Ask 411 Movies for 5.12.08: This Column is a Demon on Wheels!

Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 05.12.2008

Madagascar 2, Fight Club, Speed Racer, alternate endings, Stars Wars: Clone Wars and decorative vegetables

I saw Speed Racer over the weekend. It had a multitude of problems and gets worse the more I think about it. I won't go into details here, because you can read my full review at zanesvilletimesrecorder.com or coshoctontribune.com as part of my new blog. I'll be doing weekly film reviews and RAW thoughts like in my old wrestling column along with other random talk on movies, wrestling and anything else I feel like. It's entitled Reel to Ring. Scroll half way down the page to Explore Blogs and click more blogs. I'll be in the staff section and not hard to find, because it looks like me, the managing editor and one of the photographers are the only bloggers right now of the staff.

I've mentioned before that I am a Dr. Who fan and I greatly enjoy the new series with David Tennant. Below from YouTube find a special clip that we here on this side of the pond have not been privy too as Tennant's version meets the fifth doctor, played by Peter Davison.



Check out the podcast as well. We discuss Iron Man and try to top each other in challenges to name the best short movie ever and the best actor under the age of 30. Both I believe yield surprising results.

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You guys have been great with the comments section again, so lets dive into that first.

Q: God, can we PLEASE move past Iron Man and onto a movie that will be really good?
I am seriously looking forward to Madagascar 2.
-MP

A: Maybe you were being facetious, but that only gets you a preview of Madagascar 2. It's due out this November. I think Ben Stiller is getting annoyed at being Ben Stiller by this point.



Q: Trailers that looked like they suck. I got one.

I remember seeing the first Matrix trailer 98-99ish.

I said to myself, oh sh!t, it's Johnny Mnemonic 2!

Thank god I was wrong.
-Hey Yo

A: See, I never cared as much for The Matrix as everyone else, but I can't deny that it did do well with critics and the box office. As for the trailer, see below. I think the first part makes it look like a horror movie and the second part makes it looks like a John Woo flick.



Q: So this was posted on another column here on the site and I thought I'd see about the question: Cases exist of where test screenings prompted filmmakers to completely change the ending of a movie (by having a character die who would have survived, or vice versa, for instance); examples include "Little Shop of Horrors", "Mary Poppins", "Fatal Attraction," "Titanic" and "Pretty in Pink."

What exactly were the original endings to those movies that were changed? Also, are there any other television shows and films that had their endings drastically changed because they didn't come off well to test audiences?
-Yo

A: Some people in the comments answered a few of these, so a tip of the top hat to them, but we'll cover them all.

For Little Shop of Horrors I'm guessing you mean the 1986 version based on the musical stage play. The original ending was the same as the play. Audrey 2 eats Audrey and Seymour. The plants then grow to giant sizes and take over the world. The original ending was included on the DVD, but it was recalled because the distributors didn't have rights to it. Thankfully, we have YouTube.





I couldn't find anything on an alternate ending of Mary Poppins, but there were several musical numbers that were cut or edited. A song called "Chimpanzoo" was storyboarded, but never filmed. Julie Andrews didn't like the song "Eyes of Love" and it was replaced with "Spoonful of Sugar." The author of the book, PL Travers had script approval and reportedly hated the movie, but Walt Disney was a crafty old bastard and that didn't extend to final draft approval and most of the changes they made to the novel stayed in.

In Fatal Attraction Alex committed suicide dressed all in white in a way to make it look like Dan killed her and then Dan was arrested for her murder. Test audiences felt that Alex was never brought to justice and viewed her as the villain of the piece, hence the change.

In Titanic the boat doesn't sink. Nah, I'm kidding. As originally scripted, Cal finds Rose on the Carpathia and she tells him to inform her mother that she's dead and for him to never see her again. Fabrizio had a couple different death scenes, one had him swimming up to Cal's raft and Cal smashing him in the head with an oar. Old Rose also drops the diamond into the ocean, seen by her granddaughter.

For Pretty in Pink Duckie was to win Andie, but test audiences wanted Blaine to win her heart. Director John Hughes also didn't care for the editing of the original ending or Molly Ringwald's performance because she was ill at the time.

It's not uncommon for movies to have alternate endings. Just pick up a DVD. I'll cover a few.

Army of Darkness: Ash drinks too much of the sleeping potion and wakes up in a post-apocalyptic future overrun by the dead.

Clerks: The Quick Stop is robbed and Dante is shot to death.

Die Hard with a Vengeance: John McClane catches up with Gruber months later in Africa. He forces him to play a game of Russian roulette with a rocket launcher by asking him to solve various riddles. McClane has removed the sites so Gruber can't tell, which end is which. He thinks he has McClane, but Gruber blows himself up.

First Blood: Rambo doesn't want to go to prison and has too much honor to commit suicide, so he asks Troutman to kill him and he does.

In television alternate endings are often shot to keep the real intended ending being leaked by cast or crew. On "Dallas" just about the entire cast was filmed shooting J.R. For the "Who Shot Mr. Burns" episode of "The Simpsons," Smithers was the one who shot Mr. Burns and not Maggie. His first name is revealed to be Waylon, fitting with the clue of Burns landing on the W and S of the compass. For the first season of "24" Teri was shot, but lived and in another ending she wasn't shot at all. In the last episode of "Sex and the City" Carrie is shown going off with three different men, but Big was always the most popular of her suitors.

Q: I gotta question. How/who determines where a movie is gonna be played when it reaches tv. What I mean by this is who decides if a movie will play on HBO/Cinemax/Showtime/Starz, or if it will play on regular cable? Also, how long do the pay cable companies keep the rights to movies before they show up eventually on a regular cable station?
-JLAJRC

A: Usually films are offered to pay per view, paid cable, regular cable and network television in that order because of the revenue levels. Sometimes that changes if a network really wants a movie or if a network is tied to a studio. Disney movies will show up on ABC and the Disney Channel before HBO if at all. Length of rights to show also can vary. It's usually one month, three months, six months or a year. Films are sometimes packaged and sold together. Some films are put into rotation due to new films that are opening. I just caught Raiders of the Lost Ark on the USA Network, most likely to hype the new film opening.

Q: I have another question for you. You might have gone over this, but I need more! Heh. Fight Club. It's a good film, but why is there such a huge following? What am I missing? I enjoyed it, recently rewatched it, and still feel like I'm missing something. The fandom for this movie blows my mind, and other films that have cult followings make sense. Such as zombie movies, or dracula movies. Or Kevin Smith films. Can you shed any light on this phenominom? PS... I need a Small Wonder review fix... :) It's like visual crack.
-Latino Meat

A: I hope to have a new "Small Wonder" retro recap up this week. I've just been busy at work. I could use a sabbatical too. A little of that series goes a long way.

I'm with you on Fight Club. In my mind, the movie has a cult following among a certain sect because it represents a base adolescent fantasy. Teen males for the most part are Edward Norton's character and want to be in some degree Tyler Durden. Cocky, confident, a ladies man and he'll open a can of whip ass at any given moment. The anti-authoritarian elements are also viewed as being more of a "I'll do what I want when I want" than with any larger political themes. Many misread the movie as they view it as championing the violence and depravity shown in the film. Basically, people find it to be bad ass without being able to read between the lines.

Q: Hey Leonard,

I really dug the Iron Man commentary on the 05/09/08 Podcast but have issue with your assessment, also found in the opening paragraph of last weeks column, of the narrative structure. While it is repetitive, particularly in Marvel based film adaptations, isn't this due to the source material? What I mean is, all superhero comics tend to follow the same initial story arc, the origin, where the character and his abilities are established then the big challenge arises when there is that first conflict with an equally powered adversary. This seems repeated more frequently in the Marvel universe, in my opinion because the characters were largely developed by the same writer(s).

My question is, how would you break this trend without using too much creative re-inventing of established characters (so as not piss off the preexisting fan base), still introduce the characters to the masses and end up with a good movie?

In an unrelated matter, is there really such a thing as a bomb anymore? With global distribution, DVD revenues and all these burgeoning "new media" streams it seems all movies are coming closer to being largely profitable, deservingly or not. Your thoughts?

Keep up the good work and don't forget to link this new blog/real job of yours,
-Mike

A: You don't have to translate the source material verbatim. In fact, if you did it would usually result in pretty crappy movies. I do agree that Marvel characters fall into the same general origin structure. I say jump into your heroes already being heroes and fill in holes as you go, such as X-Men which sort of started at point B and not point A, or compact the origin and then get into the meat of things, like Superman, or have a multi-tiered origin story like Batman Begins where the character develops over several storylines. So, it's been done.

I've said many times in this column that it's hard for a movie to truly bomb with all the outlets for revenue these days such as international distribution, pay per view, cable, network television, DVD, the internet, mobile phones, you name it. However, with budgets spiraling out of control you can still get a film like The Adventures of Pluto Nash with a budget of $100,000,000 that only grossed a little over $4 million at the box office and did lousy on DVD and other media. I don't think I've ever seen the movie on television. So basically you have to make a really expensive, really bad movie.

Q: Just a quick question: is there any way of finding out where certain stars sell the most tickets? Think about it: even though people like Will Smith, Tom Cruise, Adam Sandler etc are obviously huge, are their fanbases consistently in certain places and locations? Eg will a Sandler movie sell out night after night in New York, but be empty in Dallas?
-Mathew

A: That's a very good question, but it doesn't seem like any organization keeps track of such specific stats. In the grand scheme of things I think it would have to be a pretty big drop off in a certain region to be significant enough for a studio to take notice. There is The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO-really? You'd think that would be trademarked) that gives out awards at their annual shows in different regions of the country as voted by theater owners. That might give you a certain indication. ShowWest was their big convention for years, but they have ShowEast and ShowSouth now and conventions in other nations. Although I question an organization that gives a Distinguished Decade in Cinema Award to Brendan Fraser.

Q: Hi Leonard,

Just wondering if you can explain to me how the upcoming CGI Star Wars: The Clone Wars relates to the animated version (I think it was Star Wars: Clone Wars without the "The") that ran about 4 years ago.
Is this considered a "re-make" like so many other recent films or a completely different/separate entity?

Thanks,
Craig

A: I saw a trailer in front of Speed Racer. I can't say I was that impressed. It looked visually good, but the storyline seemed blah. The new movie takes place between Episode II and Episode III while serving as an introduction to the new cartoon series to start airing this fall on Cartoon Network. The original series takes place during the same time period, but before this new series from what I can figure out, but it remains to be seen how tight they draw the continuity.



I've still got some questions in the cue, but my time grows short. I promise Ben and Shaun to get to your questions next week. So just hang in there for me and don't die.

"I can save the universe using a kettle and some string and look at me I'm wearing a vegetable."