TV/Movies Megathread

[Berkut]

Heathers is a great movie. I am not sure Hollywood of today could even make a movie like that.

[Martinus]

No I haven't.

If you get a chance, check it out. I remember it as being very funny. Subverts the trope of "the cool interesting loner dude going up against the high school nasty conformist beautiful people cliques ... and winning". 

[spoiler]In this movie, it turns out the "cool loner dude" is actually a very clever psychopath, and his idea of "winning" is to murder the beautiful people cliques. The 'dead gay son' reference is to the murder of a couple of high school jocks who were definitely *not* gay - in fact, they were asshole gay bashers on the Football team. The psycho dude kills them both and makes it look like a lover's suicide. Their father launches into a heartfelt lament of "acceptance" at their funeral; the whole town then turns to an orgy of remorse about how they failed to "understand" their pair's forbidden love - so as it turns out, they are as undeservedly popular in death as they were in life. [/spoiler]

That sounds awesome. Will check it out.

[Syt]

Heathers is a great movie. I am not sure Hollywood of today could even make a movie like that.

Wasn't it considered an indie movie at the time (might be wrong)? And even so, it was a commercial flop originally, wasn't it? (Not that that says something about a movie's legacy or later popularity).

[Berkut]

Heathers is a great movie. I am not sure Hollywood of today could even make a movie like that.

Wasn't it considered an indie movie at the time (might be wrong)? And even so, it was a commercial flop originally, wasn't it? (Not that that says something about a movie's legacy or later popularity).

Myabe it was a flop, I don't know.

But even so, that would not disprove my point. Hollywood today has become amazingly competent at turning out incredibly profitable movies that have very little imagination or actual story to them, much less any kind of controversial topics.

They have the giant dollar blockbuster down to an "art" that has very little artistry in it...

[frunk]

[spoiler]In this movie, it turns out the "cool loner dude" is actually a very clever psychopath, and his idea of "winning" is to murder the beautiful people cliques. The 'dead gay son' reference is to the murder of a couple of high school jocks who were definitely *not* gay - in fact, they were asshole gay bashers on the Football team. The psycho dude kills them both and makes it look like a lover's suicide. Their father launches into a heartfelt lament of "acceptance" at their funeral; the whole town then turns to an orgy of remorse about how they failed to "understand" their pair's forbidden love - so as it turns out, they are as undeservedly popular in death as they were in life. [/spoiler]

I'd mostly agree, except

[spoiler]I think Christian Slater was more interested in death and destruction in general and used whatever handy rationalizations were available to get Wynona Rider to go along with it.  Witness the attempt to blow up the school at the end of the movie.  He might have hated the popular/beautiful, but not that much more than everybody else.[/spoiler]

[Valmy]

Heathers is a great movie. I am not sure Hollywood of today could even make a movie like that.

Loners killing people at schools is now hitting too close to home.

[Barrister]

Heathers is a great movie. I am not sure Hollywood of today could even make a movie like that.

Wasn't it considered an indie movie at the time (might be wrong)? And even so, it was a commercial flop originally, wasn't it? (Not that that says something about a movie's legacy or later popularity).

I googled the movie earlier - I was curious to see if the critics thought it stood up over time.  Apparently they do.

It wasn't an indie movie, but the producers went bankrupt, spent no money promoting it, and it was a complete flop at theatres.  SOmething like one million dollar box office.  Gained a cult following on video however.

[Martinus]

Wooooo. The second season of Galavant premiered last night.

[Malthus]

[spoiler]In this movie, it turns out the "cool loner dude" is actually a very clever psychopath, and his idea of "winning" is to murder the beautiful people cliques. The 'dead gay son' reference is to the murder of a couple of high school jocks who were definitely *not* gay - in fact, they were asshole gay bashers on the Football team. The psycho dude kills them both and makes it look like a lover's suicide. Their father launches into a heartfelt lament of "acceptance" at their funeral; the whole town then turns to an orgy of remorse about how they failed to "understand" their pair's forbidden love - so as it turns out, they are as undeservedly popular in death as they were in life. [/spoiler]

I'd mostly agree, except

[spoiler]I think Christian Slater was more interested in death and destruction in general and used whatever handy rationalizations were available to get Wynona Rider to go along with it.  Witness the attempt to blow up the school at the end of the movie.  He might have hated the popular/beautiful, but not that much more than everybody else.[/spoiler]

Yeah, I'd agree with that.

[spoiler]The beautiful people were just a convenient first target of opportunity. Plus, they pissed him off.

My favorite part: when he was going to murder Rider, he took a copy of "Moby Dick" and underlined random passages, knowing that when she was found dead, the idiot townsfolk would over-analyze the significance of the underlinings  [/spoiler]

[Admiral Yi]

One of the thousand trailers they showed before Star Wars was Teenage Mutant Turtles: Something Something Something.  A clever idea to reboot them as black.

[celedhring]

Heathers is a great movie. I am not sure Hollywood of today could even make a movie like that.

Wasn't it considered an indie movie at the time (might be wrong)? And even so, it was a commercial flop originally, wasn't it? (Not that that says something about a movie's legacy or later popularity).

I googled the movie earlier - I was curious to see if the critics thought it stood up over time.  Apparently they do.

It wasn't an indie movie, but the producers went bankrupt, spent no money promoting it, and it was a complete flop at theatres.  SOmething like one million dollar box office.  Gained a cult following on video however.

Heathers is most definitely an indie movie.

[Barrister]

Heathers is a great movie. I am not sure Hollywood of today could even make a movie like that.

Wasn't it considered an indie movie at the time (might be wrong)? And even so, it was a commercial flop originally, wasn't it? (Not that that says something about a movie's legacy or later popularity).

I googled the movie earlier - I was curious to see if the critics thought it stood up over time.  Apparently they do.

It wasn't an indie movie, but the producers went bankrupt, spent no money promoting it, and it was a complete flop at theatres.  SOmething like one million dollar box office.  Gained a cult following on video however.

Heathers is most definitely an indie movie.

How can that be - it had all those big names stars!

I'll defer to your expertise on this point.

[garbon]

Heathers is a great movie. I am not sure Hollywood of today could even make a movie like that.

Wasn't it considered an indie movie at the time (might be wrong)? And even so, it was a commercial flop originally, wasn't it? (Not that that says something about a movie's legacy or later popularity).

Myabe it was a flop, I don't know.

But even so, that would not disprove my point. Hollywood today has become amazingly competent at turning out incredibly profitable movies that have very little imagination or actual story to them, much less any kind of controversial topics.

They have the giant dollar blockbuster down to an "art" that has very little artistry in it...

I'm pretty sure there are still movie outlets that can put together over the top movies. Whether or not you find them and whether or not you enjoy them are entirely different matters.

[Eddie Teach]

How can that be - it had all those big names stars!

It was released in 1988. Ryder had been in Beetlejuice, Slater in The Name of the Rose, and Doherty in a few forgotten tv series.

[celedhring]

Indie cinema =/ cheap films filmed on the basement of college students. It just means it was produced independently of Hollywood's studio system, and all the trappings that come with it. Heathers was produced by a big media company (it owned Marvel at the time, for example), but one that was headquartered in Tampa 

People have this image that indie movies are just cheap movies, but that's because existing outside Hollywood forces you to work for a pittance, and it makes it much harder to get distributed. But ultimately "independent" just means you made the film without knocking on the door of Fox/Warner/Columbia/Disney/Paramount.