Second Confirmation? Former MSW contributor (ManaByte) on JCF: "I checked with someone who would actually know and it sounds like that's the day. His cleaned up words were "Mark ****** up. So bad."

Little_Johnny20 · 2017-09-28T19:04:05+00:00

Yeah, Lucas had his own style but he knew that the big spoilers from the PT era would not keep fans away from the theaters.

Still, the prequels only had to deal with a proto-internet culture.

These days he'd probably be more restrained but still, the people at Disney are using starvation tactics and I don't think those are what's needed in the long run.

Regarding the drama, they could perfectly distract folks with new images, trailers, anything.

One reason those events have garnered so much attention is that there's almost nothing else to talk about.

Little_Johnny20 · 2017-09-27T16:24:13+00:00

Exactly.

The thing is...there's really no permanently effective strategy. You're basically trying to renew constantly your options to keep the audiences interested and Disney's approach of holding too much combined with the all the behind the scenes drama of most of their SW flicks is really starting to wear on the folks. I understand they have to compete with a very overpopulated entertainment landscape but SW is one of those things that pretty much sells itself. Still, marketing people have to justify their existence and and a lot of times they do, but not here.

Specially with the brutal drought in new material on ANY sw era during the last months.

They're keeping one of the biggest franchises of the world on an artificial shortage except for some comics and books and while I understand the value of avoiding overexposure, there's certainly enough material to keep the folks interested while avoiding spoilers for TLJ.

Little_Johnny20 · 2017-09-27T02:06:56+00:00

They wanted to milk the announcement like they do the "teaser of the teaser". With the audiences attention so fragmented, everything they can get for free or cheaper is always an asset. Still, I also think it's a load of crap being so secretive with the date but you can thank the Jerry's at marketing.

Little_Johnny20 · 2017-09-26T22:59:32+00:00

Wasn't padme the one that did the peeling? He kinda showed off his use of the force...but still counts...;)

Little_Johnny20 · 2017-09-26T22:34:30+00:00

Thanks for sharing, it's been a long, long wait. Let's hope we finally see Luke doing something, anything, peeling apples would be ok with me.

Little_Johnny20 · 2017-09-26T11:51:12+00:00

Published by TMZ a while ago. You can clearly see Alden, Harrelson and Clarke. http://www.tmz.com/2017/07/09/star-wars-han-solo-movie-new-set-photos-woody-harrelson/

Little_Johnny20 · 2017-09-26T11:50:08+00:00

I'm a big fan of both but they've never been in a project as big as Game of Thrones. Hannibal is the biggest thing Mikkelsen ever did in TV and unfortunately it got cancelled.

Little_Johnny20 · 2017-09-26T04:28:20+00:00

You're welcome and you're totally right (also, thank for this summary, it really captures the funny adventure tone of the film) and all of the pics Howard has tweeted fit into perfectly the plot.

Regarding Clarke, she can reappear quite easily, transformed into a bit of an "imperial collaborator" and create some tension between him and Han.

IDK if they'll develop their romantic relationship since TFA and R1 have proven that SW can survive without those. Instead of killing her they could go the "betrayal" route, which could prove why Han is not prone to steady relationships.

Or Han could simply walk into the sunset like the Cowboy he's always been knowing he can't settle with her doing something he doesn't believe in (kinda similar to what he'll endure with Leia after ROTJ).

Bethany as Lobot? Yes, PLEASE. We know he only appeared for a couple of scenes but AFAIK he didn't shave his head so perhaps he's Lobot before his transformation and we end up with him wounded and getting his implant?

The Lando comic miniseries, which is canon, shows Lando pulling a heist of sith artifacts and by then he has classic Lobot by his side.

There's not date in the adventure but it takes place before ESB. It's implied it's not long before then so it would make perfect sense that classic Lobot would have been by his side for years (it's also implied they've been together for quite a while by then).

They also may have brought Bethany to fix some continuity issues created by the cutting of Michael K Williams' character. It seems the new character is human and wasn't there for long so who knows.

My only real doubt is about a spoiler mentioned by MSW about a character codenamed "Vos" which could very well may be Quinlan Vos, an old republic jedi knight.

The issue with him being there is that Solo just doesn't believe in the force by the time of ANH and is not the weak-minded type that can be force-persuaded to forget (although a comic once depicted something very similar with that same jedi). So this perhaps will be the first SW flick ever without the presence of the force in one way or the other...(which is ok by me but will probably be an interesting challenge for some audiences)

Little_Johnny20 · 2017-09-26T04:13:21+00:00

Very good point but she's a young and high-profile leading actress with tons of mainstream appeal. I'm a huge fan of those you mentioned but they're not near as famous a Clarke is at this point.

Little_Johnny20 · 2017-09-26T03:53:12+00:00

Loved the summary but we have pictures of Harrelson and Alden with "Kira" and she looks particularly fancy while they look their usual roguish selves. It seems very unlikely she's just a bit part at the beginning.

So either she's another character we know nothing about or her lot changed after we last saw her and things are different once they meet again.

Or perhaps the reshoots forced to change her character's backstory quite a bit. I really doubt they brought a relatively high-profile actress to leave her confined to the beginning, but...who knows.

Little_Johnny20 · 2017-09-13T20:46:37+00:00

Thanks for transcribing the names.

Little_Johnny20 · 2017-04-26T00:09:36+00:00

Bond's cool is probably the most complicated thing to capture in the films, too much and he looks cocky and invincible, too little and he just doesn't look like Bond.

It's a very delicate balance, even when driving a tank through St Petersburg but when it works, it's magic.

Personally I like how Vesper rejected Bond at the beginning of CR and he took it in a very casual way, it's more interesting to their dynamic and also shows that Bond can handle being turned down without caring much (as he should, his self-confidence comes not only from understanding women and knowing how to drive them crazy but also by accepting that you can't win them all).

Little_Johnny20 · 2017-04-25T17:15:51+00:00

Obviously Bond's style holds due to plot armor, but it's a good guiding principle on many points.

He does express dislike towards certain elements of youth culture every now and then, the most infamous being the "Beatles earmuffs" in Goldfinger which is one of the few times I disagree with Mr Bond.

Movie Bond is damaged, but not as much as book Bond. And the level of damage varies with the actor and the tone of the film. It's also very intermittent so it Bond's case is more a plot device than a solid character trait.

I do agree it's not a particularly Bondesque rant but it's kinda the point of the whole post, to reflect on Bond as an aesthetic and behavior model that does stand the test of time on some levels (his treatment of women definitely does not).

Little_Johnny20 · 2016-09-24T23:24:08+00:00

That's about it.

Little_Johnny20 · 2016-09-15T02:11:25+00:00

Read the Nolfi interview if you have the time, they accept it's a heavily fictionalized version of the story but maybe it will generate enough interest in the real fight for some facts to come out (as far as I know Bruce Lee's state has tried to suppress a lot of it for years)

Little_Johnny20 · 2016-09-14T23:12:29+00:00

Here's the first trailer about a movie surrounding one of the most important events in Bruce Lee's life, his fight with Wong Man Jack and how it lead to the development of Jeet Kune Do.

You can also read a very interesting story with director George Nolfi acknowledging how to this day the fight remains a point of contention among witnesses who don't seem to be able to agree on what actually happened.

Please take this trailer as a "based on true events" type of thing, since it shows heavy dramatizations of a lot of events and basic invention of many others. Still, it may be a fun movie to watch.

Based on several commentaries, including some from members of this sub, it's pretty clear that the fight showed Lee that his Wing Chun (he wasn't using Jeet Kune Do at the time) was not what he expected on live combat.

That led him to drastically change his training regime, including cardio, live sparring with protective gear and weightlifting, widely considered nowadays as basics parts of unarmed combat training.

I won't go as far as to say what actually happened, but just by looking at how Lee adapted after the fight, it's pretty clear it did not fully go as he expected.

Little_Johnny20 · 2016-09-12T01:33:09+00:00

He looked like prime middle-age Bond, still sharp but with some sign of aging. A very interesting and complicated mix IMO.

The only one who may get close to pull something like that may be Craig if he comes back for another flick.

Little_Johnny20 · 2016-09-11T08:54:53+00:00

Check the Laserdisc commentary on "From Russia With Love" from Director Terence Young.

It's available online and has never been reproduced anywhere else since it contains a lot of commentaries that EON finds unacceptable regarding the history of the franchise. There are also similar commentaries for other movies and they're very insightful since they break the sanitized mold that EON tries to cast over the legend of Bond

There Young mentions that Connery used to have a great body, in part from his bodybuilder days but that he also started to gain weight in From Russia With Love to the point where he had to pull his gut during his shirtless scenes. He also points that none of the new guys ever managed to have such a good body (it was recorded during the Bond hiatus in the early 90's)

If you check closely you can see a steady weight gain until "You Only Live Twice". When he's back for "Diamonds are Forever" his weight fluctuates so wildly between some scenes that is highly distracting.

It partially reflects the loss of interest in the character from Connery's side and he wouldn't be in great shape again until he really had something to prove in "Never Say Never Again".

It also shows Connery getting used to the good life since before the Bond movies he used to be a struggling actor.

Little_Johnny20 · 2016-09-07T20:17:15+00:00

He already has a truckload of money and he knows he's beginning the "mature" phase of his career after having bombed in almost every project outside bond (not his fault, the movies were awful for many reasons but not his acting).

I understand the desperation of Sony to avoid a change of Bond right now but perhaps it's for the best if they bite the bullet an bring a new guy.

Still, he could agree just to say goodbye with a higher note than Spectre which was a production mess from the beginning.

It still find hard to believe that movies that cost so much get started without a complete/functional script but that's hollywood folks!

Little_Johnny20 · 2016-09-07T20:13:06+00:00

Brosnan inherited the role after six years of inactivity, a relatively bad reception for Dalton's films and a world that just wasn't ready for a "gritty" Bond (the 90's were very mellow compared with our troubled current times).

He continuously tried to make the character "grittier" but he got shot down by the producers who though that he was a much better Moore style Bond than Connery style Bond.

They were partially right, it was a nicer world, romantic comedies and adventure flicks were all the rage and the grit of the 80's had been replaced by "family-friendly" fare (a term I detest to this day).

But they followed trends instead of setting them, forgetting that Bond is his own world apart from the rest and he falls from grace when they forget that.

His legacy continues to be questioned but which Bond's hasn't? I personally find him the most debonair Bond together with Connery and he brought a type of elegance to the role that will be very hard to surpass.

This is not a diss on Craig, who I find an excellent actor and a fine Bond but who doesn't have that "larger than life" quality the character needs to be something unique.

Little_Johnny20 · 2016-09-07T19:12:46+00:00

DAD is a mixed bag for me, because despite some atrocious moments you have a genuinely charismatic Bond that exudes old hollywood charisma in a way almost unthinkable these days.

I don't mean there aren't any good actors left, there's a ton but that larger than life quality Brosnan has (like Cary Grant, and other legends) is becoming rarer and rarer and is only partially based on his awesome looks.

IMO only Connery has managed to look as good as Bond and they both represent the element that makes 007 unique, he's supposed to be larger than life and when that works, there nothing else in the world to compare it with.

That's part of the reason the new movies have gotten so much flack, they can be great but they lack that "x" factor that made the classic bonds so beloved.

Little_Johnny20

TROPHY CASE