Comments on: The Movie Blog: Uncut Podcast – May 30th 2008

By: Perinotti

Perinotti — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:30:17 +0000

About the George Lucas issue… I think it’s revealing if you look at this issue from the standpoint of what happens to great ‘auteurs’ when they set up their own shop:

Francis Coppola – can’t get a film off the ground
James Cameron – disappeared from moviemaking for 10+ years
George Lucas – distracted by digital technology
Uwe Boll – well, hmm… goes to prove the point, right?

The thing is, when great writer/directors decide they’ll do even better when they have control over everything (including financing and distribution), they rarely do that great. It just takes away from what made them so great to begin with.

It is a rare Spielberg who can pull that off…

By: Monty

Monty — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 01:32:21 +0000

One of the common arguments in favor of the human actors in Transformers was that it would have been too expensive to have 2 1/2 hours of robots on screen, while it may be true that 150 million doesn’t really go that far in terms of ILM produced CGI robots, the amount of time wasted on the humans was ridiculous. Transformers didn’t need to be 2 1/2 hours long, the whole hacker subplot should have been edited out, and the other thing people tend to forget is that Transformers have alt modes, they’re TRANSFORMERS for crying out loud, they don’t need to be in robot mode to carry on a conversation or to have an onscreen presence. Instead we get stuck with a mute Bumblebee doing his best Herbie impersonation for most of the film.

With a guaranteed larger budget, the Autobots and Decpticons should have more screen time, unless Bay spends the extra money on more explosions.

If you’re going to bring back the humans then I guess you have to bring back Shia (but please not his parents), you may as well bring back Megan (since Sam needs a love intrest anyway, and since the role is written as little more then window dressing, no one will care about her bad acting). And the army guys will have to return (this being a Micheal Bay Movie, the military will always play a big role).

As for everyone else? Cut them!!, especially John Turturro’s Deputy Barney Fife character. Somehow I get the sickening feeling no matter where this movie is set, Sam and Mikaela will run into a vacationing Bernie Mac and/or Anthony Anderson.

By: Andee23

Andee23 — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:36:54 +0000

Looks like you won the bet after all John the estimated domestic weekend gross for SATC is only 55.7 million.

By: Sahil

Sahil — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 08:50:54 +0000

Doug,
You are 100% on everything you said about Transformers. I have been saying that it was a bad movie for the past year and people always give me shit.

I loved the special effects and I even liked the score but just about everything else was shit. There were way too many mistakes and the story was complete shit. I am sure that Transformers 2 will have its share of great action scenes but I hope the store is much better.

By: 790

790 — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 03:47:30 +0000

Thanks for the laughs Harvey Korman, and thanks for the great music Alexander Courage.
Rest easy your work is done.

By: Steven Carroll

Steven Carroll — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:28:29 +0000

Jack Black and GDT have denied the rumors.

By: Wade

Wade — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:08:37 +0000

Jack Black as Bilbo Baggins? Wow, that’s such a horrible idea. Hope it won’t happen.

Imagine Bilbo saying to the Spiders: “Get ready to feel the THUNDER!”

By: Twopratt

Twopratt — Sat, 31 May 2008 20:38:30 +0000

Fantastic show guys. I have only just started to listen to these but they remind me so much of how my best friend and I discuss movies. I hope they have more of a part for Starscream in Transformers 2.

By: Steven Carroll

Steven Carroll — Sat, 31 May 2008 18:30:24 +0000

I think you MIGHT lose your bet John. On Friday, Sex and The City opened with 26+ Million Domestically. Be afraid, John. Be VERY afraid.

By: Phil Gee

Phil Gee — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:08:14 +0000

Kristina, that demographic breakdown is very funny.

Thanks for the show guys. I’m with you on ‘Wanted’ Doug. I think it just looks annoyingly pretentious; it thinks it looks cool and awesome and we should think it is as well.