The Gun Counter

I guess my Rocket Raccoon quote slipped past ya.

I use the Howard Taylor metrics, based on whether or not I had fun. I almost universally avoid theaters, mostly because the closest one with any substance is over an hour away and I usually threaten to punt a phone into a place a teenager will have a difficult time extracting it. Generally, I just wait for things to hit Itunes. I made an exception for SW:TFA simply because I was back in the NOLA area and could get to one. Yes, it was a flawed, virtual rewrite of ANH, but I had fun watching it. I'll probably pick it up on Itunes, but we'll see.

Palsy-Cam aside, I enjoyed the new Star Treks for the same reason. A fun couple of hours of escapism. Pretty much what it said on the tin and I went in looking for not much else. GOTG was was of the most fun things I'd seen in years.

This works for just about most flicks. I'm not looking for anything to ooo and ahhh over, though it happens from time to time.

JAG2955 wrote:If all those movies suck that bad and lose money, how does Hollywood stay in business? Kickbacks from the liberals in government?

Because over time, they have a virtually unlimited revenue stream based on nearly a century's prior output, including syndicated television, which is nearly 100% studio-produced, all of which continues to make sales both for retail and for broadcast.
Even Batman & Robin or Waterworld may someday eek out a slight profit, it's just that you and I will be 50 years dead by that date.
They also don't lose money on everything, but the movies mentioned were huuuuuge hits to the waterline. It takes 10-20 average movies with a modest profit to underwrite those tentpole blockbuster flops. That's why pirating and copyright violation is such a big deal to the biz: it kills movies now, and for all time, with is a slash to Hollywood's jugular.

If you want to get a much better idea how a given studio is doing, halve the reported gross totals of their movies, double the reported budgets, and see what you get. Disney, e.g., bought the entire media universe because they had everything Walt made from 1923-1965 inclusive to bankroll the effort. Eisner's genius was to figure out that by putting the classics out on media rather than only do a theatrical release would pay generational dividends, esp. because the media changes on almost the same 7-year rotation they used to re-release theatrically (VHS>DVD>BD>next gen).
The industry's stocks and annual reports are a joke, because even Wall Street knows Hollywood uses accounting standard practices that would get regular company CEOs and CFOs thrown in prison (and then the feds would throw away the prison) if they tried them in the real world.

If you want to understand why Hollywood turns out such crap, just go watch the Kevin Smith talk about his attempt to write a superman script..

HTRN wrote:If you want to understand why Hollywood turns out such crap, just go watch the Kevin Smith talk about his attempt to write a superman script..

It's illuminating.

Maybe it's a good thing we never saw a Kevin Smith Superman. Would've been 75% talk, 1.2% action, and 100% fanboy discussions as we see in Kevin Smith's "Comic Book Men". I think the only reason that show has ratings is the people too lazy to switch the channel after The Walking Dead finishes up.

The Wizard wrote:I'd watch a Deadpool-Harley Quinn crossover. My girlfriend liked Deadpool but I think it was because of the excessive amount of dude ass in it.

I enjoyed Deadpool, but I don't remember the dude ass - I self filter for stuff like that. I liked the wise-cracking, the fourth wall breaking (or 16), and the (not excessive enough) amount of Morena Baccarin. Leslie Uggams made me laugh, too.

Jericho941 wrote:

HTRN wrote:If you want to understand why Hollywood turns out such crap, just go watch the Kevin Smith talk about his attempt to write a superman script..

It's illuminating.

Is that the guy who wanted the villain to be a giant spider? Or do I have to watch a 9 minute video to find out?

Okay, I watched both 9 minute videos. I was right.

The solution to this is to have Joss Whedon direct and produce every superhero movie from here on. He will then use his billions to start up Firefly Season 2. I will be willing to play Summer Glau's love interest, and Adam Baldwin and I can shoot guns between takes.

Adam Baldwin is a little busy.
I'm hoping somewhere in Season 3 the writers find an excuse to slip Nathan Fillion or Ron Glass into an episode.

Aesop wrote:Adam Baldwin is a little busy.
I'm hoping somewhere in Season 3 the writers find an excuse to slip Nathan Fillion or Ron Glass into an episode.

Several members of the Firefly cast have already had parts on Fillions current show Castle including Baldwin in a couple of them as a reoccurring character.