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Mr Paisley takes a brief look at Frank Oz's BOWFINGER and Brad Bird's THE IRON GIANT
Hey folks, here's Mr Paisley with some poison and candy about two films coming out soon. Poison for BOWFINGER and candy for THE IRON GIANT. Personally, I have to say I'm giddy to have all you readers see THE IRON GIANT. It's trully a GREAT fan's movie, as well as just plain being a GREAT movie. It's almost here!
Hey Harry!
Mr. Paisley checking back in after a long undercover mission. Saw a couple of
screenings lately and wanted to throw my two pennies into the ring.
First, the bad. Bowfinger may be hands down the worst movie I've seen in
1999. Poor acting, terrible script. Just plain unfunny. The only bright spot
in the entire film is Eddie Murphy's dimwit performance as an action star's
double. The trailer leads you to believe that that is the main character
Murphy plays and it's just not true. He also plays an egocentric movie star
to busy revelling in his own success to be a real person. This may be
typecasting.
After the debacle that was "In & Out," it's becoming painfully clear that
Frank Oz should spend more time with his hand up Yoda's ass, than behind a
camera. And truthfully, if the script had been sent to a studio by you or me
rather than the respected Mr. Martin, it probably wouldn't have been made at
all....
Now that the poison has flown from my fingertips, let's turn to the good.
"The Iron Giant" is the most magical experience I've had in a theatre in many
many moons. George Lucas take note, this is the feeling I should have had
leaving "Episode I." The script, the music, the sound, the voice acting: all
of it is perfect. For this movie to fail would confirm the absence of a God.
The crowd I saw it with leapt to it's feet with a thunder of applause and
cheers at the rolling of the credits. Do your best, Harry. Get the word out.
Make sure people know how good, and beautiful this film is. I'm going to go
get in line at Toys R US now, Hogarth and the Giant are soon to be a proud
part of my collection....
Out,
Mr. Paisley
Meanwhile, this fella named Devil's Halo just posted to TALK BACK on the RAY GUNN posting today the following note to Brad Bird about his experience seeing THE IRON GIANT!
You have single-handedly saved not only WBFA, but renewed my faith in
Warner Bros. I have had a chance to see IRON GIANT today and I must
say I will be surprised if this doesn not win an Oscar nomination for Best
Picture! A truly moving story and amazing animation. Thank you thank you
thank you! I look forward to your future projects
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please.
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Frank Oz is not a very good director in my opinion. IN AND OUT was a very unrealistic and cheesy comedy that I wish I had missed. BOWFINGER seems like it will be more of the same...Too bad for Eddie Murphy and Steve MArtin...
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Let's take it down a notch. I'm worried that with all the hype, people will come back and slag it because their expectations were so high. Already there seem to be a lot of people under the misapprehension that this is the movie that will deliver animation from kiddie hell, and who will no doubt be back here on August 7th saying, "That was a kiddie piece of crap!" and accusing it (as some already are) of being a ripoff of anime (for the last time people, the book was written in the 50s, LOOOOONG before anime). There's no blood or sex in this movie, and I think that's what some people are looking for. Whereas this movie will hopefully be more along the lines of Toy Story, somethign that the kids can enjoy but the adults will as well.
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I saw Bofinger 4 months ago, & I can tell you, it was terrific.
Great premise, & Steve Martin was great as he usually is. Eddie was funny like he used to be in the eighties! Mix in Heather Grahmm & who can complain? -
I'm anxious to see this movie but was disappointed to see a commercial on the tele the other day that featured music by the Scorpions. Thats right, bad 80's Heavy Metal is being used to promote a movie that takes place in the 50's. Now I realize that this music is not in the movie but I don't see the logic in putting it in the commercials either. Are they trying to attract headbangers, and hi-fivin' mother fuckers or what? Not that I mind these people going to the movie but how are the kids gonna' see the screen if they're sitting behind a couple of miscreants with moussed hair who're gonna' be pissed when "Rock You Like A Hurricane" is'nt on the soundtrack.
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I cannot imagine how anyone can Frank Oz not a very good director.
Have you seen Little Shop of Horrors? It's easily one of the best non 30's-40's-50's musical made. If a director can make you feel for Rick Moranis in that way, he's imho a very good director.
I believe Muppets Take Manhattan is also a Frank Oz directed film. And that's also a really funny, well directed film. 'Saying Goodbye' is an outstanding musical number and has made me feel anxious to call long lost friends and relatives every time I've seen it. -
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS is by far Frank Oz's best achievement as a director. It's one of my all-time favorite movies, and remains very close to its source: the 1982 off-Broadway musical...except for the last twenty minutes of course. As every LITTLE SHOP fan knows, the movie was shot with the original stage ending where Seymour and Audrey bite the dust, and the evil Audrey II takes over the world. Preview audiences hated this ending, so naturally, the studio tacked on a happy one, where Seymour destroys the plant and gets the girl. Ugh. If a movie is going smoothly in one direction, you don't suddenly swerve onto a gravel, unpaved road. The last twenty minutes don't support the first seventy. Unfortunately, I didn't get a DVD player until after the "Special Edition" disk of the movie was released (which was pulled within days). The disk contained the original ending, but without color, music, or sound effects...still, it would have been interesting to see the movie that Oz originally made. Hopefully David Geffen will soon either re-release LITTLE SHOP theatrically, or put it out on video and DVD with its original ending, scrapping the God-awful sacchirine one once and for all.
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I agree, the marketing campaign for "Iron Giant" has been appallingly bad, especially if it's as good as the people here say it is. The trailer I saw in the theatre (before "Tarzan") especially made me want to retch -- it made this movie look like a bad "E.T." ripoff. And the narration was so generic, it could have described half a dozen different movies. Better hope this one gets great word of mouth, because Warner isn't doing a thing for it with their ads.
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a couple of months ago, i reviewed Bowfinger, and described my horrible dislike for the film. for that i was brutally penetrated, and harrassed. well along comes Mr. Paisley, and he says the same thing and for that i would like to say thanks. i really think you hit the nail on the head, and i hope that you do not fare as horribly as i did in this abusive section that is the talk back. once again i must say that the movie truly does suck on a variety of levels. i applaud your review and share your sentiments.
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There is hope. Seek and ye shall find. I believe that life is worth living, and I hope you do too.
As for Iron Giant, why is WB trying to make this movie into a Free Willy sequel? It's like "the giant's big" and don't forget "people want to seperate the robot and the boy" which both sound like Free Willy 13 to me. -
The cut ending actually does have music, sound f/x and vocals on the DVD. It's just that a lot of it is most likely temp stuff, that would have been fixed up at a later mix that, apparently, never took place.
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I must admit, I was bummed when I read Bowfinger sucked, but then I continued reading to learn that the reviewer didn't like In & Out either, which I found to be hilarious and well acted. So when you say that Bowfinger is not funny and poorly acted (by Steve Martin, Heather Graham, and Eddie Murphy?? I doubt it...) I was relieved. Maybe, I thought, you just don't have any taste. But hopefully that's not true, because I think The Iron Giant looks pretty cool, and if you liked it does that mean it really sucks? Hmmm....
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First off he said that In & Out sucked. In my opinion In and Out was a rather funny movie, not great but it made me laugh. So if he says thet Bowfinger is the worst film he has seen. I would have to say it will be a great and funny film!!
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To W. Leech: I loved Little Shop of Horrors, too. It was a great movie, but I have to agree with the change they made to the ending. First of all, the original finale song "Don't Feed the Plants" that goes with the original ending really sucks. I understand they probably intended to use the movie's finale song and the original ending together, thus fixing a major flaw in the musical and retaining it's original ending, (by the way -SPOILER OF STAGE ENDING AHEAD - for those of you who don't know, Seymor actually FEEDS the dying Audrey to Audrey II at her request and then jumps inside himself hoping to cut Audrey II up from the inside. He, of course, gets eaten too. END OF SPOILER) so that first point is a little weak . . . BUT, I saw some brief footage once of the scenes they shot for the "Audrey II eats the World" ending - and I gotta say - it wasn't funny - it was just disturbing. I know a lot of people get off on being disturbed by a film, but that's best left to movies like "The Shining" and the upcoming "Blair Witch Project." A comedy, especially one being presented to the mainstream, needs a happy ending. I really believe that. I think the decision to change the ending saved Little Shop from being another Turner and Hooch.
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One last note about Shop of Horrors...
I'm so tired of hearing about studios giving up the director/screenwriter's vision to appease a test group. If JFK tested poorly do you think Warner Bros. would've made Stone cange it and have Kennedy survive the assasination? -
The last thing I ever want to do again is watch Eddie Murphy playing multiple characters in sketch comedy strung together to try to make a movie. The trailer alone was unbearable. This movie is a mixture of some of the worst available elements. I can't see how it could possibly be worth watching.
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Being one of those lucky guys who got the quickly-pulled Little Shop DVD, I'd like to comment on the original ending vs. the released one vs. the play. First, quite frankly the original ending doesn't work not because it's unhappy, but because it's boring. It goes on and on and on. "Don't Feed the Plants" isn't a bad song, and works well in the context of the play, but not the way it's used in the original filmed ending. Part of the problem is the filmmakers altered the play story in ways that made the death of the leads not work. In the play, Seymore actually allows the dentist to die, mulling over the decision while the dentist chokes on the gas. He chosed to not act, thus is complicit in his death, etc. In the play, Seymore bascialy makes a deal with the devil and pays for it, whereas in the film, he's the nice guy who gets duped. The "Mean green Mother" number makes the plant out to be a bad guy of the piece, which really changes the tone of the ending. What's striking to me is that the filmmakers didn't notice that "Gee, 3/4s of our script is musical comedy and the last bit is Godzilla." An unhappy ending true to the play COULD have worked, but not the pointless, droning one they filmed.
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Original finale song aside (I still think it's awful) how is Seymour a nice guy who gets "duped?" He's just as complicit in the dentist's death as in the play, and allowed Mr. Mushnik to get chomped as well. It's been a while since I've read the play's book, but does Seymour actually shove Mushnik into Audrey II's maw? That would cross a line the movie didn't, but murder through inaction is still murder. I thought the character of Seymour stayed very true to the play
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About Audrey II being made out as the bad guy. I thought the play made it pretty clear that the plant is the villian. Here are some lyrics from "Don't Feed the Plants" . . .(this is from memory, so forgive me if I get some of the lines wrong). . . "So the plants worked their terrible will / Finding jerks who would give them their fill / And the flytraps proceeded to grow . . .and grow . . / Till the did what they came here to do / which was essentially to / Eat Cleveland / And Detoit / And where you live!" How does the movie portray the plant's motivations or intentions as different? Man, have I over-analyzed this or what? I told you guys I loved this movie.
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In the play, Seymour tells Mr Mushnik that the days receipts are in the plant, in gets in to look for them, chomp. The play also takes Seymour and Audreys relationship to much higher levels. Their sacrifice brings more shadings to those characters. Also, the dentists song, "It's Just The Gas", never should have been cut.
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