Escape to the Movies: Knight and Day ... also Smurfs

Summerstorm

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Sep 19, 2008
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Wait... they are making (or already MADE) a smurfs movie... set in New York? WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME? To the torches and pitchforks.

But seriously: WHAT? This confuses AND INFURIATES ME.
 

Baradiel

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Mar 4, 2009
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Didn't know the Smurfs were from Belgium. I remember loving them, anyway.

Also, I'd find an Americanised Dangermouse to be worse than bad. It'd be insulting.

These things were my childhood! LEAVE THEM ALONE!
 

yarnman

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Sep 26, 2009
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for the record I was born in 91 and I've seen both Romancing The Stone and Jewel of The Nile and loved them both
 

madman24k

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Nov 11, 2009
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appearantly, they're in new york because Gargemel chased them through some sort of magical wormhole that transported them from their magical real to the big apple.. just going by what i saw at imdb though
 

Falseprophet

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Jan 13, 2009
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Not G. Ivingname said:
Are we really that desperate to revive old 80's cartoons into movies that we have to dig out the SMURFS? Really? Wasn't Scooby Doo, Transformers, and Alvin and the Chimpmucks any idication that they aren't a good idea. Wait, nevermind, no matter the stupid reason, those movies somehow made embarressing amounts of money.
It's a can't-lose formula: they already have successful merchandise lines tied in, you bring in the parents out of nostalgia, and the kids like it because they have no taste. (Yes, even you when you were a kid. Admit it like I had to--80s cartoons were crap. With a few exceptions like G.I. Joe that were written half tongue-in-cheek.)

Just like the romantic action comedy is just a marketing formula: (stunts + explosions = male audience) + (attractive people + witty banter + romantic ending = female audience) + exotic locales = profitable date movie!

Ekonk said:
Belgians are like Canadians, they won't be pissed.
(sigh) Sadly, you're right, because the few Canadian creators who even know our history are willing to prostitute it to Hollywood [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Donnellys]. Except Paul Gross--he's a true patriot.
 

Cody211282

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Apr 25, 2009
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OBZ said:
Bob, I never realized how adept you are at ignoring me. Review "Unthinkable"!! Also, I don't see Tom Cruise as a sub-par actor now. He's the same dude except no one wants to give the great roles anymore because of his performance on Oprah. It's stupid. He's crazy, who cares? Let him act dammit!
Only problem is noone wants to see him act anymore, they have given him a few good roles and the movies still tank.
 

random123456789

Sir Grand Boogie Master
Mar 17, 2009
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I no he did, I watched it. I don't see what that has to do with what i asked. Yes, there was a good movie but I was wondering the ratio of good to bad movies he has to watch
 

whycantibelinus

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Sep 29, 2009
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I just read the wikipedia and what Bob strategically neglects to tell you is that the Smurfs movie starts out in medieval times and then they get swept into some sort of magical vortex that transports them to New York and the movie is about them trying to get back. So it's not really a complete bastardization, just kind of a not so great story idea.
 

MortisLegio

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Nov 5, 2008
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WHY DID THEY MAKE A SMURFS MOVIE? and why is every* movie set in New York or LA?
pick somewhere else

*most movies with large cities (it seems to me) are set in those cities
 

_Cake_

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Apr 5, 2009
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Knight and Day looks like a fake movie. Like the trailer looks like a joke and let me guess one of there last names is Knight >_> It looks impressively bland.
 

MovieBob

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Dec 31, 2008
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By and large, American movies are set in NY/LA because the "infrastructure" to make them is already there: There are large "communities" of actors, filmmakers and equipment technicians already living/working in those cities, so you theoretically save money on moving personnel.

The dirty secret, of course, is that even then it's STILL too expensive to shoot in any one exterior location in almost any American city for very long, so 90% of the "nonspecific" city scenes you'll see in American movies were actually shot in TORONTO regardless of where it's supposed to be taking place (and if it's a really, REALLY low-budget genre feature, they probably shot it in Prague.)
 

Valthek

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Aug 25, 2008
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Belgian here

As stated earlier: there's almost NO advertising here for that movie. Not even a hit in the magazines, no posters, no trailers... nothing. Maybe they're afraid of offending our cultural herritage (hahah.. not likely)

I don't really mind the whole idea of hollywood taking the smurfs and raping them with a cactus. But that's probably because i never really cared for them. But you make a very good point: WHY NY. They are indeed as belgian as waffles or fries, so it would indeed make sense for them to appear in Belgium.. or europe, if you have too.

Besides, the smurfs live in a medieval time-period.. you know, the kind that never existed in the US and A. So not only are they swept forward in time, but they also translocate to a completely different continent.
 

Deacon Cole

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Jan 10, 2009
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It's kind of a shame you are unable to enjoy a decent if derivative movie, Bob. They can't all be winners.

As for Smurfs... I totally agree about Gummi Bears. It looks like the Smurfs movie will be the most awful thing since Cat in the Hat. This should be the tag line: "The Smurf movie is set in modern day New York City. Fuck you."

Also, I take it this means we won't be getting a review of Jonah Hex. Too bad. I was kind of looking forward to it. Your review, that is.

As for Seth Rogen as the Green Hornet, I had to google him to find out who that is. Fortunately, that turned up a trailer for GH. I don't know about having a comedy actor in the role. However, I don't know much about the character other than watching the serial when I used to own it on VHS (which had Keye Luke as Kayto delivering the awful line "You saved my wife!" after the Hornet rescued him.) That and the Green Hornet, aside from being a descendant of the Lone Ranger, and therefore a then-modern day version of the character.

But, if you were to ask me what the character was like, I could not tell you because the Green Hornet is a piece of dry white toast. There is nothing interesting about the character itself. The trailer looks like they try their damnedest to make something out of it, even if the Hornet is something of a buffoon. Buffoon or not, he also looks like he's effective as well, which is a plus. Even if he's being clearly upstaged by Kayto in that department.

So I don't know. The movie looks interesting despite being another fucking origin story, something that needs to fucking die in super hero movies. (In six movies, the origin of Batman was covered in like three of them. Enough, already. We get it. He's whiny because his parents are dead.) I kind of like the change of heart in Rogen's character although origin stories mean large chunks of a super hero movie where the super hero is neither. So, we'll see how it plays. The wisecracking is better than the vacuous nonentity. I will say that much.
 

VanityGirl

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Apr 29, 2009
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Movie Bob, I'd really like to know what you thought of Jonah Hex. Besides Megan Fox being in it, was it at least an enjoyable movie or maybe even interesting?

And I kind of wanted to see Knight and Day, but I'll wait till the DVD release.

Seth Rogan as the Green Hornet? Meh, could work.
 

Not G. Ivingname

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Nov 18, 2009
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Falseprophet said:
Not G. Ivingname said:
Are we really that desperate to revive old 80's cartoons into movies that we have to dig out the SMURFS? Really? Wasn't Scooby Doo, Transformers, and Alvin and the Chimpmucks any idication that they aren't a good idea. Wait, nevermind, no matter the stupid reason, those movies somehow made embarressing amounts of money.
It's a can't-lose formula: they already have successful merchandise lines tied in, you bring in the parents out of nostalgia, and the kids like it because they have no taste. (Yes, even you when you were a kid. Admit it like I had to--80s cartoons were crap. With a few exceptions like G.I. Joe that were written half tongue-in-cheek.)

Just like the romantic action comedy is just a marketing formula: (stunts + explosions = male audience) + (attractive people + witty banter + romantic ending = female audience) + exotic locales = profitable date movie!
True... sadly. That is the state of movies isn't it? This "Moviepacolipse" (anybody who gets that reference gets a cookie) we live in where creativity and originality are either forgotten or out right shunned when old properties garrentee some degree of profit. Only beckons of hope we have is Pixar (mostly because Disney has given them a life time "Do what every the #%@# you want card" because of how much money they roll in annually) and the up coming Inception.

Please let Inception be the next District 9's quality meets Avatar's profits, it is our only hope.
 

Not G. Ivingname

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Nov 18, 2009
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VanityGirl said:
Movie Bob, I'd really like to know what you thought of Jonah Hex. Besides Megan Fox being in it, was it at least an enjoyable movie or maybe even interesting?
I think he will review that next week.