Cool News
Ho, Ho, Ho! It
Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Here’s one of the real bummers about being locked up tight in the Labs, working without respite: everybody is seeing everything before me. I’m dying to see this one, and I don’t think it’s gonna happen until the actual release this fall. No early screenings for me. I just have to content myself reading everything you guys send in about it after it shows. In this case, it's like e.e. cummings went to a test screening:
hey harry,
i don't know if anyone has already written in on terry zwigoff's 'bad santa' but i went to a preview screening on monday night at the Bridge in culver city and wanted to give a quick review.
the version was a workprint with some minor editing inconsitencies and an audio temp track. besides that though, i think it was a pretty good indication of what the film is going to be like.
i was really looking forward to it since i liked both ghost world and crumb, and cause i had read that the coens wrote the original story (although in the credits for the film they are just executive producers). what i anticipated was a dark comedy that would have a very unique tone and great character development ala ghost world, but it really didn't deliver on either account. instead, it kind of just hovered in the realm of a shallow dark comedy striving to be more.
the story focuses on billy bob thornton's character, who is an alcoholic, mean-spirited, self-hating department store santa. along with his helper elf, once a year they pull off a department store heist (on christmas eve) and then spend the remainder of the year living off the spoils. without giving away too much, the bulk of the film takes place during one of these holiday seasons as billy bob and his elf plan to rip off another department store (where both john ritter and bernie mac happen to work). along the way, billy bob meets a little boy who is a social outcast, as well as a girl with a wicked santa claus fetish.
zwigoff wants to get a some kind of redemption for the billy bob character, but the humor and tone of is totall inconsistent, going from sentamentality to cruelty in so many places that it's really difficult to ever feel or sympathize for that character. to me this was the reason the film really fell apart....the characters and relationships felt tacked on around a series of crude and offensive jokes (which i usually like) and even the ending was just a forced resolution.
it felt like they might have shot more scenes that could have helped to develop the characters and relationships, and i hope that the responses to the screening gets them to put those back in. or they better hope that people are willing to watch billy bob act like an asshole for 90 minutes.
you can call me rickshaw boyWow. He’s about 180 degrees away from Beaks and Knowles on this one. Still, who’s to say they’re right until we all get a peek. Thanks for writing in, man.
"Moriarty" out.
-
+ Expand All
-
Jun 13, 2003 9:33:47 AM CDT
I think they should remake "Santa Clause Concures The Martians"
by mbaker
Marry Christmas to all, and to all A good night , BROTHER!
-
i CONQUER, mbaker, that sounds like a wonderful hulk hogan film!
-
this review is of a work print and if we're going to honest with ourselves here, work prints are not ready for the general public to view and therefore it's piracy. i think reviewers are stupid for reviewing them and that kind of stuff has no place on AICN.
see ya at the movies!
-
It would be the movie event of the decade. Warner Bros should pay Steve Guttenberg $25M to do Police Academy 8 with the old cast. New characters should be played by Hulk Hogan, Mr T, Ralph Macchio and Scott Baio. This will be one blockbuster u won't wanna miss! POLICE ACADEMY PART VIII. I pity the fool who don't stand in line to see this movie, brother!
-
Or "Santa fuck fetish," as Harry put it. I'd grow a white beard and hang out with deer for her!
-
Jun 13, 2003 4:30:29 PM CDT
Hey, anybody ever wonder what 'The Lab' actually looks like?
by weedymcsmokey
I picture dank. A whole lot of dank. I don't think there's another word that's sutiable. And the pleasant oder of armpit/old pizza. Hey, call me cliche, it's what I think.
-
cha cha cha
-
You realize that Hulk Hogan was already in a Santa movie, don't you? Yes that's right, he was the star of 'Santa With Muscles.'
-
Oh,yeah! That's right! I forgot about that one. Guess I wasted A good Hulk Hogan joke. Let me try that again. Take two. I think they should make "Santa With Muscles 2" HO,HO,HO, BROTHER!
-
"Ladykillers" will be their second. Damn remakes of classic films.
-
you've got the coolest UN here. Did you go to that screening of "Fear of a Black Hat" a a month ago in L.A.?
-
There is a "sketch" of Robert Johnson that only lasts for a few seconds that made me weep. Somebody owlbear it off a web site or DVD and post the url here so we can all score it for our wallpaper, please!
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 -- 439 total posts 159 posts
- WTF HOLLYWOOD: SOLARBABIES -- 144 total posts 142 posts
- Herc’s Seen Tonight’s Return Of THE WALKING DEAD!! Discuss Also DOWNTON ABBEY, FEAR FACTOR, PAN AM, ONCE, SIMPSONS, DYNAMITE, LUCK, SHAMELESS, BAIT CAR, THE GRAMMYS And More!! Sunday Is Sweeps Day 11!! -- 155 total posts 140 posts
- Avid Comic Reader Hercules Does Battle With Tedium During Kevin Smith’s COMIC BOOK MEN! -- 55 total posts 45 posts
- There's a STAR TREK video game that is going to lead into JJ's STAR TREK 2 apparently... -- 196 total posts 45 posts
- I am The Behind the Scenes Pics of the Day! No, I’m the Behind the Scenes Pic of the Day! -- 35 total posts 35 posts
- If the Behind the Scenes Pics of the Day drops her pen, pick it up, but don’t look at her legs or else it will be on your record. -- 60 total posts 34 posts
- New JUDGE DREDD post production footage pops up -- 127 total posts 32 posts
- To Commemorate The 3D Release Of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas Wants You To Know...Greedo Shoots First!! -- 513 total posts 29 posts
- The Sensorties Revisit The Friday Docback (And Still Smell)!! DOCTOR WHO Story #7 Again, The Coming Of Season/Series 7, And More!! -- 118 total posts 27 posts