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[Yoink]

Heh, I meant to make a joke to that effect but somehow it slipped my mind.   
No thank you, I'm not finna root any teens. Especially not ones being pursued by murderers in the forest.   

"Duncan Idaho"

There is a character named "Juliet Idaho" in my favourite fantasy series. Previously I thought it was just the author being a lovable weirdo as is his wont, but perhaps it was a nod to Dune.

[Kagus]

Today's matinee special for "Terrible Horror Movies" is: Realms! This solid 3.7 on IMDb features the shittiest fictional bank robbery I've ever witnessed, and has already shown some other very promising elements!

[Girl2 is being assisted through a dark forest path while limping on an injured leg. The director has clearly instructed her to vocalize appropriately]

Girl2: *Sex noises*

The part where Girl1 and Boy need to hide Girl2 while they go to look for help, so they place Girl2 in the middle of the floor in a dark room and give her a light source that can't be conveniently covered or turned off.


The part where Girl1 and Boy sneakily sneak downstairs past all the candles that their captors apparently took the time to light while shuffling the hostages through the abandoned house.


How Girl1 seems to interpret "We need to find medical and law enforcement assistance quickly" as "I am going to fondle this grandfather clock"


Whatever the fuck these CGI effects are.


The IMDb stats:

Country: USA (...no, no it's not)

Budget: $2,000,000 (Estimated)
USA opening weekend: $108
USA gross: $147

EDIT:
The fact that the shotgun sounds like a BB gun and -judging from the impacts- fires singular small-caliber handgun rounds.

Bank robbers: *Casually walk down populated street with weapons in full view and no face covering*

Bank robbers: *Don halfhearted masks immediately outside glass bank doors before heading inside*

Bank robbers: *Shoot ceiling*

Bank robbers: *Remove masks again after approximately 8 seconds of usage*

[Reelya]

For that super-low box-office take, there's actually an explanation for that.

For a low-budget movie (defined: under $2.5 million), the agreement between the USA's SAG (Screen Actor's Guild) and the studios states that they can pay the actors less money if the movie has a box-office release. This is because movies that go to the cinema theoretically raise the profile of the actors, so the agreement reflects that. To exploit that, a studio can privately hire out the absolute bare minimum of screens for the minimum amount of time, and you don't spend any money on signs or marketing. The minimum turns out to be renting 1 screen for 7 days, which can be pretty much anywhere. Nobody is intended to see it, the people who wandered in were incidental to the scheme. Then, it goes direct-to-DVD (or selling the TV rights, etc), but you've saved money on paying your cast.

Here's an explanation with another example, which made even less money:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YUYnYJ4N6U

[Iduno]

For that super-low box-office take, there's actually an explanation for that.

For a low-budget movie (defined: under $2.5 million), the agreement between the USA's SAG (Screen Actor's Guild) and the studios states that they can pay the actors less money if the movie has a box-office release. This is because movies that go to the cinema theoretically raise the profile of the actors, so the agreement reflects that. To exploit that, a studio can privately hire out the absolute bare minimum of screens for the minimum amount of time, and you don't spend any money on signs or marketing. The minimum turns out to be renting 1 screen for 7 days, which can be pretty much anywhere. Nobody is intended to see it, the people who wandered in were incidental to the scheme. Then, it goes direct-to-DVD (or selling the TV rights, etc), but you've saved money on paying your cast.

Here's an explanation with another example, which made even less money:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YUYnYJ4N6U

It's also possible for them to spend the budget from this movie on another movie that they wanted to do well. I'm surprised the budget listed wasn't closer to the cap, so they could make more expensive movies look better.

[Reelya]

I don't think the logic works like that.

In this kind of example, they've signed up some actors for a new movie and they tell them it's a low-budget in-theaters release. Then, on the contact they can specify that they can pat the actors less as a result. It's not a catch-all for hiding budget expenses of any type.

As for "more expensive" movies, they'd only benefit from scamming production costs if those movies also ended up coming in under $2.5 million. For example, if you made a $1 million dollar movie and a $4 million dollar movie, you could do what you suggested and use creative accounting to say they're both < $2.5 million dollar movies, and therefore the actors on both movies can be paid the lower rates, however this doesn't scale up further than that, since for any production to benefit, you'd need to somehow jiggle things so its total production, wages and marketing costs were sub-$2.5 million.

[Iduno]

I don't think the logic works like that.

In this kind of example, they've signed up some actors for a new movie and they tell them it's a low-budget in-theaters release. Then, on the contact they can specify that they can pat the actors less as a result. It's not a catch-all for hiding budget expenses of any type.

As for "more expensive" movies, they'd only benefit from scamming production costs if those movies also ended up coming in under $2.5 million. For example, if you made a $1 million dollar movie and a $4 million dollar movie, you could do what you suggested and use creative accounting to say they're both < $2.5 million dollar movies, and therefore the actors on both movies can be paid the lower rates, however this doesn't scale up further than that, since for any production to benefit, you'd need to somehow jiggle things so its total production, wages and marketing costs were sub-$2.5 million.

Yeah, you'd have to mess with a lot of budgets for that to work with this particular scam. It does, however, allow them to make a movie look like a bigger success or a bigger loss (business losses gets them a tax break, even if they then go on to make their money back).

[Iduno]

List of everyone in Robot Jox who isn't an asshole:

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Hey can anyone recommend a movie with large battle(s) (I.E. clashes of armies) or (relatively, for cinema) technical depictions of medieval/ancient combat? Maybe something off the beaten path, I've seen a lot of the big ones like:

Troy (some of it, it's kind of stinky overall)
Gladiator
all the Lord of the Rings movies
Kingdom of Heaven
300
Braveheart

I've even seen a lot of the early-modern, Napoleonic, and Civil War movies that offer the same things:

Glory
Gettysburg
Master & Commander
The Duelists
The Patriot

etc. etc. etc.

TBH, for filmmakers lengthy battles and/or slow-paced or more... "Detailed" combat, for lack of a better descriptor (because there's ALWAYS the problem of realistic portrayal) is kind of a cardinal sin, which is a shame, because it's one of my fav parts of action/war movies--ESPECIALLY in pre-firearm periods. SO yea, please let me know if y'all have any hidden combat nuggets?

EDIT: TV shows also welcome, though I don't want to derail a movie thread lol.

[Reelya]

Maybe start looking into Chinese historical war films. i think there are quite a few of these.

Oba: The Last Samurai was ok too, and maybe Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima. I note you don't have any WWII movies listed in there, they too modern?

Edit: I think the best bet is to just pick some random wars and google movies about them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oO6pCRe3pM

[Il Palazzo]

The battles in Alexander (2004) were one of the few saving graces of that mess.

Kinda similar story with Joan of Arc (aka the Messenger, with Jovovich), although it's much less concerned with any sort of accuracy, and at some point it kinda looks like they ran out of money for battles (the siege of whatever is literally just a couple guys in armour knocking on some gate in the background).

And for another of the Napoleonic era ones - War and Peace (1966) reportedly had some few hundred thousand actual soviet army soldiers used as extras in battles, so they look properly crowded in a way that currently only CGI can approach in scope.

[Yoink]

My memory of it is kinda hazy (reckon I'm due for a re-watch, I have it on DVD somewhere), but perhaps Arn might fit the bill?   
It's been years since I've seen it (I might have even been a *shudder* teenager at the time) so heck knows if it's actually much good, but I remember enjoying it. Definitely had at least its fair share of battles.   



In a somewhat more recent setting, didn't (apparently any version of) The Four Feathers have at least one decent, historical battle scene?   
The one I saw as a lad was the one starring Heath Ledger and I remember it being pretty gripping stuff. Also one dude was blinded when his rifle (or musket, I can't remember) misfired, which was a pretty hardcore little touch.   

I'm sure there are other good movies I should be remembering, I do love me some medieval/historical battles, after all.   

[Reelya]

The battles in Alexander (2004) were one of the few saving graces of that mess.

That must have been a trend spurred by the success of Lord of the Rings in 2001.

Troy (2004) and Spartacus (2004) both at the same time. (EDIT: there was also an Alamo film that year).

Also, just remembered this one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centurion_(film)

Centurion is a 2010 British historical action-war film directed by Neil Marshall, loosely based on the disappearance of the Roman Empire's Ninth Legion in Caledonia in the early second century AD.

^ This one is my actual recommendation. Plenty of grisly action in this one.

[Jopax]

For Chinese ones I remember Red Cliff being fairly entertaining. Not sure how realistic it was tho since it had the whole 'bigger than life' characters from history thing going on. Not sure if there were sequels or if the whole thing was just made in parts or something.

[Iduno]

Rewatching Ronin today because it's what I have on my laptop and I'm putting in a long day waiting for customers to show up.

DeNiro and Jean-Reno look like they belong in crime movies, plus DeNiro hurt someone's feelings once. This movie does a great job showing you who each of the characters are, with DeNiro's constantly being on, Jean-Reno's "if I was management, I wouldn't have given you a cigarette" and acting as the tour guide, the guy who asks too many questions, the non-DeNiro actor who showed up in a suit and tie with luggage, and Dierdre's quiet awareness of DeNiro's professionalism. Plus, there was another guy, who was maybe a bit creepy, but it's tough to tell.


Edit: Creepy guy was the driver. Makes sense that he'd be a bit off socially; he probably prefers machines to people. Also, just got to the fight scene near the middle of the movie. Jean-Reno calmly walking by the fruit stand shooting, while in the back everyone around him is dying. Great detail.

Edit2: Movie's still a good one. Makes me miss Shadowrun, though.

[Yoink]

Well damn, I shall have to watch that. You make it sound far more interesting than I'd expect, especially that last comment.   


I've started watching First They Killed My Father, but I'm not sure I'll be able to finish it. They haven't even got to the first part yet, but it's terrible to watch. Not terrible quality-wise, of course, but... you know what I mean.   

Edit: I blame the hippies.