576

(70 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Just shows how subjective "worst" can be.   Best Defense was the bomb (ha!) that snapped the wheels right off the Eddie Murphy "guaranteed hit" wagon.  He had three megahits in a row, and then... that.   Murphy's entire role was added to an existing movie just to try and salvage it (hence "Strategic Guest Star"), and Murphy himself later admitted the script was awful but the paycheck was amazing.

It was also another setback for Dudley Moore, whose track record was already in decline after being a huge box office star himself a few years earlier thanks to 10 and Arthur.   

But on the bright side - even with this turkey on their resume, the writer and director got  to make a big-budget flick just two years later... Howard the Duck.  smile

It's pretty much forgotten now, but at the time it was common to reference "Best Defense" the way we would later reference Ishtar or Waterworld... or Howard the Duck.

btw, one of the two Arab guys in the tank with Murphy in that movie was played by Chris Mahar.  Right around that time I worked on a stage play he produced and then house-sat for him while he was on vacation.  Cool story bro.

577

(48 replies, posted in Episodes)

578

(48 replies, posted in Episodes)

580

(48 replies, posted in Episodes)

581

(48 replies, posted in Episodes)

582

(48 replies, posted in Episodes)

583

(70 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Yes indeed - Trading Places, 48 Hrs, and Beverly Hills Cop are enough to guarantee Eddie Murphy a spot in cinema history, regardless of what happened since.   (A lot of people like Coming To America as well, but it's not a personal fave.)   

The Murphy phenomenon was almost exactly like the Jim Carrey phenomenon a few years later - both became stars in tv sketch comedy, got a shot at a movie and ended up with a huge hit, then another, then another.  And then... not so many hits after that.    For whatever reason, Carrey just had the sense to stop making bombs faster than Murphy did.

48 Hrs - Murphy's movie debut - at the time was really quite something, and still mostly works like gangbusters.  And it's yet another movie that goes on the "they would NEVER make this movie now" stack.  Murphy's hilarious, but personally I love Nick Nolte's unapologetically racist sexist cop who's only the tiniest bit "redeemed" by the end of the movie.  It was a brave role then, it'd be unheard of now.

Hell, now I need to see Blowout and 48 Hrs again.  Off to Netflix to check...

EDIT: Sure, Battlefield Earth is "bad" but it's kind of fascinating as well.  I'd watch that one twice before I'd watch BattleSHIP again.

EDIT 2:  Edited the above upon discovering the official name of the movie is indeed "48 HRS" and not "hours"

584

(2,068 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Haven't seen Blowout in years but watched it a LOT back in the day.   Loved it.   And yeah, how bout dat ending?  Surprising but inevitable, tadah.

586

(112 replies, posted in Episodes)

587

(112 replies, posted in Episodes)

Well whaddaya know.  True enough.  Somehow my IMDB surfing of Under the Dome got me into a West Wing episode which was erroneous.    the Times regrets the error.

That's actually a relief of sorts - I'm much happier knowing Under the Dome was perpetrated by people who had no connection to the West Wing.  smile

590

(112 replies, posted in Episodes)

I've already given up and am just reading the weekly io9 recaps now, same as I did with Terra Nova and other trainwrecks.   When I let io9 do the watching and the ridiculing, it saves me SO much time.

To be fair, I made it through three whole episodes of Under the Dome.   That's two more than Defiance or Terra Nova, and only one fewer than Falling Skies.

Hmm.   Erotic fiction copyedited from a medical technical perspective...

Yes.  I would like to read that.

Make this happen.

592

(431 replies, posted in Off Topic)

It's like Teague's gone to rock star fantasy camp.

Or the hand thing is more serious than we thought and Make a Wish is behind this.

594

(7 replies, posted in Off Topic)

The crazy, it burnses us.

595

(2,068 replies, posted in Off Topic)

596

(93 replies, posted in Off Topic)

It's pictures!

597

(25 replies, posted in Episodes)

That's awesome.

598

(112 replies, posted in Episodes)

And Alison Pill publicly tweeted a topless picture of herself that she intended to send only to her fiance.  But that was in real life.   

We have no data on whether she poured coffee on her phone afterward.

599

(93 replies, posted in Off Topic)

600

(112 replies, posted in Episodes)

Well, the debut episode wasn't particularly noteworthy - it felt like they were mostly setting the pieces in place for this season's story arcs.   

I have a hunch about what the "What happened to Maggie?" reveal will be... and if I'm right, I'm not sure that's the way to satisfy the disappointment some folks expressed about the female characters last season.

And Sloan was particularly odd this week - I mostly liked where Olivia Munn was going with the character last season, but the character seemed especially confused in this episode.  I'm really not looking forward to a Sloan/Don romance if that's what they've got in mind for this season.  Don's a douche.

I still like it when Will gets tipsy and starts talking in references, though.  So there's that.