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Moriarty's RUMBLINGS FROM THE LAB #25 (finally) RE: BATMAN/BRUCE WAYNE, John Travolta, MISSION TO MARS w/pics + more

Hello sir by reni	Jan 17th, 2000 07:17:35 AM
Good Morning Moriarty, glad to see you back again. Firstly the Travolta Scientology thing looks as bad as it sounds. Secondly Mission to Mars effects work looks nice in a respectful to it's surroundings sort of way. Both however look a little pointless. Thirdly any update of Sherlock Holmes and The Vengeance of Dracula..?
Great Texas Dynamite Chase by reni	Jan 17th, 2000 07:21:49 AM
Who was the playmate, also in Man who fell to Earth, that starred in this? She died not longer after it came out. She was lovely.
Hmm.... by Celluloid Monkey	Jan 17th, 2000 07:54:25 AM
IMDB doesn't show any actress being in both of these films. There was an actress though in "The Man Who Fell To Earth" named Candy Clark, and a character named Candy Morgan in "The Great Texas Dynamite Chase", you might be getting those two confused.
Two Feet Under! by Celluloid Monkey	Jan 17th, 2000 07:56:27 AM
Only two feet under?!? Blech.... what if it rains hard? You'll be able to see the top of his coffin.....
No more Dini, Timm, Burnette, and team? NOOOOOO! by Drath	Jan 17th, 2000 09:09:22 AM
Please no, this can't be the reality of it! Am I still asleep? Oh lord, don't let that happen, they're the best DC adaptors ever! I'm all for "Bruce Wayne," but I can't bare the thought of WB allowing the animation team to disperse. What about NEW GODS? What about a kick ass JLA show? Hell, what about BATMAN BEYOND, I thought that show was still doing fine?!! Permanently done? Fuck, this cannot happen, WB, do NOT let this happen. When X-MEN comes out, you'll wish you'd green lighted a JLA show! This IS NOT RIGHT!!!! Moriarty, is there a chance this can be stopped? Is the "Bruce Wayne" show's success the ONLY chance? This is just the last straw. Warner Bros. is crippled by an executive that really doesn't have any faith in animation(I recall one of them telling EW they don't like this "animation for adults nonsense.") How out of touch can they be?!!!
Excuse me? by epitone	Jan 17th, 2000 09:22:19 AM
Moriarty writes: "Well, it looks like Brian De Palma has finally gotten over his infatuation with Alfred Hitchcock. He
I'll Reserve Judgment On M2M, Moriarty, But..... by mrbeaks	Jan 17th, 2000 10:45:28 AM
.....I'm surprised to see you omitted THE FURY from your brief grouping of DePalma's best work. For my rather insubstantial money, THE FURY includes DePalma's best use of split-screening, Amy Irving looking to die for in a bikini (back then, that was something to see,) and the greatest dispatching of a villain (Cassavettes go boom) in film history. I hope to find DePalma returning to form after the awful SNAKE EYES, but the preview is not encouraging. And, no, I'm not making reference of the overt Kubrick homage, I'm thinking more of the ridiculously stilted dialogue Don Cheadle delivers in the opening moments of the trailer. If this is going to be a camp fest, that's fine, but I'd rather Disney advertise it as such so as not to get my hopes up (then again, camp=b.o. death, but this is about pleasing me, damn it!) Oh, and if the Wachowski's so much as even consider filming the next two MATRIX flicks without Bill Pope, they might as well just scrap the franchise right now. His work as DP on that movie was nothing short of miraculous. I don't believe he can be replaced.
DePalma is vastly overrated by Stephen Dedalus	Jan 17th, 2000 10:50:50 AM
I may be one of the few people in the world who has the guts to say this, but Brian DePalma is a grossly overrated filmmaker. His movies rip off much more original films without giving them any credit- in the same way that MISSION TO MARS is a rip off of 2001, BLOW OUT was a rip off of Antonioni's BLOW UP, SCARFACE was a rip off of everything that Pacino and Coppola had made up to that point, and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE was a plotless, overblown mess. THE UNTOUCHABLES was a fine work, but I think of it as the only shining moment in a dull career. I guess I just don't appreciate the guy.
EWS will be released uncut on Canadian DVD by mthiel	Jan 17th, 2000 11:13:47 AM
I read on DVDTalk.com that Eyes Wide Shut will be released in an unaltered version on Canuck DVD, a Canadian dealer. I believe it may be region 1. Here's the link: http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/Fo rum3/HTML/007557.html
Glad to see that I was not the only one who was laughing at the by Stephen Dedalus	Jan 17th, 2000 11:30:55 AM
John Travolta looked like a crossbreed between Sylvester Stallone and Coolio in that alien get-up. I think he's taken this whole Scientology thing a tad too far-- I remember that the funniest part of BOWFINGER was when Steve Matrin saterized them with "MindHead," or whatever it was called.
Formatting this page by Hjermsted	Jan 17th, 2000 11:42:03 AM
Unfortunately I am stuck using a 13" computer monitor at 640x480 rez. I imagine the majority of computer users out there in cyberland are in a similar boat. It's a royal pain in the ass to have to scroll left and right to read an article. Including wide pictures at the end of your article caused the text to run wide as well. When you post pictures, please use smaller "thumbnails" of the images that can be clicked on to show the full-size rendition. Also, your apostrophes and quotation marks are translating into screen garbage. Someone needs to edit these articles for structure before posting them.
claudia jennings - man who fell to earth/great texas dynamite ch by reni	Jan 17th, 2000 11:44:36 AM
found her in the cast listings - no mention of her in Man who fell to Earth, although she did play Bernie Casey's wife... what a way to spend a monday when I should be working...
to reni by Dr Phibes	Jan 17th, 2000 11:46:20 AM
The playmate you asked about I believe was Claudia Jennings. She was more than just a playmate, but Playboy's Playmate of the year and starred in several B-movies during the seventies before she was killed in a car wreck.
salute to Claudia Jennings and salute to Dr Phibes... by reni	Jan 17th, 2000 11:54:48 AM
Thanks for the info Dr Phibes.
Get your ass to "Mission to Mars!" by Powerslave	Jan 17th, 2000 12:13:10 PM
Maybe they can look for that NASA remote-contol car that crashed and burned on the red planet; or will they be too busy mining Tribinium to care?
I don't care if it's a ripoff of Kubrick. M2M looks cool! by Cassius the Evil	Jan 17th, 2000 12:29:59 PM
Well. I think the title is pretty damn self-explanatory.
Topsy-Turvy!!!! by smilin'jackruby	Jan 17th, 2000 12:33:29 PM
No, shit. Great fucking movie. Everybody should see it. One of the absolute best of the year.
Bruce Wayne, Blair Witch, EWS, Willis, Bad-tlefield URK!, and M2 by Nordling	Jan 17th, 2000 12:43:57 PM
I am so looking forward to the Bruce Wayne series (or miniseries, which I bet it'll turn out to be). I barely watch TV anymore anyway, except for The Simpsons. Gimme a reason. that sounds like a good one. But the actor would have to be EXTREMELY athletic.*The more I think about it, the more I look forward to a Blair witch sequel. It will take some amount of skill to sustain that sense of freboding and fear that the first one had.Say this with me. I WILL NOT BUT EYES WIDE SHUT IF IT IS CENSORED. FUCKING PERIOD! National boycott, anyone? The movie didn't do that well at the box office for the Moron Bros. to fuck with the fans on this. That has to be one of the most frustrating studios in Hollywood. They have so much potential, with all the license they have, and they continuously fuck it up. Oh, to be head for a week - I'd greenlight so many cool projects your head would spin. Who gives a fuck if it don't play to the sticks? Make art, motherfuckers... Bruce Willis has jumped up several ranks for me lately, but to tell you the truth he never was that low, having been in the second greatest action film of all time, Die Hard (if you have to ask what the first is, get thee to John Woo!). Unbreakable is quie a cool premise - POSSIBLE SPOILER it's a riff on superheroes, much in the same way Sixth Sense was a riff on ghosts...Travolta wins the Golden Pig award for worst ham in a trailer. That laugh...oh man. I'll be there, but definitely not for the reasons the filmmakers intend. I laughed all the way to the end after I heard that Bwa-ha-ha!!!** Mission to Mars looks cool enough to me, but 2001 it ain't... the only great DePalma movie is Blow Out, where he actually diffused his influences enough to make a genuine masterpiece. Okay, I'm done.
Mars, onward to Mars! by KingComic	Jan 17th, 2000 12:49:18 PM
Hey, so Mission to Mars looks like 2001, it also looks really great! 2001 was one of the best films ever made and the fact that we might get a film even 90 percent of that (since I am sure Depalma stole that much good stuff) well hell, I am looking forward to that.
That book about movies that never got made by Samthelion	Jan 17th, 2000 12:55:58 PM
I got that book, starting reading it, and returned it within an hour. It was very poorly written by a fanboy who REALLY REALLY wanted to see them make the Alien and Predator movie (but he only devoted a paragraph to the brilliant unproduced David Lynch scripts.) The throwoff, when I headed back to the bookstore to trade it in for the American Beauty Shooting Script, was his article about the oft-talked about Scorsese dream project "Dino". Dude says that Scorsese left this to do Bringing Out The Dead and then (I'm paraphrasing) "We could have seen this great movie but instead he left to do another Nic Cage movie." And, huh! The Nic Cage movie turned out to be one of the best films of the year. Sorry, Dude.
Any Word on Implementing Elements of Young Bruce's Past ala th' by IG_69	Jan 17th, 2000 01:02:47 PM
Sure, we don't know EVERYTHING that post Crisis Brucey was involved in prior to hittin' 27, th' age he's credited as bein' in Batman Year One when he first dons th' Batsuit; but we DO know some things. 1) Bruce attended some big-name schools in th' US and in Europe. (or was that pre-Crisis?! Damn.) 2) Bruce studied under badass Detective Henri Ducard in Paris. 3) Bruce learned martial arts from several Eastern masters (one later moved to Paris). This of course, allows WB to cast th' obligatory young Asian unrequited-but- hot an' heavy love interest. Hopefully, they'll avoid th' Tamilyn Tomitas and Ming Na-Wens and scoot right up into Sung Hi-Lee/ Alley Baggett territory. Woo! Make her "Lady Shiva" and y'have one helluva continuity discrepancy that fans'll love. (This chick could clean anybody's clock buck nekkid, even Bruce!) 4) Bruce learned his Houdini-like escape techniques from then-living stage-magician (and bonafide warlock) Zatara. Bruce gains th' affections of Zatara's hot young daughter Zatanna. She of th' fishnet wearin', JLA magic-wieldin' fame should be played by someone exotic. Patricia Ford..or heck...Claire Forlani. If WB will use th' trite babe-of-the-week formula, they should stick to th' books and avoid th' same old Selina Kyle, Vicki Vale, Julie Madison, Pamela Isley crap everyone else'd resort to comfinin' their stories to. Plus, will Alfred figure heavily in th' stories?! In one late 80's annual, it is revealed that Alfred was set t'quit bein' th' Wayne butler due to his desire to become th' next great stage actor in his native Britain; but young Bruce persuades him otherwise. What about Dr. Leslie Thompkins, Bruce's surrogate mother?! Yeah, I wanna see hardcore detective thrills, an unwieldy but confident daredevil Bruce (remember how great Sean Patrick Flanery was as young Indy?!), and sexy, sexy ladies like th' rest of ya. But would it hurt if they mined th' fruits o' Batman's 4-color background?!
Actually, the WORST thing in that (otherwise interesting) "Missi by Alexandra DuPont	Jan 17th, 2000 01:13:46 PM
...that young, jock-looking fellow (Jerry O'Connell?) saying, "YEAH!" He looked like he'd just scored a fall in a Greco-Roman wrestling match. While I'll agree with Moriarty that DePalma has a true gift for the well-structured set piece, he looks to be as ham-fistedly two-dimensional with actors as he ever was. (Witness the spectacle of Sean Penn's scenery chew in "Casualties of War" as Michael J. Fox appends the words "Hey, man" to every line he speaks in that film.)
B:E by The Kid	Jan 17th, 2000 01:31:17 PM
And they've already greenlighted a sequel. ::snickers:: It's nice to finally have the Rumblings back on a schedule, hopefully.
M2M looks very, very cool by Obi-Wankstain	Jan 17th, 2000 02:45:16 PM
It may well be a rip off of 2001, and knowing Depalma it probably will be, but it still looks very cool to me, can't wait. As for the news regarding Mr. Shitmaker still interested in the Batman franchise: STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM IT YOU FUCKING FAGGOT!!!!
looking good by Giancarlo	Jan 17th, 2000 02:50:07 PM
Mission to Mars is looking great. I just saw the trailer and any movie that has Gary Sinise is worth watching. The Travolta flick Battlefield Earth is also looking tasty, will get to see Barry Salt & Pepper again quoting from the bible and kicking some alien booty.
We missed ya Moriarty... by All Thumbs	Jan 17th, 2000 03:43:37 PM
But Kubrick a step UP from ol' Alfred? What evil weed have you been smoking? I don't need to repeat the poster above on the amount of "great" films Hitchcock has had in comparison to Kubrick (though amount isn't what matters, is it...it's the quality...and all Hitchcock's movies have, IMO, better quality than Kubrick or have inspired Kubrick's quality). Kubrick is one of the greatest of all time, probably a step behind Hitchcock, but in no way a step up. Sorry, had to rant.*Speaking of step ups, I saw the M2M trailer and it was about two steps up from the Supernova trailer. The trailer I saw started out really crappy...I remember rolling my eyes and thinking, "Oh no, another fantasy/Sci-fi piecer"...then it got good when it finally revealed there was more to the movie than people floating in space with terrible consequences and such, so it wasn't that bad after all.And speaking of Kubrick, looks like I'm going to have to treck up to the land moose and Eh-sayers to buy a copy of EWS (on VHS...still don't understand the region thing)So much to read, so much to comment on...sorry, those with short attention spans...Hey, Moriarty, does this mean you're going to try to be back here at least once a week? We need your little Rumblings to bring life to those newsless days at AICN.*Lastly, "Peeping Tom, purveyor of all things related to cinematography." Now THERE'S a man who knows his movies.
Rip-off, Schmip-off by The Cars	Jan 17th, 2000 04:00:25 PM
MISSION TO MARS looks great! De Palma doesn't rip anybody off. He is in dialogue with other filmmakers, dead or alive. Godard said that the best way to critique a film is to make another film. There you have part of what makes up De Palma's cinema. He uses Hitchcock as a sort of film grammar handbook, but he also trancends and parodies Hitchcock and other filmmakers. The results are often subtly satiric. De Palma also tends to take what other filmmakers have done in the past and up the ante, outdoing them while looking back at their work at the same time. De Palma has always been a freewheeling artist who respects other filmmakers, yet at the same time holds nothing sacred -- it's all just celluloid. It's a science, and he has built unashamedly upon the ongoing history of cinema while never losing his sense of awe nor his sense of humor.
DePalma by Cineman	Jan 17th, 2000 04:15:48 PM
Sure Snake Eyes sucked, I think thats pretty unanimous but DePalma still is talented. He gave it his best shot with Mission Impossible. I'd like to see someone do a better job with that script. Even his worst films have scenes that showcase that (Snake Eyes opening). M2M will be DePalma in top form and with a cast like Tim Robbins, Don Cheadle, and Gary Sinise it'll be even better. He doesn't rip off other directors any more than most directors do.
Batman by Crimson Dynamo	Jan 17th, 2000 04:18:37 PM
What good is a Batman series without the suit??????
Gotta defend the Warrior by Nordling	Jan 17th, 2000 05:55:22 PM
Kubrick was great, but Hitchcock was the MASTER. Between him and Orson Welles, they defined modern cinema. I'm not slighting Stan the Man, but comparing the two is literally, apples and ambrosia.
mission to mars = mission to mars by alek	Jan 17th, 2000 06:09:08 PM

No Batman Beyond? by Bryan	Jan 17th, 2000 06:11:23 PM
I have read Bruce Timm saying that whatever he does next "it won't have pointy ears," but I figured they were still doing Batman Beyond for a while. I mean, it's doing well, they've still got the straight to video movie coming, and weren't they planning another season? Are you sure about this, Moriarty? I mean maybe it will be for the best if this week's episode, "Terry's Friend Date's a Robot" (!) is an indication of where the show is going, but I highly doubt that.
Hardening of the Moriarteries by bswise	Jan 17th, 2000 06:28:20 PM
Welcome back, O Morirarterius. If only O Girthful One could write even half as good as you. And you don't have your own site... why? Stoked About: 1) OCEAN'S 11 - w/ Soderbergh at the helm, this will be, if anything, veddy veddy cool. 2) M2M I like DePalma too, just not the hack (MI, SE) DePalma and the hack-up-my-(ex)wife-playing-a- prostitute-while-picking-the-b ones-of-every-dead-great-direc tor-DePalma - but hey, Kubrick IS dead and it's a Mission to Mars, man! 3) BLAIR WITCH PROJECT - Yadda, yadda, yadda, this turned out to be a film series, not for gore-meisters, but for thinking people after all... AND NOW A'HM PISSED ABOUT: EYES WIDE SHUT - I still haven't seen it and I may never see it. How can anyone see it if even a second was censcored?! Don't tell me what I can and can't see, Dubya-B.
Lord of the Sith is alive and well on Mars by Rubba	Jan 17th, 2000 06:33:07 PM
Everytime I see the trailer for Mission To Mars I'm always grabbed by the breathing as they enter the white room it's not for any reason intended, and if it is intended what the hell does that mean then. I didn't know Darth Vader set up shop on the red planet.
mission to mars = mission to mars by alek	Jan 17th, 2000 06:33:26 PM
I keep finding myself defending this movie and i haven't even seen it yet. But I guess the thing is, someone watches the trailer, sees a centrifuge and cries "2001 rip-off!" And so here I am. Well, a centrifuge is, as many people know, a way of creating artificial gravity in space and is not the intellectial property of the late great Stanley Kubrick or MGM. By the way, why is it that Kubrick went to such lengths to build and film the centrifuge sequences and then somehow displayed the astronauts walking around with such ease in a supposedly magical gravity environment of the landing bay and the cockpit of the Odyssey where both were separate of the centrifuge? Okay, I'll admit it. I'm a big fan of DePalma. And why shouldn't I be? He was post-modern before Kevin Williamson made it hip. But whereas Tarantino, Williamson, and Kevin Smith may do it in their dialogue - the only way they how - DePalma is a true film-maker. He does it visually. I really can't see anything that would lead me to think the film is trying to rip off 2001. The suits are your usual bulky nasa suits with maybe a little more pizazz to make them look futuristic. The same with the vehicles. Infact, I read that the production got heaps of help and advice from Nasa. And from looking at the stuff I've seen, you can really tell. I wouldn't be surprised if all the sets were based on real Nasa designs for future spacecrafts. There is a monolith-like image that appears in the trailer which looks like a doorway of some type. If so, it's a very clever reference to 2001. But not a rip off.
De Palma is style by Tinting	Jan 17th, 2000 06:58:13 PM
I think that De Palma is one of the only american filmaker of which I could recognise the style by looking at just a one minute clip of any of his films. That's how much he has a unique style of filmaking. He may not always choose the best screenplay to work with, but he always make the best possible film out of them. By the way. If Mission to Mars is a rippoff of 2001, that can not be De Palma's fault, since the screenplay was already written when he came onboard...
Entertaining as always... by Spectre-Inc	Jan 17th, 2000 06:59:45 PM
Battlefield Earth... I have a beef with this picture, but other then that I hope it does well because I have alot of friends who were involved with it... Soderbergh and Clooney again, cool, I heard this one a few weeks ago and I was happy as heck because I enjoyed Out Of Sight, very slick film... and those "pic's" from Mission To Mars are cool, the red sand surface (Mars) was shot in Vancouver on the banks of the Fraser River... They painted all the sand red to simulate the Mars surface and then they CGI'd the rest, I've been dying to see how it would look... I'm impressed... they also built this MASSIVE space craft on a 43,000 sq.' stage, wait till you see that, it's very impressive to the least... Man, I hope 2000 is a good year for film.
Do NOT SEE Topsy-Turvy by Duty	Jan 17th, 2000 08:19:40 PM
Realy!!! It's 2 hours 45 min. of the second worst movie I have ever see. Almost as bad as Stanley Kubrick's "Barry Lindon". if you like The Masters 4 hour piece of trash then you'll love the pointless rambleings of Topsy-Turvy. Now dont get me wrong I do call Stanley Kubrick The Master, He was. And I love his other movies. But Barry Lindon suckes so god-damb hard Im still pissed off that I sat throught it all, Same with Topsy-Turvy. I realy expected a great movie, And got seriously let down. Once more Do Not See "Topsy-Turvy"!!!! You want a good long movie go see Magnolia.
Pee Wee Herman and Johnny Depp! Yes!!! by twindaggerturkey	Jan 17th, 2000 08:19:56 PM

AAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGG GHHHHH! by BurninBullwinkle	Jan 17th, 2000 08:54:11 PM
THOSE GODDAMN WB SONS OF BITCHES! MOTHER SHIT! FUCK! ONE DAY I JUST KICK THIS PIECE OF SHIT! For the love of all that is holy! Kids WB owes their existence to the New Batman/Superman Adventures, and Batman Beyond is outperforming everything on Saturday Morning that doesn't have Pikachu in it! Ya know when Pokemon cools down, the Warners execs are gonna look at each other and say "OH SHIT!" when their perenial non-flavor-of-the-month quality programing is gone. I'm trying to record all the episodes of the three series because I finally get the WB network (before I had to rely on tapes from friends) and this comes out. I thought they were supposed to put Batman Beyond on hiatus and bring back Batman/Superman Adventures for 2002? This sucks. I'm gonna cry. The live action films all sucked. Including Burton's. What of the Batman Beyond movie? And, I suppose this means we'll never see that Bane/Joker movie that got put on hold because Batman Beyond blew up so big. Even the throw-away episodes like Terry's Friend Dates a Robot (which was fucking hilarious by the way) are better quality than the "great" episodes of the horrendus X-Men and Spider Man cartoons. At their worst, it was great television. At their best, they were the greatest animated series of all time. I think I'll go home and watch Mask of the Phantasm, a film with more emotion and plot all but a few films, and try to console myself. The Flaming Moose out.
Some of you self proclaimed "Talkback Gods" need to put your sup by keeper	Jan 17th, 2000 09:25:36 PM
What manner of sacrifice might one offer for yee to fix this *GOD FORSAKEN* forum? Not that my index finger is not in need of its daily excercise but this scrolling back n' forth is teething on the mortals' collective nerves. As for the ongoing discussion of Hitchcock and Kubrick, I fall in on the argument that Hitchcock did indeed make more great movies but that few of them reached the depths Kubrick consistantly achieved. I also believe though that there are plenty of valid arguments that can be made for both and that just speaks volumes of just how great both were. It's like comparing Wagner and Verdi or Beethoven and Mozart. Anyway, it's not long before this whole talkback turns into a bout of gratuitous posturing (someone, somewhere is taking a gander at this talkback and beginning to thump his chest at the audacity of people having an independent thought). I just wanted to get a word in before the debate turned sour.
Batman belongs to AOL now! by ChodaRagu	Jan 17th, 2000 09:28:55 PM
Who knows what is going to happen to this franchise now. The professor can speculate all he wants, but in the end, it is what direction the new executive board will wish to follow. In the comming months, there will probably be a MAJOR shake-up of executives at Warner Bros. (I think the 2 former CEO's at Warner's saw this merger comming and is why they quit a few months ago.) I have worked for a large company that has been involved in a MAJOR MERGER like this and it shook both companies to the core with the personel changes at ALL LEVELS!
Mission to Mars part 2: THE IRON GIANT goes Home by Todd	Jan 17th, 2000 09:42:44 PM
There is a entire backstory to THE IRON GIANT that is just begging to be written. I always supposed that THE IRON GIANT came from some dead civilazation that exsisted on Mars Billions of years ago, and because of some Mars version of the Y2K bug THE GIANT was unintentionally launched to earth. I have not seen Mission to Mars yet. I am assuming it is not about THE IRON GAINTs home world, but if it is and i unknowingly gave away a plot point, I am sorry.
Kubrick/Hitchcock/DePalma/F.Gary Gray by Lazarus Long	Jan 17th, 2000 09:56:26 PM
Just kidding, I'm not writing about F. Gary Gray. HOWEVER, let me add my two cents on descussion of the two masters...both men were very meticulous and exerted complete creative control. Hitchcock was obviously more prolific, but perhaps it was easier back then to do a film a year, or every year and a half. If you look at Stanley's earlier days, he had a decent rate of output. The difference between the two is that Kubrick was operating on a very mental and subconscious level, whereas Hitchcock was going for the visceral and emotional approach. He played the audience like a Liberace played the piano. Having said that, something like Vertigo shows that he could put together something just as "deep" and refelctive as Kubrick. Vertigo lets us in on some of Hitchcock's own obsessions and hangups, and there is so much to analyze here it is on the level of anything in Stanley's cataloge. Although the Shining was a horror film, it was the opposite of Psycho. Hitchcock was attempting to break convention and push buttons that hadn't been pushed before. The Shining has its detractors, but I find it a very psychologically terrifying film. But there isn't much of an emotional thrust. The compositions are alienating and forces the viewer to process the horror in a different way. DePalma, although championed by the likes of Pauline Kael, is a hack in my mind. I like several of his films, but his homages are over the line. The baby carriage scene in Untouchables is insulting to anyone who has seen Battleship Potemkin, and diappointing to anyone who has seen real gangster films from the old days. I won't begrudge him copping Hitchcock because it's hard not to; Body Double was interesting. Blow Out was a good variation on the theme...but looking over his filmography, I'm afraid it's not very impressive. The guy was once quoted as saying he thought directing was like painting by numbers, and that he just knew what kind of color to put in a scene. That's a pretty pathetic way to view the art of filmmaking, especially when your palette consists of colors created by other people. He has visual skills, but isn't much of a "Master". I don't cream in my jeans when I hear of a new project, as I do with Scorsese. It's clear to me that with M2M, he's become a hired gun like Coppola, who may do quality work (The Rainmaker) but seem to have lost their vision.
Mozart and Beethoven by All Thumbs	Jan 17th, 2000 10:40:50 PM
Hitchcock and Kubrick...that has a nice ring to it, don't ya think? There are so many great directors out there in film's past, it is as hard to just pick one as the true "Master" as it is for Harry to pick his favorite potato chip out of a bag of Lay's. (I've been hanging around you guys too much when I start making Harry analogies.) I think the guy who started it all is and will always be D.W. Griffith and everyone else is a giant lump of seconds.
NOT ILM shots by WookiePorn	Jan 17th, 2000 11:36:42 PM
My mate sez those shots are definately not ILM's. Tippett and Dream Quest are doing shots too, probably theirs, or some concept art. That rover is the real rover from the movie. I saw it at the LA auto show, IT ROCKS! WP
Hey Todd, what's the back story on the Iron Giant in Fight Club by Superman#1	Jan 17th, 2000 11:41:59 PM
There's gotta be something!
Music for M2M by Peyton Westlake	Jan 18th, 2000 12:13:22 AM
No one's mentioned that the music for MISSION TO MARS is going to be composed by none other than that Italian pimp/player/god Ennio Morricone. Maybe. We'll see, 'cause while saw his name on the credits, the studio might just pull a WHAT DREAMS MAY COME and toss it aside at the last minute. Here's hoping that they don't, and that the score goes up there with previous DePalma/Morricone collaborations THE UNTOUCHABLES and CASUALTIES OF WAR.
Steven Soderbergh by PipsOrcle	Jan 18th, 2000 12:57:05 AM
Oh hell yea! Man, the dude is sooo cool! Erik Brockovich is going to be sooo damn cool, just like the Limey and Out of Sight!
M2M; Bruce Wayne, Blair Witch by Sith Lord Jesus	Jan 18th, 2000 01:23:35 AM
M2M looks great. Some here have said that it's a 2001 rip-off--I say, GOOD! But only if they ripped off things like an excellent script, good acting, fab SFX and brains--you know, all the things that go into a good, intelligent, ADULT science fiction film? How many of those have ever been made? I can count them on one hand--2001, A SPACE ODDYSSEY. That's it. All others are good sci-fi (WRATH OF KHAN; UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY, ALIEN and ALIENS) or fanstasy with a Sci-fi veneer (all of the STAR WARS). It's about time a decent science fiction film was made since there are so very few of them.**********BRUCE WAYNE sounds like a fantastic, deeply engrossing examination of the roots of the man behind the mask. Done right, this could be right up there with with the late, great HOMICIDE or ye olde HILL STREET BLUES. I'd feel better about it if it were on cable like THE SOPRANOS; that way it'd be safe from the whole must-get-ratings-and-sell-ad-t ime crap. Either way let's pray it gets made, since it may be the only way to fully erase the memory of the horror that was the last two bat-catasrophes. Oh, and by the way--Schumacher should be abducted by aliens and anal-probed for all eternity.*********THE BLAIR WITCH SEQUEL--as I said before, I STILL think this comes under the heading of really bad ideas, but if it has to be done, what Moriarty described above sounds like the only way to go. Keep the things that made the origional great; get a good director and writers to prevent things from spiraling out of control into unintentional self-parody. Nothing would sadden me more then to see this little horror masterpiece devolve into the sort of. . .film lobotomy that was it's opposite number last year, THE HAUNTING. Good God,* may it never suffer that fate. My fingers (and toes) are crossed.
What happened to the best films of the 90's? by Jaymin Pepper	Jan 18th, 2000 01:29:08 AM
Or more to the point, why are so many multi-part articles started on this site that go no further than part one?
VINCE VAUGHN AS DINO'S OCEANS 11 CHARACTER!!! PLEASE!! by hodgepodge	Jan 18th, 2000 01:52:35 AM
a role he was genetically engineered to play!
Some rumblins FROM ME DAMNIT by MAlkovich	Jan 18th, 2000 02:33:20 AM
1)Bruce wayne happen, for reasons already discussed it would be amazing. 2) please god no oceans 11 remake the reason it was so good was cause of the actors not the damn movie, there interaction there friendship, makin this movie is just stupid and there is no point to it.3) mission to mars seems a little 2001 like but it still can be dope 4) I just wanna say right now that i called "battlefield Earth" becoming #1 boxoffice grosser. If those idiot scientologist get all there minions to buy hundreds of tickets like they buy those books then an easy 700 mil is in store for it...How did this movie get made?????
Ocean's 11 by Mahoney	Jan 18th, 2000 09:52:21 AM
Wow, I swear to you I just about wet my pants when I saw what I saw about Soderbergh and Clooney redoing Ocean's 11. While nothing can compare to the absolute coolness of the Pack, Soderbergh and Clooney come pretty damn close. In fact, they might as well use the whole cast from Out of Sight to film Ocean's 11. Sweet!
The Blair Witch 2 and Battlefield Earth by GEEKBASHER 3.0	Jan 18th, 2000 11:28:23 AM
I cannot wait for Blair Witch 2, don't worry kids, they won't fuck up on this one ( I know, I called up La Toya last night ) as for Battlefield Earth, it's about time we had another Howard the Duck...Bad movies will love, try to keep a straight face looking at Travolta... conversation between his agent and him: John: Do you think I should really do this movie? agent: You should do it you FAT PIG! The Make up and dreads will hide your triple chins and big belly!!!
The ultimate rant session by Solidus420	Jan 18th, 2000 05:59:30 PM
First off, why would you want Tim Meadows to die? He's funny! And no not as th Ladies Man, but in other roles. No Batman Beyond. Might i paraphrase Planet of the Apes with, "You maniacs! You ruined it, you finally ruined it! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!!!!!" I didn't pay attention to the rest but BRING BACK BATMAN BEYOND, OR EVERY SINGLE MEMBER OF THE GROUP WHO DECIDED TO CANCEL THE SHOW SHALL DIE!
Bruce Wayne doomed? by Fabio2	Jan 18th, 2000 09:22:11 PM
It looks that way, as the head of Warner Bros. Film Division Lorenzo Di Boneventura is against the show going ahead, and basically what he says goes. He wants to proceed with another film (most likely Year One), and doesn't want the TV division horning in, which I think is fair enough. Now, I'm not saying the BW show isn't good or anything. As I haven't read the pilot script or the series bible, I'm not in a position to say whether it's good, bad, faithful or anything else. But I can comment on the show's basic premise, and it just sounds too iffy to me. The average viewer (who doesn't read comics btw) is interested in seeing Batman (ie. in costume), and I feel would get bored pretty quickly with some kid who never puts the suit on. Am I wrong? Maybe, I don't have as much info as Harry and Moriarty do in regards to this film, but... either way, the show looks doomed.
Possible problem with Bruce Wayne if done right -- would like fe by dennis	Jan 19th, 2000 12:23:00 AM
I didn't consider this until just a few seconds ago. Without the superhero element involved in a long-running serious such as Bruce Wayne, when he finally DOES don the cowl, is anyone going to care? My point is, if we become intrigued with all of these characters as NORMAL people, is it going to seem hokey, and frankly, unbelievable for a grown man to dress up as a giant bat? I would like your opinions.

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Moriarty's RUMBLINGS FROM THE LAB #25 (finally) RE: BATMAN/BRUCE WAYNE, John Travolta, MISSION TO MARS w/pics + more

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