Sunday, June 27th, 2010
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Horrorthon Posts
This occurred to me recently and I wanted to ask what other Horrorthonners thought. Obviously you could say “the Force” or “the Jedi” but I guess I’m asking in a more abstract, elemental “pure cinema” sense. What were the basic visual/auditory innovations that gave the thing its fundamental punch, up on the big screen for the first time? Anyway here’s my list:
1) lightsaber (probably his best idea ever)
2) spaceship dogfight
3) droids
4) orchestral score
5) use a Muppet*
Comments welcome. (I’m posting on my phone from a Massachusetts cabin, which is pretty cool.)
*(not just a mere puppet but a Muppet, specifically, complete with Frank Oz.) (Go ahead and give me a hard time about not sticking with the first movie if you feel like it.)
ADDENDUM: Others that occurred to me included “Vader mask,” “dirt everywhere,” “Death Star trench (you could just say the Death Star itself but that had kind of been done before, albeit never so well),” “Letting them try to build the Dykstraflex motion control system even though it was the pre-PC era and they had to make their own fucking printed circuit boards” etc. He had a lot of good ideas, and so did the people he brought together.
Friday, June 25th, 2010
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Horrorthon Posts
***** (2010)
GUARANTEED 100% SPOILER-FREE
I’m not going to say much beyond insisting that all of you just go see this, and marvel at the unparalleled artistry of Pixar. I’ll just make a couple of quick points:
1) It’s the best 3D I’ve ever seen, bar none. They really know how to do it. My previous favorite was Beowulf, but even that seems gimmicky and projectile-heavy compared to TS3. The 3D especially shines in…
2) …the short, Day & Night, is not only mind-blowingly brilliant but makes the cleverest use of 3D I’ve ever seen anywhere.
3) All Pixar systems were completely re-done circa Up, so all the character models and sets had to be completely rebuilt from scratch, and they’re both noticeably superior and exactly the same as the last two times, if you can dig it. They’ve found a perfect visual balance between the 15-year-old pristine “birth of the CGI movie” Toy Story look of Andy’s room and the post-Wall-E astounding atmospherics and textures.
4) Another trilogy with no weak link, like The Lord of the Rings (and, of course, The Expando Machine) (kidding).
5) God, I love animation!
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
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Horrorthon Posts
These two guys have been either turning out peerless entertainment or assaulting the eyes and ears of the moviegoing public (depending on your point of view) for a few decades now. We see these logos and these names all the time, and, without getting into the specifics of their personalities or their histories or whatever, I decided to compare their “blockbuster” track records and see who’s done better in the long run. Here are (selective) filmographies:
Bruckheimer
American Gigolo
Flashdance
Beverly Hills Cop (x3)
Top Gun
Days of Thunder
Bad Boys (x2)
The Rock
Con Air
Enemy of the State
Armageddon
Black Hawk Down
Pearl Harbor
Pirates of the Caribbean (x3)
National Treasure (x2)
Prince of Persia
Silver
The Warriors
Xanadu
48 Hrs. (x2)
Streets of Fire
Weird Science
Commando
Lethal Weapon (x4)
Predator (x2)
Die Hard (x4)
The Last Boy Scout
Executive Decision
The Matrix (x3)
V for Vendetta
Speed Racer
Shierlock Holmes
So what’s the verdict?
