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FRANCHISE ME - Discussion Thread

post #1 of 311
10/29/11 at 6:04pm
Thread Starter 

Don't know why I didn't start a main Franchise Me thread months ago.

 

Anyway...

 

http://www.chud.com/72580/franchise-me-hellraiser-hellworld/

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post #2 of 311
10/29/11 at 7:31pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Dark Shape View Post

Is this really pulling a New Nightmare or half-assing it?  The kids know all about Hellraiser -- oh, excuse me, Hellworld -- and they have Chatterer masks and recordings of all of Pinhead's iconic lines on the computer.  But then everybody talks about LeMerchand like he's a real human being.

 

Six years later and I still don't have a clue. (EDIT: Typed this literally twelve seconds before hitting that point of the review; at least I'm not the only confused one!)  Though as little as it matters, I don't think the Cenobites are ever 'real'; I think the kids are still trapped in the box at the end, and Lance Henriksen is still fucking with their heads.

 

Yeah I can't bring myself to genuinely contemplate what the Cenobites actually showing up at the end might mean for the story. Cause it is so clearly just a way to "weird things up" and get some Pinhead in there.

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post #3 of 311
10/30/11 at 12:12pm
Thread Starter 

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shreds View Post

It's a lousy film, but this gave me a pretty big laugh:

 

Black stereotype finds room full of dead phoetuses (phoeti?).

"Awwww yeah! That's what I'm talking about!"

 

For someone so obsessed with a game full of horror he sure was enjoying life.



I also liked that the key component to the black guy's death was that he was asthmatic, which I feel was barely established before it became relevant midway through the movie.

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post #4 of 311
10/30/11 at 12:57pm

The most frustrating thing about Hellworld is that Lance Henriksen is exactly the right kind of actor for a Hellraiser film. Imagine a film where Henriksen seeks out the Lament Configuration for his own pleasure and then gets more than he bargained for. Lance Henriksen as a Frank figure. It would be great casting. I'd probably even be okay with another Inferno ripoff if it starred Henriksen. But instead we get Hellworld. Such a wasted opportunity.

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post #5 of 311
10/30/11 at 1:02pm
Thread Starter 

Indeed. I think the franchise needed an installment where an anti-hero is scouring Asia or Eastern Europe for the puzzle box, like we can presume Frank did, searching out the Asian merchant in the first film. All the films are about people who easily or accidentally stumble upon the box.

 

And Lance would've been great for such a film.

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post #6 of 311
10/30/11 at 5:23pm

To be fair, the Chinese guy was supposed to be the same person as the vagrant; the watcher and protector of the box.

 

I read Hellraiser: Pursuit of the Flesh last night with the first film in the background, and I noticed something.  Joshua, you said you don't like the Cenobites' home being specified as Hell in Hellraiser II, but it's referred to as much in the silly Kirsty line.  Her "Go to hell!!" is met with, "We can't.  Not alone."

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post #7 of 311
10/31/11 at 1:25pm
Thread Starter 

And it has all built up to this.

 

http://www.chud.com/72707/franchise-me-hellraiser-revelations/

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post #8 of 311
10/31/11 at 1:39pm

You asked for suggestions for the next franchise to dig into... I would love to see you tackle either the Godzilla films, or the Star Trek movies.

 

The Hellraiser critiques have been incredibly enjoyable. Thanks for all the hard work!

 

Don

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post #9 of 311
10/31/11 at 2:06pm

Seconding (thirding? Reiterating?) the vote for American Ninja. Curious to see your take on a franchise that pretty much starts at rock bottom then sort of flails around for several sequels. I'd also throw out the National Lampoon Vacation series, Kickboxer/Bloodsport (the "we couldn't afford Van Damme anymore" double threat!), Universal Soldier (in a bizarre way, the recent one is sort of Van Damme's Rocky Balboa or Rambo), the Muppet movies and the Highlander films as possible contenders. Fuck, mainly I'm just pumped for more Franchise Me.

 

Star Trek would be interesting as well, but the Red Letter Media reviews sort of tore those things to bits already. I'd also like to see Godzilla, but Wikipedia has that bad boy clocked in at 29 films (not sure if that even includes the American one).

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post #10 of 311
10/31/11 at 2:46pm

Joshua: Have you thought about doing the Puppet Master movies in Franchise me?

There are at least 10 of those.

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post #11 of 311
10/31/11 at 3:04pm

I suggested it in another thread a couple of months ago and I'll say it again: The Muppets. It is as far from horror as you can get, each movie tackles a different genre, and you can review the new Jason Segel/Amy Adams movie once you tackle the older flicks.

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post #12 of 311
10/31/11 at 3:13pm
Thread Starter 

Yeah, MUPPETS is a great idea. The only problem is it gets a little fuzzy about where one draws the line between "The Muppets" and other Henson creations, considering that Kermit would often pop up on SESAME STREET.

 

I have a sick desire to do STAR WARS. And by that I mean really do STAR WARS. The holiday special, the DROIDS cartoon, Ewok tv movies, CLONE WARS, etc, etc. But at the same time, the six films have been discussed to death.

 

Someone suggested the FAST & FURIOUS franchise, which I kinda like too.

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post #13 of 311
10/31/11 at 4:02pm
Thread Starter 

What do other people think of THE MUPPETS idea? The timeliness of it appeals to me the same was doing PLANET OF THE APES and HELLRAISER did, climaxing with a new release.

 

Pros? Cons?

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post #14 of 311
10/31/11 at 4:20pm

Well, you already know that I'm pro towards this idea. The only thing that I would suggest is to focus on the original tv series and the theatrical Muppet movies. You open up the door for way too many tv specials and spin offs if you don't keep it somewhat focused.

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post #15 of 311
10/31/11 at 5:09pm

why not just do the Star Wars one without the feature films.  

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post #16 of 311
10/31/11 at 5:40pm

How about Romero's "of the Dead" series?

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post #17 of 311
10/31/11 at 5:52pm

     Quote:

even though he personally had nothing to do with anything after Bloodline

 

Barker had some input on reshoot material for Hellseeker.  I remember Bota showed him an early cut of the film, Barker liked it, and gave him some suggestions when they did additional photography.

 

 

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post #18 of 311
10/31/11 at 5:52pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JPL View Post

Well, you already know that I'm pro towards this idea. The only thing that I would suggest is to focus on the original tv series and the theatrical Muppet movies. You open up the door for way too many tv specials and spin offs if you don't keep it somewhat focused.


 

I'd probably skip the original TV series.


Edited by Joshua Miller - 11/1/11 at 5:24pm
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post #19 of 311
11/1/11 at 9:41am

I'd love The Muppets.

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post #20 of 311
11/1/11 at 7:28pm
Thread Starter 

OMG u gez!! I thought that the guy who played Nico in REVELATIONS looked familiar, but I assumed I'd just seen him on an ep of some TV show or something. But whilst eating dinner tonight I discovered he's a waiter at the restaurant across the street from me. This in itself is hardly interesting, except for the fact that the lead actress from YELLOW BRICK ROAD is also a waitress there. Two actors from two of my least favorite horror movies of 2011! I've seen so many crappy horror movies in the last year, I'll need to start looking closer at the faces of the Bird's Cafe staff. I bet they all work there.

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post #21 of 311
11/1/11 at 8:20pm

I think I mentioned Romero's "Of the Dead" series, and would toss my hat into the terrible "Return of the Living Dead" series, what with the needing of more cops, etc. Those films were shit, but they were hilarious shit!

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post #22 of 311
11/1/11 at 8:30pm

Muppets? Try puppets! Seriously The Puppet Master series needs to be reviewed by you.

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post #23 of 311
11/1/11 at 9:13pm

 

But he wants a break from horror. I think the Muppets would be perfect for this.

 

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post #24 of 311
11/1/11 at 10:50pm

The Muppets are a fantastic idea.  I'd skip the shows, but you can probably include the telefilms.........all of which are widely available.

 

 

The Muppet Movie (1979)

The Great Muppet Caper (1981)

The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

Muppet Treasure Island (1996)

Muppets From Space (1999)

Kermit's Swamp Years (2002)

It's A Very Muppet Christmas Movie (2002)

The Muppets Wizard of Oz (2005)

The Muppets (2011)

 

 

That'll give you 10 articles and should more than cleanse your palette of the taste of DTV shit.  Hell, even the crap Muppet films have at least some funny parts to them.  You'll have even more if you cover the TV specials, but some of those might be pretty hard to come by.  Personally, I'd just stick with the above.

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post #25 of 311
11/1/11 at 11:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wayward_Woman View Post

I think I mentioned Romero's "Of the Dead" series, and would toss my hat into the terrible "Return of the Living Dead" series, what with the needing of more cops, etc. Those films were shit, but they were hilarious shit!



It would be kind of cool to see how one fictional universe branched and then went down very distinct paths.

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post #26 of 311
11/3/11 at 4:33pm

Just a thought: Batman? Too much?

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post #27 of 311
11/3/11 at 6:13pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wayward_Woman View Post

Just a thought: Batman? Too much?



I've stayed away from the comic book heroes because, yeah, it may be too much. And I don't mean in a workload sense, as at the end of the day doing three five-film franchises isn't really any different than doing one fifteen-film franchise -- I still had to watch fifteen films either way. My bigger concern is being able to discuss the franchises in the same "meaningful" way I have been currently, and that becomes trickier to do when a franchise spans 70+ years and all conceivable mediums. But I'm doing The Muppets next, and that may be a good test model, as I'm only going to do the six theatrical films (for the same reasoning). So maybe I'll do some Batman leading up to DARK KNIGHT RISES.

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post #28 of 311
11/5/11 at 12:14pm

Oh! Oh! How about Conan: The barbarian, the sequel, the tie-in movie, the tv series, and then the remake? (and it's "I was supposed to a conan movie but they changed it: Kull"?)

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post #29 of 311
11/5/11 at 11:00pm

Beastmaster might be fun.

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post #30 of 311
11/6/11 at 9:13am

Psycho

Robocop

Mad Max

Re-Animator

 

Or a short burst series of twofers that didn't really go full franchise:

 

American Werewolf in London/Paris

Escape from NY/LA

The Fly/The Fly II

Before Sunrise/Sunset

Pitch Black/That Other One

 

Sorry I didn't chime in on the last one; I've only seen the first Hellraiser film.

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post #31 of 311
11/6/11 at 11:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post

 

 

Or a short burst series of twofers that didn't really go full franchise:

 

 

 

The Fly/The Fly II

 

 

 



That might be fun. You could include the 50's originals, too.

 

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post #32 of 311
11/6/11 at 5:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post

Robocop

Mad Max

Yessss...
 

 

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post #33 of 311
11/6/11 at 6:15pm
Thread Starter 

If I could locate copies of all the ROBOCOP TV series (which are shockingly numerous), that would be awesome.

 

FYI: next up - starting tomorrow hopefully - will be the Muppet theatrical films.

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post #34 of 311
11/6/11 at 6:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joshua Miller View Post

If I could locate copies of all the ROBOCOP TV series (which are shockingly numerous), that would be awesome.

 

FYI: next up - starting tomorrow hopefully - will be the Muppet theatrical films.



Good lord, if there's more than than the ones they have on Netflix, I don't want to know about 'em.

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post #35 of 311
11/6/11 at 7:51pm
Is the Robocop TV series a Canadian thing, like the Crow series with Mark Dacascos as Brandon Lee?

A series on the Muppets movies sounds absolutely delightful. And I do like it when you're able to time these to coincide with some theatrical release. It's a weird way of making something good come out of today's obsession with remakes and reboots.
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post #36 of 311
11/6/11 at 8:12pm

I thought there was only one short Robocop TV series, and then several made-for-TV movies. Could be wrong though, I called it quits after 3.

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post #37 of 311
11/6/11 at 9:10pm
Thread Starter 

Ye ole Wikipedia lists these:

 

Live Action

    RoboCop: The Series (1994) which starred Richard Eden, Yvette Nipar, and Andrea Roth.
    RoboCop: Prime Directives (2000) - A four-part television mini-series, continuing the storyline from the film series; producers used footage from the original Robocop (1987) film.
Animated
    RoboCop: The Animated Series in the 1980s
    RoboCop: Alpha Commando in the late-1990s.
 

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post #38 of 311
11/6/11 at 9:44pm

Cripes, that sounds like a nightmare. All I can think is that I mistook the miniseries for separate made-for-TV flicks.

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post #39 of 311
11/6/11 at 11:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Elvis View Post



That might be fun. You could include the 50's originals, too.

 


It would make for a fun 5-part series........................The Fly, Return of the Fly, Curse of the Fly, The Fly '86, and The Fly II.

 

 

Hell, you could do the four versions of Body Snatchers at some point if you wanted to............three of which have always seemed loosely connected to one another.

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post #40 of 311
11/7/11 at 3:44am

Dude, the Crow would be fun!

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post #41 of 311
11/7/11 at 3:46am

The Mark Dacascos TV Series wasn't that bad as well.

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post #42 of 311
11/7/11 at 4:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wayward_Woman View Post

Dude, the Crow would be fun!

Yes it would.

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post #43 of 311
11/7/11 at 9:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wayward_Woman View Post

Dude, the Crow would be fun!



Well, fun for us.

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post #44 of 311
11/7/11 at 9:49am

Post Lobster releasing Furlong and post breast enhanced Reid... I'M IN!!!

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post #45 of 311
11/7/11 at 3:07pm
Thread Starter 

It begins!

 

http://www.chud.com/73339/franchise-me-the-muppet-movie/

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post #46 of 311
11/7/11 at 3:23pm

What, no comment on Kermit's crisis of faith at the campfire?

 

I kid, I kid. Great article.

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post #47 of 311
11/7/11 at 3:33pm
Thread Starter 

Thanks.

 

I did think about mentioning Kermit's Golum moment, just cause it feels different now in our post-TWO TOWERS world, but it didn't really fit into anything I was talking about.

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post #48 of 311
11/7/11 at 3:35pm

You know, the weird irony is, I sat here for 10 minutes trying to remember the last two pieces of music that mentioned rainbows. I came up with Insane Clown Posse and Radiohead. If that's not the everlasting proof that Muppets are universal, I don't know what is.

 

Great article regardless, and nails everything amazing about this flick.

 

That last shot gets me every single time.

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post #49 of 311
11/7/11 at 3:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joshua Miller View Post

Thanks.

 

I did think about mentioning Kermit's Golum moment, just cause it feels different now in our post-TWO TOWERS world, but it didn't really fit into anything I was talking about.


No, I understand totally, although I can't say it really feels like a "Gollum" moment to me even now. More like a spiritual crossroads deal.

 

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post #50 of 311
11/7/11 at 4:02pm

Throwing my support in for The Crow as the next pick. That would be a great read.

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