Author: Ga2so

  • Walk of Fame Adventures: Wuthering Heights and Merle Oberon

    Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights.
    Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon in Wuthering Heights.

    This movie is often called things like “A dark supernatural romance.” It could also be called “pretty much everyone is a jerk.” Almost every single person in this movie is horrible to someone else, including (and especially) the two main characters.

    “My love for you is huge and undeniable, but you’re not rich so I’m gonna marry this other guy.”

    “Well, my love is huger and undeniabler, but you’re marrying some else so I’m going to marry your sister in law purely out of spite.”

    Composite picture. On the left, a mockup of Merle Oberon's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On the Right, a black and white portrait photo of Merle Oberon.

    I learned today that Merle Oberon was half Asian, but hid it until her death. The chemicals she used to lighten her skin were so rough on her face that someone invented a special light to hide all the scarring. If she had been open about her heritage she almost certainly would not have been nominated for Best Actress; the next Asian to get that nod was Michelle Yeoh, 85 years later.

    Merle Oberon’s star is at 6274 Hollywood Boulevard.

    It was hard to find a connection to another movie; there are very few movie titles that include the word “wuthering.” I ended up finding another movie with a mythical castle instead.

    A fake poster for Wuthering Heights mimicking the poster for Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
    I do not want to admit how much effort I put into that dumb logo.
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  • Retro Movie Adventures: In the Mood For Love (2000)

    Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung in In the Mood for Love.
    Maggie Cheung in In the Mood for Love

    100 minutes of beautiful people staring longingly at each other. Totally works.

    My biggest regret: I wasn’t feeling well, so I ducked out before In the Mood for Love 2001, a coda short that hasn’t played anywhere but Cannes until this remaster. Stupid oncoming cold made me miss it!

    Today’s fake poster is from a different movie about love and trust.

    A fake poster for In the Mood for Love mimicking the poster for Meet the Parents.
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  • Movie Pass Adventures: The Long Walk

    Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson in The Long Walk
    The cast of The Long Walk

    This is the first of this year’s Stephen King Perambulation Pictures- The Running Man comes out in November.

    What I don’t understand about this movie: they know they can’t stop for any reason, not even to go to the bathroom. So why are they all wearing normal pants? If I were doing this I’d wear a kilt regimental style.

    Also: If I were doing this I would die.

    I think this is a good idea for a fake poster, but I’ve got a cold coming on and my body seems to think going to bed would be a better use of my time than making a poster that only four people will see, so you get this proof of concept:

    A fake poster for The Long Walk mimicking the poster for Run Lola Run.
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  • Movie Pass Adventures: Megadoc

    Francis Ford Coppola in Megadoc.
    Francis Ford Coppola in Megadoc.

    More than once during this Mike Figgis says something like “when you make a documentary it’s always more interesting when there’s a disaster.” I guess things worked out for him.

    The most interesting thing about this is the archival footage going back a quarter century of different actors reading the script and doing test shots. This could have been a Ryan Gosling/Uma Thurman movie!

    Also: Shia LaBeouf has a bad reputation, and does nothing to challenge that here.

    Today’s fake poster comes from a different movie fiasco.

    A fake poster for Megadoc mimicking the poster for Howard the Duck.
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  • Movie Pass and Walk of Fame Adventures: Splitsville and Love Me Forever (1935), and a bit more

    Stylized image of Michael Angelo Covino and Dakota Johnson in Splitsville

    Splitsville

    The cast of Splitsville

    This was fun, but once again I must ask: writer/directors, please stop casting yourselves as leads.

    This fake poster was motivated by nothing but the fact that I liked the font on the original but couldn’t find anything that resembled it. So I made my own. It’s only letters right now, and the spacing is a little weird, but it works!

    A fake poster for Splitsville mimicking the poster for Black Belt Jones.
    Seriously, that font rips.

    Love Me Forever

    The cast of Love Me Forever.
    Composite picture. On the left, a mockup of Grace Moore's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On the Right, a black and white portrait photo of Grace Moore.

    I watched this because it was the only Grace Moore movie I could find. She was an opera singer turned actress, so naturally she plays a woman who just happens to be really good at singing opera. She’s fine, but Leo Carrillo (who I honestly only knew from the beach named after him) is way more fun to watch.

    This poster continues my current “one good one, one bad one” pattern. This was a good idea, but the execution is weak.

    A fake poster for Love Me Forever mimicking the poster for A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.

    Bonus Walk of Fame Thing!

    One of the walk of fame stars is for Frank Fay. He is credited as the creator of modern standup comedy and the entertainment job of emcee. He was also a racist, fascist, antisemitic, egotistical ass, so I went out of my way to watch enough of him to say “I saw him on film” without having to sit through a real performance. I found a twenty minute promotional film with tons of stars called The Stolen Jools. Fay is in it for about ten seconds, and that’s plenty for me. And no star for him, either.

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  • Streaming Movie Adventures: His Three Daughters

    Elizabeth Olsen, Carrie Coon, and Natasha Lyonne in His Three Daughters.
    Elizabeth Olsen, Natasha Lyonne, and Carrie Coon in His Three Daughters.

    This is going to get a little spoilery. You have been warned.

    This wasn’t based on a play, but it sure felt like it was when it started.

    Also: if you’re making a grounded movie about three daughters fighting to resolve their differences while dealing with their dying father, and our only way of knowing he’s even there is the beep of a heart monitor in the other room, maybe don’t have him show up in nearly the last scene and give a show stopping surreal performance that blunts all the growth the characters have gone through over the last two hours.

    Today’s fake poster invokes the power of three.

    A fake poster for His Three Daughters mimicking the poster for Three Amigos.
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  • Walk of Fame Movie Adventures: Prison Break (1938) and Constance Moore

    Red Kincaid (Ward Bond) and Joaquin Shannon (Barton MacLane) squaring off to fight in prison while prisoners watch and guards hold them back.
    Edmund MacDonald as Chris and Constance Moore as Maria in Prison Break

    This movie was a curse.

    I looked this up on Letterboxd, saw that it had a 3.7 rating out of five, and decided it was worth watching. About halfway in I was so bored that I looked it up again, and learned that its number are probably artificially inflated by sharing the name of a popular TV series. I WUZ HOODWINKED, I TELL YA!

    Composite picture. On the left, a mockup of Constance Moore's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On the Right, a black and white portrait photo of Constance Moore.

    I chose this movie because I was looking for something with Constance Moore I could watch for free. She had pretty high billing, but she only has a couple of scenes at the beginning of the movie, and in the middle we find out that she was killed off-screen. I almost expected a scribbled card reading “POOCHIE DIED ON HIS WAY HOME” to pop up.

    …and to finish off this turd fest: I couldn’t figure out a decent parody poster, and there were pretty much no decent pictures from the movie. And that’s why today’s poster is a halfass reference to the poster for “Ernest Goes to Jail.” The only thing that’s close to the original poster is the lettering.

    A fake poster for Prison Break that just barely references the poster for Ernest Goes to Jail.

  • Movie Pass Adventures: Twinless

    James Sweeney as Dylan in Twinless
    Dylan O'Brien and James Sweeney as Rock and Dennis laying on hotel beds looking at each other.

    While I was watching I was thinking “one of these guys is a much more engaging actor. I wonder how they cast the other one.”

    The “other one” is the writer and director.

    I wanted to base today’s fake poster on Twins but the layout didn’t quite work, so I went with a different twin film.

    A fake poster for Twinless mimicking the poster for Dead Ringers.
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  • Flop House Movie Adventures: The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)

    Eddie Murphy in The Adventure of Pluto Nash
    Rosario Dawson, Randy Quaid, and Eddie Murphy in The Adventures of Pluto Nash

    I watched this for tonight’s episode of Flop TV. It probably would have been a better movie if it had been made with no stars or cash. I wonder how much of the $100 million budget went to celebrity paychecks.

    Today’s fake poster is OH SO MUCH BETTER than the thing I farted out yesterday, but based on an old poster that I’m guessing most people wouldn’t recognize. PROVE ME WRONG, I DARE YOU!

    A fake poster for The Adventures of Pluto Nash mimicking the poster for The Boys From Brazil.

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  • Walk of Fame Movie Adventures: The Visitor (1979) and Mel Ferrer

    John Huston in The Visitor
    Paige Collins in The Visitor.

    I knew I was in for a high quality piece of cinema when it opened with this title card:

    The opening card from The Vistor. It reads: "The Producer wishes to gratefully aknowledge Mr. GEORGE BUSBEE Governor of the State of Georgia and Mr. MAYNARD JACKSON Mayor of the city of Atlanta for their helpfull assistance without which this film could never have been made."
    “Spelling? Capitalization? Grammar? Punctuation? Those rules are for cowards.”

    This is the best movie with an old man in a fishing hat fighting to stop an eight year old girl from forcing her mother (with the help of a secret evil organization and the owner of a basketball team) to give birth to the reincarnation of Space Satan I’ve ever seen. At that doesn’t even mention the ice skating fight, or the commune full of bald children led by Space Jesus in what looks like a very nice suburban home in space.

    Composite picture. On the left, a mockup of Mel Ferrer's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On the Right, a black and white portrait photo of Mel Ferrer.

    Mel Ferrer (Walk of Fame star at 6268 Hollywood Boulevard) plays the head of the evil secret organization. He gets killed by birds. I’m not sure if he’s covered in blood or bird crap.

    Mel Ferrer covered with wounds (or possibly bird poop) in The Visitor.

    Today’s fake poster… isn’t very good. It looks less like a movie poster, and more like a repackaged DVD in the five dollar bin at Walmart.

    A fake poster for The Visitor poorly mimicking the poster for The Avengers
    They can’t all be gems.

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