tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post4978149885678266081..comments2024-03-18T20:22:06.331-04:00Comments on GROGNARDIA: Even Worse Than PredictedJames Maliszewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-23778155428765032622011-08-26T16:35:34.598-04:002011-08-26T16:35:34.598-04:00Actually they had a massive marketing campaign for...<i>Actually they had a massive marketing campaign for it in the millions. plus COTT came out only a few months after Avatar so Sam Worthington's presence helped tremendously, but even more so, it also had a PG-13 rating which means families were more inclined to go and anyone over 13 could attend. on their own. This is the sole reason why garbage like Alvin and Chipmunks made close to $50 million dollars on the opening week.<br /><br />No matter how bad Conan might be( I'll be seeing it tomorrow) at least they kept it an R rating</i>.<br /><br />Odd, it seems to be getting a lot more exposure here than <i>Clash of the Titans</i>, but it might just be perspective. That is a very interesting point about the rating, never even considered that as a factor.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05646247954542936623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-59018673320986243932011-08-23T06:05:52.561-04:002011-08-23T06:05:52.561-04:00I don't understand why everyone wants a "...I don't understand why everyone wants a "faithful adaptation" - it's not like the author was consistent about his own setting!phfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05500880186402356662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-86674234359158471622011-08-22T19:34:59.996-04:002011-08-22T19:34:59.996-04:00I meant to say that "he was once part of"...I meant to say that "he was once part of" above.<br /><br />SLM did try to buy Conan but at that time the dot-com bubble burst and I think it reverted to the previous owners or was never finalized.JRThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06028363896728357260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-4687285800013389932011-08-22T19:31:46.176-04:002011-08-22T19:31:46.176-04:00Stan Lee Media is NOT Stan Lee. This is the remna...Stan Lee Media is NOT Stan Lee. This is the remnants of the company that was once part of but is now really confusing. Stan Lee Media is actually suing Stan Lee and also trying to claim ownership of Marvel Characters. You can read about the company's history of Wikipedia.<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Lee_MediaJRThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06028363896728357260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-26157801475230507332011-08-22T19:05:14.391-04:002011-08-22T19:05:14.391-04:00Stan Lee has been in the entertainment business fo...Stan Lee has been in the entertainment business for many years. If he has/ or had a clame to other IP rights he would get a cut of the profits of those as well -or he may just own a portion the film rights. This is nothing new as everyone in Hollywood is always suing one another.crowkinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03066821931343968827noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-3651737880545279932011-08-22T18:32:36.161-04:002011-08-22T18:32:36.161-04:00Wow... I guess the Dark Horse comics, video games,...Wow... I guess the Dark Horse comics, video games, RPGs, and new printing of the original REH stories over the past decade never showed up on his radar.<br /><br />Be interesting to see how this plays out.Osskorreihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14408780872015323307noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-58280710925752612612011-08-22T18:02:12.100-04:002011-08-22T18:02:12.100-04:00If the box office wasn't bad enough, now Stan ...If the box office wasn't bad enough, now Stan Lee is suing over ownership of the IP and want's 100% of the profits. It's a bit boastful on his part, but no question, this is a sure sign there's going to be many lawsuits to follow. The pool has definitely been pissed in and any chance of seeing another Conan film made again in our life time is basically dwindled down to zilch.crowkinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03066821931343968827noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-71336818063588840682011-08-22T17:59:05.732-04:002011-08-22T17:59:05.732-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.crowkinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03066821931343968827noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-49362531295928540512011-08-22T15:21:40.671-04:002011-08-22T15:21:40.671-04:00"Instead of trying for the grim blood-soaked ..."Instead of trying for the grim blood-soaked Frazetta cover, I wonder if Conan would work better in movies if the goal was first and foremost to write and portray him as a strong but likable masculine hero." <br /><br />The best moments (few and far between) in this latest film were when they let Conan actually converse with people and interact as a human being rather than as a sword-wielding Robocop. Momoa has charisma, and a few other characters might have become engaging if they'd been allowed to say anything even remotely interesting. As it was, the villain was the only character who uttered anything meaningful, which is why he was the only one you felt any connection to at the film's ending.Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11677895164302972957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-8405616413869233642011-08-22T12:27:42.239-04:002011-08-22T12:27:42.239-04:00@mortellan - YES! It could also be the best D&...@mortellan - YES! It could also be the best D&D movie to date.arcadaynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17025690624100512801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-74868823408158863692011-08-22T12:15:09.782-04:002011-08-22T12:15:09.782-04:00It sucked. Terrible film.It sucked. Terrible film.Witchfinder68https://www.blogger.com/profile/15078359457023514289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-1826427505400143612011-08-22T09:01:25.197-04:002011-08-22T09:01:25.197-04:00The best spin I could put on this film is this, Co...The best spin I could put on this film is this, Conan could've been the best SyFy channel movie of all time!Mike Bridgeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17741591268012556455noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-39341205753328634512011-08-22T08:39:04.039-04:002011-08-22T08:39:04.039-04:00Damn! Netflix canada doesn't have thriller st...Damn! Netflix canada doesn't have thriller streaming...Pigeons From Hell is a favorite of mine and I'd love to watch the show. :(Donhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00323022731513484213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-4467327712881357482011-08-22T04:01:58.131-04:002011-08-22T04:01:58.131-04:00As a critic (http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/...As a critic (http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/275118/crom-wept-john-j-miller#) put it, <i>"As you know, the best of Robert E. Howard’s pulp tales of the 1930s ... cry out for the cinematic talents of a Akira Kurosawa or a Sergio Leone, men possessed of the same operatic poetry, grandeur, heroism, and thematic depth found in Howard’s original stories."</i><br /><br />This is a good point: Leone's combination of grand spectacle, hard-bitten realism and sense of nostalgia would be the perfect way to do Conan (I have even suggested the Leone - Kurosawa idea to my friends back in 2001 or 2002). <br /><br />However, modern Hollywood could never make that movie. It is too mired in seeing creative works through a thrice-removed perspective. There is no directness, no sense of "being there"; you couldn't find Leone's sweating, dusty, shifty-looking tramps, just characters distantly based on sweating, duty, shifty-looking tramps as imagined by urbane movie industry people.<br /><br />Even the technology contributes to the disconnect. Roger Ebert once recalled how Fritz Lang's movies were made: <i>"He was often accused of sadism toward his actors; he had Lorre thrown down the stairs into the criminal lair a dozen times, and Peter Bogdanovich describes a scene in Lang's "Western Union'' where Randolph Scott tries to burn the ropes off his bound wrists. John Ford, watching the movie, said, "Those are Randy's wrists, that is real rope, that is a real fire.''"</i> "That is real rope, that is real fire" - CGI cannot give you that.<br /><br />But it is mostly about attitude. Which is why the movies Hollywood produces nowadays feel like badly made carbon copies; either graphic novel-like in a bad way, or in the case of Tarantino and his imitators, ironically revelling in schlock in a way that actually feels deadly dull. The new Conan seems to be a combination of these two approaches.Melanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07165894144553629675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-56829311140785929962011-08-22T03:03:36.138-04:002011-08-22T03:03:36.138-04:00Having just seen Cowboys & Aliens, one of the ...Having just seen Cowboys & Aliens, one of the two films I predicted to be good enough to see in a Theatre this year (based purely on their superbowl ads), this year's stock of film offerings is bad. Most are DVD night material.<br /><br /><br />What Kills a Movie?<br /><br />Too much CGI.<br />Irrelevent 3D.<br />Impossible Stuff.<br />Messages preaching Loyalty to church and state.<br /><br />The Next good movie will be three hours long and about An Alien Invasion during the revolutionary war with as little CGI as possible.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-50282161598934952712011-08-22T00:26:51.752-04:002011-08-22T00:26:51.752-04:00I wonder if one problem with Conan movies is that ...I wonder if one problem with Conan movies is that the focus is often on the fighting and the barbaric superman element. Too often it's "yeah, I want an ADULT sword and sorcery movie: more gore, more flashy martial arts, more sex."<br />Too video game - and audiences have seen a million video games. A Conan movie is probably closer to a Western with swords and monsters.<br /><br /><br />Yet one of Conan's appeals is that he's actually a dynamic character who men and women want to follow, fall in love with, etc. (Conan is picked up by pirates or nomads or whatever. Within a week or so, he's more popular than their own leaders, at least partly because he's a hard-working everyman with a sense of humor.)<br /><br />Instead of trying for the grim blood-soaked Frazetta cover, I wonder if Conan would work better in movies if the goal was first and foremost to write and portray him as a strong but likable masculine hero. <br /><br />Think Eastwood's Dirty Harry, Willis' John McClane, etc. A guy who is tougher than anyone, sure, but also a guy who audiences can love for the way he talks, acts, etc.David Pulverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00857524962421597982noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-61696724369756265572011-08-21T23:07:17.870-04:002011-08-21T23:07:17.870-04:00I saw the movie this afternoon (in 2D. Might that ...I saw the movie this afternoon (in 2D. Might that make a difference in the reviews?). As a Howard fan I'm disappointed that it wasn't an actual story adaptation, but despite that I really enjoyed it. It felt closer to the spirit of the stories than the Arnold films. It certainly seems like some of the Dark Horse comics, or Savage Sword. Another pass through the editing phase to tighten some scenes and transitions could have made a difference. I think I might go again next weekend.<br /><br />I didn't realize that Thriller was on Netflix Instant. That's great news.Kaijuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06184830369889881159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-18769193755882919102011-08-21T22:30:09.351-04:002011-08-21T22:30:09.351-04:00Thanks, James. I watched that today on Netflix. I ...<i>Thanks, James. I watched that today on Netflix. I haven't read the story in eons, but it seemed to follow fairly well. Plus, it was a fairly macabre production for 50 years ago TV!</i><br /><br>Yeah, it's pretty well done, especially considering its age and that it was done for network TV.James Maliszewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-83022908136985345812011-08-21T22:29:16.415-04:002011-08-21T22:29:16.415-04:00For good/faithful adaptations,we can still hope fo...<i>For good/faithful adaptations,we can still hope for a release of the animated Red Nails with Perlman voicing Conan. Maybe?</i><br /><br>Oh, how I wish we'd see that, but the project seems dead in the water and has been for some time.James Maliszewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-40168194008698876522011-08-21T22:28:35.066-04:002011-08-21T22:28:35.066-04:00Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the new Con...<i>Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the new Conan is they actually directly reference "the Tower of the Elephant" at one point. If the film makers had just had the sense to stitch Conan's early thieving stories together into a coherent plot they could have saved half their budget or more and made a film that would have been at least as successful.</i><br /><br>That's probably the result of some late script doctoring by Sean Hood, who tried to inject some genuine Howardian content into the movie. Sadly, from what I have heard, his efforts mostly amounted to some name dropping and offhand references to REH yarns here and there.James Maliszewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-44050025202948122922011-08-21T22:26:41.873-04:002011-08-21T22:26:41.873-04:00Hopefully this isn't one of those Superman sit...<i>Hopefully this isn't one of those Superman situations where people identify so much with one actor playing a specific role - like Christopher Reeve playing Superman - that it sort of poisons any subsequent portrayal by other actors.</i><br /><br>That could very well be the case. I've read too many reviews that compare Momoa unfavorably to Schwarzenegger, complaining that he's "not right" for the role since he doesn't look anything like Arnie did. Of all the things to complain about, Momoa's appearance is not one of them.James Maliszewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-54302708114370260912011-08-21T22:24:28.042-04:002011-08-21T22:24:28.042-04:00CtB has cast a long shadow over the Cimmerian for ...<i>CtB has cast a long shadow over the Cimmerian for non-fantasy fans.</i><br /><br>Sadly so and too many of the decisions made about this movie made it unlikely that this situation would ever change. I mean, why did they choose to use <i>the very same title</i> for this movie as the 1982 one? How is anyone supposed to take this movie on its own merits when it uses the same title and, on top of it, goes with the same "You killed my father, prepare to die" plot outline? Madness.James Maliszewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-44863457296087534392011-08-21T22:21:29.953-04:002011-08-21T22:21:29.953-04:00But every time Tinseltown turns out another poorly...<i>But every time Tinseltown turns out another poorly written, poorly directed, big budget but low grossing S&S movie, it lowers the chance that we'll ever get a good one.</i><br /><br>That's why I keep wishing Hollywood would quit focusing on a known "brand" like Conan and <i>just try to make a good S&S movie</i>. They've proven time and again they don't <i>get</i> Howard, so wouldn't the wise course of action be to start from scratch with something original -- or at least go and pick on some <i>other</i> S&S barbarian? Might I suggest Thongor or Brak? I don't think anyone would complain.James Maliszewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-74021012946163300612011-08-21T22:02:56.899-04:002011-08-21T22:02:56.899-04:00Matthew James Stanham said...
"I find it har...Matthew James Stanham said...<br /><br />"I find it hard to understand why it did poorly, when Clash of the Titans did so well without being pushed so hard."<br /><br />Actually they had a massive marketing campaign for it in the millions. plus COTT came out only a few months after Avatar so Sam Worthington's presence helped tremendously, but even more so, it also had a PG-13 rating which means families were more inclined to go and anyone over 13 could attend. on their own. This is the sole reason why garbage like Alvin and Chipmunks made close to $50 million dollars on the opening week.<br /><br />No matter how bad Conan might be( I'll be seeing it tomorrow) at least they kept it an R rating.crowkinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03066821931343968827noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-28510390781107937452011-08-21T21:31:02.668-04:002011-08-21T21:31:02.668-04:00It feels strangely like a 3.5 or 4E game brought t...<i>It feels strangely like a 3.5 or 4E game brought to life -- dungeonpunk armor and spectacular but ultimately over-long set-piece fights.</i><br /><br />Thanks, gaelbach, for the comment of the thread so far.Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08868302412533031659noreply@blogger.com