Movie News & Miscellany

Down, down, down, down, I am so mother-fucking DOWN! I mean HOLY SHIT-the costumes, the...legit depressing drama, the dark humor, this may not be the Tick series we wanted, but it may be the Tick series we NEED!
 

fade

Staff member
I don't know if I posted this yet, but I was reading Ben Edlund's interview with Gawker (RIP). I never put it together, I admit, but he said the reason he's called The Tick is because he's a parasite on Arthur, who he views as the true hero of the story. Interesting.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I don't know if I posted this yet, but I was reading Ben Edlund's interview with Gawker (RIP). I never put it together, I admit, but he said the reason he's called The Tick is because he's a parasite on Arthur, who he views as the true hero of the story. Interesting.
... That raises interesting questions about "Barry."
 

figmentPez

Staff member
I have kind of mixed feelings about The Tick. I felt like he came off as more "senile old man" than "eager puppy" and that bothered me. But I liked just about everything else. So I'll give it a shot if it continues.
 
As expected, Ben-Hur bombed. Variety has a few reasons why.

It's like we've added Set Piece Action Sequence Sauce to that vat of 3-D juice all the big movies are dipped in nowadays. It's not the reboots and remakes that are the problem, it's the ACTION, ACTION, ACTION!!! NOISE, NOISE, NOISE!!! bombarding viewers into numbness.
 
Is it the most epic, expensive and bombastic movie of all time? Then why fucking bother? The original Ben-Hur was God damn mind blowing for it's time. It was a production of insaaaaaane scale. This new one looks like it could have been another 300 sequel or another Clash of the Titans sequel.
 
And they scrapped a major segment of the original story so the studio could fap to the concept of MORGAN FREEMAN. They've turned him into a parody of himself.
 
As expected, Ben-Hur bombed. Variety has a few reasons why.
While I agree with the notion that action movies have lost the ability to be distinct from one another, I'm not sure I buy the main premise of this article. Russel Crowe was debatably not even a mainstream movie star until Gladiator. I could see an argument being made that we're much too eager to churn out action movies with every minor TV star who has a small amount of charisma but not enough actual stage presence or personality to connect with audiences, but that's not the argument that is being made in the article.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Spectacle isn't enough anymore. Thanks to advancements in CGI, we've reached about the limit of what can be accomplished on a screen (even with polarized 3d glasses), so without the next great technological leap on the order of magnitude of holodecks, spectacle isn't enough to carry a movie - it's expected that any given movie with action will have at least "Avengers" quality action sequences, or it is looked upon as subpar. It's like... Hollywood was leveling up a-la Skyrim and Spectacle just hit 100. Now they're gonna have to push another thing.
 
Ben Hur never was about action (for me), it's about the epic story of one man's life and his journey, intertwined in the history of the carpenter's son. The moment I saw it's to be remade in spectacle-o-rama I hoped for it to bomb. Totally wrong way to remake a movie like this!
(insert *old man shouts at cloud* and *they don't make movies like that anymore*)
 
It is not like Ben Hur does not have 4 other screen plays floating around out there...

Then the dozens of stage plays, and the best selling novel of the 19th century to borrow from.
 
Once upon a time, theaters got detailed instructions on how to maximize the entertainment value of a single showing. Now you just cram people into one of a dozen or more rooms and have a minimum wage kid push a button.

You ever think maybe you don't have to open on 3-4000 screens at once and make all your money back in the first two weeks?
 
I just hope the people involved care as much about the sequels as they did the first one. I want 3D to feel natural again, rather than shoehorned in.

--Patrick
 
http://www.videogamer.com/news/tran..._filming_medieval_scenes_on_isle_of_skye.html

Apparently there's going to be King Arthur stuff in the next Transformers movie (before they head out to China probably).

That sounds fucking awesome. They already cribbed from the old cartoon for the third movie, but now hopefully now we get an even dumber A Decepticon in King Arthur's Court. There can never be enough Decepticons headbutting horses.

Many children learned where phosphorous came from because of that adventure.
 
Maybe the big trick is that Michael Bay's next Transformers movie is secretly the same movie as Guy Ritchie's King Arthur.

And that it's actually Pacific Rim 2 and Gulliermo Del Toro is the actual director.
 
Oh. My God. It's true.

The new Transformers movie will in fact be involving King Arthur.

http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/762049-transformers-last-knight-liam-garrigan#/slide/1
That's just stupid enough that it could be awesome. I'm sure Bay will fuck it up somehow, but this at least SOUNDS fun and it certainly explains why there are fucking human characters around.

"You should go. We're big death machines and you can't help us."
"I am King Arthur. Here's my magic fucking sword. Meet Merlin. He can shoot lightning."
"Alright, you're in."
 
Showtimes and locations are cropping up for Godzilla Resurgence Shin Godzilla! Looks like a lot of 2nd week of October stuff. It's .... more distance from me than I'd like. Fingers crossed that it'll play somewhere closer by then, but if not, I have a plan.

Check your local theaters!
 
Showtimes and locations are cropping up for Godzilla Resurgence Shin Godzilla! Looks like a lot of 2nd week of October stuff. It's .... more distance from me than I'd like. Fingers crossed that it'll play somewhere closer by then, but if not, I have a plan.

Check your local theaters!
Reportedly, we may not have a full list of theaters until after September 9th. (Scified)

Here is a map of known theaters:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1o92p7TLPg6T7VZjkhJ-byeea8ic

It is available in list form here:
http://astoundingbeyondbelief.tumblr.com/shingojiscreenings
 
Reportedly, we may not have a full list of theaters until after September 9th. (Scified)

Here is a map of known theaters:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1o92p7TLPg6T7VZjkhJ-byeea8ic

It is available in list form here:
http://astoundingbeyondbelief.tumblr.com/shingojiscreenings
Thanks a lot! There's actually one that, while slightly farther away from me, is much much easier to get to. But I'll wait until after the 9th to buy a ticket, just in case something closer opens up.
 
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