| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
 Posted - 06/08/2006 : 5:55:24 PM
|
| The Beast was on Sci-Fi a few days ago. I couldn't catch the first hour or so (I started the recorder when Whip was making an ass of himself in the town meeting), but I've scanned through what I DID get. It looks like it was the unedited miniseries shown in one day. And there's more little bits of pyrite to mine here -- and one of them undermines Graves's status as a villain even more, if it's possible (in any other movie, he would be one of the good guys). |
|
|
Greenhornet
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1791 Posts |
Posted - 06/08/2006 : 8:02:41 PM
|
I also saw part of the unedited version some time ago. One of the stupidities was that the teens' decided that "the best" make-out spot was one that over-looked THE DEAD SQUID!
How romantic! (GAG!)
"The Queen is testing poisons." CLEOPATRA, 1935 |
 |
|
|
BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
Posted - 06/09/2006 : 06:37:46 AM
|
| Greenhornet, that was one of the things that raised my eyebrows. Another was that squid grabbing onto Hadley *snicker* with them tenacles that could shred a 100-pound tuna in five seconds... and she walked away from it unhurt. |
|
|
|
twitterpate
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Canada
1026 Posts |
Posted - 06/09/2006 : 11:30:00 AM
|
| Brad, don't keep me in suspense - what did our not-so-villainous capitalist/harbour master do? |
|
|
|
BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
Posted - 06/09/2006 : 11:28:22 PM
|
Not much, Twitter. After that "deadly" squid tries to visit her late offspring -- and does a bad job of trying to munch down on Hadley -- Graves surveys the, uh, invasion site. It takes him less than five seconds to decide to close the beaches once again, and he turns to Sea World Texas guy and Foreign Hooper Rip-Off and asks of they think Squidward-on-Steroids can be killed. When they say they think so, Graves says he'll put up any money it takes to kill the thing.
In other words, the good guys should want Graves on their side. He may not be the most pleasant guy in the world, but he has the money to fund any Beast-killing efforts they make, and he's willing to dole it out. Foreign Hooper Rip-Off says the "most important element can't be bought" -- meaning Whip, of course.
The only thing Graves is guilty of here is not saying, "Forget that doofus, let's find a REAL fisherman and pay whatever he wants." It's yet another bad goof on the writers' part. No consistency. But the fact that he is the one advancing the offer to front any (snicker) Beast-hunt makes him more sympathetic than old my-way-or-the-highway Whip, methinks. |
|
|
|
Greenhornet
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1791 Posts |
Posted - 06/10/2006 : 09:46:42 AM
|
quote:
Originally posted by BradH812
The only thing Graves is guilty of here is not saying, "Forget that doofus, let's find a REAL fisherman and pay whatever he wants." It's yet another bad goof on the writers' part. No consistency. But the fact that he is the one advancing the offer to front any (snicker) Beast-hunt makes him more sympathetic than old my-way-or-the-highway Whip, methinks.
But from the dialog, we know that Graves OWES Whip from way back when they were kids and Whip protected him from bullies. But the movie never goes there.
Then again, this is another black mark against "our hero"; he used to look out for the little fat kid everybody picked on, but now "Fatty" is rich and influential, so he doesn't NEED Whip to stand up for him any more. Whip is JEALOUS!
"The Queen is testing poisons." CLEOPATRA, 1935 |
|
|
|
BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
Posted - 06/10/2006 : 6:54:31 PM
|
One thing Douglas forgot to mention in his review. When Whip, Euro-Hooper, and Sea World Texas explain their plan to Graves, he bad-mouths it again and again. This scene is done to make him look like a coward, and they really pour it on, to a disgusting degree, at the end. Only one problem: HE'S RIGHT!!! It was a terrible plan to start with. (And it got everyone but our boy Whip killed, to boot.)
There was a great moment that SHOULD have shown just how much smarter he was than the others when he said, "This plan stinks, we have to go back to the drawing board. There are too many steps, and if any one of them goes wrong, we're screwed." I think I remembered the line right.
Of course, the Three Stooges ignore him, and that's when he starts to wimp out. In a REAL movie, he'd look the others in the eye and say, "That's it. I want no part of this. I'm forming my own team."
I'll give Doug a mulligan here; he caught most of the other moments which completely screwed up the hero-villain line beyond recognition. But I still have to shake my head in amazement when I think of movies pulling crap like this. |
|
|
|
jackspencerjr
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
262 Posts |
Posted - 06/10/2006 : 8:05:01 PM
|
| I am re-reading the review and would like to point out that the book did explain the evils of trap fishing a little better. Basically, they just keep killing. Since they are illegal, those who use them attach them to submerged buoys, which means they're easy to lose. So fish swim into them, get trapped, die and become bait for more fish. For overfished waters, this is a dangerous waste of what little population they have. naturally one or two traps wouldn't be so bad, but a couple dozen from careless fishermen could be detrimental. So it's not quite like a deer hunter complaining there are no deer to shoot so much as a deer hunter complaining the local atom bomb test and the lingering radiation poisoning has killed more der and made more stillbirths in the deer that the hunting isn't as good as it used to be. |
|
|
|
BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
Posted - 06/10/2006 : 10:14:26 PM
|
I remember reading the Reader's Digest condensed version of the book. It took place on Bermuda, and the hero's name (oh, dear God, I can't believe I'm about to say this) is Whip Darling. Oh, and the Karen Sillas character was killed in that submersible. I don't remember too much about the book, but aside from that awful name for the lead, I wasn't insulted by it, at least. Nothing memorable, but it was an okay time-killer. I certainly don't remember a designated villain or some of the more stupid things about the movie.
And Peter Benchley seemed to try to get his facts straight about giant squids. In his defense, I will say that most of the more idiotic parts of the movie (such as momma squid and baby squid) were invented. |
|
|
|
jackspencerjr
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
262 Posts |
Posted - 06/11/2006 : 01:04:01 AM
|
| Yeah. In Jaws III |
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
Forum Locked
Topic Locked