Xixax Film Forum

In the 80s, he gave us The Lost Boys and St. Elmo's Fire.  Thanks.

Then, he started sucking and hardly turned back for a second, though he briefly considered not totally sucking when he directed Falling Down.

Pre-80s Schumacher non-Suckiness:  he wrote the screenplay to Lumet's eternally eerie The Wiz.  Gotta hand it to him there.

edit:  perhaps this shoulda gone in the Director's Chair forum.   :oops:

Yeah, what's his deal?

i'm going to have to agree with this thread

Quote from: tremoloslothYeah, what's his deal?

Dying Young is on WGN right now.  Total made-for-TV bullcrap.  Ugly sound design.  Over-the-top, emblematic lighting.  Blargh.

Quote from: sphinxi'm going to have to agree with this thread

He didn't suck at doing costumes for a few good ones:

The Last of Sheila
Sleeper
Interiors

Wait, what's this? (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0337692) Last I heard, Coppola was going to adapt it himself. Now he's a producer.

Quote from: Mesh

Quote from: tremoloslothYeah, what's his deal?

Dying Young is on WGN right now.  Total made-for-TV bullcrap.  Ugly sound design.  Over-the-top, emblematic lighting.  Blargh.

Ewwww.  He did that?  Sweet Christ, that shit gives me chills.....

i thought this fact was so universal that it was beyond all discussion.  he gayed up the batman franchise which pretty much single-handedly buried all dc comic adaptations for 6 years.  now, before anyone takes the gay comment as negative or hateful.  nipples on the batsuit.  butt and codpiece shots.  okay?  now that we're on the same page.  if i'm not mistaken, he was not officially gay till some point during the production of one of the batman movies, which he basically used as his big coming out party.  if that were required of the character, that would be one thing.  but that is not what the character is about.  that's not what the story is.  there are entire message boards devoted to hating this guy.  i've had enough for now.  

(lost boys=80s bliss though).

hes kind of weird - hes capable of some really good solid movies (tigerland), but then he goes and does the batman sequels - i dont quite understand it

phonebooth was okay

i actually DO want to see phonebooth and tigerland, but have been holding a grudge for 6 years.

yes i actually kind of enjoyed phonebooth - before it came out i refused to believe that the premise would work as a feature film (and i still think it would work BETTER as a short) but it surprised me

I guess I'm the only one that liked "8mm" (could have been darker, yes, but I still thought it was seedy enough) and "Flatliners".

havent seen flatliners in a while, i dont remember DISliking but really dont remember liking it too much either

i hated 8mm

Joel Schumacher & Akiva Goldsman: Best Off-Screen Duo?

Liked about half of 8mm. Thought Falling Down had some quality moments. Really enjoyed Phone Booth. Need to see Tigerland. Searching for a pronoun.

ass sucking, ok im gonna let this one pass much too easy

One thing about him is that he really is not pretentious at all about what he does. I heard him say something like : "There are better directors, but anybody can direct. Why not me" (close paraphrasing)

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This is why not him.

D.C. Cab is a masterpiece.  The subtle characterizations.  The wonderful emotions.  The cabs.

I saw a trailer yesterday that will make some cry.  It's for "Veronica Guerin," and it says, from Jerry Bruckheimer and Joel Schumacher.  It looks like it might be a decent film, though.

Quote from: RaviI saw a trailer yesterday that will make some cry.  It's for "Veronica Guerin," and it says, from Jerry Bruckheimer and Joel Schumacher.  It looks like it might be a decent film, though.

Click on poster to see trailer:

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hundland.com%2Fposters%2Fv%2FVeronicaGuerin.gif&hash=bd3afdc771eae1cc9819560d5ceb4833285ae016) (http://www.apple.com/trailers/touchstone/veronica_guerin/)

Take that, modernage.

I never got around to seeing the other Veronica Guerin movie with Joan Allen from two or three years ago, called Chasing The Dragon or something of that sort. Come to think of it, did it even get a domestic release? The best thing this one has going for it is Blanchett.

Quote from: the VERONICA GUERIN tagline--------------------------------------------------------------------
"Why Would Anyone Want to Kill Veronica Guerin?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------

probably because of her giant fucking face.

Quote from: Pprobably because of her giant fucking face.

:yabbse-thumbup:

"Tigerland" rocks my socks.  And I like "Phonebooth", too.

Falling Down is one of my faves.  Haven't seen Phone Booth yet.

At the end of that Veronica Guerin trailer this really familiar song plays...
where have i heard it, and what is it called?

:)

nah. old shoemaker gets a bad rap. he's better than y'all think. a time to kill was excellent.

Quote from: P

Quote from: the VERONICA GUERIN tagline--------------------------------------------------------------------
"Why Would Anyone Want to Kill Veronica Guerin?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------

probably because of her giant fucking face.

hahaha.

Quote from: ©bradnah. old shoemaker gets a bad rap. he's better than y'all think. a time to kill was excellent.

Nah.  It was OK at best.  A few interesting moments and a hyper-hackneyed courtroom finale (I think—I've so forgotten about that movie).  Yawn.

Quote from: Mesh

Quote from: ©bradnah. old shoemaker gets a bad rap. he's better than y'all think. a time to kill was excellent.

Nah.  It was OK at best.  A few interesting moments and a hyper-hackneyed courtroom finale (I think—I've so forgotten about that movie).  Yawn.

u know what makes me yawn? u.

*cbrad yawns.

I think he has talent but just has incredibly bad taste.  I haven't seen Phone Booth but I hear it's good.  Tigerland was a 100 minutes of utter boredom.  I walked out of both batmans to enjoy a peanut buster parfait at DQ.  Butterscotch is way better than a Joel Schumacher flick.

Ouch.  

Didn't you see Falling Down??

IMO it's a small masterpiece.

Quote from: Ghoulardi GoonOuch.  

Didn't you see Falling Down??

IMO it's a small masterpiece.

It's his most original and important film, but I still don't really think it's all that great.  But I haven't seen it for at least 4 years, so I've got no business expanding on that.

Quote from: ©brad

Quote from: Mesh

Quote from: ©bradnah. old shoemaker gets a bad rap. he's better than y'all think. a time to kill was excellent.

Nah.  It was OK at best.  A few interesting moments and a hyper-hackneyed courtroom finale (I think—I've so forgotten about that movie).  Yawn.

u know what makes me yawn? u.

*cbrad yawns.

No need to take it personally.  ATTK is just not that outstanding.

It's not outstanding, it just has a nice Samuel L. performance in it.

Quote from: life_boyIt's not outstanding, it just has a nice Samuel L. performance in it.

I enjoyed SLJ's performance in Kiss Of Death, where his charater cannot control his tear ducts and tears slip down his face at weird moments.  Really cool...

aw

If Joel Schumacher was a shoemaker, his shoes would be sold at Payless, or maybe Stride Rite.

I was under the impression that you either sucked ass or you didn't. :(

*Nominates this for worst thread title*

Never been to AICN, but from what other people said of that place, this thread makes me feel like I am visiting.

Disagree with his films, not him. He really is quite a generous man and has said he makes certain films only so he can make others.

~rougerum

Quote from: The Gold Trumpet*Nominates this for worst thread title*.

What's wrong with the title?  It spells out more or less my feelings on the man's body of work.

Quote from: The Gold Trumpet*Never been to AICN, but from what other people said of that place, this thread makes me feel like I am visiting. .

You feel confident enough to rip this thread on the basis of how you think something you know nothing about might suck?  Get off your high horse until you have reason to be up there.

Quote from: The Gold Trumpet*Disagree with his films, not him. He really is quite a generous man and has said he makes certain films only so he can make others.

1.  I don't care if they sainted the guy, he'd still have made only 3 or 4 decent movies (to my knowledge) and that's a generous estimate.

2.  He makes certain films so he can make others, yet most of his movies are immemorable, unoriginal, characterless garbage?  So he's using garbage to finance the production of more garbage?  Great.

I love Falling Down and Tigerland. Phone Booth was enjoyable.

Off my high horse? With little reason to why his movies are bad, you trashed a man in your opening thread. I trashed your thread. 1.) The title is mean spirited and high schoolish that it makes what you are just bashing the guy to bash and 2.) the fact you have no reason at all for disliking his work (no opinions on any specific), it makes your words look as a personal offense instead of a critique on his work.

Critiquing his work and saying you didn't like it is one thing. Simple sentences of "this sucked" followed by other similiar sentences is another.

Maybe I didn't explain that well enough; I just thought my AICN reference would have been enough considering I am a piss poor example of a writer and have been trying to condence my reasons to things simpler.

(And I use this name due to the fact my previous name has yet to be unbanned)

~rougerum

The Golden Trumpet was banned? When did that happen?

Perhaps it was a parting gift from Sphinx

But hey GT, I think you're cool

Quote from: tremoloslothBut hey GT, I think you're cool

::dramatically::

I HAVE NO SON!

Quote from: tremoloslothBut hey GT, I think you're cool

Personally, I don't think compliments can get better than that.

The name is banned, but I push forward with a new name. At least for now.

~rougerum

I like GT because he makes arguing fun.

Quote from: Cmte de Saint Germainbut I push forward with a new name.

i shed a tear for ur struggle, ur plight is truly touching, compared to u the jews come off as fortunate.

I disagree with a lot of what GT has to say and that's one of the reasons why I like him.  He always has reasons to back up his opinions though, and doesn't dislike things for the sake of disliking them.  I enjoy reading his reviews on films as much as I disagree with them (Royal Tenenbaums is a perfect example).  I wouldn't ban him...the arguments he gets in are fun to watch anyway...

for the record (which was explained in the thread he made but chose to ignore and continue this incessant bitching), no admins banned him.. the matter is under investigation and was thought clarified but apparently is still unresolved.

i hope Cmte de Saint Germain understands this and doesn't feel the need to ruin any more threads.

Quote from: Pfor the record (which was explained in the thread he made but chose to ignore and continue this incessant bitching), no admins banned him.. the matter is under investigation and was thought clarified but apparently is still unresolved.

i hope Cmte de Saint Germain understands this and doesn't feel the need to ruin any more threads.

Yeah, I'm checking into this right now. It may be a software issue. I have to dig a little deeper in the user file to see what's up.

Cmte de Saint Germain, please chill until I can get this resolved.

I will update you all on this soon, I promise.

Quote from: Pedro the WombatI disagree with a lot of what GT has to say and that's one of the reasons why I like him.  He always has reasons to back up his opinions though, and doesn't dislike things for the sake of disliking them.  I enjoy reading his reviews on films as much as I disagree with them (Royal Tenenbaums is a perfect example).  I wouldn't ban him...the arguments he gets in are fun to watch anyway...

agreed.
I also enjoy reading GT's views even though sometimes I don't agree with them. He brings discussion to this discussion board.

Xixax, I love the cat.  Keep it.

He is not bad at all IMO:

1.Falling Down
2.8mm
3.TIGERLAND
4.The Lost Boys
5.Flatliners


To me those are five GOOD reasons why I think he is a GOOD director.

Quote from: NEON MERCURY8mm

all good reasons except for that piece of shit.

Quote from: Xixax

Quote from: Pfor the record (which was explained in the thread he made but chose to ignore and continue this incessant bitching), no admins banned him.. the matter is under investigation and was thought clarified but apparently is still unresolved.

i hope Cmte de Saint Germain understands this and doesn't feel the need to ruin any more threads.

Yeah, I'm checking into this right now. It may be a software issue. I have to dig a little deeper in the user file to see what's up.

Cmte de Saint Germain, please chill until I can get this resolved.

I will update you all on this soon, I promise.

Considering I'm being told nothing about the situation, I at least have right to bring it up and like I said here in another thread:

Quote from: Cmte de Saint GermainI really don't mind because the inconveniance only added up to creating a new name which took around 2 minutes total time.

Any idea to this being something serious from me is likely my poor attempt to making a joke and the misunderstanding of it. And P, considering many of your posts and it cutting someone down or just lashing out at a disagreeance, don't talk about ruining threads.

~rougerum

Well, I don't know about all the politics and such, but I am still trying to get to the bottom of the userfile issue.

Quote from: bonanzataz

Quote from: NEON MERCURY8mm

all good reasons except for that piece of shit.

I think you need to watch it again I think it is a-little of-putting at first view but ...It has a good dark tone/style to it (kind-a like Se7en)...And that trailer for it was AWESOME!!!!Very effective.

Basically I don't think he sucks in fact  I think he is quite good :!:

Quote from: Cmte de Saint Germain
Any idea to this being something serious from me is likely my poor attempt to making a joke and the misunderstanding of it. And P, considering many of your posts and it cutting someone down or just lashing out at a disagreeance, don't talk about ruining threads.

~rougerum

um yea what?

*©brad gets out his rather thick golden trumpet translation dictionary.

ok let's see here.

"and p, considering many of your posts and it cutting someone down or just lashing out at a disagreeance, don't talk about ruining threads"

well, the 'it' before 'cutting someone' is all wrong, and i don't even think disagreeance is even a word. however, thanks to my trusty gt translater, i have been able to interpret the quoted nonsense said person has posted above and been able to make sum sense outta it.

#1. gt can't take a joke.
#2. he analyzes his own analyzations of stuff that needs no analyzing of whatsoever.
#3. he needs to get laid, bad.
#4. he needs to smoke sum good dope once he has gotten laid.
#5. he needs to take a deep breath, (do it w/ me gt, breath in- ahhh) before he bombards me, ©brad, with more posts on what a fucking idiot i am. its just a post good buddy, it won't hurt u.

i dont know why Falling Down is getting all the praise it is. It had the potential to be great, Shumaccher fucked it up. Why were there so many Robert Duvall scenes? I like him in most movies but i mean god damn. His character was too marginal to be so prominent. A terrific idea and Micheal Douglas couldn't carry the lame script and hackneyed direction. A movie that could have had balls and tackeled a serious issue pussyfooted around it with a bunch of formulatic plot devices that we've seen time and time again.

And I dont know who's trying to assassinate GT, but i find it funny all the same.

QuoteRIP GT (banned July 3rd, 2003. Reasons unkown as of yet.)

GT, try it now. I think some of the tables got jumbled and I just did some work on them. I believe you will be able to get in now.

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.digitalcity.com%2Fmff_takefive%2Ftopschumacher&hash=e2e827d37d82fbb98605ca1b27cbadb4d122a197)

Joel Schumacher is crazy about actors. He's fiercely loyal to them, too. Stars like Mel Gibson and Jim Carrey may have flirted with the possibility of starring in Phone Booth, but when it came to casting the movie himself, the director insisted on his Tigerland star, then-unknown, now-notorious Colin Farrell. Schumacher pushed just as hard to get Kiefer Sutherland as the movie's menacing sniper -- he had worked with Sutherland twice before, The Lost Boys and Flatliners -- but couldn't convince the studio to foot the bill.

No matter. Schumacher went ahead with Ron Eldard in the part, but once shooting wrapped, he went back to the studio and made his case again. This time, the studio agreed, capitalizing on Sutherland's heightened profile after the success of his hit television show, '24.' Taking advantage of delays posed by current events, Schumacher went back through the movie with Sutherland, dubbing over the unseen sniper's lines. In the end, Schumacher got the thriller he wanted with the cast he'd originally requested. Looking at the other movies he admires, it's clear that performances are key for the director. Here, in Schumacher's own words, are five favorites that have influenced his work.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
(1989; dir: Peter Greenaway, starring: Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren)
Sometimes before I do a film, I'll watch certain films for inspiration or to steal great ideas, but on Phone Booth there was nothing. The only movie I could possibly think of (I didn't watch it again, and I haven't seen it since it came out) is Dog Day Afternoon in the sense that it was a standoff with the cops outside a bank, but that still isn't very representative of it. The reason I did Phone Booth is because I'd never seen this movie before, and usually you get offered movies that are like other movies. Now, my favorite movie of all time is The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. It's a definitive masterpiece about greed in the '80s, and it stars my No. 1 favorite actress of all time, Helen Mirren, and a lot of great actors. It's about greed, and it's about man's inhumanity to man, about violence, new money and the changing face of humanity. It's done almost as an opera (not that it's singing), but the theatrics of the art direction and the camerawork and the music are very theatrical. I think it's Peter Greenaway's greatest film.

The Three Colors Trilogy
(1993-1994; dir: Krzysztof Kieslowski, starring: Juliette Binoche, Irene Jacob)
Blue, White and Red -- I count them as one film. They're stunning, and what each one is about is so amazing, along with the way it comes together at the end. From The Decalogue, "A Short Film About Killing" is also brilliant. [Kieslowski] was truly a great artist, and he died way too soon. It's very hard to describe because it's a work of art. It's three very intense personal dramas that actually have a strange inter-linking at the very end of the trilogy, but that's really not important to the piece in the sense that each story stands on its own, so the human drama [comes forth]. There are themes of narcissistic mortification, themes of power and of loss. It's such a palette of human drama that I hate to put it into pedestrian terms, so I'm not going to do that. It's a work of art, and you can't go to a museum and describe a work of art.

Lawrence of Arabia
(1963, dir: David Lean, starring: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness)
Another masterpiece. The sheer spectacle of the film is beyond any comprehension. It's just bigger than life. It's bigger than everything. When David Lean took you to the desert, you went to the desert... in 70mm no less. That film invented images that will stay in people's minds forever. When you see that first shot of the desert -- you dissolve through this burning match in the officer's club and suddenly you see the desert -- and that music swells over it and you see this teeny tiny little camel going across the desert and you realize the size of the desert. It's an amazing film that could never be made today because people want to know who's the good guy and who's the bad guy. Things have to be very black and white, so it's interesting to see films with such a uniquely ambivalent, ambiguous character. Is he a hero, isn't he a hero? Is he gay, is he not gay? Is the story even worth telling? Did he die by suicide or accident? Was it all his ego and vanity or did he really have a sense of purpose? I do flawed protagonists in my films. I don't do perfect people. Life isn't like that. In Falling Down, a lot of journalists would say, "Is Michael Douglas the good guy or the bad guy?" and I would say, "Yes." So who you root for, that's up to you. You don't have to root for anyone. You could just enjoy it as a fun ride. You would never lie or spin or be deceitful, would you? So it's really great to see someone do it on film, because then you can sit back and think, "What a d---head."

Dance with a Stranger
(1985, dir: Mike Newell, starring: Miranda Richardson, Rupert Everett)
It's a devastating investigation of class, based on a true story about a woman who murdered her lover. She was the last woman executed in English history. Miranda Richardson plays this kind of low-rent madam who tries to look like Marilyn Monroe and becomes obsessed with this very handsome young aristocrat played by Rupert Everett. He becomes very obsessed with her, too, and they have one of those dance-of-death relationships. It's a love/hate thing. They are both people that when they come together, they form a toxic element that can end in violence. She murders him, but it's about so much more than that. Transcendent to that is her performance. Miranda Richardson is one of the greatest living actresses, and it's her first performance on film. It's pretty extraordinary.

The Conversation
(1974, dir: Francis Ford Coppola, starring: Gene Hackman, John Cazale)
It's this little movie that Francis just happened to squeeze in between the two Godfathers. He just snuck it in there between these two masterpieces. When you do a smaller budget movie [like Phone Booth], you can take bigger risks. If the studio's giving you tons of money to make a movie, it's fair for them to expect you to bring them a product that will get a--es in the seats. Conversation is so ahead of its time because it's about this lack of privacy. It's about this security and scrutiny that we've now come to live with. It's insidious and fragmented and paranoid, and it has a lot of great surprises in it. Also some great visuals: the beginning with the camera [gradually zooming] down on the square and [the scene where] the toilet [overflows] with blood are genius. And the twist is brilliant, but I think it addresses itself to what you accept today with Phone Booth. You know there are strangers out there who know everything about you, but at the time that Conversation was made, people weren't quite aware of that yet.

ha

Quote from: Pedro el Fascolomisha

Second that "ha."  I find it so ironic that such a bad director would have such arguably decent (even great) influences in films.  Then again, I haven't seen Tigerland, which is supposed to be decent, but his other films pretty much cancel out any of the decent films he's done.

Quote from: Onomatopoeia

Quote from: Pedro el Fascolomisha

Second that "ha."  I find it so ironic that such a bad director would have such arguably decent (even great) influences in films.  Then again, I haven't seen Tigerland, which is supposed to be decent, but his other films pretty much cancel out any of the decent films he's done.

Yes... he's terrible. Right up there with Adrian Lyne and Paul Verhoeven in my Holy Trinity of Crap.

I always say that the best work he ever did in film was designing the costumes for Interiors.

Quote from: godardian

Quote from: Onomatopoeia

Quote from: Pedro el Fascolomisha

Second that "ha."  I find it so ironic that such a bad director would have such arguably decent (even great) influences in films.  Then again, I haven't seen Tigerland, which is supposed to be decent, but his other films pretty much cancel out any of the decent films he's done.

Yes... he's terrible. Right up there with Adrian Lyne and Paul Verhoeven in my Holy Trinity of Crap.

I always say that the best work he ever did in film was designing the costumes for Interiors.

Paul Verhoeven is great.  Well, not great but he makes some films that I really do love.  He makes good trash.

adrien lyne is fine, and so is verhoeven.

.. :roll: ..damn, some of you guys need to lay off this guy...he is not nearly as bad as some out there..(larry clark anyone)......

and ONo, tigerland is damn good.....
.
and phonebo0th is way better than the convesation... :wink:
seriously,
there is nothing wrong w/these films:
tigerland, flatliners, the lost boys,
8mm and falling down.....

Quote from: SHAFTRPaul Verhoeven is great.

YEAH!  dont you be talkin' 'bout my Verhoeven, godardian!  :x

Sheesh, I can't believe the people who made 9 1/2 Weeks, Fatal Attraction, Hollow Man, and Starship Troopers have such staunch defenders. But... good for them.

I guess if I HAD to pick one who is less shitty than the others, I'd pick Verhoeven. But still... yuck. All of them have bodies of work that are overwhelmingly rancid and tacky and, most damningly, no fun. Now, if you can make rancid and tacky fun and have your tongue in your cheek for it... Brian de Palma and Quentin Tarantino have proven that can pay off in spades.

Maybe Tony Scott should've been in there before Verhoeven... or maybe I need to just transform it from a Holy Trinity of Crap into a Quadrilogy of Crap.

Quote from: godardianSheesh, I can't believe the people who made 9 1/2 Weeks, Fatal Attraction, Hollow Man, and Starship Troopers have such staunch defenders. But... good for them.

I guess if I HAD to pick one who is less shitty than the others, I'd pick Verhoeven. But still... yuck. All of them have bodies of work that are overwhelmingly rancid and tacky and, most damningly, no fun. Now, if you can make rancid and tacky fun and have your tongue in your cheek for it... Brian de Palma and Quentin Tarantino have proven that can pay off in spades.

Maybe Tony Scott should've been in there before Verhoeven... or maybe I need to just transform it from a Holy Trinity of Crap into a Quadrilogy of Crap.

Verhoeven is great. Plus, even DePalma has his share of shit movies. And the first act of Hollowman was awesome, with Bacon out doing evil. Putting the movie back in that underground complex was a terrible idea from a story point of view. Anyway, RoboCop and Total Recall are great, and Troopers is pretty good.

Plus, Tony Scott made True Romance, so hey, c'mon...

Quote from: SoNowThen

Plus, Tony Scott made True Romance, so hey, c'mon...

He also made Top Gun, for which he will never be forgiven.

You have got me there.

Quote from: godardian

Quote from: Onomatopoeia

Quote from: Pedro el Fascolomisha

Second that "ha."  I find it so ironic that such a bad director would have such arguably decent (even great) influences in films.  Then again, I haven't seen Tigerland, which is supposed to be decent, but his other films pretty much cancel out any of the decent films he's done.

Yes... he's terrible. Right up there with Adrian Lyne and Paul Verhoeven in my Holy Trinity of Crap.

I always say that the best work he ever did in film was designing the costumes for Interiors.

dude, u didn't like unfaithful?seriously, i'm not being sarcastic.

Quote from: ©brown

Quote from: godardian

Quote from: Onomatopoeia

Quote from: Pedro el Fascolomisha

Second that "ha."  I find it so ironic that such a bad director would have such arguably decent (even great) influences in films.  Then again, I haven't seen Tigerland, which is supposed to be decent, but his other films pretty much cancel out any of the decent films he's done.

Yes... he's terrible. Right up there with Adrian Lyne and Paul Verhoeven in my Holy Trinity of Crap.

I always say that the best work he ever did in film was designing the costumes for Interiors.

dude, u didn't like unfaithful?seriously, i'm not being sarcastic.

Lyne was alread way too deep in the crap for me to feel like putting myself through Unfaithful. Why would I watch something by a director who's made almost a dozen terrible movies?

I might rent it someday if I'm feeling especially masochistic, or if anyone can convince me that for some reason, Unfaithful is unlike every other Adrian Lyne movie in every way.

Quote from: SoNowThenAnyway, RoboCop and Total Recall are great,

true.

lyne also directed jacob's ladder which is phucking awesome.........

Quote from: godardianSheesh, I can't believe the people who made 9 1/2 Weeks, Fatal Attraction, Hollow Man, and Starship Troopers have such staunch defenders. But... good for them.

There is something about Starship Troopers that I just love.  Somehow the film works for me and I just find myself very, very entertained.  Plus, the CG used in that film really has held up.

Quote from: godardianI might rent it someday if I'm feeling especially masochistic, or if anyone can convince me that for some reason, Unfaithful is unlike every other Adrian Lyne movie in every way.

go see it god damnit!

convinced?

Schumacher Joins the CROWD
The third time's a charm for Joel Schumacher, who after two stalled attempts will finally bring the story of Billy Milligan to the big screen.

Joel Schumacher is coming back into The Crowded Room. After almost bringing the project to the big screen twice in the past, Schumacher is back on the film, which has been picked up and is being developed by producer Alexandra Milchan.

Based on the book The Minds of Billy Milligan, the story centers on the 21-year-old Milligan, who was arrested for rape before police and detectives discovered he had a room full of 24 distinct personalities living in his head. The personalities ranged from a small female child to that of a Serbian-Croatian immigrant. Milligan's condition developed after years of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of his stepfather.

Schumacher almost made the film twice while it was in development at New Regency; once with Brad Pitt attached to star and once with Billy Crudup in the lead. Milchan then convinced her father Arnon, head of New Regency, to let her work on the project outside of the company. Alexandra Milchan and Schumacher will begin casting for the lead shortly.

The project had been on the burners at New Regency for nearly a decade. During that time, talent such as James Cameron, David Fincher and Steven Soderbergh had been eyeing the director's chair, while John Cusack, Sean Penn and Leonardo DiCaprio had all been considered for the lead.

Schumacher recently directed a film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera, which Warner Bros. will release in late December. Schumacher's other recent directing credits include Veronica Guerin, Phone Booth and Bad Company.

They're showing 8MM Saturday night on the WB. Pretty sure that is national television.

:shock:

It's gunna be like, 45 minutes long.

What's the point?

I just watched Lost Boys for the 1st time.  It was better than I expected.  It was a nice slice of 80's nostalgia.  I recall walking out of Cousins, however.  I didn't like A Time to Kill or The Client.  Falling Down is my favorite Joel Schumacher film.

It's been about 4 years since I've seen The Lost Boys, but I remember thinking that it had an interesting premise but by the end became just another vampire-killing movie.

i dug it, and a time to kill and the client were good adaptations of mediocre books.

Schumacher rolls with 'Creek'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Joel Schumacher has signed on to direct "Town Creek," a vampire horror movie for Gold Circle. The story centers on a West Virginia man who comes to terms with his moral qualms and helps his brother wipe out a family that had been protecting a Nazi vampire and who had kept his brother captive for him to feed off of for years. Dave Kajganich wrote the screenplay. Gold Circle topper Paul Brooks is producing along with Tom Lassally and Robyn Meisinger. Norm Waitt and Scott Niemeyer are exec producing.

Count on horror movie to make waves
Nazi 'monsters' will be featured in next year's film, Town Creek
Source: The Ottawa Citizen

BEVERLY HILLS, California - Director Joel Schumacher is off to Romania to make a horror movie. And because he's Joel Schumacher, it won't just be any horror movie. The odds are high that Town Creek will touch a lot of nerves when it's released next year.

Everybody's assuming that because he's going to Romania -- fabled venue of Count Dracula, Vlad the Impaler and other blood-sucking monsters from fact and legend -- that he's making a vampire movie. Not so.

"There is blood in it, but it's not really a vampire movie," the shaggy-haired filmmaker says. But it is about monsters -- the monsters of the Third Reich. "It's about Hitler and Himmler and Goebbels' association with the occult.... This is what they based the Master Race on.

"The one thing about the Nazis is that they so loved themselves that they documented everything, and there are these great documentaries on Hitler's obsession with the occult. So it's a 'horror' movie based on that by a very intelligent young writer."

The first part of the film is set in 1936 at the height of the Nazi regime and the second half is set in the present -- with the ghosts of the past rising up to confront today's world.

"I love horror movies and I've never been offered one that was original, and this one I thought really was," Schumacher says.

So Town Creek promises to be controversial, like so many of Schumacher's films -- including The Number 23, which has just opened in theatres and stars Jim Carrey as an ordinary guy in danger of destroying himself through numerological obsession.

At 67, this affable and disarmingly candid filmmaker is resigned to the fact that he's viewed as something of a subversive within the industry and a guy who enjoys making waves.

He doesn't consider himself controversial -- but, he admits, "sometimes my movies have caused a lot of controversy."

That's been going on for more than a quarter of a century. Schumacher began his career as a costume designer for major directors like Woody Allen and Herbert Ross. It was Allen who encouraged him to move into set design and art direction and to try writing.

It was an early screenplay, Car Wash, that established Schumacher as something of a maverick.

"I remember one of the biggest people in Hollywood saying, 'What's this little movie you've written?' When I tried to explain, he said, 'Wait a minute -- you haven't written a movie about some black people washing cars, have you? People don't go to that sort of thing. They go to see Lawrence Of Arabia or Gone With The Wind. They don't go and see black people washing cars.' "

Despite such skepticism, Car Wash managed to get made and was a success. But in the context of Hollywood it was considered radical.

It wasn't long before he started directing and unloaded a ton of controversy with the 1987 St. Elmo's Fire, a movie that was adored by young people and furiously condemned by critics.

"When St. Elmo's Fire came out, it did not get one good review in the United States of America. People were outraged at the behaviour of the young people -- so outraged that Gene Siskel commented twice two weeks in a row over how furious he was. And Janet Maslin of the New York Times -- who had been very kind to me in the past -- was infuriated that the movie was a success."

There was more outrage with the release of Falling Down, which starred Michael Douglas as a middle-class guy who goes into meltdown after his car is trapped on the freeway during a heat wave and ends up on a violent rampage.

"Falling Down was insane -- they were attacking me as a right-wing fascist," remembers Schumacher whose politics happen to be decidedly liberal.

Still, Schumacher is a director with a reputation for getting things done and for making things work. He turned Phone Booth into a nifty suspense thriller despite the fact that the action was almost totally confined to a ... phone booth. It was thanks to him that Phantom Of The Opera, a quintessential theatre spectacle deemed unfilmable by many, made it to the screen.

And it was Schumacher who proved it would be possible to do the risky Number 23 on a modest budget and still use Jim Carrey. New Line was convinced it couldn't afford Carrey; Schumacher knew that Carrey was so obsessed by this project that he would set aside his normal $20-million fee. "We made it for very little. We took our salaries down to almost nothing."

Still, Schumacher admits that he often ventures where angels fear to tread. So this tendency can land him in trouble -- whether it's something like 8MM, which dealt with pornography, or the recent Veronica Guerin, which created an uproar in Ireland because it dealt with the real-life murder of a crusading female journalist.

"You know what? I'd wanted to be a movie director since I was seven years old," he points out. "I got it -- I got it bigger than I ever dreamed of." Schumacher believes taking full advantage of such an opportunity. "The truth is that it's fun to cause trouble."

The uproar that amuses him most occurred when he directed Batman Forever and decided to put nipples on Val Kilmer's Batsuit.

"That's the one where you want to say: 'Just grow up! Stop it!' I know when I make a movie like St. Elmo's Fire that it's going to cause some trouble because kids are doing cocaine. They're not acting like cute little kids on sitcoms -- they're having serious adult problems, and there are some people who don't like that because they want their young people to be wholesome and nice and cute and just act in a proper fashion.

"You know Falling Down and A Time To Kill will be controversial and you know 8MM will raise a lot of eyebrows -- but putting nipples on the Batsuit? I mean -- I was doing a comic book!"

As someone who started out in design, Schumacher has always been a devoted visual stylist who is always concerned with finding the right "look" for a movie.

"I was born in 1939 before television, and I grew up in a very poor neighbourhood behind a movie theatre and I was that kid in Cinema Paradiso. I was always in the movie theatre and had to be dragged out all the time. I was watching some of the greatest American movies."

He was also watching the great international masters. Back in those childhood days in Long Island City, his mother worked in a dress shop, and right next door there was a tiny art cinema.

It was there that young Joel first encountered the directors like Rossellini, Kurosawa and Renoir. He didn't realize it at the time but "I was watching some of the greatest movies ever made -- visual masterpieces as well as great stories."

Now, although a success in his own right, he'll never be complacent.

Having started here in 1971 as a $200-a-week costume designer, I had no idea there was ever going to be a career. How could I? It never dawned on me that at the age of 67 I could even discuss a career. I didn't know if I'd get another job as a costume designer. But Woody Allen really encouraged me to start doing art direction and to write. He was a great mentor.

"But I didn't know that the things I started writing would sell. I didn't know why I should become a directing success. You never know. I still don't know as a freelance person whether I'll ever work again...."

'Saints' marching at Paramount
Schumacher set to direct urban drama
Source: Variety

Paramount Pictures has snapped up scribe Kurt Sutter's pitch "Inland Saints" for Joel Schumacher to direct and Lorenzo di Bonaventura to produce.

Eli Holzman is producing with di Bonaventura's Par-based banner, di Bonaventura Pictures.

Project reunites Schumacher and di Bonaventura, who have worked together on pics including two "Batman" films, "The Client" and "Falling Down."

"Inland Saints," described as a supernatural urban drama about love, betrayal and need, is about teens who fall in love. He's the leader of a dangerous street gang; she's the daughter of the detective hired to bring down the gang.

Schumacher ("The Phantom of the Opera," "Veronica Guerin") was recently in theaters with Jim Carrey starrer "Number 23."

Quote from: MacGuffin on April 18, 2007, 12:05:37 AM
"Inland Saints," described as a supernatural urban drama about love, betrayal and need, is about teens who fall in love. He's the leader of a dangerous street gang; she's the daughter of the detective hired to bring down the gang.

And their best friend is (say it with me) A TALKING PIE.

Paramount Vantage, Schumacher in 'News' biz
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Paramount Vantage is stopping the presses for "Breaking News," a remake of a Hong Kong action movie that Joel Schumacher is in negotiations to direct. Alex de Rakoff is writing the script for the movie, which will be produced by Gold Circle's Paul Brooks.

The story is set in motion when a TV news unit broadcasts live an embarrassing defeat of a police battalion by five bank robbers in a ballistic showdown. While on a separate investigation and stakeout in a run-down building, a detective discovers the hideout of the robbers. But the situation is complicated by an inspector who, in order to beat the media at its own game, decides to turn the stakeout into a breaking-news show.

The original screened Out of Competition at the 2004 Festival de Cannes and was directed and produced by acclaimed filmmaker Johnnie To.

Guy Danella is overseeing for Gold Circle.

"Breaking News" reunites Schumacher with Gold Circle, for which he is in post on the horror movie "Town Creek," which Lionsgate Films is distributing. He most recently directed "The Number 23," starring Jim Carrey.

Cast set for Schumacher's 'Twelve'
50 Cent, Sutherland, Culkin onboard
Source: Variety

Gaumont, Radar Pictures and Original Media have set a Joel Schumacher-directed adaptation of the Nick McDonell novel "Twelve."

Pic will star Chace Crawford, Emma Roberts, Rory Culkin, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Ellen Barkin and Kiefer Sutherland.

Production begins April 20 in New York. Jordan Melamed wrote the script.

In 2002, then 17-year-old McDonell wrote a novel that starkly depicted teenage drug use and decadence on the Upper East Side.

Story follows a high school dropout-turned-drug dealer. His lucrative life sours when the dealer's cousin is brutally murdered on an East Harlem playground and his best friend is arrested for the crime.

Gaumont chairman Sidonie Dumas and CEO Christophe Riandee will produce with Radar CEO Ted Field and Original Media CEO Charlie Corwin. Melamed also will be a producer with Bob Salerno; and Mike Weber will be exec producer.

Radar's Field optioned the novel in 2002, and the project came together with Corwin ("The Squid and the Whale") and Gaumont, which will broker worldwide distribution deals for a film that will be ready for release by winter 2010.

Cage, Kidman take 'Trespass'
Duo sign on for Schumacher action-adventure pic
Source: Variety

Nicole Kidman and Nicolas Cage have decided to "Trespass," signing on to play a married couple in Nu Image/Millennium Films' action-adventure. Joel Schumacher directs.

Nu Image/Millennium is aiming for an August production start in Louisiana. Irwin Winkler, Avi Lerner and Danny Dimbort will produce.

Story, written by Karl Gajdusek and Eli Richbourg, centers on a husband and wife taken hostage by four brutal perpetrators seeking easy cash. Complications ensue amid the unexpected discovery of betrayal and deception.

"Trespass" marks the fourth collaboration between Cage and Nu Image/Millennium Films following the recently wrapped 3D adventure "Drive Angry," "The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" and "The Wicker Man."

Exec producers on "Trespass" are Trevor Short, Boaz Davidson, John Thompson and Rene Besson.

Cage will be seen next month in Disney's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." Kidman is in Sony's romantic comedy "Just Go With It," due out in February.

Quote from: MacGuffin on June 16, 2010, 07:15:12 PM
"Trespass" marks the fourth collaboration between Cage and Nu Image/Millennium Films following the recently wrapped 3D adventure "Drive Angry," "The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" and "The Wicker Man."

I think we were all waiting with bated breath for the next Cage/Nu Image/Millennium Films collaboration.

Haha well I like Millenium, you never really know what you're getting into with them. The less budget the better, even.

I don't know, Shumacher and Cage, sounds pretty good. 8MM had some great Cage moments (when he bites his fist comes to mind). I wish there was a really crazy Verhoeven/Cage someday.

Flatliners

This is an odd film. Interesting and all star cast. One of Joel's few decent films that really is intriguing beyond its premise. Yes, there are some dated images but everyone is on the top of their game and the script is first class. It really does explore an idea of what might happen when you die. Worth checking out if its on HBO.

I saw that when I was younger and there were a lot of images/scenes that stuck with me. The Kevin Bacon/kid bits are pretty scary and dark. I probably only saw it via pan & scan VHS or cable though.