Tropical Island Movie Draft Thread - ROUND 20 FINISHED!!!

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Heh -- MBF came out of the gates roaring as a major threat to my list with her first two picks, and hasn't been seen or heard from since. :p
 
Well feeling pretty good right now -- of the 5 picks I left with GGG before my little weekend trip, 2 babes, 2 albums and 1 movie, I got them all:

403px-Clueless.jpg


Clueless (1995)

Its funny how well this movie has aged even while its star never was able to cash in the potential she flashed here. When you get a teen comedy that is as focused as this one was on pillorying teen styles/fads of the moment, there is always the danger that as that moment fades into history, so will the relevance of the movie. But Clueless is still a hoot, and I think benefits from not only being based upon a timeless Jane Austen story (Emma), but also in its insight into the universal dynamics of teen relationships. Most of its fun translates directly over no matter the era, and as a film which was cutting edge at the time, a lot of its observations about skateboarders, baggy pants etc. etc. have not yet become anachronistic. Sure Alicia Silverstone's cellphone looks about the size of a walkie talkie, but much of the rest of the movie barely looks dated. Having this one in my pocket as extra comedy/chick flick support makes me feel better about missing out on Something About Mary while I nabbed my western.
 
^^theres one of those movies I alluded to with my last pick

Decent pick, I did find it slightly annoying the last time I saw it compared to the first time. Its strange too how Brittany Murphy became the breakout female star out of that thing while the rest of them pretty much faded away.

Also, I never found Stacy Dash's character to be good looking in the slightest. I actually had no idea how hot she was until someone selected her in the babe draft. It baffled me. She just never looks good in this movie. At 28 or 29 when they filmed it....why waste someone like her?
 
It's time to fill my Superhero genre.

And I'm going with the wise-cracking webslinger.

spiderman.jpg


Spider-Man (2002)

Then again, this isn't just another superhero movie. It's one of the biggest blockbusters of all time, has a 90 percent rating on rotten tomatoes (honestly, I don't work for them or anything) and really marks the launch of the neo-golden age for the genre.

And the movie has a little of everything: standard action/adventure/fantasy hero epic, quest for personal redemption and the classic battle of good versus evil.

Oh, and of course there's also the quirky love story including the now famous "upside-down kiss in the rain" sequence.

I wonder if there will be any radioactive spiders to bite me on the island.
 
I really want to know if you think its better or you just picked the first because its the staple of the series success-wise.

Man i need to update the board....heh
 
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Ok with my pick I choose


Lethal weapon - 1987


Lethal_weapon1.jpg


I watched this everytime it is T.V. and rarely ever watch movies on cable T.V. Gary Busey is a awesome bad guy.:D
 
I really want to know if you think its better or you just picked the first because its the staple of the series success-wise.

I own both of them (which is actually a big deal since I only OWN a handful of DVDs)... and very much enjoy both of them.

But my choice really came down to the semantics of the game.

If I can only watch one of those two for the rest of my life, would I rather start at the very beginning and follow an independent story arc with at least a sense of a conclusion, or watch one that's a branch off the original story arc and always feel like I'm starting in the middle, even though I know how chapter one goes?

And then there's my personal preferences

#1: I like origin stories and seeing the course the hero took to become who he/she is. There's a lot of clamouring for II because it doesn't have to "waste time" in establishing the characters and can just jump into the action. But that's easy. I think it's a great deal more difficult to seemlessly set the foundation of the origins while simultaneously keeping the action going which Spidey I does rather well.

#2: Personally, I thought the love story between MJ and Peter got clunky and repetative (MJ: Come to my play. PP: I promise. Uh-oh Spidey Sense Tingles, repeat) in II and the "running from the alter to be by her true love's side" was cliched. The simple, unrequited angle between MJ and Peter, while also slightly cliched, was more enthralling especially mixed in with the odd love pentagon of MJ, Peter, Harry, Flash and Spidey.

And come on, upside-down rain kiss. Often immitated, never duplicated.

Finally #3: The X-factors: William Dafoe is insanity personified; perfect for the Goblin. Spidey's "first costume" and wrestling match with Randy Macho Man Savage as Bonesaw and Bruce "Clift Chin" Campbell as the announcer, the Death of Gwen Stacy re-enacted (with a happier ending of course) and all of them sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner ... and realizing who each other are.

Oh and yes, it is the staple of the series success-wise and set several box-office records without a prior movie lead-in.
 
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Spidey and Lethal Weapon were great picks. I had Lethal Weapon down for a late sleeper if it made it that far.

I am going to choose a Clint Eastwood movie as well, but not a western.

Kelly's Heroes - 1970

This is one of the few WWII movies Dad and I watched over and over again. For that reason it has some sentimental value for me as well.

From wiki:

Kelly's Heroes is an offbeat 1970 war film about a group of enterprising World War II soldiers who set out to rob a bank behind enemy lines. Directed by Brian G. Hutton, who also directed the 1968 World War II drama Where Eagles Dare, the film starred Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, and Carroll O'Connor, with lesser roles played by Harry Dean Stanton, Gavin MacLeod, and Stuart Margolin.

There is a nod to Eastwood's spaghetti westerns in the standoff with the Tiger tank — a virtual remake of the ending of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, right down to the musical score.

The U.S. troops wear the insignia of the US 35th Infantry Division. The division actually was in action around Nancy in France in September of 1944. The film also uses authentic M4 Sherman tanks, while most other contemporary war films, for example Patton, employed too-modern M48 tanks. Such technical details as machine guns and entrenching tools are also remarkably accurate. The three Tiger I Tanks used in the film were actually adapted ex-Soviet Army T-34 tanks, converted in great detail by specialists of the Yugoslav army for the movie The Battle of Neretva.

The cast works great for this film, Sutherland is hilarious as "Oddball", and the movie itself is very well done.

There are a couple great songs in the movie as well, Burning Bridges and All for the Love of Sunshine.


[at a supply depot somewhere in France]
Oddball: We see our role as essentially defensive in nature. While our armies are advancing so fast and everyone's knocking themselves out to be heroes, we are holding ourselves in reserve in case the Krauts mount a counteroffensive which threatens Paris... or maybe even New York. Then we can move in and stop them. But for 1.6 million dollars, we could become heroes for three days.


Kelly: Well Oddball, what do you think?
Oddball: It's a wasted trip baby. Nobody said nothing about locking horns with no Tigers.
Big Joe: Hey look, you just keep them Tigers busy and we'll take care of the rest.
Oddball: The only way I got to keep them Tigers busy is to LET THEM SHOOT HOLES IN ME!
Crapgame: Hey, Oddball, this is your hour of glory. And you're chickening out!
Oddball: To a New Yorker like you, a hero is some type of weird sandwich, not some nut who takes on three Tigers.
Kelly: Nobody's asking you to be a hero.
Oddball: No? Then YOU sit up in that turret baby.
Kelly: No, because you're gonna be up there, baby, and I'll be right outside showing you which way to go.
Oddball: Yeah?
Kelly: Yeah.
Oddball: Crazy... I mean like, so many positive waves... maybe we can't lose, you're on!


Pvt. Cowboy: God almighty, you guys smell like you fell into a dung heap!
Crapgame: Kinda makes ya homesick, don't it?
Pvt. Willard: [to Pvt. Cowboy] You know it does, kinda, don't it old buddy?


Crapgame: [into field phone] Hogan? Yeah, it's me. Listen... I gotta favor to ask ya. Will you quit cryin... I haven't even asked ya yet! What the Hell's the matter with you?


Oddball: This engine's been modified by our mechanical genius here, Moriarty. Right?
Moriarty: Whatever you say, babe.
[giggles]
Oddball: These engines are the fastest in any tanks in the European Theater of Operations, forwards or backwards. You see, man, we like to feel we can get out of trouble, quicker than we got into it.
Kelly: [looking skeptical] Got any other secret weapons?
Oddball: Well, yeah, man, you see, like, all the tanks we come up against are bigger and better than ours, so all we can hope to do is, like, scare 'em away, y'know. This gun is an ordinary 76mm but we add this piece of pipe onto it, and the Krauts think, like, maybe it's a 90mm. We got our own ammunition, it's filled with paint. When we fire it, it makes pretty pictures, scares the hell outta people! And we have a loudspeaker, when we go into battle we play music, very loud. It kind of... calms us down.
 

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I own both of them (which is actually a big deal since I only OWN a handful of DVDs)... and very much enjoy both of them.

But my choice really came down to the semantics of the game.

If I can only watch one of those two for the rest of my life, would I rather start at the very beginning and follow an independent story arch with at least a sense of a conclusion, or watch one that's a branch off the original story arch and always feel like I'm starting in the middle, even though I know how chapter one goes?

And then there's my personal preferences

#1: I like origin stories and seeing the course the hero took to become who he/she is. There's a lot of clamouring for II because it doesn't have to "waste time" in establishing the characters and can just jump into the action. But that's easy. I think it's a great deal more difficult to seemlessly set the foundation of the origins while simultaneously keeping the action going which Spidey I does rather well.

#2: Personally, I thought the love story between MJ and Peter got clunky and repetative (MJ: Come to my play. PP: I promise. Uh-oh Spidey Sense Tingles, repeat) in II and the "running from the alter to be by her true love's side" was cliched. The simple, unrequited angle between MJ and Peter, while also slightly cliched, was more enthralling especially mixed in with the odd love pentagon of MJ, Peter, Harry, Flash and Spidey.

And come on, upside-down rain kiss. Often immitated, never duplicated.

Finally #3: The X-factors: William Dafoe is insanity personified; perfect for the Goblin. Spidey's "first costume" and wrestling match with Randy Macho Man Savage as Bonesaw and Bruce "Evil Dead" Campbell and his clift chin as the announcer, the Death of Gwen Stacy re-enacted (with a happier ending of course) and all of them sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner ... and realizing who each other are.

Oh and yes, it is the staple of the series success-wise and set several box-office records without a prior movie lead-in.

There are 3 Spiderman movies out, and they were all great. It's really hard to choose which one was the best. 3 was probably the worst of them all, but Venom made up for a lot of that. Man I wish I saw this thread when it was starting up, although my taste in movies probably wouldn't have gotten me many votes
 
Ok with my pick I choose


Lethal weapon - 1987


Lethal_weapon1.jpg


I watched this everytime it is T.V. and rarely ever watch movies on cable T.V. Gary Busey is a awesome bad guy.:D

I keep on forgetting that you are old and decrepit and therefore a threat to my later round alternates in these drafts. ;)

That one is still fun, even after we discovered how little of a reach it was for Mel to be playing a crazy person.
 
No its not. ;)

And one of them really sucked. :p


IMO #1 was...ok.
I think the problem with superhero movies is that if they stuck to the original comic, they would be fifteen hours long per film, so the movie people change things... this is why, on a fundamentalist comic fan standpoint, movies like Spider Man 1 (as well as most comic book adaptations) are mortally flawed. I just remember the bridge scene in Spiderman 1 where, in the comic, Spiderman must decide if he wants to save all of those kids or his then girlfriend, Gwen Stacey... and Gwen Stacey dies... in the movie, Spiderman saves both the children and his then girlfriend Mary Jane Watson... just too far to go to condense the plot... such an important moment glossed over for time restraints. Also, like all movies today, dialogue is sacrificed to "keep the audience entertained" with action. This is why independent and small budget films tend to dominate awards shows because they keep the dialogue and the movies may be less action packed, but stronger films. Just my 2 cents on a genre close to my heart.
 
No its not. ;)

And one of them really sucked. :p


IMO #1 was...ok.

Well, If I had to rank them I'd go 2, 3, 1. But I think overall 1 was probably better than 3. I thought there was too much story crammed into 3, and they should've just
went with either the Sand Man or Venom, and not both. With that being said, I like it better than the first one simply because Venom was my favorite character.

But I did enjoy all 3 of them
 
Well, If I had to rank them I'd go 2, 3, 1. But I think overall 1 was probably better than 3. I thought there was too much story crammed into 3, and they should've just
went with either the Sand Man or Venom, and not both. With that being said, I like it better than the first one simply because Venom was my favorite character.

But I did enjoy all 3 of them
Indeed, I enjoyed all three as well.
 
I think the problem with superhero movies is that if they stuck to the original comic, they would be fifteen hours long per film, so the movie people change things... this is why, on a fundamentalist comic fan standpoint, movies like Spider Man 1 (as well as most comic book adaptations) are mortally flawed. I just remember the bridge scene in Spiderman 1 where, in the comic, Spiderman must decide if he wants to save all of those kids or his then girlfriend, Gwen Stacey... and Gwen Stacey dies... in the movie, Spiderman saves both the children and his then girlfriend Mary Jane Watson... just too far to go to condense the plot... such an important moment glossed over for time restraints. Also, like all movies today, dialogue is sacrificed to "keep the audience entertained" with action. This is why independent and small budget films tend to dominate awards shows because they keep the dialogue and the movies may be less action packed, but stronger films. Just my 2 cents on a genre close to my heart.


Well I would certainly never come up with a complaint myself that "it is not like the comic book", because I have no interest in them -- personally could care less whether they are canon to a comic strip or not. But I will agree with the rest of the assessment (ahem #3 was a disaster for just that reason).
 
Well I would certainly never come up with a complaint myself that "it is not like the comic book", because I have no interest in them -- personally could care less whether they are canon to a comic strip or not.

Agreed. For the most part, anyways. I like them to follow the original material when possible, but for movies most of the time they just can't, and I'm OK with that as long as they don't go too crazy making s*** up....
 
There are 3 Spiderman movies out, and they were all great. It's really hard to choose which one was the best. 3 was probably the worst of them all, but Venom made up for a lot of that.

No, there are not three Spidey Movies. There is Spider-Man One, Spider-Man Two and Spider-Man Too Convoluted. If Venom is your favorite character, I'm surprised you're not completely infuriated with his role in III. I spent most of the movie wondering aloud "Venom's supposed to be in this one, right?"

Spidey III is what happens when the director wants one villain (Sandman) the studio wants another (Hobgoblin) and the fans want a third (Venom) and the movie tries to make everyone happy by reaching for all three.

There's so much Raimi could have done to save it, but specifically, he should have followed his gut to focus on and develop the Sandman arc. He still could have used the alien symbiote and dark suit/inner demons spidey as a plot device throughout, setting up Venom's appearance as the main villain in the next movie. (Seriously, as a Venom fan, how stoked would you be about Spider-Man IV if the bell-tower scene ENDED part III?)
 
spiderman 3 is on par with superman returns with me... and yeah, that's not a good thing.

i was hoping the lethal weapon pick would slip to me.
 
No, there are not three Spidey Movies. There is Spider-Man One, Spider-Man Two and Spider-Man Too Convoluted. If Venom is your favorite character, I'm surprised you're not completely infuriated with his role in III. I spent most of the movie wondering aloud "Venom's supposed to be in this one, right?"

Spidey III is what happens when the director wants one villain (Sandman) the studio wants another (Hobgoblin) and the fans want a third (Venom) and the movie tries to make everyone happy by reaching for all three.

There's so much Raimi could have done to save it, but specifically, he should have followed his gut to focus on and develop the Sandman arc. He still could have used the alien symbiote and dark suit/inner demons spidey as a plot device throughout, setting up Venom's appearance as the main villain in the next movie. (Seriously, as a Venom fan, how stoked would you be about Spider-Man IV if the bell-tower scene ENDED part III?)

I am, and I really wish they didn't kill him off quick, but at least he was in it (although there was no explanation to the symbiote). I'm just waiting for Spiderman 4 to see Carnage :p

And yeah, the bell-tower scene as an ending would have been MUCH, MUCH better.
 
... this is why, on a fundamentalist comic fan standpoint, movies like Spider Man 1 (as well as most comic book adaptations) are mortally flawed. I just remember the bridge scene in Spiderman 1 where, in the comic, Spiderman must decide if he wants to save all of those kids or his then girlfriend, Gwen Stacey... and Gwen Stacey dies... in the movie, Spiderman saves both the children and his then girlfriend Mary Jane Watson... just too far to go to condense the plot... such an important moment glossed over for time restraints.

I hate to keep going back to this, but I thought this was a slam dunk pick. Never expected to have to defend it.

I think following the comic exactly is both unrealistic and unnecessary. What's the point of making a movie that simply reiterates a comic book? But at the same time, the stories from the source should be both respected and paid tribute to.

I actually think the bridge scene in Spider-Man I is a solid homage to the Death of Gwen Stacey, one of the most famous elements of the Spider-Man universe. They weren't going to kill off MJ in the first movie ... and having Peter date Gwen just to kill her off (especially with Uncle Ben's murder already protrayed) would have been too much for main stream audiences. I think given the options above or simply ignoring it completely, the movie chose the right course.
 
I hate to keep going back to this, but I thought this was a slam dunk pick. Never expected to have to defend it.

I think following the comic exactly is both unrealistic and unnecessary. What's the point of making a movie that simply reiterates a comic book? But at the same time, the stories from the source should be both respected and paid tribute to.

I actually think the bridge scene in Spider-Man I is a solid homage to the Death of Gwen Stacey, one of the most famous elements of the Spider-Man universe. They weren't going to kill off MJ in the first movie ... and having Peter date Gwen just to kill her off (especially with Uncle Ben's murder already protrayed) would have been too much for main stream audiences. I think given the options above or simply ignoring it completely, the movie chose the right course.

I am not saying you had a bad pick, I am just saying the genre has a mortal flaw to those who know and love the original story.
 
I am not saying you had a bad pick, I am just saying the genre has a mortal flaw to those who know and love the original story.

I'm not sure if that's specific to comic books though. Ever actually read Forrest Gump? :D Lord of the Rings didn't even follow J.R.R. Tolkien's story line exactly.

But, you're absolutely right; with comic books there's often decades worth of stories that couldn't possibly be addressed in a roughly two hour movie.

If the movies were following Spider-Man canon ... we would probably still be waiting to see MJ's face at this point. :D

Out of curiosity, from your personal opinion, do you think they could have done the Gwen Stacey scene better or would you rather them not mention it at all?
 
I'm not sure if that's specific to comic books though. Ever actually read Forrest Gump? :D Lord of the Rings didn't even follow J.R.R. Tolkien's story line exactly.

But, you're absolutely right; with comic books there's often decades worth of stories that couldn't possibly be addressed in a roughly two hour movie.

If the movies were following Spider-Man canon ... we would probably still be waiting to see MJ's face at this point. :D

Out of curiosity, from your personal opinion, do you think they could have done the Gwen Stacey scene better or would you rather them not mention it at all?

If the studio had the stones to do it, it would have been cool to have Peter not meet MJ (romantically) until the second movie... have him date Gwen Stacey and have her die. I think the story would have been stronger and SpiderMan's motivation to kill the Green Goblin would have been a bit more justifiable. (Yes, Spidey jumped out of the way of the rocket sled and the rocket sled technically killed the original Goblin, but don't tell me he couldn't have webbed the sled and saved the Goblin's life...) However, the studio knew they needed the big flash of romance to sell the series, so they wimped out on the Gwen Stacey stuff. This also made the movie more family friendly which I can appreciate... but that motivation ranks up there with Ewoks and Jar Jar.
 
If the studio had the stones to do it, it would have been cool to have Peter not meet MJ (romantically) until the second movie... have him date Gwen Stacey and have her die. I think the story would have been stronger and SpiderMan's motivation to kill the Green Goblin would have been a bit more justifiable. (Yes, Spidey jumped out of the way of the rocket sled and the rocket sled technically killed the original Goblin, but don't tell me he couldn't have webbed the sled and saved the Goblin's life...) However, the studio knew they needed the big flash of romance to sell the series, so they wimped out on the Gwen Stacey stuff. This also made the movie more family friendly which I can appreciate... but that motivation ranks up there with Ewoks and Jar Jar.

Send the brats home crying; that's hardcore. I like it. :D

Hehe, I can't get over that:
*Little boy with tears in eyes* Why'd Spida-Man's Gurl-fwend have ta die?"
*Filmmakers* "Because life sucks Kid! Get used to it! Go get a job!"

I have to say, that would have given Spidey a much darker/grittier edge along the lines of Batman with an opportunity at an even deeper character development that could have been played on through the series, culminating in the black suit saga.

Plus, it would have made every "damsal in distress" moment after that much more thrilling simply because you wouldn't know if they were gonna pull a Gwen again.

Still, on a pure entertainment level, I'm at peace with how it was handled.

*P.S. Spidey also didn't *kill* Uncle Ben's murderer. He simply walked toward him aggressively until the man tripped backwards out a window. :rolleyes:
 
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*P.S. Spidey also didn't *kill* Uncle Ben's murderer. He simply walked toward him aggressively until the man tripped backwards out a window. :rolleyes:
Yeah, he couldn't have done anything... LIKE USE HIS WEB! He can save a cart load of kids from falling from a bridge but not a guy falling from a window mere feet in front of him?
 
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