There's a commercial for "Meet the Fockers," which closes with Ben Stiller whining the line, "She was riding him like Seabiscuit!" While watching this with my girlfriend, I joked, "Well, at least we know that Meet the Fockers takes place after Seabiscuit in continuity."
Which is pretty funny, right? The idea that "Seabiscuit" was the middle movie in the "Meet the Parents," trilogy.
Here's the problem: I had made that exact same joke about two days earlier. And now I've made it a third time! Jeepers!
I still think that would be funny, though. Movie studios should package three unrelated movies, and market them as "The Trilogy is Finally Complete!" Or even go so far as to get the directors to edit in scenes from the other movies. Like, if there was a flashback scene in "I Robot," where Will Smith is finally figuring out how to destroy the robots, and he flashes back to a previous scene of the sexy scientist saying, "You know, every robot is fitted with a shut-down switch," instead of the scientist, let's say there was a scene from "Young Adam."
Actually, you probably got the picture about three paragraphs ago. Point is, don't go see Meet the Fockers, it looks generic and bad.
Monday, December 27, 2004
Repetitive x2
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6 comments:
Chuck Klosterman makes a similar point in his book, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. I can't remember the specific example he uses, but it's about whether or not pop-fictional characters are aware of the pop-fictional characters in their (and to some extent, our) pop-fictional realities.
Damn, I wish I could remember the example. Maybe it was The Real World essay?
i have a major complaint about "meet the fockers", besides the fact that i don't want to see it.
when casting for the roles of ben stiller's overbearing, annoying, FUNNY parents, did they forget that BEN STILLER HAS TWO REALLY FUNNY PARENTS?
this pisses me off no end.
imagine how awesome this movie could be if jerry stiller and anne meara got to play ben stiller's folks.
shoudln't be too much of a strech for them, huh?
and jerry stiller and robert deniro? genius!
~m
Not to be glib, but I think that was something addressed very well in "Scream," and why that movie was such a success (the being aware of other pop-fictional realities, not casting jerry stiller and anne meara. They weren't in "Scream.")
Watching Shaun of the Dead this weekend, it was nice to see that the characters realized they were in a zombie movie, or at least, zombie video game. Its annoying to watch characters learn that you have to hit zombies in the head to kill them, movie after movie...
Or The Incredibles, for that matter, which I also finally saw over the weekend. They know the rules of the superhero game. And while its played for meta laughs a bit, it also makes them better characters.
Much better characters.
God that movie was good.
Wasn't there an episode of the Sopranos where they watched Curb Your Enthusiasm? That kind of takes pop-fictional relaties to a whole new level. Although they were also obsessed with The Godfather, Goodfellas, etc. so there's certainly a precedent there.
Characters on Six Feet Under watch Oz frequently.
It freaks me the heck out.
That's just stupid. It's blatant advertising and it's distracting.
Great, now I hate HBO. Thanks, guys.
On the other hand, you can get humor out of the characters being unaware...
The OC is a VERY self aware soap. The characters are prone to make snide comments about each others character traits, things that we as viewers would joke about (example: Ryan for the first few episodes did nothing but look upset and punch people, so now all the characters do is ask Ryan if he's going to brood, and at every social event, someone says, 'Now Ryan, don't go punching people." Things like that.)
However, they also are all addicted to a soap opera called "The Valley," which is exactly like the OC, but stupider. So The OC characters are self-aware without being hyper-aware. Meaning, the can notice their own behavior, but don't necessarily equate it with a soap opera, and realize they are in a soap opera.
Its getting there, though.
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