Pre Podcast Notes - 5/27 - Terminator, Night at the Museum, Dirty Dozen

Prepodcast notes:

Terminator:
Terminator and T2 did something that is hard to do which elevates them into 'The Greats': they showed you something you hadn't seen before. T3 failed bc it didn't proving that Arnie plus comfortable Terminator-y universe elements does not a good Terminator film make.

Consider Matrix - same concept. Sequels wear the new and influential down to flash and bang.

Terminator Salvation is more successful than T3 bc you do see elements of the Terminator universe that you've never seen, but is ultimately a failure bc you've seen them elsewhere: Transformers, War of the Worlds, and Road Warrior and Aliens leap to mind.

Bombastic stupid action.

The Good:
Decent Action with some highlights:
The unstoppable Terminator torso, the underwater 'eels',

The Bad:
-The new terminator with a human heart and the twist seen from a mile away where he's inadvertently brought John Connor to Skynet
-The misuse/unnecessary casting of Bryce Dallas Howard who has gone from vet to heart surgeon since T3
-The horrible, hacky ending - heart transplant thing
-The mute kid
-The horrible 'why don't they just' questions
Everything's mishandled: even 'I'll be Back'

The mixed:
Arnold's cameo

Night at the Museum - Battle of the Smithsonian:
Ben Stiller has left the museum to succeed in a new career as an inventor/pitchman for infomercials. He visits the museum and learns that most of his buddies from the first film are being put into permanent storage at the Smithsonian--without the tablet that brings them to life. Stuff happens and he has to go to the Smithsonian where the tablet HAS shown up bringing a whole new cast of characters to life including Kahmunrah played by Hank Azaria who hopes to take over the world with....

I can sum up everything wrong with the film in one example: There are marble cherubs from a fountain in one of the Smithsonian buildings that come to life and kind of flit around Ben Stiller singing love songs. The cherubs look like and are voiced by The Jonas Brothers.

In that one decision the entire problem with the film comes to light: we will do ANYTHING, we will pander as hard as we need to for your affections. Even if that means showcasing The Jonas Brothers--who are clearly not historical figures that some famous fountain would have their likeness.

--The first film is a delight.

--It's stupid and you can't think too much, but it's a great good-for-the-whole-family-film.

--But they do set up a universe which is ignored here
--My 8 year old son was asking me great questions that shows there's hope for the lad in his filmgoing tastes: why did they know they were manniquins? They didn't know they were manikins in the first film.

I laughed twice. I know that bc I could and did count them. And either ricky gervais or steve coogan were involved.

That's a sad state of affairs for a comedy--the jokes came at you obvious and weren't funny...didn't delver.

Back to Terminator - if we give you robots and guns and arnie you'll be satisfied.

If we give you the characters you liked and the monkey slaps Ben Stiller...you'll like it.

Sorry, it wasn't enough.

Nitpick:
And why are you wearing a cape, are we going to the opera? How are these manikins come to life so aware of the world around them in a way not seen in the first film?
Why General Custer? What did he do?

The good:
Amy Adams - I think I'm falling in love.

Dirty Dozen
There are films for the ages that when you watch them they stand up and you don't have to take into consideration when they were made. For example, The Graduate. There are fingerprints of 1967 all over The Graduate, but I've never had to say it's a good film for a a 1967 film. You don't have to forgive it for its age or year of production. A war film, apocalypse now.....or The Godfather...

Marvin, who was at the height of his career in 1967 (having just come off a Best Actor Oscar win a year earlier for Cat Ballou), accepted the part eagerly. And, after his name was attached to the project, the other participants fell in line.

I'd seen TDD once before and when I rewatched it i found it incredibly engaging.

Not watching the film in context of its release, you have to rely on research to fill in some blanks.
Although it is not often thought of as such, The Dirty Dozen became the first major mainstream film to acknowledge that brutality and atrocities occurred on both sides in World War II. In essence, the film is about a group of thugs attacking and killing dozens of Germans (some of whom were innocent civilians) in cold blood. Despite the heroic musical score and unrelenting machismo evident throughout the film, the climactic event is more of a massacre than a battle. Arriving on screens in the midst of the increasingly unpopular war in Vietnam, it's easy to see how this aspect of the story would appeal to some viewers. In depicting Allied soldiers as something less than model citizens, The Dirty Dozen broke a barrier, blurring the lines between the "good guys" and the "bad guys".

In the wake of The Dirty Dozen, it became a popular cinematic conceit to portray war in a more realistic and less glamorous fashion. Few of these films, however, used this approach with World War II; instead, Vietnam became the common target, with efforts like The Deer Hunter and Platoon. In many ways, however, 1998's Saving Private Ryan can be seen as an extension of what director Robert Aldrich started with The Dirty Dozen - showing that even in wars where the objectives are noble, the means by which they are achieved may be less than heroic.


with a few notable flaws:
The dozen being a perfectly melded potpourri.
Why criminals to complete this mission?
The dozen doesn't earn the affection we're to have for the men with the exception of Posey and Bronson.

Clunky pace but when they get into battle, in the practice field and on the actual mission, Everything is forgiven.

Wide shots of tactical warfare was so refreshing considering the style of the day of cut, cut, cut.

I want to see more films and read more books about WWII strategy.

A great marketing piece short film in the DVD special features that Mike Myers had to have heard to write all the dialogue of Austin Powers.

LRFF:

I decided to avoid all horribly obvious choices:
Saving Private Ryan
Schindler's List
Casablanca
Patton
From Here to Eternity



The Great Escape, 1963


A Bridge Too Far, 1977
Innumerable stars from Britain, the US and beyond gather for this Second World War epic. Directed by Richard Attenborough and scripted by William Goldman, A Bridge Too Far is a remarkable, star-studded telling of General Montgomery's ill-fated Operation Market Garden, in which thousands of troops were parachuted into Arnhem, behind enemy lines, to hold key strategic positions (notably bridges) until the main force arrived to push into German territory.

The Bridge On The River Kwai, 1957
The true story of the superhuman efforts of Allied POWs, who amid inhuman conditions were forced build a bridge to aid the Japanese war effort. When a plan is hatched to destroy the bridge, the POWs are faced with a dilemma - save the bridge that cost so many lives to build, or defend Allied interests buy demolishing it. It's the ironic complexity of the story, together with David Lean's trademark epic visual style that places this among the best British war films.

The Longest Day, 1962
This star-studded Second World War action-film is a big, long, loud spectacular from the days when 'epic' filmmaking really meant something. With 42 international stars (including John Wayne, Robert Mitchum and Sean Connery), The Longest Day depicts the D-Day landings at Normandy from both the Allied and German perspectives, and its scope in story and production is nothing less than mammoth.

Where Eagles Dare, 1968
A classic Second World War thriller starring Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood as crack paratroopers sent deep behind enemy lines to rescue a captured Allied general imprisoned in a forbidding castle commandeered by the SS. Alastair MacLean's script has more old-fashioned thrills, spills and hair-breadth escapes than 20 chapters of 'King Of The Rocket Men'.