Objective: relying on a tried-and-true tone of smirky pseudo- sophistication, inject a note of contemporary cultural resonance into the selling of a forthcoming cable broadcast of 34 year-old disaster film. Solution: Link to a movie (and more particularly the public persona of a certain movie star) that is not only here-and-now but, in a manner of speaking, somewhere between gasping for breath and sinking beneath the waves. Watch this AMC promo spot for a Thursday night (5.11) airing and you'll see what I mean.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on May 10, 2006 at 6:45 AM
comment #1
guy steele says ...
Ok that AMC spot was funny and very clever. More so than the film it advertises. I am sure the update is more spectacular in terms of eyecandy. But after The Titanic I just don't see the point, plus people remember the first one as a classic even though in actuality it's not a very good movie but then what disaster pic from the 70's was a good movie? Not even Towering Inferno was good. Most of these films were watchable but that's it. And let's not even bring up Swarm or Meteor!
Posted by guy steele at May 10, 2006 7:16 AM
comment #2
Jeffrey Wells says ...
I think that the awfulness of "The Swarm" will be brought up and used as a kind of shorthand when film cognoscenti of the future bring up the disaster pic wave of the '70s...as (a) an emblem of just how awful most of those disaster films were back then (in the same way that, ironically, Richard Lester's Juggernaut was the best of them all) and (b) as a reminder that if a film is bad enough (as in "Showgirls" bad) it can take on a kind of energy that was unplanned and unimagined by the filmmakers -- a bad movie that becomes a people's event.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells at May 10, 2006 7:42 AM
comment #3
guy steele says ...
I concur Jeff, I also think another stinko could marketed right take-off in a Showgirls (Heck maybe even a Rocky Horror) way and that's the so-terrible-it's facinating Battlefield Earth.
Bring back MST for this turkey! The reasons this film is bad lends itself to ridcule and a perverse pleasure in watching it which I have down 3 times now, my mouth agape, but I can't help discussing it's problems with people because they are huge and glaring.
But this is off subject. The upside-down boat movie will do ok. It shouldn't knock MI:3 out of the top spot though. And I agree Juggernaut was fun, but boy oh by those others, Earthquake and the god-awful When Time Ran Out! Man there really isn't a winner in the bunch though the one that started them all in the modern era Airport was fine in it's day but is very dated today.
Posted by guy steele at May 10, 2006 9:25 AM
comment #4
anthony says ...
eh.. what do you expect?
It's the original poseidon.. how else are they gonn sell it?
based on it's merits alone?
Posted by anthony at May 10, 2006 12:46 PM