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Aylmer (13)
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Poptarts = "Breakfast"???
Great cinematography but really doesn't hold up. *SPOILERS*
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Big Red One was a bit of an ensemble cast film and also terribly anachronistic - a 60's era jingoistic war movie made in 1980. Watch it today and it feels older than A BRIDGE TOO FAR which came 3 years earlier. It was also cut down heavily by its extremely low budget, making it feel more like an Italian ripoff war movie than an actual American one. So it's no surprise that the film didn't garner a huge audience or do much for Mark's career. He's kinda overshadowed by both Lee Majors and Robert Carradine, as they have more focused-on characters in the film even though he's billed above Carradine.
I agree with this person who wrote this 17 years ago, but that's half the fun of these message boards. It was even more fun back when it was on IMDb and there were a lot more people, plus the occasional actual filmmaker or celebrity would chime in.
I have actually only seen the crude MST3k riff of this film, and it was actually an extremely weak episode of the show. However the genius of the movie showed through and the riffing didn't really detract from it in my view. The sequence especially where the ant takes the poison pebble all the way to the queen who then synthesizes a new kind of egg to deal with it is some of the most stunning animal photography I've ever seen, and it's all the more impressive that it was done in the 1970's. The film is an excellent experiment but I have to admit that it has a bit of a sluggish pace and small scale, which means that riffing actually helps "move things along" if you appreciate the unrefined and uneven humor.
He's been solid in everything I have seen him in, from THE RING all the way through EVEREST. He's also the most "famous" person I could ever claim to have been friends with, though we have long lost touch. I can say that he's a tremendously friendly, forgiving person and a man of his word. Very humble too. The year after he was on "Grey's Anatomy", we were on a hike and a pair of women passed by and then reacted to him saying "OMG do you know who that was!" but he seemed blissfully unaware anyone was noticing him. I don't even think he views himself as a star or celebrity but an actor who works for a living.
Hah, exactly the same here. I thought "navalant" was some word that was outside my vocabulary at the time that indicated that he has some kind of medical disfunction or malformation.
Yes there was a cut scene in which Trautman ascended back to heaven after helping Rambo dispatch the Russian army in Afghanistan. This was based on an actual historical even when the Soviet 93rd Guards Regiment was single-handedly wiped out to a man (100% KIA) by an action star with the help of a mysterious 60-something stranger outside of Mazar E-Sharif in May of 1983. Prior to the incident, local herdsmen had reported a mysterious flash of light from which an angelic figure had emerged who was, by all accounts, the same as that mysterious stranger.
I know it's been many years but I thought I'd bump this thread because I still find it so hilarious.
They were going to film the whole thing there and got a lot of impressive exterior shots in before the production got kicked out of the country for some reason. They then had to shift to Yuma Arizona to shoot the climax, hence why there are the fake T-72s from RED DAWN there instead of the authentic T-55's that were used in their actual base.
The children may not have even been the whistleblower's actual kids, but human shield kids who the CIA put in the car to protect him from assassination attempts.
I don't think Tony could have talked his way out of it since he had killed a loyal hit man Roberto. Sosa was possibly childhood friends with him and was angry about having to hire yet another henchman (who knows how henchman economics works but they may not be cheap or easy to replace). On top of that the bad press from the unexploded bomb was already affecting him and his friends, which has made him lost face among the shady businessmen and politicians he was involved with, and that corrupt CIA guy as well. Sosa might have had a target on his back now because of the failed attempt and had to pin the blame on Tony and take him out before he said anything to any of them.
Paul being unlikeable is sort of inherent in the story and also plagued the David Lynch version. Similarly to Luke Skywalker, I thought he was a compelling character when first finding his way, but then once he becomes all-powerful (as he is in RETURN OF THE JEDI) he's just an arrogant prick all of a sudden. The treatment of Chani in the 2024 movie is unforgivable though. They took a supportive character and turned her into a moody and joyless pest. She was a nothing-character in the 1984 movie aside from a token love interest, but their effort to flesh her out here totally backfired to the point where I disliked her more than the actual villains of the film.
The Fremen always suffered from being the least imaginative of all Frank Herbert's creations. They're essentially just Bedouins on a desert planet resorting to terrorist tactics. I would have liked to see them being repressed in some way to make their struggle easier to support, and then to see them plan things out a little more (to compare and contrast to how things are once Paul takes charge), but the film just kinda ignores all that and goes for cheap thrills.
The Beast Rabban was supposed to be intimidating but the film made him look idiotically aggressive against helpless/friendly people and then cowardly when it came down to actually fighting opponents. Feyd seemed a lot more intriguing here than in the 84 version and actually exhibited likeable qualities like honor, but they just threw him away (as the books did).
At the end of the day, the only character I even sort-of liked was Feyd.
It all would have made for a much better miniseries, but, oh yeah, that already happened, and that version was awful due to poor casting, costuming, and set design choices coupled with a low budget.
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