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"Final 10 Episode 1 (July 9)"
Posted by Cathy the Canadian on 07-09-07 at 04:07 PM
Hope everyone remembered it's a day early this week!Who goes home?
Jason - Eternal Waters
Kenny - The Malibu Myth
Andrew - Midnight Snack
Sam - Ankle Biters
Mateen - Profile
Shira Lee - Open House
This is a tough week, as we have no clear loser.
Shira Lee's was probably the weakest, but it's clear this isn't her genre of choice.
Jason got slammed by the guest judge for his choice of wardrobe, but most here agreed that was off base.
I thought Kenny's was the worst, and Sam's wasn't very strong either.
Andrew's was well done I thought, despite the guest judge's thoughts.
Mateen's was brave, if uneven.
I hope Kenny goes home, but I think it might be Sam.
Table of contents
- RE: Final 10 Episode 1 (July 9),cahaya, 06:38 PM, 07-09-07
- RE: Final 10 Episode 1 (July 9),Sunny_Bunny, 07:41 PM, 07-09-07
- RE: Final 10 Episode 1 (July 9),cahaya, 11:38 PM, 07-09-07
- RE: Final 10 Episode 1 (July 9),Sunny_Bunny, 00:03 AM, 07-10-07
- Shira Lee goes home...,Cathy the Canadian, 08:38 PM, 07-09-07
- This week's films...,Cathy the Canadian, 08:43 PM, 07-09-07
- RE: This week's films...,adricharlie, 08:24 AM, 07-10-07
- RE: This week's films...,flystorms, 09:24 AM, 07-10-07
- RE: This week's films...,mistyrose52, 10:16 AM, 07-10-07
- RE: This week's films...,Sunny_Bunny, 02:00 PM, 07-10-07
- RE: This week's films...,cahaya, 07:29 PM, 07-10-07
- RE: This week's films...,Sunny_Bunny, 09:04 PM, 07-10-07
- RE: Final 10 Episode 1 (July 9),Sunny_Bunny, 01:53 PM, 07-10-07
- RE: Final 10 Episode 1 (July 9),cahaya, 06:27 PM, 07-10-07
- RE: Final 10 Episode 1 (July 9),gumnut, 11:11 AM, 07-12-07
Messages in this discussion
"RE: Final 10 Episode 1 (July 9)"
Posted by cahaya on 07-09-07 at 06:38 PM
Whew, I almost blew it. I remembered the date changed to Monday last week, but I nearly forgot about it. (What else is new? *laugh*) Thankfully, I just took a quick look at an online TV guide. According to tv.com, five of the ten remaining contestants will premiere new movies based on the logline "When two worlds collide." (Note: Special Monday night air date)![](http://community.realitytvworld.com/boards/User_files/4668d4a13956bb0d.jpg)
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"RE: Final 10 Episode 1 (July 9)"
Posted by Sunny_Bunny on 07-09-07 at 07:41 PM
Yep, I didn't know this was on tonight either, till I read that first post. LOL. Dang Ebert (or am I Ebert?) we almost lost our critic jobs on this one. ![](http://community.realitytvworld.com/boards/Images/tongue.gif)
![](http://community.realitytvworld.com/boards/User_files/463e61ad2b581a26.jpg)
Pout, I need a directors siggy too.
"RE: Final 10 Episode 1 (July 9)"
Posted by cahaya on 07-09-07 at 11:38 PM
I think Siskel had more snark, so you can be him. I'll go with the more easy-going and oft humorous Ebert.Your turn to go first this week. I've got notes ready and will post in reply to yours.
![](http://community.realitytvworld.com/boards/User_files/4668d4a13956bb0d.jpg)
A Sharnina Production
Awww... don't pout. You might PM shar and see if she's still got the graphics and maybe all she has to do is put your name instead. She put up a sig offer post about a month back and I made a special request just for this forum and anywhere I might write a review.
"RE: Final 10 Episode 1 (July 9)"
Posted by Sunny_Bunny on 07-10-07 at 00:03 AM
Ok, I'll go first if you want me to, but I'm in California for my Grandson's birthday, and will not see this till 8 PST. I most likely wont get it in till the morning.
"Shira Lee goes home..."
Posted by Cathy the Canadian on 07-09-07 at 08:38 PM
....I was a little surprised by this. Like I said, I do think her film was the weakest, but she seemed to be a fan favourite up until now.
"This week's films..."
Posted by Cathy the Canadian on 07-09-07 at 08:43 PM
Zach - Time Upon A Once
Hilary - The Legend of Donkey Tail Willy
Shalini - First Light
Adam - Worldly Possesion
Will - SpaghettiThis was a really good week.
I liked Hilary's, though I wonder how it followed the theme?
This wasn't Zach's best, but it was still inventive.
Will's was really good I thought.
Adam's was clever. The low budget effects were good.
I agree with Carrie Fisher when it comes to Shalini's. Patronizing is a good word.
Guest judge Luke Greenfield, who directed The Animal? You mean that terrible film with SNL cast off whatshisname and the girl from Survivor? Really? Sheesh.
They only put the camera on him for a second - but I think that was Magni in the audience, from Rockstar Supernova.
"RE: This week's films..."
Posted by adricharlie on 07-10-07 at 08:24 AM
I agreed more with Gary Marshall in terms of Shalini's film. I think people either like those kinds of films or they don't. Personally I liked it but I'm not sure there will be enough people that like it to save her. My favorite this week was Adam's. It was clever and funny. Zach's was okay but didn't impress me as much as some of his others. It was actually kind of a let down coming from him. Hillary's I didn't like at all but it was an improvement for her I guess. Will's was really good. All in all, if I had to guess I think the girls are gonna be gone this week.![](http://community.realitytvworld.com/boards/User_files/4639f4a560837556.gif)
Courtesy of Tribe....
"RE: This week's films..."
Posted by flystorms on 07-10-07 at 09:24 AM
I, too, think that the last two ladies will be sent home. Hilary did an okay job, but it just didn't have the same punch as the guys did. Her track record hasn't been the greatest either, although I howled with laughter over her bank robbery movie.Shalini - meh. Too preachy and again, she was overshadowed by the guys films.
The three guys put together well shot, interesting films. Spaghetti was awesome in that Will kept shots that are so well know in the old westerns. The acting wasn't superb, but you know, it was shot well. Worldly Possession was classic cheeze and my favorite of the night. Zach's idea was clever, but he is on such a high pedestal for me with all his other work, this one fell short a little.
The show seems to have found a little better rhythm, but is it too little, too late? I'm a big movie lover and was excited about it. Too bad it's still not doing well in the ratings.
"RE: This week's films..."
Posted by mistyrose52 on 07-10-07 at 10:16 AM
As I said before, not a critic on the same level as you all-but just like to join in for the fun of it.I LOVED Will's take on the Spaghetti Westerns, which I grew up with! They are so cheesy to begin with, and to have one guy stuck in a town, with no other rhyme or reason, and have someone just 'drop in' looking for directions-it had me rolling!
Nothing else really caught my attention more than that. I did like Adam's "Worldy Treasures" (forgive me if I'm off on that title. I thought it could be taken as a little 'preachy' too, but in a much lighter and brighter way than Shira-Lee's, who's I actually liked. I'm a sucker for those 'message films', I guess. But then, I would never fit into the whole Hollywood genre. And I guess they all need to learn early what works and what doesn't. But my question is, to, Carrie Fisher, if 'message movies' don't make it, then why have so many of them done well??? Ok, that's my soap box for the day.....
Didn't really get or care for the others. Thought the whole 'Donkey Tail Willey' was a bit scarey, but then when you think of it, most children's classics are very dark, too.
I actually thought Zach's was the worst, and the hardest to follow-it made NO sense at all to me. But as I said before, I'm no critic, and maybe I'm just missing some really important thing here. I dunno.......
"RE: This week's films..."
Posted by Sunny_Bunny on 07-10-07 at 02:00 PM
Oh, please join in! Snarking is fun. Just let your inner snarky come out. ![](http://community.realitytvworld.com/boards/Images/happy.gif)
"RE: This week's films..."
Posted by cahaya on 07-10-07 at 07:29 PM
LAST EDITED ON 07-10-07 AT 08:08 PM (EST)Most of y'all liked Will's clip, particularly because it was well-shot and caught the flavor of the spaghetti westerns. I think it was too well shot, almost to the point of plagiarism of the exact same sequences that Clint Eastwood played. That's the problem I had - no originality, even if almost perfect execution. And the cellphone thrown to win the draw? That wrecked the clip for me, because it was a way too cheesy ending for the suspense that got built up. Clint would have shot that silly thing out of the air.
ETA: You know, I would have given this clip a better (if not great) rating if the ending was different. Imagine this ending... the guy throws the cellphone at Clint. Clint coolly takes five shots at the cellphone and makes it dance and spin in the air, finally landing in the dust. Ironically, in a fit of malfunction, it rings. Clint's sixth shot finishes it off and he twirls his six-shooter back into the holster. The SUV guy has a look of horror and awe. (We might even have a close up shot of a little pee dribbling down the bottom of his pants leg into the dust.) Clint grinds his cigar in the dirt with his boot and, with a disgusted look, says "Milwaukee's thatta way. Now git on outa town before you getcha self hurt, boy." The guy stumbles and runs like mad to the SUV, jumps in and peels out off into the sunset. Now, that's a classic spaghetti western ending for you. Too bad Will missed it.
"RE: This week's films..."
Posted by Sunny_Bunny on 07-10-07 at 09:04 PM
I like your ending! And that closing line would have brought the story full circle. Of course, then they would have had to edit out the mistaken identity thing, but I felt that wasn't really needed anyway.
"RE: Final 10 Episode 1 (July 9)"
Posted by Sunny_Bunny on 07-10-07 at 01:53 PM
LAST EDITED ON 07-10-07 AT 03:21 PM (EST)True to form, my choices for the worst of The Lot last week were not sent home. The voters gave Mateen the green light to begin working on next weeks action film/Spike Lee “hood” knockoff, and Kenny was also safe, due to those voters who dream of some sort of divine retribution against snooty Malibu rich kids, no matter how trite and tired the urban legend theme is.
Instead, America chose to take out my totally safe middle-of-the-road choice of Shira-Lee. She took it well; she told us that she had learned to be a better director, and would use what she learned as she continued to break into the directors guild. Of course, this speech was a bit overshadowed by the shot of the Quit SUV driving over props, extras, and anything else in its way to get her off the lot as quickly as possible.
This week the directors were all given the logline “when worlds collide” for inspiration. This leveled the playing field, as it was a bit less generalized than “do a horror film” but did give them all enough room to present their own unique vision. They were also given the Universal back lot exteriors to choose from, which gave them a lot of choice. I have to wonder if they were made part of the Universal Studio Tour, since the back lot is part of the tram tour. The real interesting part of that little perk, was that with all the “neighborhoods” to choose from, two directors used the same set, but from different angles. Heavy sigh
So again, without further show production comments, here are my Bunny Picks this week. (And expect my two bottom choices to be totally safe from the “2 go” elimination next week.)
1. Worldly Possesions by Adam: You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension - a dimension of greed, a dimension of avarice, a dimension of landscape that looks like California, yet professes to be Maryland. You're moving into a land of both elite and no substance, of things and bank accounts.. You've just crossed over into – Adams movie."
In a very slick and Serlingesque style, Adams film shows us that if we are greedy, we all get it in the end. He used “real” effects rather than Zacks much more popular computer fx, and except for the fact that we don’t really understand why the fat guy at the Pentagon decided to send this package to the spoiled, over indulged Bates household in the first place, it really did come off as good as most Twilight Zones, and had a strong ending.
2. Time Upon A Once by Zach: It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood of Wisteria Lane, which has been stripped of all the Wisteria so we don’t all realize that this is the exterior lot where they shoot Desperate Housewives. As the orange couple watches the blue couple back into their new home, the wife starts to get a clue that this couple is a tad backwards. Not only are THEY backwards, one touch and things around them become backwards too. This comes in handy when the Orange husband gets run over by a speeding car whose driver NEVER STOPS to see if they killed him. No problem! Blue lady touches the corpse, forces that driver to run over the guy again, and then drive off speeding forward but missing the target. With the exception of that rather glaring continuity problem, my guess is that super director Zach will again be safe next week.
3. The legend of Donkey-Tailed Willey by Hilary: An old timers voice over tells the story of an old western town that seems to also be affected by the Twilight Zone. Made up of horrific hunting accident victims, an Irish lass turned Chinese, and an overflowing number of bordello girls and other misfits, a donkey-tailed milliner enters the town and is immediately ostracized. Huh? Not only that, but the actor who looks to be about 20 is called “getting on in marrigable years.” But that aside, donkey tail boy meets donkey ear girl, falls in love and marries. The moral that there is someone out there for everyone is always a winner. This is also a movie idea that is tailor made for Dreamworks©. And they WANT to appeal to Dreamworks©, to get that office and directors gig.
4. First Sight by Shalini: If you saw Shallow Hal you know this movie. Well, you would know it if it had Gweneth Paltrow, Jack Black and Anthony Robbins. And good writers. And good effects. And a better director.
Shalini takes a perfectly good premise, and completely kills it. For one thing, what she “observes” is just so trite. A skipping elderly man, whose brownstone goes from grim gray to pristine white as he skips. So now buildings have inner beauty too, I suppose. An annoying Hari Krishna sweeps up streets rather than give flowers at airports. (I guess 911 made flower giving scary) A look in the mirror shows a weeping self image. Oh, and the best part; a shallow friend who, when looked at through the glasses has a terrifying bad hair day. And to top it off, the guy who gives her the glasses looks like a bad Mortal Kombat Rayden Clone. Basically, like Hal, I wanted to smear Vaseline over my eyes and pretend I had an eye infection so I wouldn’t have to be hit with the predictable in your face moral at the end.
5. Spaghetti by Will: For weeks now, the critics have been begging this guy to join us all in the world of talkies and have characters actually talk to each other. Bad advice. Bad, bad, bad. After viewing this film, it is now glaringly apparent why Will did not put dialog in his films. The guy cant write, or direct dialog.
In a tired take in the “men never ask for directions” vein. Our squabbling couple arrives in a ghost town that belongs farther west than somewhere on the way to Milwaukee along route 91. Which, I admit I’m not sure there even is a highway 91 in Wisconsin; I thought it was route 94. But, the couple has taken a short cut off the highway and the guy finally decides to get out of the SUV to ask for directions. We know there is going to be trouble when he shuts the door and the town is in sepia tone (think reversed Wizard of Oz) and he hitches up his pants. Sure enough, here comes a Clint Eastwood clone wearing a left over costume from Back to the Future. He keeps calling our hero by some odd name, and informs him he is a dead man. He draws his gun, hero draws his cell phone. Cell phone is tossed ala David and Goliath, hero leaps into the car and drives off. Yawwn. Had Will kept with his sight gags and music when he switched to sepia, this film would most likely have worked.
Given that this show seems to never oust the people I think should go, the Bunny predictor says that Will will be safe due to pity and his attempt with dialog. Zach will be safe due to his being the favorite, and Adam will be safe because he deserves to be. That leaves Hilary and Shalini the two going next week.
But, I could be wrong. lol
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Icecat is a god
"RE: Final 10 Episode 1 (July 9)"
Posted by cahaya on 07-10-07 at 06:27 PM
LAST EDITED ON 07-11-07 AT 00:43 AM (EST)Well, there goes yet another half of the viewers, who will instead be treated on Tuesday night with strikes, foul balls, and walks by a bunch of DAW's, along with bad calls by the umps. Hmmm, that kind of describes this show, doesn't it?
Again, we are greeted by our vapid vamp in black - oops, somebody told her to change up - lavender. A single gust of a special-effects wind-blower at the lowest 'breeze' setting would reveal whether Adrianna Costa does or does not wear Victoria's Secret thongs, if anything at all. Now I'm a somewhat elderly male, supposedly approaching andropause, but I've still got a good dose of testosterone in my blood, and I can tell you that our skimpily-clad hostess elicits a zero reading on the arousal meter. Even the Chenbot would register some kind of blip, but not this lady. I wonder if she's human - or alive.
To start the show, our undead hostess coolly dismisses Shira-Lee with the same lack of emotion as a cliquish high-school cheerleader dismissing friendship advances from the class bookworm. Yup, I made the correct call about Shira-Lee's outster, as I think America's tastes are as predictable as a McDonald's Big Muck.
This week and next week, supposedly "the stakes are higher" with two directors (instead of one) from each group of five being eliminated. No, Adrianna, the stakes are the same, it's just that the producers want to get you and this show off the TV screen as fast as they can before the ratings go into negative territory. Now, for tonight's show...
Time Upon a Once by Zach: Again, Zach scores with an imaginative idea creatively shot on film and further edited for effect. Here we have a neighborhood street in some sort of utopian world where interracial marriage is the norm. In stark contrast to Mateen's in-your-face Profile, you almost don't notice it, with one B/W and one W/B couple carrying on with business as usual. Except it's not quite usual. With one couple and their pooch watching from their front porch, the new neighbors start to move in. And the new neighbors are weird. They and everything about them goes backwards in reverse motion, including their walking and their speech. The guy pounds down on the the For Sale sign, and up and up and out it goes. As the 'normal' guy stands out in the middle of the street, stunned in amazement after a few events, he gets run down by a car. Lo and behold, the opposite couple can make time go backwards, and the whole accident reverses itself, and the normal guy is alive again. Yup, these neighbors will get along just fine. There's no moral behind this story, really, except that in a utopian world, opposites can get along just fine. The special effects were simple but good. Still, we viewers find ourselves hoping that Zach, as creative as he is, can up his game a bit, but he didn't give us any real surprises this time around. (***)
Donkey-tail Willie by Hillary: Sit back and relax and listen to a story here, folks. The old-timer's story-telling voice and background music, along with the old-West theme, gets us settled in right from the start. It's a simple story about a guy with a donkey tail who is ostracized by all of the others in the town (who have quirks of their own). But while lying in the dust, he is met by a donkey-eared girl, and they're a match made in Tombstone. The scene of his tail whipping her butt while they are at the marriage altar is a humorously kinky touch. The moral of the story, I guess, is that with so many different kinds of people around, somebody will eventually find a good puzzle-piece fit with someone else. I liked the concept, especially the story-telling part of it even without any character dialog. The special effects and make-up were unconvincing and the idea of donkey tails and ears seems rather contrived, but the story tells itself nicely. But it's only good for 3 minutes - there's no way a 2-hour film or even a 1/2 hour TV slot could last in this vein. (**1/2)
Spaghetti by Will: A couple in an SUV get lost trying to get to Milwaukee and end up in some ghost-town, probably not far from the Mexican border. Of course, the guy waited too long to ask for directions after realizing they were lost about as far away from Milwaukee as you can get. I half expected some young kids in the back seat of the SUV (that's what they're for, I thought) but no kids here. Looking for someone to ask directions, the guy notices a Western-clad dude further down the tumbleweed-strewn dirt street. We all know him as Clint. And as this clip goes on, I find myself getting more and more perturbed that Will copycatted Clint to the last detail, the dress, the grimace, the cigar and even the shot's close-ups and angles. By now, I'm screaming plagiarism! The Italian spaghetti makers I can forgive, but not an aspiring American director. And the climax? Tossing a cellphone, braining Clint to win the Quick-Draw McGraw? Pffft. Since when did anyone have practice tossing cellphones around? If the guy had a Brewers baseball cap and hit Clint with a perfect strike, I could have half-believed it. Except Clint wouldn't have lost this draw, even if he'd just swigged a pint of whiskey in the saloon, still groggy from night before with the local brothel madam. Sorry, this is cold leftover spaghetti without the sauce. The only plus side was that the plagiarized Clint shots were halfway decent and recognizable. Will didn't direct this clip; he stole Clint's directions.(*1/2)
First Sight by Shalini: Here we have two best-friend type girls out shopping and maxing out their credit cards in a weird sort of Rodeo Drive. After looking at everyone around them with disdain, but ooo-ing and ahh-ing at overpriced consumer goods in specialty shop windows, one girl is approached by a freak in glasses. "I think you lost something" he tells her and hands her the glasses, revealing his all-white blind eyes. Yeah, I think you lost me about here, too. Through these glasses the girl sees another aspect of the people around her, with the cane-walking old man dancing as if he's singing in the rain, and the street sweeper becoming a Buddhist sage, among others. Rose tinted glasses, or an X-ray vision into people's hearts, I can't really tell. Then, the girl views herself in a rather conveniently located mirror on the sidewalk, and sees her own face streaming with tears. Finally, she sees her friend as the empty-headed shopping bimbo she really is. This surreal clip had me lost almost from the beginning, and only afterwards I'm left to pick up the pieces and try to figure out what the message is. And I'm still not sure if I got it right. Still, it's a unique idea for a clip, although its presentation was too disjointed and surreal for many viewers like me to follow. (**)
Worldly Possession by Adam: An apt title, really, for Shalini's film. But here, at last, Zach has met his match. We start with a mysterious box in the Pentagon with labels on it, being some Indiana Jones artifact that should be buried and forgotten. Then we're introduced to a yuppy couple in Rich Suburbialand, USA. The guy looks at some kind of notice in the mail and asks his wife if she ordered another credit card. "I might have", she replies nonchalantly. Back in the Pentagon, the label gets altered and the box arrives to this couples house, courtesy of Uncle Sam and his GI Joe delivery boys in a non-descript government-spec van. What it it? A spinning globe, something you'll see in any public or school library. Like a child with a new toy, the guy spins the globe around and an earthquake ensues. Not quite as blonde as his wife, he thinks he's on to something as he pulls out a magnifying glass (which he no doubt burnt ants with as a mischievous kid) and looks at his neighborhood as if seeing it from a spy satellite. His wife wants to take a look too and she promptly torches a tree in their yard with the magnifying glass. Then the guy scrapes flakes from some metal object (I'm not sure if it was a penny or his wedding ring) over the globe, and suddenly huge boulders (of copper or gold, I'm not sure) come flying down, landing in the lawn. Wow, they're already rich with these huge nuggets. But greed sets in the bimbo wife as she pries out the diamond from her wedding ring and sets it in motion over the globe. Armageddon II is about to occur, but Bruce Willis is already dead from the first one. End of clip. Not bad. The special effects were pretty good, especially the boulders falling, but the tree burning looked like it needed more work. (And let's hope we see the "No trees were harmed during the making of this film" disclaimer during the ending credits.) The message is clear. Greed doesn't pay. And don't let little boys and girls play with things they shouldn't. Zach has finally met his match with this clip by Adam. (***)
Zach and Adam should be safe from elimination, while Shalini and Will are probably the next two out, with Hillary on the bubble.
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"RE: Final 10 Episode 1 (July 9)"
Posted by gumnut on 07-12-07 at 11:11 AM
Hi everyone. Here are my comments.#1. Worldly Possessions – Entertaining.
#2. Time Upon A Once – Unique.
#3. Spaghetti - Comical.
Last Place: Donkey-tail – Amateurish and boring. Chinese eyes?
Shouldn’t it be “Asian” eyes.
AND
First Sight – Awful.
When asked for “change” why did the
actor sign a document?
One final comment. Whoever selects the clothes for Adrianna Costa should be eliminated. No more nightgowns!