Posts Tagged ‘sequels’
2 items.
I’ll admit that the idea for Ocean’s 1 through 10 as verbal confusion probably isn’t a new one and that most of you probably look at this joke like “Yeah, and?…”
But you know in the back of your mind that somewhere out there some dim-witted fella is sitting in a shack somewhere HONESTLY trying to figure out why he can’t remember seeing Ocean’s 1 through 10.
Whatever. I’m enjoying the concept of today’s comic – that Jimmy longs so hard to fit in, he tries to engage Tom with some sarcasm. But it’s just too forced. I like that Tom is kind of playing along without flat out calling him an idiot.
Jimmy isn’t really an idiot, of course. It’s just that wit isn’t his stock and trade. Being nice is what he’s best at and that’s pretty much it.
Ocean’s 13 comes out this weekend and Cami and I are excited to see it. Ocean’s 11 was a film we admire for it’s relaxed, high-polish cool. Even though most critics lambasted Ocean’s 12 as being bloated and overdone, we still enjoyed it’s Euro-trash sensibilities.
Admittedly, I was a little surprised that they brought the action back to Vegas. In this installment, Ocean’s gang isn’t out for money, but out for revenge when their financier played by Elliott Gould is muscled out of a new casino by the oily Al Pacino. So while I questioned the location as an attempt to undo what went wrong with Ocean’s 12, the revenge concept captures my attention more than if it were a straight up heist film.
I guess they managed to wrangle up David Levin and Brian Koppelman to do the screenplay. Their names might not be familiar, but they were the two writers who did Rounders – another movie about gambling with Matt Damon in it. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. Ed Norton delivers a great performance it in as well.
At any rate, seeing those two attached to Ocean’s 13 also excites me simply because Rounders did such a good job with the double crosses and the sharp dialogue. If you consider the law of diminishing returns on most sequels, it’ll probably be an appropriate shot in the arm to have these two on duty.
I don’t know if you had a chance to listen to Monday’s broadcast of The Triple Feature, but if you didn’t you missed a doozy. I think we had a great show on Monday and we really covered a lot of ground. The show went long by about 20 minutes, but not one of them was wasted. If you want to get our opinions about Knocked Up, Once, Mr. Brooks and Day Watch, go to our profile page at TalkShoe.com and download the most recent episode. Your ears will thank you for it.
Just want to give everyone the head’s up now that next Monday will be our 25th episode and we plan on celebrating by discussing the best movies of the year so far and the movies we’re most looking forward to before closing out 2007. We figured it’s just about the half-way point, so now would be a good time to do it.
We really want a lot of people to call in and give us their opinions about what movies they think have been the best so far this year. So if you want to participate, all you have to do is sign up for a TalkShoe account – don’t worry, it’s free – call 724-444-7444 about 15 minutes before showtime. It’ll ask you for the show’s Talkcast ID which is 7738 and your password – which will probably be your phone number when you create your account.
You don’t need a complicated set up on your computer to listen to the show. You can call in with a cell phone or land line if you want. But if you want to let us know that you’re interested in talking to us live, you’ll need to utilize the TalkShoe application to notify us.
If anyone is scared about how to set things up, there are tons of resources on the Talkshoe site. Or you could e-mail me at theaterhopper@hotmail.com and I’ll help walk you through it. What’s important is that we want everyone to be there. We want to spread the word and make it a big party!
In honor of the occassion, we’ve launched a MySpace page for The Triple Feature that you can access here. Friend us and we’ll send you a reminder the day of the show.
Sound cool? Cool!
That’s it for me. Have a great Wednesday!
[ No Comments ]
I think today’s comic makes a pretty good point about resuscitated franchises. But, truthfully, I probably wouldn’t have noticed the trend if The X-Files: I Want to Believe and The Mummy: Tomb of The Dragon Emperor weren’t released one week apart.
By the way, do you guys notice that sequels don’t have a number behind them anymore. You never see "X-Files 2" or "The Mummy 3" in any advertising or promotional materials. There’s always a subtitle to suggest that these stories are episodic and not the same old plots and characters being rehashed for a quick buck.
Originally, I wanted to make a joke about how long it was taking to bring these sequels to theaters. The punchline would have been somewhere along the lines of Jared sarcastically suggesting that Hollywood spit out their lame retreads at a faster rate so we can get on with our lives. “Don’t make us wait so long next time!” It would have been a little wordy.
I don’t mind sequels, but I appreciate the films more when they service a larger story. The Lord of The Rings or the Harry Potter movies immediately spring to mind.
Of course, there are those movies that are kind of a one-shot deal, prove popular and then expand into a larger mythology in their sequels. You could put Star Wars, Back to the Future and The Matrix in that category.
But X-Files, The Mummy and – yes- even Indiana Jones are all naked money grabs. The fact of the matter is, if you had a larger story to tell, you would have told it by now.
There are degrees to how critical I am towards some of these movies. Like the comic explains, Indiana Jones was a movie people wanted to see. There was demand for it after two decades. We may not have gotten the movie that we hoped for, but we held out for a pretty long time.
I can see some people who would be excited for another Mummy movie, even though The Mummy Returns was kind of stupid and it’s spin-off The Scorpion King was half-baked. I admire them for taking it another direction with the Chinese terracotta warrior angle. Although I wonder if Arnold Vosloo is pissed. Remember when the media made him “the next big thing?”
But what’s up with X-Files? Where was the demand for this? The last movie was 10 years ago, the television show ended 5 years ago and the last two seasons were crap. I could understand revisiting things further down the line if they answered some of the lingering questions from the established mythology, but from what I’ve heard, they went in a completely different direction and produced what is – in essence – a mediocre, two hour television episode. Whatever.
Lingering doubts toward The Mummy aside, I’m still kind of curious to check it out. It’s August already and summer is slipping through our fingers. I could go for one more lap around the Brainless Romp Amphitheater. Let’s go on a ride.
I don’t know if that’ll happen, though. Cami has no interest in the movie. Henry might be spending the night with my in-laws on Saturday, though and we’re going to have to find a way to fill the time. Cami thinks Swing Vote looks good. She’s a Kevin Costner fan. Personally, I think it looks like Hollywood pandering to NASCAR dads.
But I could get into that on Monday as well.
That’s all for me. It’s been quite a week. I hope you enjoy the weekend and I’ll see you here on Monday!
[ No Comments ]
