Tag Archives: Films

Summer Interns

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Some have great jobs; some have interesting jobs; and some have boring jobs.

And then there was this job.

“OK - watch these movies and count for us how many f-bombs were spoken in the screenplay. Then make a chart to outline which films have the most f-bombs, OK?”

Do they offer course credit for this internship? :-)

I think Scarface should be on the list, by the way.

Perhaps the greatest line of dialogue in film history is, ”You F-ing F-ing F.”

A screenplay writer actually wrote that line. And Al Pacino delivered it perfectly.

Don’t Do It

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Don’t jump the shark. Don’t have a film made about you or your company. Don’t open yourself to ridicule. Your served audience will abandon you. They will think you have lost sight of your center. It is way too early in Facebook’s development to have a film made about the company or its founder or to use Facebook as an emotional device for a film.

I always thought that the film You’ve Got Mail starring Tom Hanks spelled the end of our “cool” phase at AOL. It propelled us into the mainstream and we morphed into an older demo service and lost a big, youthful constituency.

At the time it felt good and fed our ego. In hindsight, it was a bad move. Learn from our mistakes and don’t do it.

Step Brothers

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Step away from the theater – careful - it is that bad. What a lazy way to make a film: say the F word a lot; act like a kid; and cry and fart. There are about ten minutes of good moviemaking and fun in this film. It would be better on “Funny or Die” for free and even then, I would have been disappointed. Bad film – bad filmmaking.

A Friend of Mine Asked Me…

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…What kind of films do I like? I replied, “Great nonfiction films or well-written dramas and big well produced action flicks or small indie films with a great directorial point of view. I also like heroic acting jobs by stars that play off character.”He then asked me what kinds of films I didn’t like and I told him I would get back to him. Here is what I wrote him. It is indeed a random list:

  • I don’t like any film where amnesia plays a pivotal part of the plot.
  • I don’t like any film where mistaken identity (or twins as part of the mistaken identity plot twist) lulls the hero into complacency.
  • I don’t like any film where the director shows the passing of time by using newspaper headlines spinning across the screen.
  • I don’t like any film that uses a character’s voiceover to move the plot along.
  • I don’t like any film that shows rich, good-looking young people in California suffering angst with moody, undiscovered artist music in the background.
  • I don’t like any film with a supermodel making her film debut as a leading lady.
  • I don’t like any film where a director pays homage to another director who is a contemporary.
  • I don’t like films based on TV shows.
  • I don’t like any films with a member of the Friends TV show in it.
  • I don’t like “dramadies.” You are either funny or you are serious. Make up your mind.
  • I usually don’t like films starring Saturday Night Live comedians.
  • I don’t like musicians who want to stretch and end up playing a role that they mime on stage in their musical act.
  • I don’t like any film where the plot twist ends up using aliens or outer space creatures out of context.
  • I don’t like any film where someone tries to be funny and mimics an Indian accent.
  • I don’t like any film that I can’t remember or discuss one week later.
  • I don’t like any film where the hero and heroine are lovers off-screen.
  • I don’t like any film where the CGI is cheesy looking.
  • I don’t like any films that are promoted as comeback films for a star who I didn’t even know had left.
  • I don’t like films that are truly summed up by the trailer and all the best lines, jokes and scenes are in the trailer.
  • I don’t like any film where the audience cheers and applauds as the opening credits roll.