: Michael Lehmann

Starring: Bruce Willis, Danny Aiello, Andie MacDowell, James Coburn

Trivia:

  • The tones that the handcuffs make are the same as the tones used in Our Man Flint (1966) and In Like Flint (1967) for the telephones. James Coburn appears in all three movies.
  • Coburn plays “George Kaplan”, which is the name of the fake agent from North by Northwest (1959).
  • Igg and Ook both mutter their own names as their last words.
  • Bruce Willis says, “Directions even your brother can understand,” to co-star Frank Stallone. On the script, this jab is directed at the character of Antony Mario, but it doubles as an off-screen jab at Stallone’s real brother Sylvester Stallone.
  • Nintendo humor abounds in this movie. “New Jersey’s third-largest crime family” is known as the Mario Brothers. Additionally, Hudson Hawk has been in prison so long he does not know what a Nintendo is.
  • Isabella Rossellini was originally cast as Anna Baragli, but when the movie was delayed because of scheduling issues, the part was re-cast with Maruschka Detmers. However, due to back problems, she had to leave after a few days of shooting, and was finally replaced with Andie MacDowell.
  • Michael Ballhaus was the original Cinematographer on the project, but due to delays and overruns in principal photography he left the project and was replaced by Dante Spinotti.
  • In the bar, Bruce Willis talks about “reindeer-goat cheese pizza”, which he also mentions in The Last Boy Scout (1991).
  • The Brooklyn Bridge tollbooth scene was actually filmed at the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, as the Brooklyn Bridge had no toll at that time.
  • In this film Danny Aiello plays the Italian ‘criminal’ Tommy Five-Tone . This could be seen as an in-joke at The Godfather: Part II (1974) where Danny Aiello’s character, one of the Rosato brothers, attempts to murder Frankie Pentanglis, a.k.a. Frankie Five-Angels.
  • The film generally received negative critical reviews and was overall a box office bomb. James Brundage of AMC filmcritic said the film was “so implausible and so over the top that it lets inconsistency roll off like water on a duck’s back.”[2] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said of the film, “A movie this unspeakably awful can make an audience a little crazy. You want to throw things, yell at the actors, beg them to stop.”
  • It received Razzie Awards for Worst Director, Worst Screenplay and Worst Picture.
  • Part of the reason for the box office failure is that the film is clearly intended as an absurd comedy and yet was marketed as an action film one year after the success of Die Hard 2. When the film came to home video the tag line “Catch The Adventure, Catch The Excitement, Catch The Hawk” was changed to “Catch The Adventure, Catch The Laughter, Catch The Hawk”.
  • A video game based on the film was released in 1991 for various home computers and game consoles. It is a side-scrolling game where the player, as the Hawk, must steal the Sforza and the Codex from the auction house and the Vatican, respectively. Then Castle Da Vinci has to be infiltrated in order to steal the mirrored crystal needed to power the gold machine. On his journey, Hawk must face many oddball adversaries, including dachshunds that try to throw him off the roof of the auction house, janitors, photographers, killer nuns, and a tennis player (presumably Darwin Mayflower).

Talking Points:

  • Have we become the Bruce Willis Fan Club?
  • Could we put more genres into one film, please?

What We’ve Learned:

  • There are 673 Wong’s in the phone book
  • Swinging On A Star is 5 min 32 seconds
  • You dont have to be quiet to be a cat burglar
  • The Pope Watches Mr Ed.
  • Although we love her, Sandra Bernhardt cannot act
  • Bruce Willis is so cool he can turn a nun!
  • If Divinci Was alive today he’d be eating sushi naked in the back of a Cadillac

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: I love this movie and I actually do NOT agree with anyone that it’s a bad movie.
Ray: A bad movie, but I love it.. I can watch this over and over.
Steve: What did I watch? I’m still processing it…

The Present: Takers

Director: John Luessenhop

Starring: Chris Brown, Hayden Christensen, Matt Dillon, Michael Ealy, Idris lba, Steve Harris, T.I., Jay Hernandez, Zoe Saldana

Trivia:

  • The first film applicable under futures and option trading based upon box-office returns in the United States. The controversial proposal was approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in June 2010.

Talking Points:

What We Learned:

  • If you’re a Police Officer, don’t follow perps with your kid in the car!
  • T.I. is a bad MF, but could stand some more acting classes
  • If you’re a big-time criminal, be sure to live as extravagantly as possible – no one will notice.
  • Even thieves have things going on in their personal lives

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: It’s meh, See The Italian Job or the Real McCoy instead.
Ray: enjoyable, but an inferior and someone boring copy of previous heist movies.
Steve: As predictable and formulaic as it was, I enjoyed it. Worth seeing at least as a rental if you like the genre.

The Future: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Helen McCrory, Bonnie Wright, Tom Felton, Jason Isaacs

Trivia:

  • The seventh of eight movies based on the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling.
  • M. Night Shyamalan was interested in directing this installment.
  • Guillermo del Toro expressed interest in directing this installment.
  • At first, this was meant to be only one film, but due to the size of the book, and the decision that nothing could be left out to squeeze into one movie, the producers decided to split it into Part I and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II (2011).
  • David Holmes, 25, Daniel Radcliffe’s stunt-double, was seriously injured on the set at Leavesden Studios, near Watford, Hertfordshire. He was performing an aerial sequence when he fell to the ground following an explosion, which was part of the stunt, and sustained a serious back injury.
  • John Williams, who composed the scores to the first three films, has expressed interest in returning to score The Deathly Hallows.
  • Bill Weasley is played by Domhnall Gleeson, son of cast member Brendan Gleeson.
  • The character Griphook was played by Verne Troyer in the first film; making him one of the few Americans cast; but was voiced by Warwick Davis. In this film, Davis plays Griphook in both body and voice. Davis will also be playing Professor Filius Flitwick as he did in the previous six films.
  • Cast members John Hurt and Bill Nighy have both played prominent roles in adaptations of another well-known fantasy series, The Lord of the Rings. Hurt was the voice of Aragorn in Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 film. Nighy was the voice of Sam Gamgee in the BBC Radio broadcast.
  • Composer Nicholas Hooper turned down the opportunity to score the final two films, saying that working on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) took a toll on his family’s personal life.
  • Daniel Radcliffe developed a cold from having to be in mud and dirt while filming the movie.
  • This film along with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II (2011) are the only Harry Potter films to be released in 3D in cinemas in their entirety (only select scenes were available for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) and only in IMAX).
  • Josh Herdman announced on 9 August 2009 that Jamie Waylett would not be reprising his role as Vincent Crabbe for this film. Waylett’s character will be written out with his role in the plot taken over by Herdman’s character, Gregory Goyle.
  • First time that Brendan Gleeson and David O’Hara have appeared in the same movie since Braveheart (1995).
  • Bruno Delbonnel declined to return for the final two films, saying that “I think I was scared of repeating myself.” Subsequently, the filmmakers hired fellow French-Portuguese cinematographer Eduardo Serra.
  • Despite having stated that she would not be returning as Professor Sybil Trelawney for this film previously, Emma Thompson recently reported that she had just finished two days worth of filming as the character after all.
  • Jason Isaacs originally considered not returning for this film, fearing that his character’s arrest and imprisonment at the end of the fifth book and film would mean very little if any screen time in the finale. Upon meeting J.K. Rowling, he begged to be let out of prison. She told him “You’re out. Chapter one.” This immediately convinced him to sign on for the film.

Summary:
Voldemort’s power is growing stronger. He now has control over the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione decide to finish Dumbledore’s work and find the rest of the Horcruxes to defeat the Dark Lord. But little hope remains for them, so everything they do must go as planned.

Trailer:

Excitement:
Jeff: I’m so so excited.
Ray: Cant wait, wish there was less time between both parts
Steve: Looks good, but I’m kinda over HP.

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