Some DC TV shows are filmed here (I can think of Stargirl, Black Lightning, and Doom Patrol off the top of my head). There are just so many things and as a husband, father, and a guy who works, I can’t submit to be in anything and everything. Plus, with the pandemic, the last thing I did was Stranger Things last March.
I was almost in Stargirl and it was weird (I think I told this story). I submitted to be a science teacher. I got the call/text saying I was in, so great! Then I was told that the prop master needed to speak with me about the scene. Uh…wat.
So the prop master called me and started asking my advice on what should be included in the scene to make it look as authentic as possible. I was wondering why the fuck he was asking me this shit. I told him that I was just an extra, but he kept going with the conversation. When we ended it, he e-mailed me the script for the scene (ok…) and a list of questions.
Now I was wondering if I actually had lines or something. I had told him I wasn’t a real teacher, but I would do my best answering his questions. After some back and forth with extras casting, they realized that there was some miscommunication with production and that the extras posting was supposed to be for an advisor, that there was already a real actor playing the teacher.
That was a weird couple days, thinking I was going to totally fuck up a scene by telling them the wrong props to have in it.
They’re filming Spiderman 3 right now. I’m waiting for them to call me to reprise my role from the the first one.
I’m still wary of being on set with COVID. They all require tests and what-not, but I feel like I should still wait a bit before trying to get back in the game unless something really juicy comes up (and extra roles can only get so juicy).
There was one I saw for I think Spiderman the other day with a required 5-day quarantine. I didn’t look into how that’s handled, if it’s at a hotel or on your honor at home (I would guess the former?). Pays $155/day in quarantine. If I wasn’t concerned with abandoning my family for a week, I might do that - I could still work.
This one showed up on Netflix a while back. Put it in my list and got around to watching it tonight:
Mad Max
A (very) young Mel Gibson plays a cop in a post-apocolyptic hellscape Australia. Some violence happens in between long, long, sequences of cars and motorcycles screaming down endless blacktop highways. Apparently Australia mostly consists of long straight roads, punctuated by gradual bends and slight rises and dips in said roads.
I remember being totally fascinated and revolted by the “it will take 10 minutes to saw through the handcuffs and only 5 minutes to saw through your ankle” scene when I was a kid but I forgot that it was literally at the very end of the movie. I’d say the pacing of this movie is markedly different than what is typical these days, that’s for sure.
Some interesting directorial choices, but overall I was a little disappointed that it didn’t hold up as well as I thought it might. Oh well, decent Thursday night fare, at least.
Yeah if there was an easy series to rank it is Mad Max. 4>2>3>1 is absolutely clear. If you want to throw out 2 is more important historically, and better for its time. That might be true. But 4>2 in terms of watching today. But 2 is still really fucking good.
2 is def the one I remember from seeing as a kid, I watched all 3 of the old ones last year so it was fresh on my mind but I remembered a lot of 2. It’s the iconic one for sure.
I watched 4 a few weeks ago as I had only seen it when it came out in theaters, still delivers for sure on the 2nd watch.
I had never seen Mad Max movies before Fury Road in theaters. I loved it of course but made it a bit harder to enjoy the earlier ones after that, it was clear that 40 year old action scenes could never be as good. 2 and the first half of 3 still hold up very well though.
Btw Anya Taylor Joy starring in the Furiosa prequel might be the best news I’ve read in 2020.
40 yo woman goes back in time to her high school days
Rather unoriginal premise (maybe not at the time idk), but actually a very good film, in the way it treats its story and characters seriously, really making us empathize with the main character rather than playing things for laughs.
Also (on topic with earlier posts from this thread) features a great performance by a young Nic Cage, who at 22yo is already completely unhinged and yet quite touching.
Do you like to watch trailers before seeing a movie?
I love watching trailers. Even if I’ve seen the movie before, I’ll watch the trailer. I watch them as mood-setting media. Some people don’t watch them because they don’t want to spoil anything, but I don’t pay attention to any plot details. The music and impressions tell me what kind of movie to expect.
Anyway, never seen Peggy Sue and eek, I forgot just how bad trailers often were in the 80s. We’ve come a long way turning those little ads into their own kind of short films.
I actually haven’t seen 3 or 4, and although if asked I would say I’ve seen 2, I couldn’t tell you anything about it. So I don’t know what the ranking order should be. But it is clear that I need to put these on my list to watch asap!
I have a pathological aversion to spoilers so I don’t really like the modern mini-movie trailers. My ideal movie experience is maybe knowing a tiny bit about the movie, maybe some hype, then letting it all hit me fresh as I watch it.
Talking about trailers always reminds me of a funny thing that can happen: a movie scene makes it into the trailer, but is then cut before the theatrical release.
A fun example that I remember from my own experience was LA Story. The trailer featured a scene where Steve Martin is advised by John Lithgow that “skipping is the perfect compromise between running and walking,” and then is shown skipping across the street. That setup scene and the skipping didn’t make it into the release. Not a huge loss I guess but I do remember noticing its absence.
“Half-double decaffeinated with a half-caf. Oh and a twist of lemon.”
And this movie description
Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin) has the easiest job in the world: he’s a TV weatherman in Los Angeles, where the weather is so predictable he tapes his forecasts days in advance.
Oh man, its a great movie. Despite being famous Steve Martin is actually a bit underrated. In addition to his famous comedy, he’s a good writer as well. And his banjo playing is off the charts good.
