Random Play by Graham Reid

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Random Play: Welcome to this world

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  • Gareth Ward,

    There was also the small technicality that while Titanic was massively over-budget, behind schedule, and looking like the mother of all fliops, nobody was going to hand his initial estimated budget of close to $400 million.

    Amazingly he went to the studio when they were going from $100m to $200m and gave up his salary AND his profit share. On what turned out to be the highest grossing movie of all time!
    Studio realised he was a big fish that they wanted to keep happy though so wrote him a cheque for a reported $75m even though they contractually didn't owe him a cent

    Auckland, NZ • Since Mar 2007 • 1727 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    I saw Invictus last weekend. Liked it a lot. Morgan Freeman does very well as Mandela.

    There is an interesting discussion about this film on the NYT site. I am particularly interested in how they use rugby--as background, or mere punctuation to the plot? If more Americans get to know about the game, that is a bonus.

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • Matthew Littlewood,

    Won't hurt NZ's reputation to have its team cast as the unbeatable giant in the final.

    ...And yet going into the tournament that was anything but the case. The All Blacks 1994 season was remarkably similar to their 2009 season: back-to-back losses against France at home (the second match being a heartbreaking last-minute effort thanks to The Try from the End of the World, arguably the greatest try ever seen in international rugby), a 2-0 series victory against South Africa* (notable also for being Kirwan's last series- I was there to see his last-ever try for the ABs in Carisbrook!), and that Bleidisloe Cup match with That Gregan Tackle. Laurie Mains's position as coach was in serious doubt at the end of the year.

    In fact, it's remarkable how the ABs just clicked in the RWC 1995, although given the sheer raw talent of that squad (Kronfield, Wilson, Lomu, Mehrtens et al), perhaps it's not too surprising. And while that loss against South Africa still isn't easy to take, the symbolic import for the home side was and is massive. I'm looking forward to seeing the film actually, although the thought of Matt Damon as Francois Pineaar does make me chuckle a little!

    *Okay, so the results weren't the same for the two seasons, I was more getting accross the fact that in both 1994 and 2009, the ABs fortunes were decidely mixed.

    Today, Tomorrow, Timaru • Since Jan 2007 • 449 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    Not to mention that it fucks up the franchise.

    Can we send a Terminator back in time to kill McG?

    Or, given that this is the season of goodwill, teach him how to make a film that has pace, plot, dialogue, etc. Y'know, all those things that music videos don't have, but which feature films are meant to have. And, also to point out to him that his adopted name makes him sound like an insufferably pretentious twat?

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Amazingly he went to the studio when they were going from $100m to $200m and gave up his salary AND his profit share. On what turned out to be the highest grossing movie of all time!

    To be a little pedantic, when you adjust the gross for inflation that honour still goes to Gone With The Wind. But I digress, in the end what choice did Cameron have? Fox were so deep in the hole by that point (and Cameron had carpet bombed every bridge between him and the studio), they just had to have something to release but were unwilling to keep writing cheques.

    There's a really interesting New Yorker profile of Cameron where, not to put too fine a point on it, he comes across as a raging drama junkie who's eventually going to kill someone> As Goodyear puts it:

    ameron behaves as if he were the embattled protagonist of one of his own films—an ordinary Joe beaten on the anvil of extraordinary trials. “The words ‘No’ and ‘That’s impossible’ and phrases like ‘That can’t be done’—that’s the stuff that gives him an erection,” the actor Bill Paxton, who has worked with Cameron since the early eighties, says. Cameron reserves a special quotient of his anger for suits who get in his way. “Tell your friend he’s getting fucked in the ass, and if he would stop squirming it wouldn’t hurt so much” was the message he once told a Fox producer to deliver to an executive at the studio. He sees himself as essentially outside and other and alone; he bites the hand that feeds. “Even though he knew I was on his side, nobody’s ever on his side,” Bill Mechanic, who ran Fox Studios during the making of “Titanic,” said. “It’s like you’re in the trenches and your infantry-mate is shooting at you, even if you’re the only one there who can save his life.”

    I don't think someone dumps PCP in everyone's dinner just because they're bored. In any other industry, I suspect Cameron would be an unemployable liability nightmare.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • webweaver,

    oh.my.god!

    Just got home from seeing in in 3D at the Reading Cinema in Welli.

    I'm completely speechless.

    That was some movie! STUNNING, PEOPLE - JUST STUNNING!

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 332 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Just back in from the iMax screening.

    1. Reviewers who complain about the story are really looking for something to whinge about. Yes, it is composed of familiar tropes, but it's a mass-market family movie. It's well-written, and the Really Big Fight At the End is very good indeed.

    2. Having seen 15 mins of the digital 3D cuts, and the whole thing in iMax 3D, I'd have to say that the colours are more vivid in digital. The iMax is wonderflly immersive, but the neon colours really sizzle in digital.

    3. It really doesn't suck.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    The one time I tried sitting through the damn thing on DVD

    Got stuck in some god-awful motel in Paihia some years back, and it rained the the whole 5 days. The place only had one DVD...Cameron's iceberg schlick, and it played on an endless loop, and our 8 year old decided to watch over it and over again. I guess I saw it 15 times, if not always consciously. I was ready to book a one way ticket on that tub after that.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    So, somewhere between

    oh.my.god!

    and

    It really doesn't suck

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Or not:

    I came away really angry, tired and sore after nearly three hours of banal bombardment

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I was being cool. It sets new standards, I think.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    That's what I'd heard.
    So, somewhere between

    oh.my.god!

    and

    I came away really angry, tired and sore

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • webweaver,

    Heh. I guess so... :)

    I think one response to seeing this movie may be something akin to how people felt when they saw the first-ever "moving pictures". It really is that mind-blowingly astonishing - both in the detail of Cameron's imaginary world (and how lovely that so much of the general flora is based on good old enzed) and also in the sheer scale of it. It is just HUGE.

    The 3D-ness is super-cool because it's not in your face ooh let's send something hurtling out of the screen at the audience - it's way more subtle than that. I read a review which described it as the reverse of the "stuff poking out of the screen at you" school of 3D movie-making, in that what it somehow does is give massive depth to each image on the screen - like looking through a window into an entirely real world.

    If for no other reason than that the technology is pretty impressive and the world is utterly beautiful, it's worth seeing.

    And (of course) I utterly loved the Gaian environmental message and the not-so-subtle digs at American imperialism. Fab!

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 332 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    I had the chance to watch "Avatar" in Oamaru today ( and I've been hanging out for that, as much as I have been for "Up."

    And, while drooling, thought - "Waua, it'd 3D, and you have fragile sight. And, double waua, you have a 7 and a half hour drive ahead of you *after the film*?

    O well.

    The dvd (s) then.

    Anyone know if anyone is concocting good quality 3D glasses?

    O, and Steven Crawford - family have got me some (and more Mac's Light, which is also excellent in the taste stakes, and 1% in alcohol.) Come summer, and I'm working hard physically, I love a cool beer. But I dont love the muzzy feeling that comes with fullstrength beer when I want to go on working-

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Mac's Light has always impressed me - way nicer taste than some of the 2.5% 'lite' beers. Means you can have a few without impairing your drive to the next event on the seasonal carousel. Cheers.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    And, while drooling, thought - "Waua, it'd 3D, and you have fragile sight. And, double waua, you have a 7 and a half hour drive ahead of you *after the film*?

    My eyes were sore after 2 hours 40 minutes -- I think this is going to be an issue with this kind of cinema. So I'd say you made the right decision.

    And I, also, nominate Mac's Light as my light beer of choice. It's good with food too.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • webweaver,

    Oh Islander I wish you could see it on the big screen! It really won't be the same on a little telly, believe me!

    Not all screenings are 3D (I think) - there are non-3D ones as well, although having said that, I didn't feel that the visual effects in 3D were too disturbing to one's visual equilibrium (not like old 3D movies were). It was more like... realer than real life. I felt a bit trippy afterwards (for a few minutes) but that may have been as much to do with the sheer scale of the thing as with the 3D-ness.

    Could you maybe make a night of it in Oamaru and drive home again the next day? It's worth it I reckon.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 332 posts Report Reply

  • pollywog,

    My eyes were sore after 2 hours 40 minutes -- I think this is going to be an issue with this kind of cinema.

    yeah funnily enough, there was a gap in the movie where i actually thought they were going to stop it and have a good old intermission...

    ...the other thing is, i kept taking the glasses off every now and then and was surprised to see some scenes arent 3D.

    somewhere else • Since Dec 2009 • 152 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    webweaver, "Avatar" sounds inutterably wonderful - and I *will* see it on a full screen 3D viewing - when it & me coincide-

    back home in Big O now, where I can be fairly certain that that coincidence isnt going to happen any time soon-

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    Re: Mac's Light- I only got to enjoy the drink early last month, courtesy of an amazing neighbour of mine (in Big O.) And she had to wait to working in my mother's Oamaru garden* to drop this relishum goodie on us!

    *Because she is one of Life's best people and just does this kind of stuff-

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • webweaver,

    Islander - yay! and phew! Very pleased to hear you will get to see it sometime.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 332 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Webweaver's comments a couple of streets over:

    That's a heck of a lot of money to spend on making a movie. But it's not as if the studios were going to give the money to Greenpeace or Oxfam or the Red Cross and decided to spend it on making Avatar instead.

    I loved it.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • webweaver,

    Heh. Thanks Sacha.

    I wasn't sure of the netiquette, so seeing as I was explicitly disagreeing with Geoff's POV I thought I should do it in the same thread as him, even though there's already this thread for discussing the movie :)

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 332 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    weaving

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

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