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Segue Zagnut tiptoes into a very early screening of ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE
Hey folks, Harry here with a very early look at the ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE movie from the 3ft2 peepers of one Segue Zagnut. He stresses vehemently that this was a WAY EARLY screening for the film, with a lot of tweaking left to be had. He chimes in on some of it, and goes into spoilers when necessary, but labels his spoilers ahead of time so you can avoid them if you wish. Now, for the man with the booster seat to take over... Here he is...
Head Geek,
This is Segue Zagnut. I just saw the first screening of the big summer family film from Universal that comes out this July 4th weekend: The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. The effects and animation was mostly done, but this was a very rough version. I would guess that there is still a lot of editing planed and the music was very temporary (thank god). In fact, it looked like an early enough version of the film that I want to emphasize that this was a TEST screening. The version I just saw and the one that comes out on July 4th could be significantly different even if they don't take any of my upcoming advice. That being said, let me tell what was good and where it went wrong.
It starts out great. It is very funny and just like a classic R&B cartoon. It seems that R&B have been living a sad life at home in their cartoon world off of increasingly diminishing residual rerun checks. That is until Fearless Leader, Boris and Natasha bring them out of a 35 year hiatus to make a movie... sort of. Only the producer (cameo by Janeane Garofalo) who okays it, can't green light it and the movie is DOA again. That doesn't matter for FL, B or N because they have already arrived in the 'real world' Hollywood (played by Robert De Niro, Jason Alexander, and Rene Russo) and FL immediately sets about plans to rule the world. His plan: turn everone in America into zombies by forcing them to watch really bad T.V. then tell them to vote for FL as President.
The FBI discover his plan and send Karen Sympathy (played by Piper Perabo) to find the only two who can stop FL before the whole country is zobified. Enter R&B and the rest of the movie is a road trip comedy from L.A. to the N.Y. headquarters of Really Bad T.V. Sadly it is here that the movie gets lost.
The animation looks great. I'm sure the few places where there were kinks will be ironed out by release.
They nailed the R&B humor and charm across the board. This IS Rocky and Bullwinkle. Bad puns, self referential humor, political satire, and moral lessons all stay intact with the big screen translation. It is clear that everyone involved got what made the show cool and funny. The stars are all good, perhaps a little underused, but it isn't really their movie.. it's R&B's.. so that is fine too.
It also has some great satire. Bullwinkle comments that every city in America looks the same after seeing sign after sign for fast food restaurants and major grocery stores. Students protest Bullwinkle's honorary diploma from Whatsamatter U, because he only gets it for donating money. And the ultimate message is 'turn off the T.V' and start paying attention. So what's wrong with it you ask.
After it starts good... it gets boring and the sub plots don't hold together. The movie is currently around 90 minutes. They could cut it to 70 easily. The cameo's of big stars Janeane Garofalo, John Goodman, Whoopi Goldberg, Carl Riener, Jonathan Winters, etc... are okay, but play kind of forced for the most part. And, the ending doesn't work..
I know the studios hate this, but I am now going to be that 'asshole guy on the internet' who tells you how to fix your movie.
A significant portion of the road trip is derailed by a boring sub plot involving Agent Sympathy going to jail for stealing a car then lying her way out. It is not funny. It is boring. And what is the point? Part of the message of the film is the ends don't justify the means. The court scene later with Bullwinkle as her lawyer in court is great. Very funny, makes the same point and with its scene conclusion also lampoons the American court process. The prison stuff and Sympathy's lying to the guard, degrade that message enough that my 9 year old was very confused. She said to me afterwards, "Why wasn't Agent Sympathy a bad guy? A lot of what she did was against the law, and she never learned that lying was bad." All the stuff with Sympathy in jail and that story line should be junked. It is not worth trying to save.
*SPOLIERS* *SPOLIERS*
The end is anti-climatic and well... dumb. First of all, nobody does anything. Rocky and Sympathy arrive at NY headquarters only to immediately be strapped in chairs and do nothing. Bullwinkle gets e-mailed from the White House to FL's computer, gets printed out, reforms and then accidentally uses his ears to disrupt the 'vote for Fearless Leader message'. This is dumb, and by the end of the movie, a major story flaw. Because when R&B finally win, they banish FL and B&N to the internet where they will die in obscurity. So Bullwinkle can get out of the electronic world of the web through e-mail and the bad guys can't?
I believe this scene can be fixed though with not much re-shoots. Why can't Rocky somehow get loose and make it so the President goes on air in the middle of FL's broadcast... only it is Bullwinkle in the President's chair and he makes the same speech about turning off your T.V. and voting for who you want. Why doesn't Sympathy help somehow by telling the truth. That would add action, make Bullwinkle AND Rocky heroes and still keep the exact same messages, all without the stupid stupid e-mail thing.
*SPOLIERS END*
Right now, the movie stands with "The Flintstones" as a good try that doesn't really work. Some will like it, most will be bored and disappointed. If they improve it in the months ahead, it could rally as a real family film with smarts like the original Muppet Movies. I hope they finish it right, until then..
Consider This.. Segue Zagnut
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May 08, 2000 2:55:50 AM CDT
This trailer blew chunks in ways chunks have never been blown be
by kincaid2
I would be surprised to see how this web turd plays at the box office.
The animation seemed nice, but you get the feeling the Deniro plays each scene saying to himself "Oh, crap, look at me...i'm trapped!..."
It seems like a nice idea but when you blend real people in films with cgi characters that will not exist til later, you get the quality that is identical to customer service where dogs have to answer the phone...
Ever see how stupid a dog looks when you put the phone to it's ear...it's terrible...like these cgi attempts. WANNA SEE A GREAT CGI attmept? Final Fantasy...that movie looks like it will be more than groundbreaking.
I am curious to see what others thought of this test screening. And one more thing. I AM IN LA, why the heck can I never get to one of these?
Kincaid
PS. Harry's source at 4filmmakers say Tobey Maguire is Spidey? IS this true? Anybody...Anybody...Bueller? I doubt it...would be nice though. -
Sorry, but this is about what we expected. Not what we hoped, but expected. At this stage in the game, and in trying to get this film out, it's not like they can re-shoot the ANIMATION to make it any better. So that's it, then? Drat. Is there anything else opening that weekend? The Undead have spoken.
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I don't think anyone would disagree that Robert DeNiro is one of the finest actors ever. I mean Analyze This, Goodfellas, Raging Bull...wow! That being said, what the hell was he hinking in signing up for this film. He could have chose any number of better projects. (Of course when R&B kicks ass I'll feel like an idiot...or when Jimmy Conway himself shows up at my door to silence me).
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Yes, I purposely misspelled his name (DeNiro v. Deniro)...thus answering my rhetorical question (is that possilbe?) in a very unclever way that makes me feel smug.
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May 08, 2000 4:18:38 AM CDT
How can people moan about De Niro making an odd-ball career move
by dirtfish
Robert De Niro is a lengend in the world of acting and if he wants to have a little fun in Rocky and Bullwinkle before he returns to Scorsese then I say go for it Bob you earned it.
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You are going to tell me that when the world is at stake the only two animated characters that can save the day are Rocky and Bullwinkle? Preposterous! First thing to do is get rid of those to animated characters and bring in THE IRON GIANT. He has the weapons too basically kick Fearless Leader
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a film before it's out, and I'm going to agree with you. Probably if it has meg ryan in a leading role. Or if it's about a boy and his loveable talking goldfish or something. Today is not that day. I actually thought the trailer was great... V Jay Ward, and the way they handle DeNiro's 'you talking to me bit' was I thought, clever. It scares me thought that Who Wants to Be a Millionaire has gone so far into our subconcious that even Bullwinkle is quoting it. Maybe it's part of the bad TV FL is trying to zombiefy us with. The rough cut does sound like it has issues, but... it's a rough cut. So I'm not giving up hope yet.
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they'd clean up. As long as it wasn't past there bed time. But, I think the point of rocky and bullwinkle is that they aren't the best choice and they're going to have to sort themselves out if they want to... like Rocket J Squirrel saying 'I could fly if I had to' Anyway... love to the moose.
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I have been waiting for this flick to come out for quite a while, and I am one of those rare fans of the original R&B who don't think this movie is just a bastardized version of the cult tv show. I'm hoping that many of the plot holes and what not will be addressed in the movie itself, which would be in pure R&B fashion......also, the fact that Piper Perabo's character lies to get out of something....if you've ever watched the old tv show, many of those supporting characters weren't all that moral and those that were, simply were played for laughs. Also, I'm hoping that the entire movie isn't just one pop-culture phrase after another.....last time I checked, Joss Whedon and Kevin Williamson weren't the screenwriters for this one.
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May 08, 2000 12:39:02 PM CDT
Uh oh!!!User ID Indeed! sees a flaw in fellow Veteran TalkBacker
by user id indeed!
1)Rocky and Bullwinkle have experience,and 2)The Giant's last words in the movie:"I AM NOT A GUN".When Karen Sympathy goes to beg the Giant to save the world from this foreign foe,he'll simply pick her a posie and frolic off to be with a now-35-year-old Hogarth.Anyway,this movie will be fantastic!The trailer was damned good!!!Supertramp should have a song in every trailer,in my twisted lil opinion.Although if this was an early test screening or whatever,I'd say it's a little too late to make changes,seeing as it's already...well,finished.But no matter!Who cares if the subplots limp!!!They did that in the cartoon!!!!Whoever said Ken Lonergan knew how to keep with the cartoon wasn't kidding!!!Woo hoo,mesa gonna be 1st in line!!This has been a Naysayers Boo!!!!!!Moment with User ID Indeed!If they make the sequel,it must include Underdog!!!!Time for that puppy to go MAINSTREAM!!!!!
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Tobey McGuire as Spidey?! I've said he was born to play the part since I saw him in Deconstructing Harry, IIRC. But on the subject of R&B(Hmm...remember the crappy movie of a few years ago with the initials of B&R???)... If the film feels too long at 90 minutes, and it ends up being cut down to 70, that will only serve to piss me off more about this project. Nothing's worse IMO than a film that causes people to blow a shit load of cash for what essentially amounts to a two-parter on TV. Anyway, there are times that I am ashamed to work in a movie theatre and this looks to be one of those times. I don't know why they had to make this movie as everyone I know thinks it looks horrible and is too self-aware of its existance as a film/tv series. I didn't laugh a single time during the entire trailer, was I supposed to? Was Whoopi going hysterical over seeing Rocky and Bullwinkle supposed to be humourous? Was Bullwinkle crashing the car funny? Wait, I take it back... THe scene where Rocky looks to propelled by his/her own flatulance is making me smile right now. Some people I suspect will love it, but mark my words that by christmas you will be able to own the $50 Million (I know, that's being generous) hit for your whole family for $14.95 where ever videos are sold. I say, for the money that was blown on this film, imagine the 2-hour long GUMBY movie that could have been made...
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Hogath could eat no FAT... The Iron Giant could eat no LEAN...
So Hogath stopped blowing his father.... And licked The Iron Giant's asshole CLEAN!! -
I didn't laugh once during the trailers for ME, MYSELF & IRENE, ROAD TRIP, BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE or THE KLUMPS. At least, ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE promises more wit than any of those. And am I the only underwhelmed by the trailers for M:I 2, GONE IN SIXTY SECONDS and THE PERFECT STORM, all full of sound and fury signifying nothing? THE PATRIOT looks well-intentioned, but do we really need another BRAVEHEART or a 3-hour DEATH WISH? DINOSAUR is more Disney crap. TITAN A.E. - blech! CHICKEN RUN is getting good buzz, but who cares about chickens on the run? The more of them slaughtered, the more hungry mouths fed. Hopefully, they all would be better than their trailers. GLADIATOR is one movie that lives up to its trailer. I think ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE will be the surprise hit of the summer.
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May 08, 2000 5:06:51 PM CDT
Fearless Leader's plan about forcing people to watch "really bad
by uncapie
Its already in effect, except you don't have to force anybody to watch.
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and jay ward used to flood rocky and bullwinkle with it :P And bullwinkle crashing the car wasn't particularly funny, I mean maybe for a kid, we all knew it was going to happen, but I must admit to laughing at his line afterwards.
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between realism and irony. Irony would be if, Fearless Leader's boss was in a hood giving out orders and finally unmasked to be either Jack Valenti, Warren Littlefield or Michael Eisner! Now that's funny and ironic! But, bad tv is just, well, bad tv and there's enough of it on the boob tube to choose from. Just take a look at Herc's post on the new NBC projects. Nuff said.
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there was a test screening at main place in orange several weeks ago. one of the actors was there, but i won't say who. ;)
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Does anyone remember the movie "Brois & Natasha" that came out in the early 90s? (It's by Charles M Smith, the dude who directed "Air Bud"). Anyways, I just thought I would remind you how bad a movie can suck. On a completely unrelated topic, check out salon.com's bad ass article on "Incubus". The link is: http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2000/05/03/incubus/index.html
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Hopefully Brian G. & Mike M. will come to there senses and ditch "Sprockets" for "Scooby Doo".
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THIS piques my interest- DEVO alum and the brightest star in the SubGenius galaxy noodling away...go mark go!
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shut the f*** up & tell me did rene russo look yummy or not?
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