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At the moment, I'm more like the Art Shell of chess...I was once pretty good, but now I'm so out of practice I can barely remember how the pieces are supposed to move.
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JRB is the RRod of chess. He’ll cheat on time and leave to play in an Arizona B league."The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is sometimes hard to verify their authenticity." -Abraham LincolnComment
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On the whole, fair, though I resent the assertion that I would cheat on time.
I doubt it would help my game at this point...Last edited by JRB; May 15, 2020, 08:12 PM.Comment
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RoarMoviePoster1981.jpg
ROAR (1981)
d. Noel Marshall
Starring: Noel Marshall, Tippi Hedron, Melanie Griffith, Kyalo Mativo, John Marshall, Jerry Marshall
In honor of sociopath wack-jobs with a love for big cats...
Noel Marshall had a vision. Big game cats in Africa were being driven extinct at a rapid pace in the late 60's-early 70's and he sought to rescue them and draw attention to their plight. Why not make a film about a family living alongside about 100 lions in the wilds of Africa? Wouldn't that be great?
Fuck Noel Marshall. Fuck him.
This is one movie where the backstory is probably more interesting than the movie itself. Shortly after splitting with Alfred Hitchcock, in a relationship that'll probably always be controversial, TIppi Hedron married her agent: Noel Marshall. Both Hedron and Marshall were passionate nature-lovers. Besides being an agent Marshall was also a producer and invested heavily in a little movie called The Exorcist. The film made him very rich and he and TIppi decided to invest this wealth into making a passion project they had already started that would help save the lions of Africa. Production would last 11 years.The eventual film was Roar.Marshall decided that he himself would both direct and star and his two sons along with Tippi's daughter from her first marriage (Melanie Griffith) would fill out most the cast.
Noel Marshall was a fanatic. None of the animals in this movie were trained, so he would sometimes have to wait days or weeks to get the footage he wanted. The set was extremely dangerous. Cinematographer Jan de Bont (who'd go on to work on Die Hard, Basic Instinct, Speed, and others) would be attacked by a lion and require 200+ stitches. Tippi Hedron had a leg fractured by an elephant. Melanie Griffith needed plastic surgery after a lion mauled her face. Noel Marshall himself was scratched up so badly (you can see him bleeding profusely early in the movie) that his injuries caught gangrene, delaying production for months. In all close to 70 people were reportedly injured during 11 years of filming.
There's barely any plot at all but Hank (Noel Marshall) is a naturalist living in Africa whose family comes to visit. Little do they realize that Hank pretty much lives among the animals. A pack of lions, dozens of them, come and go freely from his house. There's several Tigers too, the only cats willing to enter the small lake by his house. He's got a few Jaguars, Pumas, and Cheetahs just for diversity. And a couple of extremely pissed off elephants live nearby too. None of the animals used in this film were trained in any way. Well, maybe the elephants. The family arrives while he is out and for 45 minutes are terrorized by lions trying to eat them. Meanwhile a couple of bad guys, who think it's dangerous to let 100 lions acquire a taste for human flesh, try to kill the pack but get eaten themselves. After a brief nap the family realizes the lions are their friends, Hank comes back to the camp, and everyone enjoys themselves as the lions devour a zebra carcass and blood splatters everywhere.
After all that time, money, blood, and energy, this film never got a North American release. It was revived and seen by most Americans for the first time in 2015 when Alamo Drafthouse got the rights. There are varying reports as to why. Marshall & Hedron claimed they didn't want the proceeds to mainly go to studio executives instead of nature preservation. Others say that it couldn't get released because it used a non-union crew. Union members said HELL NO to working on this dangerous of a set. Marshall and Hedron divorced in 1982, a year after the film was released. Both her and all three children would say later that Noel Marshall was a tyrant on set, borderline psychotic, screaming at them to not be afraid of the lions. Supposedly his refusal to end a scene is what led to Melanie Griffith being mauled. He never directed or starred in a movie again, eventually leaving Hollywood for Advertising instead.
As for the movie itself it is a very bad movie but extremely watchable. Nearly all the dialogue was added in post-production. The editing is frantic. Shots last for no more than 2 seconds at times. It's hard to explain without watching it but this adds to a sense of tension. You know no one literally DIED filming this but it seems like someone could at any moment. If this ever pops up for free on some service you're subscribed to, watch it. Buy it if you really feel like owning a truly bizarre, unique movie with a great backstory, seek it out.
Last edited by Dr. Strangelove; May 15, 2020, 09:06 PM.Comment
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Jesus, DSL. No wonder Bezerkly doesn’t stay."The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is sometimes hard to verify their authenticity." -Abraham LincolnComment
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First, the backstory to Roar is fantastic.
Second, the Stratego reference is outstanding.
DSL shall be allowed to stay for another 24 hours.Dan Patrick: What was your reaction to [Urban Meyer being hired]?
Brady Hoke: You know.....not....good.Comment
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.......... and I take shit for my long posts. At least I'm reporting on something important.
Have to admit. Strange is pretty good at this. I've started looking for Hitchcock films that I remember watching as a child on TCM.
I wanted to rent Flash from my Amazon Prime film library after DSL's review. My wife said don't. She actually saw it when it came out. Distinctly remembers it was just awful!. I'll find it at one of my thrift store trips for 25 cents, she said....... I'm still waiting.Mission to CFB's National Championship accomplished. But the shine on the NC Trophy is embarrassingly wearing off. It's M B-Ball ..... or hockey or volley ball or name your college sport favorite time ...... until next year.Comment
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Oh, okay .. I wondered who this was. I had forgotten.Originally posted by JRB View Post
Bezerkley sighting ...I don't always roll a joint, but when I do, its usually my ankleComment
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Watching...as a child? Come on!"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is sometimes hard to verify their authenticity." -Abraham LincolnComment
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Flash Gordon is worth a few bucks rental especially to see it in HD for the first time, if the last time anyone watched it was a shitty VHS copy. It's a visual feast. I could see myself watching it again after a few years go by. Roar is something you probably only need to see once, unless you want to show it to other people and watch their disbelief as to how the thing ever got made.Comment
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Your hateful energies, while well-directed toward Buchanan, are better directed toward Bezerklie and/or his lifelong partner-in-daft, The Wizard.Watching...as a child? Come on!Dan Patrick: What was your reaction to [Urban Meyer being hired]?
Brady Hoke: You know.....not....good.Comment
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What's fantastic about this sentence is both the use of word "probably" and the phrase "only need." As written, it assumes that you NEED to see Roar at least once, but probably not twice. Probably.Roar is something you probably only need to see once
Alternatively, you watch the trailer, save yourself 90ish minutes and catch 1 of the three Smokey and the Bandit classics.
Probably only need to watch once. LOL. Definitely don't need to watch ever. FUCKING. EVER.
fucking cornellisDan Patrick: What was your reaction to [Urban Meyer being hired]?
Brady Hoke: You know.....not....good.Comment
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I command the viewing of ROARComment
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I’ve never seen Roar.
+1 for me."The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is sometimes hard to verify their authenticity." -Abraham LincolnComment
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