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JJ Abrams: TV-to-movie resuscitator?

Chrisisall

Chrisisall

Commodore
Commodore
Mission Impossible was okay, but kinda weak. MI2 was way better IMO, but still had it's problems. Nemesis was, well, you know.:shifty:
Who you gonna call?

JJ!

Did you feel that JJ Abrams did justice to the two movies-from-TV-shows under his command? Is he a visionary? A talented fan in the industry?
Or is he a corporate cog, just in place to turn a profit using the fan-dork populace as his cash cow?

Just to be clear, I think he's a fan (of sheer, excellent, if sometimes lightweight entertainment) personally.:techman:
 
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seigezunt said:
time to reboot Gilligan.
Click to expand...

There's this fantastic book by Esquire's tom Carson that acts as a prequel/sequel to Gilligan's Island called Gilligan's Wake. It sounds silly, but it's rooted both in real world (Roy Cohn worked with the Professor in a think tank, Ginger had an affair with Sammy Davis Jr.) and pop culture (Mrs. Howell hung out with the cast of the Great Gatsby, the Skipper fought with JFK and McHale from McHale's Navy), and it draws comparisons to Thomas Pynchon and James Joyce.

I mention it because, frankly, it's one of my favorite books and is decidedly uncampy and semi-adult, but still whimsical and funny. And for the canonistas out there, Sherwood Schultz, the man who created the show, heartily approved of the book.

As for the topic at hand, MI: III was the best of the trilogy and also the most intune with the TV show (TEAMWORK, PEOPLE! THAT'S WHAT MI IS ABOUT!).
 
Cyke101 said:
seigezunt said:
time to reboot Gilligan.
Click to expand...

There's this fantastic book by Esquire's tom Carson that acts as a prequel/sequel to Gilligan's Island called Gilligan's Wake. It sounds silly, but it's rooted both in real world (Roy Cohn worked with the Professor in a think tank, Ginger had an affair with Sammy Davis Jr.) and pop culture (Mrs. Howell hung out with the cast of the Great Gatsby, the Skipper fought with JFK and McHale from McHale's Navy), and it draws comparisons to Thomas Pynchon and James Joyce.

I mention it because, frankly, it's one of my favorite books and is decidedly uncampy and semi-adult, but still whimsical and funny. And for the canonistas out there, Sherwood Schultz, the man who created the show, heartily approved of the book.

As for the topic at hand, MI: III was the best of the trilogy and also the most intune with the TV show (TEAMWORK, PEOPLE! THAT'S WHAT MI IS ABOUT!).
Click to expand...

I actually have that book, and haven't got around to reading it.
 
seigezunt said:
Cyke101 said:
seigezunt said:
time to reboot Gilligan.
Click to expand...

There's this fantastic book by Esquire's tom Carson that acts as a prequel/sequel to Gilligan's Island called Gilligan's Wake. It sounds silly, but it's rooted both in real world (Roy Cohn worked with the Professor in a think tank, Ginger had an affair with Sammy Davis Jr.) and pop culture (Mrs. Howell hung out with the cast of the Great Gatsby, the Skipper fought with JFK and McHale from McHale's Navy), and it draws comparisons to Thomas Pynchon and James Joyce.

I mention it because, frankly, it's one of my favorite books and is decidedly uncampy and semi-adult, but still whimsical and funny. And for the canonistas out there, Sherwood Schultz, the man who created the show, heartily approved of the book.

As for the topic at hand, MI: III was the best of the trilogy and also the most intune with the TV show (TEAMWORK, PEOPLE! THAT'S WHAT MI IS ABOUT!).
Click to expand...

I actually have that book, and haven't got around to reading it.
Click to expand...

I read it in a couple days, and all the pop culture and literary references in it just made the time fly by :) My favorite chapter is the Professor's, but Mary Ann's is probably the most nuanced.
 
I haven't seen the MI movies so the only one I can judge is Star Trek. I think he did a fantastic job with that one! :)
 
MI:3 was decent, but not amazing. Of the three films in that franchise, I still prefer the first one and wished the second one didn't exist.

He's done a good job on the two franchises he's worked on, but I hope he gets to do something original sometime soon.
 
I wouldn't call him a resuscitator. He's an expert at exhuming corpses and reanimating them like puppets, but resuscitation? No.
 
Since Abrams rebooted Star Trek with new actors, he's going to return the favor and reboot Lost using Trek actors:

JACK: Scott Bakula
SAWYER: Connor Trinneer
LOCKE: Patrick Stewart
KATE: Nicole De Boer
EKO: Avery Brooks
MICHAEL: LeVar Burton
FARADAY: Robert Duncan McNeill
JULIET: Jeri Ryan
BEN: Brent Spiner
JIN: Garrett Wang
RICHARD: Robert Beltran
SAYID: Alexander Siddig
 
Mission Impossible 2 was dreadfully dumbed down and sexist. An ok movie but a terrible entry into the franchise. The first movie came closest to the original but they lost me when they killed too many agents in the opening scene by portraying them as amateurs who can't follow simple orders. I will admit that the mission in the middle of the first movie was fun though.
 
Pauln6 said:
Mission Impossible 2 was dreadfully dumbed down and sexist. An ok movie but a terrible entry into the franchise. The first movie came closest to the original but they lost me when they killed too many agents in the opening scene by portraying them as amateurs who can't follow simple orders. I will admit that the mission in the middle of the first movie was fun though.
Click to expand...

Agree with you 100% about MI-1 and MI2.

JJ did OK with MI#, the dierection was more interesting than the material...it also seemed to need a little room to breathe.

I think ST XI is a huge step forward for him as a filmmaker - he tightened up in the right places and loosened up in the right places. The prologue was a masterful bit of cinematic storytelling IMO.

He's gettin' better.
 
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