You have battled and fought and made your body lean and sinewy, ready to cleave your enemies in two with your razor sharp sword. There is only one thing else to do, Crom demands it … it’s quiz time.
Pop Quiz Hot Shot!
In the beginning of the film Conan’s father sends the youths of the camp off to compete for a spot in the hunt. What is the competition?
What’s more important in forging a blade, fire? Or ice?
The day of his father’s death left indelible scars on Conan’s soul. But it also left slightly less metaphorical scars on his body (something he then shows to the eeeeeevil Khalar Zym to prove he was the boy destined to kill him, how convenient …). What injury was inflicted onto Conan on that fateful day?
Conan frees the thief Ela-Shan from slavery, befriending him for life (convenient, perhaps his lockpicking skills will be vitally important for the climax of this film …). But why did Conan allow himself to be enslaved in the first place?
Straight up … what is the plot of this film? Who is Khalar Zym, what is he looking for, and why is he looking for it?
Rich and Poe are hardboiled detectives ready to crack heads and flush crime down the drain (if it wasn’t for all the bureaucratic bullshit at the LAPD). Poe is only 10 days away from retirement and Rich doesn’t play by anyone’s rules so when they are called into the chief’s office and told that they must infiltrate a middle school in downtown LA they want to say no way. Unfortunately they know that despite being nearly 40-years-old they are the only ones hip to what the kids are up to and capable of doing the job. Tossing on backwards caps and some Reebok pumps they skateboard their way into school as a couple of dope tweens. They need to infiltrate the 7th grade Dungeons & Dragons club which is suspected to be a front for dealing a new synthetic drug on the market called DeezNuts. “D&D!” says Rich, “man, that sounds like rulez.” But Poe reminds him that in school, rulez=coolz. True dat. They get dressed in some major nerd attire and enter the world of swords and sorcery as they take the guise of Sorsaron the Barbarian and the powerful Mage, Brawln. Together they infiltrate the gang and start up the campaign that will take these drug-dealing preteens downtown. That’s right! We’re watching the remake of Conan the Barbarian. We already watched Conan the Destroyer for BMT so this will complete the complete Conan set… until the next remake comes out. This was produced by Boaz Davidson, who also produced the Nic Cage classic and BMT HoFer The Wicker Man… man, this guy loves making shitty remakes. Let’s go!
Conan the Barbarian (2011) – BMeTric: 60.7
(Wow, beautiful curve right there. This is a set it and forget it definitely below average film. Like … a kind of film you can enjoy depending (sub 5.0 is where it starts to get dicey), but also not even close to the average (which is around 6.2))
Leonard Maltin – 2.5 stars – Raised by a fearless tribal leader, Conan seeks revenge on the rival who brought death and destruction to his father and community. While on his quest he meets a woman who is being hunted by the same evildoers for her “pure blood.” New look at Robert E. Howard’s pulp-fiction hero may not be intellectually stimulating, but it’s never dull, with great action scenes, visual effects, and two formidable villains: warlord Lang and McGowan, as his sorceress daughter. Extremely violent.
(For the record he gave this the same review as the original, which honestly could very well be fair. The “extremely violent” part at the end is pretty amusing. It doesn’t really get me excited for the film, but it doesn’t make me worried either. Just kind of meh.)
(This soundtrack makes me worried. Kind of right there in the thick of the 300 fad of washed out colors which is just now dying ten years later. It looks terrible, but I will withhold judgment. A Conan film is always about the representation of Conan in my opinion. Momoa looks terrible in the trailer, but we’ll see.)
Directors – Marcus Nispel – (Future BMT: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; BMT: Conan the Barbarian; Pathfinder; Friday the 13th; Notes: He was a very prolific music video director up until 2000. Notably a friend of Arnold Schwarzenegger, he almost directed End of Days.)
Writers – Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (written by) – (Future BMT: Dylan Dog: Dead of Night; Sahara; BMT: A Sound of Thunder; Conan the Barbarian; Notes: Not much information on these guys. They are adapting Mandrake the Magician though, which should be … frankly it sounds like a terrible idea.)
Sean Hood (written by) – (Known For: Cube 2: Hypercube; Future BMT: Halloween: Resurrection; The Crow: Wicked Prayer; BMT: The Legend of Hercules; Conan the Barbarian; Notes: Started his career as a set dresser on Twin Peaks. Is known for horror and swords-and-sandals films.)
Robert E. Howard (character of Conan) – (Known For: Conan the Barbarian; Solomon Kane; Future BMT: Red Sonja; Kull the Conqueror; BMT: Conan the Barbarian; Conan the Destroyer; Notes: Wrote the Conan pulp novels in the 1930s. They are interesting and short, reading either the introduction (which is super weird) or one of the novels involving Belit the pirate queen is well worth the time I think.)
Actors – Jason Momoa – (Known For: Justice League; Braven; The Bad Batch; Bullet to the Head; Road to Paloma; Future BMT: Johnson Family Vacation; Once Upon a Time in Venice; Wolves; Sugar Mountain; Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice; BMT: Conan the Barbarian; Notes: Wrestler turned actor who played Khal Drogo on Game of Thrones.)
Ron Perlman – (Known For: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them; Pacific Rim; Hellboy II: The Golden Army; Drive; Tangled; Hellboy; Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters; Alien: Resurrection; Enemy at the Gates; The Book of Life; Blade II; The Spiderwick Chronicles; The Name of the Rose; Looney Tunes: Back in Action; Titan A.E.; The City of Lost Children; La guerre du feu; The Bleeder; 13 Sins; Cronos; Future BMT: Police Academy: Mission to Moscow; The Island of Dr. Moreau; Mutant Chronicles; Sleepwalkers; Bad Ass; Down; The Ice Pirates; Stonewall; Skin Trade; Outlander; Bunraku; Star Trek: Nemesis; Crave; Romeo Is Bleeding; BMT: In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale; Conan the Barbarian; Season of the Witch; Notes: Bad movie legend. He announced his intention to run for U.S. President in 2020.)
Rose McGowan – (Known For: Scream; Death Proof; Planet Terror; Grindhouse; Machete; Class of 1999; The Doom Generation; Going All the Way; Fifty Dead Men Walking; Future BMT: Bio-Dome; The Black Dahlia; Ready to Rumble; Jawbreaker; California Man; Paranormal: White Noise; Nowhere; Southie; BMT: Monkeybone; Conan the Barbarian; Phantoms; Notes: Has been in the news a ton recently due to her high-profile battle with Harvey Weinstein over accusations of rape and legal settlements. Probably most famous as a television actress in Charmed.)
Budget/Gross – $90 million / Domestic: $21,295,021 (Worldwide: $48,795,021)
(Wow, catastrophic. Makes sense they scraped plans for the sequel then. That is just astonishingly bad.)
(People do love their fantasy don’t they? As crazy as it sounds the highest ranked BMT film is The Last Airbender of all things. Disney and Harry Potter have dominated the releases.)
(Kind of gross, but the genre is waning which is … good I think. Revenge isn’t particularly great for anyone usually, right? Need for Speed was the highest ranked BMT film here. This earned less than that crazy Ben-Hur remake!)
(The plot is a little enigmatic, but I guess you could say these come in waves and we are moving out of a wave at the moment. Warcraft is the most recent film listed which seems crazy, but I also am hard pressed to name another Sword and Sorcery in the meantime … kind of sad, it is a fun genre I think.)
Rotten Tomatoes – 23% (34/145): While its relentless, gory violence is more faithful to the Robert E. Howard books, Conan the Barbarian forsakes three-dimensional characters, dialogue, and acting in favor of unnecessary 3D effects.
(I don’t get this consensus. More faithful to the books? The 1982 film is extremely gory and violent. And it wasn’t really the character building that made it great … it very much took the pulp approach to the series. So I don’t really understand the point. Whatever. Reviewer Highlight: Rent the original instead. – Tom Huddleston, Time Out)
(Oh boy. This is like the artistic version of the legendary Avengers poster. Weird two-color gradient is no bueno and there is just way too much going on. That being said this actually looks somewhat artistic with some nice font and symmetry. Lands back in the middle.)
Tagline(s) – Enter An Age Undreamed Of (D)
(Heh. No thanks.)
Keyword(s) – sword and sandal; Top Ten by BMeTric: 95.9 Meet the Spartans (2008); 85.9 In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007); 82.6 The Legend of Hercules (2014); 76.6 Hercules in New York (1970); 64.7 Eragon (2006); 60.7 Conan the Barbarian (2011); 54.1 Vercingétorix (2001); 53.9 Gods of Egypt (2016); 53.7 Season of the Witch (2011); 52.2 Caligula (1979);
(Vercingetorix is called Druids in the United States and looks … awful. It looks kind of like the cheap Asterix films. Hercules and Caligula are classics though, pre-1980 and a 50+ BMeTric is pretty nuts. And then we’ll have truly mastered the sword and sandal epic … but who are we kidding The Legend of Hercules is the best of the bunch.)
Movie Stub – Conan the Barbarian (2011 film) (C-class) – There is a small note about expanding the critical reception, but it is already quite good. I’m not sure why whomever put that there put it as a public display instead as a plea on the talk page to be honest. Otherwise this looks like a very well maintained page will little (beyond perhaps editing the plot a bit after watching) for me to offer. Good example of the “(YEAR film)” title requirement on wikipedia, because the name is the same as (1) The character from the original pulp novels, and (2) The original 1982 adaptation.
Notes – Jason Momoa enrolled in an intense six-week training program at a stunt and martial arts academy in Los Angeles for his part, while still finalizing negotiations for the film.
Jason Momoa is by his own admission afraid of horses, so all his horse riding scenes had to either be faked or filmed with doubles. (hahaha, this is like the thing about how Gary Busey is allergic to horse saliva and has a rider in his contracts that prohibits them from being on set)
Rachel Nichols had a body double for her sex scene. (As I assume most ladies do)
Arnold Schwarzenegger was offered the role of Corin, Conan’s father, but declined. Schwarzenegger played Conan in the original Conan the Barbarian (1982), of which this film is a remake. (eeeeh, is it a remake though? Or is it a separate adaptation of the pulp novels. I guess we’ll see if the story is the same … because if it is then yeah, it’s a remake)
Jason Momoa and Rachel Nichols would later be offered the roles of Drax the Destroyer and Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). Both turned the roles down, and Dave Bautista and Zoe Saldana, respectively, took them. (huh I wonder why Momoa turns down Drax. Maybe he was already in discussion for Aquaman)
Dolph Lundgren, then Mickey Rourke, were in talks to play Corin, Conan’s father, but Rourke turned it down to do Immortals (2011) before Ron Perlman was cast. (Oh, that reminds me, we need to watch Immortals)
After production on the film was completed, Jason Momoa (Conan) went on to star as Khal Drogo in the first season of HBO’s Game of Thrones (2011). Nonso Anozie, who played Conan’s shipmate Artus, would star as Xaro Xhoan Daxos in the second season of the series.
Ron Perlman, who plays Conan’s father Corin, previously voiced Conan himself in the video game Conan (2007) and the unreleased animated film “Conan: Red Nails”. (Oh … that’s a fun fact)
Kellan Lutz and Jared Padalecki were considered for the lead, which eventually went to Jason Momoa. (Noooooooo, my boy Lutz could have been Conan? And they didn’t just throw money at him?!)
The film was originally rumored to be a remake of the original Conan the Barbarian (1982). It was revealed that the film was not a remake, but a reboot, and it had been intended to be more true to the original stories by Robert E. Howard. (I knew it!)
The ship “Hornet” is a fairly accurate replica of a seventeenth or eighteenth century Chinese junk, especially with its three square sails. (Oh perhaps … only due to its three square sails? I’m skeptical about this IMDb reviewers ship authentication creds)
A “Conan” sequel was abandoned when this film did poorly at the box-office. However, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who played Conan in the original Conan the Barbarian (1982), announced he was to return in the role of Conan, which he last played in 1984, in a long-awaited second sequel “The Legend of Conan”, which will be a direct sequel to the 1982 film. (Wait … it wouldn’t be a sequel to Conan the Destroyer? Also this isn’t happening. Also, I think Conan the Conqueror was the most recent rumored title)
While pre-production, Conan was a temporary title for the film, until it was changed to Conan 3D. Finally, early in December 2010, the title was definitely changed to Conan the Barbarian, as was titled the 1982 film. (Conan 3D is such a bad name)
Tre Stokes is a young cop hoping to make detective and sees his chance in an undercover gig at a local high school investigating the death of a student. Can he solve the crime, win the big streetball competition (and get the girl) before it’s too late? Find out in… Underclassman.
What?! Tre Stokes don’t play by anybody’s rulez and that means he ain’t doing paperwork, he ain’t calling for backup, and he ain’t letting go of an investigation. When a new undercover gig comes about investigating the death of a teenager, Tre knows it’s his big chance at a break. He heads to an upper class, predominantly white high school posing as a student and almost immediately butts heads with the cool jocks. To ingratiate himself he helps take their premier streetball team straight to the top (not joking) and defends the main cool dude in a fight (writing this back it does sound a bit stereotypical). When he flubs a chance to take down a local drug dealer and then gets the police chief’s car stolen in a bungled sting operation, he is promptly fired. Despite this he never gives up and eventually tracks it all back to his cool kid friends who are part of a Fast & Furious style streetball/car stealing gang. Except in a twist it turns out they are being blackmailed by the principal who is stealing cars and dealing drugs to make quick cash (what a twist!). In a climactic boat chase scene Tre ends up totally murdering the guy and then totes makes out with his Spanish teacher… oh did I not mention that he and his Spanish teacher totally flirt the whole time in a weirdly inappropriate manner? Well they do. THE END.
Why?! Tre just wants to make his Pops proud by becoming a detective in the LAPD like he was. Unfortunately he hasn’t yet learned that rules=coolz (trademark, BMT Entertainment) so he’s pretty much the worst. As for the bad guy, he’s just a lowly principal of a prestigious urban private high school teaching the snobby kids of rich people. Guess what? It’s his time to make some sweet cash by dealing drugs and stealing cars. No chance this will backfire and totally end with him exploding.
What?! As Patrick mentioned there was a baby blue Chevy Corvette Stingray that is probably the most obvious products that we see in the film. I may have missed something though as I had tears streaming down my face following a truly glorious jetski, rugby, streetball, and paintball sports scenes combo. It was beautiful.
Who?! We get a brief shot of a house party near the beginning of the film where a band is playing. This must be some mega famous band to be featured in person in such a major motion picture, right? Nope. It’s a band called The Actual and the song they’re singing is so small that I couldn’t even find it on the internet to listen to. It is digitally unavailable. Interestingly the lead singer is the son of Nora Ephron… small world.
Where?! Califfooorrrnia Loo-ooove. Baaah-da-da-buh-buh-buh-buh. It’s apparently a law that films that take place in LA are required to play 2Pac’s California Love. We almost certainly could make an entire cycle of films that feature that song… you know if we hadn’t already watched like 5000 terrible movies. The setting is very prominent, but not necessary. B+.
When?! Uh… Autumn probably. We know the car shown being stolen in an opening scene was taken in October, so I would guess that this all took place in November. Not sure we could get any more specific than that. D+.
This film is like every cliche wrapped into one giant ball of garbage and rolled down the aisle of a movie theater (where I’m also rolling around at this point). I actually can’t believe people created it unironically. Like… Nick Cannon goes undercover at a prestigious, predominantly white high school where he immediately a) make a big splash on the school’s streetball team (?) and b) begins to romance the smoking hot Spanish teacher which is… problematic. But not according to Nick Cannon who when interviewed about the ethics of a teacher romancing a student, particularly in the case where “they’re 16 or younger, 17 I guess makes them legal, if they’re 16 I guess they’re a minor?” to which he responded, “Realistically I don’t personally, I don’t personally, as me – young guy got game. He can’t help it. Put it on the teacher, that’s every guy’s wish. I didn’t have any sexy teachers at my school.” Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. What? Patrick?
Patrick
‘Ello everyone! As a producer I wonder how many times you ultimately get a soft reboot of 21 Jump Street rejected. Once or twice, right? You have to throw it in there when a deadline approaches and you are out of ideas. Well guess what … someone actually made one in 2005! Let’s get into it.
The Good – The basketball scenes look reasonable enough. Like, I can believe Nick Cannon dunked a few times, and there are a few clear shots of actors hitting three point shots. Don’t ask me to guess how high the hoop was or whether they repainted the three point line though. That, sadly, is it. Well, besides this movie being bonkers and reviving my love for bad high school comedies that is!
P’s View on the Preview – I had to make a choice with this film. The wiki page was start class, but sorely lacking. A very unprofessional and short plot summary, and missing references. Do I close watch the film and fix it? Or do I just focus on BMT and ignore my growing passion for wiki film stubs? You betta belieb I close watched the shit out of this film. You’re looking at the foremost expert on Underclassman right here. Did you know Captain Delgado’s prized car was a 1965 Chevy Corvette Stingray named Juanita? Did you want to know that? Did you want to know that I knew that? Didn’t think so.
The Bad – The existence of this film is an enigma. Nick Cannon is just not suited for the role. The headmaster twist is telegraphed. Cannon macking the Spanish teacher is creepy. The reaction of Captain Delgado is off the chain (he at one point suggests Cannon should have shot a high school student in order to stop a carjacking … that is insane). Streetball. Rugby. Paintball. Jet skis. Boat chases. A designer drug called Bliss. A baby blue Chevy Corvette Stingray named Juanita … the movie is gloriously terrible. A glorious absurdity.
Get Yo Rant On – There is something profoundly creepy about the gall the producers in the mid-2000s had with the romantic lead in the film. Why? Why not make Tre fall in love with the Kelly Hu character or something, his undercover handler? Why a teacher? It is a profoundly disturbing statement about our society not even that long ago … although I think I would have still be creeped out in 2005 to be honest. It is just so weird. Why do this to me Underclassman? I loved you so much besides this one thing! Rant over.
Welcome to Earf – I am pretty sure this would have been impossible for me to do off the top of my head … except that the film was in our Chain Reaction category. So Keith Dallas was in both this film and I Spy starring Eddie Murphy, who was in Norbit with Terry Crews who was in Blended with Adam Sandler who was in Jack and Jill with Al Pacino who was in 88 Minutes with Leelee Sobieski who was in Here on Earth. Welcome to Earf!
The BMT – This so far is actually one of the top films for the first half of the year. Really silly enough to show to someone and they’ll immediately get why I love it. Trey goes undercover at an affluent predominantly white high school, joins the school street ball team and single-handedly wins several rounds. C’mon now!
No homework, but I wish there was a multi-season adaptation of this film into a television show. I can’t get enough. I don’t know what is wrong with me.
You’re deep undercover. This conspiracy, the absolute gall, in a school no less! And then you think to yourself “wait … is my entire life just a rip-off of 21 Jump Street? Like … what have I done with my life where I’m a police officer going to legit high school to break up some car stealing ring?” You decide to quit on the spot. But not before taking this quiz!
Pop Quiz Hot Shot!
Let’s start with an easy one. Why did the LAPD send bike-cop-turned-amazing-detective back to school?
Rob Donovan captains the school Blacktop Battle team. How many games does Trey (Nick Cannon) ultimately play in for the school … and I wonder if there is an age limit on competitors …
Trey plays three sports with Rob’s crew during the course of the film. Name them.
Trey prefers to give chance on foot or with his trusty BMX bike (fine, that was only once in the beginning of the film). But twice Trey gets ahold of a motorized vehicle in two chase/race scenes. Name them.
During the film there are three cars stolen by the school carjacking ring. Name the type of any one of them.
BONUS What was the name of the designer drug Headmaster Powers was flipping the stolen cars for?
Pacing the room and slamming Mountain Dew, Patrick and I brainstorm our barnburner of a film. Chris Klein has already signed on and our mind is on action (and plenty of it, you betta believe). However, when we open the door for our old bag of a stenographer we are taken aback. She’s no old bag at all! Quite the contrary! Did the company not see where we wrote “old bag” in the comment section? Oh well, being consummate professionals we get right to work. She’s efficient and hardworking and together we make quick work of the script. We shake hands with her and provide a glowing review to her temp agency. We offer each other some honest feedback for future improvement. Where boundaries may have been crossed in the name of romance, instead a beautiful professional relationship built on mutual respect had bloomed. After she departs we look at the script. It reads Rich & Poe and boy howdy do these hard-boiled detectives get into some deep undercover action in this action flick. That’s right! We’re watching Underclassman, the Nick Cannon 21 Jump Street knock-off where he’s a cop that has to infiltrate a high school. No doubt we’re gonna have some sweet inappropriate jokes about underage girls and teachers sleeping with students. Can’t wait. Let’s go!
Underclassman (2005) – BMeTric: 51.1
(Wow that started amazingly low. Its creeped up to where I think maybe it should be (mid-4.0s, which is basically really fucking bad … but not so bad you’d have heard of it for being bad). Kind of amazing how hated it is though, I would have imagined this would have just gotten forgotten. Maybe because it was released just as IMDb was coming into their own? You can even see this plot starts basically right when the movie was released which is pretty stunning for a 2005 release. Look at the first scrape!)
Leonard Maltin – BOMB – Pause here for a Jack Webb “uh-huh”: Instead of being canned when he precipitates half a mile’s worth of car-chase damage, barely-literate cop Cannon is assigned to pose incognito as a student at a swanky prep school that’s been victimized by a car-theft ring. Few clichés are missed, including Cannon’s inevitable yen for the campus Spanish instructor (Sanchez). Script is in serious stupor, as if it has spent a month in a locked room with some of Cheech’s old stash.
(Jack Webb was in Dragnet which Leonard is kind of cryptically referencing. This is a very weird review, especially the end. I think Leonard just hates lazy cliché ridden garbage? There is almost no reason this is a BOMB considering some of the other passes he tends to dole out for simple nonsense.)
(Ooooof, that looks absolutely terrible. Terrible race jokes. Terrible sex-with-the-teacher insinuations. Terrible sports scenes. Oh wait, did I say terrible? I meant I am very excited for this film.)
Directors – Marcos Siega – (Future BMT: Chaos Theory; Pretty Persuasion; BMT: Underclassman; Notes: He’s pretty exclusively a television producer/director. He directed a ton of The Following, Dexter, and Vampire Diaries among others. He’s also made quite a few television movies as well.)
Writers – Brent Goldberg (story & screenplay) and David Wagner (story) (as David T. Wagner & screenplay) (as David T. Wagner) – (Known For: The Girl Next Door; Future BMT: Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj; My Baby’s Daddy; Van Wilder: Party Liaison; BMT: Underclassman; Notes: These guys killed it in the early 2000s. They really dropped off the radar in 2005 though, here’s an interview concerning their collaboration from 2004.)
Nick Cannon (story) – (BMT: Underclassman; Notes: He actually has a ton of writing credits, but they are either on concert/music projects or the movies he’s been involved with don’t have enough reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. I wish there was a way to know the level of involvement with the “story” Nick Cannon had though.)
Actors – Nick Cannon – (Known For: Chi-Raq; Monster House; Drumline; Bobby; Shall We Dance; Roll Bounce; The Killing Room; King of the Dancehall; American Son; Future BMT: Garfield; Love Don’t Cost a Thing; Whatever It Takes; Goal II: Living the Dream; Men in Black II; Even Money; Weapons; BMT: Underclassman; Notes: Was married to Mariah Carey for eight years, they had a pair of twins (heyyyyyoooo) in 2011.)
Shawn Ashmore – (Known For: X-Men: Days of Future Past; X-Men; X-Men: The Last Stand; X-Men 2; The Ruins; Mother’s Day; Frozen; Strike!; Mariachi Gringo; Future BMT: The Day; Hatchet II; Acts of Violence; Breaking the Girls; The Quiet; BMT: Underclassman; Notes: Played the Iceman in X-Men. Has a twin brother who has mostly been on television, including five episodes of Veronica Mars.)
Kelly Hu – (Known For: X-Men 2; The Scorpion King; The Doors; Strange Days; Americanese; Future BMT: Surf Ninjas; Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man; Wo zhi nv ren xin; BMT: Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan; Underclassman; Cradle 2 the Grave; Notes: Was a Miss Teen USA, born in Hawaii.)
Budget/Gross – $25 million / Domestic: $5,655,459 (Worldwide: $5,879,555)
(A complete and utter disaster. Kind of a wonder they released it at all. It was apparently delayed from 2004, so they certainly could have pushed it out onto cable. Although … I suppose the movie does skew a bit old for the Nick Cannon demographic. What a strange strange movie.)
Rotten Tomatoes – 6% (5/83): Despite the appealing presence of Nick Cannon, Underclassman is a shopworn Beverly Hills Cop/ 21 Jump Street knockoff.
(Single digits baby. Nearly one hundred reviews as well, which is nothing to sniff at. That time, around 2005, was a weird time huh? Uwe Boll films, and Nick Cannon in actual movies. Wild. Reviewer Highlight: Almost comically unambitious, Underclassman seldom tries to be funny, and never even attempts to be original. – Nathan Rabin, AV Club)
(I find it incredibly weird that he’s holding his gun like that in the poster… he’s like casually pointing it at the audience. Put that away! You’re scaring the children! I kid because I love… how terrible this all is. Woof.)
Tagline(s) – A Comedy About Upholding The Law And Disturbing The Peace (C-)
Get Ready To Be Schooled (A-)
(Both are on the poster, both are getting judged. First one is terrible. Too long and self-referential like it’s from the old days or something. “A Comedy About…” really? Just do the joke you’re aiming for. Upholding the law and disturbing the peace… Underclassman. Boom. Easy. Second one is better. Clever, hints at the plot, short and sweet. I like it.)
Keyword(s) – undercover; Top Ten by BMeTric: 84.3 Police Academy: Mission to Moscow (1994); 82.2 Barb Wire (1996); 81.1 Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992); 74.9 Taxi (I) (2004); 73.6 Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993); 71.8 Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son (2011); 70.4 Big Momma’s House 2 (2006); 70.3 On Deadly Ground (1994); 67.8 Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector (2006); 65.5 Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous (2005);
(Big Momma Like Father Like Son best be there. We’ll probably hit all of these, although the Cable Guy movies will get a bit dicey. There are some things that kind of make you wonder “why am I doing this?” and I have a feeling watching the Larry the Cable Guy movies would be one of those things. Although, I have to admit … he was fine in Madea Christmas, so what do I know?)
Movie Stub – Underclassman (Start-class) – So when I got to this webpage the critical reception and box office response was jammed together. Also the entire thing sounded “non-encyclopedia” and it was suggested that the entire article be rewritten. I wouldn’t go so far, it had the proper structure, it was just a little loosey goosey with the lingo. Finally, I expanded the plot summary to a comfortable 410 words, and re-submitted the article for review. Viola, now that is a start-class wiki page! Actually, I think it is borderline C-class according to the quality guidelines, although some notes about production I think would be needed to put it over the top.
Notes – Originally set for a US theatrical release in 2004. Then two massive waves of layoffs were sustained at Miramax and Dimension, and the infamous Disney and Miramax split reached its height. This film thus remained in the Miramax vaults unreleased during this time of uncertainty. When the Disney and Miramax divorce was finally completed, numerous films under the Miramax and Dimension label were finally released theatrically. (I do love production issues, usually explains a lot)
The scene where Trey shoots Murdock and eventually tackles an undercover DEA agent which results in him explaining that Murdock can’t be a murder suspect because he was out of town on that date is extremely reminiscent of an exact same scene from Point Break (1991) where Tom Sizemore is the DEA agent. (fun fact?)
When Alex gets in deep with the mob over gambling debt he hires a stenographer, Emma, to help him write his next novel in 30 days. After a tough start, Alex finds inspiration (and maybe more?) in Emma. Can he finish the book (and get the girl) before it’s too late? Find out in Alex & Emma.
How?! There isn’t much more to the plot than what I just laid out. Alex is in debt and needs to write a book. Emma is a freelance stenographer he hires. While he dictates to her we get a story within a story about an Alex-type-character who finds love with an Emma-type-character, but there is another women in the middle of it all. In the end they finish the book, but the real life other woman shows and everything is thrown into flux… for like five seconds and then Alex sets up a grand gesture to get her back and “fix” the end of his book… by which I mean he rewrote it so it was cliched garbage. Wow, that’s the shortest plot recap I’ve ever written… probably because the story within the story is largely useless and represents what would almost certainly be a terrible book. THE END.
Why?! Alex needs that green to get the mob off his back. Apparently he got a big advance on his next book but when his lady love left him he gambled it all away (and more) in a fit of depression and heartbreak. Nothing like the threat of death to snap him out of it and get him moving on the book. Emma is just a lonely freelance stenographer. That’s pretty much the long and the short of it.
What?! You would think a film about writing a novel wouldn’t give much product placement to speak of. You would be wrong. Alex macks on Captain Crunch constantly and when his mouth gets shredded by those patented razor sharp edges, he grabs a dasani and slams it down. Gotta keep hydrated when you’re spinning hilarious gold.
Who?! While this was an Alan Griesman production for the purposes of this cycle I did want to highlight that Elie Samaha was also a producer on this film… and Battlefield Earth… and Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever… and Texas Rangers. He was also the one convicted of defrauding investors regarding Battlefield Earth. Wonder if he’s turned his life around… nope.
Where?! The real life half of the film pretty obviously takes place in Boston, while the fake part of the film takes place on a fictional French-speaking island off the coast of Maine called St. Charles. That’s a double whammy of specificity. B+.
When?! I mostly don’t care, but we do know that the story within a story takes place in the summer of 1924. Since the entire story mirrors Alex’s life, we can presume that our current story takes place in the Fall (after the summer in which he falls in love and then loses everything). But that’s pretty vague. Maybe a C- just for the specific year in the past, but more likely a D+.
I found this entire film embarrassing for everyone involved. It is straight up terrible. I’m actually surprised it ever got an 11% on RT. I don’t really blame Luke Wilson (he was meh) and Kate Hudson (just being her charming self) because it is one of the worst scripts we’ve gotten to watch in quite a while. So they had very little to work with. It’s just a terrible movie about a terrible book being written. And not in a good way. Patrick?
Patrick
‘Ello everyone! Recently I’ve been dictating my first novel to Caryn (she doesn’t love the arrangement) and I have to say … it sounds like complete garbage. According to Alex & Emma though that means it will ultimately be excellent, no problem. See you guys on the New York Times bestsellers list! It is called Dodger: A Garbage Pail Kids Prequel, and I think it might be the next great American novel. Let’s get into Alex & Emma!
The Good – I think Kate Hudson is hilarious and adorable. Fool’s Gold, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, etc. They all kind of work for romantic comedies for me because of her. The novel within a movie concept is intriguing enough with the changing characters that you can understand the misguided attempt at this film as well.
P’s View on the Preview – This movie has an absurdly low Rotten Tomatoes score, nearly in the single digits. So, doing a bit of analysis, the percentage of “wide release” romantic comedies (for the sake of simplicity I just defined this as the top 300 films on this chart) that qualify for BMT is an astounding 44% (this is indeed much higher than average, the percentage of films with Rotten Tomatoes scores below 40% in general is about 25% in my experience). The percentage which have a Rotten Tomatoes score at or below Alex and Emma is around 10%. So this a 90th percentile Romantic Comedy as far as bad reviews go. That’s impressive for a genre which such bad movie cred as Romantic Comedies. BTW, there are 29 Romantic Comedies with worse Rotten Tomatoes scores of which 12 have more than 100 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. We’ve seen eight of those for BMT, the other four being: Serving Sara, The Perfect Man, My Life in Ruins, and The Wedding Date.
The Bad – Sorry Luke Wilson, I’m putting you on blast. He’s just not good in this film. He’s not smarmy enough to fit the role they wanted him for (a gambling addict whose life is in danger because of a series of poor decisions), and the chemistry with Hudson isn’t really there, you don’t buy he’s actually in love with her. The entire thing is just kind of … not interesting in the least. I’ll have to save the main criticism for the rant though.
Get Yo Rant On – The book he is narrating is just awful. Just terrible. It sounds like a mess. He’s changing things in the middle. It is cliche. It sounds boring. And as the entire conceit of the film that is extremely problematic. The film is an embarrassment in that regard. Of all the films that needs a great script to be anything but awful, this might just be it. You have the main character narrating a book that is written in the vein of American classics, but it sounds like garbage. You have Rob Reiner sitting there at the end with a straight face saying “this is incredible” and as a viewer who just heard him write the entire thing you can’t help but think “you’re wrong, you have awful taste, this must be some sick condemnation of American literature.” Rant over.
Welcome to Earf – I forgot to do these recently, but this is, luckily, an easy one. Luke Wilson was in Around the World In Eighty Days with his brother Owen Wilson (they played the Wright brothers), who was in I, Spy with Eddie Murphy, who was in Norbit with Terry Crews, who was in Blended with Adam Sandler, who was in Jack and Jill with Al Pacino, who was in 88 Minutes with Leelee Sobieski, who was in Here on Earth. Welcome to Earf.
The BMT – Nope, this is a completely pointless movie that I will forget in a day. Just throw this in the pile will less entertaining rom coms I guess. Like … a shade below the interest Made of Honor generated (at least there the second half had the destination wedding / weird competition for the bride combo to sustain my interest).
StreetCreditReport.com – As far as street cred goes it does make a few lists. This blog here for example. It doesn’t get much recognition elsewhere, no Razzie Award nomination (although it did get nominated for a late Stinkers Award for whatever that is worth i.e. nothing).
While dictating the next great American novel to the harried freelance stenographer you hired, your publisher called you up and said four words that would change the course of your romantic life! …
Pop Quiz Hot Shot!
Throughout the movie Emma (Kate Hudson) bothers Alex (Luke Wilson) by doing what? Hint: It concerns books … I mean Luke Wilson seems perturbed throughout, this seems to offend him.
Rob Reiner just loves Alex’s mojo. How many novels has Alex written in his illustrious career?
In order to lure Emma to her murder … er, to be a freelance stenographer in a highly unlikely literary gambit, Alex advertised the job under what guise?
What nationalities does Emma’s fictional alter-egos in the story-within-a-movie take on throughout the film?
The target of Adam Shipley’s lust is the single mother Penelope Delacroix. Adam is worried that Penelope is going to wed the very rich John Shaw, to whom she owes an enormous sum. What two ways does Adam think to get her out from underneath her debt?
Nothing like New Orleans in the Spring for a relaxing gh-gh-gh-ghost hunting trip with our newly discovered father, mega-star Scott Bakula. He takes us to the spooky abandoned gold mine where he knows the ghosts reside, but we immediately notice something odd about the walls. We touch them lightly with our fingertips… the walls are wet. Uh oh! Are they wet with the blood of the victims of the spooky ghosts?! We look a little closer… no, it’s just paint. Odd. We push on the wall and the entire cave is revealed to be a set built by mega-star Scott Bakula. “But why Dad? Why deceive us again in this cheap looking garbage ruse?” We bellow, with tears streaming down our faces. “Why? For the sweet cash monies of tax breaks. I needed you for the production of this German financed garbage film and now it’s all ruined. I’m not even your father. Bwahahahaha,” he laughs maniacally. The man is clearly deranged. Suddenly a demon monster arises from the broken set and tears Bakula apart. Woah! What a twist! While we are shocked and traumatized by the experience of seeing our fake dad (and favorite TV police detective) torn limb from limb, we also get an idea. Can’t we just write a garbage German film and make boatloads of cash off those sweet tax breaks? It’s the perfect plan to get the Obsidian Dongle back! But we only have thirty days! While I send Patrick off for a load of delicious Mountain Dew to get our creative juices flowing and fuel our X-treme writing skillz, I call up the local papers and put out a want ad for a stenographer. Hope she’s an old bag because we have no time for romance. That’s right! We’re watching that film that everyone knows Alex & Emma. Produced by Alan Greisman, the producer of Texas Rangers, this Rob Reiner film is the Girls Night Out entry in the cycle and by all accounts a total snoozefest. Hooray. Can’t wait to snooze my way through it. Let’s go!
Alex & Emma (2003) – BMeTric: 36.1
(Below average. Trending up with the number of votes as one would expect. I am quite surprised to see how low the rating is and thus how high the BMeTric is. This seemed like the type of film where it would only be watched by huge Rob Reiner-heads and get like a 6.3 on IMDb just as a routine. Perhaps there is something here …)
Leonard Maltin – 2 stars – Anemic romantic comedy about a novelist who has 30 days to complete a manuscript and his budding relationship with the stenographer he hires to help him do the job. She also turns up, in various guises, as we see his fantasy vision of the story — set in the 1920s — unfold. The two leads are OK, but the big laughs never come. Inspired, believe it or not, by real-life experiences of Feodor Dostoyevsky while he was writing the Gambler.
(Uuuuuuugh this film sounds so boring. Like straight up … fantasy versions with Kate Hudson and just … I’m not looking forward to this boring ass film. Are we sure we aren’t supposed to be watching Kate & Leopold?)
(Aha I remember the “are you out of your mind” from the beginning from back in the day. Let’s see. Bumping 00s soundtrack misplaced in what is effectively half of a period piece. Some charismatic leads who perhaps lack a bit of chemistry. And what’s that, do I spy with my little eye a Dasani water bottle in Kate Hudson’s hand? Hopefully this saves us from a bit of the boredom.)
Directors – Rob Reiner – (Known For: The Princess Bride; Stand by Me; A Few Good Men; Misery; Flipped; When Harry Met Sally…; The Bucket List; This Is Spinal Tap; The American President; LBJ; The Sure Thing; Ghosts from the Past; Future BMT: The Story of Us; And So It Goes; Being Charlie; BMT: North; Rumor Has It…; Alex & Emma; Razzie Notes: Nominee for Worst Director for North in 1995; Notes: Y’all know Rob Reiner. But did you know that Tom Cruise once ordered a pig delivered to him at the Carlyle? Fun facts.)
Writers – Jeremy Leven (written by) – (Known For: The Notebook; Real Steel; The Legend of Bagger Vance; My Sister’s Keeper; Don Juan DeMarco; Crazy as Hell; Future BMT: Creator; BMT: Alex & Emma; Notes: A long and winding entertainment career including creating The Proposition, a satirical play that ran for 10 years in Cambridge, MA and off-Broadway.)
Actors – Luke Wilson – (Known For: Measure of a Man; 3:10 to Yuma; Legally Blonde; Idiocracy; Scream 2; Brad’s Status; The Royal Tenenbaums; Charlie’s Angels; Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy; Old School; Rushmore; Concussion; Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle; Death at a Funeral; Bottle Rocket; Blades of Glory; The Family Stone; Rock Dog; My Super Ex-Girlfriend; The Skeleton Twins; Future BMT: Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde; Soul Survivors; Blonde Ambition; Home Fries; Meeting Evil; Hoot; Playing It Cool; The Third Wheel; Masked and Anonymous; Bongwater; Dog Park; Blue Streak; Outlaws and Angels; Best Men; Middle Men; Henry Poole Is Here; BMT: The Ridiculous 6; Around the World in 80 Days; Alex & Emma; Notes: Y’all know Luke Wilson. But did you know he was involved in a car accident with the golfer Bill Haas las February? Not as fun facts, a man died in that accident.)
Kate Hudson – (Known For: Almost Famous; Deepwater Horizon; Marshall; How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days; Kung Fu Panda 3; Wish I Was Here; The Killer Inside Me; The Reluctant Fundamentalist; The Four Feathers; Dr. T & the Women; About Adam; Future BMT: Le divorce; You, Me and Dupree; Good People; Nine; Rock the Kasbah; My Best Friend’s Girl; Raising Helen; 200 Cigarettes; Gossip; A Little Bit of Heaven; The Skeleton Key; BMT: Bride Wars; Fool’s Gold; Mother’s Day; Alex & Emma; Something Borrowed; Razzie Notes: Nominee for Worst Actress in 2009 for Fool’s Gold, and My Best Friend’s Girl; and Nominee for Worst Supporting Actress for Mother’s Day in 2017; Notes: Daughter of Goldie Hawn and currently expecting her third child with her boyfriend Danny Fujikawa.)
David Paymer – (Known For: Ocean’s Thirteen; Bad Teacher; Drag Me to Hell; Payback; Amistad; Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit; The Five-Year Engagement; The American President; No Way Out; Airplane II: The Sequel; City Slickers; Get Shorty; Mighty Joe; The Hurricane; Night of the Creeps; Nixon; Quiz Show; Heart and Souls; In Good Company; Lemon; Future BMT: Twixt; Perfect; City Slickers: The Legend of Curly’s Gold; Carpool; Bait; The Sixth Man; Crazy People; Unforgettable; BMT: Howard: A New Breed of Hero; No Holds Barred; Chill Factor; Alex & Emma; Notes: He was in the pilot for St. Elsewhere as Dr. Wayne Fiscus, but was replaced by Howie Mandel when the series was picked up.)
Budget/Gross – $30 million / Domestic: $14,218,698 (Worldwide: $15,368,897)
(Holy shit that is a disaster. It made $1 million outside of the US. Gigantic bomb. It isn’t like rom coms tend to make a ton, but egad!)
(In the heydey of the romcom boom, so I guess the box office return is even worse than I thought. We just watched the number one romcom BMT film by box office, Bringing Down the House. I think I’ll have to build my tool to pick out BMT films from these lists, I really want to know what the lowest is now!)
Rotten Tomatoes – 11% (15/138): A dull and unfunny comedy where the leads fail to generate any sparks.
(Oh … oh no. Dull and unfunny. Reviewer Highlight: The perfect date movie for pseudo-literary half-wits. – Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News. … Oh no.)
(If you can’t tell I was having some trouble coming up with an adequate play on the title featuring “Sklog.” So instead I went for the obvious alternative. Not enough good stuff and way too much of everything else. No offensive, but not good either.)
Tagline(s) – Is it love… or are they just imagining things? (B)
(This will likely be my reaction to the film. Ay-o. Spoiler alert, I’ll be imagining things. I kinda like this as a whole. Clever play on the premise. Although it is a tad long and doesn’t have any flow. Still better than average.)
Keyword(s) – writer; Top Ten by BMeTric: 81.7 I Know Who Killed Me (2007); 55.8 Eegah (1962); 55.5 The Stepford Wives (2004); 53.7 The Ring 2 (2005); 53.7 Full Frontal (2002); 52.4 Twixt (2011); 51.7 I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016); 51.7 Le divorce (2003); 51.6 Breakfast of Champions (1999); 51.0 Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999);
(Le divorce was one of the movies I considered for the mapstreet’s map alright! cycle from last month. Kind of surprising how few of these we’ve seen given the high BMeTrics. Eegah stars the giant guy from Happy Gilmore.)
Notes – The plot is loosely based on the life of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, author of “Crime and Punishment”. He had promised to complete a new novel by a certain date, but one month before the deadline he hadn’t written anything. After a recommendation, he hired a stenographer named Anna, who helped him complete “The Gambler” in 26 days. The plot of “The Gambler”, which is based off of one of the author’s own experiences, is about a tutor named Alexei who falls in love with Polina, who toys with him. Dostoyevsky and Anna fell in love during the writing process. They later married and had 4 children. (WHAAAAAAAAAAAT)
The German version of the film replaces the Germans-such-as-Adolf Hitler gag with Russians-such-as-Joseph Stalin.
After Alex and Emma ride on a boat, they go out for a walk. A flash is visible as they walk. It was a paparazzo taking a picture. (oh gross)
The bio on the back of Alex’s first book reads, “Alex Sheldon has worked for many years in the Boston area. He is currently not married and lives very much alone.” (HA, Boston though, nice hint)
Despite what Emma believes, Ylva actually is a Swedish name. It means ‘female wolf’.
This movie became well know among fans of comedian Artie Lange after his interview on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast. Lange was describing taking heroin for the very first time in a hotel room. Lange said “when people ask me why is heroin addictive, this is my answer: the movie on the TV was Alex & Emma with Luke Wilson and Kate Hudson, and I never turned it off.” (oh that’s depressing. That isn’t fun. Heroin is ruining his life still! He plays a major part in the Crashing on HBO and is still relapsing and getting arrested!)
Monsters are loose in the world and only one man can stop them, supernatural investigator Edward Carnby. Can he team up with his ex-girlfriend archaeologist to take them down before it’s too late? Find out in… Alone in the Dark.
How?! Edward Carnby is one cool cat. Investigating the paranormal by day and boning to heavy metal music all night (probably). In an overly complex aspect of the plot we find that he’s been investigating a long lost Native American tribe that disappeared after opening a portal to a demonic world. At the same time a professor at the museum where his ex-girlfriend, Aline, works has unlocked this very same demonic world and has taken control of the demons within. People are dying and/or being turned into mindless weapons left and right, which eventually leads everyone to an abandoned gold mine near the orphanage where Edward grew up. They venture into the mine to have a totally rad showdown with the professor. He is able to open the demonic world once again, but Edward and his ragtag team of semi-professional killers and academics are able to kill the professor and blow up the mine. When they go back to the surface they find the beautiful city of Vancouver abandoned. Is this the end? Or is it… simply the beginning? Bum bum bum (spoiler alert: it’s the end).
Why?! It’s both personal and professional for Carnby. One the one hand, it was (is?) his job to investigate the paranormal like this demon situation. On the other hand, through an intricate web of coincidence not only does his ex-girlfriend work for the guy attempting to use the demons for world domination, but as a child he was also part of the experiment that the same guy performed to produce weaponized sleeper agents. So he’s got a lot at stake. As for the bad guy, he just wants to control the demon creatures so that he can rule to world.
What?! While a bunch of companies got special thanks for providing product placement (including Volkswagen, which provided the VW bug that Tara Reid drove), I instead want to give a little shoutout to Nuytco. The company specialized in deep sea research and according to the credits provided a research mini-submarine for use in some scenes where a gold sarcophagus is raised from the ocean floor. Just seems insane. You are a legit research company.
Who?! While not actually a role in the film I have to highlight that for whatever reason Uwe Boll decided to score a lengthy sex scene using the 1994 hit (?) Seven Seconds. Nothing like letting the viewer know that your film is hip to what the kids are into these days than a decades old European afrobeat song. You’re welcome.
Where?! While this film is very obviously filmed in British Columbia, it’s not necessarily set there. I waited with bated breath for them to hint that it was set in NYC or Anonymous US City. Instead, when they localize the gold mine they zoom in on a map of… British Columbia. Weird. So this and Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever both chose to just set the film in Canada and not worry about it. Interesting. C-.
When?! Getting the location was a treat, getting a temporal setting was probably too much to hope for. I did not catch anything to suggest when the film actually took place. Uwe Boll was probably too busy counting his money to care. F.
Jeez louise, this film is just terrible. Not fun at all to watch really. More sad and boring. I had to take several breaks in my attempt to make my way through it. I would love to say that we’ll never watch another Uwe Boll film again, but who am I kidding? The man has two other major motion picture releases that we will eventually watch. It’s like saying we won’t watch Disaster Movie… we will. It is simply a fact. Sigh. I wish it weren’t the case, but it is our fate. Foretold millenia ago on an ancient Egyptian scroll. Alas. Patrick?
Patrick
‘Ello everyone! The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting something different. That must mean I’m insane for Uwe Boll films. He churns out garbage, but damn … it’s some fine looking garbage. Let’s get into it!
The Good – It looks like a film, sounds like a film, and feels like a film. So I guess it must be a film? If there is one thing good to say about Uwe Boll films it is that he takes a lot of money and makes a film that looks like it costs that amount of money. A lot of bad films you can look at and think “this is close to being a film I could actually make a better version of”, like Steel Sharks and the like. But Uwe Boll films are real films that take a lot of effort and skill to make, and that is something.
P’s View on the Preview – Uwe Boll baby. We’ve only seen one other film by Uwe Boll, the legendary In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Being able to place another film within the context of Uwe Boll is, of course, important to understanding that film in its full scope. And after over five years we finally got around to it. Can’t say I’m excited though.
The Bad – This plot is complete trash. The CGI is complete trash. The writing is complete trash. And any and all action is complete trash. There is no Jason Statham, Ray Liotta, Matthew Lillard and the rest of In the Name of the King’s glorious cast to save the film. Christian Slater and Tara Reid are pale imitations in that respect, and so it just kind of … makes you sad watching the film. Someone really wanted to make a film, so badly they didn’t even bother to get that sweet German tax relief scheme for this mess, and they got this. That is profoundly sad.
Get Yo Rant On – Honest question … when was Christian Slater famous? Just looking through his filmography it seems like I might have watched a single Slater film in my life prior to BMT (The Wizard) and yet for whatever reason I was aware that Christian Slater existed and was famous. It is very confusing. Perhaps it was Broken Arrow? True Romance? Were those famous enough that I’d be aware of him at the time? It is blowing my mind! Got to give him credit though, he’s survived thirty years as an actor on the B-list (in the early 90s he was probably A-list, but I don’t know, that’s what this rant is about!), and he survived being in this piece of garbage. Go get yo money Christian Slater.
The BMT – Out of all of the Uwe Boll films In The Name of the Kind and Alone in the Dark are probably the two that are the most BMT of the bunch. And I think it was a tragic necessity to watch another Uwe Boll film, as I said, for context. We’ll eventually watch at least one more I think (BloodRayne, although House of the Dead and Postal will be in play as well), but it never really feels like a pressing issue since the films seem like they are intentionally terrible (even though they aren’t).
StreetCreditReport.com – It does get quite high in a few worst ever lists (21 here, for the record I’ve seen 37 of those 50 films, although a bunch outside of BMT) but surprisingly it didn’t get recognized at all when it was released. Possibly because critics were in the process of willfully ignoring Boll. Possibly because no one actually watched it. Possibly because people thought it was “good” in the sense of being hilarious. For whatever reason no one gave a shit about the film at the time. Surprising stuff.
There is a whole video game series, but as usually ain’t nobody got time for that. All complaints about me not doing my homework can go right into the trash can, heeeyyyyooooo.
You might be a perfectly (para)normal investigator by day, but in the World of Darkness you are in a spot of trouble. A pack of mostly invisible demon-dogs are hot on your trail and there is only one thing you can do to stop them: ace this quiz!
Pop Quiz Hot Shot!
In a long winded opening crawl and flashback scene it is explained that the mad scientist Lionel Hudgens kidnapped a whole gang of orphans for his spoooooky experiments in an abandoned gold mine. How many orphans were kidnapped?
These kidnapped orphans, among others, have now, in the present day, become mindless killing machines. How are they being controlled by the eeeeeeeevil g-g-g-g-ghosts … uh, aliens? … uh, demons?
But, then why oh why wasn’t Christian Slater’s character controlled the same way? He was also kidnapped after all.
What are the demon dogs? I mean, even a basic explanation will suffice, it is very obviously incredibly unclear what is happening at any point in this film.
What are we told is able to kill the demon dogs? What are we told can contain and prevent the electrical interference they exhibit as well?
Bad Movie Twins 