Top Films as of July 4th

[Anthonynotes]

...a list just posted today apparently (and will probaby be supplanted as of this Sunday, w/"Kiss of Death" coming out):

>>>
Wednesday 07/04/2001
1.  Cats and Dogs
2.  Scary Movie 2
3.  A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
4.  Dr. Dolittle 2
5.  The Fast and the Furious
6.  Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
7.  Shrek
8.  Atlantis: The Lost Empire
9.  Baby Boy
10.  Pearl Harbor
<<<

Hmm, "Cats" did a lot better than I thought it would (saw it yesterday, see comments below). "A.I.", at #3, seemed to be slipping a bit fast...though nowhere near as fast as "Pearl Harbor"...

"Kiss of Death", Jet Li's new film, opens today; I'd expect it to clock in at either #1 or #2 (depending on how strong "Cats" would hold up)...

Re: "Cats and Dogs": I saw the film yesterday to a somewhat-more-crowded-than-usual-on-a-weekday-afternoon audience. Without revealing spoilers, it involved (as the ads/previews said) a secret war between cats and dogs (cats portrayed as "evil" or "the enemy" and dogs as "Man's best friends/defenders", which apparently didn't bother the cat-lovers that I was seated near in the theater), using all manner of high-tech weaponry. Mr. Tinkles, of course, is trying to implement his master plan for global domination with the aid of his less-than-eager assistant Pink---er, a calico cat (no name given, voiced by Jon Lovitz). Favorite bits: Mr. Tinkles' means of fueling his world-domination plot involving his owner; a line by one of the characters that referred to comic books; the "ninja cats" and "the Russian" (cat) sent in to try to do in Our Canine Heroes. Weak points: the human characters; at least one "fart" joke (though I was way more tolerant for this flick re: bodily function gags, since we're dealing with dogs/cats here :-)

One thing's for sure: the Brain *definitelY* wouldn't like this film (especially with one scene towards the climax that involves mice coming into play...or where one of them's eaten as a really quick throwaway gag). :-)

BRAIN: I usually make it a point to never walk out on a movie, given the price of admission these days...(muttering) $5.50 for a *matinee*...*really*...but frankly, I'd rather sit through that collection of cheap shock value gags known as "Scary Movie 2" than *this*....*mice being eaten*....*loathsome felines trying to take over the world*....what sort of mind would find this amusing?!?

-B.

[Danielle]

Originally quoted by Brain, which was further posted by Brainatra

I usually make it a point to never walk out on a movie, given the price of admission these days...(muttering) $5.50 for a *matinee*...*really*...but frankly, I'd rather sit through that collection of cheap shock value gags known as "Scary Movie 2" than *this*....*mice being eaten*....*loathsome felines trying to take over the world*....what sort of mind would find this amusing?!?

An evil mind. A twisted mind. George W. Bush probably liked this movie.

Re: Cats portrayed as the enemy, dogs portrayed as the defenders.

That probably stems from the fact that many shows/movies, mostly cartoons, have a cat as either the villian or the sidekick to the villian. I can give many examples:

-The Great Mouse Detective Toby's part of the good guys and Tabitha (?) was part of Ratcliff's gang.

-Inspector Gadget The dog (whatsisname?) was sidekick to Penny and guardian to Inspector Gadget. Meanwhile, the mysterious Dr. Claw has a big fat cat (tabby? Big thing with tabbies)

-Powerpuff Girls There was that one episode with the evil cat. You know which one I'm talking about.

-Pinky and the Brain This is obviously obvious. But in regards to an enemy to all of humankind, Precious would be counted in this list.

There are more, but I can't think of any right now.

[The Mad Hatter]

So Scary Movie 2 beat AI? I don't think that'll last... near as I can tell, everyone I've talked to who's seen it absolutely hated it.

Meanwhile, Atlantis managed to fall BEHIND Shrek... which means that we won't be seeing another "mature" Disney flick for a long time. The animation department may also see further budget cuts, which could affect Disney stuff down the line. Dangit.

And with Pearl Harbor, I'm glad to see it sink. Jerry Bruckheimer is way overrated, and in a Rolling Stone interview, he came across as a complete and total *bleep*.

Oh, Danielle, I don't think the Shrub is an evil madman out to take over the world. Now, as for Cheney and the various other people who are actually running the country while the Shrub invents goofy nicknames or takes a nap or reminds us that he was a below-average student for the thousanth time...

[Colin]

Originally posted by Brainatra
...a list just posted today apparently (and will probaby be supplanted as of this Sunday, w/"Kiss of Death" coming out):

>>>
Wednesday 07/04/2001
1.  Cats and Dogs
2.  Scary Movie 2
3.  A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
4.  Dr. Dolittle 2
5.  The Fast and the Furious
6.  Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
7.  Shrek
8.  Atlantis: The Lost Empire
9.  Baby Boy
10.  Pearl Harbor
<<<

Now, lets compare to Thursday July 5:

1. Scary Movie 2
2. Cats and Dogs
3. A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
4. The Fast and the Furious
5. Dr. Dolittle 2
6. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
7. Shrek
8. Atlantis: The Lost Empire
9. Baby Boy
10. crazy/beautiful


If this trend continues on to this weekend it'll be hard to tell which movie's actually gonna be going... Crazy/Beautiful or Pearl Harbor... also, if everyone is going to SM2 and hating it... will it actually fare well this weekend or will that start to decline already? I haven't talked to anyone about the movie myself, but just from the ads I know I don't want to see it. Financially, between July 4 and July 5, the profits were cut almost in half, tho SM2 drop as much on day 2 as C&D did...

I finally got to see AI today, and thought "WOW! What a movie!" I did see the Kubrick-esque qualities of the film and think Spielberg did a good job with it. It'd be nice to see that turn out on top again this weekend, or at least a #2 spot... anything better than SM2...

[Anthonynotes]

>>An evil mind. A twisted mind. George W. Bush probably liked this movie.
<<

What Hatter said (re: Bush)...

>>Re: Cats portrayed as the enemy, dogs portrayed as the defenders.

Answering who would like this film's pro-canine sentiments....um...uh...."Dog Fancy" magazine?

>>That probably stems from the fact that many shows/movies, mostly cartoons, have a cat as either the villian or the sidekick to the villian. I can give many examples:

(Examples snipped)

A few others:
"Tom and Jerry": Tom is portrayed as the "villain" half the time, for engaging in his instincts to chase/bat around Jerry. Jerry, while portrayed as the "protagonist" half the time, seems much more malicious than Tom ever was (that golf cartoon where he sticks bees down Tom's throat still sticks out in my mind as quite sadistic...). And then there's Spike the bulldog, who seems to spend most of his time whaling on Tom merely for Tom being in the same time zone as he is. Quite frankly, Spike struck me as an argument for either temperament shots or county kennels putting animals to "sleep" (and Jerry justification for the mere existence of the Orkin Man...). Related to this would be "Itchy and Scratchy" (re: being a "Tom and Jerry" parody in regards to Jerry's sadisticness amplified into Itchy the mouse's over-the-top abuse of Scratchy the cat)...

"Peanuts": the "cat next door" is (while never seen) shown as an evil, foul-tempered critter (probably deserves the same "treatment" I suggested above for Spike), who constantly abuses Snoopy (though admittedly, Snoopy taunted him half the time into having his doghouse torn to shreds by the cat's apparently-made-from-adamantium claws)...

"Sylvester and Tweety": my cited-in-the-past comments re: tha Hector-beating-up-Sylvester-a-kazillion-times-per-episode bit being beaten into the ground....

In "Cats and Dogs", a few Warner Bros. "Looney Tunes" (showing a generic dog beating up who was either a generic cat or Claude Cat) are watched by the canines (who take pretty great delight in seeing this)...

All in all, I guess it might stem from the stereotypical notion of dogs being "man's best friend" and constantly loyal to humans, and cats' independent, nonconformist streak as being a "bad thing" (or evil: being considered as "signs of witches"/"witchs' cats"/black cats being bad luck/etc.)...

From what I recall reading, "Garfield" was created by Davis because he noted all the dog-centered strips in the papers and wanted something different (and liked cats), with Odie coming along as originally supposedly being the antithesis of the usual "heroic, noble dog" by showing him as, well, more like a typical dog (slobbering, drinking out of the toilet, etc.)...

Do you own any cats, by any chance, Danielle?

-B.
Who doesn't own any pets...

[Danielle]

Originally posted by Brainatra

Do you own any cats, by any chance, Danielle?

Oh, boy. Here we go.

Once upon a time, there lived a cat named Leroy. Leroy was a shorthaired black cat who was constantly abused because of his fur color. Finally, he found a house with three girls who had seemed to take an interest in him. Meanwhile, he had taken an interest in another stray who hung around that house. A beautiful princess, she was. Her name? Princess. Duh, haven't you been listening? Anyway, those two got together and....well, they did....that. After that, Leroy ran away and left Princess heartbroken (cue sad music) Then, one winter morning, the middle sister in the house went outside and found Princess carrying a mouse in her mouth! Yelling at the cat, the girl ran up to her....to find it was not a mouse at all. It was a little black kitten. The girl followed Princess to the side of the house, where she found a carton with two other kittens in it, one gray, and one tiger-striped. As the girl ran into the house to tell her family, she heard a little 'meow'. The girl traced the sound to a bush, where she saw another black kitten, meowing pitifully. Knowing that she shouldn't have but doing it anyway, she picked up the kitten and brought it to Princess. As time went on, the family found out the gender of the kittens; the black one (male) was named Fella, the shorthaired gray one (female) Stella, the shorthaired tiger-striped one (female) Ella, and the longhaired black one that was found in a bush (female) Bella. Weeks later, Princess ran away (more sad music) Shortly after that, the youngest daughter mistakenly sat on Bella's foot. Feeling sorry for her, the mother of the family decided to adopt her as a pet. She is now our cat, Bella.

Then there's the matter of Stella and Ella having kittens, but that's a different story altogether...

[Craig Marinaro]

Danielle raves:

Oh, boy. Here we go.

<snip>

Wow.





Now I'm *REALLY* not jealous of you. ;)





-C
Has a cat. His picture is plainly displayed on the Staff Page.

[Calhoun07]

Cat's are more creatures of the night, so it's understandable why they get cast as the villian. Also, they are EVIL. EEEEHHHHHHVVOOOOOLLLL.

[Danielle]

Originally posted by calhoun07
EEEEHHHHHHVVOOOOOLLLL.

Yoo spelt 'evil' rong.

[Nftnat]

You left out Road Rovers, y'all. Parvo's a cat, remember. I dunno how the RoRo fan community's gonna react to C&D, as some of them have cat personas, but it hasn't come up yet. Normally I'm a dog person, but I'll make exceptions for Sylvester & Rita.

And peoples, about the political stuff, I'm thinking of Animaniacs episode 44 The World Can Wait to be specific:
Pinky: But Brain, I've already got a girlfriend!
Brain: Pinky, you are a mouse, this is a horse.

Now, can anyone, other than Romey of course who knows every line of that ep by heart, recall the next line? Think about it, & apply it here.

[DR. BELCH]

CALHOUN07:
Cats are more creatures of the night, so it's understandable why they get cast as the villian.

Too true. I notice in all the bumpers for Cats and Dogs that the action primarily happens in the day...though cats are nocturnal by nature. Not that a cat aspires to rule earth anyway...Tiger Lily, my mother's tabby, seems content to lie on her back and sleep much of the time, when she's not eating or attempting to seduce the dog (she's an odd one)..."Me? Rule earth? You must be joking. Too much effort. Come here and rub my belly...." (a trick she plays on me constantly; the moment I start rubbing, she starts to bite my fingers.) Actually I think she's smitten with me--when I step outside briefly she cries her head off until I return.
Note also that the movie's evil cats are all males...the females seem oddly absent; what's their part in global domination? As far as cats and dogs go, the girls are the most easygoing, docile, and easiest to train. I also note all the evil/antagonist cats seem to be male (Meowth, Tom, Mad Cat, Sylvester, Babbot and Catstello, Claude, Giovanni's Persian, Parvo, Shere Khan--well, tigers are cats, technically--Snoopy's cat-next-door--I think)...except maybe the mad doctor's cat in "Brainwashed", but she was more upset about her deformity and wanting attention than evil. Same for Meowth--he only went bad because some dame rejected him (the world's oldest story in the city of amnesia).
Pokemon may be one of the few shows where dogs and cats are seen as lovers (Snubull's unrequited affection for Meowth) rather than bitter enemies.
As for G.W. Bush, it's a wise man who knows his limitations and a fool who ignores/denies them. Brains aren't everything...Hitler and Trotsky were geniuses, after all....

[Nftnat]

Let's see, um,
1) sexism in Holywood, even among toon animals
2) afaik the "cat next door" is female, but I'm not sure
3) P*k*m*n isn't alone in that regard; remember Runt & Rita?
4) Thanks

[Sharklady]

> Brains aren't everything... <

Hoo boy. You are *really* asking for a polysyllabic tongue-lashing from a certain large-headed rodent.

[DR. BELCH]

....if Brain objects to my claim that intelligence isn't everything, I'm sure Billie will take him to the woodshed just as vigorously. I wrote a scene in one chain-link FanFic in which she tells Brain that for all his brilliance he can't see two inches past his nose sometimes. We geniuses are unfortunately very short-sighted, especially when a goal is set...this is why the world has Pinkys to lend us perspective, in their own uniquely irksome fashion....

[Craig Crumpton]

Originally posted by Brainatra
...a list just posted today apparently (and will probaby be supplanted as of this Sunday, w/"Kiss of Death" coming out):

Not to nitpick, but it's "Kiss of the Dragon". But if you've seen the movie, they might as well have called it "Kiss of Death" because ... well, if I tell you that, it would spoil the movie.

It's a good action flick, and better than other ones I've seen in the last year because it has a more solid plot. That's my opinion of it. Oh, and that Jet Li's English is even worse than Jackie Chan's, and Jet is reeeeeally short. But man-oh-man can he kick *****.


> Cats and Dogs

I really enjoyed this movie, I must say. But then, I've owned two beagles in my lifetime and I just couldn't resist it. I planned to post a review here sometime this weekend if I have time for it, since it *is* actually on topic.


> Scary Movie 2

Two words: stew pid.
Most of the jokes were overly crude - shock-value kinda stuff. I didn't even care for Tim Curry and James Woods in it. Richard Moll uses his Two-Face voice for the character he plays though - too bad it's wasted in this movie. I hate that I paid full price to see it.


> A.I: Artificial Intelligence

Haven't seen it yet, but plan to next weekend.


> Dr. Dolittle 2

I waited until the last one came out on video before I saw it. I think I'll do the same thing for the sequel.


> The Fast and the Furious

Definitely a guy movie. Very loud, with loud music, lots of fast loud cars, street racing, loud car wrecks and explosions, gratuitous gunplay, hot women (with ample T&A shots, but no nudity), street fighting, and a really stupid ending that leaves you scratching your head and saying, "Well, that was a stupid ending."


> Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

This was a real disappointment. It was all flash and no substance. Angelina Jolie fills the role very well (and the clothes even better) and is the embodiment of every male gamer's fantasy, but this movie has poor dialog, dull characters, and some butt-ugly dude that Lara supposedly had romantic ties with in the past? Eck. Where's the dusty old butler with the tray that always follows Lara around her house in the games? (He was a hoot! I always enjoyed locking him in the kitchen freezer.) Where's that cool music sting that always accompanies the cool cutscenes in the games? Why'd they throw in all the other characters that we didn't give a rip about - why couldn't they focus more on Lara? Where's the plot?

Jolie is really hot in this movie, unfortuately, the movie itself leaves one feeling cold.


> Shrek

I liked it very much, but I still say the pop music was distracting, it needed an orchestral music score, the cast was mediocre (except for John Lithgow) and it needed better transitions. And it pales on several points when compared to "The Emperor's New Groove".


> Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Aside from some slow scenes, numerous plot holes and complaints on the design style (as well as the CG clashing horribly with the traditional animation), I also enjoyed this movie. If I were a kid again, I'd have thought it was the greatest movie ever because it's influenced by the fiction I read when I was a kid: H.G. Wells, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (The Lost World), and Jules Verne.


> Baby Boy

Haven't seen it yet, but there are a few other urban dramas in this genre that I found very entertaining so I'll probably see it sometime this month.


> Pearl Harbor

Like "Tomb Raider", this one is also all flash and no substance. And except for the battles scenes, it was painfully dull. I also found it predictable - not because it's based on history, but because they just made it too easy for me. And it was just too danged long. The whole end of the movie with the "secret mission" to bomb Japan was pointless. It might have made some impact historically, but when you watch the movie, you think - they bombed a factory - big freakin deal. Then they run out of fuel and end up getting shot down. All that training and secrecy - down the toilet. What a waste.

And that whole speech that Baldwin's character gives about wanting to die in battle by sending his plane into a target or something... he survives the bombing and returns to the US as a hero? He's either a coward, a liar - or both.

The only part of this movie I really enjoyed was the battle of Pearl Harbor itself. It's so relentless, makes you feel the utter helplessness they must have felt, that your body just starts to scream for a breather of some kind. And the special effects are just amazing.