In Peter Jackson’s epic adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s trilogy, Aragorn is a wanderer who probably never sees the inside of a shower. Which is exactly why the actor who played him—Viggo Mortensen—decided it was up to him to give his costume that vital lived-in appearance.

Mortensen took his outfit home, then lived, breathed and sweated in it until it looked as beaten and battered as possible. He even repaired the costume whenever it needed it—something that Aragorn himself would have done on the road.

“That’s the best you can hope for in making costumes,” says costume designer Ngila Dickson. “That the actors will participate and make them their own, a part of their character.”

The actor’s efforts definitely paid off. While Mortensen delivered a stand-out performance, he also looks one hundred percent the part.

Michael Myers is a horror institution. The knife-wielding antagonist of the Halloween slasher series, he’s the thing of nightmares—an emotionless, white-faced murder machine who starts out stalking babysitters and goes on to rack up one heck of a body count. Funny thing is, his infamous mask actually began life as something entirely innocent.

Discovered by Halloween’s editor, Tommy Lee Wallace, in a Hollywood Boulevard store called Burt Wheeler’s Magic Shop, Myers’ iconic visor was originally a Captain Kirk Star Trek mask.

In order to fulfil the script’s brief of Myers possessing the pale features of a human face, Wallace customized the mask by making the eye holes larger and giving the entire thing a blue-white spray-paint job. The end result didn’t look like Shatner at all. “Which is probably for the best,” director John Carpenter has noted.

Myers wasn’t the only one given the thrifty treatment; scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis also had to buy her own wardrobe for the film. She ended up spending just $100 at J.C. Penny.

Comic book prowler Catwoman has appeared on-screen numerous times (most recently in 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises), but arguably her finest hour came in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns, which had Michelle Pfeiffer slipping into PVC.

Costume designer Mary Vogt came up with an unusual way of giving Catwoman that glossy sheen. When Pfeiffer had put on her cat costume, the costume department used big sponge brushes to lather her in thick silicone.

It was a messy process—“she [was] dripping all over the place,” Vogt has said—but the final look was perfect, and the costume department was particularly pleased with how the costume shone during night-time scenes—fluid, elegant and just the right side of raunchy.

Swiss surrealist HR Giger infused his sinewy designs for the monsters in Alien with an unsettling sexuality. Fitting, then, that condoms were used to bring his creations to physical life.

As well as using plasticine, parts from a Rolls-Royce and vertebrae from dead snakes, the costume designers on Ridley Scott’s genre-defining sci-fi also turned to K-Y jelly and condoms to get the right texture for the alien xenomorph.

The K-Y jelly was used for the alien’s gloopy saliva, while shredded condoms created the tendons in the creature’s jaw. No wonder Sigourney Weaver was so desperate to get away from it.

This belated sequel to the 1982 cult classic was all about going hi-tech. When it came to those iconic light-up suits, though, costume designer Christine Clark found that an old-school approach worked best.

Researching special effects houses in Los Angeles, Clark discovered that Quantum Creation FX had developed a special material for Japanese security vests. A thin, flexible material, it was ideal for the Tron: Legacy costumes.

As for the way the suits lit up, that was accomplished by hot-wiring the costumes. Lithium batteries were fitted into the discs on the actors’ backs, which gave the suits roughly twelve minutes of light. On the more hi-tech end of things, the production also had a remote control station on set that would monitor the suits and alert them whenever a battery was almost out of power.

“Normally on a set, you hear them say, ‘Sound speeding, camera speeding, action!’” says Clark. “We also had: ‘Light ’em up.’”

When it comes to stop-motion animation, the devil’s definitely in the details. As if creating a ninety minute movie by posing tiny figurines one frame at a time wasn’t painstaking enough, Coraline’s miniature costumes were also completely hand-stitched.

That eye-catching, star-spangled blue jumper that Coraline wears? It was knitted by Althea Crome, who was hired to create every piece of clothing that would be worn in the film—including underwear. It took Crome between six weeks and six months to knit the jumpers for the film, depending on the intricacy of the design.

“I think knitters are often fascinated with the fact that I use such tiny needles,” she says. “Some of the needles are almost the dimension of a human hair.” You can watch her at work here.

This one’s the thing of movie legend. When Buddy Ebsen accepted the role of the Tin Man in The Wizard Of Oz—after initially landing the role of Scarecrow—he was subjected to numerous costume tests in order to attain the right look for the character.

Eventually, he wore white face paint that was coated in aluminum dust. But nine days into shooting the film, Ebsen complained of shortness of breath, cramping and eventually the inability to breath and was rushed to hospital in an oxygen tent; where he remained for two weeks. After some tests were completed it turned out he was having an allergic reaction to the aluminum dust in his makeup.

Ebsen was swiftly replaced by Jake Haley and the costume was changed (the aluminum was blended into the white paint, rather than speckled on top). In a much happier development, during scenes in which Haley was squirted with oil, the crew actually used chocolate sauce as it looked better on camera.

It’s one of the most famous scenes in movie history; innocent wallflower Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) breezes into a fairground to show off her transformation into a black-wearing babe.

In reality, that iconic costume was a nightmare for the actress, whose skin-tight trousers were so tight that she had to be sewn into them.

Not only that, but Newton-John wasn’t allowed to go to the toilet during the day because it would mean putting the crew on hold while she was unstitched and then re-stitched up again. Talk about commitment.

Tight, creaky leather. A big fright wig. Oh, and the scissors of course. Johnny Depp was almost unrecognizable in Tim Burton’s sixties-set fairytale, which puts him front and centre as a tragic Frankenstein’s monster-style creation who changes the lives of little American suburb-dwellers.

Though Depp’s costume looks restrictive and uncomfortable, every effort was made to minimize his discomfort for those long shooting days. That meant installing Depp’s outfit with a special cool suit that would stop him over-heating in the baking Florida sun. Despite these efforts, the actor would still have to rush over to special fans after finishing a scene in order to cool down further still.

Other than latex and leather, parts of the costume were also made from bits of an old sofa from Tim Burton’s first apartment. Clearly he knew there’s no art without suffering.

John Travolta became a (brief) style icon in the late seventies thanks to his figure-hugging wardrobe in Saturday Night Fever.

Hard to believe, though, that as the film went into production, disco was dying such a sudden death that Travolta struggled to find suitable clothes to play foot-tapping dancefloor-hogger Tony Manero.

Tasked with sourcing his own costumes, he was forced to root through boxes in the back of Greenwich Village stores in order to find the platform shoes and bell-bottom trousers the role demanded. The iconic white three-piece suit everyone pictures when thinking of John Travolta in this film was bought very cheaply from a men’s clothing store in Brooklyn.

Josh Winning also writes for FancyDressCostumes.co.uk. Follow their tweets here.

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For anyone who has played Assassin’s Creed, falling into a dumpster is the equivalent of surviving a 100ft fall into a barrel of hay. If you manage to hit your target (difficult enough as it is), there’s also the fact that – much like hitting water at high velocity – you’re going to break your neck. But let’s imagine you do survive: congratulations – now all you need to deal with are the various discarded syringes protruding from your face.







Now I’m sure there are people with a lifetime of experience in deep sea diving who might look at people in movies swimming frantically from one submerged room to the next and think, “Is that all you’ve got?!” For the average Joe or Mary, however – you’re not going to last more than a minute or two. I barely made 45 seconds sitting at my desk – which, though it doesn’t say a lot about my overall health, does suggest that most people like me would be in trouble in an underwater emergency







This one is pretty common – but for that reason, it has to go on the list. You know the scenario: our hero has decided to charge through the 20-something bad guys in the room. Out comes his pistol: he fires relentlessly until there isn’t a soul left alive. The only catch in this situation is that he just let off a good 40 bullets from one – I repeat, one – magazine!

Your standard civilian pistol will hold 8-10 rounds, a military grade pistol more like 15 – and even if you have an extended magazine (which our hero doesn’t according to our eyes) you’ll be limited to about 30 rounds. Let’s hope you’re not facing a whole army.




As a follow on from number six: once the hero of the movie is done with his weapon, he simply casts it aside. Now if you’re going to pick up an enemy’s weapon due to lack of ammo, that’s all fine and dandy. Otherwise, it would make sense to hold on to your own gun; it’s probably going to be easier (and cheaper) to buy some more ammo than a whole new gun. Besides, what happens when you start registering multiple weapons? The “I lost my gun saving the world” excuse can only serve you for so long.







Most humans have an electromagnetic charge around their bodies, which means that bullets are going to be deflected away from us in most situations. Ok, I may be lying – the first part is true, but definitely not the second.

That being said, how is it possible that one man (or woman) is able to avoid a hail of automatic gunfire? Obviously it wouldn’t be as much fun to watch if the hero of a movie was cut down within ten seconds of the first big action scene – but there are times when you’re watching just thinking “Come on, at least take one hit, I want to believe!”

The lesson? Chances are that in a gunfight, you’ll be hit – early. And you won’t be able to keep running to the open doors of the waiting helicopter.





Martial artists are more likely than most to believe in concepts such as honor and respect – but in a situation where our hero is pissed off and out for blood, it probably isn’t the best time to give him the benefit of the doubt. Best case, he dislocates a shoulder or breaks an elbow; worst case, he snaps your neck, throws you off a very high place – or stabs you.

Instead of respecting your martial arts training, it would make more sense in this situation to throw caution to the wind and bundle the dude! It’s not stylish, it’s not exactly nice – but the point is that you want to come out on top.







This one could easily fall into a heated debate about the chemical make up of alcohol and the various proofs required for alcohol to be considered flammable. One reason I’ve included it is because of the way it’s portrayed in movies: one swig of Jack Daniels and a Zippo lighter – hey presto, you’re a human flamethrower!

For the kind of super-quick fire lighting that graces most movies, you would need the kind of alcohol no one should go drinking any time soon – if it’s potent enough to flammable, then it’s probably poisonous, too. This means that if the scene is set in a public place such as a bar, you’re going to have much more of the clientele resembling corpses than you imagined.





This one has been done to death – but to leave it out would be to ignore the elephant in the room. If you want to become a killing machine, it’s going to take months, if not years of intense training – and in the case of most movies, an excellent documentary maker who can catalogue the events for a quick four-minute summary when it gets turned into a movie.





Set explosives; turn; run; and jump! That’s all there is to it- and once you’ve mastered these simple steps, you can survive any explosion… or perhaps not. A hand grenade has a kill radius of about 5 meters (and an injury radius of 15); When you think that buildings are normally stuffed like a piñata in movies, this is going to be a lot wider – not to mention the shrapnel hurtling through the air.

Basically: if there is an explosion, you’d want something very sturdy between you and the source. Alternatively you’d want to be very far away in the first place, and not take a chance at trying to outrun an explosion – especially if the bomb is strapped to one of the things in the video above.





It’s an age-old idea: if you turn over a table during a gunfight, you can sit tight until you’re ready to pop up and fire another round.

 Unfortunately, you’re not going to do so well if this were a real life situation – you should find some more substantial cover, or scram! Even a wall isn’t going to do much good – and in case words don’t drive this point home, the video above should.

Check out more by Ross Brooks at his blog, Escaping the Alarm Clock.

The post Top 10 Movie Lies That Will Get You Killed appeared first on Listverse.

From the ever-recurring love ballads, to songs about murderous intent, Disney boasts a wide range of great and terrible songs. While it is no secret that films and musicals generally create additional songs and melodies that are never put to use, it might intrigue some Disney fans to know just how many songs have never seen the light of day: the following is a list of ten Disney songs that didn’t make the cut.



Most people will recognize the melody to this song as the same melody in Peter Pan’s, “The Second Star to the Right”. However, the melody for which Peter Pan is so well-known was never originally intended for that movie at all.

The tune was initially used for “Beyond the Laughing Sky”, a song meant to be featured in Alice in Wonderland. In fact, Alice in Wonderland has enough cut songs to make a list by itself. “Beyond the Laughing Sky” was eventually replaced by, “A World of My Own”, and the melody was carried over to Peter Pan. Interestingly, Kathryn Beaumont voiced Alice and Wendy respectively and yet her version of this song never quite made it to the big screen.





Like Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin has its fair share of cut songs. I couldn’t discover why this particular song was cut. It’s possible that the film already had enough energetic numbers. It’s also possible that the song deserved to be cut. Either way, a recording of this and other cut numbers can be found on The Music Behind the Magic box-set, which was released in 1994.






This song was originally intended to be sung by Duchess (Eva Gabor), and included a repeat of another unused song called “Pourquoi”,which was originally sung by Madame Bonfamille. “She Never Felt Alone”, unlike “Pourquoi”, is sung from a cat perspective – and whether or not this makes Madame a crazy cat-lady or Duchess a crazy people-cat, I can’t say. The song can be heard on the 2008 special edition DVD of Aristocats.






While fans of the Broadway musical version of this landmark Disney film might recognize this number, “Human Again” was ultimately cut from the original theatrical release of the film. Though it had already been recorded, eventually it was decided that this number got in the way of the continuity of the film, so it was replaced with “Something There”. In 2001, this number was given an animation, and included in the special edition of the DVD.






This song was written during the early development stage of Aladdin, when the title character was still supposed to have a mother. However, in true matricidal Disney tradition, Aladdin’s mother was written out of the movie, rendering this song unnecessary. A demo version of this song can be heard on the 2004 special edition soundtrack, as well as on The Music Behind the Magic box set.



This number was meant to take place at the ball. Thematically, it’s very similar to “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful” from the Rodger and Hammerstein musical of the same name – but in the case of the Disney version, the song is only told from Cinderella’s point of view. It’s unclear why this song was ultimately scrapped, though it could be that the film already boasted a few slow numbers, so one more would be excessive. A demo recording of this song can be found on the special edition of the DVD. 





This decidedly corny ballad (well, corny by Disney’s standards) was meant to be sung by Megara instead of “I Won’t Say I’m in Love”. Although a recording was made of “I Can’t Believe My Heart”, it was eventually decided that the song didn’t suit Megara’s established character and so it was replaced with the more lively number we’re familiar with today. You can find this song on Susan Egan’s CD, “Coffee House”.






This number, which was originally meant to be the opening song for the Jungle Book, was cut from the film when it was decided that its tone was too dark. Although suits the mood of the original book by Rudyard Kipling, the happier Disney film just couldn’t mesh with such a heavy melody. In fact, Terry Gilkyson wrote six songs that never made it into the film, of which only two were recorded. This particular song can be found on The Jungle Book soundtrack. 






Keen ears might recognize this number from the credits of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. But did you know that it was originally intended to be sung by Esmerelda in place of “God Help the Outcasts”?

According to the behind-the-scenes interview with Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, “Someday” was written as an energetic alternative to “God Help the Outcasts”. Ultimately, it was decided that “God Help the Outcasts” fit the tone of the scene more effectively, and “Someday” was relegated to the credits. You can find a recording of Heidi Mollenahuer singing the demo of “Someday” on the special edition of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.





Do you remember the con-artist fox named Honest John in Disney’s Pinnochio? The one that was obviously dishonest? Well, he originally had a character song, which was ultimately cut from the final release. As you might expect, the song’s lyrics are about just how untrustworthy Honest John is. It’s a shame this number wasn’t included – it probably would have given our wooden hero a bit more of a clue.

The post 10 Disney Songs that Didn’t Make the Cut appeared first on Listverse.

You may have noticed that in films where a telephone number is spoken or somehow visible, it almost always starts with ’555′. This dates back to the 1960s, when some telephone companies in America set up a range of fictional telephone numbers for use in movies and TV shows. This was to avoid customers being harassed by coincidentally having the same telephone number that might appear in a film. For the most part, films abide by this guideline – though watch out if you live outside North America, because the 555 prefix is only protected in that region and may be a valid phone number in other countries.



Sally Menke was a film editor who had a long time association with Quentin Tarantino, working on all his films up until Inglourious Basterds before she passed away in 2010. Editing a film involves many hours sitting in front of a screen, assembling raw footage into sequence and trimming any fat until a film looks and feels as intended. The raw footage, apart from the obviously intended performances, often includes actors and crew in and around the set before and after the scene, for example, the director calling ‘action’ and ‘cut’.

As a thoughtful gesture for Sally, slaving away on the rough cut in the editing suite, cast and crew would often wave at the camera at the start and finish of the take, and say ‘Hello Sally!’ – sometimes adding a message of their own to keep her amused during her work.



Often included as a nod to a small section of the audience, to be overlooked by the rest, cameo appearances involve someone of significance making a brief and unexpected appearance in a film, often without saying a single line. Some directors are particularly known for this – Alfred Hitchcock probably more than anyone, having walk-on parts in most of his own films.

Quentin Tarantino also likes to appear in his own films – though he often plays a more significant, albeit supporting, role.



Pixar, a studio that specializes in animated films, has developed a tradition of referencing their own movies, characters, and employees throughout their work. This started back when it was producing short animations, and has continued on through all their output.

I could explain all the references, but maybe rattling off a quick list would be easier: John Ratzenberger, everybody’s favorite bar fly from Cheers, has had a role in every Pixar film since he voiced the grumpy Hamm in Toy Story; the books on the shelf in Andy’s room in Toy Story bear the names of Pixar short films; a Buzz Lightyear toy is visible in the dental surgery in Finding Nemo; a Pizza Planet truck (again from Toy Story) shows up in most other Pixar films; and the Luxo bouncy ball (from one of their shorts) often appears in the background somewhere.

Maybe the easiest self-reference to spot is the text ‘A113′. It is a reference to the animation class that John Lasseter and Brad Bird attended, and it appears in all Pixar movies and some other work directed by Brad Bird. You can see it on license plates, serial numbers of objects, train numbers, room numbers, and even in the spoken words of some characters.



Featured in most films by John Landis is a reference to a non-existent film called ‘See You Next Wednesday’. First appearing in the film Schlock in 1973, and afterwards in Blues Brothers, Trading Places, Twilight Zone (a movie partially credited as an Alan Smithee – see number 2), and An American Werewolf in London, to name a few.

Some actors, whether intentionally or otherwise, become so identified with a type of character that they find it hard to break away and become known for anything else. A list of examples might include William Shatner as Captain Kirk, Hugh Grant as the bumbling English romantic, or Samuel L Jackson as the cool bad-ass. However, there are a few actors who – though not exclusively – seem determined for their character to die in as many films as possible.

Gary Oldman, Michael Biehn, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Steve Buscemi (who always seems to get the grisly deaths), and Gary Busey, have all made a habit of dying before the credits roll. But I can’t think of any actor who has popped his clogs on screen more than Sean Bean, who has around 20 film deaths to his name. These include (spoilers alert!) Golden Eye, Patriot Games, The Lord of the Rings, The Island, Equilibrium, Outlaw, Essex Boys, Far North, Don’t Say a Word and The Field – the latter of which sees him killed by a cow. South Park’s Kenny would surely be near the top, if we were to include TV shows.



To make the process of adding sound effects a little less tedious, there are collections of stock sound effects that film makers use to fill particular requirements. An example might be the sound of a rusty gate opening, a distant explosion, thunder… or a faceless baddie’s death rattle.

Something called the ‘Wilhelm Scream’ has become a frequently used audio sample for use whenever the evil henchman/soldier/unlucky bystander happens to meet his maker. It was named after the character ‘Private Wilhelm’ from the 1953 Western The Charge at Feather River, though it was actually first used two year previously in a film called Distant Drums.

The Wilhelm Scream was popularized by sound engineer Ben Burtt, who used it initially (and repeatedly) in Star Wars, and many other George Lucas and Steven Spielberg films. Several other film makers started using it in their work and it has now spread to most action films, and even TV and video games. Once you know what it sounds like, you’ll start hearing it everywhere.



Ever since this was pointed out to me, I haven’t been able to miss it. Films seem to have an obsession with using orange and blue images, shades, and backgrounds on posters and artwork. I’ve read a little about color theory in art – and according to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s color wheel, blue and orange are complementary to each other. As are red and green, and yellow and violet.

When used together, complementary colors are naturally aesthetically pleasing, which is important for attracting people’s attention to a movie through its poster or DVD cover. There are many interpretations of exactly what emotions orange and blue are meant to evoke, but some say orange makes us imagine excitement and vitality, whereas blue has calming and cool mood. Whatever their meaning, movie promoters seem to believe that they have the desired effect – and if you look through the covers of your film collection, you may find a pattern emerging.



When creative control of a movie has been taken away from a director, they could ask to be credited as ‘Alan Smithee’. This first happened with the 1969 film Death of a Gunfighter which was initially under the direction of Robert Totten, before being taken over by Don Siegel after Totten was fired midway through production.

Neither director wanted to take credit for the film, and argued that the lead actor Richard Widmark had been the de facto director throughout the whole production. To solve the problem, the movie’s direction was instead credited to Alan Smithee. Despite not being a real person, he allowed everybody to save face without attracting attention, the name being both unique, yet ordinary.

Directors Guild of America rules also stated that directors receiving the protection of an Alan Smithee credit were not allowed to discuss their motivations for removing their identity from a movie in the press. As a consequence, Alan Smithee was, for a time, believed to be an actual director, although word eventually got around regarding the pseudonym and its real purpose.



Extending the profitability of a story by making sequels is nothing new. Novels were doing it long before film, with the first movie sequel being Fall of a Nation in 1916, the follow up to the technically brilliant but incredibly racist Birth of a Nation. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with the idea of sequels: some have been excellent, including Godfather II, Aliens, Toy Story 2, and The Dark Knight.

Sometimes, however, sequel-making comes across as little more than a cynical business endeavor (how dare movie studios want to make money?!). I’m not sure we really needed a Rocky V, Jaws: The Revenge, or Oceans 13. The same goes for prequels: Hannibal Rising and The Thing (2011) didn’t really do anything to elevate their respective series. Increasingly, there is also habit of spacing out a movie series, with some sequels having parts 1 and 2 (Harry Potter, Twilight), or being stretched into a trilogy (The Hobbit), or each character being given their own introduction movie (The Avengers).

The post 10 Movie In-Jokes and Traditions appeared first on Listverse.

Here is a list of movies that came out in 2011: Harry Potter 7 Pt.2, Transformers Dark of the Moon, Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Pt.1, The Hangover Part II, Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides, Fast Five, Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, Cars 2, and Sherlock Holmes 2. What do all these movies have in common? That’s right; they’re the top grossing movies of 2011. Oh yeah, they also happen to be sequels.

How can this be, you wonder. After all, that was the year we also got critically acclaimed non-sequels like Hugo, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never. We tend to watch a movie to see what happens to the characters we love so much. It’s the same reason hundreds wait at midnight for Harry Potter 7. We all wanted to see what the wacky Hangover gang would get themselves into this time. Sure, we didn’t bargain on it being the same exact thing as the last movie – but if we truly didn’t like it we wouldn’t have made Hangover 2 the fourth highest grossing movie. No matter how much we complain, it seems like loving sequels is almost a part of human nature. Just wait until Hangover 3 and check yourself.

In today’s age, it seems like movies are just 90 minutes of explosions. Hell, we have a whole genre called “Summer Blockbusters” that embodies that very idea. Wouldn’t it be nice to go see a movie where the action is controlled, or at least balanced with amazing acting? No, it wouldn’t. We would all hate that immensely. Let’s go back to our movies list of 2011. Of the 50 highest grossing movies, around 9 are action packed blockbusters. And of these, only 5 did well. That means only 1 in 10 “summer blockbusters” did well- not exactly the ubiquity you were thinking of.

OK fine, you say. But that’s still much more than the past. Well, one thing you need to take into account is the technology. Today, it is much easier to make an explosion than in 1971 -when we needed an actual explosion. Still, let’s look at some cinematic legends over the years: Pulp fiction, The Godfather, Lord of the Rings, Fight Club. Star Wars singlehandedly created the Summer Blockbuster genre. And that’s not us pulling movies out of our ass to prove a point. Those are the some of the top rated movies of all time. According to a study by the University of Westminster, watching horror movies causes a spike in adrenaline, and the same holds true for action movies. Adrenaline spikes make us excited and create a sort of high that we tend to enjoy. Basically, we as a society are addicted to high octane movies.



When was the last time you laughed consistently at a movie and left feeling good? A major complaint against Hollywood is that there are no good comedies anymore. What happened to the good old days when we could watch a movie that starred Eddie Murphy as a donkey or Chris Tucker as a zebra and just laugh the whole time? Today, every comedy puts its best jokes in the trailer. Just look at The Watch, that movie starred an alien and three other very talented comedians. And yet the actual result stank worse than the underwear of a homeless man.

In reality, comedy movies are like every other movie in the sense that we can’t expect every movie to be balls-out hilarious. These movies would actually do well – if they hadn’t put the jokes in the trailer. At least then we would have had a few genuine laughs at the theater. But it’s a Catch-22, because without their best jokes in the trailer, there’s no reason for anyone to watch the movie.

Which brings me to my main point: the comedy aspect of comedy movies is its only redeeming factor. What actually is lacking in comedies today isn’t the jokes – after all, we saw some pretty good ones in the trailer – it’s the story and acting. Don’t get me wrong, every once in a while we do get a nice comedy like Madagascar or Hangover. 2013 has Movie 43 coming out, which basically stars every comedian you know and more in what seems to be 90 minutes of awesomeness. And if it does poorly, we at least know for sure it wasn’t for its comedy.

Ever since Spy Kids 3D, every single movie has been released in 3D. They’re even re-releasing old movies to be in 3D. Very rarely does the 3D work well to compliment the visuals; it usually just ends up in some multi-colored mess. We’re going to agree with you on this one, there are admittedly way more 3D movies than we need. But then, how much exactly do we need? The truth of the matter is that 3D is the new “colored” film, or if you’re from the 30’s, the new “talkie”. It’s no longer an add-on to a movie; it’s now a feature of the movie. How well the 3D works these days matters just as much as the acting or the writing.

That’s why good movies like Avatar have good 3D. And terrible movies have bad 3D. When was the last time you watched a movie and said, “Man, I would love this movie if they just didn’t put it in 3D. Everything else is amazing!”? Or on the other hand, when was the last time you watched a movie and said, “Man, the movie was awesome and the 3D made the effects so surreal”? Okay fine, you say. But that doesn’t mean that they need to go back and convert old movies to 3D a la Finding Nemo or Star Wars I. Except did you read the reviews of those conversions? Finding Nemo 3D was hailed for its 3D effects while Star Wars I 3D was booed for its post-conversion. Which one of those did well the first time it came out? Seeing a pattern?

Every great 80s and 90s action movie is being remade today, whether it be A-Team, Total Recall, Dredd, or Red Dawn. The problem with these remakes is that they all suck – and it almost ruins our memories of childhood. The thing with remakes is that it would actually be nice if we could see a new take with modern visuals and actors. But a lot of us go into the theater with a bad mindset to begin with. We assume that the movie will suck only because we don’t want something to be better than a classic.

Don’t get us wrong – some of the remakes do suck. But have you ever heard of a remake doing well, period? Dredd is currently being ripped apart despite being a great movie. The same goes with A-Team. Sure these movies may not be the classics that were made decades ago, but they’re also not the steaming piles of turd we think they are. Next time you see a remake, try watching it with an open mind – you may see a difference.

Hollywood is often the butt of criticism when it comes to the idea that society favors a skinny girl over an overweight one. We only see skinny girls take the leads in movies and the same discrimination applies to guys who aren’t ripped. However, it is unfair to blame Hollywood for its portrayal of girls when all it’s doing is showing us a reflection of the society we live in.

It is a terrible thing that today’s society says that only skinny girls are attractive – few would disagree. But Hollywood didn’t start the trend. Remember, this idea has been around since the Victorian Age (hence those gut-crushing corsets). It didn’t magically appear with the arrival of Hollywood.

But didn’t Hollywood at least contribute to this idea? Maybe, but you can hardly blame them. It isn’t like if Hollywood wasn’t around the stereotype would disappear. It’d show up in some other medium, like print or fashion. Blaming Hollywood for a stereotype is like blaming children for having their parent’s opinions.

There are so, so many movies that are stuck in this thing called “development hell” which is basically when studios block their production, distribution, or just plain set fire to the sets to stop them from being made. Many movies are sucked into this void if the studio doesn’t think its worthy enough, or if they have another project they’d like to feature instead. As a result, movies that could’ve been great are never made. On one hand, the dickery of the studios is hard to ignore. However, it actually results in better movies for us in the long run. X Men First Class for example, was almost thrust into development hell, but was rescued at the last second by Bryan Singer. Now we have a rushed version of what could’ve been amazing.

Except, we totally get to see that movie – in the version of its sequel. Other movies like the Total Recall remake were also in development hell, and tanked when they came out. However in their case, these were movies doomed to fail anyway, if anything because no one likes a reboot. A number of these movies are thought to have great potential only because they’re in development hell. Look at Peter Jackson’s almost-Halo movie. That sounds amazing on paper, but then look at his other big project non-Lord of the Rings movie King Kong, and you’ll see the potential this has to fail. Movies in development hell are incomplete, we can’t tell if they’re good or bad – it’s too early. If the movie survives development hell and is good, we’ll see a proper sequel.

When Lucasfilm was purchased by Disney and we were told that Star Wars 7 would be out in 2015, people started complaining. They assumed the movie would be botched because, well, look at Tron Legacy. Also look at X-Men 3, which could’ve been amazing. I like to call this the “Dark Knight Rises Effect”, because that’s where it’s most prevalent. The hype going into that movie was so great. It was supposed to be better than the Dark Knight, which some called the perfect movie. When the movie came out and there were plot holes, people started to complain. They blamed Nolan, they blamed WB, they even blamed fans of Batman.

DKR was a decent film if you look at it. But after the movie came out, there was too much “This Movie Rox” and “Oh God That Movie Was Crap” for any reasonable opinion to be made. The movie couldn’t live up to the hype it created. That’s what happens when you have to follow up on an amazing movie with something even better. There’s this mindset that the movie must be amazing because I wanted it to be. And when it isn’t at the level you imagined, you feel betrayed.

Hollywood would like us to believe that guns can fire for ages without reloading; that archeologists get their artifacts by punching Nazis; and that scientific breakthroughs can happen overnight. Why can’t movies be realistic?

Because in reality, the material is boring – often painfully so. It takes years to get a scientific breakthrough. Machine guns last a few seconds before they need reloading, and archeologists usually hire cheap labor to do their digging. But when we go to a movie, we don’t want to see 90 minutes of poor Egyptians digging for gold while a white man stands over them. We want to see Harrison Ford take the gold from a temple while running away from a boulder.

We don’t want the truth, we want the fiction. This complaint goes especially to historical movies. Whether it be 10,000 BC or Troy, most movies that take place centuries ago are off the mark by a lot. But that’s the problem; movies that are used to exemplify the problem are often bad for other reasons.

Let’s look at some historically accurate movies: there’s Saving Private Ryan, which is lauded for being accurate. It’s also chock-full of great actors and a great story. We as an audience don’t care for historical accuracy over acting or a story – so neither does Hollywood.

Remember that list of sequels I mentioned earlier? Did you notice how almost all of them weren’t based on original ideas? There isn’t any creativity left in Hollywood, every movie you see is either based on a book, an already-existing movie, or some poor soul’s life story. Why is it that nowadays, we can’t we get any original yet thoroughly enjoyable movies?

Put simply, it’s because we don’t care for them. How many people do you know that actually took their kids to see “Hugo” over “Alvin and the Chipmunks 3”? (Three?!) How many of your own friends do you know who went and saw The King’s Speech?

When we get news that there’s a movie adaptation of a book or a comic or a videogame that we loved as kids, we’re more excited to see them on the big screen with CGI and A-list actors than we are for “original” movies. But okay – I’ll admit that it’s your right to ask for at least one “original” movie that breaks the Hollywood norm and wows us all with an enjoyable and compelling story. We totally get at least one of those movies each year. In 2009 it was Hangover, in 2010 it was Inception, in 2011 it was Bridesmaids etc., etc. This year, we have Cloud Atlas, which set out to do exactly what we want from a movie. Here’s a movie that breaks every Hollywood norm, is chock full of amazing actors and has stunning visuals. Instead we get complaints about “yellow face” and Wreck-it-Ralph takes the number 1 position at the Box office. 

What should you take away from all this? Hollywood doesn’t suck, Hollywood is Hollywood – just making movies and having fun. Haters suck. And movies suck because of them.

The post Top 10 Reasons Hollywood Doesn’t Suck appeared first on Listverse.

The Truman Show is about Jim Carrey realizing that his whole life is a lie. Everything is staged by a TV crew and his entire life is followed by an audience. In the end, he breaks out and finds his way to the real world. Sounds crazy, right? Well, in real life there was this Japanese game show called Nasubi. Get ready for some depressing stuff.

They took a man who had merely signed up for a reality show (he wasn’t told which one), stripped him naked and locked him in an apartment for about eight months. He had no clothes, food, or water. His only belongings were given to him if he won a sweepstakes. Because some of the audience felt bad for him, the producers let him wear one piece of clothing – unhappily enough, it was a woman’s pink panty. Finally, they told him that he’d passed and took him to what he thought was a celebration. It was another apartment. He went through this for 15 months.



Now, this one isn’t necessarily the real life version of a movie plot, but it is pretty badass in its own way. In the opening scenes of Wanted, a sniper shoots a guy in a suit from an impossible distance a few miles away. As though more spice needed to be added to the craziness, his bullet navigates a city and multiple buildings. Real life can’t match that, right?

Well: once upon a time in Iraq, SSG James Gilliland was with his patrol when an enemy sniper took out one of his men from a hospital half a mile away. That shot’s impressive – but what happens next is better. SSG James, a sniper himself, immediately figured out where the shot came from and shot back, killing the sniper. This was a 3/4th of a mile shot through buildings into the exact hospital window. For those of you non-gun nuts, it’s currently the 7th best recorded army sniper shot ever.



In this movie, Denzel fights a group of 15 men with a sword, kills them all, and doesn’t even get touched at all. He says he is protected by God – that’s why he’s so good.

In real life, Alvin C. York was one badass fighter. A soldier in WWI, he was once faced with more than 100 Germans surrounding him. What seems like insane odds was just a walk in the park for York. He took out a semi and a pistol and shot them all down, not missing one shot. Even through all the machine gun fire, he didn’t get hit once. To add to the similarity, even Alvin didn’t think his aim was normal. He believed he was protected by God.



Movies like “The Hills Have Eyes” are the reason most of America is afraid of hillbillies. In those movies, hill people kidnap or lure innocent people into their “cozy” homes. They then proceed to murder, rob, and rape their victims; and if you’re very lucky, in that order. But come on. If that was real, the police would be all over it, right?

Turns out, no. Hill people are very real. A few years ago, a bunch of hicks lured people into their abodes with promise of work – and then killed them. This isn’t the only movie-like incident, either. Back in 1846, a group of settlers got lost in the mountains. After running out of supplies, they resorted to killing and eating other people in their caravan.



I’ll be damned if you don’t know who the three musketeers are. Even if you ignore the most recent movie, the three fictional musket-toting Frenchmen were massively popular – famous not only for the classic book which invented the legend, but also for the sweet, sweet candy bar which took their name.

What you probably don’t know is that all the characters actually existed. Arthos, Parthos, and Aramis were all real Frenchmen who were active between 1615 and 1620, and went by the name “the Three Brothers”. Don’t believe us? We’ll even throw in that D’Artagnan and Cardinal Richelieu were real, for good measure. Alexander Dumas basically ripped off their lives and didn’t credit them.

Goodfellas is one of the staples of the gangster movie genre. Not only did it launch the careers of everyone involved and embolden the veterans already in there, but it help set several of the gangster tropes that we continue to see in movies today. More than anything, the movie just seems so realistic. Its like when you watch the Dark Knight and realize that a man could dress as a bat and protect a city. Well, as it turns out, the realism is there for a reason. The whole thing is based off a book called “Wiseguy”. Everything from the movie’s opening line to its grand finale heist at JFK was completely, utterly real.



The movie about forbidden dancing is actually reflected in Elmore City, Oklahoma. In that city, public dancing is outright banned. Also, there are no movie theaters and only one bar. It seriously reads like the movie where kids sneak out to barns to dance in secret. And the whole town is one huge anti-teen-sex PSA. Everyone – from pastors to school admin – think that “sexual arousal” is of the devil, and that dancing teens are against the Bible.



Accepted is a wacky movie starring that guy from the Apple commercials. It’s about a group of kids with assorted intelligence who decide they hate the popular university that everyone goes to because it’s arrogant and rich. They decide to make their own college with a former professor and it becomes wildly successful and even gets accreditation.

In real life, a group of students decided in 1948 that they hated the popular Nazi Humbolt University. The students – along with some old professors – decided to break off and make their own. With funds from the U.S., they made their own university and called it the Free University of Berlin. Today, it is ranked number nine in the nation.



National Geographic decided to build a house, not of straw or wood or bricks, but topped off with helium filled balloons. The goal was to create one that could imitate the house featured in Pixar’s hit movie Up. They succeeded: the house actually took off. Unfortunately for our vivid imaginations, no one actually lived in the house – it was just a project. But for the first time ever, National Geographic proved that the world really can be as awesome as a cartoon, if you throw enough money at it. As for real life imitating the other half of the movie – we’ve got your back. In 2007, a man attached some helium balloons to his lawn chair, and sailed for nine hours from Oregon to Idaho – as you do.



The Great Escape is a classic film for its portrayal of pure American bravery in the face of danger. The film stars a number of men who break out of their respective prisons, in an attempt to return to Allied territory using ingenious escape techniques.

In real life, Captain Richard Carr was captured and thrown into a German prison during World War II. He tried several times to escape. Just like in the movie, each attempt was more elaborate than the previous one. He first attempted to escape by digging a secret tunnel. He and 13 compatriots dug and dug for 6 days. As the first one out, Captain Carr bolted to make sure the coast was clear and hid in a nearby barn. Unfortunately, the coast was not clear, and he was recaptured.

Next, he snuck out during prison relocation and boarded a train. When the Gestapo came for him, he literally jumped off the train after what I can only imagine was a Bondesque chase. Again, he was recaptured. But this still didn’t deter the man: he tried sneaking out for a third time, dressed as a French worker – to no avail. To be fair, this one was on him; he did dress as a Frenchman, after all.

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Mohammed can be found on Twitter and at Cracked.com.

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But I’m here to completely shatter all of that nonsense. While the magic behind your favorite movies is rather impressive, it gets so much more amazing when you really know what’s going on behind the scenes. When you can fully understand just how much work goes into your favorite movies, the magic behind it all becomes that much more entertaining.

Yes that is a lion, and yes there are two guys just sitting there with it like it’s not an insane thing to do. Why would they do something so ridiculously dangerous you might ask? Because they’re Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and they need a totally freaking awesome logo for their production company! Over the years there have been a lot of rumors about this lion. If you believe the internet, then this lion ended up killing it’s trainers right after this photo was taken. In reality however, MGM had to do this with seven different lions over the decades. And not once was anyone ever attacked.

If for some reason you thought working on animatronics was an easy job, I present to you the self fitting jacket from Back to The Future Part 2. Not exactly self fitting once you see the full picture. What are those five people laying down on the concrete for? Well, the self fitting jacket was actually filled to the brim with wires. Each wire moved a part of the jacket of course, but here’s where the really hard part comes in. Each person on the ground had to pull their strings with perfect timing or the effect wouldn’t be smooth enough for the shot. So they laid there all day until they got it just right. Who said pulling an actor’s strings was easy?

The Avengers released earlier this year and made something in the neighborhood of a billion dollars more than their budget. With a budget of $220,000,000 however, you’d think some of the most advanced CGI technology ever would have gone into making the movie, so why exactly is Chris Hemsworth beating up that poor under-dressed mascot? Well that really is what it takes when you use some of the best CGI tech in the business. To get Hulk’s massive size to translate onto the big screen, they had to have some poor guy walk around in that foam prison for most of the movie’s up close fight scenes.

Consider this one a behind the scenes of the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. That is Nicolas Cage as Superman. Yes, for real. He wasn’t just dressed up as Supes for fun. In fact, he was actually a heartbeat away from playing the Man of Steel in a Tim Burton directed movie. As you can see from the picture above, things were going so well that they already had Nic suited up and ready to go. So why aren’t we in a dystopian future where Nicolas Cage really was Superman? Well, production happened. The script had so many rewrites that the film wasn’t ready to film until four years past the estimated release date. Warner Brothers was $30,000,000 in the hole and just decided to can it.

Now that we have computers capable of building entire worlds out of a green cloth hung up in the background of a shot, its easy to forget just how impressive set pieces really were before computer generated images took over the market. What you’re seeing there is the corpse of a Space Jockey in the movie Alien. As you can very clearly see, that thing is huge. Teams of artists slaved away for weeks building it specifically for this movie… and yet it only appears for a few minutes. Sure, all of that work was worth it, but think about just how much man power went into that one piece so you could enjoy the movie a little bit more.

When I was watching Pirate’s of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, I knew Davey Jones’s face and claw were done with CGI. What I and most other viewers didn’t realize however, was the fact that Davey Jones was entirely CGI. From head to toe, Davey Jones is actually just Bill Nighy in a rather silly looking gray suit with marker ink on his face. But the CGI was done so well that you wouldn’t know it while watching the film. And a hats off to the actors as well. Just try to pretend one of your family members is a squid monster for a bit. Of course you’ll have to dress them up like Bill Nighy beforehand. Good luck.

As you saw just a bit ago, CGI can be done so amazingly well that you won’t be entirely sure that it even is CGI until some jerk on the internet shows you. But there are also times when the makeup work on a movie is so insanely impressive that you might actually mistake it as CGI, as seen in the Guillermo del Toro film Pan’s Labyrinth. Doug Jones, known primarily for being able to stand around for a really long time while people cake him in pure special effects played both the Faun and the Pale Man in the movie. Almost everything you see in the movie was achieved with nothing more than makeup, prosthetics and a lot of early mornings. Even now it is hard to believe just how amazing it is.

Where do I even begin with this one? What you’re looking at is what can best be described as hopefully Nicolas Cage while filming Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. I would like to point out the only thing needed during the filming of the movie were the lights attached to his head. Everything else is 100% Nic Cage. Why exactly did he dress up in such a way? Well, Nic claims the makeup was that of an ancient shaman. It made him feel empowered and more like the Ghost Rider during scenes. And why is he wearing a bedazzled jacket? Those are actually different minerals and talismans that he personally sewed into the jacket to give him more power during filming. This is actually how he looked during the different Ghost Rider scenes. Give this man all the awards.

What you’re seeing here is easily one of the most iconic scenes in the entire history of the Star Wars series. Luke Skywalker has just lost his hand and learned the truth about Darth Vader. Spoilers, he’s Luke’s father. Shocked by this horrible truth, Luke Skywalker faces almost certain death as he falls about four feet into a pile of dirty mattresses. This is what the most memorable scene in nearly all of sci-fi history actually looked like. Not only does it look hilariously dirty down on the ground, it doesn’t really look all that safe either. They could afford to build that awesome set, but they kind of scrimped on the actual safety mats.

If you’re a fan of The Labyrinth then I must warn you. You really should have looked away about twenty seconds ago. What you’re seeing is the sick and twisted remains of Hoggle from the movie The Labyrinth of course. This is the true face behind the scenes of your favorite classics. But really, how did a Hollywood treasure end up like this? Sadly, Hoggle’s death was caused by lost luggage. Jim Henson would occasionally go on tour with his many puppets, and during one trip Hoggle was just lost with no way for Henson to get him back. He wasn’t found until nearly 20 years later. He has since been restored, but its too late. We’ve already seen his corpse. Rest easy Hoggle, and thank you all for reading.

The post 10 Fascinating Behind The Scenes Images From Movie History appeared first on Listverse.





Two post-acocalyptic feasts of visuals. The intriguing atmosphere of depression and loss, the drastic changes to familiar landscapes, has always been why we love these. In terms of realism, The Road is an easy winner, but only because Eli focuses on a blind man with superhuman hearing and martial arts prowess who has apparently received his abilities from God.



Realistically, however, The Road depicts a man protecting his young son, and the man avoids as many fights as he can, since he is no black belt and only has a revolver with only 1 bullet. He is more prepared to kill his son than fight against overwhelming numbers, since this will spare his son being eaten or tortured.



The Book of Eli is, on the surface, just another action movie with a nearly invulnerable protagonist. It also features cannibalism in one scene, and the hero being killed while protecting a companion. This one was a very good different take on the same subject, written by Gary Whitta in the literary wake of McCarthy’s novel winning the Pulitzer. Everyone knew it was superb film fodder, and Joel Silver quickly seized the opportunity to rip it off for a fun actioner, enlisting Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson of Alcon Entertainment, then Warner Brothers for most of the financing. Despite mostly terrible reviews, it nearly doubled its $80 million budget, while The Road, with glowing praise, barely made back its relatively low budget of $25 million.





One is a hunk vehicle that spawned dozens of pop-culture catchphrases. The other is a drama-less, half-hearted attempt at a storyline that spawned a dozen sequels. Top Gun is the film that launched Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer into super stardom (it’s the teeth) as the cockiest fighter aces in the Air Force. Standard storyline applies; you’ve seen it a thousand times. The recruits show up for training thinking they’ll take it all in stride, find a real tough instructor, overcome adversity, then beat all the bad guys in the end.



Iron Eagle is identical except that the damsel in distress is a man, the hero’s father. You can tell a hasty story when you see it. Sidney Furie pitched the idea to TriStar, who eagerly grabbed it to compete with Top Gun, and made their money back, but not much more. Lou Gosset, Jr. and David Suchet are the only class in this act, but then, in Air Force action movies, the planes and stuntflying take center stage.





Let’s just go ahead and call Return of the Jedi the winner of this one. It isn’t so much a duel, as Warner Brothers’ shameless attempt to capitalize on the space opera sci-fi craze with which George Lucas swept the whole world. Starfighter’s target audience is blatant: the hero gets into an intergalactic adventure after playing a video game. Craig Safan, with a 150-piece orchestra no less, does his level best to outdo John Williams, but melody has always counted more than orchestration.



As far as Return of the Jedi goes – well, it’s Return of the Jedi. It wins. It didn’t need two prequels backing it up, but it has them. The true value of Star Wars, and the one thing the three new movies sorely lack, is in the character archetypes. You’ve got the innately wise heroes of the Rebel Alliance versus the educated idiots that are stormtroopers; the damsel in distress; the magic weapon; black is evil, white is good; etc. The Last Starfighter is just like all the other rip-offs, academic and superficial.







Everybody and his brother knows Spielberg has been planning a film on Honest Abe for 12 years. Finally, he found a book he liked and gave the green light. The hype was so great that Seth Grahame-Smith wrote the Vampire Hunter novel in only about a year, hoping to cash in on the Twilight craze and the last name suddenly on everyone’s lips again, at least in Hollywood. At that time, Liam Neeson, who is also 6 feet 4 inches, was Spielberg’s announced lead, but he left when the production delayed for a fourth time, considering himself to be too old.



The film appeared to be dead, until none other than Daniel Day-Lewis expressed interest. That was all Spielberg needed to hear. Vampire Hunter beat Lincoln to the release date, premiering on 22 June, but only because Spielberg wanted a date closer to Christmas. Is it an honest-to-Abe duel? Well, yes and no. Yes, Vampire Hunter used Spielberg’s long-gestating masterpiece as a cash cow, but the stories are so fundamentally different that they’re sort of like two galaxies spinning very near to each other. Their proximity makes them look like their fighting. Vampire Hunter won’t get too many Oscars, but Lincoln won’t get too many MTV Movie Awards.





Spartacus came about entirely because of Kirk Douglas, who desperately wanted the role of Judah Ben-Hur. Ben-Hur was a notoriously difficult role to cast, and the producers tried Marlon Brando, Rock Hudson and Paul Newman, all of whom turned it down. They even tried Leslie Nielsen, who tested in several scenes. Douglas lobbied hard for the role, but director William Wyler thought he was too short and refused.



Charlton Heston, at 6 feet 3 inches, was finally cast, and this infuriated the 5’9″ Douglas, who rapidly set about looking for another epic script to show Sam Zimbalist and MGM the error of their ways. He chose Spartacus and pulled enough strings to get the ball rolling fast, but wasn’t able to get it made for the same Oscar race. Lucky him, really. Ben-Hur set an Oscar record that still stands. Spartacus is certainly a great film, all the same. Douglas assembled one of the most heavyweight casts the screen has ever seen. But Ben-Hur is religious, with a happy ending, and the critics liked it more largely because of this. Spartacus has zero religious influence, except for the coincidence of crucifixion.





When 20th Century Fox heard the rumors of a volcano action flick with the current James Bond on the page, they sent out the word for volcano disaster stories, paid Billy Ray and Jerome Armstrong for a quick one, and got to work. They needed star power, and Tommy Lee Jones agreed for a large salary. He actually did a good job, but Pierce Brosnan is his equal as a volcanologist trying to warn the titular town to evacuate.



Scientists universally agree that Dante’s Peak is more accurate, depicting the danger of the ashfall, the pyroclastic clouds, and the subductive blast, which is an exceptional sequence of special effects. Volcano seems to dumb down the science and give the audience lots and lots of lava. It’s also not based on any particular eruption, while Dante’s Peak is based mostly on Mount St. Helens. Dante’s Peak did better at the box office, mainly because it beat Volcano to the punch, premiering 2 months earlier – but both did well.



Kevin Costner was keen on the story of Wyatt Earp and agreed to play the lead in Kevin Jarre’s film, but wanted the story rewritten to center almost entirely on Earp. Jarre refused, and Costner left in a rage, swearing to make his own film and keep Jarre’s down. Jarre attracted the interest of Kurt Russell, who called on George Cosmatos for direction. Russell effectively directed Tombstone, telling Cosmatos how he wanted each scene. It is one of the more accurate Westerns in terms of all the minor details. Photographs of the historical figures were scrutinized for proper costumes, down to Ike Clanton’s ace of spades boots.



The film doesn’t dwell on Earp’s life, but focuses on the events leading up to the Gunfight at OK Corral, and the subsequent Vendetta Ride. Kilmer’s Doc Holliday is better than Dennis Quaid’s in Wyatt Earp, but the latter film’s only weak link is Costner’s cold, johnny-one-note portrayal of Earp. He almost acts manic depressive, a characterization brought on by the death of Earp’s first wife. Russell’s portrayal is much more multilayered. He smiles now and then. Costner did everything he could to destroy Tombstone at the box office, but when Wyatt Earp premiered, the public was effectively Earped out. Tombstone more than doubled its budget, while Wyatt Earp could not bring in even half of its own.







Both of these films deal with giant meteors destroying Earth. Deep Impact hit theaters on 8 May 1998, well ahead of the July 4 weekend, because its producers, from Amblin Studio primarily, tried to counter the financial duel of Armageddon, and thus Armageddon’s release date was pushed back. Most respectable critics lambasted both films, but as is typical of such criticism, it only seems to draw more people to theaters.



They both did extremely well, with Armageddon taking in more money than any other film of the year. The first film mentioned in #1 was the second highest grossing. Science critics have since looked much more favorably on Deep Impact, which depicts the Almighty Nuke magically NOT succeeding until the very end, when the astronauts all sacrifice themselves. Meanwhile, they still don’t save the east coast of the United States, and the west coast of Europe and Africa. 



Armageddon’s producers, mainly Jerry Bruckheimer, quickly added $3 million worth of computer generation to try to make it better, but unfortunately the story is a smelly thumbs-down. A single nuke successfully blows a stone asteroid (not an ice comet) the size of Texas perfectly in half in the nick of time. It would almost have been a good film if Ben Affleck had taken Bruce Willis’s place.







This duel seems to have originated in a competition to see who could be more historically inaccurate. Braveheart at least has something of an excuse, since it’s based on a single source, and that’s poetry. Poetry isn’t all that factually reliable. Rob Roy had verifiable history to draw on and still changed the facts. Archibald Cunningham never existed.



Because Mel Gibson had only directed one film before, he did not run his production very efficiently and it went over budget. He used over 1 million feet of film for the Battle of Stirling. Michael Caton-Jones had more experience behind Rob Roy, and its not-quite-so-epic nature also made it easier. Randall Wallace (no relation to William) had been kicking his screenplay of Braveheart around Hollywood for years, so when Paramount and 20th Century Fox finally greenlighted it, it was no secret. 



United Artists still needed to recuperate some of its losses from Heaven’s Gate 15 years earlier, and saw Scotland and its history as something new. They could tell Braveheart would be a cash cow if Gibson put his particular brand of violence on it, so they very quickly began producing Alan Sharp’s screenplay of Robert Roy MacGregor, and Caton-Jones opted for one outstanding swordfight instead of several thunderous hackfests. He was able to finish his first and get it into theaters one month earlier. Hard to say which is more entertaining.





When Spielberg makes a film, everyone in Tinsel Town knows about it – and reads all the news they can about the story, casting, and locations. This has been true ever since 1993, when he directed a fun blockbuster and a gritty and true drama mere months apart. So when he finally set out to make a WWII film to showcase its warfare, the rumors flew about how realistic it would be.



So 20th Century Fox recruited Robert Geisler and John Roberdeau, and Phoenix Pictures, to produce its own WWII battle film – requiring a Pacific Front battle to counter Spielberg in Europe. Terrence Malick offered his directing service, since he’d had it in mind to turn James Jones’s titular novel into a film. He was smart not to focus on action, since he would probably never have passed the censors. Spielberg only did because he’s Spielberg, and he almost failed to persuade them.



Ryan’s theme is finding humanity “in the middle of this whole god-awful mess,” and its raison d’etre is showing the audience the most realistic depiction yet of warfare. Malick went in a different direction, with a theme of soldiers struggling to maintain their sanity. It’s one of the closest approaches film has made to poetry. Both did very well, with Red Line bringing back almost twice its $50 million budget. Ryan won outright, though, with five Oscars to Red Line’s zero (they were nominated in several of the same categories) and $481 million for a price of $70 million ($12 million of the former was spent on Omaha Beach alone).

The post Top 10 Movies That Battled for Blockbuster Success appeared first on Listverse.

All we need to contend with now is the follow-up book series: as always, dragged out into as many movies as humanly possible, all for the sake of a buck. I refer, here, to the psycho-kink and sexcapades of 50 Shades of Grey. Since this series was fan-fiction for the Twilight saga, I guess we may never escape the nauseating nonsense found between the covers of such books. All the same, the Saga itself has finally come to end – and here are some reasons to rejoice:

Everyone knows that vampires do not shimmer and glimmer in the sunlight. They burst into flames! Please, please, filmmakers and authors – let vampires be vampires again. They are creatures of darkness, with a hypnotic stare and an insatiable appetite for sex. That is how they capture the attention of so many of their victims. They don’t walk away from human blood just because of their morals and values – they lost those morals and values the minute they became undead. Yes, they are strong and fast, but they have weaknesses too – crosses, sunlight, and stakes through the heart. They are supposed to “rest” in coffins during the day, vulnerable to the world. Give us back our tried-and-tested garlic-fearing vampires!

Ever since Twilight hit the shelves and the theaters, the general public has been paying homage to their respective “teams” by naming their newborn babies after the stars of the saga. Isabella and Jacob were most popular names in the U.S. since the release of the books and movies, with Cullen quickly rising in the ranks. There will soon be graduating classes full of these living and breathing Twilight tributes. Thankfully, society can now go back to being somewhat original – at least, until 50 Shades hits the theaters. I expect that we will then see an influx of little Christians, Anastasias, and – of course – Greys.

Kristen Stewart can continue to rub the public the wrong way with her Jezebel ways, but Bella is finished. I read the books, I watched the movies – I needed to see what the fuss was all about. My conclusion? Bella Swan was a passive-aggressive, whiny brat who needed some serious therapy and self-esteem classes. She played Edward and Jacob against each other, and toyed with Jacob’s feelings despite having no intention of giving up on Edward. I don’t care what anyone says: she ate up their affection and attention like a gluttonous pig. She wanted the best of both worlds – her bloodsucker boyfriend and her pet wolf. In the end, the little crybag got exactly what she wanted – to be with Edward forever and to never lose sight of Jacob. Ugh.

… Or at least they’ll have some time between the last Twilight movie and the first 50 Shades movie to get a grip on reality before losing touch again. Hello: relationships are not about obsession, control, and stalking, all in the name of loving and protecting the other person. Bella did not need saving – what she needed was to get over her daddy issues and grow into her own strong, independent person. Instead, she was nothing more than a puppet on a string, wanting only to be loved by Edward. Edward was controlling and obsessed to the point of being a stalker, yet disguised these tendencies under the guise of protecting her and loving her till the end of time. Boyfriends and girlfriends come and go – normal people do not fall into deep depressions over a high school breakup. We cry, we cuss, we get mad, we get even – and we get over it.

Werewolves can finally go back to being drooling, disgusting beasts with no control over themselves – just the way nature intended. Just as vampires need to be vampires, werewolves need to be werewolves – and they are not the fluffy, oversized dogs that can be found in Twilight. Werewolves have always been savage animals, vicious and uncontrollable beneath the full moon. They didn’t transform on a whim – they were bound to the cycles of the moon. They were creatures, not pets – and they didn’t communicate with each other through their minds. Bring back the howling beasts from the fairytales and myths, to replace these lovable, touchable, heart-wrenchingly pathetic creatures.

There will no longer be angry fans hijacking your Facebook feed every time a new movie is released. If you wanted to support your “team”, so be it – but it wasn’t necessary to clog up news feeds with your mindless drivel. It was not a competition: the books were already written, the story had already been told, the ending already revealed. Everyone knew who would ultimately “get the girl”, and knew in advance how the rest of the tale would play out. Some of the die-hard fans took the whole thing way too personally – there was no reason to get angry and argue the virtues of your chosen side. There really was no need to choose your favorite “team” – what were you competing for and arguing about anyway?

For the true Twilight fans, there will no longer be a year’s wait between movies – and those who couldn’t care less won’t have to put up with all the hoopla. The wait between movies was ridiculous, as was the way people behaved as opening day approached. All those all-day Twilight movie fests, building up to the midnight premieres; all the ecstatic fans once again filling up Facebook with long-winded posts about each film, or heated discussions 56-comments long with a non-believer. Heck, even the ones who claimed to not read the books or watch the movies would post in protest about the books and movies! Twilight was everywhere with each premiere, and it was exhausting. It’s done, it’s finished, it’s over: you can now get on with your life, and find something else to obsess over.

Forks and La Push – which for years have been known as vampire and werewolf-laden locations – can get back to the business of being just-another-spot-on-the-map. Yes, the saga boosted tourism and the visitors helped the boost the towns’ finances. I’m sure the towns appreciated it while it lasted, and rode the gravy train for as long as they could. I just cannot help but wonder how many residents will be grateful for the vampire/werewolf reputation to slowly be forgotten. I can just imagine tourists parked near the woods or even camping in them, trying to get a glimpse of a fictional being. I live in a small town, and would not appreciate – not for one minute – an influx of gullible werewolf-seeking tourists. I like the quiet, peaceful surroundings I live in – that’s why I live here.

… And they won’t have to suffer through any more Twilight movies. Edward’s love for Bella was the stuff fairytales are made of, and women ate it up. They dragged their boyfriends to the movies on every opening night, hoping to open his eyes and turn him into a prized prince instead of a mediocre toad. They made comparisons, whether in their minds or aloud, between their moderately interesting significant other, and the shimmery, tortured soul that was Edward. He was emotional, deep, insightful, thoughtful, romantic, protective, heroic, self-sacrificing – he represented much of what women want. At least, when you overlooked the obsessive, stalker tendencies.

Sure, there is nothing wrong with having high expectations about your relationship – but you cannot reasonably expect to have the kind of love portrayed in these books and films. Nor should you want it. It’s fantasy – and I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather have the real thing.

Finally, the overwhelming tide of vampire and werewolf novels/novellas taking over the self-published sections of Amazon and other e-bookstores will begin to slow down. One can only hope that with the end of the saga, the fever will die down. This series led many to believe they could jump on the “vampwagon” and ride it straight to financial freedom. Unfortunately, many of these would-be authors had no business trying to write a novel or a novella. Yes, there will always be stories about vampires, werewolves, wizards (thanks, Harry Potter), and the like – but let us not forget that there are many, many other topics to write about and enjoy.

The post Top 10 Reasons To Be Glad Twilight is Over appeared first on Listverse.

Perhaps one of the most obvious points critics have grilled Disney over are historical inaccuracies in their few films which are actually based on real events. “Pocahontas” has been dubbed a travesty on the history of the Native American genocide. The title character is portrayed as a native woman who falls in love with settler John Smith, but in reality Pocahontas was only 10 at the time. Smith did befriend the girl but there was no romance. An even worse travesty is the film’s end.  The settlers become friends with the natives and everyone lives happily ever after. Really Disney? In fact, 90% of the indigenous people in America were wiped out by a combination of disease and genocide of crazed religious settlers, believing their actions justified by the idea of “manifest destiny”. Those who survived were subjected to poor living conditions and servitude to the land-grabbing Europeans, who subsequently became Americans.





The size-zero look is replicated by every single Disney princess in cinema, with the exception of Snow White, perhaps because in the 1930s ideals of beauty were different from now. It’s not just that women are portrayed as slender to increase their attractiveness; the level of exaggeration (for example in the impossibly lean waist of Megara from “Hercules”) is staggering to the point absurdity. Many critics, particularly feminists, have blasted Disney over this portrayal of women, claiming that the images have inspired anorexia and eating disorders in young women.






Disney has a track record of slipping bizarre messages into their films, mostly in the form of hidden images, but also sometimes through sound. For those who don’t know, subliminal messaging refers to images or sounds that pass by so fast that only your subconscious picks them up. The most notable case was announced by Disney itself on a home video copy of “The Rescuers”; as two mice ride in a sardine tin, a photograph of a topless woman can be seen in a window for several frames. Disney were quick to lay the blame on editors for planting the image as a joke (of course), and recalled all copies of the film.





A recurring theme for Disney princess films involves a beautiful woman being awakened by an unapproved kiss on the lips (though I guess this is slightly better than the rape found in the original Sleeping Beauty). Although it is arguable that some people wouldn’t mind being woken by the kiss of an impossibly handsome and wealthy prince, most women tend to reject this idea. In both Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, however, the women tend not to take the harassment too badly; in fact both characters marry these potential rapists after their respective rude awakenings.

Disney heroes and villains are almost always high in the social hierarchy when compared to others. The plot structure of “Cinderella” revolves around a woman who manages to escape her terrible living conditions simply by marrying a wealthy man.  Her success is down to her attractiveness in comparison to her hideous stepsisters. This sense of entitlement amongst central characters is consistent in almost every Disney film. So-called “Prince Charming” characters are so valued for their wealth and power that they can get away with basically anything. Imagine a reversal of the roles: replace Prince Phillip from “Sleeping Beauty” with Philoctetes, a minor socially-inferior character from “Hercules”.  I wager most women would wake up to a kiss from Philoctetes screaming “Rape!” at the top of their voices, rather than “Let’s get married!”





In almost every Disney movie the primary antagonist is portrayed as physically unattractive, encouraging children to associate this character trait with evil. Female characters are particularly subjected to this treatment, all having at least one of the “Big Three” of Disney villain characteristics: being fat (Ursula in “The Little Mermaid”), old (The Old Woman in “Snow White”) or hideously ugly (The Ugly Stepsisters in “Cinderella”). The bottom line is that Disney openly preaches that attractiveness is synonymous with both morality and happiness. Disney villains are often portrayed as insecure about their appearance, which then causes them to take it out on younger, slimmer, better-looking characters. For example the villain of “Snow White” is obsessed with being the “fairest of them all”, and the ugly stepsisters bully and abuse innocent beautiful Cinderella.



The film “Beauty and the Beast” works on the pretence of  “looks don’t matter”. However a closer look at the plot structure reveals this as a false front.  In the climax of the film the beast transforms back into a handsome human form, thus allowing him to live happily ever after with the equally attractive Belle. This totally contradicts the film’s supposed message of “looks don’t matter”, because if that were true, why is the transformation needed? “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” also does this with the main character being physically deformed. However, the message is again twisted when a new handsome character in the form of Captain Phoebus is introduced to marry Esmerelda instead of the protagonist, who of course is not worthy of her because of his ugliness.





Although perhaps something of a controversial entry, visible evidence exists which suggests Disney uses subtle themes of Satanism in their films. For example, the beast of “Beauty and the Beast” is portrayed as a horned creature with fangs, resembling a traditional image of Lucifer. Philoctetes in “Hercules” is also displayed in this form, with horns and cloven-feet. The most bizarre, albeit most controversial case is perhaps in Disney’s adaptation of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. It has been argued that eight-year-old Lucy’s meeting with Mr Tumnus involves a subtle theme of paeodophilia: the stranger (incidentally portrayed with goat legs and horns) persuades Lucy to visit his home before putting her to sleep by playing lullabies on his flute. The next thing we know, Lucy wakes to find Mr Tumnus crying and saying that he has “done something very bad”: in the context of the story Tumnus betrayed Lucy to the White Witch. Despite the evidence of a darker theme, many critics of the theory have suggested the sequence simply represents the consequences of children trusting strangers.





Now many would feel inclined to offer Disney some leniency here, given that it is targeting children with its films, but many others would condemn them for sugar-coating themes of death and deceit with fluffy singing animals and perfect happy endings. Take “The Lion King” – a film based on William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy “Hamlet”. Disney altered the original ending of the play, in which many of the central characters die, and replaced it with a perfect triumph of good over evil, firmly rendering the plot meaningless and holding up a giant middle finger to Shakespeare in the process.  However “Hamlet” isn’t the only literary masterpiece Disney have butchered on screen. Take the plot structure of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little Mermaid” and you will find another drastically altered ending. In the original, Ariel does not marry the prince and is forced to kill him to regain her mermaid tail, but she cannot perform the deed and instead dies sadly.






Overall the most blatant and unambiguous message that Disney teaches any child is how to discriminate between races. The crows in “Dumbo”, released in 1941 when racism against African Americans was more acceptable, is probably the most blatant example. The language and attire of the birds are clearly intended to mock African Americans. The characters exist only to help the white protagonist, and contribute mainly comedic value amongst white audiences, adding insult to injury on the already glaring stereotype. Another example is the Chinese cat from “The Aristocats”, who sings about fortune cookies (invented in America incidentally) with an almost unintelligibly Asian accent. Disney has been blasted time and again for racism and yet it continues to perpetuate glaring stereotypes.

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