Saturday, August 8, 2015

Weekend Open Thread

It's looking better all the time, isn't it?

Many of us at FTM are at Flashback Weekend celebrating horror movies and a rare Chicago visit from our friend Heather Wixson. JB blind bought a Blu-ray of Island of Death after I described it to him. Adam Riske put his money where his mouth is and bought Satan's Little Helper. It's a big weekend is what I'm saying.

What are you all up to this weekend? Seen anything good? Here's your spot to talk about whatever you want.

91 comments:

  1. Cinemadrome, the small local genre festival, held a special screening of a mystery movie on Thursday night. Tickets cost next to nothing but no one had any idea what we were going to see. The small theater was packed and you could taste the anticipation in the air. The lights dimmed and the whole crowd burst out laughing when the movie's title appeared on screen: The Degradation of Emanuelle aka Emanuelle Around the World (Italy 1977).

    The copy was really dinged up, scratchy, and heavily edited (IMDb says the movie is 97 minutes, the copy I saw was around 80 min), but that goes with the territory. A really funny movie (mostly unintentionally) and a fun experience. Not a movie I would've ever gone to see consciously but I'm glad I took the plunge.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, almost forgot. I'm also 26 out of 30 movies in in my slasher marathon. The last few Halloweens and Elm Streets have been pretty rough going but I've loved most of the later Jason movies. Only the remakes to go, then I'll get a little breather before Scary Movie Month.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cool list which made me just realize that I have never seen Jason goes to hell.

      I´m sure you will find the remakes of Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm street also pretty rough ;-)

      Delete
    2. I'm going through the Friday the 13th movies for the first time. I'm four in and am really enjoying them! 3 much less so though. 4 is currently my favorite.

      Delete
    3. 4 is probably my favorite as well. The fifth one is pretty terrible but beginning with 6 they go for the comedy which I really enjoyed as well. And 9 and X, made by New Line, are just batshit crazy.

      Delete
  3. Slow weekend for me, though I'll confess that reading "Fantastic Four" reviews so far (which I never do for films I plan to watch) has been some of the most entertaining reading I've done in a while. If the weather rises above 90 degrees next week I might catch a "F4" matinee just to enjoy the theater AC. :-D

    On Sunday I may catch some Marlon Brando flicks I've never seen in 35mm that Film Forum is showing, mainly Mankiewicz's "Julius Caesar" and/or Pontecorvo's "Burn!" Plus AFA is showing a 35mm print of AIP's "Blood and Lace" that sounds like it wouldn't be out of place over at Flashback Weekend. Good times. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Slugged through "Harbinger Down" last night. It really want's to be "The Thing" and fails miserably at doing so.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was wondering about that one

      Delete
    2. No good, Dennis. In my opinion, don't bother.

      Delete
    3. If it's reminiscent of The Thing, it's understandable. This is a film made by the effects team that worked on the prequel of The Thing, and had all their practical work covered over with CGI. This movie, I've heard, is their reaction to getting the kiss off on The Thing.

      Delete
  5. I finally watched Never Sleep Again. Considering it's 4 hours, I was not planning to watch it all in one day. But I did. Oh boy I did. It was every bit as amazing, fasinating and entertaining as everyone says it is. It really made me think about how we often hate on movies, but behind all those movies there are people who put their heart and soul into them. Even when there are studios who just want to make money, there are still normal people who want to make something special. What a wonderful movie.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah it kinda epic, its good to watch a part on a movie then the movie itself, its good fun to look for as many gay type references in part 2, I like the No Chicks allowed sign on the door and the game on the shelf called Probe

      Delete
  6. Just curious...what are everyone's gotta-see movies for Scary Movie Month this year? I'm planning on finally watching When a Stranger Calls, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Spanish Dracula, The Dead Zone, The Changeling, The Haunting, Black Sunday, White Zombie, Children of the Corn and Cujo for the first time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Dead Zone is a good King adaptation. Several others rank above it as my favorites, including Misery, The Shining, and Carrie, but it's still above average and Cristopher Walken is good. The Changling is also a movie I enjoyed after discovering it last year. I'm a fan of a good haunted house movie (The Haunting ranks high in that category, too). Excellent choices! I'll have to start making a list!

      Delete
    2. Make Black Sunday and White Zombie a double feature.

      Delete
    3. Burnt offerings(1976) and the oblong box(1969) have new blu-rays out that look good. Never seen either of those titles, but they certainly interest me.

      Delete
    4. I bought White Zombie a while back because of JBs love on a column and enjoyed it, last year I did the silly Vhs 80s Horror thing, this year im thinking of something else a little silly, im not sure what yet but either a full month of Universal and hammer movies, or possibly I might go through every single Twilight Zone or Tales from the Crypt episode,

      Delete
    5. I'm going to try to get into Hammer this SMM. The Hammer movies I've seen in the past haven't done a whole lot for me, but I'm thinking that's my problem. I have a couple compilation DVDs already lined up.

      Delete
    6. I'm with you on Hammer. I've seen few that I've really loved but a recent re-watch of HORROR OF DRACULA got me ready to dive in again.

      Delete
    7. A friend of mine on the Twitter machine told me to watch The Snorkel, a late-50's Hammer production. I took her advice and I'm glad I did, it was really good. Made me want to check out more of Hammer's non-Dracula-Frankenstein-Mummy-type movies.

      Delete
    8. Oo Black Sunday and White Zombie double feature is now on my list and haven't seen either! Definitely recommend The Pit Pendulum as the Price and Coreman fest I had last year was a highlight for me! I would love to know what you think of The Haunting. The original that is. It is such a gay movie too.

      Delete
    9. I still haven't seen Rosemary's Baby. So that might be first. It always seems kind of boring every time I try to watch it. I'm also a big fan of I Saw the Devil, so I want to catch up on some Korean horror. Other than that, I'll probably just be watching some cheesy 90's horror. Phantoms, here I come!

      Delete
    10. I have Fright Night, Grabbers, Splice, Triangle and The White Reindeer on my shelf but have never seen them, so I'll probably watch at least some of those. Others might include all of the Saws (only seen the first one), You're Next, Honeymoon, The Woman, White Zombie and the Omen trilogy.

      Delete
    11. Clint: DO watch Rosemary's Baby! Obviously I'm not breaking any new ground here, but I just watched it last week and it's one of the best movies I've seen in awhile. Certainly one of the best "older" horror movies I've ever seen. My love for it might have a little to do with the fact I just recently "survived" a pregnancy, but I think it holds up really well. Starts slow but picks up steam and then the ending - wow.

      Riske - I really wanted to like White Zombie as the progenitor of one of my favourite subgenres but other than the first and last 10 minutes or so I found it pretty tedious and some of the repetitive sound effects are grating as hell. I'd say watch it for the history lesson but don't expect much.

      Delete
    12. If you watch and like Rosemary's Baby, you should watch The Tenant. In the words of PB that is the "work of a madman".

      Delete
    13. Will do - thanks for the tip!

      Delete
  7. Dammit. Next year I'm coming to Chicago for Flashback.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! You can stay in my basement (evil laughter)

      Delete
    2. Sounds like another great episode of F this movie: nights

      Delete
    3. I'm gonna try to do the same. Except for the JB's basement part, because I would miss the daylight after a while.

      Delete
    4. I second JP and Heath attending Flashback next year if for no other reason than to stop me from buying Pop! figures I don't need.

      Delete
    5. You need them all. Especially this one:

      http://www.amazon.com/Funko-Movies-Rocky-Balboa-Figure/dp/B00A4L5K1O

      Delete
    6. I would gladly sacrifice myself for such a mission. If anyone can donate to the Gabby's savings accpunt to pay for flight charity that is.

      Delete
  8. Now, I know that basically no one is liking this movie, and I'm not saying I did either, but I kind of think there are shades of a good movie in FANTASTIC FOUR. There's actually some good character stuff and this cool, wierd sci-fi movie going on for about and hour, and then everything goes to hell. And aparently this film went through hell in production, and I'm wondering if there isn't like 30 more minutes of character stuff in the last half that matches up with the first halfs effort, because at an hour 40 it feels like it was butchered in the editing room. I don't know maybe I'm way off here and this movie was always going to be bad (and mind you, even with all these other thoughts I'm having, it's still very bad) but it feels like a movie that was butchered in the editing room. Anybody disagree with me and think this movie deserves the savage beating it's getting? (Again, this movies bad, I just think it has some good stuff in it, and should be talked about that way)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree there are some things in this movie that work most of it is the character stuff.

      Delete
    2. I thought The Thing was alright but the rest didn't do anything for me.

      Delete
    3. I honestly just hated all of it. I was willing to go along with it as a character piece and not a typical superhero movie that skips from one action sequence to the other, but I couldn't get into any of the characters or be invested in any of their motivations. It made me really sad, because I wanted to be a sort of defender for little pieces of it, it just didn't work out.

      Delete
    4. I liked a good chunk of it too. It's impossible for me to totally hate on this movie for a few reasons, one major reason being: I have to see a completed film to actually decide whether I like or dislike it, and this wasn't. The last twenty to thirty minutes weren't even shot by Josh Trank. What Fox did to Josh is a disgrace and it fucking depresses the shit out of me.

      Delete
    5. Yeah see this is the problem. There is no way that the movie shifts gears THAT hard at the end from what was a really interesting character piece and for that to be the intention of the filmmaker. Honestly it feel like it loses it's wheels just after they go to the other dimension. That scene when they first get back is horrific and extremely affecting by the way. But just after that it falls off the wagon, which is just about the same time I started noticing scenes that looked like obvious reshoots. And I know we'll never see a directors cut of this movie, Fox will never admit that they were that wrong. But if there is such a thing, Fox should legit re-release it in a year or two and it would probably make money. But they won't because studios are nothing if not arrogant.

      Delete
    6. This is pretty much what Josh Trank had to deal with making Fantastic Four. More information has been coming out slowly but surely. And Trank has been talking to Kevin Smith on his Fatman on Batman podcast the past 3 weeks with another instalment expected this coming week. In the meantime: https://youtu.be/97hBpwl582Y


      I posted this further down but it works just as well or even better if I post it here as well.

      Delete
  9. For a while, I really enjoyed Fantastic Four. It has this hard sci-fi thing going on, it's all excited about science and exploration. It's almost like Interstellar-lite, which might scare some away. Then the movie switches gears and becomes this weird dark character piece for about fifteen minutes. There's some body-horror stuff thats really gross and effective, but it feels out of place. Then finally, bam. It's an Avengers movie. Complete with apocalyptic stakes and a boring cgi battle. It's such a tonal mess, but I'm inclined to believe Trank about the studio meddling. Everything feels like its his except for the action stuff tacked on the end. Its like Fox freaked out when they saw no one was getting punched. Itll never happen, but I'd love to see a director's cut.

    ReplyDelete
  10. PAYPAL Donations link?

    I am a Big fan of this website as are most of F-Heads out there, im sure Patrick wont mind me mentioning KillerPov, This site has podcasts and to show your love you can sponsor an episode and even just buy them all beers to show enjoy on there show, so heres my problem, Patrick puts so much time and love to this site for nothing in return from us lot while already being a busy father and all that other stuff, I know he asks for nothing but I personally would like to contribute to anything I love so it may continue, we don't yet have memorabilia or Fthis movie T-shirts, hats, fridge magnets or other goodies which I mentioned a while back I would love to buy, so far now we all know web hosting isent free, so here my proposal,

    How about a little paypal link to contribute too to help keeping the site going just to show our love?

    What are your thoughts anyone? Does anyone else feel a little guilty and would love to contribute a little now and then to help this site grow?





    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dennis, I agree wholeheartedly. I do give to other podcasts I listen to, and it feels nice to be able to support something I subscribe (prescribe?) to and enjoy so much.

      Delete
    2. Yes I would love to be abble to. A few others have sponsers like Harry's and such as well as that as adds on the podcast, which I never mind. So I don't see why anyone would NOT donate something. If you listen, you should!

      Delete
    3. If a PayPal button suddenly appeared I'd seriously consider clicking it and dropping some sugar in Charlie's daddy's coffee... just sayin' :-)

      Delete
    4. I would definitely contribute.

      Delete
    5. How about a Patreon page? They are easy to make and the more people donate, the more you can give them. Maybe give people who donate a certain amount per month an extra podcast.

      Delete
    6. How about whoever donates the most money gets to pick the movie Patrick will do on the podcast the following week? Or if you "donate" a specific (very high) amount you get to co-host the podcast AND pick the movie to be discussed? Because rich folk ain't got nothing better to do with their money. ;-)

      Delete
    7. Thats a fun idea for new things that could be fun and give something back to what we love. F-Heads and Pod People :)

      Delete
  11. Replies
    1. The Abigail Breslin one? If so, then yes. How the script got approved is beyond me. I really wanted to love that movie but honestly, it's awful. It looks beautiful, but that's it.

      Delete
    2. Yup There's something about it I like and I'm not sure what it is. I do agree the movie looks beautiful and maybe that's making me feel there more to it than it is. Whoever made this loves playing with light and shadows.

      Delete
    3. I'm with you Eric B. I thought about that flick days after wondering "what did I miss?" Turns out I didn't miss anything, the script is that bad. I think the movie is trying to feel smart but there is little substance and there are way too many things that never get explained.

      Delete
    4. I watched it this week, you are right, it looks stunning, the DP is fantastic, but the acting doesent really pull me in, I like the idea and story but its just missing the finesse to hold it all together, im not saying its a total failure but if it does fail its an Ambitious Failure, it does feel like a work made from love, I really wanted it to be better, I dident feel Abigail was right for the part, Gina Corano or Zoe bell ? :)

      Delete
  12. Wow, what a compelling discussion Riske.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Continuing on my journey through Hitchcock's movies, I surprisingly enjoyed The Skin Game. Even as a director for hire, Hitchcock can pull things together and make a movie that is essentially a filmed stage play very entertaining. The auction scene was so genuinely gripping that I am beginning to see the evidence for this argument that he is the greatest director who ever lived. The issue is that a lot of his British-made films do not have great DVD releases. Thus far all of the ones I have watched are compiling on one 4-disc set, which is not the worst transfer but the old sound recording methods combined with a lack of subtitles means that I only get the broad strokes of the plot rather than the British verbal wit I know is there. I am very excited that in only three more movies I get to The 39 Steps and the beginning of a bright new dawn in which Hitch's movies are given the treatment of decent DVD releases and audio I can make out.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Just saw The Gift and it's a movie that's hard to process right now, because I'm trying to ascertain what kind of visceral experience I would have had watching this if it wasn't completely ruined by its trailer. I'm not sure it matters, given certain things that happen as it moves along that I thought were pretty absurd. The most interesting elements of the film are ones that are borrowed from other films, (Oldboy, Cache) and it's not hidden at all much like the film's title itself. Sam Raimi's offering of the same titled movie was much bett 15 years ago. It doesn't give you much to hate, but it just doesn't work for me. There's always the "yeah, but you already..." sentiment. I'm glad it exists as counter programming and a film made for adults in summer, but...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really liked the gift. Based on the trailers I had absolutely no interest in seeing it but then I saw some positive reviews so I figured I'd give it a shot. It really isn't the movie it was advertised as and i was totally grateful for that. We've all seen this kind of movie before and I was impressed with the way it subverted expectations. It starts off as one kind of movie then turns into something much more interesting. I think people should def. check it out and it has an ending that really caught me off guard. I enjoyed it.

      Delete
    2. I agree with you, Travis. I wasn't going to watch it but then I saw how good the ratings were so I went. I thought it was great! Way better than what the trailers advertised. I think it's one of the sleeper hits of the year so far.

      Delete
  15. This is pretty much what Josh Trank had to deal with making Fantastic Four. More information has been coming out slowly but surely. And Trank has been talking to Kevin Smith on his Fatman on Batman podcast the past 3 weeks with another instalment expected this coming week. In the meantime: https://youtu.be/97hBpwl582Y

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't want to sound unfeeling but what do directors expect when they're dealing with a comic based movie (or as the studios think of it "potential cash cow")? They're going to meddle. Especially if the director start getting "artsy".
      On the other hand, Trank was quoted in interviews that he was taking influences from Cronenberg for this - that's about as far away from Fantastic Four as you can get. I'd be nervous if I ran that studio.

      Delete
    2. I really think that's why most of these comic book movies are given to new directors with 1 or 2 films under their belts. It's so the producers have complete control. They won't give them to established directors as to minimize any production, script and final cut issues. Plus, they have to pay the actors a shitload and can save costs with the director.

      Delete
    3. But there is always an outlier to give hope to the masses. I mean look at James Gunn and GOTG. That movie fails NISERABLY if they don't give Gunn the reigns, but maybe that's what it takes. You either have the choice of your movie bombing, or you let a director with a vision create his vision. Idk, studios and super heros are wierd. There is also Christopher Nolan and The Dark Knight trilogy, which is probably the best example of a studio just handing a superhero over to a talented director and letting them make their movie. And then DC also makes GREEN LANTERN. This whole thing just makes my head spin honestly, there's way too much we will never know to be able to figure out why there is such a dichotomy in the way these things are made.

      Delete
    4. Kathy, I don't even think Josh's vision for the film was even a factor in their reasoning. Fox has a reputation for this kind of thing. And all it takes is one exec to poke their nose into a production and say, "Hey, wait, we gave him how much to make this? Well, that ain't gonna fly." And they did so much to deter Josh, it's unreal. Delayed casting, delayed set construction, delayed script discussion snd rewrites, cutting the budget by tens of millions of dollars, firing their Oscar winning special effects person without telling him or Josh until it was too late, pulling three main action sequences days before principal photography, taking the movie away from Josh in post, hiring a new director to shoot reshoots of scenes written by screenwriters who have never read a comic book... this is what Trank had done to him. If the rumors of him lashing out at people are true, I can empathize with him. He was inexperienced in this kind of filmmaking, and he didn't know how to react to all of these changes. When Fox did this Sam's kind of thing to Bryan Singer on X-Men, he already had a couple of films under his belt, and he knew how to maneuver through it.

      Delete
    5. Fox greenlit "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."

      -drops mike, leaves stage-

      Delete
    6. How much you wanna bet the script for Origins that Gavin Hood signed off on and Fox greenlit was fucked with during principal photography? I wouldn't be surprised.

      Delete
  16. After seeing the recently released sketches and voice over of the Chris Farley Shrek, I re-watched Almost Heroes. I know it's not looked on favorably, but I think it's really funny. A lot of the absurd and over-the-top humor works for me. It might not be as genuine and heartfelt as something like Tommy Boy, but the pace and joke ratio make it a pretty funny comedy.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Shanghai Noon is on Netflix. Just thought I share. Goodnight

    ReplyDelete
  18. Im watching The Innkeepers tonight looking for that little something at the end I keep missing

    ReplyDelete
  19. Just finished "Extinction". It's what I wished "Maggie" had been; lesser production but bigger heart. Liked "Maggie" liked this better.

    ReplyDelete
  20. So, I snuck in to see Fantastic Four (it wasn't difficult)....

    (disclaimer: 99% of what I know about Marvel is from the movies and '70's cartoon shows - "Ain't he unglamorous" . I was a DC girl. Which is why I'm watching Marvel movies because with films like MoS etc...fuck 'em)

    Without repeating my "Prometheus Nervous Breakdown" from before...what we have is a movie that wants to be realistic if there's a visceral visual effect to be had from it....but at no other time.

    At one point we're supposed to accept that 1) three grown men could get plastered from a flask the size of a bottle of soy sauce and 2) one guy won't go without his civilian had-less-that-zero-to-do-with-this-project friend they've never met and the other guys don't say, "Whatever. Stay here then." Of course, Sue is never considered for the trip because she's just the girl who was around to sew our outfits (one without knowing Ben's measurements, btw).

    Government Douche Bag is scared about what the four they already have can do but when they find something there in the shape of a human being when they go back to Planet Zero a year later his decision is IMMEDIATELY bring it back to earth...nothing to worry about!

    "There is no Victor. Only Doom!" And Zuul too, I'm guessing?

    The movie's greatest failing is that it's just "there". It does everything you expect it to and nothing more. And assures you that there's no reason to care.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "A movie that wants to be realistic if there's a visceral visual effect to be had from it....but at no other time." - This is SUCH a good point, not just about this movie but about a number of other recent genre blockbusters that push to be "darker" or "grittier." Spot on. Thanks for putting it into words.

      Delete
    2. And in this film particularly they can't claim that the rating was a factor because of what comes later...
      Which it probably was safe due to the old "Jaws" argument - people aren't going to copycat being a shark.
      Although how that worked out in the case of "Star Trek: The Wrath of Darkness" head popping...a visceral SOUND effect....and yet not a drop of blood even on Khan's hands or clothing...and still a PG-13?

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    4. Kathy, it's very likely everything involving Government Douche Bag after Doom is brought back to Earth was part of the reshoot Fox did without Josh Trank's involvement.

      Delete
    5. And if it was just that the acting was bad where it wasn't before or so on, I could see that....
      But, Douche Bag's problem with the powers the four got were in the script long before that. Back when he was talking to Dr. Storm.
      And if it was in the script all along that they would go to Planet Zero and bring back Doom...which everyone just assumed that was and I don't see what other way they could have brought the "villain" into this....then wasn't he uncharacteristically okay with it no matter who shot the scenes?
      Unless Trank is trying to say that in his cut/script Doom is brought back into the story some other way but...how?
      Whatever re-shooting the ending did doesn't explain all what's wrong here.

      Delete
    6. I do think Doom was brought in a different way in Josh's cut. In one of the early tv spots, there are shots from a scene that is not in thjs theatrical cut of the film. Reed is visiting someone in the infirmary, someone who, straining to speak, "Something's coming."
      "What's coming?" Reed asks.
      The response: "Doom."
      There's also another bit from one of the early trailers not in the theatrical cut: a long shot of Johnny at the far end of a highway, leaning over a body, and flaming on.
      Was who "uncharacteristically okay with it, no matter who shot the scenes"? Josh? No, because he was barred from the editing room during post and Fox exerted complete control over the film at that point. Josh didn't even know what they shot, and there was no early screening for cast and crew prior to release.
      The reshoots aren't there to explain what's wrong with the movie, the reshoots were done because Fox wanted the movie to be something that was diametrically opposed to what Josh had in mind.
      There's another indication that reshoots were done besides the ones that completely changed the third act. They're the scenes with Kate Mara when she's wearing that dreadfully bad wig. The reason for the wig is that after principal photography wrapped, she probably had another movie commitment, made that movie, a role that probably demanded her cutting her hair shorter and dyeing it back to her natural color (the way her hair is now, in recent press interviews). Either while she was making this new film or after it wrapped, she was called back to Fox to do those reshoots, but because her hair was short and no longer blonde, she was given that ugly wig to wear. She's wearing it when her stepfather asks her to talk to Johnny and in the scene that follows, when she's asking Johnny not to continue using his abilities for the government.

      Delete
    7. ** sorry, some typographical auto corrected errors -- where it says "highway" it should say "hallway"

      Delete
    8. Oh, let me add: when I mentioned above that the studio did those reshoots because the studio wanted the ending to something diametrically opposed to what Josh had in mind, even though they greenlit the film based on Josh's pitch for the film. They okayed Josh's idea for the film -- they greenlit it and started prep. It's like me hiring you for a job, telling you what I want, letting you go off to do that job, and while you're halfway done, telling you, "wait, don't do that, stop, I changed my mind, do it like this."

      Delete
    9. "Uncharacteristically okay with it,..." was about Government Douche Bag. If he's scared of everyone's powers as he tells Dr. Storm (after Reed "escapes" and he talks to Ben) then he's being a completely different person when he directs them to bring back Doom.

      As far as trailer footage (particularly voice overs that in reality may or may not having anything to do with the scene they're matched with) I don't think that's good evidence. For all we know those scenes you're describing could be more stuff that the studio did without Trank's input. In fact, do we know whose idea the shot of Thing dropping from the stealth bomber was?

      I've had jobs where I've fabricated things and had people start to waver on what they wanted at the last minute. That's why you get people to sign off on things. And if they complain that you're not working on it yet you show them than you don't have a final okay from them. Yeah, these are movie studios but directors have unions and Guilds and whatever, don't they?

      We haven't even talked about the CGI monkey yet. Rumor is that they did that because you can't use chimps in movies anymore because they're endangered. So with the movie's budget slashed they spend money on a bad CGI of a monkey when they could gone to any pet store and got a rat or something?

      Delete
    10. That character's change of attitude can certainly be seen as one assured example of the changes the r eshoots caused.

      Did you watch what I'd posted earlier? The scoop from Collider Movie Talk about what happened on set?

      Delete
    11. I don't know anything about studios not being allowed to use actual monkeys because of endangerment or anything. But Fox used CGI for all of the apes in the Planet of the Apes films, and they looked pretty damn good. All that tells me is that with this Fantastic Four film, they certainly must have felt, after taking full control of the edit, that they had spent enough, and they weren't expecting quality anymore -- they were just dealing with "get it done, and get it out," because they were already spending money to reshoot scenes to remake the movie in a different fashion, and they weren't going to spend anymore.

      You asked why they used a monkey and not a rat or something. Well, a lot of Trank's vision of the film was inspired by David Cronenberg, and Cronenberg's body horror aesthetic. In The Fly, Seth Brundle used a baboon to test his telepod initially, and after the last baboon to go through came back unscathed, Brundle, after getting good and drunk one night, decided to go and try to go through himself and see what happened. Same concept here. The guys get drunk, and decide to go to Planet Zero themselves to stake a claim on their own work, after a monkey (not a baboon, but still simian) went through and came back unscathed.

      Delete
    12. https://youtu.be/kq7dWzFvFXM
      Here's some B roll footage from the film that has just leaked onto the net. Two interesting things: glimpses at the aftermath of an action setpiece that we never saw, and a lack of that supposed "combative, abusive behavior" we heard so much about.



      Delete
    13. Here's how much Fox gutted from this movie.
      http://m.hitfix.com/harpy/12-scenes-from-the-fantastic-four-trailers-that-arent-in-the-film

      Delete
  21. Just watched Chinatown (1974) - might have to watch it again, but it might be a perfect movie??? Though I feel a 70s movie binge coming on before I descend into scary movie month

    ReplyDelete
  22. Just watched Blackhat and it's boring and way up it's own ass. While We're Young was a pleasant surprise. I hadn't heard of it but I thought it was interesting. Watching Sharknado 3 right now because I have problems. I've seen the other two and in this one, Mark Cuban is the president and Ann Coulter is the Vice-President...everybody wins.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Just a thought. We are all F-Heads and we all love our name as a community, but I was just thinking seeing as we all are Podcast lovers too I think another great name for us all is "Pod People" :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. To be clearer.

      If your one of those People who doesn't read the Great Columns but just enjoys the podcast you are one of the "Pod People"
      If you also read and participate you are an F-Head :)

      Delete
    2. "It has nothing to do with pods. It has nothing to do with people. It has everything to do with hurting." - Dr. Clayton Forrester

      Delete