Category
The Behind-The-Times Times
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02.18.08How Did I Miss The Randy Quaid Story?!
How did I miss this story last week?!? How come you didn’t tell me??! Randy Quaid is banned from Actor’s Equity for gettin’ all crazy during a show in Seattle last fall? All 26 people in the cast said that he physically and verbally abused them? What? The best part of the whole story is his response to the whole thing:
“I am guilty of only one thing: Giving a performance that elicited a response so deeply felt by the actors and producers with little experience of my creative process that they actually think I am Falstaff.”
Wow. What can you possibly say to that?
Oh wait, I know. “Morning Clark. Shitter’s full.”
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08.14.07The Behind-The-Times Times: Fantastic Four Two Is Twice the Four Times The Excitement!
Hey, it’s me. I’m back. So, before I saw Fantastic Four 2 which I may actually see again before I go see Bourne Ultimatum (although I feel those are Captain America movies in disguise), I was lucky enough to see Pirates 3 so late that I heard all of the reviews, “too complicated”, “too talky”, “talk tooey.” So I was more prepared than most to pay a lot of attention, and man was it worth it…if you appreciate complexity and how hard it is to pull off. I’ll probably have to watch it two or three more times to appreciate it’s complexity (which would not make a good review blurb) but I could not BELIEVE how Terry Rossio and Ted Elliot (also the writers of the good Zorro and the good Shrek’s)
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08.14.07The Behind-The-Times Times: Pirates 3 Is A Pun That Begins With Arrrrrr
Okay, it took this long to see Pirates 3 and Fantastic Four 2. Loved them both, FF2 was a given because live-action superhero movies need merely be well-intentioned for me to like them. Did anybody watch the tv movie Captain America when you were a kid? With Reb “Uncommon Valor” Brown? Fantastic Four 2 was miles past that, but there was something in it that gave me the same kind of kiddie thrill. Like I kind of want to tape it on VHS and have some fat comicon nerd run it through whatever machine they run the millions of copies of The Star Wars Christmas Special through and watch it that way. Add some 70’s tv buzz and Paul Thomas Anderson’s dad announcing it as coming up next after Sha-Na-Na. It might be even more fun that way, it certainly was fun to describe. It certainly had a plot on par with The Trial Of The Incredible Hulk, I mean can Dr. Doom get a fucking plan in one of these movies? His only plan in the first one was, take out The Thing, THEN take out Reed, THEN take out Sue, THEN.., and in this one it’s “must Get The Silver Surfer’s board to…fly around with…and yell about how much power I have…” Sure the Fantastic Four has to get the board back…or the surfer will die, THAT’S real motivation, but wouldn’t it be a little more exciting if Doom were using the board to execute some master plan? That they ALSO had to stop? (this was my note for the first one too, had no way of getting it to them) Maybe make the audience wonder for ONE SECOND if the good guys will win? Or just give Doom some purpose? He is the most worthless character in these movies. Anyway, I’ve spent this whole review of Pirates 3 talking about the movie I saw after it. But that’s good, because the only problem I had with Fantastic Four 2 is what’s really brilliant about with Pirates 3. Check back later.
