Tag Archives: the thing
There Is No Such Thing As A ‘Reboot’
I saw the new Godzilla yesterday. I enjoyed it a lot, but I’ve been weirded out for months over the fact that I’ve had to call it something I’ve never had to call a Godzilla film. Just like how I recently had to call a Bond film something that, in 50 years of recasting and returns to ground zero, I’ve never had to call a Bond film.
I’m all for specialized vocabulary. Film needs its own exclusive words to describe its own processes, but ‘reboot’ is not one such word. I’ve asked people time and again to define it, and I’ve read about it online—god help me, I’ve even read the Wikipedia page for it. It’s just not a real and distinct concept. It’s a cheap marketing buzzword, that’s all it is. And more than that, the very existence of the term is symptomatic of a rot at the core of contemporary filmmaking.
Posted in All Posts, John's Essays
Tagged abel ferrara, ant man ant-man, bad lieutenane, battlestar galactica, edgar wright, friday the 13th, godzilla, godzilla 2014, humphrey bogart, invasion of the body snatches, j.j. abrams, john carpenter, john d'amico. movie reboot, john damico, john huston, maltese falcon, matthe mcconaughey, movie reboots, movie remake, movie remakes, peter lorre, port of call new orleans, remakes, renee zellweger, smug film, smugfilm, spider-man, spiderman, star trek, star wars, texas chainsaw massacre 2, texas chainsaw massacre: the next generation, the hobbit, the maltese falcon, the maltese falcon 1931, the story of floating weeds, the texas chainsaw massacre, the thing, the thing from another world, werner herzog, yasujiro ozu
14 Comments
On Colorization
She (Orig. 1935, Colorized Version 2008)
Colorization is one of those things that people call “controversial”, and like most glib descriptors, it’s a kind of shoddy definition. There’s no controversy over colorizing things. People hate it. Everybody hates it.
The people who care about movies hate it because it paints over esteemed favorites, dolloping them in eerie flesh tones and smeared, lifeless color like a little girl trying out one of those toy makeup kits. Meanwhile, they fail to catch any new blood because those who hate black and white movies don’t just hate black and white movies because they’re in black and white, and a bit of clown makeup will never bridge that psychological distance.
Continue reading
Posted in All Posts, John's Essays
Tagged 20 million miles to earth, casablanca, casablanca colorized, casablanca colorized version, colorization, dj spooky, forbidden planet, john damico, jseoph cornell, king kong, king kong colorization, legend films, merian c. cooper, motionflow, night of the living dead, ray harryhausen, rebirth of a nation, rose hobart, she, she 1935, she 1935 colorized, she colorized, she movie, siskel and ebert, smug film, smugfilm, sovcolor, stan brakhage, ted turner, the thing, the thing from another world
3 Comments
My Uncle Gary, The Bargain Bin Junkie
My dad has four brothers; the oldest, Gary, was born in 1951. Gary was a hippie for a while, and saw 2001: A Space Odyssey in the theater (probably on acid, shh). He’s a blue collar intellectual, a salt-of-the-earth fellow who knows about cars and Greek philosophy and cooking and political theory and electrical stuff. Gary worked at a newspaper in Port Huron, Michigan for 25 years and then retired. In 1985, his left index finger was severed in half by some machine. When he removed his work glove he felt something dangling which felt like a string, and later he asked the doctor what it was, only to receive the reply, “that was your tendon, it had been pulled out”. (That detail has no relevance to anything—I just wanted to make you shiver.)
Continue reading
Posted in All Posts, Greg's Essays
Tagged 2001 a space odyssey, alien, alien 3, aliens, armond white, avp, avp: alien vs predator, bargain bin, bargain bin junkie, blade, blade runner, danny glover, event horizon, john carpenter, lord of the rings, martin scorsese, michael bay, mortal kombat, nimrod antal, paul w.s. anderson, predator, predator 2, sam neill, soldier, soldier 1998, soldier movie, the thing, uncle gary, underworld, uwe boll
1 Comment
Advice Column #9 (6/14/13)
I see so many clueless directors putting female characters whose only job is to BE female. I would like a list of movies with strong female characters that are not defined by their gender. And no cheesy role reversal things where the woman has the traditional male qualities. Just some nice films (or raw horrifying ones) where the woman or women are just real people. And don’t say Joy Luck Club cause I already know about it. That was extremely good at what it was. – Michael H.
Editor’s Note (12/4/14): We no longer answer movie questions through our advice column. We answer them in the mailbag segment of our podcast. Send them to Cody@SmugFilm.com and we will answer on the show!
Continue reading
Posted in Advice, All Posts
Tagged abbey linclon, ali fear eats the soul, aliens, all i desire, all that heaven allows, allison janney, amy adams, baby face, bring it on, chantal akerman, christopher strong, clarice starling, cody clarke, daisies, dardenne brothers, deadwood, dick, douglas sirk, drop dead gorgeous, evangeline lilly, fargo, gabrielle union, grapes of wrath, hedy lamarr, howard hawks, imitation of life, jackie brown, je tu il elle, jean-pierre dardenne, jeanne dielman, jeanne dielman 23 quai du commerce 1080 bruzelles, john damico, john ford, johnny guitar, joy luck club, julianne moore, katharine hepburn, kim dickens, kirsten dunst, last summer, lost, luc dardenne, lynda carter, ma joad, mary tyler moore show, michelle williams, movie advice, movie advice column, news from home, night nurse, nothing but a man, pam grier, psycho, rendezvous d'anna, rosetta, safe, smug film, smugfilm, strong female characters, strong female protagonist, the furies, the pursuit of happyness, the strange woman, the thing, treme, will smith, wonder woman
2 Comments
Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Brian De Palma (But Didn’t Care Enough to Ask)
When I was in junior high school, Scarface was the most talked about movie in the hallways. It was 2000, and those hallways were a reflection of the culture at large. One time a kid asked me, “Who directed Scarface, Scorsese?” He had never heard of Brian De Palma.
There’s a popular book called Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. It’s a gossipy, oral history of 60s and 70s American movies. In the back of the book, they summarize the directors integral to the movement and give a filmography for each. Spielberg, Coppola, Scorsese, Lucas, and Malick are featured, but not Brian De Palma—despite being mentioned heavily in the book. You’d think the guy that gave Robert De Niro his first on-screen appearance (The Wedding Party, 1969) and gave him steady work way before Scorsese ever did, would be important enough to mention.
Continue reading
Posted in All Posts, Greg's Essays
Tagged 660124: the story of an ibm card, a hard day's night, adaptation, alfred hitchcock, analyze this, antonioni, apocalypse now, barry sanders, battleship potempkin, be black baby, blow out, blow up, body double, bonfire of the vanities, boogie nights, brazil, brian de palma, brian de palma filmography, brian de palma retrospective, brian depalma, brian depalma filmography, brian depalma retrospective, bruce springsteen, carlitos way, carrie, casualties of war, coppola, courtney cox, danny devito, david koepp, david lynch, dionysus in 69, dr. strangelove, dressed to kill, easy rider, easy riders raging bulls, eraserhead, fangoria, femme fatale, francis for coppola, freaks and geeks, gary sinise, george lucas, get to know your rabbit, goodfellas, greetings, greg deliso, head, help!, hi mom, hitchcock, home movies, icarus, joe montana, joe piscopo, john c. reilly, john carpenter, john lithgow, josh hartnett, jurassic park, jurassic park 2, keith gordon, kims video, king of comedy, kirk douglas, knocked up, kundun, lucas, lynchian, martin scorsese, meet the parents, melanie griffith, michael j fox, mission impossible, mission to mars, obsession, orson wells, p.j. soles, passion, paths of glory, phantom of the paradise, pj soles, pulp fiction, quentin tarantino, rachel mcadams, raising cain, rear window, redacted, rio bravo, robert deniro, robert mckee, sanke eyes, sarah lawrence, scarface, scorsese, sean penn, show me a strong town and i'll show you a strong bank, sisters, smothers brothers, smug film, smugfilm, sopranos, spielberg, split diopter lens, starman, steven spielberg, tarantino, taxi driver, teh fury, the black dahlia, the departed, the godfather, the king of comedy, the lost world, the mission, the thing, the untouchable, the wedding party, tom cruise, tom hanks, touch of evil, william finley, wise guys, woodstock, woton's wake
4 Comments
