If you haven’t seen Basic Instinct (1992), you might have heard about the scene involving Sharon Stone uncrossing her legs and leaving her exposed privates in clear view. After almost 30 years, we thought Stone was on board with how that went down.
Turns out she had no idea this would ever end up on film, despite taking her panties off for the shoot because of alleged camera reflection issues.
Following the screening, Stone says she headed into the projection booth, “slapped Paul across the face, left, went to my car, and called my lawyer, Marty Singer.” Singer advised her that the film could not be released in its current form—at the time, the interrogation scene would have landed Basic Instinct an X rating—and that if she wished, she could “get an injunction” to stop its release.
Upon further reflection, Stone says she spoke with Verhoeven about the discussion she’d had with her attorney. “Of course, he vehemently denied that I had any choices at all,” she wrote. “I was just an actress, just a woman; what choices could I have?
Sure enough, after reading the Basic Instinct Wikipedia page production notes, the story is revealed there. Who do we believe, Stone or Verhoeven? In Stone’s new book coming out, and on a promotional tour, readers are asked to believe Stone.
Stone has been noteworthy as a sex symbol in films for a long time. This is either from her own choices taking roles like in this erotic thriller or what films she’s been cast in, but she didn’t deserve this type of treatment. I’ve noticed a trend of news stories always coming out around these book launches. Seems like if you want to get news for you book, you put in juicy stories that will make headlines, then watch the bonus promotion come in.
This is neither condemnation or agreeance with Stone’s claims, but it seems that when we should be talking about how good her acting performances have been, instead we’re being subjected to what happened to her behind the camera.
It’s sad that the comic genius of Robin Williams isn’t alive any more. In his place, though, apparently there are outtakes of Mrs. Doubtfire where he improvised scenes that went into really adult humor. Yes, we’d like to see these, please.
In addition to there not actually being an NC-17 version, it’s unlikely a full R-rated edition of “Mrs. Doubtfire” will ever be available. But that doesn’t mean audiences might not get more of Williams’ comedic genius.
“I would be open to maybe doing a documentary about the making of the film, and enabling people to see certain scenes re-edited in an R-rated version,” Columbus said.
After all, this is the era of the Director’s Cut, the extended versions, so why not have the Robin Williams outtakes version? The director seems to be at least partially on board. At least for a documentary that covers the making of the hilarious film.
Would you be interested in watching these outtakes in an R rated version of Mrs. Doubtfire or prefer the behind the scenes documentary approach?
Like a ragtag group of Rebels taking on a Death Star, angry Star Wars fans who are furious at Disney / Lucasfilm over the firing of Gina Carano from The Mandalorian are absolutely thrashing the official Star Wars YouTube channel.
Nearly every new video posted to the Star Wars YouTube channel is met with a massive amount of downvotes and comments expressing support for Carano.
Am not a fan of the term “toxic fandom” but will admit that obsession over anything is problematic. At the same time, I agree that The Last Jedi was a terrible movie and wish Disney would have found some other way to deal with Gina Carano than cutting off all business contact with her (Disney Has Had Enough – Gina Carino Out From The Mandalorian over Social Media Activity). It is a terrible optic, regardless whether you agree or not with Carano’s political beliefs, especially when Disney took the extra step of stopping Hasbro from making Cara Dune toys, Am not sure I agree with Carano that she was bullied (see: Gina Carano Tells Her Side, Claiming Disney Bullying, in Interview With Ben Shapiro) but do see how reasonable people could come to that conclusion.
What should Disney have done if they didn’t want to work with Gina Carano any longer? The answer is obvious. Don’t offer her a contract for more TV show appearances as the character. Behind the scenes, it sounds like they’d already done that. But they didn’t need to come out with a public statement distancing themselves from Carano. I think this last PR move poured salt in the wound.
As previously stated, I wasn’t that excited about Cara Dune, the character. She might have been popular for more hardened Star Wars fans but she was to me at best a very minor character in The Mandalorian. If she never appeared in the series again, that wouldn’t have been something I found disappointing. Will she appear in The Mandalorian pinball game? I don’t know, but if she’s there or not, I’m cool with it.
I’m not going to Disney’s official Star Wars channel to downvote the video. The number of videos I’ve downvoted on YouTube can probably be counted on both hands. That’s since YouTube first started many years ago. I would rather promote than downvote, so I will thumbs up videos I like more than actively downvote those disliked. If I dislike something, I don’t engage with it, stop following, stop paying attention to it.
This brings back Star Wars Pinball. I bought that table because I love playing the Zen Studios FX3 pinball tables and liked the design of that table. This was before Gina Carano’s fallout with Disney. When the table comes I’m going to setup and play. The only thing that’s going to impact how often that is played is how much fun the games are on the table.
Not going to tell Star Wars fans how to spend their time, so if they want to spend those minutes of their life downvoting videos on Disney’s official Star Wars channel have at it. That seems to be important for some (many?) of them right now. Disney is the enemy for distancing themselves from Carano, I get it. My guess is in time this Carano situation will blow over. Is it reminiscent of what happened to Luke Skywalker’s character in The Last Jedi? I don’t think so. The comparison is being made, but Cara Dune was never Luke Skywalker.
If people want to be mad as Star Wars fan, it’s more understandable being upset about Luke Skywalker than what happened with Cara Dune. The character Cara Dune didn’t have anything negative happen except the actress that plays her won’t be Gina Carano (according to Disney as of this moment in time, but who knows what the future holds?) could still be recast and maybe will in future shows. Luke Skywalker’s character arc is pretty much ruined, unless they go all Star Trek and parallel universe or retcon what happened to him in The Last Jedi.
If you love a franchise, whether it be Star Wars, Jurassic Park, etc, you don’t have to love everything involved with it. That’s what I’m taking from this. It’s not blind loyalty to the franchise. I don’t like everything Star Trek has done, in fact most of the newer Star Trek by Alex Kurtzman hasn’t been to my liking. Have voted with my feet. Not watching it. Maybe I’ll give it another chance someday. Maybe I’ll like something new Kurtzman does with Star Trek, but so far his record is abysmal with me.
How wrapped up as a fan do you get in something you like? What do you think Disney should have done if they didn’t want to do business with Gina Carano any longer?
While we’re generally against overpaying leaders of businesses having problems, 2020 was a unique year and circumstances. If we analyze what happened to AMC, with the start featuring CEO Adam Aron fighting against Universal in the press (see: AMC Titanic May Just Have Struck Studio Iceberg – They Will No Longer Play ANY Universal Movies), the year quickly morphed into numerous struggles to keep AMC solvent.
Without knowing too many details about Aron’s direct activities, the current scoreboard says AMC theaters are open in our area, while #2 Regal Cinemas are not. That alone tells me he’s done something right. He fought to keep the doors open. Also, his base salary is $1.1 million, which is a lot, certainly, but not outlandish in comparison to CEOs of other companies.
Lastly, a major part of his compensation was in stock bonus, not cash.
The company pre-announced the bonus — there was no bonus in either 2018 or 2019 — citing Aron’s efforts to keep the struggling exhibitor afloat during a global pandemic that shuttered theaters. The circuit, which was close to bankruptcy, was saved by a capital raise late last year and love from retail investors on Reddit.
Can’t go as far as to say Aron deserves the compensation, his actions certainly lend support to it more than dissuade. I feel a much better use of the money would have been to pay the many furloughed AMC employees than line the pockets of its CEO, but that’s personal preference rather than any kind of wise business decision.
I’m torn on this one, what about you? Did Aron deserve this compensation? He didn’t bail when the times were tough, he has stuck in there and done everything he could do to get the doors reopened and stay open. We’re grateful for that, at least.
We’ve been able to see 10 movies in 2021 so far thanks to AMC theaters being open. The theaters have been very clean and we feel safe in there or we wouldn’t keep going back. That tells us the fish doesn’t stink at the head.
We had been using Chromecast with Google TV until recently when the remote crapped out and we were unable to re-pair it. Can use phone as a remote, but decided to switch to the Roku Smart TV instead. The main reason we were using the Chromecast was to get HBO Max but that channel has been available on Roku for awhile.
Apparently, we’re not alone in experiencing technical issues with the new Chromecast.
Again, this little streamer was doing great in October, but the software experience has fallen apart in the months since, causing the hardware compromises Google made regarding the storage, RAM, and USB-C port to be more visible than ever. If you’re using the Chromecast with Google TV with a 1080p TV and don’t mind using 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi, you probably aren’t seeing much of any issues, but the more advanced your TV and your network setup, the less likely you are to have a good time here.
Am sure we’ll try and update and repair the remote again someday, but for the time being, just less hassle and easier to stick with Roku again. The only channel we have to switch away is for Peacock, since we have the separate Flex box. If we wanted to go through with the effort of just adding the Peacock app we could have all the channels on Roku — which would be best for convenience.
After a few months using Chromecast, I prefer that menu to Roku. Liked the recommendations and layout a little better. We’ve been using Roku for a long time, though, so that’s a familiar menu system.
One disturbing thing I’ve noticed about our smart Roku TV is it seems to suffer a lot of latency issues. Despite having high speed internet and being plugged in via ethernet, not sure why the latency is there. This wasn’t present with our Roku 3 streaming device. It’s noticeable and annoying.
We didn’t watch The 2021 Golden Globes on Sunday, did you? Seems like a lot of people didn’t bother.
The blame, at least according to the Deadline article, is on the pandemic. It’s easy to blame most anything bad on that these days, but is it really that simple?
Now, even as these early numbers have all the metrics of an all-time NBC low, let’s be honest, all of these comparisons are a bit apples to avalanches. As with almost everything in Hollywood and the wider world, the pandemic has played havoc with the calendar and the format. Absent much of the atmosphere that gives the Globes its appeal, last night’s glitchy and semi-virtual ceremony also aired nearly two months later than the 2020 show. So, no vital NFL lead-in and little holiday-season spillover, are but two major differences. Additionally, like with the viewership low of the 2020 Emmys, we have seen the Nielsen results of a number of coronavirus-impacted awards shows and other big-ticket events shrink over the past year.
Perhaps the bigger question is what does this mean for the Oscars? We’re on record saying they should have just skipped it this year and included 2020 and 2021 in one big celebration in 2022 (see: Oscars 2021 Still On As Planned As In-Person Event, Not Zoom or Virtual). The pool of movies for consideration is inarguably smaller. Some good candidates in there and some that will be overlooked. If the Oscars are a (mostly) virtual event, and they aren’t supposed to be from early reports, don’t expect those viewing numbers to fare better.
Rocky V was inarguably a mess. Most people who have seen it firmly believe it’s the worst in the series. Honestly, haven’t seen many say there was much to redeem about it. Meanwhile, Stallone is actively working on a Rocky IV Director’s Cut which cuts out Pauly’s robot, among other things.
Why is everybody tinkering with the Rocky movies? It’s not just Stallone. The director of the first and last movie, John Avildsen also had his own take.
Yes, it turns out there is a Rocky V Director’s Cut floating around that might improve upon some of the film’s weaknesses.
The Rocky V: Director’s Cut is a decidedly unofficial release that’s tricky to find nowadays, but for those who disliked the sequel, it’s worth checking out. One of the first big changes is the music, with Avildsen’s cut losing many of the rap tracks from the theatrical version and replacing them with cues from series composer Bill Conti, which makes it feel more in line with previous entries. Many scenes are re-edited with alternate dialogue too, but some of the biggest differences are deleted scenes.
To my knowledge, John Avildsen hasn’t complained about the theatrical cut being compromised, but what worries about me about an increasing number of these Director’s Cuts is reworking films once released being re-released with new versions. I brought this up with the Snyder Cut and still feel this is a very slippery slope.
When we see a movie do we risk seeing another version on streaming that’s the “official” version? Sigh. This could disrupt the movie watching experience. Faith that any creative work we’re watching that isn’t as good as the filmmakers thought isn’t repackaged, repurposed, re-edited and sent back to us again. Is that what we want muddying up the new movie release lists in the future?
Once in a great, great, great while this might make sense. Perhaps with celebrated movies. Not Justice League, not Rocky IV, certainly not Rocky V, not Suicide Squad and the list goes on.
By now who hasn’t seen this movie? If you haven’t, then rush to your watchlists and put this badboy on there. Thank us later. It’s like one of the most perfect comedies every made. And to think the story dabbles in one of the worst cliches ever: time travel — well, that’s another plus.
Talk about method acting. Michael J. Fox wanted the guitar playing of Johnny B. Goode to be authentic in Back To The Future, so he learned how to really play it on the guitar so the fingerings would be authentic.
Marty’s singing voice was that of Mark Campbell, member of the soul and R&B band Jack Mack and the Heart Attack. Campbell wasn’t credited as the production crew wanted to fully make the illusion that Fox was singing, but music supervisor Bones Howe made sure Campbell got a small percentage of the soundtrack revenue as compensation. As for Marty’s amazing guitar skills, they were achieved through two methods. First, Fox was taught how to play the song by Paul Hanson, and Fox shared with Empire that he told Zemeckis he could cut to his hands any time he wanted as he knew how to play. The second step was syncing Fox playing with the actual music, and so Tim May was brought in to record the guitar. Although it would have been somewhat logical to have Paul Hanson play the guitar as well, the crew went with May instead, though Hanson still took part in the movie as The Pinheads’ bass guitarist.
It cracks me up that Huey Lewis, who was big in the 80s, was one of the teachers judging the music talent. Spoiler alert: the Pinheads did not make the cut because they were just “too darn loud.”
Love it. Fellow guitarist readers will note that yes, Michael J. Fox is hitting the wammy bar at just the right time in this “Power of Love” jam too.
We’ve spent a lot of time watching HBO Max since it launched. The popular opinion seems to be to bash it as some kind of lesser streaming service compared to the top dog, Netflix.
When Warner announced they were releasing all 17 major films on both HBO Max and in theaters and were giving 20% off the six month rate, we didn’t complain, we subscribed (see: Don’t Count Out HBO Max in 2021)
The quality of movies and shows on HBO Max can’t be beat. But I should add a caveat that the nuts and bolts of the actual service still need a lot of work. The app and website can be buggy and crash. And HBO Max doesn’t offer many titles in 4K, though that’s not much different from other streaming services. Netflix does have 4K but you have to pay more.
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The interface is so-so, but the HBO Max navigation does stand out in one way: the genre pages have an A-Z listing you can peruse. No other streamer has this feature; they all display titles within themed collections or by recommendations. HBO does that, too, but it’s so helpful just to see every movie on HBO Max by alphabetical order.
Netflix is sort of in a class by itself at the current time. They have spent multi billions producing so much original content that they can just continue to crank new original movie and TV series after another. During the pandemic, they’ve also been in on the bidding war for movies meant for theaters but sold to streaming instead.
Objectively, comparing Netflix to the other streamers for original content is challenging. From a quantity standpoint, there is no comparison. Every week on Thursdays when we do our What To Watch On Streaming posts, Netflix consistently outproduces the other streamers.
But quantity isn’t the same as quality. Is it better to have one great movie and/or TV series debut each week or have a half dozen or more of varying quality movie and TV shows to choose from? For those of us that want to watch the best movies we can see, not the most movies, the less is more strategy is more sound. We’ve talked about the quantity vs. quality situation with Netflix before (see: Does Netflix Release Too Many Originals? Maybe Ask New CMO Bozoma Saint John)
All that said, HBO Max might not be superior to Netflix in number of subscribers, but from what’s available to watch on it right now, even at the higher monthly price point, there are plenty of movies and TV shows to check out. It’s refreshing to read articles like this one that aren’t bashing HBO Max for not having 100+ million subscribers.
Whichever is your favorite streaming channel, it’s great to see movie lovers have multiple options to choose from. Disney+ has the family, Star Wars and Marvel corners covered. HBO Max has several great TV shows (Friends!), a bunch of great movies. Amazon Prime has its own slate of originals, some very, very good and Netflix has its originals. Then there are the others like Hulu, CBS All Access soon to be Paramount+ and Peacock, not to mention a boatload of niche streamers like Shudder, Discovery+ and so on.
And those are just the paid streamers, there is a whole bunch of FREE, ad-supported channels to choose from. So many, that we can’t even cover them all. The Roku Channel, Tubi, Pluto and so on.
Whatever you want to watch, you can probably find it playing somewhere. Good times for home movie watchers, anyway. The cinema landscape might be struggling, but these are active, productive times for streamers.
What’s your current favorite streaming channel? Or do you have multiple favorites?
The Star Trek actor behind Data is 72 years old. Say that again, because if that doesn’t make some reading feel equally old, I don’t know what will.
Speaking with SyFy Wire, Brent Spiner talked about the future of Star Trek: The Next Generation and that he believes a reboot is on the way. “I’ve loved the recent movies. I think that sooner or later, they’re going to do a reboot, a motion picture version of Next Generation, and cast some young guys in our parts,” he says.
Data is easily the most famous android in Star Trek history. He most recently reprised his role in Picard and then stated afterwards that he wouldn’t be playing the role again because he felt he was too old for the part. Androids don’t age, was his argument.
Got mixed emotions on whether or not STNG should get the reboot treatment. It’s not been that long ago and all the actors involved are still alive. At least some of the original Star Trek series actors had passed when they remade and rebooted that on the big screen.
Still, it’s an intriguing idea. Must continue to protest, however, that there are plenty of great stories to adapt for the first time versus rehashing, rebooting and remaking beloved movie and TV shows. I’d be more in favor of an animated series featuring the voices of all the original actors. A serious animated TV series, like the one we’ve been reviewing every Saturday for the past few months (see tag: Star Trek: The Animated Series).
Would you like to see a STNG reboot? Why or why not?
Movies, Movies, Movies 