wingedbeast | Entries tagged with thecase

Note: There was a sequel long after the original. I did not watch that. I've heard of some kind of interactive online fiction. This Case won't take either of those into account. It only references the original movie that we have.

War Games, for those who did not experience the 80s, was the movie in which a Highschool student and early computer gamer nearly causes the nuclear apocalypse. It's a good movie and I would not suggest replacing it. In a decaded marked by a debate over nuclear weapons and shadowed by a cold-war policy of preserving life through the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction, this was a movie with something to say about how we, as a nation, responded.
( Read more... )

I've given some thought to how Bright fails as a meditation on racism and bigotry. I am not the only one to do so. For a far better explanation of the failures, please see Lindsay Ellis's video essay on the topic*. Or, you can also see the What Went Wrong installment on the movie from Wisecrack**. Both express failures of philosophy and Lindsay goes into the failures of world-building as well.

For the purpose of having a world with different demographics to be subject of various kinds of prejudice, bigotry, social expectation, etc., I present a work of S. Andrew Swan. Dragons of the Cuyahoga
( Read more... )

Before I go into this I want to note three things.

Firstly, RedSixWing gave me the basic idea. Thank you.

Secondly, in comments over on Slacktivist, Dragoness_E gave me a good note on how not to go forward. Thank you.

Both of you had a big influence in how this turned out.

Thirdly, Seed of Bismuth didn't like how I did this, but did have their own thoughts. I would have stolen them for another Case, but there was talk of maybe doing a webcomic and I really want to see how that would go.

That said, for our Extended Cinematic Universe, we've established the world and the conflict and now can roll on into a stage wherein both sides are actively recruiting. And, that can make the premise of some movies.
( Read more... )

Hopefully, at this point we have two good movies to the project. And, we have three... and a half characters to start. By this point, the movies have either failed or they're successful enough that we've earned audience good-will enough to start pushing for the connected universe. With that in mind, we can *now*, not straight from the beginning, start making movies with the specific end of a combined effort.

Towards that end, let's bring in another major bad guy.

1999 brought us The Mummy, which was an alright action/adventure with comedy elements. It amused... but it really didn't take the idea seriously. 2017 took the idea seriously, but attempted to make Tom Cruz into a god... literally... and no.

Fair warning, I only know the original movie based on a Wiki-summary. I can see how that makes for a good movie, but I want to try something else, something based on who was mummified, why, and what's happened since that mummification.
( Read more... )

To remind of the theme of the Cases I'm going with, the idea is that I think that there is artistic and entertainment value to be had in a Universal Monster Extended Cinematic Universe. Two previous attempts, Dracula Untold and The Mummy have failed at that attempt... largely on the basis that they just weren't good movies.

Last time, I worked with Dracula as a source material (though, arguably the idea can work with just about any vampire). The important point was to make sure that it was a good stand-alone movie. Elements could be expanded later, but there shouldn't be any effort to tease for future movies before we know there's a good movie in the first place.

We're going to keep with the stand-alone effort and, now, move from Dracula to another classic horror villain. The previous was large and powerful and impossible to fully defeat because it was so big. Let's focus a little smaller with this one, on the strange case of a young student of psychology, looking to become a doctor.

Did I over play the foreshadowing? I think so. Let's look at Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
( Read more... )

Universal wants their own extended universe franchise. I get it. Marvel shows that can be done well. DC shows that, even if not done well, that can be done profitably. And, it should be noted that Universal has done this before. Way back when we were just getting into those Universal Movie Monsters, Dracula met the Wolfman. Dracula met Frankenstein (well, really the monster but the guy needs a name). The Mummy met Abbot and Costello.

(And, Abbot and Costello were monsters. Make no mistake. Dracula can just hypnotize you and drain your blood. Abbot and Costello had truly Lovecraftian powers. They had the power to twist math and make 13X7=21. Though, I don't think they'll make it into the extended universe.)

It's worked for them before. It will work for them again. And, I have no doubt that they'll try it again. I don't see why they shouldn't. But, they should take care. First, to take it one movie at a time. Secondly, they should make use of the opportunities such an attempt would provide them.

In that vei... In that effort, I'll start with Dracula.
( Read more... )

This is a rather obscure one from the 1980's. I just don't hear anybody talking about it anymore and... that's just as well. I did enjoy this movie, repeatedly. I'd watch it over and over again because, and this is important, I was a child who liked repetition. When the sequel came to cable, I watched it and enjoyed on the basis of a movie that was bad enough to be amusing in its own right.

Of movies from the 80's, there are better movies to be remembered. Then again, a movie doesn't need to reach heights of art. It just needs to be amusing enough to be worth what you paid to see it, especially if it's on cable and that cost was shared with a great deal of much better entertainment.

For those who, quite reasonably, don't know, Mannequin is the story of an artist and the bit of anthropomoriphized plastic he falls in love with... Really.

Okay, there's a more generous description. There are two main characters.
( Read more... )

There's a point about this movie that I wasn't aware of until it was pointed out in the comments of my deconstruction of Brave New World. Namely, Demolition Man puts an action-adventure movie into a society that approximates that of Brave New World. That's the quick premise and you can see how that's worth a story. Take an old, action-adventure shoot-em-up and transplant the characters into such a society and look at how they'll both react.

It would... be better if the movie didn't make the same mistake as Huxley, himself.
( Read more... )

Last week, we looked at Mad Max, the first movie in the franchise. It's also the most low-key movie in the franchise. If you think about Mad Max, the franchise, you're likely going to think about the crazier set. If you think about Mad Max, you think about a certain style and spirit of post-apocalyptic movie. You're not thinking about the original tragedy of a man trying to resist the pull into monstrosity only to give fully in when his family is taken from him.

If it weren't for the production dates, one could be forgiven for thinking that Mad Max was an alright movie, but mainly a prequel of The Road Warrior with the standard issues that plague prequels.

For those who haven't seen it, The Road Warrior is the story of Max (the one that's significantly angry) finding himself stuck in a conflict between two sides.
( Read more... )

I want to be clear with this one. These Cases that I make aren't all efforts to get rid of the original. Early on in this series, I did a Case for re-remaking The Day The Earth Stood Still and, if at all possible, I will not allow that original to go away. Sometimes there are problems with the original that should be addressed in retelling. Sometimes, it's simply the case that there's more to be done with the idea.

In this case, it's both.

I want the original franchize to remain. All the movies are enjoyable. Yes, I even want to hold onto "Beyond Thunderdome", even with its kind of mess.

That said, the concept as a whole does have its issues and does have some untapped potential.
( Read more... )

Okay, I could make a Case for remaking the Transformers movie. There's enough material there for me to expound upon the problems and enough potential there for a good story to happen in its place. But, that's one of the problems of the movie that we have.

On the one hand, there's the story of a plucky NSA contractor computer tech which becomes a story that has, among other things, the bare bones of a potentially good serious M-I-B style movie. On the next hand, we have a military squad in a story that has, among other things, the bare bones of a potentially good Predator style movie. Then, there's two teens in a story that has, among other things, the bare bones of a coming of age story of self-actualization. Oh, and by the way, there are transformers doing... something.

That's four hands, four stories for a single movie. I'm not going to say that this many stories can't be done in a single movie. That has been done much better than this movie. I am going to say that Michael Bay can't do it.

Of course, he couldn't do any one of the stories right in the first place. Michael Bay lacks respect... for anybody... or anything.
( Read more... )

For those who are not aware of the 1980s classic, "Revenge of the Nerds" is the story of Lambda Lambda Lambda's quest for revenge against their abusers.

The stage is quickly set. Using the 80s tropes, Lambda Lambda Lambda is a fraternity peopled by those who would be labeled "nerds", "dorks", and "geeks" interchangeably. For the most part, they're intelligent, technically minded, with interests in science, chess, and the less socially desired musical instruments. They also included a gay member, an immigrant with a thick accent, and one nicknamed "Booger". They interact among themselves quite well, but face social censure for who they are, despite causing no harm.

Their rival fraternity, the Alpha-Betas, are made up of the athletically accomplished. Or, in simpler terms, they're "jocks". Early in the movie, the Alpha-Betas burn down their building, quickly blaming that on faulty wiring, and are given the Lambda house. This isn't enough, they continue to humiliate the Lambda fraternity to the point of a mass-physical assault, which prompts an important question.

Louis Skolnick, the leader of the Nerds throughout the movie, asks the question. "What did we ever do to you?"

The response was "You were born."
( Read more... )

A little backstory, because I don't know that there is a name for this Trope and I'm not about to get lost in a TVTropes search in order to find it. It comes from the comments in another webpage, wherein I had promoted the posts on my blog. Someone had noted that there is a common sexist trope that can happen in some of these kinds of movies. A woman makes ready to do a man's job and is shown to be silly for thinking she can do such a thing.

In some ways, our culture have already addressed this trope. The more common trope, these days, is that the woman announces her intention and, indeed, achieves that which sets out to accomplish. In fact, we've moved past that to a point where, sometimes, the trope is how outdated it is to even need to prove such a thing. The narrative either reaches a point where the protagonist outgrows the desire to prove herself to someone else or reacts, initially, with the roll of the eyes such a demand deserves.

Even so, we can still put in our own response. And, I dare to say that the 60's/70's style screwball comedy is exactly where we should put it.

My proposal is we set up something like a bet.
( Read more... )

The Assassination Bureau, for those who haven't seen it, is the 1969 comedy about the chairman of the company sharing it's name with the movie and the lady journalist who has a plan to address their existence. The journalist, Sonya Winter, gains the financial backing of a newspaper, sets up a meeting with the Bureau. She finds that her meeting is with the chairman of the Bureau, one Ivan Dragomiloff, and uses the occasion to ask for a contract on Ivan Dragomiloff. He obviously sets a high price which she meets and he, much to her surprise, accepts.

The reason that he accepts a contract is where this has the potential to get interesting. In a board meeting with his international board, he takes the other members to task. What had been founded, by Ivan's own father, as a means of ridding the world of evil, via careful judgment of anybody they're asked to kill, had changed. It seems that you can make the moral case for killing anybody and, once that's the case, financial reward is its own justification.

The contract on himself gives him a means, within the bylaws of the Bureau, of addressing that issue and returning the Bureau to what he sees as a place of upstanding morality. Because the contract was proposed, paid in appropriate price (some 20,000 lb, in pre-WWI money), and accepted, either the other board members must kill him or he must kill them.
( Read more... )

Time After Time, for those who have the bad luck to not have seen the movie and the good luck not to have seen the recent attempt at a television series, is the story of H.G. Wells and Jack the Ripper transported from their time to the (at the time of filming) present. Conflict and out-of-time drama commences.

In the movie, Doctor Stevenson reveals to his good friend, H.G. Wells, that he is the feared and infamous Jack the Ripper. Shortly after that, and shortly after discovering that said friend has really designed a real time-travel device, he uses that time-travel device to escape capture by the police.

Again in the movie, the reason H.G. Wells creates his time machine, iconic to the very one in his story of the same movie, for the purpose of going to his predicted Utopian future. Instead, he has to go in pursuit of his... the word "frenemy" actually applies.

In that future they both come to, in the movie that being approximately 1979, both are surprised by what they find. They don't find the utopia, exactly. In fact, they find a world that has, in some ways, degraded. In both versions, the Jack the Ripper character expresses, to Wells, the line that "[Then], I was a freak. Today, I am an amateur."
( Read more... )

No, I'm not talking about the cartoon. I will be focusing on the original. Yes, you can thank Barney Stinson.

"The Karate Kid", for those who have seen neither the original nor the remake, is the story of a kid with a single mother moving to a new location, having the social problems associated with being the odd one out and the new kid, as well as dealing with the trouble of a violently aggressive bully. Seeing that he's going down a bad path, one elderly gentleman of Japanese descent takes it upon himself to teach the lad Karate, the same martial art as said bully.

Barney Stinson, the character in "How I Met Your Mother", popularized an interpretation of the original movie and others have taken that to heart. In that view, the lead character, Daniel, is the bad guy of the movie. The real good guy is the one that the movie would have us believe to be the bad guy, one Johnny Lawrence, the bully who, at one point, violently beats Daniel. And, I'll go so far as to say that they're half-right.
( Read more... )

I actually watched this movie for this post. I watched this movie. I watched A Matter of Faith. This is a good time to note that I have a Patreon account*. If you like what I do, please share this page with others and, if you can, become a patron. Because, I repeat, I watched A Matter of Faith. My Netflix queue will now have "Because you watched A Matter of Faith" on it. I should be compensated, somehow.

I watched this movie because I've seen other reviews. The two over at The Bible Reloaded did an "Atheists Watch" post on it. The three at God Awful Movies gave it a full breakdown, as did Captain Cassidy over at the Roll To Disbeleive blog. And, they all make their good points. That means that I come to this movie with certain expectations and certain points already being made and expectations set ahead of time. Whether that means my suffering was prolonged or I didn't give this movie a fair chance is up to you to decide.
( Read more... )

The Prophecy has a nebulous place in film-going memory. If you've heard of it, your primary point of interest is, likely, Christopher Walken. Why wouldn't it be? Christopher Walken has a voice and a cadence that... somehow works with almost any role he takes on. And, there are some lines, here, that work only because Christopher Walken says them.

Gabriel: Do you know how you got that dent, in your top lip? Way back, before you were born, I told you a secret, then I put my finger there and I said "Shhhhh!"

( Read more... )

If you know the premise of "I Dream of Jeannie", you know the premise of "Bewitched". They're not identical. It's just nigh-impossible to have a conversation about one in which the other does not feature. "Bewitched" came first and "I Dream of Jeannie" came next, on a different network, copying for a similar concept.

Still, what came out is quite different. "Bewitched" shows something of a sense of a culture's understanding of gender norms and class norms (Thank you, Evan Tarlton, for giving me that.) in comparison to "I Dream of Jeannie"'s more aggressive wish-fulfillment (no pun intended).

"Bewitched" is the sit-com about Darren and Samantha Stephens. Darren is an every-day, ordinary, every-man (so long as you limit that to middle-class White Anglo-Saxon Protestants). Samantha is a goddess with nigh-unlimited power to create life from thin-air, invade minds, and subject mere mortals to horrific transformations... or, to use the show's language, a witch.
( Read more... )

I... think I can forego my usual explanation for those who aren't aware. I won't. Remember how I'm in love with the sound of my own text. But, I could.

"I Dream of Jeannie" is the classic sitcom about Major Tony Nelson, an astronaut, and the Djin he meets after splashdown from a mission has him long off his expected target. By accident he releases her from a bottle. He immediately recognizes that she is what we call, in modern days, a genie and says, to himself, that he has read about them, and immediately sets to making wishes in the hopes of getting back home and/or back to NASA.

If you have read of the Djin, including the powerful ones that need to be bound inside vessels, you should know that wishes aren't something to rush into. Part of what you should have read involves stories of wicked tricksters. Or, spirits resentfully bound into service. Neither of these bodes well for how they will choose to go about granting your wish.

Of course, you should also know that they're not certain to have great magical powers. They can be spirits of fire or air. That's why the popular image of a genie is that of a person from the waist up and a dust-devil from the waist down.

None of all of that applies to "I Dream of Jeannie", of course. It's just a silly situation comedy about an everyman, his wacky neighbor, and the nigh-omnipotent deity which the everyman controls and eventually marries.
( Read more... )