Movie stuff you only just realised... - Page 7

After watching the Director's Cut of Kingdom of Heaven last night, I noticed the name of the second unit director is Hugh Johnson. I know, it's puerile, but my friend and I laughed for a good five minutes. Sadly, no alcohol was involved. We're just lame.

Wow. I was about to call bullshit on this, because those movies are separated by over 50 years, and the guy couldn't possibly be that old. But damn, it's true. He was 77 when Thunderdome was made. Nice catch.

After maybe 15 years since the last time I watched it (and I didn't have exactly good memories of it), I must say Gremlins 2 is just fucking awesome!*

There's more cinema -and hommages to it- in those 106 minutes than in all those movies they did in 2004 to celebrate the "100 hundred years of film" (ahem) combined.


*And along with his work on Innerspace, I just have found that Robert Picardo is one of the greatest underrated comedic actors of the 80s. Him and a Joe Dante commentary are two of the things that make DVD better than frozen pizza.

Once you know to look for him he pops up everywhere, usually in heavy makeup. My favorite among his roles (besides the Cowboy) is Total Recall, in which his voice and animatronic likeness portray the Johnny Cab robot.

Not to mention it has Hulk Hogan

Robert Picardo played the Jenny Greenteeth hag that tries to kill Tom Cruise in Legend.

Are you sure that's him? I remember looking into it and yielding it was somebody else.

EDIT: Nope. You were right. It is, in fact, him.

I had to double check that one myself. But he mentions writing for the Onion AV club on his website.

Rob Bottin (make-up wiz) loves using him because Robert Picardo can emote through the prosthetics and he's also patient enough to sit through the application.

Hence: them working together on Legend, Total Recall, Explorers, etc. I think they met while both worked on the Howling.

Robert Picardo is also a Joe Dante regular (along with Dick Miller & Kevin McCarthy).

In interviews, Bottin used to say only that Picardo's enormous mouth made his face ideal for prosthetic makeup. I think Picardo got tired of hearing that.

When he was in Thailand Steven Seagal saw an early cut of Ong Bak and he liked it so much he tried to buy the rights to the film. His intention was to reshoot the beginning and the end and play the part of the buddhist monk who tells Tony Jaa not to fight. He also tried to get Tony Jaa to be in Belly of the Beast, which was shot in Thailand.

HAHAH..that would have turned the movie into a comedy!! hahah

Baron Samedi from LIVE AND LET DIE is the narrator of Burton's CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.

Well, SHIT.

John Wayne has only been killed once in his movies, it was Jack Nicklenson who killed him.

Never heard of this Nicklenson chap. Norwegian? Anyway, it was Bruce Dern, in The Cowboys.

I just realized that Ciaran Hinds played Lot in Excalibur, that rowdy beard really hides him.

And it was an untrue statement to begin with. He dies in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. The movie opens with them going to his funeral. John Wayne made literally hundreds of movies; I'm sure he must have died a few times.

John Wayne is killed in 4 movies: "The Cowboys", "The Sands of Iwo Jima", "The Shootist", and "The Alamo".

I thank my father's obsession with all things John Wayne for forcing me to remember that.

Edit: Wayne is killed in 4 flicks, he died in "..Liberty Valance" of natural causes.

Yeah, that's right. We never see him die in Valance.

And I forgot about The Shootist. I slap my forehead.

Here's a weird one. As far as I can tell, Dustin Hoffman has never played a police officer. How many actors can say that?

Would YOU cast Dustin Hoffman as a police officer?

A detective, maybe. He doesn't seem to have done that either.

Well, he was almost Deckard in Blade Runner.

I could see Hoffman playing a down on his luck gumshoe though. Maybe not now, but when he was younger.

Jake Gyllenhaal is the son Billy Crystal comes home to in City Slickers.

Also John Wayne got killed more than 4 times didn't he?

I should have known there'd be a web resource for that somewhere. I didn't even think to look. But, duh.

Good list. I have to alter the four I mentioned as the only films where he was "killed and died on-sceen in a signifigant role"

David Carradine is the drunk in Mean Streets.

I recently rewatched LUCAS, a movie I had vaguely fond recollections of from when I was a kid. After seeing it now, I came to a realization about it:

Lucas is a thorougly unlikeable douche, and deserves all of the shit that Jeremy Piven & Co. pile on him.

Charlie Kaufman was one fo the writers for the long defunct comedy "Get a Life" starring Chris Elliott. I loved that show, but it is a very small minority of the population that can stand to watch Chris Elliott do his "thing" on screen for more than a minute or two.

Few things in recent weeks.


1. Lion King is a thinly stolen version of Hamlet.
2. Shane Black wrote Monster Squad.
3. Mark Dacascos was a big cat in Moreau.
4. Ive never seen Linsey Lohan act...but then again I dont suppose anyone who actually saw her films did either...MEEEOOWWW!!!!

Not that I've broken my vow of NEVER buying Beverly Hills Cop III on DVD, but a caught a showing of it last night on TV and right at the beginning, I caught a 12 years younger Louis Lombardi (Edgar in 24) dancing at the chop shop. And a singing Al Leong incidentally.

Damn, if there was someone who should have never touched that franchise, that was John Landis. And the always overrated Steven E. DeSouza.

i just realized who he looks like - the guy from mythbusters!

Gaston is supposed to be the guy who shot Bambi's mom.

Also, Kathy Griffin is in Pulp Fiction....as herself.

Everyone looks like that guy if their moustache gets long enough.

What?

Hoffman played an existential detective in I <3 Huckabees, for what it's worth.

Good call. I'm thinking specifically gun-toting law-enforcement though, and the nearest I can find is his Surgeon General officer in Outbreak.

It's true. If you look up Pulp Fiction on IMDB, Kathy Griffin's role is listed as Kathy Griffin.

"Gay Perry" is a pun.

George Clooney appeared in Return of the Killer Tomatoes.

The Island was a remake of a B-Movie called The Clonus Horror

The original The Stepford Wives and Rosemary's Baby were both based on the same author: Ira Levin, whom I strongly suspect only has one conspiracy-laden, woman-betrayed-by-huasband plot.

David Lynch was originally offered the chance to direct Return of the Jedi, but turned it down.

The same actor (Max Von Sydow) who stars in The Seventh Seal plays the older priest in The Exorcist, as well as the planetologist in Dune.

The climax to Batman was unscripted, and in fact made up as they went along, according to Burton. What worries me is how unsurprised I am by this.

In Spider-Man, Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: The Gathering merchandise can be glimpsed decorating Peter Parker's room. These were in fact supplied by Wizards of the Coasts themselves, asked by the producers what manner of possessions a geek like Parker would have.

Three of Akira Kurosawa's films were remade as major American films: Seven Samurai as Magnificent Seven, Yojimbo as A Fistful of Dollars, and The Hidden Fortress as Star Wars

The Matrix stole the plot and some of the sets from the vastly superior Dark City, and the core idea of it's reality-simulating computer from old Doctor Who, which had an episode containing a computer of remarkably similar nature (people who died in its simulations died for real) back in 1976, that was actually called The Matrix (of Gallifrey).

And for those of you who don't as yet know: Orson Welles' last involvement in a film was voicing the big villain in the original Transformers: The Movie

I thought this was just speculation/fanon.

I rememember reading that an early draft of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" had Judge Doom being the one who killed Bambi's mom, but they took it out because they thought he was already too scary for the kids.

It's not actually a remake, though it can be argued that The Island is a ripoff of Clonus. In fact, last I read, the makers of Clonus were suing over the similarities.

My bonehead realization is that the end of the first Friday the 13th, with zombie child Jason, is a dream sequence. I've taken that scene literally since I was a little kid. Seems obvious now, but I never questioned it.

Oh, and speaking of Roger Rabbit, has anyone ever heard the rumor that Donald Duck calls Daffy Duck a racial slur during their piano battle in the film. My friend has sworn this one for years and I have a hard time believing that could have ever slipped through without people noticing. I've watched the scene dozens of times and I can't tell what the hell Donald is saying. I guess, if you want to use your imagination, it sounds a little like one, but it just can't be.

The rumor I heard was that he calls Daffy a "son of a bitch," but like you said, it's more than likely your standard Donald blabber that got misinterpreted.

Nice job, Ripoll. You can be my personal assistant if I ever become famous.

Yes sir!

I can hear "doggone" and I think "stubborn"...and then it gets a little tough.

You can definately tell it's got two syllables and ends with a "ger" sound. I dunno...that's a tricky one.

A Fistful of Dollars is an Italian film.

Swap it out for Last Man Standing, then.