Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

I just re-listened to the Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection commentaries this week. I REALLY hope you commentate all over Prometheus, and I hope you bring Eddie and Matt in for it. You guys were all hopeful about the potential  of the prequel(s) when you were doing Resurrection, and now I want Eddie to hate-rape the squandering of that potential.

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

I don't know Eddie's feelings on it, but I am definitely calling dibs on a seat during the PROMETHEUS comm. All sorts of new ones shall be torn.

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

If we can put it off until March I would be happy to get back on the couch for Prometheus.  Such a missed opportunity.

All I have to say about working in/ moving to L.A., is have something lined up before you head out there.

I headed out for L.A. with no job, not even a place to stay lined up, no resume, no demo reel, just me, whatever would fit in my car, and about $1000.  I was able to find a place to stay right off, but in three months I hadn't found any work, I'd long since run out of money and things to sell.  Thanks to Teague and the gang at the Labs I was able to stick around for a few more months, but even that hit its limit.

I still hold out hope that I can get back out there, but now I know what I need to do before I get there.

Edit: I seem to be the only one who caught Teague's Bill Hicks bit, and Trey's Eddie Izzard bit.  I bring this up because I am a big fan of everyone involved.

Last edited by Matt Vayda (2012-09-26 06:05:00)

Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

Dorkman wrote:

I don't know Eddie's feelings on it, but I am definitely calling dibs on a seat during the PROMETHEUS comm. All sorts of new ones shall be torn.

Well, I'd like to be in on that one, too.   It might have to be a Very Special Episode.

"But this system... has a sun!"

/that's the definition of a system, numbnut movie "scientist"

Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

Dorkman wrote:
Zarban wrote:

The David Prometheus video was awful. Not only does it go out of its way to be creepy, but there is stuff in there that is downright actionable. "I can do things that your human employees would find distressing or unethical"?! Boom -- lawsuit, and probably a DOJ investigation.

/wants to talk about the bonus situation

I don't know where this came from but, agh, I hate PROMETHEUS so much.

It'd be an interesting commentary - not only pointing out all the many flawed character motivations, lack of scientific rigour, inconsistency with the Alien universe, plotholes, unresolved questions, etc. But there's the wider issues of whose responsibility it is: Scott or Lindelhof? And how did it get a score of 73% on the Tomato meter, which exposes the gulf between mainstream older critics and younger genre specialists.

not long to go now...

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

Matt Vayda wrote:

If we can put it off until March I would be happy to get back on the couch for Prometheus.  Such a missed opportunity.

All I have to say about working in/ moving to L.A., is have something lined up before you head out there.

In counterpoint, I came out with zero prospects, was working within six weeks, and have been gainfully employed whenever I've wanted.

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

Oh gods, can the Prometheus commentary be on a Saturday US time? I want to hate fuck that movie from the chat room.

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

Dave wrote:

Oh gods, can the Prometheus commentary be on a Saturday US time? I want to hate fuck that movie from the chat room.

It's Phantom Menace for a whole new generation!  big_smile

not long to go now...

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

I suppose I should post an update for the purposes of intellectual honesty, and let everyone know that the day after we recorded this (about a month ago), I got a gig that I'm still at for the next week or so. So it's not exactly the dregs, as Paulou said, if you're VFXin.'

As for Prometheus, ugh. I hate DIFing movies I liked that everyone else hated. I'll just sit there quietly. Which might be necessary anyway, if there's gonna be eight people on mic.

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

maybe put Prometheus on the calendar for March 16,2013.  That's just before my birthday. smile

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

Ya, Prometheus has to be done. The Phantom Menace comparisons are almost accurate, except that Prometheus actually has some extremely strong visual and directorial choices, which just makes the discontinuity with how awful the screenplay is even stronger. My hate for that movie has been growing exponentially with time.

I wouldn't have thought this initially, but it's probably actually worse than Alien 3, which while being a terrible sequel, is at least a consistent and successful genre movie if you ignore the Aliens connection.

Last edited by bullet3 (2012-09-26 16:34:28)

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

With Prometheus being the first movie in a trilogy (according to a 1min google) could the hate be premature if/when the following parts turn all the mad into big_smile ?

Jason doesn't teleport.

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

You mean the way the rest of the prequel trilogy totally redeemed Phantom Menace? Ya, I'm not holding my breath (although they're dumping Lindelof from the sequel, so maybe they realized how much he fucked up and will get someone to fix it)

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

Invid wrote:
Eddie wrote:

BTW, I'm not the exception, either.  Most editors I know have families and are able to strike the balance.  Much better than I am, it seems sometimes.

So, editors get the girl. Good to know!

What's weird is my wife is a Dance instructor and one of the other teachers at her studio has a husband who is an editor as well.  They also have a daughter 7 months older than Grayson.  They are our mirror universe friends.

Eddie Doty

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

Dorkman wrote:

I don't know Eddie's feelings on it, but I am definitely calling dibs on a seat during the PROMETHEUS comm. All sorts of new ones shall be torn.


I'm perfectly halfway between Teague and Dorkman.  I enjoyed long stretches of it, but it is absolutely hamstrung by some irreparable logic gaps.  It fascinates me because it begs a larger question: Do you like your sci fi grounded in hard science, and use the story to then commentate on sociological issues (The original Star Trek series at its best did this, as did many episodes of Twilight Zone) or do you focus less on nailing the believability of the science to pose even deep existential questions (Kurt Vonnegut was great at this, as were many episodes of Twilight Zone).  You can follow either path with mixed results, but I think the presence of Lindelof cannot be understated here. 

There's much to dig into on this one, and as always, I serve at the leisure of my DiF Overlords (DiFgeneers?).  If I see the Eddie signal go up, Rohan will answer.

Eddie Doty

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

bullet3 wrote:

(although they're dumping Lindelof from the sequel, so maybe they realized how much he fucked up and will get someone to fix it)

I think it was a collaborative effort. http://www.break.com/nerdmachine-2012-l … of-2348230 this sheds some light on the case.

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

bullet3 wrote:

You mean the way the rest of the prequel trilogy totally redeemed Phantom Menace? Ya, I'm not holding my breath (although they're dumping Lindelof from the sequel, so maybe they realized how much he fucked up and will get someone to fix it)

I'm thinking back to when Menace came out and the big(?) hoo-har made about (iirc) why C3P0 didn't recognise Luke's home planet (when he arrived there in p4) since he went there in this movie (p1). People went on+on about the inconsistency and how this showed/proved .... something or other (can't remember what). But in p3, a simple memory wipe showed all the hoo-harers had jumped the gun with their hoo-hariness.  -> So I'm wondering if all the ugness felt towards Prometheus might just go/disappear when parts 2+3 have come out and the complete story is told.

[edit] thanx for all the clarifications below and @Lamer: it wouldn't surprise me  tongue

Last edited by Fido (2012-09-26 19:53:58)

Jason doesn't teleport.

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

^^ I guarantee you that was not a major reason anyone disliked Menace. If it was a good movie people wouldn't give much of a shit about that continuity flaw, and the sequels sure as shit didn't make people retro-actively like the first one. Similarly, Prometheus hate has nothing to do with series continuity, but with the standalone quality of the film.

Scott shares some blame, but the vagueness of the script (which is what Lindelof tries to pin on Ridley in that interview) isn't why the script sucks, in fact it's probably a good choice given the huge unanswerable questions being dealt with. The problems are completely disconnected scenes, with really obviously bizarro character continuity and decisions, that any half-decent screenwriter would have spotted and fixed.

Anyhow, I digress, don't know why we're even on this tangent in this thread.

Last edited by bullet3 (2012-09-26 18:42:15)

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

Fido wrote:

People went on+on about the inconsistency and how this showed/proved .... something or other (can't remember what). But in p3, a simple memory wipe showed all the hoo-harers had jumped the gun with their hoo-hariness.

I think you may have that one backwards.

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

Fido wrote:

With Prometheus being the first movie in a trilogy (according to a 1min google) could the hate be premature if/when the following parts turn all the mad into big_smile ?

Unless in the third one it's revealed that Noomi Rapace has been trapped in the Engineer's version of the Matrix since before the events of the first movie, and the stupidity of her "scientist" comrades was all some bizarre sociological experiment... No.

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

Re: Prometheus sequels:

  Show
I can't wait for the Lady & Head buddy films. Cruising the universe solving mysteries and whatnot.

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

Teague wrote:

I suppose I should post an update for the purposes of intellectual honesty, and let everyone know that the day after we recorded this (about a month ago), I got a gig that I'm still at for the next week or so. So it's not exactly the dregs, as Paulou said, if you're VFXin.'

As for Prometheus, ugh. I hate DIFing movies I liked that everyone else hated. I'll just sit there quietly. Which might be necessary anyway, if there's gonna be eight people on mic.

Congrats on the job, Teague smile

As for "Prometheus" someone has to get the snacks and moderate all the medications to keep the panelists under control. I mean, I just relistened to Episode 3 commentary and there was some serious drinking in THAT movie, and just word "Prometheus" has the DiF members foaming at the mouth..
http://i.chzbgr.com/completestore/2010/11/7/8a1b8ac7-c877-404f-9bec-6cd32e4bfc35.jpg.
Please tell me your shots are up to date

God loves you!

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

And honestly, just for discussions sake, it's good to have at least one person defending the movie being done

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

So I'm wondering if all the ugness felt towards Prometheus might just go/disappear when parts 2+3 have come out and the complete story is told.

Reminds me of the hope that all would be tied up neatly in the final episode of LOST. I admire your optimism.  big_smile As William Goldman said about Hollywood, "nobody knows anything". Except Jim Cameron of course.

not long to go now...

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Re: #43 - Dem Hollywood Blues

bullet3 wrote:

And honestly, just for discussions sake, it's good to have at least one person defending the movie being done

I hated the movie, but if I had to defend it (other than how pretty it looks), I'd say 'since when is the Alien franchise supposed to be some high-brow meditation on the meaning of life, the universe and everything? The two best movies in the franchise, Alien and Aliens, were simply (1) haunted house in space, and (2) balls-to-the-wall action film. Fans who were disappointed that Prometheus didn't clarify the origin of humanity and God's plans for us had set the bar a bit too high. Somehow nostalgic fondness for the franchise had granted it a gravitas it never possessed.

That's the only nice thing I can say. Let DiF (& Red Letter Media) cast Prometheus back into the fiery abyss from whence it came.

not long to go now...

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