New Movies

slacker

Team HuskerBoard
Anyone seen either "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" or that new Japanese kung fu flick, I think it's called "Hero"? Are either of them worth the time?

 
I heard on the radio today that Sky Captain is defiantly worth seeing. Something cool about this one I didn't know, it was filmed completely in front of a blue screen. Sounds like it will be great visually, if not anything else...

NEW YORK (AP) -- "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" is full of visions of the dark, soaring New York cityscape, dogfights in the sky and the majestic Himalayan mountains. But what was the movie set like for the actors?

A whole lotta blue.

That's because "Sky Captain," despite its grandiose appearance, was filmed entirely against a blue screen with digital effects filled in. Though real actors star in it, almost everything else is fake. Think "Roger Rabbit" in reverse.

While computer generated imagery has for years been a large presence in movies, "Sky Captain" is the first major motion picture made entirely digitally with living, breathing actors. Only what they touch is tangible.

More here

 
What I find intruiging about it is that it follows - a little bit - of the forumla used for the Indania Jones films. A return to the serials and a bit of camp. One I'll probably catch when it comes to the premium cable channels - I can't stand going to the movies.

 
Sky Captain looks amazing. Whoever sees it first please share your opinions.

Speaking of another kick a$$ looking movie.. cant wait for Team America World Police to come out in Oct. Created by Southpark fellas. You just know its gonna be nuts.

http://www.teamamerica.com/

 
Anyone planning on seeing Friday Night Lights? I read the exerpts in Sports Illustrated years ago, and bought the book. Amazing read. If the movie is at all true to the book, it should be excellent.

 
I hadn't even heard of Friday Night Lights until I read it here. I must be living in a cave because now I am seeing commercials for it left and right. Looks promising.

Team America: World Police looks like it will be awesome.

 
Yep. Fri night lights looks incredible. Billy Bob is one of the best actors in our era so, combine that with a great story and I have a feeling you wont walk outta there without a tear less than when you walked in.

 
Yes, it is. It's about a season the writer spent with the Perriman team of Odessa (sic), TX. As I recall, it occurred in the mid-eighties or so.

At the time of the book, Perriman was something of a legend in Texas. Never really had D1 caliber players (a few every couple of years) but either won or contended for State year-in and year-out.

The irony is that now, the school hasn't won State since '91. It now spends more on academics than sports, and even has some national scholars - all unheard of when the book was written.

 
Anyone have an opinion on the movie Napoleon Dynamite? It looks like it will either be extreamly funny or extreamly stupid. Has anyone seen it?

 
Just a follow-up to Friday Night Lights. The current issue (or last week's issue) of Sports Illustrated has an article where the writer returns to the city and updates what's happened to some of the major characters, the school, and the city since the book.

 
Haven't seen it, but read an article about it today. The books author was singing its praises - something you rarely see. And since he has his money from it already, how well it does doesn't affect him financially. The author said they nailed the feeling of the games.

 
Texans' views mixed on release of movie

What will people think the second time around?

Friday Night Lights, the movie, opens Friday, and warts are always bigger on screen than in the pages of a book. The best-selling novel detailed the 1988 high school football season of the Permian Panthers of Odessa, Texas, and revealed a program — and a town — that feared failure.

The book still bothers some connected to Texas football.

D.W. Rutledge, the executive director of the Texas High School Coaches Association, says filmmakers wrote a letter to the organization asking permission to include the organization's logo as a backdrop to one of the scenes. Rutledge says his board of directors voted unanimously not to allow that.

"I don't believe the book portrayed Texas high school football in a true vein," says Rutledge, whose organization represents 16,000 coaches. "(The author) may have exaggerated the situation there. The programs are run with a lot of heart and compassion for the kids."

The filmmakers are providing a copy of the movie for a Thursday premiere to benefit the Ector County Independent School District Foundation. Tickets cost $100 each, and according to an ECISD Foundation spokesperson, 900 tickets have been sold.

Craig Van Amburgh, the vice president of the foundation, says the premiere and party after the movie will raise $100,000 for the school system. "I thought it was a very good movie," says Van Amburgh, who flew to Los Angeles for a screening. The movie is oriented toward football and skims past the racial and social bitterness portrayed in the book. Van Amburgh says "time heals old wounds" and the animosity of "a few people" toward author H.G. Bissinger has cooled.

Friday Night Lights, the movie, massaged some facts to add drama and aid in filming. The 1988 playoff game that is used as the movie's finale, where Permian lost to Carter High of Dallas, was played in Memorial Stadium in Austin.

The game was a state semifinal, but Hollywood turned it into a state championship game played in the Astrodome in Houston.

Some other scenes:

• In one, the father of fullback Don Billingsley storms from the stands to berate his son in front of the team for fumbling ... in practice.

• In another, Billingsley's father interrupts his son and girlfriend late one night and pulls out a roll of duct tape and tapes the ball to his son's hands.

• Boosters deliver veiled threats to head coach Gary Gaines and players are reminded they are protecting a town's reputation.

Even Gaines, the coach portrayed by Billy Bob Thornton, is dragged into the climate of fear of failure. Through most of the movie he seems to have perspective, then loses it when the season is in peril. To motivate quarterback Mike Winchell, Gaines tells the player a successful season is Winchell's only way out of Odessa.

"I think things have changed a good deal since then, because the playoffs have been expanded and there is less pressure," says David Barron, an editor with the Houston Chronicle and expert on high school football in the state.

Things may have changed some, but there is still a passion in the town for football.

"The stadium still sells out," says Celey Ward, 28, a salesman from Odessa and season ticketholder. "Somebody still has to die for you to get a season ticket."

 
Back
Top