comment #1

the king says ...

How does it end? For once, I don't care about finding out how it ends. Your review is exactly what I got from the trailer.

I just want to know if it has the balls to go with the "Omega Man" ending. I doubt it.

That type of ending is reserved "The Mist" I guess.

comment #2

the king says ...

Another thing that pissed me off about this movie is that the trailer gives away that they kill the dog!

Another terrible plot spoiler given away in the trailer, just like "The (Shit) Bucket List."

comment #3

joncro says ...

Remember how every other big movie wanted to destroy New York? Ghostbusters, Godzilla, Amageddon, Independence Day, Deep Impact....

Trash Manhattan!....

All stoppped after Sept 2001 of course.

Looks like its starting to happen again, with this, and Cloverfield.

comment #4

Sarcastig says ...

Not to mention Heroes, of course.

comment #5

Mike Schaefer says ...

This thing is getting much better reviews than I expected. But check out this quote from Kyle Smith's writeup in the Post:

"a scary, inventive, exciting and breathless adventure that combines the best elements of Children of Men, Escape from New York[ and The Road Warrior, but leaves out the worst stuff - such as the story-clogging despair and political allegory in Children a movie that made apocalypse look like kind of a downer."

Uh, Kyle... the end-of-the-world would be kinda depressing, don'cha think?

comment #6

Heleno says ...

Isn't the farm referred to as"Aunt Sarah's"? And isn't it possible that the townhouse was requisitioned for his use during the crisis, given its armour shielding? Otherwise, yes, it's out of his bracket.

And if you think Will Smith looks 49, you might want your eyes checked. I have friends in their early 20s who are greyer than that.

comment #7

christian says ...

How about just release the whole movie online?

comment #8

Wrecktum says ...

I'm sick of New York getting destroyed in movies. Can't any other great American cities be used for future disaster/apocalyptic thrillers? Chicago hasn't had a good spanking in a while. San Francisco, with its iconic bridges and towers, would be a perfect burg for destruction. How about Houston? It's the fourth largest city in the U.S., yet I can't remember a time I've seen its sweaty, oily ass blowned up good on the movie screen.

comment #9

SaveFarris says ...

Houston never gets blown up because their skyline is so nondescript as to be pathetic. Without Minute Maid Park, you'd be hard-pressed to identify it at all.

If we're still taking nominations for artful destruction, I'll throw in my 2 cents for Dallas & Minneapolis

comment #10

Wrecktum says ...

"Houston never gets blown up because their skyline is so nondescript as to be pathetic. Without Minute Maid Park, you'd be hard-pressed to identify it at all."

That's absolutely true. What about Miami then? Or St. Louis? An exploding arch would be cinematic gold.

comment #11

Breedlove says ...

I'm very curious as to how good this will be. CONSTANTINE was so awful I had zero excitement for this movie but I really like the ad campaign. The trailers have kicked ass. But now everyone says the monsters suck...not good...

comment #12

Mark says ...

True dat about CGI animals; it's not there yet. How about the shot in No Country, where Moss shoots an antelope? Quite fake and unnecessary. They could have used cutting and different angles to show that he hit one, but not well enough. Or damn the PETA people and just really shoot one; if hunting is legal, why can't it be filmed. Actually, forget that. I wouldn't mess w/ the PETA people. They're some kind of evil.

comment #13

WJ says ...

I think Houston was attacked by Africanized bees in the cheesy 70s disaster flick The Swarm. And Dallas was obliterated in a TV movie called Asteroids a while back... I watch too many bad movies. :P

comment #14

WJ says ...

Oh, and I might see I Am Legend this weekend, but I have very low expectations. I haven't read any spoiler-riddled reviews, but I'm guessing Richard Matheson's ending has been eviscerated by this version. If only someone had the faith to adapt the book as-is, they could make a great film.

comment #15

giantman says ...

Houston or Dallas was destroyed in Independence Day, very nicely if I remember correctly. Tokyo sure gets its share of blowed up real good. But I agree, they should seriously share the cinematic love around to more cities.

comment #16

christian says ...

Houston would blow up real good.

comment #17

Sean says ...

"Or damn the PETA people and just really shoot one; if hunting is legal, why can't it be filmed."

In point of fact, the American Humane Association is not in any way affiliated with those terrorist sponsors. (Naturally, PETA criticizes the AHA for not going far enough.)

As I understand it, there is no legal requirement that the AHA be involved, but no reputable animal trainer will get involved in a movie that doesn't use them.

No movie is worth killing an animal over when there are special effects that can fake it. I agree that the CGI in 'No Country' wasn't quite up to snuff, but I don't think that the production should've shot an animal to fix it.

comment #18

alan says ...

I haven't checked Ebert's page yet today - what did he give this one? 4 stars or only 3 and 1/2 this time?

comment #19

giantman says ...

Ebert gives it just 3 stars.

comment #20

Sean says ...

"I'm a fool for CG fakery when it's this good, and each and every shot of post- apocalyptic desolation in this film -- the pastoral still-life stuff, I mean -- is as good as it gets these days"

A lot of it is practical -- they hired 200 PAs. Unfortunately, they treated the PAs so badly that they eventually had to do a lot more of it with CGI, because they couldn't get anybody to stay and work when the production wasn't willing to pay for food and transportation. As I understand it, a lot of stuff about the movie had to change.

One thing I heard said was that the made-up ghouls/vampires/mutants/whatever you want to call them looked so bad [note that the pictures on line are of fantasized mannequins come to life] that they decided that they had to CG all the monsters, which meant they had to cut back on a lot of other stuff. But that's hardly an excuse for serving eggs which make half your PAs vomit.

comment #21

giantman says ...

Also, for anyone interested in such things, you should read an awesome book called, "The World Without Us" which examines what would happen to the world if we did disappear no matter what the reason. In point of fact, New York would be much, much worse in a shorter time than you might think. In only a few short days, for example, most of Manhattan would be flooded and the streets would start caving in. Which would make driving a Mustang around difficult. It is a very interesting book and I highly recommend it.

comment #22

rocco says ...

Is it any wonder an element exists hell-bent on destroying NYC when we, ourselves, are infatuated with the idea?

comment #23

btwnproductions says ...

You can basically walk out of LEGEND after the first 15 or 20 minutes, which is where the best New York footage is located. It's fun, but Broadway watchers will note that several long-closed shows (The Producers and Lestat) are up there on Times Square billboards, indicating that the data was dropped onto the workstations over a year ago. Strange, as they did "build" the in-progress TKTS booth on Duffy Square. Anyway, The World, The Flesh and The Devil did more with less in this regard 50 years ago, and Vanilla Sky had that nicely depopulated NY sequence, too.

comment #24

btwnproductions says ...

You can basically walk out of LEGEND after the first 15 or 20 minutes, which is where the best New York footage is located. It's fun, but Broadway watchers will note that several long-closed shows (The Producers and Lestat) are up there on Times Square billboards, indicating that the data was dropped onto the workstations over a year ago. Strange, as they did "build" the in-progress TKTS booth on Duffy Square. Anyway, The World, The Flesh and The Devil did more with less in this regard 50 years ago, and Vanilla Sky had that nicely depopulated NY sequence, too.

comment #25

berg says ...

what about FIVE or PANIC IN YEAR ZERO? wait - if the bridges were blown up how does the lady drive into the city, oh yeah she took the subway from newark

comment #26

ZayTonday says ...

Hckiva Goldsman wrote the script = DO NOT WANT

comment #27

Sean says ...

Zay -

As I understand it, the first half, the part that everybody praises, is from the other guy's script. (Granted, he's the guy who wrote 'Poseidon', but even that is a step up from pretty much anything Goldsman wrote.) I believe that's why everybody talks about the noticeable drop-off.

I am not 100% on this [PAs never hear anything from the source's mouth, but we hear good gossip, and the people I knew who brought me in on the job heard all the best], but I believe that Protosevich wrote the version of the script with a villain [reports were that they went after Johnny Depp]; Goldman did the re-write which included a woman and a little girl for him to save. When they couldn't get an actor who would justify including the villain at the expense of the "sympathetic" stuff (like saving a little girl), they went with the Goldsman re-write.

Thus explaining why *everybody* comments on the schizophrenic tone.

comment #28

Bocephus says ...

Speaking of Herzog, anyone know when Encounters at the End of the World is being released?

comment #29

BurmaShave says ...

Does he get bored and wash all the cars? I leave my car in the long term lot for three weeks to go to Canada and it looked like the sack of Rome, so I'd imagine after 3 years the dust would be incredible. Silly.

comment #30

DarthCorleone says ...

giantman>> You're correct that Houston got it in Independence Day, but the destruction was not spectacular at all. It was just a case of futilely launching nukes at the ships. When the smoke cleared the ships were still there and Houston was condemned to the fallout. Not only were there no money shots of skylines detonating, but I believe the entire scene transpired via the characters watching it on a video monitor.

comment #31

giantman says ...

Darth - You are correct, my memory of the scene (As usual) is better than the reality.

comment #32

Sean says ...

Burma - You may not be able to see it in the stills, but the cars were in reality incredibly caked with dust. They paid extras a flat rate in order to rent the cars by the day, and people from the art department were there very, very early (or very, very late the night before -- kinda blurs together) to dust up the cars.

It was a really incredible set to work on. As bad as the production treated us, I can't sing the praises of the art department and production design high enough. It was an amazing set to walk around on.

comment #33

Sean says ...

"Is it any wonder an element exists hell-bent on destroying NYC when we, ourselves, are infatuated with the idea?"

Del - as you may or may not know, blaming the terrorist attacks on anyone or anything other than the specific terrorists who conducted them is just not done around these parts, even jokingly.

comment #34

christian says ...

But is it okay for New York magazine to post this?

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/12/list_ten_best_movie_des.html

comment #35

JHRussell says ...

Just got back from the fanboy filled matinee at my local cineplex...comparisons to "Children of Men" imply a good if not great movie...unfortunately, the film falls well short of that...emotionally a very flat picture, even though they employ the standard heart string tugs to connect audience to action (place children and beloved pets in peril, etc.).

comment #36

christian says ...

Just tell me there's a cameo by Heston. Somewhere.

comment #37

renorambler says ...

Being manipulated by putting beloved animals in peril is my biggest pet peeve in films. Really, it is just laziness as far as I'm concerned.

And didn't they ever hear Tom Hanks talking about Turner and Hooch? If you want repeat business, DON'T KILL THE DOG!

comment #38

actionman says ...

"Speaking of Herzog, anyone know when Encounters at the End of the World is being released?"

not soon enough

comment #39

carla kolchak says ...

'Being manipulated by putting beloved animals in peril is my biggest pet peeve in films. Really, it is just laziness as far as I'm concerned.'

renorambler, it's been a long time since I read the book or watched The Omega Man, but the dog dies in the first filmed version of this story--The Last Man On Earth. If the dog's in Matheson's original story, I suspect he bit it there, too. Besides, it's just a dog who dies. No tears from you for the rest of humanity? ;-)

comment #40

gr81lives says ...

THIS MOVIE SHOULD BE CALLED CASTAWAY 2

comment #41

Silverscreenvideos says ...

Apparently, the film makers here went by what are the new "rules" for a zombie movie, namely that the zombies have to be very fast and very strong so that it's a near miracle to survive any encounter with them, even for a trained military officer who has an armory in his home that would make most third world countries envious.

In Heston's movie, the creatures were essentially bloodthirsty albinos, still human, still normally intelligent, still able to speak English and quite dangerous. Their leader, Anthony Zerbe, was a former television newscaster who was portrayed as a cult leader. Dated and cheesy but still effective as an enemy force.

Here, the creatures resemble Gollum on steroids with nearly superhuman agility and the ability to take several bullets from a high powered rifle and keep coming. I'm not exactly sure how any sort of virus would give them these abilities.

The encounters between Smith and the creatures were one more example of CGI poker. Since anything can be shown using CGI, directors who use it are constantly "forced" to up the ante by showing more and more outrageous situations. Everything has to be bigger, stronger, and faster just because it can be. Unfortunately, our minds tend to tune out things that we inherently sense as being unreal, which can destroy a scene's or a film's effectiveness. Real actors with makeup could have made for more effective and frighteing creatures than this bunch.

comment #42

D.Z. says ...

But how does it compare to "A Boy and His Dog"?

comment #43

Richard_Stone says ...

Yah, I really feel like discussing the last-scene detail, Wells.