Forget James Bond! The best action scene ever filmed is from the 1985 Tollywood movie Alluda Mazaaka…!, starring the "Megastar" Chiranjeevi and directed by E.V.V. Satyanarayana.
You’ll soon see why Chiranjeevi is deserving of the title "Megastar":
… it is quite exciting and wildly over-the-top unrealistic. Especially the horse-sliding scene at 2:07. You don’t know what horse-sliding is? That’s because this action hero invented it.
Link [embedded YouTube]
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James Stowe has a neat collection of Star Wars cards for Valentine’s Day, which is this Sunday. There are six cards, one for each episode.
Link (Previously on Neatorama: A Very Wrong Star Wars Valentine)
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Photo: VVORK
This Steven Shearer’s art piece, titled Geometric Healing Cell for Youth – Model III (2007) reminds me of two things: first, a Borg space ship, if a Borg space ship were made from copper plumbing.
And second, the Redneck Pool Heater, a BBQ grill modded by Todd Harrison and his daughter Veronica Harrison into a DIY pool heater. More BBQ stuff: Top 10 Coolest BBQ Grills (And Then Some!)
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Super Bowl Sunday is nearing fast. Who’s it gonna be, Colts or Saints? Either way, you have to love what Slate V cooked up here; a great imagining of what the game might look like if it were directed by Quinten Tarantino, David Lynch, Wes Anderson, Jean-Luc Godard, or Werner Herzog. Happy game day, everyone!
via Cinematical
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Director Alfred Hitchcock was a busy man. He had a lot of projects going at once, and many had to be abandoned along the way due to inadequate budgets, scheduling conflicts, and other reasons. Mental_floss takes a look at a baker’s dozen of those movies that were never completed, such as Flamingo Feather.
In 1956, Hitchcock bought a story called Flamingo Feather from South African author and diplomat Laurens van der Post. The plot involved a Russian scheme to train South Africans for nefarious Communist purposes. When Hitchcock went to South Africa to scout shooting locations, though, the project quickly fell apart. The director wanted Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly as the leads, which would be pricey, and he felt he needed fifty thousand Africans to act as extras. Hitchcock didn’t love the look of the country’s terrain, and it became apparent that even in South Africa it would be tough to get together 50,000 African extras when most of the country’s population worked long hours at farming jobs.
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Justin Van Genderen designed a series of five posters of places in the Star Wars universe. They remind me of vintage travel agency posters. See posters featuring Tatooine, Hoth, the Degobah System, and Bespin as well as Endor at Gigantor. Link -via Buzzfeed
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That, my friends, is the Gizmo Skirt by Brian Lichtenberg. The skirt is in grey tweed and features "ear-pockets" with swarovski crystal eyes. It’ll set you back $2,100 but that’s the price of mogwai haute couture these days.
Whatever you do, don’t spill food on it after midnight: Link – Thanks Mike!
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What do you get when you cross Star Wars with disco and canned tuna? This ad for Hagoromo sea chicken tuna from Japan screams "crazy" in so many ways in just 30 seconds.
Too strange too miss. The Zeray Gazette has the YouTube video clip: Link | And if you like that, check out Star Wars Medley by Meco (1979). Now that’s music!
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The Golden Age of car chases in cinema came from a time before there were computer graphics, complex editing software and all the conveniences of modern movie making magic.
For those of you around back then, the 70’s were awesome. We had bell-bottoms, disco and the Pontiac Trans Am. We were also inundated with the 70’s style car chase. You see, in the 1970’s they would generally use the same car throughout the entire chase scene. If directors could, they would try to get away with using only one car for a more authentic look and feel. Damage that occurred during filming could now be seen throughout the entire chase.
From the Upcoming 
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With the rise in popularity of a certain movie lately, and its stunning advancements in 3-D technology, the titular question is being asked worldwide. The short answer? Yes, but it won’t look very good. Shucks, there goes my dream of seeing The Empire Strikes Back in glorious 3-D.
The Michael Jackson tribute at the Grammys last night, for instance, caused headaches and nausea among many. This is a sign that despite the verdict, prepare for a whole new way to decide if you want to see a movie in 3-D or not, because the bad versions are coming.
Shooting a film in 3-D requires some careful decision-making so as to maximize the depth effect while minimizing potential eyestrain. Directors may feel constrained by these limitations. In any case, not every 3-D director agrees that conversion works just as well. James Cameron, for one, has criticized Tim Burton for using this approach in his upcoming feature, Alice in Wonderland: “It doesn’t make any sense to shoot in 2-D and convert to 3-D,” he said.
Link to Slate article. (Photo: Wikipedia)
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Check out this excellent quick flick put together by Lamb Productions.
My friends and I were bored one day during Christmas Break and decided to make a quick movie. We shot this in 30 minutes and only used 8 minutes of tape. I then proceeded to spend 3 and a half weeks putting in the visuals for the film. Special thanks to the Action Essentials 2 kit from Videocopilot.net, and Jason Lee for his Enterprise model.
via Bits and Pieces
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What better way to start off a geek fight than to ask who is the greatest movie or TV robot/android? Curtis Silver of Geek Dad did just that by comparing Data from Star Trek, to just about every other android.
For example, just to add fuel to the raging Star Trek vs. Star Wars debate:
Data vs. C3PO
C3PO can understand and translate around six million different forms of communication. Mind you, he was designed and built by a young boy. While the Midi-chlorians might have been high in young Skywalker’s bloodstream, they didn’t help him build a droid with much of a backbone. Meanwhile, in a galaxy far far away Dr. Soong was busy creating a sentient android of his own with not only a backbone, but a badass positronic brain. It’s never made clear how many languages Data can speak, but one has to assume the number is just as high as C3PO. Advantage: Data
What do you think? Who’s the best robot/android that ever lived (well, in sci-fi anyhow)?
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I usually avoid niche photo blogs because so many now are just asking for people to pose in a certain way and submit a picture, but this one tickled my funny bone. Hot Chicks with Storm Troopers offers photo evidence that Star Wars nerds dedicated enough to dress as Storm Troopers can and do attract women. Link -via Buzzfeed
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Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a staple in our household, which is funny, because I remember being quite scared of the steamroller scene near the end when I was a kid. Now that I’m older, I appreciate it more from standpoint of how much work it took to get such a groundbreaking movie made – and here are some of the inside details on exactly what it took to make that happen. For the record, I still find the steamroller scene a little creepy.
Like so many movies, this one was a book before it ever hit the screen. In this case, the book was named Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, by Gary K. Wolf. But the film doesn’t follow the book exactly. For instance, the book took place in present day – which was 1981 – not 1947.
And instead of famous animated cartoon characters making appearances, famous cartoon strip characters pop up to chat with Roger, including Dick Tracy. Most Toons like Tracy “spoke” in the book the only way they knew how – through word bubbles. Some became “bilingual” and could speak without balloons. The only line in the whole book that made it to the silver screen was spoken by Baby Herman – “I’ve got a 50-year-old lust and a three-year-old dinky.” In the book, though, Baby Herman was actually 50, not 36. The ending is a lot different too, but I won’t spoil that for you (Google will tell you pretty quickly, if you’re dying to know).
After the movie became a success in 1988, Wolf wrote a second book (though not necessarily a sequel) that fell more in line with the movie than with his original book. It’s called Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit?
It’s probably music to the ears of Roger Rabbit fans: a prequel. According to the prequel, Roger grew up on a farm in the midwest and headed out to California to try to find his real mother. That’s how he falls in love with Jessica Krupnick (Jessica Rabbit has a much better ring to it, don’t you think?) and eventually meets not only his mother, but his father too – none other than Bugs Bunny.
The movie would have been a direct-to-video release. As of 1997, Michael Eisner was onboard for the prequel and commissioned a rewrite of the script; in 1998 some test footage was even shot. After estimations brought the cost of the movie to about $100 million, the idea was more or less shelved.
However, just last year, Robert Zemeckis said he was interested in doing the prequel and it’s rumored that the script is being worked on again. I guess we’ll see. I’d certainly go see it.
I did. Here are some other fun facts from the movie.
Although Roger and his cartoon pals have largely been abandoned at Disney, you can still find traces of them here and there. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled the next time you’re at Disney Hollywood Studios – if you look in the right place, you’ll find Eddie Valiant’s office, complete with the “hole” where Roger busted through the glass. There’s also a billboard for R.K. Maroon Studios.
Kathleen Turner famously provided Jessica Rabbit’s sultry voice, but Amy Irving – then Steven Spielberg’s wife – was her singing voice.
This was the last film Mel Blanc provided his famous voices for, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Porky Pig and Sylvester the Cat – with one exception. He did provide Daffy’s voice one more time in 1988 before passing away in 1989.
The movie’s original budget was $29.9 million dollars – the most an animated movie had ever cost at the time. But the price tag could have been even more astronomical – Roger was slated to cost $50 million at first, but Disney refused to shell out that much and wouldn’t approve production until costs were slashed. Rumor has it that by the time production was finished, the budget had soared to around $70 million.
Despite the cavalcade of characters from across the cartoon universe, a few that Disney wanted are missing: Popeye and Olive Oyl, Tom and Jerry, Casper the Friendly Ghost and Deputy Dawg. They couldn’t secure the rights for these in time for the movie.
Before the final title was finally settled on, others that were considered included Murder in Toontown, Dead Toons Don’t Pay Bills, Trouble in Toontown and Eddie Goes to Toontown.
The book has a question mark after the title, but the movie doesn’t – ending a movie title with a question mark is considered bad luck in the industry, apparently. This hasn’t stopped Who’s Harry Crumb?; What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?; or Dude, Where’s My Car?. The principle does apply to What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and Who’s That Girl, however.
Warner Brothers would only allow the use of their toons if they got the same screen time as Disney’s toons. Thus, when you see Bugs, he’s usually with Mickey, and when you see Daffy, Donald is probably there too. Screencap from Obsessed with Film.
To make Judge Doom extra creepy, Robert Zemeckis had Christopher Lloyd refrain from blinking during his scenes. I’m tempted to watch just to see if I can catch him. Tim Curry auditioned for the role of Judge Doom, but he was so disturbingly sinister that Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Eisner all nixed him for fear that he would give children nightmares.
The inspiration for Jessica Rabbit was taken from a bunch of Hollywood glamour girls, including Lauren Bacall, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth and Veronica Lake.
Zemeckis and Spielberg both really wanted Bill Murray for the role of Eddie Valiant, but Murray is notoriously hard to get a hold of, so it never happened. Murray has said that when he later found out that he was the number one choice for the role, he screamed out loud because he would have loved playing Eddie.
If you haven’t kept track of all of the animated cameos in the movie, here’s a list to watch for the next time you catch Roger on T.V.:
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In the movie Avatar, there is a plant that disappears into the ground the instant it’s touched. The good news for those afflicted with Pandora Depression it that we have a similar plant organism, right here on Earth! The Sea Pen (a soft coral) expels water from its body when touched, so as to avoid being eaten.
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When Titanic blasted Star Wars off the top of the earnings throne, George Lucas had a congratulations illustration made to honor fellow director, Jim Cameron. See the whole thing at the link. Interestingly, if you look just above Leia, the backwards shadow of the word “television” can be seen, making me wonder if this was actually doodled on the back of some other document.
Now, what will Jim send to himself now that Avatar has sunk Titanic?
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Scientists meeting for a SETI conference have been told that recent developments in communications technology are rendering the Earth less detectable to alien civilizations.
In the past, TV and radio programmes were broadcast from huge ground stations that transmitted signals at thousands of watts. These could be picked up relatively easily across the depths of space, astronomers calculated.
Now, most TV and radio programmes are transmitted from satellites that typically use only 75 watts and have aerials pointing toward Earth, rather than into space…
“Very soon we will become undetectable,” he said. In short, in space no one will hear us at all.
People will react in different ways to this news, depending on whether one’s vision of alien life is that of a Reese’s Pieces-munching E.T., an all-knowing elder race, a Grey, a Predator, or any of an endless number of other possibilities.
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Photo: gammaraybots [Flickr]
What do you get when you mash up Charles M. Schulz’s comic Peanuts with Star Wars? Behold the Charlie Brown TIE Fighter by Tom Torrey: Link – via The Zeray Gazette
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If you love Futurama, then you’ll certainly appreciate these adorably gross brain slug cupcakes. Just hope they don’t take over your mind after you eat them.
Flickr Link Via Craftzine
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You may have seen the Star Wars Arrested Development parody, now it’s Seinfeld’s chance thanks to artist Julie Bell. The best part is George just sitting on an R2D2 trash can.
Link via Laughing Squid
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In the DVD rental realm, there thrives a species of movies known as mockbusters. Their genetic makeup is comprised of similar themes, elements and stories from the far superior blockbusters that dominate the industry. Production companies like The Asylum create these clones, possibly in the hopes of tricking the consumer, but most likely just to cash in on the success of mainstream money machines.
Oddee has compiled a list of the Ten Lamest Mockbusters (three of which feature C. Thomas Howell), such as The Da Vinci Treasure, above. See the whole list, but please don’t feed the mockbusters.
Link (Image credits: Left: The Asylum Right: Sony Pictures)
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Katie Cook has been featured here before with her cute renditions of Star Wars sketch cards, but she ’s still making more!
Link -via Super Punch
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Geeks and geekettes rejoice, you can finally buy a sweet pair of styling shoes that pay homage to your favorite sci-fi movie. The one pictured above is the Luke Skywalker version. I think the coolest is the slave Princess Leia one in purple and gold, but to be fair, it probably won’t match most of your clothes.
Has anyone actually seen these on sale yet? I want a pair.
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Everyone knows classic movie moments, such as the scene in Taxi Driver where Travis Bickle looks into the mirror and asks, “You talkin’ to me?” but did you know that one, and quite a few more of your favorite movie moments were improvised? Marc Russel has put together a list of classic movie moments that were not in the scripts.
Scriptwriting isn’t easy. Some people spend months trying to perfect a specific scene, trying to write that perfect line that sticks in the mind of those who hear it. Then these guys come along and do it off the top of their heads.
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Blockbuster movies are often released in several nations at once, and we are used to selecting from several languages on DVDs by now. How much work goes into making other languages work in film? Slate explains how they do it.
The foreign actors’ voices have to match the age, texture, and comedic sense of the original. For a big celebrity such as Johnny Depp or Jim Carrey, a single actor in each country will dub all of the star’s films. Koichi Yamadera, for instance, is the official Jim Carrey of Japan. Studios also sometimes employ local celebrities, like when Disney hired the French singer Charles Aznavour to do the voice of Ed Asner’s protagonist in the movie Up. On rare occasions, the original actor will do the dubbing himself. Viggo Mortensen speaks Spanish, so he did a Spanish dub for Hidalgo. For the Castilian dub of G-Force, Penélope Cruz was unavailable, so her sister, Monica Cruz, got the job instead.
The mechanics of the process are also explained, as well as tricks some voice actors use to tweak their performance. Link
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Film School Rejects runs down the 30 films slated for release this year that audiences are anxiously awaiting. This year, many projects are coming out that I and my film-loving friends have been jawing about since last January. The usual suspects are there — Harry Potter, Iron Man 2, Alice in Wonderland. But there are other titles coming out that, even though they don’t get a lot of press, look fantastic. For instance, The Adjustment Bureau:
The Pitch: Phillip K. Dick’s short story about a man in a changing reality is brilliant and includes some very cool imagery that would translate well to film. I have no idea if it’s been translated with this adaptation, but George Nolfi (in his first stint as director) is a great writer, and Matt Damon is one of the best working actors today. Pair him with Emily Blunt, toss in Terence Stamp and Anthony Mackie with a heavy dose of science fiction, and I have no idea why you wouldn’t get excited.
Catch the whole list at the link. Did they leave anything off?
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Three of Eddie Murphy’s funniest movies came out in the mid-80s. In this Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, you are challenged to identify twelve quotes. Did they come from Trading Places, Coming to America, or Beverly Hills Cop? Despite (or maybe because of) the fact that I’ve seen all three movies again fairly recently, I only scored 33%. Link
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Everything Is Terrible! specializes in videos from the wayback, where cats get massaged, and strange hippies teach kids yoga. EIT prides itself on putting out these rare finds, and they are never culled from other video sites, but many are submitted via snail mail from people that just happen to have them in their old video racks.
Now, for reasons only known to the EIT team, they are asking for your old VHS copies of the movie, Jerry Maguire.
There is one tape (or the One Tape) that we want every copy of and that magical tape is Jerry Maguire. Here at EIT, we have a special history with Jerry Maguire. For over a year, we’ve been chronicling wild packs of Maguires in their native thrift store habitat with our patented Maguirewatches, and during that time, we decided to start aJerry Maguire sanctuary to preserve these great artifacts. Our goal is to have the largest private collection of Jerry Maguire VHS tapes in the history of mankind and we need your help. If you or somebody you know has a VHS copy of Jerry Maguire that needs a loving home, please donate it to us at:
Everything is Terrible!
P.O. Box 47924
Chicago, IL 60647 USA
I haven’t a clue as to where they’re going with this, but I like it.
Link (Photo: Flickr user ifish99’s Everything Is Terrible set)
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One day, Neatoramanaut Cory Calhoun and friends had an idea so brilliant they just had to do it: remake the intro to the old TV sitcom Perfects Strangers shot by shot, in Seattle (instead of Chicago – get out of the city!). Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
What? You don’t believe it’s shot by shot? Don’t be ridiculous! Here’s the side-by-side comparison. Thanks Cory!
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Writer Adam Bertocci imagined the movie The Big Lebowski as a play by William Shakespeare entitled The Two Gentlemen of Lebowski. From Act 1, Scene 2:
[The bowling green. Enter THE KNAVE, WALTER and DONALD, to play at ninepins]
WALTER
In sooth, then, faithful friend, this was a rug of value? Thou wouldst call it not a rug among ordinary rugs, but a rug of purpose? A star in a firmament, in step with the fashion alike to the Whitsun morris-dance? A worthy rug, a rug of consequence, sir?THE KNAVE
It was of consequence, I should think; verily, it tied the room together, gather’d its qualities as the sweet lovers’ spring grass doth the morning dew or the rough scythe the first of autumn harvests. It sat between the four sides of the room, making substance of a square, respecting each wall in equal harmony, in geometer’s cap; a great reckoning in a little room. Verily, it transform’d the room from the space between four walls presented, to the harbour of a man’s monarchy.WALTER
Indeed, a rug of value; an estimable rug, an honour’d rug; O unhappy rug, that should live to cover such days!DONALD
Of what dost thou speak, that tied the room together, Knave? Take pains, for I would well hear of that which tied the room together.
Fear not, for the Knave abideth.
Link via Nerdcore | Image: Wikimedia Commons
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