NationStates Jolt Archive

Yeah, so. I know we're all sick of people making movies out of old tv shows, and there have been mixed successes, but this (http://imdb.com/title/tt0374536/plotsummary), well it just seemed weird.

For those who don't want to follow my link and will then trust my interpretiation, it starts weird and gets weirder.

First, Samantha is Nicole Kidman, presumably because her manager/agent is trying to get fired. But then she's playing opposite Will Ferrell as Darren. How did that happen? It also has Shirley McLaine and Michael Caine, who knows why.

But then it gets actually weird, it's not Bewitched, but a movie about them making a Bewitched movie which by some extreme coincidence actually casts a witch. That was a long script meeting, I'm guessing.

I just want the catering budget. Just pay me what their going to pay the guy who re-arrange the food on the craft table to make something. Damn.

So, how weird is this? Kinda? A little? A lot? Don't give a rat's ass?

Yeah, so. I know we're all sick of people making movies out of old tv shows, and there have been mixed successes, but this (http://imdb.com/title/tt0374536/plotsummary), well it just seemed weird.

For those who don't want to follow my link and will then trust my interpretiation, it starts weird and gets weirder.

First, Samantha is Nicole Kidman, presumably because her manager/agent is trying to get fired. But then she's playing opposite Will Ferrell as Darren. How did that happen? It also has Shirley McLaine and Michael Caine, who knows why.

But then it gets actually weird, it's not Bewitched, but a movie about them making a Bewitched movie which by some extreme coincidence actually casts a witch. That was a long script meeting, I'm guessing.

I just want the catering budget. Just pay me what their going to pay the guy who re-arrange the food on the craft table to make something. Damn.

So, how weird is this? Kinda? A little? A lot? Don't give a rat's ass?

I don't know about wierd. A little recursive, maybe.
I suppose the problem with a lot of these shows is that they show their age in the way that womens' position in society has changed (like watching episodes of The Flintstones). At its heart Bewitched is a late 50s/early 60s social comedy. Guy is embarrassed by kooky behaviour of his wife and her mother. So maybe they felt that it would be tricky to duplicate that and tried to have their cake and eat with the strange movie within a movie idea. Mind you, they remade the Stepford Wives largely unchanged in concept.

I don't know about wierd. A little recursive, maybe.
I suppose the problem with a lot of these shows is that they show their age in the way that womens' position in society has changed (like watching episodes of The Flintstones). At its heart Bewitched is a late 50s/early 60s social comedy. Guy is embarrassed by kooky behaviour of his wife and her mother. So maybe they felt that it would be tricky to duplicate that and tried to have their cake and eat with the strange movie within a movie idea. Mind you, they remade the Stepford Wives largely unchanged in concept.
That is certainly an obstical that has been dealt with in various ways, such as the tongue in cheek delivery of The Brady Bunch where the dating of the show was most of the joke. Flintstones was allowed to borrow from the narrative/performative trade off of shows like George and Gracie/I Love Lucy. Betty and Wilma would win narratively, like Ricky or George, but Fred wins performatively. By carrying over that trade off, the film supposedly traveled well, though I didn't like it.

Samantha wins both in narative and performance, she dominates the show and is often the solving (if mostly the cause) of the problems. (What always bothered me is that Darren's ideas always sucked, but the ideas that came from having to explain the batshit things that where happening would get him raises and crap. I suppose thats where the story doesn't carry. In todays world she would dump that dumb bastard, do as much magic as she sees fit and run her own ad agency, screw McMan and Tate.) That's a long way to go to arrive at mostly the same conclusion, that the tension of the show doesn't carry. It's still a convoluted way of going about translating it. I suspect there is a screenwriter somewhere who wasn't initially super thrilled at getting this gig who is going to be working out somethings about the trend of taking old tv to the big screen.

And now, I have to go kick Laura Mulvi in the shins....

kill me now

Wow--that sounds so horribly, horribly bad. I'll admit a bias up front--I don't think Will Ferrell is funny and I never have. He was passable as Marshal Willenholly in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back but even then I found myself looking at other things on the screen, so that's a big problem for me. Shirley MacLaine sounds like a good choice for Endora, but beyond that, I got nothing.

Wow--that sounds so horribly, horribly bad. I'll admit a bias up front--I don't think Will Ferrell is funny and I never have. He was passable as Marshal Willenholly in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back but even then I found myself looking at other things on the screen, so that's a big problem for me. Shirley MacLaine sounds like a good choice for Endora, but beyond that, I got nothing.
yeah this is horrible, will farell was just one of the people that makes SNL suck now, and he isnt funny in anything, he was standable in Jay and SIlent Bbob Strike Back because he was a side character and no one cared, casting him as a main character is dumb, and especially as daren. then the whole premise is just stupid to begin with

That is certainly an obstical that has been dealt with in various ways, such as the tongue in cheek delivery of The Brady Bunch where the dating of the show was most of the joke. Flintstones was allowed to borrow from the narrative/performative trade off of shows like George and Gracie/I Love Lucy. Betty and Wilma would win narratively, like Ricky or George, but Fred wins performatively. By carrying over that trade off, the film supposedly traveled well, though I didn't like it.

Samantha wins both in narative and performance, she dominates the show and is often the solving (if mostly the cause) of the problems. (What always bothered me is that Darren's ideas always sucked, but the ideas that came from having to explain the batshit things that where happening would get him raises and crap. I suppose thats where the story doesn't carry. In todays world she would dump that dumb bastard, do as much magic as she sees fit and run her own ad agency, screw McMan and Tate.) That's a long way to go to arrive at mostly the same conclusion, that the tension of the show doesn't carry. It's still a convoluted way of going about translating it. I suspect there is a screenwriter somewhere who wasn't initially super thrilled at getting this gig who is going to be working out somethings about the trend of taking old tv to the big screen.

And now, I have to go kick Laura Mulvi in the shins....

I always preferred 'I Dream of Jeannie' anyway - although maybe that was the concept of the babe in hareem pants following you around calling you 'master'. A few too many S&M overtones these days maybe!

I always preferred 'I Dream of Jeannie' anyway - although maybe that was the concept of the babe in hareem pants following you around calling you 'master'. A few too many S&M overtones these days maybe!
i doubt it, they had to cover her BELLY BUTTON.

i doubt it, they had to cover her BELLY BUTTON.
oh man... I get so turned on by belly buttons :confused:

Yeah, so. I know we're all sick of people making movies out of old tv shows, and there have been mixed successes, but this (http://imdb.com/title/tt0374536/plotsummary), well it just seemed weird.

For those who don't want to follow my link and will then trust my interpretiation, it starts weird and gets weirder.

First, Samantha is Nicole Kidman, presumably because her manager/agent is trying to get fired. But then she's playing opposite Will Ferrell as Darren. How did that happen? It also has Shirley McLaine and Michael Caine, who knows why.

But then it gets actually weird, it's not Bewitched, but a movie about them making a Bewitched movie which by some extreme coincidence actually casts a witch. That was a long script meeting, I'm guessing.

I just want the catering budget. Just pay me what their going to pay the guy who re-arrange the food on the craft table to make something. Damn.

So, how weird is this? Kinda? A little? A lot? Don't give a rat's ass?


Sounds awful, but then again, Will Ferrell is very, very funny. Maybe it will be OK...maybe it will be total trash...either way, with those actors, I'm sure it'll do a decent trade at the box office.