San Francisco, 3:08 AM
Thu Dec 3
24 posts in the last 24 hours
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@alphanumeric1971: My problem is if you had a so so dinner, would you eat it again just for the sake of continuity when you were then offered a delicious 3 course meal from a well respected establishment? It's an upgrade, I'm ok with it. If it was a downgrade then that would be another thing. But this is the first time Fox is taking stuff like this seriously.
@Grrsn Dn: He's made some bad choices, but overall he's pretty good. Doesn't do the scene, haven't heard rumors about him being a diva, and he can act.
It's not factory work or digging ditches, but quitting smoking and working out and eating boring shit like that probably wasn't a lot of fun.
And he's taking a comic book movie as seriously as all his other roles.
You know, I don't think people hear enough about the kinda work actors put in to trying to fit into their roles. Gaining weight, losing it, working on speech, all that stuff. Being an actor sounds like a pretty tough job overall.
I have learned one important thing from being on stage crew in high school. It is this: Actors are dicks. It's a selfish job with a ridiculous pay rate. If Liev is getting paid more than half a million to prance around with an open shirt and fake teeth, I'd be okay with him going through some pain for it. Hell, I'd demand it.
To quote The Producers: "Actors aren't animals! They're human beings!"
Hear hear! As another former stage crew alum I have to agree. Actors suck. They're a lot of fun to hang out with, but when it comes to work, they have it damn easy and complain ten times as much as they should. So what he gains and loses weight? BFD. Bottom line, you get paid WAAAAAAAY too much for what you do. So effing deal.
As a professional theatre technician, I really think people who've spent time in high school stage crew can't judge real professional stage actors. They work just as hard as everyone else in the theatre.
Screen actors though? Their job is way easier than the stage.
Honestly I'm gonna make a blanket statement and say that none of us were really talking about professional stage actors. We might have referenced high school theater, but I was referring to film actors and yes they are dicks. Professional stage actors still have monstrous egos, but at least they work their asses off.
And for the record, my mom is a retired costume designer and yes, I remember the actors and they were nice, but spoiled. And my high school? It was a private school in Hollywood and most of the kids there were actually "real" actors. It made it *that* much more annoying as a production.
@ThisDudeRufus: I think it varies. I know people that pursued it in college and actually got a good gig after. I also know people that knew other people and worked their way up. A friend of mine does makeup for a lot of musicians and she basically went out to L.A. with nothing and made friends to get jobs. I wouldn't recommend that to anyone, but some people just *got* it.
One of the strangest, most terrifying and awesome people I ever met was the villain in "Only The Strong". He was one part Tony Montana and one part Jack Sparrow and he would show me his capoeira moves and talk shit about Jean Claude van Damme and call Mark Dacascos gay. I'd love to tell stories about him, but there just isn't enough room and I don't know where to start. Lets just say it often involved coke (on his part) and creeping out women, and then eventually bedding them. I don't know how he did it.
Choreographed fight scenes ... based on dancing? Are you kidding me?
The thing I hated most about the X-Men movies was Wolverine's lame fight scenes. They were too "choreographed", too pristine, too ... ordered. And the claws looked absurd on Jackman's tall frame and pathetic "air slashing" moves. (Can you say "ungainly?)
Wolverine, as depicted in the comic books, was always a tactician--always dodging and weaving--but he was also (especially in the early 90's) drawn with a brutality and animal-like ferocity that the movies just failed to capture. Wolverine isn't Captain America; he shouldn't fight like a martial artist. (The double 'claw flip' thing in X2, when the mansion gets invaded, was just lame, with a capital "L".) He's not Spiderman either, and shouldn't be dancing and doing backflips.
He should be getting in the enemy's face, and tearing through flesh with a bloodthirsty rage. Sure, show some doging, weaving, and leaping--but make sure it's movement that is always moving toward the enemy, with Wolverine showing no regard for the damage he might incur in doing so. He's supposed to be mean, brutal, and impossible to kill. Not "Lord of the Dance With Claws". Even the bathroom fight scene in Kindergarten Cop was more brutal than all of the X-movies combined.
Now, with Sabretooth and Wolverine "in the mix" together, this new movie should be the most brutual blood bath we've seen since Apocalypse Now. But, of course, that won't happen. All of this talk about "dancing" and other choreography just confirms the worst of my fears.
@Dessad: this may come as a shock to you but all fight scenes in all movies are coreographed no matter what style of fighting the characers depected choose to employ. all fights in movies are based on dancing because they're not actually trying to hurt one another. they are, in fact, attempting to do quite to opposite.
@Dessad: the randomness of a real fight you so desperatly yern for cannot be captured on film unless the actors genuinely want to hurt one another. i felt it fitting to point out that they do not since you seemed to have missed that point in your first and now second and third posts.
@tetracycloide: Yeah, real fights are completely boring to watch, consisting as they do of maybe one or two punches, and then someone is in a headlock, and then they're rolling around on the ground and everybody's drunk.
@Dessad: you ever seen ufc? that's a spot on description of most of those fights between professionals. the only difference is the cage between them and the drunk spectators and the fighters last longer than a few punches because they're professionals.
@Dessad: This is actually not what I meant to say. I've seen a lot of fights, and been in a fair number of them myself, and can conclusively say that very little style training actually crosses over into a real world fight. You see a lot more during sparring matches, certainly, but in actual, real, drop down fights?
Well, look. You don't train style to be a good fighter. You train it for a lot of reasons, many of which contribute to being a good fighter.
Also, just in case there's anyone that doesn't realize that Meredith is completely insane:
Schreiber's not saying that he and Jackman are going to actually be dancing. He's just saying that being good at dance choreography translates to being good at fight choreography, so, because Jackman knows how to dance, their fights are going to look awesome.
I always thought that Wolverine would have a rather sloppy fighting style, since his healing factor gives him the option of taking a hit in order to get in one of his own. For example, his fight against the spike throwing guy in X3.
@daveNYC: Wolverine is also an expert in a variety of martial arts including kendo. Admittedly, he probably doesn't have to be, but you don't always study the martial arts so that you can be good at fighting.
01/20/09
01/20/09
01/20/09
And yes Liev is a talented actor, but was horribly miscast in this....
01/20/09
01/21/09
You know, what they don't have in fox or marvel films...
01/21/09
01/20/09
01/20/09
A: You were the only good thing in that last Jack Ryan film which you kind of blew by doing...
B: The Manchurian Candidate remake which was awful and unecessary.
and
C: There are scenes in Sphere with you and Dustin Hoffman that if you shut your eyes sounds like a monologue.
01/20/09
E: Damn you for getting to Naomi Watts ahead of me.
01/20/09
It's not factory work or digging ditches, but quitting smoking and working out and eating boring shit like that probably wasn't a lot of fun.
And he's taking a comic book movie as seriously as all his other roles.
01/20/09
01/20/09
01/20/09
I have learned one important thing from being on stage crew in high school. It is this: Actors are dicks. It's a selfish job with a ridiculous pay rate. If Liev is getting paid more than half a million to prance around with an open shirt and fake teeth, I'd be okay with him going through some pain for it. Hell, I'd demand it.
To quote The Producers: "Actors aren't animals! They're human beings!"
"They are? Have you ever eaten with one?"
01/20/09
Hear hear! As another former stage crew alum I have to agree. Actors suck. They're a lot of fun to hang out with, but when it comes to work, they have it damn easy and complain ten times as much as they should. So what he gains and loses weight? BFD. Bottom line, you get paid WAAAAAAAY too much for what you do. So effing deal.
01/20/09
Secret stage crew handshake! Everyone else look away!
01/20/09
Actors are perpetual children, make-believe is their life.
Hitchcock's "actors as cattle" becomes clear once you're a techie or director (I've been both).
"The Producers" and "My Favorite Year" are great for crew.
01/20/09
As a professional theatre technician, I really think people who've spent time in high school stage crew can't judge real professional stage actors. They work just as hard as everyone else in the theatre.
Screen actors though? Their job is way easier than the stage.
01/20/09
Honestly I'm gonna make a blanket statement and say that none of us were really talking about professional stage actors. We might have referenced high school theater, but I was referring to film actors and yes they are dicks. Professional stage actors still have monstrous egos, but at least they work their asses off.
And for the record, my mom is a retired costume designer and yes, I remember the actors and they were nice, but spoiled. And my high school? It was a private school in Hollywood and most of the kids there were actually "real" actors. It made it *that* much more annoying as a production.
@ThisDudeRufus: I think it varies. I know people that pursued it in college and actually got a good gig after. I also know people that knew other people and worked their way up. A friend of mine does makeup for a lot of musicians and she basically went out to L.A. with nothing and made friends to get jobs. I wouldn't recommend that to anyone, but some people just *got* it.
12/22/08
So Tyler Mane can blame Liev for those awful career choices he's been making then.
12/22/08
12/22/08
I don't think HUGH can pull off an origin story either.
Since they don't really age, what's the biggie here?
12/09/08
12/09/08
12/09/08
12/09/08
The thing I hated most about the X-Men movies was Wolverine's lame fight scenes. They were too "choreographed", too pristine, too ... ordered. And the claws looked absurd on Jackman's tall frame and pathetic "air slashing" moves. (Can you say "ungainly?)
Wolverine, as depicted in the comic books, was always a tactician--always dodging and weaving--but he was also (especially in the early 90's) drawn with a brutality and animal-like ferocity that the movies just failed to capture. Wolverine isn't Captain America; he shouldn't fight like a martial artist. (The double 'claw flip' thing in X2, when the mansion gets invaded, was just lame, with a capital "L".) He's not Spiderman either, and shouldn't be dancing and doing backflips.
He should be getting in the enemy's face, and tearing through flesh with a bloodthirsty rage. Sure, show some doging, weaving, and leaping--but make sure it's movement that is always moving toward the enemy, with Wolverine showing no regard for the damage he might incur in doing so. He's supposed to be mean, brutal, and impossible to kill. Not "Lord of the Dance With Claws". Even the bathroom fight scene in Kindergarten Cop was more brutal than all of the X-movies combined.
Now, with Sabretooth and Wolverine "in the mix" together, this new movie should be the most brutual blood bath we've seen since Apocalypse Now. But, of course, that won't happen. All of this talk about "dancing" and other choreography just confirms the worst of my fears.
12/09/08
12/09/08
12/09/08
12/09/08
12/09/08
12/09/08
12/09/08
12/09/08
12/10/08
Well, look. You don't train style to be a good fighter. You train it for a lot of reasons, many of which contribute to being a good fighter.
12/09/08
Schreiber's not saying that he and Jackman are going to actually be dancing. He's just saying that being good at dance choreography translates to being good at fight choreography, so, because Jackman knows how to dance, their fights are going to look awesome.
12/09/08
12/09/08
12/09/08
Kevin Bacon kicks the crap out of those guys.
12/09/08
12/09/08
12/09/08
I always thought that Wolverine would have a rather sloppy fighting style, since his healing factor gives him the option of taking a hit in order to get in one of his own. For example, his fight against the spike throwing guy in X3.
12/09/08
12/09/08
12/09/08
12/09/08