The Final Cut In Movies (05/16/08): Speed Racer

On this week’s show, I'll be discussing Speed Racer, corruption in sports, steroids, disagreeing with movie reviewers, and other science fiction & fantasy news.

The show will air from 2:00-3:00am & pm and re-air throughout the week at the same times on www.adastraradio.com.

Segment A:

• Storyline
• Note: You must see this film in the right context, i.e. check your brain at the door.
• Once again, I’m taking a stand against the Bobble Heads.

Positives

• Rex talked about the car and jumping with confidence—like it was real.
• Royalton
• Little kid (Paulie Litt, Paulie Litowsky) plays Spritle.
• The Martial arts scenes (adding in John Goodman made it WWE meets Kung Fu)
• The colors
• I loved the family values.

Negatives

• Had a hard time telling by the news bites what Rex did.
• Trixie’s line: “Since when did winning become so important?” (Um, it’s a race.)
• Predictable: I was onto Rex still being alive in the beginning.
• A Few things that didn’t need to be in a kids movie (i.e. the flick off scene)
• The cars never needed to pit.
• I wish I had the pancake recipe

Segment B: The Final Cut News

Box Office Report, where we only pay attention to movies that matter—Science Fiction & Fantasy movies.:

• #1, $50.5 million: Iron Man. Iron Man has grossed $177.134 million in the past two weeks, and those are only the domestic numbers.
• #2, $20.21 million: Speed Racer. I predicted this last week. It's a shame because Speed Racer was a phenomenal movie. It's just fallen victim to poor timing, getting squashed between Iron Man and Narnia: Prince Caspian.
• #8, $1.9 million: The Forbidden Kingdom. Another movie that fell victim to poor timing. Where were all these movies during March and April?
• #9, $1.325 million: Nim's Island. Though Nim's Island has only grossed $44 million domestically, I think its prolonged exposure in the box office could lead to decent DVD sales and rentals.

News (where I massacre a bunch of different Hollywood names):

• Gore Verbinski will direct BioShock, an adaptation of the video game. Academy Award-nominated writer John Logan (Gladiator, The Aviator, Sweeney Todd) is in talks to do the screenplay. My Take: I've never heard of the video game, but I like the talent they're getting.
• Top Cow Productions and Arclight Films will develop a live-action film adaptation of Top Cow's comic book franchise, "Witchblade." They're considering shooting in Australia.
• Transformers 2 director Michael Bay has cast Aussie actress Isabel Lucas for the role of "Alice" in the sequel. My Take: What happened to Megan Fox?
• Beast may appear in the X-men prequel spin off, Magneto. George 'El Guapo' Roush of the Latin Review was taking a tour of Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and saw a photo of a young Beast leaping through the air. The rest is movie-leak history. (Click here for his actual story.) My Take: If you're working on a movie, and you know people are going to be taking tours of your office, DON'T LEAVE LITTLE GIVEAWAYS ON YOUR DESK! (This is coming from an author who is very protective of her plots.)

Segment C:

• The Mob really does influence a lot of the games.
• This movie makes you want to go out there and fight corruption.
• To fight corruption, you’ve got to be the best. (to beat the fixed races—you have to drive better.)

Segment D:

• The whole comic book/cartoon knock off argument.
• How true do you make it to the original without annoying the folks who don’t know about it and want to see a good movie but keeping the fans of the comic book series?

Segment E: Wrap

• Upcoming Movies: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
• My Box Office Predictions

The Final Cut in Movies is an internet radio talk show that puts science fiction and fantasy center stage. The show airs on AdAstraRadio.com from 2:00am to 3:00am and 2:00pm to 3:00om. If you can't be next to your computer at those times, download the show here!

M. B. Weston is the host of The Final Cut in Movies, an internet radio talk show about science fiction and fantasy films on Ad Astra Radio, which can also be heard as a podcast at M. B. Weston's Podcast site. She is also the author of The Elysian Chronicles, a fantasy series about guardian angel warfare and treason. For more information on M. B. Weston, visit her website, www.mbweston.com, and her personal blog, www.mbwestonblog.com. Find out more about The Elysian Chronicles at www.elysianchronicles.com.