Location: San Francisco, Noord-Kalifornië, Noord-Amerika
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 6:24 am Post subject:
Uriel wrote:
The scenery is also pretty spectacular, because they had New Zealand standing in for Scotland, and basically, all movies should be shot there!
Speaking of using locations that aren't where the movie is actually supposed to take place, I recently rewatched The Deer Hunter (1978), wherein the deer hunting scene was shot near Mt. Baker, in the Cascade Mountains, in the state of Washington,
whereas it was supposed to take place in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania, which look like this:
I once went to see the romantic tearjerker Message in a Bottle only because I'd read that it was set in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, which look like this (very flat with sandy shores),
only to discover that the supposed Outer Banks location were actually shot in Maine, which has a coastline like this:
Superbad was also a pretty good movie -- nowhere near as ridiculous and juvenile as it seems like it should be. You really feel the angst of what it must be like to be, as Aerosmith put it, "a high school loser, never made it with the ladies", so low on the totem pole that you have given up ever having any ambitions of coolness. And there were some nice departures from all the usual cliches, as if the writers wanted to acknowledge them and then turn them on their heads. Thoroughly engaging!
I'm generally not much for teen movies, but this one was pretty funny.
-You know when you hear girls saying like, "ah, I was so shitfaced last night. I shouldn't have fucked that guy". We could be that mistake!
I kept wondering the whole time if kids in America really have such a foul language. Words like "fuck", "dick" and "vagina" were in every other sentence.
....and the answer is, Yes, they are. (And unlikely to use anything half as polite as "vagina", either!)
Seriously, I'm no prude and I thought I cussed a lot, but when I hear teenagers these days, even I'm shocked and uncomfortable. Of course, that's exactly why they do it -- the shock value -- and most of them grow out of it after a while. They get it down to what I would call a normal level of swearing. By which I mean MY level, of course.
For instance, I'll occasionally tell a coworker "You wouldn't believe the amount of shit I have on my desk." But a fifteen year old will take the cigarette out of his mouth briefly to tell you about "the huge motherfucking pile of shit on my goddamn desk". (Assuming he had one and was employed, which is unlikely with that mouth. I mean seriously, you kiss your mother with that thing? )
Quote:
whereas it was supposed to take place in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania, which look like this:
I guess the Alleghenies aren't that exciting. Sadly, most eastern mountains aren't -- they're old and low and tree-covered, since they've had many million years more time to erode than the comparatively young Rockies.
But I'm with you -- despite my tongue-in-cheek comment about NZ, I always get a kick out of it when they really shoot on location in the right location. I mean, imagine if Garden State hadn't been filmed in New Jersey! I remember watching Niagara, Niagara and thinking wow, that actually looks like upstate New York (where I used to live), and lo and behold, in the credits, it actually was shot there. It was really nice to have that little twinge of familiarity. I was personally kind of bummed that Canada stood in for Wyoming in Brokeback Mountain and for wherever it was that Open Range was supposed to be set in -- not that Alberta isn't lovely, but it's not like we don't have that scenery here, too.
Of course, then there are movies that are mainly shot on a green screen, with whatever scenery the computer programmers decide to put in later -- Golden Compass was like that -- everything was faked. It was still very pretty to look at, even if it didn't hold a candle to the book. _________________ An apple a day....
Location: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 12:47 am Post subject:
Uriel wrote:
....and the answer is, Yes, they are. (And unlikely to use anything half as polite as "vagina", either!)
Seriously, I'm no prude and I thought I cussed a lot, but when I hear teenagers these days, even I'm shocked and uncomfortable.
No kidding. I'm a gal in my 20s so I'm no old fuddy-duddy, but the kind of language these filthy, potty-mouthed teens speak these days make me cringe. During the holidays, my mom, dad, abuela and I rode the Blue Line to Staples Center, and these high school age kids were onboard talking loudly and crudely. Every other word out of their mouths was "fuck", "shit", "muthafuck this", "muthafuck that" All the other passengers onboard gave them death stares but those disrespectful kids didn't seem to care who they were offending. My dad finally told them to pipe down since there were "ladies present".
What especially troubled me, was how the girls in the group kept referring to each other as "bitch". "Whatsup, bitch?" "Bitch, don't be going through my text messages!"
Location: San Francisco, Noord-Kalifornië, Noord-Amerika
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 8:28 am Post subject:
I just saw Sicko, Michael Moore's documentary about the evils of managed health care in the US. It's so sad. One part of it jumped out at me -- the woman who was taken to the hospital in an ambulance after she was in an accident, and the insurance company denied coverage for the ambulance because it wasn't pre-approved! Now I'm very curious to see whether my insurance will cover the cost of the ambulance that took me to the ER after my fall onto the sidewalk a few months ago.
I dunno Deb, was your fall pre-approved? Did you fall with a level of severity requisite to ambulance solicitation? Are there witnesses who will verify this? Can you justify the level of pecuniary inconvenience the insurance company must bear in processing your claim? After all, the premiums you pay are rightfully in their investment portfolio, all's right with the world, yes? See, if you had never gotten out of bed none of this would have happened! All life contains risk, stay in bed and keep the insurance companies safe. Of all the nerve! Actually, best of luck with that.
Cheer up Uriel, at least westerns are still filmed in New Mexico, what few there are now. 3:10 to Yuma w/Russell Crowe and Christian Bale wasn't filmed in AZ but in NM. I know they used to film some scenes for westerns in Cerrillos, south of Santa Fe, but for 3:10 they built a town.
I wonder about CGI scenery though. I would much prefer the scenery filmed in NZ for LOTR than if they'd used a CGI background - even if its good you can tell. Sometimes they don't care that the viewers know the topography where the story takes place and don't seem to care about compromising the story's realism when they're not loyal to it. Its a distraction for me. I can tell the Alleghenies from the Pacific NW too.
Location: San Francisco, Noord-Kalifornië, Noord-Amerika
Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:03 am Post subject:
Llatai wrote:
I dunno Deb, was your fall pre-approved? Did you fall with a level of severity requisite to ambulance solicitation? Are there witnesses who will verify this? Can you justify the level of pecuniary inconvenience the insurance company must bear in processing your claim? After all, the premiums you pay are rightfully in their investment portfolio, all's right with the world, yes? See, if you had never gotten out of bed none of this would have happened! All life contains risk, stay in bed and keep the insurance companies safe. Of all the nerve! Actually, best of luck with that.
You must have worked for an insurance company, you understand the mentality so well!
Actually, I've been wondering what sort of injury they consider as meriting an ambulance. I'd say I needed one because I needed help just to roll over a bit and get the weight off my ass, but wasn't capable of moving any more than that. And I suppose the good Samaritan who phoned for an ambulance could be forgiven for doing so, since blood on the sidewalk under someone's head always looks so impressive. But, we shall see.
Location: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 1:28 am Post subject:
Deborah wrote:
Speaking of using locations that aren't where the movie is actually supposed to take place...
In the movie Angel Eyes, starring perhaps the greatest living actor in the English language, Jennifer Lopez, the story is supposed to take place in Chicago but several times in the movie you see the CN Tower and speed limit signs that are in "km/h".
Click to see full size image
Chicago
Click to see full size image
Toronto's CN Tower
Uriel wrote:
Of course, then there are movies that are mainly shot on a green screen, with whatever scenery the computer programmers decide to put in later -- Golden Compass was like that -- everything was faked. It was still very pretty to look at, even if it didn't hold a candle to the book.
I saw that the other day, and I probably would've enjoyed the scenery more if it wasn't for the annoying dropout lines that kept appearing in the center of the screen and the low-grade resolution of the film. During the final battle at Bolvangar, I couldn't make heads or tails what was happening b/c the picture was so dark and grainy. I couldn't believe it! This was the Beverly Center, and the print they were using was a multi-generation copy! Not to mention that the screen was several sizes smaller than usual for a theater screen, and the audio was tinny.
My favorite example of that kind of thing is in the movie Blues Brothers, where the scene where the Blues Brothers are being chased by the Illinois Nazis on the freeway, it is so obviously shot in Milwaukee even though the movie is supposed to be set in Chicago...
Location: San Francisco, Noord-Kalifornië, Noord-Amerika
Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:13 am Post subject:
Travis wrote:
My favorite example of that kind of thing is in the movie Blues Brothers, where the scene where the Blues Brothers are being chased by the Illinois Nazis on the freeway, it is so obviously shot in Milwaukee even though the movie is supposed to be set in Chicago...
...which shows how little I know about Chicago and Milwaukee, because I was completely unaware of that fact.
Just saw Super Troopers. Laughed my butt off! Vaguely like Reno 911 in that it involves cops behaving badly, and has Brian Cox (the British actor!) as their long-suffering ringleader. _________________ An apple a day....
I just saw Juno, and I honestly can't remember when I last cried to a movie, maybe it was when I first saw Lost In Translation a few years ago. Although, that time it was just my trying to hold back a few tears, a few of which may have barely escaped my eyes; this time I had stop the movie and take a short break. At first I didn't even like the main character, Juno; she just seemed too smart and cynical for a 16-year-old. But after a little while, things changed. It wasn't just boo-hoo, of course; there was some funny shit as well, let me tell you.
I didn't recall having ever seen Ellen Page (Juno) before, but apparently she had a role in X-Men: The Last Stand. It was fun to see J.K. Simmons, whom I recall as some racist leader (Aryan Nations, it might've been) in the TV-show Oz that ran late at night on TV4 when I lived in Uppsala, in such a sympathetic role (as June's father). Allison Janney (from The West Wing, a show that I cannot really stand) also did a good job as Juno's step mother. The two of them, Simmons and Janney, made a great team.
And the father of her child was also in Superbad, where he was very amusing. I've heard that Juno is supposed to be very good, and the previews looked promising. My mother was also very interested in seeing it. How was Jason Bateman? _________________ An apple a day....
Finally saw Pan's Labyrinth en todo last night -- just amazingly good. Loved the special effects, because, even when you knew it was makeup and CG and utterly fantastical, in some odd way it wasn't intrusive or over the top. It was just the right amount. I also really liked how you were never quite sure if Pan was a good guy or a bad guy, until the very, very end. And the way the book's pages revealed themselves was cool, too. _________________ An apple a day....
And the father of her child was also in Superbad, where he was very amusing. I've heard that Juno is supposed to be very good, and the previews looked promising. My mother was also very interested in seeing it. How was Jason Bateman?
If you liked Cera in Superbad I reckon you'll like him in Juno too. Jason Bateman didn't stand out, or anything, but he played his part pretty well, I think.
I been home all week because I have a cold, so I've had a whole lot of time to kill. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is one of the movies I've watched this week. The acting by Casey Affleck was the best I've seen in a long while.
Another actor who did a good job was Sam Rockwell.
Location: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula
Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 11:58 pm Post subject:
I watched Una Eva y Dos Adanes for the umpteenth time last night, and let me tell you, it never gets old! I still crack up whenever I see it, and each time, I discover something new, like a racy line that flew over my head before or a scene loaded with sexual imagery that I missed previously (maybe this means I'm not as innocent as I once was. ) It's actually pretty subversive for a 1950s film.
Are there any movies that you can watch over and over again and never get tired of, or that seem to get better and better with each viewing?
Location: San Francisco, Noord-Kalifornië, Noord-Amerika
Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 12:44 am Post subject:
Elaine wrote:
Are there any movies that you can watch over and over again and never get tired of, or that seem to get better and better with each viewing?
At first I thought that Una Eva y Dos Adanes was a movie I hadn't seen that just happened to have the same stars as Some Like It Hot, and I was going to offer the latter as a movie I never get tired of.
I also never get tired of North By Northwest and the version of Pride and Prejudice with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth (in miniseries format).
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Sadly, most eastern mountains aren't -- they're old and low and tree-covered, since they've had many million years more time to erode than the comparatively young Rockies.
All the other passengers onboard gave them death stares but those disrespectful kids didn't seem to care who they were offending. My dad finally told them to pipe down since there were "ladies present".
