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mychoombatheroomba · 3 months

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Things I Love About the Shitty Live Action Resident Evil Movies

So, it was my birthday recently and my roommates asked if I wanted to do anything fun. My response, of course, was to suggest getting drunk and watching the live action Resident Evil movies and like, damn, I love those stupid ass movies so much. So I wanted to make a really dumb (and lengthy) post about the goofy things I like, whether for legit or meme reasons.

Y'all, I know they're bad, that is, in fact, why I love them.

1 - The opening is genuinely kinda freaky, like, the elevator scene? Oof, well done suspense

2 - Michelle Rodriguez. That's it, that's the post.

3- The LASER ROOM - so iconic they used it in the games. The first movie came out in 2002, RE4 then used the laser room in 2005, like, y'all, they took that from the goddamn movie, that's how much of a vibe it was

(And honestly, just the Red Queen in general, what an absolute icon, love that her appearance changes in every movie she's in)

4 - Alice is the most fanfic Mary Sue character I've perhaps ever seen on-screen, and I love that for her. Look at her kicking this zombie dog in the face, it's hilarious

5 - Pretty game-accurate costuming? I can dig it

6 - They're gay, your honor

7 - Bad CGI on the Licker, I would expect nothing less

8 - Alice is at her most powerful when she finds a white bathrobe just lying around somewhere

9 - Raccoon City gets destroyed in the course of, like, a day if I'm understanding the timeline right. Like, first infection to nuking the city seems to be about 24 hours. Incredible.

10 - Leon fucking wishes he was Alice, miss ma'am out here driving motorcycles into buildings and then launching them at a monster just to shoot it and blow it up.

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(Special mention for another "they're gay, your honor"

11 - You'd think the kid they have to rescue from Raccoon City is Sherry, wouldn't you? An Umbrella scientist's daughter who the gang have to save? NOPE it's Angela Ashford. Not to be confused with the game's Alexia Ashford. Is it an easter egg? A botched cameo? IDK bro, you think they know the lore?

12 - "GTA MOTHERFUCKER" - LJ, before running over a zombie

13 - THEY GAVE NEMESIS A REDEMPTION ARC??? Incredible (not before making him and Alice fist-fight each other)

14 - Keeping with RE tradition, the helicopter almost always crashes.

15 - They just decided, fuck it, let's give Alice superpowers. Also the stupid Umbrella eyes, literally whenever they come up.

16 - The third movie is just Mad Max and Fallout: New Vegas merged together. Also the way they say the whole earth withered and died but later movies very clearly show flora still alive

17 - Why is Jorah Mormont from Game of Thrones here? WHY IS JOHNNY CAGE FROM MORTAL KOMBAT 1995 HERE???

Also why does Wesker look a little like Eminem to me in the third movie?

18 - The amount of just, like, "hey, this monster/character was in the games, let's just put them in the movie anywhere!"

19 - Carlos gets one of the only satisfying death scenes for a named character from the games. And by that I mean he gets one of the only on-screen death scenes for a named character from the games. Slay, king.

20 - Why does the Tyrant look like that?

21 - The army of Alice clones were blonde originally, but all went out and dyed their hair together between movies and I think that's cute.

22 - The timeline is so fucked up, I don't think they even knew how long was supposed to pass between the movies

23 - The way they shoehorned Chris in so bad that, as a kid, I thought he had no importance and they just wanted to give Claire a character to help her with her amnesia (also, Claire having amnesia). The Redfields do get to shoot the shit out of Wesker at the end though, good for them.

24 - THEY'RE GAY, YOUR HONOR

25 - The Executioner from RE5 just like, is in Los Angeles for some reason?

26 - This shot of Wesker.

27 - Wesker takes Alice's powers away in the beginning of the 4th movie, then at the end of the 5th movie he reinfects her with the T-Virus so she can be a superhuman again and just like, bud, you're wildin'. Also it's mentioned in the 3rd movie that Alice's blood could be the cure, and that she could synthesize it once the Tyrant is dealt with? But she doesn't? She just takes the clones of her in the facility instead of using the equipment to make a cure? I know they cure it in the last movie but like, girlie, you could have tried earlier idk. Fascinating.

28 - The opening credits scene for the 5th movie is actually pretty cool

29 - The rest of the fifth movie . . . whatever those writers were smoking, I want some. I know there's literally an Umbrella base in Antarctica in the game but like, idk, having an underwater base where you have multiple city simulations running for BOW production is so funny to me. They've got clones of Carlos and the whole team from the first movie, a random child Alice adopts, Las Plagas lads on motorcycles, more Executioners, Barry (oh, hi Barry!) and damn I love every terrible minute of it.

30 - "The Leon you ordered from AliExpress"

31 - Li Bingbing as Ada, my beloved

32 - Whatever the hell this fight scene is (I am obsessed with it). The sapphic energy of Jill v Alice. Las Plagas giving you instant superpowers. Michelle Rodriguez beating the shit out of Leon Kennedy (mans draws his knife and immediately gets disarmed, Krauser would be so disappointed). Ada just snoozing in the snow the whole time. Cinema.

The music kinda slaps though.

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The second half of this where Michelle gets clocked in the face with a fire extinguisher and just looks offended? Immaculate.

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33 - Wesker saying that he, Alice, Jill, Leon and Ada are the last hope for humanity from the roof of the White House. What a team.

34 - AND THEN LEON, ADA AND JILL FUCKING DIE OFF SCREEN BETWEEN MOVIES ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? Peak writing right there.

35 - I have never seen the Final Chapter, but I do know that Claire is the only (known) surviving original RE character. Chris is MIA and everyone else is dead. The lesbians win again.

36 - Also there's a character named K-Mart. No notes.

37 - WESKER GETS KILLED BY A DOOR LMFAO

I cannot say I would recommend these movies without the consumption of alcohol involved. Once that's in the mix? They're a great time.

#Youtube #resident evil #resident evil live action movies #they're like an acid trip

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tigger8900 · 5 months

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New Who Rewatch: S1E1 - Rose

So, I originally intended to do this back before the 13th Doctor, but I couldn't get my shit together. Such is life. Then I thought I'd do it before the 60th Anniversary Specials, but again, did not have my shit together. But then I thought, it's never going to happen if I don't just do it, regardless of where my shit is or what it's doing. So this is happening.

I'm gonna be starting from 2005, y'all. Some of these episodes I've seen several times. Some I've only seen a couple times. And a few(more in later seasons) I've only seen once before. It'll be interesting to revisit those in particular, thinking about why I avoided them when picking out episodes to watch. I'll be ranking things as I go. Who knows, life might even allow me to get all the way through to the present! Assume that there are unmarked spoilers through the episode being discussed.

S1E1: Rose

Overall Ranking: 1/1

Series 1 Ranking: 1/1

I've never been mad at Rose. Is it my favorite? No. Do I dislike it? Again no, not even when thinking about the CGI effects. I think it's a great premiere for the reboot, but taking the episode on its own merits it's pretty solidly middle of the pack for me. I expect it to shake out somewhere in the upper middle of the rankings. Though the Ninth Doctor is incredible, Rose is not my favorite companion, so that probably factors into it as well.

Thoughts on the episode:

I really like the framing of the Doctor as being someone dangerous. I'd forgotten about that. He comes in when a big disaster happens, and we know that usually he stops it from being even worse, but from the human perspective he's the harbinger!

The Mickey vs bin CGI is not good. Oi.

Christopher Eccleston is so good in this role. As much as I tend to like the episode content that Russell T. Davies puts out, the fact that Eccleston has spoken out about his negative experiences working with RTD(among others) gives me complicated feelings about RTD being back as a showrunner.

Jackie Tyler is so unlikable at the start, even viewed through the context of her being a single mom doing her best. What she has going for her is the fact that she loves Rose very much and wants what's best for her daughter. What she has going against her is pretty much everything else. She's a great character, especially later in her arc, but I'd hate to have to be around her as she appears in this episode.

RIP Clive.

I love that, after literally five minutes of living plastic-induced mayhem, the street is full of fire. It's so ridiculous and over the top.

The chain swing is a really good character moment for Rose. She might not be set up for success by the metrics society typically uses(no A-levels, no job), but she's brave and capable. That's the part of her character that I like.

...but she treats Mickey like shit! He's not a bad boyfriend, from what we see. They're being sweet together and having fun in the opening, and he shows up to help her out repeatedly. He's also right about a lot of things, including the fact that it's kinda sus to go meet some internet stranger at his house. But she's so inattentive that she doesn't even notice when he's been replaced by an Auton. Admittedly she also doesn't notice the Doctor trying to get her attention in the same scene, so this is more of a Rose issue than a Rose & Mickey issue, but that's messed up. And then at the end, when he's having a perfectly normal reaction to what he's just gone through, she just up and lol bye!~ Mickey deserved better.

#doctor who #new who #doctor who rewatch #rose tyler #ninth doctor #mickey smith #jackie tyler

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denimbex1986 · 6 months

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'Something funny happened on the way to the Doctor Who 60th anniversary special. For, as celebratory as the occasion is, it’s also proved to be a reminder of how intrinsically tragic the Doctor’s life can be.

First, the celebratory part: Not only is David Tennant – surely one of the most beloved of the Doctors – back for three specials, the first of which debuted on Saturday on Disney+ in the U.S. and BBC One in the U.K., but so is writer-producer Russell T Davies, who re-launched Doctor Who back in 2005 after a 16-year absence (not including the American TV movie). Davies gave us many of the hallmarks of modern Doctor Who, including casting Tennant and creating Donna Noble, the Catherine Tate companion who is also back for these specials.

But Donna is where some of that tragedy comes in. As “The Star Beast” kicks off, the Doctor gives a quick “previously on” direct-to-camera, reminding us that, in order to save her life, he had to erase his former companion’s memory when we last saw her (long story). That means Donna has no memory of the Doctor, their time-and-space-faring adventures together, or all of the good they did for the universe (including saving it from annihilation!).

And yet, when we pick back up with her in her domestic London life in “The Star Beast,” something is gnawing at Donna.

“Sometimes, I think there’s something missing,” she says. “Like I had something lovely, and it’s gone. And I kind of look to the side, like something should be there, and it’s not.” Donna acknowledges that she has a family who loves her and that she should be happy. “But some nights,” she says, “I lie in bed thinking, what have I lost?”

She’s lost the same thing that any companion of the Doctor eventually does: a life of unrealized dreams that were, against all odds, incredibly realized, the chance to travel to the furthest reaches of time and space, and back again, and see untold wonders. Who can say if she’s better off or not than any other former companion, since she can’t even remember what she’s lost since leaving the Doctor’s side, only to return to the humdrum reality of life on Earth. Perhaps her memory wipe was a blessing.

I’m reminded of one of the great stories from Davies’ original tenure on the show, back in the first David Tennant season. In the 2006 episode “School Reunion,” former companion Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) returned to Doctor Who, having originally appeared in the 1970s alongside the Third and Fourth Doctors. Here, the Tenth Doctor is overjoyed to encounter his old friend, but the perspective on the matter for the time-hopping alien super-genius is quite different from that of Sarah Jane, who feels as if she was essentially abandoned by the Doctor years earlier.

“I waited for you. I missed you,” Sarah Jane tells the Doctor.

“Oh, you didn’t need me. You were getting on with your life,” the Doctor cluelessly responds.

“You were my life,” she says.

It’s a heartbreaking moment, and this is in an episode that’s also about school teachers who are secretly giant, flying vampires rendered in bad CGI, so that’s saying something. But just like Donna, who can’t quite remember why she has an aching hole in her soul, Sarah Jane spent years pining for, as she puts it, “the splendor” of her days with the Doctor.

Perhaps, though, the even more tragic figure is the Doctor himself. In “School Reunion,” Sarah Jane presses the Doctor on why he never came back for her. He flatly states that he couldn’t. And at the end of “The Star Beast,” Donna – now with her memories restored and the day saved, of course – declines travelling with the Doctor again, but she does suggest that he could pop by every now and then for a visit and a cup of tea. “Why is it such a big goodbye with you?” she asks. The Doctor, however, is oddly non-committal about the prospect.

It all comes down to the immortality of the Doctor, doesn’t it? At one time he was thought to have a cap of 12 regenerations, but has since exceeded that (gotta keep the franchise going). That means that our favorite Time Lord could very well live forever, but at the very least he’s got to be thousands of years old by now. (It’s hard to calculate precisely.) Imagine the colossal loneliness of that existence, even if it is peppered with companions here or there for what must be, from the Doctor’s perspective, brief moments in time. Moments that he apparently fully remembers and never forgets. “I really do remember, though. Every second with you,” he tells Donna.

It’s not a new concept – that the immortal figure must watch all that he loves get old and die, time and again. While Donna being freed of her memory wipe and having adventures with the Fourteenth Doctor again by the end of “The Star Beast” is certainly a happy ending, she will have to, inevitably, say goodbye to him again in just a few weeks. And as the Tenth Doctor told Rose (another companion he has long since left behind) in “School Reunion,” he is ultimately alone: “That’s the curse of the Time Lords.”'

#David Tennant #Catherine Tate #Sarah Jane Smith #Elisabeth Sladen #School Reunion #The Star Beast #Doctor Who #60th Anniversary #Russell T. Davies #Rose Tyler #Billie Piper #Donna Noble #Disney+

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tulipkitties · 6 months

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Little Einsteins review

Welcome back to more “nostalgic reviews!” Today, I’m talking bout the 2005 playhouse Disney show, little einsteins.

“What is little einsteins?”

To introduce this show, we first need to discuss why the show is called little einsteins. “This show is bout music and art. How does Albert Einstein play into this?” U prob asked urself. Well, you see, there used to be a direct to home video (dvd/vhs) series called baby einstein, created by Julie Aigner-Clark as a way to entertain/educate her baby with classical music, (her baby also appeared in the videos up until 2002) in 1997, the first vhs of BE (later called language nursery) was released. And instantly, it was a success, that caught the attention of one Mickey Mouse (aka Disney) who in 2001/2002, bought up the rights of BE from FHE (family home entertainment) and julie, Disney decided to make a spin off of BE for preschool aged kids, and thus, little Einstein was born!….then they changed the name to little Einsteins, (later on disney attempted to create another spin-off, Einstein pals…it never released.) starting as 2 pitch pilots in 2003 and 2004, and in august of 2005, a direct to dvd/vhs movie (which later got split into 2 episodes, “A brand new outfit” and “The missing invitation”) our big huge adventure, then getting its own season later in october of the same year as the movie, much the thing it spun off from, it was a success from day 1.

Animation:

being done by curious pictures (yee, that codename: kids next door curious pictures.) this cartoon was rather unique for its time, as it combined 2d animation with cgi, real-life stock footage and real art. Format of the show:

After the (very very catchy, no wonder why som1 made a trap remix of it,) theme song, the title for the episode, and the art and music of the day gets called out. We get introduced to a member of the team and the set-up for the mission (in the first tv episode “Ring around the planet” one of Saturn’s rings falls down and befriends June, and in “Annie’s solo mission” after leo teaches annie how to pilot rocket, Leo, June and quincy accidentally get trapped inside a super bubble.) Once leo waves his baton…it’s mission time! If they are near rocket, they walk to rocket, but if they are somewhere else, they walk to the tree that serves as a entrance to the HQ. this also has a song, (which is a mix of the Leo’s mobile song and the theme song.) Leo welcomes you aboard rocket, next, they have to charge rocket up. “How?” you may ask, viewer interaction! by patting on their lap, the team (and you) charge rocket up, and then.. “blast off!” (In season one, this part was longer, “June’s patting, Quincy’s patting, Annie’s patting, but we need. more. power!” - Leo, season 2 shortened it by removing leo commenting on the member’s patting.) rocket zooms off. The show also has running gags, which happen usually once (or twice) in a episode, such as…

Running gags:

quincy exclaiming “I can-not believe it!” When somthing crazy/surprising happens.

Annie making up lyrics for the song of the day,

Quincy playing a instrument for a certain obstacle in the way,

June’s incredible dancing skills.

Leo’s conducting (as seen in the pilot movie, where he’s able to conduct a group of cows to sing ode of joy.)

June saying a “great big fancy word” (yee, I made a pinky dinky doo ref) lik anemone or hieroglyphs, and annie (or someone else) asking what it means, and june telling what it means.

Leo asking you to tell rocket to go slower or faster, by using music terms,

June’s “dancey dance dance” song playing as a instrumental whenever she dances,

Once the mission is done, Leo waves his baton, says “Mission…Completion!” And we get the curtain call, where the team claps for themselves, rocket, a character they met, you, the music of the day, and the art of the day, (in season 1 it was all dialogue, season 2 changed it into a song, which Ngl, it reminds me of the octonauts creature report song.) cue credits!

Mc’s:

Leo: Named after Leonardo da Vinci or the composer Leopold Stokowski, 6-year old Leo (short for Leonardo) is the leader of the team, always carrying around his trusty baton for conducting in certain scenarios or when a mission starts/ends. he’s also the one who pilots rocket, (other than in the episode Annie’s solo mission, where Annie has to pilot rocket) in season 2, he gets a pet, melody, introduced in the episode “Melody, the music pet,” melody was from the pet train, which delivers pets to people who’ll take care of them, near the end of the episode, melody and Leo said goodbye, and Leo (who is usually upbeat and cheery) is noticeably upset/saddened by melody’s departure..until the team finds out melody was gonna be delivered to leo as a pet. The writers (and the fans) lik to ship him with June, as in the episode “Ring around the planet” he hugs june, although in the episode “The glass slipper ball,” rocket dances with June, And june kisses rocket at the end…..weird. va; jesse schwartz.

Annie: Named after jazz singer anni Rossi, 4-year old annie is leo’s younger sister, Despite her age, she’s very talented at singing, she usually comes up with lyrics for the song of the day, she’s also very good with animals, befriending a caterpillar/butterfly in the pilot movie, in season 2 her outfit changes, going from green and blue to pastel blue and pink, she also gains a microphone and her va’s singing is improved, in season 2, she and Leo get a spotlight episode, “brothers and sisters to the rescue!” Where they have to save Hansel and gretel, (who in this show’s universe is real, as while they have a book of the story, they somehow manage to go and rescue the storybook characters, LE takes place in the super why universe?!/j) it’s heavily implied the writers ship her with quincy, as Annie’s the one who cheers on Quincy’s instrument playing the most, va; natalia wojcik.

Quincy: Named after quincy jones, 5-year old quincy is a African-American boy who loves to play any instrument he finds, instantly being able to play it very well, in the season 2 episode “Quincy and the magic instruments” annie, Leo, june and rocket get stuck. and quincy finds..well, magic instruments that can shapeshift, he’s also shown to have a fear of the dark, as in our big huge adventure, he’s a bit hesitant on going inside the cave, and in “Northern night light”, he sings a silly song to help him when durning a mission, it gets dark out. va; aiden pompey.

June: Named after the dancer june taylor, 6 year old chinese-american June is the smartest of the team, and a great dancer, in the episode “Ring around the planet” she befriended ring, one of Saturns many rings. which fell off and June was able to tell it to come to her, she’s the one who noticed rocket was missing from the mobile in “How we became the little einsteins: a true story” and was the one who came up with the teams name, after annie commented on how they’re all very smart. va; erica huang.

Rocket: While being unable to talk normally, (only communicating in marimba/xylophone noises) Rocket has a kind heart, and his noises is actually (as coined on the Disney.go website) “rocket-speak.” As the team can understand him, rocket also has the ability to shapeshift, (such as into a sub or a firetruck) in the episode “How we became the little einsteins: a true story.” It’s revealed that he used to be apart of Leo’s old baby mobile, but (velveteen rabbit logic perhaps, aka “if you love somthing enough, it’ll become real”) he grew big and flew off, only returning when the team sings the song the mobile played, in the episode “Hungarian hiccups” rocket is able to have hiccups…huh, the team tries to get rid of rockets hiccups in time for a race, but it’s only when rocket sees a mouse that his hiccups are gone. He also has a grandma, seen in the episode “Rocket soup” why does he have a grandma when we know he was apart of Leo’s mobile? Idk. And in the same episode, it’s shown that he can eat..despite him not having a mouth. (He reminds me of a precure fairy, lik kururun from tropicrouge, with the fact that they both can’t talk normally, LE takes place in the precure universe?, although, that would explain a few things…someone make a Little einsteins precure au!)

A…villain?

Big jet: Yee, a preschool show had a villain, this being big Jet, big jet, much like rocket, is unable to speak, big jet’s hatred for the team started after the team and rocket beat him in a race, (as seen in the episode “The great sky race,”) and and now, he likes to cause despair and mischief wherever he goes, (such as changing the seasons in “oh yes oh yes it’s springtime!” ripping up a sheet music for Annie’s song in the episode “Annie, get your microphone!”) however, in the season 2 episode “Show and tell” big jet…goes through a character arc, and turns good and apologizes for stealing the teams stuff. Although we never see who drives big jet, I imagine him being more self-aware (aka older) than rocket and not needing a driver.

Season 2’s changes:

Much like pinky dinky doo, season 2 changed quite a lot of things, such as in the opening, where certain scenes and transitions were changed, (such as the addition of clapping when the team’s name gets mentioned, annie now having her mic and her season 2 outfit, quincy playing a drum at the end, the locations seen in the intro being different) The animation being better, Annie’s singing being improved, the addition of the “super fast!” Segment, more interactive moments, and leo having a new line for when the mission starts (“let the mission…begin!” -leo)

Mission….Completion!

After 2 seasons, much lik how the show started as a direct to home media movie, the show ended as a direct to dvd movie. Rocket’s firebird rescue. (released in august of 2007) This movie is special, as instead of the usual credits, it’s a different song..almost lik the crew were aware the show was ending, although the episodes of the show officially ended with the episode “Little elephant’s big parade!” I consider the firebird rescue special to be the true finale, the show has a lot of merch, books, (which for the season 1 episode adaptations, has annie in her season 2 outfit,) fisher price toys, plushies, (yee, there’s even a plushie of rocket, if u are wondering. No big jet plushie though.) stickers, a cd, and a whole lot more, as for home media, there’s a lot, the show reran quite a lot after it ended, even after Disney lost the Einstein brand to kids ll, rn the show is on Disney+, and there’s a lot of flash games, such as mission to learn, which is a fun fact viewer/clip viewer, theres even a gba and a vtech v-smile game!

#2000s nostalgia #nostalgia #playhouse disney #disney junior #review #little einsteins #-🍎#Nostalgic reviews #Annie’s my fav #I just wanna give her a headpat! -🍎#june is 🍃’s fav.#early 2010s nostalgia

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themovieblogonline · 10 months

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The Legacy of The Dark Knight

With Oppenheimer generating so much talk about Christopher Nolan, there still might be some that are maybe unfamiliar with his work, and why this director/writer/producer is so highly regarded. In short, one of the main reasons why he has become so well-known is because of his take on The Caped Crusader in The Dark Knight, and with 2023 celebrating 15 years since its release, we thought it might be a good time to reflect on the movie, and attempt to uncover why it achieved such critical acclaim. The Legacy of The Dark Knight When Batman Begins was released in 2005, fans were not ready for what Christopher Nolan was going to do to one of the most iconic superheroes to ever exist. He stripped back that ridiculous feeling that emitted from predecessors like Batman Forever & Batman & Robin and based his vision of Bruce Wayne/Batman in a much more solidified way. Ultimately, it felt like Bruce Wayne was living in the same world as us. With a stomping soundtrack from Hans Zimmer (You can hear it right now can’t you?) along with a whole host of legendary performances from Cillian Murphy (Fun fact, Cillian Murphy auditioned for the role of Batman before becoming Scarecrow), Liam Neeson (Ra's al Ghul), Michael Caine (Alfred Pennyworth), to name just a few, Batman Begins was a monumental hit and a refreshing reminder of how important this DC character is. As the title suggests, it was just a taste of things to come, and what came next was something truly special... If you ask anyone in the street to name a Batman villain, the first one that would come to mind for most is The Joker! When it was confirmed that The Joker would be making an appearance in The Dark Knight, fans and cinema attendees alike went into complete overdrive with excitement. Let’s not forget though, that at the time, fans were skeptical of Nolan’s decision to pick Heath Ledger as The Joker due to him being famous for projects that some thought weren’t in a similar vein to the seriousness of The Dark Knight, but when the credits started to roll, Nolan earned trust, and Heath proved every single doubter wrong. Heath Ledger’s take on The Joker is nothing short of iconic, and as someone who watched this film in the cinema when it came out, I can still remember just how silent the audience was every time Heath did a scene, his laugh, and frenzied presence was terrifying. Michael Caine famously mentioned how scared he was to just be on set with Heath when he was in costume as The Joker, and I believe him. With his unfortunate passing, The Dark Knight is just a snapshot of Heath’s diverse acting ability, and as a viewer, you can’t help but wonder what incredible roles he would have taken on next if he was still with us. A tragic loss to say the least. Now, I haven’t mentioned Christian Bale’s take on Batman yet, so let’s get stuck into that. In short, he is in my opinion one of the best Batman’s we have ever seen. He nailed the voice, and his nipple-free look as the Batman itself, is a modern, spot-on style, that again harks realism. Christian glues the plot together, he gives us a professional and streamlined Batman/Bruce Wayne, whilst giving space for supporting characters to thrive. Also, when it comes to cinematography, it doesn’t get much cooler than watching his version of Batman cruise around the streets of Gotham on his Batmobile, or Batbike, with Hans Zimmer’s heart-pounding soundtrack racing in the background. Going back to realism, that is certainly another key reason why this movie has lasted the test of time, and practical effects are nothing short of legendary here. There’s that classic sequence where Nolan flips a whole truck (this is NOT CGI), and the opening sequence with zip lines, clowns, and a bank robbery, instantly pulls in the viewer. Encasing the movie are standout performances from Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Dent), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Rachel Dawes), Gary Oldman (James Gordon), Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox) and not forgetting a breakout role from David Dastmalchian. Just like Batman Begins, The Dark Knight features an outstanding cast. There are a ton of reasons why The Dark Knight is so well known (You could write an essay on the importance of each main character alone!), and this article only covers just some of those crucial points, so why not celebrate its 15th anniversary by revisiting the movie today. Read the full article

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kylekozmikdeluxo · 11 months

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Madagasqueer, Or My Weird History With a DreamWorks Franchise (Part 1)

LOOOOONG POST... Incoming... Brace yourselves...

CW, just in case: Queerphobia, sexuality, mental illness

For whatever reason, I'm going to talk about MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA, DreamWorks' 2008 sequel to their 2005 CG animated comedy starring a bunch of zoo animals and many wild faces they meet on their adventures.

MADAGASCAR and I go way back. I saw the first movie when it came out, on Memorial Day weekend of 2005. I dug it! I wasn't as in love with it as I thought I was going to be. I was a young animation enthusiast, I was 12 going on 13 at the time, and I was really excited for MADAGASCAR. I was into what DreamWorks was doing at the time, was interested in where CG animated movies were going before a truckton of them all just debuted at once circa 2006-07, and I was also really excited to see a CG picture about animals. I've always had a fascination with wildlife, I write stories and have written stories about anthropomorphic animals... so I welcomed a new animal animated adventure. Surprisingly, at the time, not too many mainstream CG pictures were about land mammals. Heck, we got a movie about prehistoric land mammals before we got this. Everything else was toys, insects, dinosaurs, monsters, humans, fish, fantasy creatures. I mean, you had Donkey from SHREK and a few other characters here and there, but that was about it.

In fall 2004, DreamWorks released a CG animated sitcom called FATHER OF THE PRIDE. This show was quite something, to say the least. It's a show that I still can't wrap my head around, like this thing actually existed and attempted to be a CGI adult sitcom that aired on NBC. Network television. There was a lot of promo for it, for sure. I watched it and liked it back then, for I was 12 and my tastes were not really refined back then. And also Donkey himself made a cameo in one of the episodes, even went as far as plugging SHREK THE THIRD in one scene: "Tell the kids SHREK 3 is coming out in 2006!" (Of course, in reality, SHREK THE THIRD was pushed back to 2007.) The production of the show unfortunately coincided with an incident concerning real-life subject matter it was based: Siegfried & Roy. The show was about a lion that was part of their long-running Las Vegas circus act, and his family life behind the scenes. During production of the show, Roy was attacked by one of the tigers, nearly derailing the entire series... But it was seen through to completion, for the most part, and ran only one season with a few episodes either unfinished or unaired... It was... A thing... To say the least.

Weeks later, SHARK TALE had opened. The film had a teaser trailer for MADAGASCAR attached to it. When it started up, I was like "Wait a minute... What is this? Some FATHER OF THE PRIDE thing?" There was a lion, and there were other wild animals there. It looked interesting to me, and I had seen that trailer in theaters a couple more times, notably before THE INCREDIBLES. I sought it out online, and because this was before YouTube and because my family didn't have high-speed internet, it'd take like an eternity to load a 2 1/2-minute video... And naturally, once it loaded, I'd watch the trailer or whatever it was I was interested in at the time... Over and over, on that choppy little media player embedded into the site. So, I was really looking forward to MADAGASCAR. I liked what DreamWorks was doing at the time, and I was of course in love with the Pixar movies at the time as well. THE INCREDIBLES, circa November-December 2004 and into early 2005, was like my #1 interest and just one of my all-time favorite films.

Then we get to MADAGASCAR, which came out in May 2005, finally, and... I remember I *liked* it, but I didn't love it. I liked it better than SHARK TALE, but not as much as the SHREKs, nor the Pixars. I still liked it, though, and I just felt... I was not expecting the movie's second half to go the way it went. It also didn't help that my stomach hurt all night. When I saw it again on DVD, I watched it non-stop. I could probably quote most of the movie. I think the first MADAGASCAR is a solid movie, not exceptional by any means, but for a 2005 CGI animated movie, this introduced a more cartoony look and feel. Funky character designs, asymmetry, wild takes and movements. I remember back then criticizing the asymmetry of the New York buildings in particular, thinking it was all by mistake, but NO. That was the point, it was supposed to be this 2D cartoon but in 3D. I feel like MADAGASCAR, along with a few other movies of this era, kind of laid the seeds that would eventually step us towards... CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS, HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA... Coinciding with the techniques explored in shorts like PAPERMAN, FEAST, and ONE SMALL STEP. The experiments that would eventually step us through THE BOOK OF LIFE, THE PEANUTS MOVIE, CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS... And, the big one... SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE...

So yes, definitely, MADAGASCAR's cartooniness opened up new doors for what could be done in a mainstream CG picture. Visually neat to this day, groundbreaking in that regard, plus with all the amount of fuzzy animals and crowds of characters... Technically still impressive! I still think the movie is at odds with itself. There's an interesting thing where some people like the first MADAGASCAR the best and not so much the sequels because they like how the first one is about how Alex the lion realistically devolves into being a carnivore and a threat to his herbivore friends... Whereas in the sequels, that's just not a thing. Just like the humans in ICE AGE. I like the sequels more, personally, because I feel like this very dramatic "Alex is going to eat his friends" storyline is kind of at odd with the Looney Tunes/Tex Avery anything-goes cartoon energy of the movie. Plus this conflict is all resolved easily, they give him some sushi and that's it. That's the end. I still think it's a very entertaining movie, I really like the characters and the vibe of the whole thing. Good characters and a neat vibe is what makes a movie for me, even if the storytelling makes choices that kinda baffle me.

I can kinda see why it got mixed to negative reviews back in 2005. It clearly isn't trying to be SHREK or FINDING NEMO or THE INCREDIBLES. I think it's more in the league of ICE AGE, a sort of "cartoon animals on an adventure and they're all arguing and bickering with one another", there's pop culture jokes and such. Come to think of it, how come ICE AGE was given a relatively warm reception but this wasn't? Maybe because by 2005, it felt derivative? Maybe? I dunno!

That being said... Years passed...

Life changed in many ways. I was aware that a sequel was in the works, I believe I saw the announcement back in late 2005 saying that it was coming in 2008. I remember when it carried the title MADAGASCAR 2: THE CRATE ESCAPE. Most of MADAGASCAR 2's marketing missed me, because... When MADAGASCAR 2 was coming out, I was going through a tough period in my life...

I was mostly miserable at the time.

I was going through a prolonged depression period that was spurred by a lot of things that went wrong in my life when I was 13-15. Growing pains, all around too. The trials of being a weird autistic neurodivergent teen in a school system that wasn't for me, and many other things. What I went through affected me negatively, and there was also a falling out that hurt me bad, and then I also made the dire mistake of going on internet message boards as I was. In that state of mind. Imitating a lot of what was going on in my circles, my background, etc. etc. etc.

Short version... I probably shouldn't have been where I was on the internet at the time. Mainly IMDb message boards. I was eaten alive, and a lot of it was also my own fault. I acted like an asshole in retaliation. It was not pretty. There were things I said and did, if I went back in time to 2006, I would almost slap my younger self. All of this change and trauma and hurt turned me off to so many of the things that I was so enthused about prior. I found new things to latch onto at the time, many of which did become new special interests, so that is a plus.

I would say my biggest special in early-to-mid 2008 was '60s and '70s music, The Beatles and much of my parents' music tastes my gateway to that. I was SUNK in all of that stuff. I was exploring so much of the rock music world, and collecting records. Wasn't really deep-diving into movies at the time, I wasn't really following animated movie news, barely watched my Disneys like I always did annually... Even in a year like 2007 where everything was falling apart, I still was in the know about movies like SHREK THE THIRD, SURF'S UP, RATATOUILLE, and THE SIMPSONS MOVIE. Even BEE MOVIE to an extent. But in 2008? The likes of HORTON HEARS A WHO! and KUNG FU PANDA just passed me by. KUNG FU PANDA is now a favorite of mine and a movie that means so much to me, but back in mid-2008... I just knew it existed, had no real interest. I was also going through that weird phase where I found Pixar and Disney to be the real deal, and DreamWorks to be that "SHREK fart stuff". The only animated movie that didn't pass me by back then was WALL-E, which I made a special exception for.

In a time where I was unwilling to even go out in public, unless I was going to school (ya know, because I *had* to), I still made an exception for WALL-E... I remember seeing that movie gave me a bright spot of hope in such a dark time. Like, I felt I'd never get a significant other, but I just remember feeling hopeful when it ended. Just about things in general, not about having an S-O particularly. (I'm more of a "I'd rather have some really good friends than be married" person, anyways.) I just also really loved the movie itself, and still do. Blew me away, I remember stumbling out of that auditorium. An animated sci-fi epic of that caliber, it was just so cool seeing that come out of Pixar at the time, an American animation studio.

MADAGASCAR 2 was around the corner, and the trailer might've been before WALL-E... A couple months after WALL-E's release, I remember snapping out of this awful, dour mood that was in. This utter self-hatred and depression, and not wanting to be anywhere in public, thinking I had no friends. So, by November 2008, when MADAGASCAR 2 opened... I was a whole new person! And I was *game* to see that movie. HAD to see it, no other way.

I rounded up a friend of mine. He didn't even see the first one, but he went with me. This friend of mine, I hung out with a lot. Back in those days, we were such goofuses together, I feel a lot of our time together just gave me a needed place to be my weird-ass self when I couldn't in other areas of middle/high school. No surprise, during that period where I was miserable... My sophomore year of high school, he wasn't in ANY of my classes or lunch periods. Completely separated... Kinda shows how weak I was back then, that I fell apart because I didn't have that friend of mine with me. And I wasn't driving yet, neither was he, and we didn't see each other often - we were bogged down in schoolwork and other life stuff anyways.

So we went and saw MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA. Because I broken out of that awful, dismal mood, I was like indulging on everything I had left behind prior to it. I really got back into mainstream animated movies. Like, ooo, what's the next DreamWorks movie? What's this OOBERMIND thing? HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON? What's all this?? Possibly BOO U, even? I had a good time. I'll distinctly remember my friend leaning towards me and saying nonchalantly, "Kyle, this is one funny-ass movie." He'd never seen the first one, he was just like "yeah I'll see it", and we had a great time! Such a fun movie. One of the oldest ticket stubs I saved, too.

So... MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA... I'm not the first person to point this out, but I definitely somewhat sensed it back then... It's queer... Queer AF...

This post is getting to be very long, sooo... Part two!

We'll continue in the next post, to save digital ink space!

#mental health #madagascar #animation #queer #lgbtqia+

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autisticshadowthehedgehog · 3 years

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Where to Watch: Sonic Media

Updated - 05/22/2022

With Sonic getting a resurgence of popularity after the 2020 film, and speculation that the ‘22 tv show might include multiple canons (this is not confirmed!!), I’ve seen several people asking where they can watch certain adaptations, so here’s a handy-dandy list!

Quick rundown of the links: YouTube links will be provided only if they’re full unedited uploads. I recommend WCOStream over the others but I’m including a variety in case some sites are blocked where you are. fmovies specifically has a LOT of popup ads, but if you have a good enough adblocker (I use ublock origin) it shouldn’t bother you.

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993)

Also called AoSTH, this is a slapstick comedy show. It focuses much more on humor than “plot” or “internal consistency,” which I think is just neat. It was aired very early on in Sonic history, predating such characters as Amy, Metal Sonic, and Knuckles.

Streaming Services: Paramount+ (episodes out of order)

Links: YouTube (+Christmas Special) | WCOStream | tubi (+Christmas Special) | kimcartoon | fmovies

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993-1994)

Commonly known as SatAM, this is an action-adventure show, focusing on Sonic and a mobian resistance trying to defeat Robotnik, who has caused a robot apocalypse. It has a more serious tone than AoSTH, which aired at the same time, and is incredibly story-based.

Streaming Services: PlutoTV, Paramount+ (episodes out of order)

Links: YouTube | WCOStream | kimcartoon | fmovies

Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie (1996)

Commonly known as the Sonic OVA, this was a pilot for a potential anime series that never really got off the ground (no pun intended). While still unconnected to Sonic canon, this included Knuckles and Metal Sonic, the latter of whom is animated so cool you guys,,

Was on YouTube but was recently deleted for copyright.

Japanese Links: archive.org {two parter, not subtitled}

English Links: archive.org

Sonic Underground (1999)

Released as a “more marketable” replacement for SatAM, this show features Sonic and his triplet siblings, Sonia and Manic, searching for their lost mother and fighting overlord Robotnik and his cronies with rock-and-roll instruments that shoot lasers. It’s... it didn’t age great, let’s be real, but it’s a nostalgic favorite for a lot of the fanbase.

Streaming Services: Paramount+

Links: YouTube | WCOStream | tubi | kimcartoon | fmovies

Sonic X (2003-2005)

The anime series; the first season is kickstarted by an accidental burst of Chaos Control transporting Sonic and his Gang to another dimension– Earth. Robotnik still wants to conquer this new planet, so Sonic and his friends have adventures trying to stop him. Season Two adapts Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, marking the first animated appearance of Shaodw, and Season Three features new adventures in space that get. Very interesting.

IMPORTANT NOTE-- I am including links for both the subtitled version and dubbed version. Note that the dubbed version is a censored version of the show and cuts several important plot/emotional beats because 4kids wanted it to be more “child-friendly.” I recommend the subtitled version, but if you don’t like watching subtitled shows (fair!) I at least recommend watching Episode 68 dubbed, as that was the one that was most screwed over by said censorship. I also recommend ep39 [a lot of jokes got cut] and ep78 [the finale, had the pacing butchered] but 68′s honestly the most censored one lol.

Streaming Services: Hulu [has both japanese and english]

Japanese Links: kissanime | gogoanime

English Links: YouTube | WCOStream | tubi | kimcartoon | fmovies

Sonic Boom (2014-2017)

A sort-of “workplace comedy” and the first CGI Sonic television show. Based on the spinoff universe of the Sonic Boom games, Team Sonic live on a small island village while fighting Eggman and the occasional other supervillain as part of their job as Designated Heroes. Extremely comedy-focused.

Streaming Services: Hulu

Links: WCOStream | kimcartoon season one and two | fmovies

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)

An “origin story” for Sonic, as the blue blur grows up alone and eventually finds himself on an Earth road trip with the “Donut Lord” Tom Wachowski while being pursued by Dr Robotnik, who wants to capture the hedgehog due to a strange power he seems to control. Very cute and fun!

Streaming Services: Epix, Hulu, Paramount+

Links: kimcartoon | fmovies

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022)

Sonic is trying to settle into life on Earth as his own desire for freedom conflicts with his newfound safety. But when Robotnik returns with a dangerous new ally and the goal of retrieving a superpowered emerald, it’s up to Sonic to save the day, before the whole world is doomed.

Streaming Services: Paramount+

Links: fmovies

#sonic the hedgehog #sth #sonicedit #sonic prime #aosth #adventures of sonic the hedgehog #sonic satam #sonic ova #sonic underground #sonic x #sonic boom #sonic 2020 #mine #links

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scribblerreviews · 2 years

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Top 25 Christmas Films (25-16)

25. The Ice Harvest (2005)

Harold Ramis’ off-beat Christmas heist movie is not his best work, but its quirky & dark humour make it worth a watch, even if just for John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton.

24. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

Another in the list of black comedy Christmas crime movies? Maybe 2005 was just an odd year. Shane Black’s directorial debut is sharp, entertaining, and like most of his movies, set during Christmas. It’s an enjoyable neo-noir romp with great performances from both Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer.

23. Black Christmas (1974)

If you’re the type that loves Halloween and wishes that it would just continue, Black Christmas may be up your alley. Pre-dating John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) and often considered one of the first slash films, this Canadian Christmas ho-ho-horror is smarter than expected. Not a creature was stirring… but a killer was.

22. A Christmas Story (1983)

It’s hard not to escape the cultural influence of this movie. Less a single movie, more a series of vignettes, but it captures relatable moments of childhood, especially as it relates to the holiday season. From snowsuit problems to wishing for presents parents say that they’ll never buy, there’s a universal feeling to this movie. Which is why it’s played year after year.

21. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

The third of National Lampoon’s Vacation films is still a reliable laugh-fest of the Griswold family’s misfortunes. Like A Christmas Story, there’s a relatability to trying to celebrate Christmas, put up lights, and deal with relatives. Between the two, my preference leans towards this one from the memories of watching it. But there’s still a relatable-ness to when Christmas goes wrong, but eventually right.

20. The Polar Express (2004)

Robert Zemeckis’ career has been long and varied. The Back to the Future film trilogy (1985—90) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) are childhood favourites, while Death Becomes Her (1992) and Forrest Gump (1994) are excellent for older audiences. His 2004 CGI/mo-cap film definitely dips into the Uncanny Valley and shows its age, but the heart of the story is strong. Ebert said the film has a “haunting, magical quality” (I think partially due to Alan Silvestri’s score) but that ineffable quality is part of its Christmas magic.

19. Little Women (2019)

There have been many adaptations of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel, but Greta Gerwig’s adaptation is perhaps the best. An incredible cast each give their all with a tight script that focuses on family love and the bonds we share. Oh, this is not a Christmas movie? Not only do some of the most pivotal points happen during Christmas, but the themes of struggle, grief, and coming together are resonant during the holidays. This will not be the last movie where Christmas provides something of a thematic through-line.

18. The Snowman (1982)

An animated short (25 min), The Snowman is a touching piece about Christmas and the feeling of magic that comes from the holidays. A boy goes on a magical adventure with a snowman, shown with beautiful storybook illustrations and without dialogue. The only words come from the hauntingly beautiful “Walking in the Air”. This is basically the superior Frosty.

17. Tangerine (2015)

Set in the streets of L.A., Tangerine is the story of two transgender sex workers on Christmas eve having a journey about sisterhood, growth, and dealing with struggles. Similar to Little Women, the spirit of Christmas is in the themes of connection and redemptive acts, even without the snow. Filmed with iPhones, this film is raw but stylistic and engaging with fantastic performances. It’s also one of the few Christmas movies that explicitly features people in the LGBTQA community. It’s an unconventional pick but a worthy addition to your Christmas list.

16. Home Alone (1990)

Sometimes family is a lot to deal with. Sometimes you just wanna be alone. And that’s what Kevin gets on Christmas, a house all to himself. John Hughes’ script has a great mix of sweet and sardonic, mixing Christmas feels with a criminal caper. Chris Columbus’ filmmaking is fine, but Macaulay Culkin’s performance is what elevates this movie into a Christmas classic. There’s laughs, there’s feels, and there’s some good old-fashioned Christmas chaos.

#The Ice Harvest #Kiss Kiss Bang Bang #Black Christmas #A Christmas Story #National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation #The Polar Express #Little Women (2019)#The Snowman #Tangerine #Home Alone #Christmas #Christmas movies #Christmas films #Top 25 #films

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canmom · 3 years

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not-Toku Tuesday 20: Speed Racer!

so this one's been a popular request for a while among my (very small) audience: that time that the two most famous trans girl weebs on the planet made an adaptation of a classic anime, Speed Racer. which may form something of a bridge from purely focusing on Japanese media to like, checking out the rest of the world as well. even if America isn't the best place to start on 'international' film :p

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A little context: the original Speed Racer anime, originally titled Mach GoGoGo (マッハGoGoGo), was a project of Tatsuo Yoshida at Tatsunoko Productions in the era of limited TV animation following in the footsteps of Osamu Tezuka.

Although we haven't covered Yoshida on Animation Night at any point, I've definitely run into his legacy: one of our inaugural Toku Tuesday films was the incredible post apocalpytic, music video-esque update of Neo-Human Casshern (1973-4) as Casshern (2004). I also notice he was involved in creating the Gatchaman (1972-4) franchise which later gave rise to the delightful anime Gatchaman Crowds (2013).

But we're here to talk about Speed Racer! So Mach GoGoGo began life as a manga by Yoshida, but he would very soon take it to animation. It tells the story of Gō Mifune, his name a tribute to movie star Toshiro Mifune, and his high-tech 'Mach-Go' (マッハ号) car in 52 episodes of escapades.

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The American localisation as Speed Racer would have been among the first anime to find a large audience abroad, and the rights to a movie adaptation of the series ended up with Warner Bros. The Wachowskis were not actually the first choice to direct; an early version of the film had Julien Temple directing and Johnny Depp as the star, but both ended up leaving the project. When their turn came, the Wachowskis brought on the special effects designer John Gaeta who'd worked with them on the matrix, and the film is largely notable because of the novel approach to special effects they came up with...

The years 2005–2008 marked a deepening of the pursuit of sample cinema with new ground covered in the feature Speed Racer. The advent of a new genre type, dubbed "Photo Anime", was the centerpiece of a retro-modern universe in which optimistic pop art design ("Poptimisitic") threaded through dramatic collage based editing and motion graphic heavy kung fu car action. Inspired in part by the production attitude of Sin City, the expressive animated cinema of Hayao Miyazaki and Andy Warhol, the Wachowskis focused Gaeta's sensibilities once more toward new forms of post cinematography, deploying end to end high definition pipelines, comprehensive greenscreen/virtual set processes, fully computer generated race worlds, "2 and 1/2 D" layering methodologies, "faux lensing" as applied to VR location photography (360 degree spherical capture) and "techno color" in pursuit of a different movie experience. In addition to visual effects design for the film, Gaeta was additionally enlisted to creatively produce the Wii game counterpart.[6]

So what's all that jargon supposed to mean? In practice what it means is a really colourful vivid overwhelming approach to the film's CGI-composited race sequences that aims to overwhelm in a kind of abstraction of racing cars along twisting, videogame-like tracks. In terms of anime inspirations, it calls to mind more the Running Man segment of Neo Tokyo (if that were a lot faster paced!) and especially of course especially Koike's Redline. And it does this with some absolutely insane camerawork, deliberately flouting a lot of 'established' conventions of how film should be shot, shooting smoothly between closeups and elaborate long shots of cars. It's really something, and I honestly don't know what you could compare it with.

It landed at the time and... pretty much nobody got it, and the film lost $30 million dollars and got a lot of negative reviews. Yet in the years since it accumulated a bit of a cult following and opinions are starting to shift it a bit. My recommendation comes from @lyravelocity who was way ahead of the curve on appreciating this movie, and I've been meaning to watch it for another!

Since we're really late starting, I think we only have time for the one movie tonight, so I'm afraid @grubhonker's ardent desire for us to watch Cloud Atlas together is going to have to wait for another week further down the line. Hope you can join me; we'll be starting at about 10pm UK time at twitch.tv/canmom - around 20 minutes from this post! v much looking forward to seeing what the fuss is all about from the two American filmmakers who most want to make tokusatsu...

#toku tuesday #Youtube

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phantombandit-films · 3 years

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Why ‘War of the Worlds’ (2005) is a underrated masterpiece.

‘War of the Worlds’ was released in 2005, it is directed by the film god that is Steven Spielberg (Jaws, E.T.) and written by Josh Friedman (Terminator: Dark Fate, Avatar 2) and David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible)

Cast: - Tom Cruise as Ray Farrier. - Justin Chatwin as Robbie Farrier. - Dakota Fanning as Rachel Farrier. - Miranda Otto as Mary Ann. -Tim Robbins as Harlan Ogilvy. - Ann Robinson as Grandmother. - Gene Barry as Grandfather.

First lets start with some history of ‘The War of the Worlds’ - The 2005 film is based off the novel of the same name which was written by H.G. Wells between 1895 and 1897, it then was then made into a series by Pearson’s Magazine in 1897 in the UK, Cosmopolitan in the US. Then becoming a hardback novel in 1898, it is one of the earliest written pieces to tell a story of conflict between Martians and man and so its one of the most commented on pieces of science fiction.

It has been adapted and developed several times over many decades in many medias, the ones that come to mind are the famous 1938 dramatic radio reading that was directed and starred Orson Welles that actually caused public panic to those who listened in and didn’t know that the Martian invasion was fiction, its said that up to a million people ran out of their homes in terror. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(1938_radio_drama) )

The 1953 ‘The War of the Worlds’ film adaptation, which was produced by George Pal and directed by Byron Haskin. It also starred Gene Barry (who played Dr. Clayton Forrester) and Ann Robinson (who played Sylvia Van Buren) who can also been seen at the end of the 2005 film, they play the grandparents of Robbie and Rachel which I think is a sweet little cameo to see for those who loved the 1953 film. Ann Robinson also revived her role as Sylvia Van Buren in two other films and three episodes of ‘The War of the Worlds’ tv series in 1988.

In 1978 the most well known musical album by Jeff Wayne was produced and based off the story of ‘War of the Worlds’ this album included the voices of Richard Burton and David Essex.

This was then turned into a concert musical which tours annually through out the UK and Europe, the concert includes live performers such as Carrie Hope Fletcher but also a 3D hologram of Liam Neeson. It also includes a mix of computer animation, pyrotechnics and a big mechanical tripod that comes out on stage and lights up and can fire its heat-ray.

(Source: Birmingham Mail.)

There have also been several Tv series, the two newest being the 2019 BBC version staring Poldark’s Eleanor Tomlinson and Full Monty’s Robert Carlyle, that has a Edwardian setting and follows closely to the novel.

The other being the FOX 2019 adaptation that is set in present day Europe but I found this version didn’t really go off the novel, and was frustrated with the lack of the famous Tripods. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds)

As a kid I would watch the 1953 film with my mum all the time as its one of her favourites and I do really like it, but then 2005 rolled around and in comes Steven Spielberg’s version. To be fair it was probably 2006 when I finally saw it, I was nine years old at the time and I remember my dad bringing home the DVD that someone at work had lent him. I don’t remember watching it but I do remember having nightmares for a month after, only for a month though. Many years later when I was half way through high school and getting more and more into film my dad then bought the DVD from Woolworth's before it shut down, the DVD didn’t have a case only a see through CD case so I think it only cost him something like 50p. So I re-watched and again I don’t really remember this but all of a sudden I was hooked, and it climbed to the second spot on my favourite movies list where it still sits today. Honestly if you asked anyone I was friends with at that time they will tell you just how obsessed I was with it.

I have many scenes that I love in this film the first being the rise of the first tripod, but there are two that I geek out over every time.

The first scene being the one in the basement at Robbie and Rachel’s house, the scene starts off with Ray asleep in a chair. He starts to stir when when a blue flash of light on his face, but then jolts up right at a load whooshing noise followed by closely by Robbie shooting up from just below the camera. I love the way that Robbie appears sort of fits with the sound that’s heard, also the whole mood of the scene which is pitch black with this blue flashing light every now and then. The fact that you’re just as clueless as the characters as well, you find out what’s happening when they find out. Also the way that Rachel appears behind the basement stairs, which will appear again near the end of the movie in a much more damaged basement which shows just how much their world has changed in just a short few days. The sound design in this movie as well is something that I love, I love when the sound in a film alone can creep you out. The tripod sound is one of my favourite sounds to exist, like if I heard that from outside I would be so creeped out and scared. At this moment in time Robbie and Rachel have no idea what is hunting them or what Ray has seen, Imagine running from something and seeing something completely destroy the whole of your neighbourhood yet not knowing what it looks like. This is what runs through my mind when I heart Rachel cry “Is it them, Is it them?!” Then the next morning when Ray goes upstairs and see’s that the house is just completely destroyed by an aeroplane that has crashed down in the middle of the the housing estate. This Boeing 747 was a out of use plane and the production crew bought it for $60,000 which then cost them $200,000 to transport, it was then broken into pieces and houses were built around it. Which just shows how far some movie productions will go to make a film look more legit. (We love practical effects in this house.) This scene is still set up at Universal Studios Hollywood and can be seen on the Studio tour.

(Basement and Plane crash scene.)

My second favourite scene, which is one of my all time top favourite scene ever with no surprise is the dock scene. The speeding train that’s on fire is absolute stunning in every sense but for me the scene starts when the music starts. ‘If I ruled the world, everyday would be the first day of spring.’ But i’m really glued to the screen when Rachel starts to follow the birds coming in from the river to in land, she follows them up to the hill where she notices the tree’s on the top are moving weirdly. “The tree’s are funny.” She then reaches out and grabs onto Rays hand who was talking to a friend. Robbie turns to the hill as the camera slowly comes back and shows Robbie also turning to look at where Ray is looking. (Just remembering that this is the first time Robbie and Rachel ever see the tripods.)

The camera then shows us what the family is looking at to reveal a tripod stood on the top of the hill, it then moves one of its legs which crushes a tree and makes everyone else look back. Obviously chaos ensues from this point on, everyone running trying to get onto the ferry to get away from the impending doom, unfortunately we learn that no where, not even on the water is safe. As a tripod comes up from out of the water and attacks the ferry, the family manage to escape and get to land on the other side of the ferry. They stop for a moment to catch their breath as people are being picked out of the water below them, they turn as a old air raid alarm is heard on the other side of the hill and we see tripods coming over another hill that was filled with people and using their head rays to wipe them all out, we also see in the distance a lighting storm indicating more Martions are still coming to earth. The scene is like a depiction of all the stages of the attack. (Dock attack scene.)

I mean all the action scenes in this movie are just so beautiful and amazing, but did we expect any less from Spielberg? And the CGI and practical are all done extremely well and fitted together to make a scene look as real as possible. One of the art directors that worked on this film, Doug J. Meerdink who has also worked on Jurassic Park: III, Cloverfield and Jurassic World.

I was looking up some trivia on IMDB for this movie and found that there was a deleted scene that is called the ‘Camelot’ scene. This scene is supposed to take place between the attack on the ferry and the battle on the hill, it involves Ray, Rachel and Robbie walking through an abandoned housing estate that’s named Camelot, when a pack of tripods start walking near by. One of the tripods breaks off and the family has to take cover behind a SUV, they watch helplessly from behind as the tripod reaches into the house and grabs people from the houses. This scene has never been released but apparently it was fully finished, VFX and all but then taken out a few weeks before post production was wrapped up. There is only one official video from this scene that was in the actual trailer for the film, and it’s only a shot of the family hiding behind the SUV.

The only other shot from the scene is this landscape shot of a CGI tripod.

There are also photos of the set designers setting up the miniature of the housing estate to shoot this scene, the rest are fan arts of how the scene maybe looked/ played out. (Source)

I really hope that one day Steven releases this scene, or for some anniversary adds it into an extended version of the film like we’ve seen for other films. Because I would love that so much! It seems like such an incredible scene, and to see the tripods up this close again would be so cool!

One of the trailers that was released for this film doesn’t have any of the film shots it in, It takes place in a normal neighbourhood where people are just going about their normal nightly routine when suddenly over the hill there are all these brilliant flashing lights, everyone's just coming out of their houses in their pj’s and standing in the street marvelling at this sight in front of them. Then we see explosions and suddenly heat rays are blowing up the tress on the street which then goes into the title. I just love this, a trailer that doesn’t give anything away from the movie but creeps you out enough to be invested. (Trailer.)

All in all it’s just an very visually pleasing film, it feels real enough to give you a sense of fear for the characters and for yourself. I also love that Steven stayed true to the source material,more truer than some of the other adaptations and also added in his own little Easter eggs. The sounds, the aesthetic, the colours just everything comes together so beautifully. I think its a very underrated movie that deserves so much more love.

#war of the worlds #war of the worlds 2005 #robbie farrier #ray farrier #rachel farrier #steven spielberg #movie #film #film talk #tom cruise #dakota fanning #justin chatwin #the war of the worlds #not really a film review #i just wanted to talk about my love for this film

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radramblog · 3 years

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Can we talk about Robert Rodriguez?

Don’t ask me how I got on this idea. Yet.

This motherfucker is such an utterly bizarre filmmaker. He starts off making violent action films, with his fifth movie being written by Tarantino, and has a whole Thing where he likes being the Director, Writer, and Producer of as many of his movies as he can manage. And like, we’re aware of how that often tends to go, we know what The Room is, but unlike Wiseau it doesn’t seem to be an ego thing, dude just loves being super involved with filmmaking. Also, I think not starring in the movies helps.

And then he goes and makes fucking Spy Kids. Which…if you haven’t seen the Spy Kids movies, I don’t have any idea how to explain them to you. Like…they’re somewhere between so-bad-its-good and actually just bangers. You could write them off between the extremely early 00’s CGI being heavily relied upon and being, well “family friendly” adventure films, but the creativity on display is incredible and its clear that the whole thing isn’t being taken too seriously. There’s cringe, but there’s also legitimately good writing. There’s some awkward child actors, and there’s also fucking Antonio Banderas and Danny Trejo.

At least, the first couple are. I think the less said about 3 the better, though they really did get Sylvester Stallone in, huh. And also Elijah Wood for like 5 seconds. And a foruth one sure does exist, but I definitely haven’t touched it with a stick. It doesn’t look good. Apparently the idea for this series came from hearing about someone’s kid being a fan of one of Rodriguez’s more murder-y films, and him going like “dang dude you really shouldn’t let kids watch that, also maybe I should make some movies that kids can watch, like the ones I saw as a kid”, which I can’t help but respect. From all I’ve seen, the bloke does seem to be a class act.

And it’s good to have stuff for your kids, but maybe don’t take it to the level Rodriguez did. Because that’s how you get Sharkboy and Lavagirl. I feel like most people’s modern awareness of this film is via memes, which is probably a result of people who watched it as a kid getting old enough now to actually get nostalgic for it? And like, I watched it again a couple years ago, nothing about that film aged well, especially when you’re aging with it. It takes a lot of balls to have your literal child write a film that has a 50 million dollar budget, but as cool as that would be for…Racer Rodriguez, it doesn’t seem like the greatest choice.

I had figured that RR had largely disappeared after that point, but no, dude has had a shitload of movies since 2005. Because as it turns out that year he co-directed and wrote and produced Sin City. And wrote/EPed a third movie. I cannot imagine how much effort that would have been in a single year. But there’s a whole list of movies since then he’s been involved with, and some of them I’ve even heard of. He directed the somewhat maligned Alita: Battle Angel movie, did the Sin City sequel, and apparently produced the 2010 Predator movie. Dude just kinda kept going in those two modes he had- violent action movie and weirdo kids flick.

You know that feeling you get when you miss a step on the staircase? That’s the feeling that inspired this post. And it was caused by finding out that the Machete movies didn’t come out until 2010 and 2013. So Robert had the idea of a violent action film starring Danny Trejo (who as it turns out is his second cousin), wrote a screenplay in 1993, couldn’t get the movie together yet, and decided to just. Slap this character into a kids movie. And then its two sequels. And then let it simmer for another few years before making the film.

Can you imagine having a whole movie planned 17 years before it releases? And having a splatter film about drug cartels canon in the universe of a family adventure film about child spies fighting Willy Wonka and his army of thumb-people? If nothing else, that’s a fucking weird one.

I sure hope he’s not secretly an asshole, though, because I definitely respect treating Hollywood like the clown show it is.

#ramble #film #spy kids #machete #robert rodriguez #inb4 i post this and someone tells me hes a nazi or something and i have to be sad

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voldiebuns · 4 years

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Horror Movie a Day 2020

The past couple of years I’ve done a challenge of trying to watch a horror movie a day through the month of October. Last year didn’t go well since I was so busy travelling, so I’m hoping for better this time around!

Under the cut you'll find my list of watched movies, plus rating and some thoughts about them. I’ll also be posting every day at my film twitter. Lemme know if you have any suggestions for what I should watch this month!

Hereditary (2018) | ★★★☆☆ This movie was... not at all what I was expecting from trailers and such. The devil worshiping angle was definitely a surprise, which I didn't entirely mind, but the first and second halves of the movie felt very disjointed from one another because of it. There were some good moments, but all in all, not entirely sure I liked the movie.

Parasite (2019) | ★★★★☆ More a thriller than horror, but I make the rules! I enjoyed this one a lot for the sense of tension it achieves even when not a whole lot of “action” was going on until close to the end. And of course how well it depicts class differences and how deeply affecting poverty is. Very good.

Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959) | ★★☆☆☆ Granted, this is over 60 years old now, but it’s still very bad. And not even in a particularly fun way. It’s honestly pretty boring and not scary at all... But at least it was short!

Piranha (1972) | ★☆☆☆☆ So 70s it hurts lol And also so boring it hurts. I spent most of the movie wondering when something was actually going to happen. But the real thing I wonder now is why this was in my sharks, piranhas, and monsters movie pack because there’s approximately two seconds of actual piranhas in this and they’re not even really attacking anyone?? I think they may have included the wrong Piranha because the picture on the cover is... not this movie lol

Them! (1954) | ★★☆☆☆ I actually thought it seemed pretty well made for the time, but it was definitely very slow. Interesting as a reflection of US nuclear fears, which I don’t think gets seen as much in movies, though!

Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus (2009) | ★★☆☆☆ This is... so bad. I’m pretty sure their budget had to be like $5 and half a gig of stock footage, but even aside from the godawful CGI, the cinematography is almost unbelievably awful and the acting is often cringeworthy. It also wasn’t particularly fun? But the romance was actually kind of cute.

Mega Piranha (2010) | ★☆☆☆☆ I honestly can’t even count the ways this was a terrible movie lol And still, not even in a particularly fun way! More cringe than cheese, which was really just disappointing.

Beneath Loch Ness (2001) | ★★★☆☆ This was actually really not bad. The graphics were incredibly 2001, but it came off as very heartfelt and the characters and their relationships felt real in a way they tend not to in these kinds of movies. I enjoyed it!

30,000 Leagues Under the Sea (2007) | ★★☆☆☆ Not really a horror movie, but in a pack with my other sea creature horror movies so it'll do. Production value was terrible and the plot was sketchy, but it had some interesting bits. Overall a pretty hearty meh for this one.

Tremors (1990) | ★★★★☆ First rewatch of the year! It's been years, though, and I needed a refresher before watching the rest. This movie is basically the floor is lava with killer worms and I love it lol A really fun movie!

Tremors II: Aftershocks (1996) | ★★★☆☆ Earl without Val was not quite so much fun, but they did some cool things with the graboids. Plus many more explosions! Biggest complaint is the puppets and CGI didn't always mesh well.

Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001) | ★★★☆☆ Wish they'd stop ruining things with worse and worse CGI lol This one got a bit goofy even compared to the others, but it was overall still fun!

Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004) | ★★★★☆ This one was really fun! I loved that they went back to the beginning of the town, especially since it was easy to see how it became Perfection in the end. I think it's the best one, tied with the original.

Tremors 5: Bloodlines (2015) | ★★★☆☆ The cinematography on this one was sometimes very weird. And the Jurassic Park homages went a bit past "homage" at point imo. But still a pretty fun watch.

Poltergeist (1982) | ★★★★☆ I think I'd seen this before, but I really couldn't remember. Either way, it holds up pretty well! Very engaging and creepy weird, with some good gross moments too.

Sleepy Hollow (1999) | ★★★★☆ Very enjoyable! Tim Burton's style meshed very well with the story, and of course the cast was full of wonderful actors. Unfortunate that Depp stars in it, but what can you do?

Underworld (2003) | ★★★★☆ Not horror exactly, but definitely adjacent enough. Great aesthetic and very enjoyable (re)watch! Also I super appreciated the soundtrack lol

Lake Placid (1999) | ★★★★☆ After I started watching, I realize I think I've seen this before. Still enjoyed it! The characters are definitely the draw more than the croc, though. Would have liked to see a bit more of it

Ghost Town (2009) | ★★☆☆☆ Holy bad acting and shaky cam Batman! Terrible movie with the barest hint of an interesting one beneath, but I think my biggest complaint is there was a Wiccan ritual being done... in the 1800s lol

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976) | ★★★☆☆ There were really no horror elements in this to speak of, which I found a bit disappointing, and I also didn't feel like it had a very satisfactory ending. But I did enjoy the movie for the most part. I guess I just wanted more.

The Witches (1990) | ★★★☆☆ Mostly just pretty goofy, but a fun watch and it felt very seasonal. Anjelica Huston was, of course, the best part! Though I'm always happy to see Jim Henson puppetry as well.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991) | ★★★★☆ This was uh dated in several ways that make it a bit of an uncomfortable watch. But I really did enjoy it! The Clarice/Hannibal dynamic was even better than I'd been expecting.

Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988) | ★★★☆☆ Wow, that was something else lol Something absolutely ridiculous and incredibly weird, but also very fun! I really enjoyed the main three characters and the music too.

Insidious (2010) | ★★★★☆ Such a good sense of tension in this! A lot of that was thanks to the music tbh, but I do think James Wan just has a really good feel for horror. Also, a very good ending, I'm definitely excited to see 2!

Malevolent (2018) | ★★★☆☆ A fairly enjoyable movie, but it just felt a little lacking and it seemed like the end came up really quickly. To be honest it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I wish there would have been a bit more with the ghosts.

The Conjuring (2013) | ★★★★☆ A rewatch since it's been a few years since I watched it. Very enjoyable movie with good music, great tension, and some actually good jump scares. The Annabelle stuff seems disconnected to the rest, though, I wish that had been more tied in.

Annabelle (2014) | ★★★☆☆ This movie dragged quite a bit and I feel like things could have been compressed quite a bit and it would have been better. The cult connection also could have been explored a lot more imo, because it felt a bit slapped

The Last House on the Left (2009) | ★★☆☆☆ Way too much sexualized violence for my tastes tbh, but I liked the concept and the cast was very good. I think I'll try the original sometime and see how it compares.

The Amityville Horror (2005) | ★★★☆☆ I feel like I may have seen this before? Not really worth the rewatch lol Like this movie is fine I guess, it just felt a bit empty and was overall unsatisfying to me.

The Crazies (2010) | ★★★★★ I was a little iffy going into this bc I thought it might be zombie-esque, and it was, but I really enjoyed it! I liked what they did with the government satellite especially.

Midsommar (2019) | ★★★★★ I was expecting this to be good since I’d heard good things about it, and it so was! The sense of strangeness and building tension was excellent. And it was just such a beautiful movie tbh.

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skinks · 4 years

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hi!!! what are your favourite movies? like actually good ones but also any trashy comfort movies? is IT (2017) one of them?

Hello!! IT (2017) IS ABSOLUTELY ONE OF THEM oh man, thank you for this, I love talking about movies!!!! This is possibly the most difficult question you could have asked me. Apologies for how absolutely off the rails this got, I just... love movies so much lmao

I’ve said this before, but opening night of IT ch1 was the best cinema experience I’ve ever had, I’m so glad I got to see it with a fully packed audience who were all laughing and screaming together the whole way through. I’m a huge fan of... everything ch1 was doing, the 80s nostalgia, the summer-coming-of-age themes, the solid ghost train funhouse JOY of the Pennywise performance and scares, the washed-out cinematography, the tiny background details to make everything that much more eerie, the kids’ ACTING?!

Like, a lot of the time I find child actors can be really awkward and stilted to watch, but I remember leaving the cinema really impressed by JDG and Sophia Lillis in particular. I liked that they were all allowed to be little shitheads with potty mouths, it felt like a callback to 80s movies like The Lost Boys or Stand By Me. The whole thing worked to make me really care about what happened to the kids (even if I do still have issues with how they handled Mike. I understand even ch1 had limitations with juggling so many characters, but still). I saw it another 2 times in the cinema and have rewatched it at least, I dunno, 7-10 more times since then?

Add to all of that the retroactive CANON R+E baby pining subplot? I just love it, as if that wasn’t obvious by now given my Whole Blog. It’s a really special movie to me!

Anyway!! Ok, the main handful of movies I rewatch all the fucking time are:

Back to the Future, The Lost Boys, Pride and Prejudice (2005), Jaws, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club, Ocean’s 11, POTC 1, The Dark Knight, Inception, Die Hard, LOTR trilogy, Snatch, The Nice Guys, Logan Lucky, Mad Max Fury Road, Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You, Billy Elliot, Dirty Dancing, Tomb Raider (2018)...

Those are the easily consumable ones that I’ve seen so many times I don’t really have to concentrate or think about them, but I really love them and unfortunately often KEEP rewatching them instead of new stuff. It would take too long to go into why I love all these movies so much because I could write the same amount as I already did for ITCH1, and everyone already knows why those movies are good, so, lol.

I think I’m gonna have to subdivide and categorise this whole post because there are too many separate criteria for... goOD MOVIES, AUUHH 😩

Okay so first off, HORROR MOVIES? I’m especially in love with Re-Animator (1985) and its sequel Bride of Re-Animator, they’re such good examples of camp and batshit 80s practical effects, and also EXTREMELY funny. I’m actually just gonna post my list of my fave horror movies that I do actually keep on my phone at all times lmao. These are in no particular order:

Wholeheartedly recommend every one of these. I’ve never been so scared in my life as I was watching Hereditary in the cinema, hoo boy. Mother! by Aronofsky is one of the strangest experiences I’ve ever had (and I actually saw it on the same day I saw IT ch1 for the first time!! That was a fun day)

Psycho (1960) and The Fly from 1986 should also be on there but I couldn’t fit them in the screenshot.

I’m a HUGE fan of a ton of martial arts movies too, like Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer, Ip Man, The Raid movies, John Wick 3 is my fave of the trilogy, Drive from 1997 with Mark Dacascos is incredible, SPL 2, Ong-Bak, Operation Condor, Project A, Iron Monkey, and Zatoichi (2003) are some favourites.

My favourite Tarantino is Reservoir Dogs, fave Coen brothers are Raising Arizona, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and O Brother Where Art Thou. Love some old-timey colour correction and weird offbeat dialogue. I also love Goodfellas!!! And Donnie Brasco! And The Firm, I’m so easy for any good crime/law/gangster/heist procedural like that, especially if they’re from the 80s or 90s in a super dated way.

Fave Disney movie is Tarzan, favourite Ghibli movies are Spirited Away and Lupin III. I remember watching Spirited Away during a thunderstorm one time and it being.... god! Transcendent! Favourite Pixar movie is The Incredibles (the first one. ALSO the documentary “The Pixar Story” is great and well worth a watch, it’s very comforting for some reason) and my favourite Dreamworks movies are HTTYD1 and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron.

I tend to watch more anime movies than tv shows, so stuff like Akira, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Journey to Agartha, and my ultimate fave anime is Sword of the Stranger (2008). The climactic fight in that movie is fucking stunning and should be counted in “bests fights” lists right alongside anything live action

Also if we’re talking animated movies another hearty favourite is Rango, and a Belgian stop-motion (which at one time I considered my favourite movie ever) called Panique Au Village (2009) which is one of the funniest movies ever made imo.

As for TRASHY movies, I’m not sure if that’s the right word for how I feel about these ones but.. dumb/silly/slightly guilty pleasure movies? Ones that I feel need some kind of justification lmfao

Troy - something u must know about me is that I’m a giant slut for the Assassin’s Creed franchise, so if a movie smashes historical and mythological nonsense together with fun costumes and sword fights, I’m gonna enjoy myself. Even if they should have made Achilles and Patroclus gay. Other movies in this vein are King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, and Immortals (2011)

Gods of Egypt - I know all the reasons this movie is whitewashed bullshit. But it was already bullshit with giant Anubis mecha and giant snakes and bad acting and ridiculous CGI and frankly I had a blast at the cinema (my friend who I forced to come with me did not have a blast. Sorry H***)

Avatar - yes, the one with the big blue people. This movie gets a lot of flack nowadays but I really do enjoy it just for the spectacle. The full CGI world technology was so new at the time and I love to wallow in the visuals and daydream about riding a cool dragon around in the jungle

George of the Jungle - I’ll defend this movie to the death ok this movie shaped me as a person, it is fucking hilarious and Brendan Fraser is the himbo to end all himbos. It’s perfect. The song Dela is perfect. I still want to write a reddie AU about it. It’s one of the best movies ever made and I’m not being ironic

Set It Up - I KNOW this is a dumb Netflix original romcom but consider this; it was funny and the leads had great chemistry. I got butterflies. I once watched it and then literally immediately set it back to the start so I could watch it again

The Brady Bunch Movie - when people talk about great satires or parodies you will see them bring up the same movies over and over again, Blazing Saddles, This Is Spinal Tap etc, but they never talk about The Brady Bunch Movie from 1995 for some reason, which they should. It is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen and every time i watch it somehow it gets funnier

Some more general favourites that I do still love but don’t rewatch as often, and don’t wanna go into more detail about are:

Moon (2009), Crna Mačka Beli Mačor, The Sixth Sense, Parasite, The Handmaiden, Tremors, Wet Hot American Summer, Tucker and Dale vs Evil, What We Do In The Shadows, Hunt For the Wilderpeople, The Secret of My Success (I love kitschy 80s movies, is that obvious by now), The Green Mile, When Harry Met Sally, Rear Window, The Odd Couple, Breaking Away, Pan’s Labyrinth, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Eagle, Gladiator, The Artist, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec, Call Me By Your Name, Master and Commander, Pacific Rim, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Legend (1985), Emma. (2020), Flash Gordon, Trolljegeren, Hross í Oss, Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, WarGames, District 9, Ajeossi (2010), Tracks (2013), Sightseers, Mud (2012), Pitch Black, Four Lions, Shaun of the Dead, Starship Troopers, The Truman Show, Withnail & I....... Jesus Christ ok I need to stop

NOTABLE EXTREME FAVOURITES that I didn’t include in the regular rewatch list because they’re too heavy/not as well known/require more attention.:

Thin Red Line (1998), Badlands (1973) both dir. Terrence Malick

Malick’s brand of dreamy impressionistic filmmaking is something I find really appealing, both of these movies are gorgeous and unusual and poignant and, in the case of Thin Red Line at least, have a lot of things to say about a lot of rough subjects. I don’t totally understand all those things sometimes, but a theme with a lot of my favourite movies is that I’ll be more likely to love something long-term if it raises unanswered questions, or is surreal/esoteric etc. Plus the cinematography is incredible, and I wish there was a way to get Jim Caviezel’s narration from The Thin Red Line as an audiobook because it’s very poetic and soothing.

Let the Bullets Fly (2010) dir. Jiang Wen

This movie is WILD, it’s so much fun. It’s sprawling and intricate and epic and smart and really fucking funny, it! Has! Everything! A gang of very tolerant outlaws!! Jiang Wen’s beautiful broad chest!!! Chow Yun Fat absolutely DECIMATING the scenery, and the two of them outsmarting each other in order to gain control of a small Chinese town!!! Plus it’s long, but it packs so much nonsense and intrigue that it goes by really fast. Wow what a flick

A Field in England (2013) dir. Ben Wheatley

I know I included this in my horror list but aaaaahhh ahhhh Wheatley is one of my favourite directors (he also made Sightseers, and is directing the Tomb Raider sequel which makes me absolutely rabid.) This is a surreal black-and-white psychological horror black comedy set in the English Civil War about some deserters who may or may not meet the Devil in a field. People eat mushrooms. It’s bonkers. I love being blasted in the face with imagery that I don’t understand

Mandy (2018) dir. Panos Cosmatos

Speaking of being blasted in the face!!!!! This movie... I saw it in the cinema and I can’t even begin to explain the experience, but I’ll try. My favourite review site described it like this:

“...somewhere between a prog album cover come to life and a metal album cover come to life, and subscribes to both genre's artistic tendency towards maximalism: what it ends up being is basically naught else but two glorious hours of being pounded by bold colors...”

So, prog and metal are my two favourite genres of music. This movie opens with the quote “When I die, bury me deep, lay two speakers at my feet, put some headphones on my head and rock and roll me when I'm dead.” and then a King Crimson song, it is SURREAL to the nth degree, it’s violent and bizarre and Nic Cage forges a giant silver axe to destroy demonic bikers and there is a CHAINSAW DUEL. A galaxy swirls above a quarry. Multiple animated horror nightmare sequences. At one point a man says “you exude a cosmic darkness” and releases a live tiger. At another point Cage says, in a digitally deepened voice, “The psychotic drowns where the mystic swims. You’re drowning. I’m swimming.” and I haven’t stopped thinking about it for two years

Paper Moon (1973) dir. Peter Bogdanovich

Really fantastic movie set in the Great Depression (and also in black & white) about a conman and a little kid who may or may not be his daughter, running cons across the Midwest. It’s beautifully shot, so sharp and sweet and the progression of their dynamic is really well done because they’re played by an IRL father and daughter. Tatum O’Neal was NINE YEARS OLD and she’s so amazing in this movie she’s actually the youngest person to win a competitive category Oscar. I keep trying to get people to watch this fbdjfjdbf it’s wonderful

Alpha (2018) dir. Albert Hughes

THIS MOVIE IS A VICTIM OF BAD MARKETING ok, the trailers made it look like some twee crappy sentimental Boy And His Dog Adventure, plus it had voiceovers in American-accented english? That’s a total disservice to one of the coolest things about this film; the fact that they got a linguist to construct an entirely original Neolithic language that all the characters speak for the entire runtime. And yes, it is eventually a Boy And His Wolf adventure, but it’s COOL and fairly brutal, and it has some really incredible cinematography. The landscapes are so strange and barren and alien, you really get the sense that this is an ancient world we no longer have any connection to. And it’s also about like, the birth of dog & human companionship sooo it’s perfect.

Free Solo (2018) dir. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin

The Free Climbing Documentary. I loved climbing as a kid, I love outdoor sports, and I love movies that elicit a physical reaction in me, whether that’s horny, scared, real laughter, overwhelming shivers, or in the case of Free Solo - HORRIBLE SWEATING TENSION. Like, I knew about Alex Honnold beforehand because of this adventure film festival I go to every year and I followed him on IG so obviously I knew he lived, but the actual climb itself was torture. My hands sweat every time I see it!! It’s incredible, such a cool look into generally what the human body can do, and more specifically, why Honnold’s psychology and life means he’s so well suited to free soloing. It’s such an exercise in getting to know an individual and get invested in them, before they attempt something very potentially fatal.

Brokeback Mountain (2005) dir. Ang Lee

I can’t even talk about this. When I was around 13 I snuck downstairs to watch this on TV at 11pm in secret, and my life was forever changed. I wouldn’t be who I am if I hadn’t seen Brokeback at the age I did. I seriously can’t talk about this or I’ll write an even longer essay than this already is

God’s Own Country (2017) dir. Francis Lee

The antidote to Brokeback Mountain, I’m so glad I managed to see this one in the cinema too. It makes me cry every time, as someone who’s spent years working on a cold British farm with sheep it was very realistic, which is expected since Lee grew up on a farm in Yorkshire. I love that this movie isn’t really about being closeted, but about being so emotionally repressed and self-loathing that the main character finds it so hard to accept love. Or that he deserves to be loved. The cinnamontographies.... lordt... but also the intimacy and sex scenes are fucking searing wow who hasn’t seen this movie by now. 10 stars. 20 stars!!!

Tomboy (2011) dir. Céline Sciamma

I saw this years ago but I’ve never forgotten it, it cut so deep. It’s from the director of Portrait of a Lady on Fire and it’s about a gnc kid struggling with gender and misogyny and homophobia in a really raw, scrappy way, it reminded me very much of my own... childhood... ahh the central performance is amazing for such a young age. I haven’t seen Portrait yet but I feel like if you went nuts for that, you should definitely check this out, it’s lovely.

Donnie Darko (2001) dir. Richard Kelly

EVERY TIME I WATCH THIS MOVIE I UNDERSTAND LESS AND LESS and that’s what I love so much about it. I love surreal movies, I love time-fuckery and stuff about altered perception etc etc and Donnie Darko scratches all my itches. I wish I could find a way to figure out an IT AU for it, because I know it would work! Somehow! Plus it’s got the subdued 80s nostalgia and I found it at an age when I was really starting to explore movies and music and the soundtrack FUCKS.

Offside (2006) dir. Jafar Panahi

I wish more people knew about this!!! It’s an Iranian film about a disparate group of women and girls who are football fans and want to watch Iran’s qualifying match for the World Cup, but women aren’t allowed into the stadium, so they all get thrown into the Stadium Jail together? They don’t know each other beforehand, but it’s about their changing relationships with each other and the guards and just, their defiance alongside hearing the match from the outside and WOW it’s so lively. Great dialogue and very funny, and such a different kind of story from anything you usually see from Hollywood.

The Fall (2006) dir. Tarsem Singh

This movie... I guess it’s the ideal. This is the platonic ideal of a film for me, it has fantasy, magical realism, glorious visuals, amazing score and costumes and production design and a really interesting, heartbreaking relationship at the core of it. I don’t know why so many of my favourite films feature incredibly raw performances by child actors but this is another one, Catinca Untaru barely knew any English and improvised so much because of that, and it’s fascinating to watch! Also the dynamic with Lee Pace is one of my favourites, where a kid forms a friendship with a guardian figure who isn’t their parent, but the guardian grows to really care for them by the end. It’s like Paper Moon in that sense. What is there to even say about this movie, it’s pure magic joy tempered and countered by genuine gutwrenching emotional conflict in the real world, it’s also ABOUT old moviemaking, in a way, and it’s stunning to look at!

Mad Max Fury Road (2015) dir. George Miller

I know I included this in my “most rewatched” section but it deserves its own thing. We all know why this movie is fucking incredible. I remember clutching my armrests in the cinema and feeling like my skeleton was being blasted back into the seat behind me and tbh that is the high I’m constantly chasing when I go to see any movie. What a fucking gift this film is

Théo et Hugo dans le Même Bateau (2016) dir. Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau

I only found this movie last year and it became an instant favourite. Initially I was just curious because I’d never seen a movie with unsimulated sex before, but it’s so much more than the 18 minute gay sex club orgy it opens with. No, not more than, AS WELL AS. The orgy is important because this movie is so candid and frank about sex and HIV treatment in the modern day, it was eye-opening. Another thing that really got me is that I’d never seen a real-time film before. It’s literally an hour and a half in the lives of these two men, their intense connection and conversation and conflict in the middle of the night in Paris, with some really nice night photography and just!!! Wow!!! AMAZING CHEMISTRY between the actors. This is such a gem if you’re comfortable with explicit sexual content.

Ok. This is already over 3k but film is obviously one of my ridiculous passions and I can and do talk about it for hours. I’ve been reading magazines about it for years, listening to podcasts and reading review blogs and recently, watching video essays on YouTube because the whole process is so interesting to me and I want to learn more!!

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of valuing form over narrative. The idea that story can often come second to the deeper physical experience and emotional reaction that’s created by using ALL the elements of filmmaking and not just The Story, y’know? Whether that’s editing, shot composition, colour, the sound mix, the actors, how it should all be used to heighten the emotional state the script wants you to feel. And so, I think for a few years now this approach has been influencing the types of films I really, really love.

I think I love surreality and mind-bending magical realism in films specifically because the filmmakers have to use all those different tools to convey things that can be way too metaphysical for just... a script? I’m always chasing that physical response; if a movie can make me stop thinking “I wonder what it was like to set up that shot” and instead overwhelm that suspension of disbelief, if I can be terrified or woozy or crying for whatever reason, that’s what I’m looking for. That’s why I watch so many fuckin movies, and why I’ll always remember nights like seeing IT (2017) for giving me another favourite.

Thank you again for this question, I didn’t mean to go so overboard. Also there’s no way to do a readmore on tumblr mobile so apologies to anyone’s dashboard 😬

#long post #films #this is like bill hader being asked to pick his fave comedies and he gives a 4 page list #he has such good taste though ahhahbfhfhfhh lemme talk with him nonstop about movies while i ride him. thank you

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lilytalksmovies · 4 years

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Avatar vs Avengers: Endgame

I know I’m very late in the game when it comes to talking about how Endgame surpassed James Cameron’s Avatar. In fact, I’m a year late. But since this new excitement about Avatar 2, I’ve been brought back to the movie. Since 2017 when I first saw Avatar, I’ve watched it occasionally every few months (or sometimes several times in a month… and one time I watched it twice in one day.) and it has grown to be one of my all time favorite movies.

Surprisingly, I saw Endgame in theaters with a group of friends. Personally, I’m not into too many superhero action movies like Marvel or DC, but there was huge hype over this film after Infinity War, which I actually enjoyed. But, I wasn’t a huge fan of Endgame. I've only seen it two times after watching it in the theaters, and a month ago I tried watching it again after getting Disney Plus, but I couldn’t make it past the beginning.

I know you can’t really compare these two movies since they’re totally different genres of film, so instead of talking about why Avatar is better than Endgame, I’m going to write about the top three reasons Avatar’s a great movie.

1) The setting

The reason why Avatar became one of the highest grossing films in my opinion, is the world of Pandora. The environment is so unique and unreal, it’s incredible. The setting in Avatar makes the movie stand out from other popular films.

When creating the world around the Avatar film, Dr. Jodie S. Holt, the botany consultant for the movie, had the idea that since the forest was so dense, the plants could create their own light. “The idea that there is fairly low light could conceivably allow plants to evolve bioluminescence.”

As many times as you’ve seen the movie, you can always watch it again and still be amazed by the forests of Pandora.

(Avatar directed by James Cameron (2009))

2) Original movie

Unlike some of the highest grossing films like Jurassic World, Star Wars, and of course Avengers: Endgame, Avatar is an original movie. It’s not a sequel or prequel to any existing film. For being only one movie, making the highest grossing film for almost a decade is incredible.

Not only is it original in that sense, but it’s also original when it comes to the actual story. Although it has very similar plot to some older movies, it has details that have never been in film before, such as the incorporation of the tsaheylu (the bond), The Tree of Souls, the Woodsprites and just the overall culture. These details bring the movie way farther than any film has gone before. Instead of having a flat story about an alien race, James Cameron and his team were able to build this never before seen culture that really makes Avatar a great movie.

3) It’s contribution to technology in modern day cinema

Originally, James Cameron wrote Avatar back in 1994 but the technology to make the movie work was not yet ready. So after waiting nearly a decade, in 2005, he started testing. While filming and working with Weta Digital, they created a camera that’s attached to a small boom that captures the face of each actor. This would allow animators to have a closer view to accurately replicate expressions, than the actual motion capture cameras. This same technique would be later used in movies like The Hobbit for Gollum, and Steven Spielberg’s, Tintin. Their work on Avatar proved that motion capture and CGI could be heavily used in movies and still look realistic.

I praise movies that opened up a new path for modern film. Some of the motion pictures we love today could not be possible if it weren’t for some directors to step out of their comfort zone. That’s why I think movies like Jurassic Park and Lord of the Rings are such great films. Steven Spielberg was one of the first directors to use CGI in a movie instead of stop motion animation and The Lord of the Rings was one of the first to use motion capture, which would also be used in Avatar.

(Behind the scenes of Avatar and Avatar 2)

Altogether, Avatar is an amazing movie. The setting and environment are extraordinary, the details in the story make the whole movie unique and unlike any film that has been produced since. And although I have some bias, I think Avatar is better than Avengers: Endgame. I know you can’t really compare the two, but some point in the future, I may do a longer and more detailed post about why it’s better, but in the meantime I’ll be waiting on Avatar 2!

#movie #movies #movie blog #blog #new blog #avatar #james cameron avatar #james cameron #Avangers endgame #endgame

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Rome: The Long Road of the Original HBO Epic

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It was the biggest show ever produced when it premiered on HBO. Filming in exotic international locations and on sets that went on for blocks, it was an epic spectacle that many whispered couldn’t be done on television. Not with its hundreds of extras in lavish costumes, and not with its cast of more than a dozen major characters. Yet HBO gambled big with a budget that exceeded $100 million on its first season.

These details might be mistaken by many as the genesis of Game of Thrones. But before HBO’s song of ice and fire, this was also the origin of the first actual modern TV epic. It was the story of Rome.

In its debut, Rome was even more gargantuan in scale and opulent in design than Thrones’ first few years. Filmed at the legendary facilities of Cinecittà Studios in the actual Rome, HBO and showrunner Bruno Heller oversaw a vast recreation of antiquity during the life and times of Julius Caesar. From the austere grandeur of the pre-imperial Roman Forum to the eventual seediness of the gangs on the Aventine Hill, the final days of the Roman republic were reimagined in sweaty, shocking, and spectacularly expensive detail.

“We used the most modern scholarship, which suggests that all the sculptures were painted,” Heller says over Zoom as we reminisce about Rome and its Cinecittà extravagance 15 years after the series’ 2005 premiere. Every morning Heller would be up at 4am, arriving early on set and getting lost in the art direction’s colors. “Walking out there at dawn into the Forum and seeing this world created, it was just magical. It gives me goosebumps now thinking about it, seeing a hundred [Gaul] tribesmen on horseback with great furry helmets charging down a hillside yelling, that sort of thing. No one makes things like that anymore. Even something like Game of Thrones would use CGI for the kind of things that we were doing for real.”

Actor Kevin McKidd, who played one half of Rome’s soul, the honorable to a fault Lucius Vorenus, expresses similar awe when he thinks back at what they accomplished.

“I mean listen, none of these budgets were small, but I think Game of Thrones ended up being smaller than ours,” McKidd correctly points out. Whereas Rome was budgeted at $100 million when it premiered, Game of Thrones debuted with a more reasonable starting price tag of $60 million. Says McKidd, “Ours, it was the first time anybody had tried this, so we just had to spend the money. And I think they figured out, it seems, ways to do it smarter or for less… because our show came out of the gate just huge and bawdy and big, and unapologetic.”

Heller is even more succinct in describing Rome’s making.

“Most films, and even TV, is planning for battle,” Heller says. “Planning for a big TV series like [Rome] is like planning for war, for a campaign. It’s invading Russia.” He pauses, “You have to think about the retreat, as well.”

This was Rome’s war: brief, bloody, and beautiful.

‘Very Unlikely to Be Made’

When HBO first hired Heller to take a crack at a Rome treatment, he didn’t think for a minute it would get made. In the early 2000s, HBO was a different place than it is now. The Sopranos and Sex and the City of course turned the premium cable network into the leader of the prestige cable revolution—or harbinger of peak TV as it would later be called—and the network had its eye on bigger and more dazzling projects. In 2001 HBO even released the most expensive miniseries ever up to that point with Band of Brothers. But that World War II-set series also had the names Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks attached as producers. The network still relied on bankability.

So when Heller took a meeting about Rome, he was acutely aware he’d be unable to lend that same prestige to a sword and sandals epic. He’d written some scripts before at HBO and admired the vision of then-HBO chairman Chris Albrecht and Carolyn Strauss, then-president of HBO’s entertainment division. But he was being called in to discuss a show based on a preexisting miniseries pitch by John Milius and William J. MacDonald—a pitch the network was already wary toward.

“It’s one of those projects that’s really going for broke and very unlikely to be made, [given] the budget that was required,” Heller recalls of HBO’s attitude toward Milius and his vision. “They were paying me to write a script to take it at least to a respectable point at which time they can say, ‘Okay, thank you.’”

Citing himself as “cheap” at the time, Heller recognized it was easier to pay a young writer for a treatment than a whole production crew for a pilot. So he used the opportunity as an excuse to immerse himself in Roman history and lore. This began via conversations with his co-creators Milius and MacDonald. Their central conceit already had in place the three characters of young Octavian, the boy who would be Augustus, first Emperor of Rome, as well as Roman centurions Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus.

In history, as with the series, Pullo and Vorenus were the only Roman soldiers who Julius Caesar mentioned by name in his journals. But other than being Roman centurions in the 13th Legion, not much else is known of the men. And Heller took his first major liberty when he lit on the idea of changing Pullo from a centurion to a coarse, insubordinate soldier beneath Vorenus’ command.

It was a savvy move that mapped the heart of the Rome series. Whereas most other fictions about this oft-dramatized era in history focused on the lives of the legendary patricians—be it Caesar and Octavian, or Marc Antony and Cleopatra—Rome would maintain all those characters and the lower tiers in daily Roman life. Through the introduction of Pullo and Vorenus, and their contentious friendship, the fall of the Roman republic suddenly becomes an upstairs/downstairs dramedy.

Says Heller, “The model that first sparked me on ‘oh, this is how to play it’ was [Tom Stoppard’s] Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, because the larger story is so well known, like Hamlet, that it’s hard to tell that story. The downstairs story has to be more compelling than the upstairs story, because the upstairs story, a little like Batman, is a given. It’s a myth. Everyone knows what happens.”

It also allowed Heller to dive into modern research.

“There was a lot of very recent scholarship at that time that transformed people’s sense of what Roman [history] was,” Heller explains. “There was much more about the everyday life of Roman people, about how people would have lived in apartment blocks in the insular working class life, and looking at it from that modern perspective.”

Reflecting on the dirtiness and filth that would be in the Roman Forum, the showrunner adds, “It’s lucky that practically every previous representation of Rome on any scale kind of went for the grand imperial late Edward Gibbon velvet drapes and marble columns. Even Gladiator went for that. Whereas, in fact, it looked much more like Calcutta or Bombay, and smelled like that.”

This also provided the writer the chance to explore Roman culture and custom with a greater push for authenticity than many Hollywood films of yore. For example, Heller attempted to learn how to read Latin at least as well as the uneducated Pullo—though he says he only got about as far as being able to recognize “oh that’s a pub” if he were walking the streets. More successfully he came to understand his vision of the Pagan working class mentality when he wrote a scene of Pullo praying to Portunus, the Roman god of locks and keys.

It all informed an extravagant treatment for a series he’d end up writing half the episodes of (and he tells us all 22 installments of the show passed through his typewriter before shooting). Yet, at least per the co-creator, what got Rome greenlit was as much his innovations as the developments of an entirely different epic series at HBO.

“[Chris Albrecht] was looking for something that had to be big and that they had to put money behind,” Heller says. “I think it was going to be Mel Gibson doing Alexander.” Indeed, at the same time HBO was developing Rome, the network was also working with the then-beloved Oscar winning director behind Braveheart for a 10-part series on Macedonian conquest.

“Then it turned out that Mel Gibson was going to do Alexander but he wouldn’t be Alexander,” Heller says. “[But] they didn’t want to be in business with Mel Gibson as a director-producer without Mel Gibson as [the star].”

As Gibson’s project imploded, Rome’s prospects would rise, sans any stars. Clearly things in the entertainment industry were about to change.

A Bottle of Tequila in the Roman Forum

When speaking with McKidd over Zoom, the actor’s affection for Rome is profound. Not 20 feet from his screen rests Lucius Vorenus’ sword, which he safely keeps in his own home. Similarly, within the actor’s mind resides nothing but warm memories. He reminisces about seeing his children spend summers growing up around the actual ruins of the Roman Forum and Colosseum during production; and he savors still the long nights at Cinecittà with British theater legends like Kenneth Cranham, a fellow Scotsman who played Pompey Magnus.

“It was an incredibly social time,” says McKidd. “It was almost like summer camp for British actors. We all got to live there; we went out for long dinners every night and we’d speak to Kenneth and all the older actors, who told us such amazing stories about all their time in the theater.”

But one relationship, perhaps the most significant of the entire series, was that shared by McKidd and his co-star Ray Stevenson, aka Titus Pullo. While there were of course other vital parts to the series, from worldly Ciarián Hinds as Caesar to Tobias Menzies’ despairingly well-intentioned Brutus—and one must never overlook Polly Walker’s Machiavellian Atia of the Julii (Heller’s favorite character)—the heart and soul of the series belongs to Pullo and Vorenus, the odd couple of 48 BCE.

Off-screen McKidd and Stevenson had known each other for years through mutual friends, but it wasn’t until they were in the final round of chemistry auditions in a Covent Garden hotel that they began a significant lifelong friendship. But then, it was a late epiphany to cast the red-haired and fiery McKidd as the straight-laced Vorenus.

For the actor, the process began early when he bumped into Heller, as well as executive producer Anne Thomopoulos and director Michael Apted, while in Romania. At the time, McKidd was there filming the TV movie Gunpowder, Treason & Plot (2004), as it was cheaper to shoot a period piece about 16th century Scottish court intrigue in eastern Europe than actual Scotland. The Rome team was entertaining a similar idea.

“I’m strutting around in my thigh-high leather boots and period costume, and we’re riding horses and swinging swords, and all that stuff and having a great old time,” says McKidd. “And I hear these American voices in the corridor, so I come out, and here is this guy called Bruno Heller.” They immediately got to chatting about the Danny Boyle movie McKidd did, Trainspotting (1996), and about this new TV series focused on ancient Rome. McKidd quickly prepared with his current director a film reel of himself riding horses.

Yet when HBO finally sent him a script, the producers didn’t want him for the Vorenus role; they saw him as Pullo.

HBO’s Rome Ending Was Originally Very Different

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On the casting process, McKidd remembers, “I said to them, ‘I’d love to come in and read, but I would really much rather read for the part of Lucius Vorenus.’ And they were like, ‘No, we really see you as maybe Pullo, can you read for Pullo?’ So I said, ‘Okay.’ So I came in and I read for Pullo. And they’re like, ‘Okay.’ Then a week goes by, and they call and they say, ‘We really love you, but maybe can you come in and read for Marc Antony?’”

So it continued until McKidd begged to get a screen test for Vorenus. It even took so long he initially considered turning the series down in favor of indie projects he was already committing to. That was at least a thought he had on the set of Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven (2005) until word got around at the pub to co-star Liam Neeson.

“I came down to the bar and Liam was pointing his finger at me and he was like, ‘You, I need to have a word with you outside,’” McKidd says. “And I was like, ‘Ah shit.’” Out in a snow-covered Spanish countryside, Neeson commanded, “Go to a phone booth, find a phone right now. Call your agent and hope and pray they haven’t offered that part to somebody else.”

They had not, and soon enough McKidd was flying alongside Stevenson to the actual city of Rome.

“I remember me and Ray going to Rome in the spring… with Michael Apted, walking around this back lot at Cinecittà, and it was all just scaffolding at that time, there was no frontage. I remember Michael turned to me and Ray and said, basically, we can’t fuck this up, because it was so huge. It was so beyond anything that any of us had ever seen.”

With red paint chipping across weathered doors, and mules grazing in the squares, a Roman Forum unlike any other came alive in the same space where Martin Scorsese just filmed Gangs of New York. The sense of size and scale was overwhelming, as was the pressure on Stevenson and McKidd to anchor it. Fifteen years later, McKidd is candid about how that tension shaped each man and, in the actor’s mind, the series.

During the last day of production on the first season, after shooting had wrapped and festivities began, McKidd and Stevenson found themselves sharing a quiet set of stairs leading up to their Roman senate. Between them was a bottle of tequila. Off in the distance, the faint sound of wrap party debauchery was rising to a muffled roar, yet the central stars of Rome were keeping their own company and having a long overdue conversation.

“I don’t think Ray would be mad at me for telling this story because we’re still close friends and I love him dearly,” McKidd says with a measured tone. “Initially, he and I clashed. We just had very different styles. Ray’s this big larger than life personality, and as Bruno would say, I’m much more this ‘Presbyterian,’ or you could say a little more controlling… and we ended up at loggerheads a lot, and fighting, and being difficult in the first season.”

Yet as McKidd is quick to point out, this translated to perfect chemistry on the screen, as Pullo and Vorenus were often “at loggerheads” during the first season, which culminated with Vorenus’ life imploding on the same day as Caesar’s assassination. Meanwhile Pullo found some semblance of peace. But here in the twilight of a recreated Roman Forum, the season was getting a much needed post-script.

“The wrap party is going on somewhere, and we can hear the music,” McKidd says, “and he and I just sat out there sharing the bottle of tequila. And we had it out, you know? Because we both had been holding stuff in for the season about things that annoyed each other… We got all of it off our chest and we ended up just having a huge hug, and we threw this bottle, this [now] empty bottle of tequila, into the middle of the Forum. We made a pact with each other that from that point on we were going to be the closest of friends, and we still are.”

In many ways, it mirrored the coming dynamic between Pullo and Vorenus in season 2, which McKidd likewise recognizes.

“Our bond was unbreakable in the second season,” he says. “You see that chemistry shift and move, and morph throughout the two seasons, and it pretty much tracks Ray and my relationship.” And it would prove indispensable that second year, especially as both characters, like their actors, were forced to close ranks and face that the end was nigh.

The Cost of Doing Business Like the Romans Do

Founded in 1937 by Benito Mussolini, the international renown of Rome’s Cinecittà Studios has long superseded its less than auspicious beginnings. Celebrated as the home to a highly skilled community of filmmaking artisans, Cinecittà’s name is inseparable with legendary filmmakers like Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini, and Sergio Leone. And it’s been the site of landmark Hollywood productions, such as Roman Holiday (1953), Ben-Hur (1959), and even the notorious Cleopatra (1963). Yet as Heller points out, no American production has been back to Cinecittà since Rome.

Says the creator, “It’s Italy, I love it, and it’s part of the culture, but you were there to be picked over and for them to, in completely formal and legitimately legal ways, take as much money out of the production as possible.” He pauses to smile and choose his next words carefully about the difference between shooting a movie and TV series in that environment.

“With a series, you’re making long-term relationships,” he continues. “It’s like a marriage. A movie is a one-night stand. You can be a bastard to everyone on a movie and you’re never going to see them again. So the result is more important than the relationships. In a TV series, the relationships are more important, in the end. It’s pointless having a successful first season of a show and then you can’t do the second season because no one will work together.”

This is not to say the only reason Rome was prematurely cancelled had to do with frustrations over the cost of doing business in Rome—McKidd also cites, for example, Rome eating up too much of HBO’s production budget from other projects in 2006. Nonetheless, reports of high-finance rigamarole even reached the cast.

Says McKidd, “I heard enough to know [about] the scaffolding. I don’t know how many tons of scaffolding was used to build that set, but I remember one of the earlier conversations was, ‘We need to buy this much scaffolding.’ And the people at Cinecittà were like, ‘You can’t buy that much scaffolding, but you can rent it from my brother.’”

Both Heller and McKidd insist there was no criminality or dishonesty about this, and it was simply the way things are done. But for the creator, word was executives high above his pay grade were disturbed by the Byzantine labyrinth of Italian politics. So much so it became contagious throughout Hollywood.

“At one stage, the Italian government issued arrest warrants or provisional arrest warrants for all the fiduciary producers of the show,” Heller recalls. “And that’s a sort of a standard Italian business practice, but when buttoned-down straight-laced lawyers from New York are flying out to Rome and discovering that this is [how business is done], people were spooked.”

It was also just a contributing factor to Rome’s untimely cancellation, which occurred during the pre-production process of season 2—and before the series’ popularity would explode with the international DVD sales and second season launch.

Heller was so far into writing the second season that they were in prep, gearing up to film the second season premiere, when he got the call it was over. The havoc this wreaked on Rome’s remaining 10 episodes, with one of them ready to shoot, was immediate.

When the first season concluded, Gaius Julius Caesar was dead, Vorenus had lost the love of his life, and Rome was headed toward civil war. The second season was always meant to be the fallout of that war, with a study in the brief and doomed alliance of Marc Antony (James Purefoy) and young Octavian (Max Pirkis), as well as the woman between them, Octavian’s mother and Antony’s lover, Atia. All of that, plus the death of Brutus and the other conspirators, would still occur in season 2… but so would Antony’s flight to Egypt and the eventual civil war between a now adult Octavian (Simon Woods) and Antony and Cleopatra (Lyndsey Marshal).

“I had to reconceive the second season basically from scratch,” Heller says with lingering exasperation. “Because when you take out that much history, the jump between the death of Caesar and Marc Antony taking over, and his death in Egypt, it was a huge amount of quite obscure but great, scandalous, fascinating, eventful history.” Most of it had to be jettisoned, too, between Brutus’ death and Antony declaring in his will that Caesar and Cleopatra’s son is Caesar’s true heir.

Some critics and fans were disappointed with the visibly breakneck pace of the second season. Others found it an exciting retelling of that period. One of Rome’s stars seems to be in the middle.

“I think the second season was successful in some ways, but it also feels, in my mind, a little rushed,” McKidd confesses. “And I think Bruno would say that too. Just because so much story was crushed and sort of concentrated down into season 2. I love [it], but I definitely felt like it was a lot condensed in.”

And yet, McKidd and Heller both seem to lean more toward a satisfaction with it. In fact, the producer even suggests the ending with the ascension of Octavian to imperial status (he takes the title “First Citizen”) was the perfect grace note. While it’s well known among fans the series had a five-season bible with Cleopatra and Antony’s deaths originally marking the end of season 4, and season 5 following Vorenus and Pullo going to Palestine in time for the birth of Christ, that was never Heller’s favorite part.

“That was one of the elements that Milius was fascinated by that I had no interest in whatsoever, frankly, trying to tie it in to the birth of Christ. Because, at the time, it meant nothing. It would have to be a completely different story. Put it another way, no Romans were worried or thinking about the coming of the Messiah.”

It was a Christmas story Heller didn’t want to tell. Even so, he had some interesting ideas already in place, including a vision of the ancient Holy Lands being closer to Monty Python’s Life of Brian than Ben-Hur.

“Palestine was in ferment at the time, and messiahs were popping up all over the place,” Heller says. “Judaism, at that point, was in a moment very much like Islam at the moment, full of passion and ferment and faith, and dreams of martyrdom.”

Like much else with Rome, it feels like a fascinating opportunity left unfulfilled, but one that the creator is glad to leave unexplored.

All Roads Lead to Rome’s Legacy

Rome shined briefly but brightly on premium cable. Premiering in the fall of 2005, it was gone by spring ’07. But even shortly after its cancellation, there were some small whispers of regret because of the show’s DVD sales; whispers that continue to be heard by stars of the series. McKidd says if you asked HBO in 2020, some would likely wince again at cancelling it, as he heard they did by the time season 2 aired. But “they couldn’t go back on that, or felt they couldn’t.”

But if it burned off like a Roman candle—with fire and thunder in its wake—the show still provided a roadmap for how to produce a massive spectacle as a television series.

“I think a lot of the producers that aren’t the ones that you hear about mostly, like Frank Doelger… were all pivotal on Rome and went directly into Game of Thrones,” McKidd says. “Frank Doelger was one of the main producers, and he very much was the guy who whipped our show into shape and we learned a lot of lessons. So yeah, I think very directly, those people went into Game of Thrones and had learned a lot about how to do this kind of level [of production.]”

Heller likewise marvels at how HBO learned from Rome’s problems with its initially more affordable and tighter fantasy epic.

“The way they divided crews up in Game of Thrones, it was clever because there was always a general staff of central command, but they had more than one general, and they didn’t lose control of the generals,” Heller says.

And just as Rome carved a path for the modern era of epic television shows, Game of Thrones has now created a space for more diverse TV epics like Netflix’s The Witcher and Amazon’s upcoming Lord of the Rings series.

“[We were] ahead of the curve in the sense that it was too early,” Heller says. “But it’s not so much the audience [changed], as it is the appetite and the ability of networks and studios to make things of that size and to promote them and to market them, and to have faith and the courage to back them up.”

This series walked so that Peak TV could run. It’s a formidable legacy, and one that proves all roads in blockbuster television really do lead back to Rome.

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