Red Letter Media

[Travoltron]

For whatever reason, the Jews were really good at making the best movies. What we have now are the talentless descendants of those men inheriting all those creative positions. Guys like Max Landis.

 

[Mega Black]

Aren't there plenty of Chinese films that are straight up propoganda porn featuring the evil Japs raping Chinese women and the noble Chinaman murdering them all?

Ip Man is basically just Chinese propaganda where a famous martial artists uses his functionally useless martial arts to fight a different Chinese enemy in every film. First he fights the rapist Japs, then the British imperialists, then Americans, and finally another bugman because only a bugman could rival a bugman.

 

[Protistology]

Ip Man is basically just Chinese propaganda where a famous martial artists uses his functionally useless martial arts to fight a different Chinese enemy in every film. First he fights the rapist Japs, then the British imperialists, then Americans, and finally another bugman because only a bugman could rival a bugman.

That's not a Chinese thing, it's a non-Western thing where Nationalism is still ok. Ong Bak is fantastic but the villains are in order: Australian, Japanese, Burmese, and a rich Thai. All in the same movie.

Seriously, watch Ong Bak. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXO1Vt06_4k

 

[Strange Wilderness]

So inspired by the re:view I watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I haven't seen it since I was a kid. Its still great. All of the effects, everything looks amazing. I didn't realise it was made by Disney, which is particularly hilarious since toon-town and toon logic is based primarily on Warner bros stuff.

I did a similar thing and watched Darkman when they did the ReView of it. Good movie but I was kinda spoiled by looking for the things the guys pointed out in their review of the movie.

Glad to see you liked Roger Rabbit its a pretty good film and it was cool to learn how they did all the practical effects for the humans interacting with Toons. I liked how they compared it to Back to the Future how everything set-up has a payoff either comedic or dramatic. Rodger going ballistic after taking a swig of booze finding out his wife is "cheating" on him let's Eddie figure out how to let Rodger escape Judge Doom when he catches him in the bar, and the quick photograph of Eddie and his brother working as clowns in a picture shown at the beginning pays off where Eddie uses his clowning skills to defeat the weasels at the end.

Also the film is free on Tubi for the rest of the month. If you want to watch it without sailing the pirate seas you have five days to see it with ads for free.

One question I have to ask: how many times did you rewind the scene when Eddie and Jessica get kicked out of the car and for a brief split-second you can see up Jessica's dress? Much like Basic Instinct where Sharon Stone uncrosses her legs while wearing a skirt, many VHS players were destroyed by people repeatedly rewinding that scene over and over again.

I also didn't realise Kathleen Kennedy was involved in this. One thing I don't get, she in one way or another was involved in many of the greatest movies to come out of the 80s, yet she seems to have completely fucked Star Wars in the 2020s. I don't understand how both of those things are true.

I suspect some of it has to do with Spielberg reigning her in. At one point Spielberg had his head on straight and knew how to make well made, intelligent, crowd-pleasing films that brought in piles of money. Every time she had a dumb idea Spielberg was there to smack it down and say "that's not a good idea for this film. It's dumb and will lose us shekels". Cut loose and on her own there was no one to stand over her and say "thats a dumb idea drop it". The Disney CEOs and Board of Directors did nothing to actually supervise her and make sure she was treating their acquisition of Star Wars well and they were rewarded with a dead franchise.

I'd say plenty of the franchise's current sorry condition is her fault. Plenty.

View attachment 3426074

I'd say Star Wars went into the toilet under her not just because of feminism and SJW pandering, that's part of it but not the sole reason the franchise wound up in the toilet. She picked crappy directors to helm the movies, didn't supervise them or have any real plan for the franchise, and micromanaged at the last minute when she got wind that things weren't going how she wanted them. She failed to manage the people under her properly and they made garbage without any kind of plan or direction. Star Wars went into the toilet mainly because she was asleep at switch not just because of her feminist pandering.

Sources mentioned at the time that it was also her that ultimately ordered the rewrites and reshoots of Kenobi, and look what that got us. I'd say her inability to let people make the movies and shows they want to make (outside of Rian Johnson for some fucking reason) is a huge reason why Star Wars is in the state that it is. It is writing by committee at its absolute worst.

It's a testament to her incompetence that for Solo her original choice for the directors were Phil Lord and Chris Miller; comedy directors famous for writing parody's that poke fun of cliches. Only when they were 90% of the way through she realized that hiring the writers and directors of Clone High, 21 Jumpstreet and the Lego Movie wasn't the best idea and had to scramble to salvage the movie.

 

[Bush King]

It's a testament to her incompetence that for Solo her original choice for the directors were Phil Lord and Chris Miller; comedy directors famous for writing parody's that poke fun of cliches. Only when they were 90% of the way through she realized that hiring the writers and directors of Clone High, 21 Jumpstreet and the Lego Movie wasn't the best idea and had to scramble to salvage the movie.

Probably the most brain-numbing situation to come out of this whole mess. That right there would be a "pack your bags" moment for me. You just made a movie, it's finishing up and entering post-production, and now you want to start over because you didn't do the most basic fucking investigation into what kind of movies they made. Did she even watch dailies? It would be patently fucking obvious to a moron what kind of film they were making if she was paying any attention. The amount of money lost on that room-temp IQ mistake wouldn't be less than a hundred million, surely.

 

[Flexo]

Only when they were 90% of the way through she realized that hiring the writers and directors of Clone High, 21 Jumpstreet and the Lego Movie wasn't the best idea and had to scramble to salvage the movie.

I dunno.... given the movie we got, it might have been better to stick with those guys.

Though I don't know if I'll ever forgive them for not hiring Anthony Ingruber.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

I never knew about the proof of concept for a 3d-animation Roger Rabbit. Now I'm saddened that I know it exists.

I sortof hope they talk about the Chip n' Dale movie at least a little more as an aside. I knew literally nothing about that movie, because I don't give a shit about anything Disney, but if the original sonic movie design is not only a gag but a plot-relevant character, that's almost novel enough to make up for what I'm sure is mostly a movie filled with dated references and REMEMBER THIS? gags. And, hopefully, background cameos by the clockwork orange rapists.

Originally, it was Jar Jar.

 

[Newman's Lovechild]

Every time she had a dumb idea Spielberg was there to smack it down and say "that's not a good idea for this film. It's dumb and will lose us shekels". Cut loose and on her own there was no one to stand over her and say "thats a dumb idea drop it".

Well she showed Spielberg. Nobody was going to smack down her ideas anymore and she made sure they were as dumb as possible.

 

[Mola Ram]

I'd say Star Wars went into the toilet under her not just because of feminism and SJW pandering, that's part of it but not the sole reason the franchise wound up in the toilet.

Oh, no doubt. But one thing that sometimes goes unspoken about a franchise going woke is that even talented people who know how to tell a story or make a good product wind up sabotaging themselves because the elements that go into making something worthwhile take a backseat to The Message. Rian Johnson taking a fat dump on both well-established lore from the older movies and plot hooks from TFA was acceptable -- or more likely, overlooked -- because he happily gave us Admiral Gender Studies and emasculated Luke. Having the first in a series of KK stand-ins as the sequel trilogy's protagonist papered over the jaw-dropping failure to do any interesting worldbuilding or new story elements that might have taken place between Episodes VI and VII. It's not really very different from the creatively bankrupt executive who insists on more explosions, car chases, and tits because that's what gets asses in the seats, except that what KK wants is several orders of magnitude less interesting and (most perversely) calculated to piss off a significant chunk of the audience.

 

[Preferred Penne]

One question I have to ask: how many times did you rewind the scene when Eddie and Jessica get kicked out of the car and for a brief split-second you can see up Jessica's dress? Much like Basic Instinct where Sharon Stone uncrosses her legs while wearing a skirt, many VHS players were destroyed by people repeatedly rewinding that scene over and over again.

For me it was the scene where Jessica is asking for Eddie's help and pushes her tits up against him.

 

[Pokemonquistador2]

That part where they're talking about the CG in the Hobbit movie, and Ian McKellen is having a breakdown in an all green room is depressing. How demoralizing, to try and act under those circumstances. To have some director yelling instructions at you while you stare at a picture of another actor taped to a wall, trying to interact with it as though he were really with you, feeding off your reactions. CG really has become a curse in many ways.

One thing I realize after watching the Roger Rabbit review is that it would be impossible for the film to be made today. You just can't emulate 1940's Era 2-D animation using modern methods. A 3-D model (either CG'd or cel-shaded) just wouldn't look right, because you're constrained by the parameters of the model and by the movement of the motion capture animation. True 2-D stretches and has an elastic quality to it. I've seen 3D enhanced 2D, where 2D animators animate over the 3D models to give them more organic movement, but that requires effort that Disney probably wouldn't expend these days. The Disney Renaissance of the 80s-90s was a special time when movie makers really wanted to capture the glory days of 40's era animation, and computers had finally made a lot of the processes involved with traditional animation cheap enough to do on a large scale. Roger Rabbit was basically these moviemakers' love letter to Golden Age animation (specifically, that made by the Warner Brothers and Tex Avery.)

Writing has also degraded since Roger Rabbit. Imagine writing the Chip and Dale: Gadget Fucks a Bug movie and having to spell out in detail every joke and reference because your social media-addled target audience wouldn't be able to figure it out otherwise. I hate humor that references topical, flash in the pan shit. Even when Disney did that kind of thing in the original 2D Aladdin movie, it was cringy. Roger Rabbit didn't need to stop the action cold to explain what the "cattle call" joke with all the cows was about. It assumed you in the audience had absorbed enough culture at large to know a few basic things about the moviemaking business, or had at least watched a few movies set in (or made during) the golden age of Hollywood. Modern Hollywood is too busy trying to shove Negros into every nook and cranny of entertainment media to figure out how basic audience expectation is supposed to work.

 

[Newman's Lovechild]

I hate humor that references topical, flash in the pan shit. Even when Disney did that kind of thing in the original 2D Aladdin movie, it was cringy.

I can't remember any. The split-second Arnie and Arsenio references?

 

[Introvertigo]

Patreon Update:

Currently Editing...
We're currently editing our second Obi-Wan Kenobi re:View, which covers the last two episodes. Coming soon! We just have to make sure our check from Disney doesn't bounce first.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

I can't remember any. The split-second Arnie and Arsenio references?

Genie makes a lot of references, but they’re all mainly impressions, and you only get them if you know them. They don’t stop the film to go “hey, I’m making a joke about this actor!” whereas Mouse-Bug Sex explains every. Single. Joke.

 

[Fag Albert]

That part where they're talking about the CG in the Hobbit movie, and Ian McKellen is having a breakdown in an all green room is depressing. How demoralizing, to try and act under those circumstances. To have some director yelling instructions at you while you stare at a picture of another actor taped to a wall, trying to interact with it as though he were really with you, feeding off your reactions. CG really has become a curse in many ways.

So I don't know if the hobbit was an overall negative experience for McKellen, but I can definitely understand. Comparing the last time he played the role, Lord of the Rings used a lot more in the way of practical effects and the sets seemed a lot more complete (Stuff like the cart and the dinner table come to mind). While you still saw blue/green screen rooms, it seemed to be less common and more often there would just be a screen set up on location.

It's gotta be heartbreaking going from that to green screen rooms with a little scenery.

 

[Comicsgeist]

I dunno.... given the movie we got, it might have been better to stick with those guys.

Though I don't know if I'll ever forgive them for not hiring Anthony Ingruber.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=bba_wPdLxp4

Let's not forget that Lord and Miller made Into the Spiderverse, one of the best cape shit movies of the past decade and one that both respected cannon and told a good story.
Clearly Kennedy has no idea what she's doing.

 

[Bush King]

So I don't know if the hobbit was an overall negative experience for McKellen, but I can definitely understand. Comparing the last time he played the role, Lord of the Rings used a lot more in the way of practical effects and the sets seemed a lot more complete (Stuff like the cart and the dinner table come to mind). While you still saw blue/green screen rooms, it seemed to be less common and more often there would just be a screen set up on location.

It's gotta be heartbreaking going from that to green screen rooms with a little scenery.

It was definitely comparable to Star Wars in that you went from fairly big budget blockbusters that got every red cent from their location scouts and set designers to just 90% of it being green screened. PJ was still a fine film craftsman, but it showed that he didn't want to be doing it anymore and the studio was ensuring that things were done a certain way.

Edoras was a full built set in the middle of New Zealand, they were ecstatic when they found a single hill on a plain. Helm's Deep was a miniature for wides, a full built half scale set for close up CGI and then they built full scale sets for close up live action shots. Minas Tirith as a whole was a miniature, then full scale for the streets. Even when they used CGI, the original films were pioneers where appropriate. The only reason you see films today with gigantic amounts of background extras is because of LotR- Weta Digital created MASSIVE to script millions of CGI actors independently. Endgame used it extensively, so 26 years after it was invented it's still ubiquitous, probably the production's single biggest lasting contribution to the world besides New Zealand's tourism industry.

 

[Mola Ram]

Minas Tirith as a whole was a miniature, then full scale for the streets.

Don't forget when we're talking "miniatures" for those films, we're talking models so huge they called them "bigatures." The amount of care and craftsmanship on display is jawdropping.

 

[Bush King]

Don't forget when we're talking "miniatures" for those films, we're talking models so huge they called them "bigatures." The amount of care and craftsmanship on display is jawdropping. View attachment 3430646

When I watched this shit as a tween it got me into making dioramas. I really wanted to make the webs from Shelob's Lair too, but that was a definite "NO" from dad.

Just to compare sizes:


Minas Tirith Miniature versus Digital Composite of the Miniature and Ian McKellen in New Zealand's plains


The pieces of Barad-dûr, which were too tall for the studio and had to be build separately


And the Helm's Deep Miniature, 1/4th Bigiature set with Digital Composite, and a full scale section of the wall used for close up action.

 

[nosemouth]

Kennedy's contributions amounted to standing in the vicinity of the men who made all the great movies she was a "producer" on. Notice how terrible she is when she's on her own.