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I'm pretty sure Lindsey did have a body double. You never actually saw her face and cans at the same time. I questioned this earlier in this thread, but thin king back, I'm pretty sure those nice assets weren't her actual assets.
No, you can see in these pictures those are definitely her assets. Those hair extensions, not so much.
I was thinking about the pool scene...but, yeah, those look nice...and definitely hers' although store bought, most likely...not that makes her a bad person...
I was thinking about the pool scene...but, yeah, those look nice...and definitely hers' although store bought, most likely...not that makes her a bad person...
Those don't look store-bought to me. I think thems are factory originals.
Watching this right now. Two thirds done. What a waste of talent. This isn't a movie. It's a commercial. How else can one explain all these name actors, but a ten million budget? I'm expecting Dick Cheney to pop out as the real villein any time. And man, I don't mind some stereotyping, but this is a joke. These actors should be embarrassed they took part in this.
Bouncing cars! Is this for real? This movie is actually bad enough to make me not want to watch movies anymore. Alba looks hot, but the world has youtube, no need to sit through two hours of this. Hey, the bionic man sound! Cool. Nice job, Hollywood. Unbelievable.
So, I take it you really loved this flick, huh, Kev?
I think it's pretty clear that peeps are either going to appreciate this for what it is, or hate it. It's definitely not for everyone and is not intended to be. One of the biggest reasons why a large budget shouldn't be employed.
This had a $10.5 Million budget and pulled in $44 Million WW, so it did well, although many saw it as a box office disappointment. There's a limited built in audience though, even with the star power it boasted.
Let me just start, Jeff, by saying I am the grandchild of immigrants, from an immigrant city with a heavy hispanic population. I am pro immigration, and I think we should welcome in Latinos. I've been to Mexico in the border towns, and wow do I understand why they come here. I don't blame them. So I have no problem with a movie whose premise is that Mexican immigration is good.
But this movie paints a world of cartoonish contrasts which insults the audience's intelligence. Was there even one white person in it that was not either evil or a buffoon? Is it that hard to understand that people can be pro immigration and at the same time want to control the border? Do we have to portray all people who think that this is common sense(most of the American public BTW) as being corrupt, murderous red necks?
Ok. If that's the presumption here, let's go with it. Since this is Simply 'Scripts', let's look at it from the script perspective. This script is so bad, it doesn't even seem like a first draft. It actually seems like it was largely thrown together while they were shooting. The plot is laughable. Not going to go into, but it's a joke. But we really kills me is the dialogue. Ok, the message they're trying to get across is that immigration, legal or otherwise, is simply a great thing, no one should question it, and anyone who does is a malicious idiot. We can get that very easily from the story. But they don't want to take any chances that stupid white people will miss the point, so they keep hammering it home in preachy, on the nose dialogue. I mean over and over. Who pays ten dollars to be preached to? By morons?
Then that last scene, with the exaggerated bouncing ghetto cars, sexy girls jumping out of ambulances with machine guns...for the love of God!
Let me guess what happened here. With the Arizona illegal alien law recently put in place firing everyone in Hollywood up, the director rushed to put this together. I know it was from a spoof trailer from Grindhouse, but it doesn't seem like they had a script ready. I'm thinking with the issue hot, the director went around and got fast track financing for this, signed up sympathetic actors, and hashed together this awful movie. They probably wrote scenes at the hotel on location while getting wasted.
It made money because the idea looked cool and was heavily promoted. I thought it looked cool. It made less then they thought because not too many people probably came home and said "go see this". Now, I know reviews were pretty decent, and it seems fairly popular online. But the average person that goes to movies does not post anything online. And I think the average person saw this and wished he could get his money back. The shame of movies like this is a lot of people will see it and not go see a movie again for five years. Movies like this with the political badgering shrink the industry, which is bad for anyone who hopes to make a living in it.
There were some entertaining set pieces. Very visual, and I know you like that stuff. I can appreciate that. I just think that even accepting their overt political premise, the plot, dialogue, and subtlety of that argument were missing, and therefore unconvincing.
Well, let me just say that first and foremost, it wasn't meant to be taken seriously in any way, by any person.
In many ways, it's what we here at SS call a "pisser". Every single character, scene, and action was meant to be cartoonish and over the top, much like most of the 70's "Grindhouse" genre was.
I think you have to understand that going in and be prepared for what you're going to get.
Same thing with its birth, in the Tarantino/Rodriguez Grindhouse double feature from 2007. Everything about them was ridiculous and over the top. The FX were meant to be ridiculous as well, while still pretty frickin' cool to boot. It's exploitation/sexploitation on steroids.
I have no problem understanding exactly why anyone would not enjoy this or downright hate it, but you do have to understand exactly what they were going for here.
You probably shouldn't waste your time on Hobo with a Shotgun, either, based on your feelings here.
I hear what you're saying. And I'm ok with the over the top violence and sexploitation. Why not couple it with a decent script? That's my problem with it.
I watched Ground Gog Day last night too. First time I've seen it since I've been writing and studying screen. Brings a different perspective. I looked at it for structural design. You could call it 3 Act, and there a lot of Blake like elements, even the hint of death where Blake expects it. But I would divide this into 5 acts, not 3. First the intro, up to when the first repeat day occurs. Then he struggles to figure out what's going on. Third part begins when the drunks analyze the half empty beer glass. He realizes he's seeing this the wrong way, missing the opportunity to have fun, so he spends this segment taking advantage of his "special powers" to get laid, and ultimately move on Rita. But eventually he fails to get Rita, and sinks into hopelessness. That's part 4. At last he comes to realize that he needs to change himself, and look at how he can use this to help others. That's part 5. From this, he transforms himself, wins the girl, and gets out of the loop.
But I noticed something else. The best part of the movie, in terms of entertainment, is by far the first half of the movie. After the midpoint, the movie still makes perfect sense, and maintains its intellectual power, but it loses much of it's entertainment value, and never gets it back. I found that curious, because I've been reading how a lot of writers struggle to make Act Two interesting. Tarrantino avoids this problem with non traditional structure, it seems. My very amateur assessment, of course.
Maybe that's what Rodriquez was attempting here in Machete. Experimenting outside the box.
^^ In my opinion, Rodriguez's resume makes it pretty clear that of all the myriad roles he takes on in filmmaking, writing is the one which he is least suited to. I'd personally just chalk the poor structure, and any other bad writing, up to...well, plain ol' bad writing.
I had a great time at Machete in theatre. Felt like one of those movies that someone in high school makes and your class gets together and watches and laughs every time someone they know comes on screen. Rodriguez is clearly more about fun than making any kind of art, but his approach is sincere and it's difficult not to find it infectious.
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