Ok folks, here we are… the last REGULAR installment of the Mail Bag. As you’ll hear in the podcast, I’ve decided to do a mail bag from time to time when time permits. Thanks for all your email on this. On today’s program:
1) Mail Bag still alive
2) Brand New Podcast system structure and a new and improved Podcast Feed!!!
3) John’s new podcast
4) Halo news recap
5) Why the Halo movie will eventually be better for all of this
6) No more Halo talk until the movie actually starts production again
7) Professionalism on The Movie Blog
8) Sharon, Rodney and Wormwood
9) The New design
10) A change in the RSS feeds
11) Starblazers (We need your help on this one international friends)
12) Dragonlance Movie
Oh, and special thanks to Dan for this image (I forgot to mention this in the podcast, but it’s what inspired me)
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Wow, that post by Henrik about Spielberg is AMAZING. It said everything about Spielberg that I’ve always thought but never put into words.
John, please respond to this. Although I obviously agree with Henrik (and let it be known and I too think of him as an absolute master “craftsman” or whatever term you want to use as opposed to “genius artist”), I would like a thoughtful response to it that we all know you’re capable of.
To condense the statement: “Spielberg is all mood music and no substance. A lot of his cutesy tricks seem like emotional blackmail. The immen$e entity that is $peilberg moviemaking functions basically as a superego for the poor moviegoer: you can either agree with how it dictates you think or else bring great wrath upon yourself and stand accused of being a grinch. I mean . . . who would dare find fault with so many sappy scenes that show a childlike (read: immature) view of the world, overcast with blaring “meaningful” music.
Is there ever TWO ways to think about any Spielberg film? It seems to me that the whole production is always geared toward making the viewer think of things through the most very cliched, family-friendly viewpoint possible. And that’s just . . . boring, to some people.
I liked Minority Report, though. Liked not loved.
Holy crap, John.
Stop talking about Halo.
You go on and on and on about it.
It’s not that big of a deal, and I’m a huge gamer.
I enjoy the mailbag editions, but the good thing about having other people there with you is that they let you know when it’s time to move on to the next topic. You need a filter.
i am so tired of hearing about this halo movie.
the question is: does anyone BESIDES halo fans even care about the halo movie?
john care to comment?
Wow Tom, that sure was funny.
A pink media player suits you, John.
A Halo video for the Halo talk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjWejhaUChI
You’re not a professional?! Well, I for one was fooled. Great show as always.
– Cheers
Gabe: Benderspink does exist. And they DO have a website. I didn’t see “Starblazers” among future projects, but two of intrest to me was Y The Last Man, and Ex Machina.
Past projects Benderspink has produced or exec produced include: The two “Butterfly Effect” films, “Monster In Law”, the “American Pie” films, “The Ring” films, and “History Of Violence”.
Oh, by the way, the site is http://www.benderspink.com
And you couldn’t find it?
Oh well. Now you know.
Wheres the volume control?
He the newest stuff that I saw on the Starblazers movie was in April of this year, a company named Bederspink Productions had the rights and was going to make the movie. Though I would love to see this, I couldn’t even find a website for Benderspink.
30 minutes of Halo? What the fuck!!! Talk about Batman or Hookers or Porno for 30 minutes, not Halo. I rather listen to John clear his throat for 30 minutes. Come On!!!
Halo again, not a Halo fan played in on the PC above average FPS but fail compared to other PC FPS, but still i found the universe appealing and was interested in the movie.
I think You are right about the delay not being bad for the movie, but I think that you are wrong about Bungie, I said it before, Bungie has no power over the movie they develop games your attack don’t make sense, this movie thing was a Microsoft thing some VPs over shopping around for the movie, and I do agree that at first they did things very bad. But I do believe the PJ interview AICN it’s not a complete bag of lies and saying that I do believe that PJ was indeed the producer of Halo, just not from the beginning. And that the rewrites and Neil involvement was is decision, and the work being done at Weta is in agreement with the way he works this type of movies, they do some art work at the same time work on script and concept ideas, this can take over a year and I do believed that the cancellation was all about the money. Any way this beating a dead horse so we just have to wait for how this ends.
I also disagree. I also don’t understand how you can call him a great director and a great craftsman but then claim he’s not one of the greats. Huh? Is he not artiste enough?
All your points that you use to back up your claim are completely subjective, which is ironic as you later accuse John of presenting opinion as fact.
In case you haven’t learned, music has been a part of film making even longer than dialog. To ridicule Spielberg’s films because of his use of music is ridiculous. I submit to you Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and E.T. as masterful uses of music in film. Of course I don’t expect you to understand being as you are one who considers a film ruined when the music starts.
Spielberg can’t work with actors is another ludicrous claim. In E.T. he made one of the most successful films of all time and garnered tons of critical acclaim on the backs of solid performances by who? I submit that Collin Farrel has NEVER acted as well as he did under Spielberg in Minority Report. He got a performance out of Whoopie Goldberg that was 10-times Halle Berry’s Oscar winning performance. Let’s also not forget Oprah and Danny Glover will never be considered great actors, yet in the same film they are just that. Catch Me If You Can is widely considered the roll that gained Leonardo DiCaprio true acceptance as an actor, and I argue that The Terminal is Tom Hanks’ finest acting performance ever!
As John said, I can’t believe how wrong you are!
What about Halo vs. Gamera?
I’d pay to see that
Hey Henrik,
I’m not here to try to change your mind. You think what you think and you’re entitled to it. I just wanted to say I disagree.
I can’t belive how strong your opposing arguments were. It almost made me feel like I hadn’t made a strong case.
Way to make your opinion seem like fact.
Hey Henrik,
Wow… I can’t believe how wrong you are. Meh, to each his own.
Steven Spielberg is not one of the greats.
He is the best craftsman to ever have worked in Hollywood. His name is synonymous with production value and quality film-making. But he is not emotionally invested in the art, and he has nothing to say.
People will say he’s a great director because he can do different genres. That’s the sign of a true craftsman – somebody who knows exactly what it takes to make a movie within the confines of a specific genre. And he does it perfectly everytime. But his movies are boring and fall flat, because they are about nothing. There is nothing beneath the surface in his movies.
There are ways to actually emotionally invest in your movies and still do different genres.
ALL of his movies are fucking saturated with music. Music from first minute to last. Constantly leaning on hummable themes that may or may not feel like an emotional part of the movie, but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to play this theme 10+ times over the movie.
The only Spielberg movie to go a little beyond the craft is Schindler’s List. The first half of it is admittedly a great and powerful movie. It also has little-to-no music. When they clean out the gettho – no music! I was amazed! But then later on, the scene where they burn all the bodies before they move the camp – John Williams sappy, overdone ‘I’m-going-to-pull-the-heartstring-now’-strings music telling you how to feel about the images, instead of helping the images get through to you.
Spielberg is a craftsman and an extremely good one. He knows what he’s doing – ESPECIALLY when he’s doing action. Things like Jurrasic Park is done very nearly to perfection. But he can’t work with actors – look at what he gets out of, or rather doesn’t get out of, John Malkovich in Empire of the Sun. He has no subtlety whatsoever, and his sentimentality, which goes hand in hand with the scores, ranges from annoying – A.I. – to absolutely unbearable – Saving Private Ryan.
So don’t call him a great artist. Try and look beyond the “wow – he told a story about a point in history and it entertained me!” and look at the characters. He has no real people in his movies, his characters are archetypes and they are simply pieces to move the story forward.
And don’t even get me started on the cliché’s and stolen techniques..
Oh, Alfie…
In case you were wondering…
yes, I caught your little jab at the Matrix sequels.
A bit long on the Halo I Must Be Going Movie. But somewhere within, I must correct:
a) George Lucas was only the exec producer on ‘Howard The Duck’, and on a like note I hope someone will have the courage to pay more proper tribute to Steve Gerber’s character.
b) Just because a script has to be rewritten does not always mean it is for the better. Just remember, the factoid you conviently leave out is a guy wrote a script and was paid one million for it by Bungie/Microsoft. It was that script pitched to Universal and Fox, who then bought the rights for 10 million. Then that writer was rewritten- before the hiring of Blomkamp.
And that’s all I have to say on that matter. While John won’t talk about Halo anymore in posts….LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE!
It’s time to talk about Tom Cruise/Paula Wagner getting United Artists out of the ashes…but…gasp! Running the studio!
More on that later when it gets posted. Speaking of posts…
I like wormwood’s posts. Also, I like Sharon’s posts, and while a small handful might question me for saying this, even though I disagree with him from time to time Rodney’s doing a decent job too.
And it’s great that the mailbags are not on the slab…but something…something…what is it?
Oh, I know!
No plug for ‘Prince Of Peace, God Of War’! John, what’s wrong with you?! :)
Best of luck on your new podcast.
Yeah, these comments are getting fucking ridiculous. I’m guessing a lot of people, if not most people on movie sites/message boards have a fat case of downs syndrome, based on most of the bullshit I’ve read on the internet.
and no one acts like he is the best movie maker in the world.
but the facts are he is one of the most successful film makers around now. responsible for three of the biggest, critically acclaimed and well loved films of the last 20 years.no matter what you say. those films were a total phenomenon….it succeded on every level a film can be judged. they made a ton of cash so the general public loved them…they were critically acclaimed (all three) so the critics loved them and they won awards out the fucking ying yang so other film makers and thre academy etc etc loved them….
to say that the films were laid out for him and he just had to adapt a little is one of the silliest things I have ever heard. I don’t mean to go on and I am not even that big of a fan of the LOTR – i prefer kong..well I prefer bad taste but anyway I see that point of view a lot on message boards people claiming that “oh he didn’t have to do anything – the films pretty much made themselves- why doesn’t he come up with something of his own”
it is so ridiculous it defies belief.
go and look at how many speilberg films speilberg has a writers credit??or a screenplay credit?? hardly any at all….a couple maybe..does that take anything away from the fact that he is truly one of the greats?? of course not…although war of the worlds is one of the worst films I have ever seen. ever. down there with the matrix sequels…anyway..in fact there you go war of the worlds was an adaptation. I guess speilberg just adapted a little too little.
some of the best film of all time are adaptations…to claim that coming up with your own idea is the only true mark of a good film maker is ridiculous.
“he just had to adapt a little…”
oh yeah..I totally agree
I mean he brought nothing to the films…anyone could have made those films as good as they were…anyone.
he just had to do a few tiny little things here and there…
…I mean literally anyone could have made those films..
same as the godfather…..and jaws…. anyone could have made those films..they just needed to adapt a little as well right? right?
absolutely ridiculous comments hi..ridiculous.
“Peter Jackson has made three good movies in his life. Why does everyone act like he is the best moviemaker in the world. He doesn’t even reach Spielberg to the ankles. The three moovies he made was already layed out for him, and he just had to adapt it a little.”
Wait a minute, what were Bad Taste, Meet The Feebles and Braindead adapted from?
John, glad to hear you will be doing occasional mailbags! Keep up the great work.
oh and Dougs site is killer too.
jarrod-d
WHATS UP JOHN,,
Great to hear you r not stopping it dead(mailbag).Looking forward to your own podcast. and lol u kinda did sound like Borat. great stuff. ok listen to you later.
Jarrod-D
Sacrament Tattoo Flash & Clothing
Starblazers.
If I had the money I’d make this film.
Wave Motion Gun.
Need I say more?
A kid cartoon with people dying?!?! Cancer, battles…
Bitter enemies finding respect for each other.
SOOOO way before it’s time. Yes I own every episode on DVD.
Shane.
When did BORAT become the Iraqi Information Minister ??
Great mailbag edition, glad it’s not gone forever. I’m looking forward to your own podcast over at your site. I listened to you and Doug on Nagyical radio and even though it was funny it was nice to hear you guys talk about other issues in life then movies.
I got to agree with ‘hi’ here. Jackson makes the LOTR trilogy and everyone acts like he is a God of some sorts. I didn’t like LOTR, I thought Kong was better, but the first hour should have been shorted for God’s sake. Jackson has not made a movie to my knowledge which was not a remake or adaptation. Also isn’t Jackson executive produceron Halo if it ever comes out? Last time I checked this means he will handle business issues, and may even be a financier of the film. It’s going to be Neill Blomkamp ”vision” at the end of the day.
Hey Paul
To quote what I said to Jay:
“Umm… this is the Audio Edition. You know… the show where we talk about the biggest news stories that have come up the last couple of days. Ummm… sooooo… you’re saying the Halo thing wasn’t big?
I think it would have been pretty damn retarded of me to not talk about it on the show.
For the record:
Halo get dumped by studios – John makes ONE post about it
Halo gets cancelled – John makes ONE post about it
John then does a post saying this could be great news for Halo
The next Audio Editon I mention the news.”
So Paul… are you saying I shouldn’t have mentioned the biggest news story of the week? If you don’t think it was the biggest story since the last Audio Edition on Monday… just look at the ammount of comments.
So pray tell… what movie news story has been bigger since Monday?
Please for the love of God is that it with the Halo crap? How much quality Movie news has there been for the last 3 weeks and this endless drivel of the same old same old. John take some time away from the mailbag, nail your film and then comeback and re-listen to the last 3 mailbags.
My God, I miss the Iraqi Information Minister!!
If anyone needs to know more go to;
http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com/
It’s one of the funniest sites I’ve ever been to. It’s all about the minister in question.
Great show John. I’m glad you’ve decided to keep the Mail Bag’s going, even if it’s not regular. You have a good way of just communicating honesty, even if I don’t agree.
The Halo stuff. Yeah, time to let it slide, but I think if you didn’t bring it up this episode it would have felt weird, I mean afterall, they did just cancel the damn thing.
The fact that The Movie Blog isn’t a “professional new site” is the exact reason I keep coming here. Everything else out there, well, at least a lot of it, are just clones of each other. There is no other Movie Blog.
I haven’t been big fans of Rodney or Sharon up to this point, but I’m warming up to them. The Wormwood guy is funny
The new site design is great, but I admitt that having the old one back is sort of comfy. More familiar. It feels like The Movie Blog again. Maybe I’ll feel the same way when you switch it back to the new one.
I never used the RSS feeds anyway, so I don’t care
Anyway, great show. Can’t wait for the next one.
Anybody know the name of that Iraqi PR guy, or know what happened to him after Saddam was captured.
I never called you names though.
Just that I thought you were being negative.
And you did say optimitic things about it too…
So, my bad again.
Peter Jackson has made three good movies in his life. Why does everyone act like he is the best moviemaker in the world. He doesn’t even reach Spielberg to the ankles. The three moovies he made was already layed out for him, and he just had to adapt it a little.
Sorry, but I thought me admitting that you called it would come across a little more in control than it did.
My bad.
Hey Jay,
Umm… this is the Audio Edition. You know… the show where we talk about the biggest news stories that have come up the last couple of days. Ummm… sooooo… you’re saying the Halo thing wasn’t big?
I think it would have been pretty damn retarded of me to not talk about it on the show.
For the record:
Halo get dumped by studios – John makes ONE post about it
Halo gets cancelled – John makes ONE post about it
John then does a post saying this could be great news for Halo
The next Audio Editon I mention the news.
I think you’re being a little over sensative about this Jay. Take it easy.
Had to pause the show and comment. I think Charks remarks in the show reflect how a lot of us feel. :(
The picture hurts, but I admit I laughed when I saw it.
John, I’m glad to see you’ve finally let the HALO thing go…
Oh wait, no you havent.
I guess you’re gonna milk this one for a while.
Hey everyone! Listen up!
The almighty Campea was right about HALO. It was a mess and it did fall into disarray just like the almighty campea predicted from day one. Those of us that dared go against your prediction are all now humbly bowing at the feet of the almighty Campea.
You were right,John.
Is that what you want everyone who dared to have hope and be optimistic about HALO to say?
Now, can we all move on?
LMAO!!!! I haven’t listened to the show yet, but that fucking picture is amazing! Kudos to the Dan guy.
There was absolutly no need for that picture there John. Geez. A little bit of professionalism goes a long way you know?
Maybe some prick fanboy insulted you about your views on Halo in the past, that doesn’t mean that he/she represents the millions of normal good natured Halo fans worldwide.
So come on, ease up on the pissing contest with them, don’t stoop to their level. If not for yourself, do it for me :)