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The Man From U. N. C. L. E. (2015)
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Krel
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 4:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
Weird, ain't it? Get Smart is a good movie that succeeded by offending the fans of the series and winning the approval of people like me who didn't like it!

It was a good movie TO YOU, but to me it was, at best an okay movie that came off like a Johnny English copy. As a GS fan, it didn't offend me and I would have watched a sequel if they had made one. But it missed the whole point of the Maxwell Smart character, a bumbler who overcomes overwhelming odds to succeed. Although if you watch the original show, the only people that weren't bumblers was 99, and the Chief. And the Chief was borderline. Max was just the most competent bumbler.

Battlestar Galactica, 2004-'09, to me was a mess, that never got near the ratings of the original show. Great for the syfy channel, cancel city for a broadcast network. What killed the original show was that ABC thought the budget was too high, and wasn't willing to pay that amount.

In fairness, I have to admit that I turned the show off after the fem-bot murdered the infant. I just couldn't take the shaky amateur hour camera work, it was giving me a headache. Seriously, have they never heard of a camera dolly, or steadycam? But what I did see, and read about was stupid, TOO ME.

Point-of-view, is everything...AND ONLY MINE COUNTS!! Laughing

David.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 10:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Inspired by this discussion, today Bulldogtrekker and I synchronized our DVDs and watched Get Smart "together" (he's in South Carolina and I'm in North Carolina) while we chatted on Facebook.

We do that a lot. We both enjoyed it. Very Happy

I'm not knockin' anybody who liked the TV series, but I really love the altered movie version in which Max is the frequent victim of life's cruel little jokes. He's not a bumbler at all, he's just remarkably unlucky sometimes.

Alan Arkin's "Chief" in that movie is intelligent and forceful, and he respects Max's abilities as an intelligence analyst so much that he refuse to promote him to agent (at first), even though Max passes the field test with a higher score than 99 -- who is awesome in every way!

Sweet Barbara Feldon had to pretend not to notice Max's bumbling so he wouldn't feel like a dummy -- but Anne Hathaway cut Max no slack what-so-ever, and he eventually earned her respect.



Dwayne Johnson is the revered, super-cool Agent 23 -- the captain of the high school football team to Max's nerdy unpopular kid. But the movie even allows Dwayne to acknowledge that Max is intelligent and brave (through most of the story).

I have always loved characters who must endure the ridicule and disrespect of those around them while they proved over and over to the audience that they know more than anybody else.

That's what makes this movie so great: Max never once looses his faith in himself! He doesn't need 99 propping up his ego and pretending he's brilliant. Steve Carell's version of Maxwell Smart is brilliant!

It's freakin' inspirational, I tell ya! Hell, it's easy for James Bond to be cool -- nothing ever goes wrong!

But Max is cool even when nothing goes right!

That, to me, is a true hero. Very Happy

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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Tue Jan 02, 2018 2:37 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Krel
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 11:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:

That's what makes this movie so great: Max never once looses his faith in himself! He doesn't need 99 propping up his ego and pretending he's brilliant.

But Max is cool even when nothing goes right!


That's Max in the tv show, he's all that when he has no reason to be, EXCEPT he always wins! That is the joke of the show, despite everything, he overcomes all odds.

Now onto the upcoming travesty.

Don't expect the tv "Man From U.N.C.L.E." in the movie. The Director has said that wants to do for TMFU, what he did for Sherlock Holmes.

I HATE what he did to Sherlock Holmes!

According to leaks, so make of them what you will. The movie is an origin of the U.N.C.L.E. story, which completely ignores the tv show. So, if true, it is a Man From U.N.C.L.E., without an U.N.C.L.E. organization. Until maybe the end, if the information Butch was given is correct.

As Butch stated, Robert Short, effects man, and a HUGE U.N.C.L.E. collector is the advisor on the movie. He was also the advisor on the U.N.C.L.E. tv movie back in the 80s. He convinced them, that they needed an U.N.C.L.E. Special, which he then constructed in record time. But he really has no say on what is done in the movie.

It will, most likely, be a good action movie, but it won't be "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.. Another one I can pass on.

David.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 23, 2015 1:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

What we have here is another example of a fan who rightfully objects to changes being made in a show or movie that won his loyalty just the way it is, with no need for corrections or alterations.

In this case the fan is you.

Conversely, there's me, the non-fan. I appreciate certain things about the show or movie, but there's a couple of things I'd like to tweak, some little changes to make the show or movie better.

With Get Smart, it was Max. The comedy was dependent on the notion that Agent Smart didn't do smart things. He was kinda clueless and didn't quite know it. He didn't acknowledge his limits -- and that was a little sad.

The movie is the reverse. Everyone around Max assumes he's limited, while Max struggles to prove them wrong.

Max in the TV series was like a man who trips and falls into a big mud puddle, arms waving comically as he topples forward. Everybody around him laughs at the clumsy goof.

Max in the movie was like a guy who is pushed towards a big mud puddle, and he waves his arms comically while he teeters on the brink, then he leaps over the puddle -- while the guy who pushed him pitches forward and falls in.

My point: Comical triumphs make me laugh and cheer. Clumsy mishaps make cringe in sympathy.

I'm just an old softy, I reckon. Very Happy
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Pow
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 23, 2015 1:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'd love to go undercover with 99.

Then maybe we'd go on a mission. Wink
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 23, 2015 3:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Miss Feldon is an absolute sweetheart. Her voice, her manner of speaking, and her adoring expressions are irresistible.





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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Tue Jan 02, 2018 2:40 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Krel
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 23, 2015 10:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
Max in the TV series was like a man who trips and falls into a big mud puddle, arms waving comically as he topples forward. Everybody around him laughs at the clumsy goof.

Actually, they don't. They may roll their eyes, but then they end up doing something just as bad, or worse. Villain holds gun on Max, trying to force him into a pit of molten lead. Max knocks the gun from the Villain's hand, into the pit. Villain's Henchman yells, "I'll get it", and climbs into the pit. Max looks shocked, Villain shrugs sheepishly.

Max never waved his arms comically, as he topples over. He just looked puzzled at the effects of gravity. Laughing

Max was a bumbler in a world of bumblers. He was just the most competent bumbler.

Barbra Feldon got the part as 99, because of this commercial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy33kNEIwgw

David.
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 24, 2015 1:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey, I remember that commercial! That was the reason I filled the bathroom drawer with tubes of Top Brass.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 24, 2015 10:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ah-ha! I knew you were a real tiger, Wayne. I could just tell. (By the way, I heard that Top Brass works well on squeaky door hinges. Just FYI . . . ) Cool
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2015 2:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

We watched U.N.C.L.E. last night, newly released from Netflix.

I was largely disappointed. I know I've posted previously that I've found you generally can't go home again, but this movie left me still wishing I could. It suffers from a rather common malady in TV productions adapted to the big screen: TMI (or the more specific subcategory, TMBS... "Too Much Back Story"). The screenwriters feel compelled to flesh out the characters by giving them private lives, a history, and human weaknesses. (This problem was especially disastrous in the adaptation of the Saturday Night Live skits by Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan as the Butabi brothers for A Night at the Roxbury. I never realized from just the TV skits they even had names. That's how 2-dimensional they were on TV.)

The only commonalities this U.N.C.L.E. movie had with the TV series were Illya's Russian accent, and the names "Napoleon Solo", "Illya Kuryakin", "Alexander Waverly", and "U.N.C.L.E.". In the TV series Solo and Illya had no background, no private lives, and not much in the way of human weaknesses or emotion. They were born as agents of U.N.C.L.E. They did their jobs and didn't even go home at night afterward.

There was so much reconstruction done for the movie, in fact, that I couldn't even recognize the original theme by Jerry Goldsmith, which was listed in the end credits. And I was listening for it throughout the movie. That was one of the highlights of the TV show!

Maybe with the BS (BackStory) now out of the way a sequel can get them back to business.

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2015 11:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bulldogtrekker told me he tried to watch this movie and quit after 40 minutes.

A few days later, I tried to watch it . . . and I quit after just 35 minutes.

Conclusion: Agent Bulldogtrekker would hold out longer than Agent Bud Brewster if we were both tortured by Russian agents. His pain threshold is higher and his tolerance for repeated onslaughts of stupidity is greater.

I was never a big fan of The Man from U N.C.L.E., but this movie was rotten for reasons that have nothing to do with it's complete failure to resemble the hit show. As you stated, Agent Orzel-w, it desperately wanted to "flesh out" it's characters and show us what made them tick.

That would have been fine if these guy had born the slightest resemblance to interesting people, but all we got was Henry Cavill playing the Man of Wood instead of the Man of Steel, and Armie Hammer doing the worst Russian accent since Chekhov repeatedly told Kirk about the "widdle old wady from Weningrad."

If they do make a sequel to this movie, I'll lay awake nights and tremble in fear at the thought of Russian interrogators forcing me to watch it while they demanded my recipe for crispy potato salad.

I'd crack in a matter of minutes . . .
Shocked
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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 04, 2015 7:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Save time when the GRU (Glavnoje Razvedyvatel'noje Upravlenije) or the KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti) [the two different spy agencies] come for you.

Have TWO copies of the recipe AND samples for them to try.

(The Russians love potato dishes!)

Better make that THREE copies. THRUSH (Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity) agents will probably want their share!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 04, 2015 10:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'll just tell them to Google All Sci-Fi. It's got a list of ingredients, a gallery of pictures, and a clever description of how to make it that would make Russian Cossack laugh like little girls.

The pen might be mightier than the sword, but my keyboard makes bazooka's weep with envy!
Cool
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 04, 2015 12:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was a huge fan of the tv show as a kid.

Saw some recent episodes & found it has aged poorly over the years.

Interesting isn't it? When the show was on it was a huge hit, a phenomenon at the time. Star Trek was struggling along for all 3 of its seasons & then faded away. It then began the road to becoming a phenomenon with syndicated reruns.

Trek is a cultural icon with 5 tv series, one animated show, numerous films, funded fan films, and novels.
Uncle faded away, at least until this film & the tv movie they did years ago.

Just goes to show you that what is a hit today might die out in time. And what is not a hit might be the one to evolve into something incredible.

Did they even have the cool communicator pens at all in the movie?
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 04, 2015 1:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What an interesting observation, Pow!

You're right, there's no way to predict what movie will be a
hit or a flop, nor how it will be perceived a few decades later.

As for The Man from U.N.C.L.E., the 35 minutes I endured before it triggered my artistic gag reflex didn't seem to have any of the beloved elements from the original series — with the exception of their totally misguided version of Illya Kuryakin.

David McCallum was blond, thin, and devoid of any silly Russian accent. His diction was perfect, and he impressed us with is brains, not his brawn.

Armie Hammer's version in the movie was brunette, buff, tale, and talked like Boris Badenov from Rocky and Bullwinkle.

And right there is where the makers of that cinematic misfire went wrong. They didn't really like the show, they didn't like the elements, they didn't really like the characters, and they sure as hell didn't give a rat's rumpus about the fans.

I can never figure out why people bother to make remakes when they're utterly clueless about what made the original popular.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Wed Mar 07, 2018 2:20 pm; edited 1 time in total
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