COL Movies

After 5 weeks the band is finally back together on this the 128th reel of COL Movies. This week the boys get right into the swing of things by jumping to the past and examining Guy Richie’s. Snatch! For our exploration of the present we strap on some Iron Gauntlets to chop away at the RZA and Eli Roth Kung-Fu Extravaganza The Man With The Iron Fists. Finally we all keep the Iron hot by looking to the future to talk about Iron Man 3. On the news front we have some information on Brian Syngers new project, Some Star Wars Episode 7 announcements and last but certainly least we get to talk about some very exciting casting news for the masterpiece that will be Transformers 4! All this and more on the 128th reel of COL Movies: All Bets Are Off!

News:

Bryan Singer’s ‘Jack the Giant Slayer’ Gets New Name, Moves to Early March

Michael Arndt to pen the screen play for the next Star Wars movie

Whalberg to replace Shia in Transformers 4

The Past: Snatch

Rotten Tomatoes 72% Fresh; 92% Audience

Director: Guy Ritchie

Starring: Jason Statham, Brad Pitt, Benicio Del Toro

Trivia:

Brad Pitt, who was a big fan of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, approached director Guy Ritchie and asked for a role in this film. When Ritchie found Pitt couldn’t master a London accent, he gave him the role of Mickey the Gypsy.

To keep things in order during production, director Guy Ritchie introduced a system of fines on set. There were fines for mobile phones ringing, arriving late, taking naps during shooting, being “cheeky”, being unfunny, and/or moaning and complaining. One staff member was even charged for letting the craft service table run out of coffee cups.

When Mickey “wins” a new trailer van for his mother from Turkish, he specifically picks out “periwinkle blue” as the color. In Psycho, we are told that Norman Bates helped to pick out a “periwinkle blue” dress for his dead mother. Mickey, just like Norman, is also responsible (albeit indirectly) for his own mother’s death.

When Vinnie Jones is introduced in the movie, he is slamming a man’s head in a car door, It was the head of stunt co-coordinator and action director Tom Delmar, who volunteered for the job.

Bullet Tooth Tony’s character is introduced slamming a man’s head between a car door and a car, which the same actor does in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, another Guy Ritchie film.

The hardcore band “Cold War from Orange County, California” quotes this movie several times throughout their CD “From Russia With Love.” Some of the lines quoted are: (“Quote” – Character / Song in which quote is used) “From Russia with love, ah?” – Doug The Head / Love Betrays “Heavy’s good, heavy’s reliable.” – Boris the Blade / Painful Delight “Do you know what “nemesis” means? A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent. Personified in this case by an ‘orrible c*nt… me.” – Brick Top / Retrace My Steps

Lennie James actually hit himself in his private parts with the shotgun while blasting a hole in the wall at the bookies, but continued the scene. That footage was used in the film.

Boris the Blade pulls a large cleaver from his belt. Soap did the same thing in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, another Guy Ritchie movie.

Guy Ritchie reportedly paid US $1 million for the use of Madonna’s song, “Lucky Star”.

Every mistake that Sol, Vincent and Tyrone make were inspired by various late-night TV shows about real-life crimes gone horribly wrong.

Tim Maurice-Jones, the cinematographer, plays the man who is repeatedly battered over the head at the beginning of the movie by Frankie Four-Fingers (Benicio Del Toro). In Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, for which he was also the cinematographer, he was the man being drowned at the begi[...]

We’re baaaaack! After a few weeks of unexpected delays, Jeff and Steve are back with a variety of interesting films. In the past, it’s 1984’s “Red Dawn”, just in time for a remake coming out later this month. In theater’s it’s off to Silent Hill to find out if “Silent Hill Revelations” offers anything worth … Continue reading MOV127: Wolverines!! →

We’re baaaaack! After a few weeks of unexpected delays, Jeff and Steve are back with a variety of interesting films. In the past, it’s 1984’s “Red Dawn”, just in time for a remake coming out later this month. In theater’s it’s off to Silent Hill to find out if “Silent Hill Revelations” offers anything worth revealing. From there, it’s off to fairy tale land for a review of the trailer for “Jack the Giant Killer”. In movie news, we chat about a feature adaptation of “Animal Farm”, thoughts about trialer for the “Iron Man 3” trailer and we also cavort about the Disney/Lucasfilm deal. It’s the 127th reel of COL Movies… “Wolverines!!”

News:

Andy Serkis to Direct Animal Farm

A Trailer for a Trailer

The Disney Deal with Lucasfilm – Forbes

Recent Facebook Likes: Bruce Richardson

The Past: Red Dawn (1984)

Rotten Tomatoes 53% Rotten; 65% Audience

Director: John Milius

Starring: Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson

Trivia:

The script for Red Dawn was written by John Milius and Kevin Reynolds from a story by Reynolds. The original story, called Ten Soldiers, was more akin to Lord of the Flies, the classic novel about the aggressive nature of man, than to the action film it eventually became. Some of the changes included a shift in focus from conflict within the group to conflict between the teens and their oppressors, and the acceleration of the ages of some of the characters from early teens to high school age and beyond.

The first motion picture released with an MPAA PG-13 rating. (The Flamingo Kid, the first film to *get* a PG-13 rating, sat on the shelves for 5 months before release.)

The film made the Guinness Book of Records for having the most acts of violence of any film up to that time. According to their calculations, 134 acts of violence occur per hour, 2.23 per minute.

The cast underwent an intensive 8-week military training course before filming started.

The illustration of Genghis Khan in the high school classroom at the beginning of the film is a caricature of director John Milius.

Charlie Sheen’s feature film debut.

The original trailer, on the laserdisc release, includes a scene with a tank rolling up to a McDonald’s where enemy soldiers are eating. The scene does not appear in the final cut, and was likely removed due to a mass murder at a McDonald’s in San Ysidro, CA, weeks before the film opened.

The film’s replica Soviet T-72 tank was so precise that when it was transported to the studio, two CIA agents followed and wanted to know where it had come from.

The plot, a Soviet/Cuban invasion from Mexico, was based on CIA and War College studies of US weaknesses at the time.

While filming the invasion scene at the high school, five parachutists dressed as Soviet soldiers were blown up to a mile off course.

In the movie, the Wolverines bomb the invaders’ regional headquarters. On August 3, 2006, heavy thunderstorms destroyed the 107-year-old Center Block Building in Las Vegas, NM, where the scene was filmed.

An old Safeway grocery store in Las Vegas, NM, was converted to a sound stage and used for several scenes.

The submachine gun Strelnikov uses near the end of the film is a Finnish-made Jati-matic GG-95 PDW. About 400 were manufactured in the mid-1980s.

“Red Dawn” was the given code name of the military operation in Iraq that captured Saddam Hussein on December 13, 2003. John Milius felt honored by that.

The original movie tagline said, “In our time, no foreign army has ever occupied American soil.” Some historians believe that is historically inaccurate. British troops occupied American territory during the War of 1812. They occupied an area outside of New Orleans, and occupied and burned large parts of Washington, DC, including the White House, in 1814. Japanese forces occupied several islands off the coast of Alaska during World War II. However, the statement “In our time” (within a viewer’s lifetime) is technically[...]

Happy Halloween! Jeff and guest Robert discuss It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. [display_podcast] The Past: It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown Rotten Tomatoes 93% Fresh; 78% Audience [asa]B005BXY1QK[/asa] Director: Bill Melendez Starring: Peter Robbins, Christopher Shea, Sally Dryer Trivia: When Linus walks into the living room after writing a letter to the Great Pumpkin, … Continue reading CUT003: It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown →

Happy Halloween! Jeff and guest Robert discuss It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

The Past: It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Rotten Tomatoes 93% Fresh; 78% Audience

Director: Bill Melendez

Starring: Peter Robbins, Christopher Shea, Sally Dryer

Trivia:

When Linus walks into the living room after writing a letter to the Great Pumpkin, Lucy is sitting in front of the TV reading a TV guide. The picture on the cover of the magazine is a picture of Lucy.

After this special originally aired, children all over the country sent candy to Charlie Brown out of sympathy.

When Snoopy pretends to cross wartime France as a downed pilot, he passes signs pointing to two real locations in the Champagne country northeast of Paris: Chalons sur Marne and Pont a Mousson.

Actress Kathy Steinberg had almost finished recording all her lines of dialog as Sally when the producers received a phone call from Steinberg’s mother informing them that one of Kathy’s teeth was loose. Fearing that a sudden lisp would ruin the continuity dialogue, the producers rushed the young actress into the studio to finish recording her lines. Just as Steinberg was speaking her last line, the tooth came flying out of her mouth.

When the show ran briefly on NBC, the scene of Snoopy and Schroeder was cut out.

The songs that Schroeder plays for Snoopy include World War One songs ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’, ‘There’s a Long, Long Trail’ and ‘Roses of Pickardy’ and ‘Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag.’

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