If the trailer is an accurate representation of what is in the film, this
has got to be the worst movie ever made.
> Has anyone EVER seen a worse trailer than the one currently out for "THE
> POSTMAN"?
Actually I have. Two words: "Great Expectations".
Dave "Loopy" Nusair dnu...@chat.carleton.ca
,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.
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; happen. Those kids are going to crash and burn, and it's going to be ;
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; hotel with an eight-ball and a hooker." -Denis Leary ;
;.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,;
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On 19 Nov 1997, David Nusair wrote:
> Richard Nathan (Richard...@worldnet.att.net) wrote:
>
> > Has anyone EVER seen a worse trailer than the one currently out for "THE
> > POSTMAN"?
>
> Actually I have. Two words: "Great Expectations".
I can go one better..."THE HORSE WHISPERER".......aaaaaargh
> > > Has anyone EVER seen a worse trailer than the one currently out for "THE
> > > POSTMAN"?
>
> I can go one better..."THE HORSE WHISPERER".......aaaaaargh
>
But The Horse Whisperer was just a teaser. A bad teaser for sure, but just
a teaser. The Postman was a full-length trailer that had people laughing
from beginning to end. Not a good sign considering it doesnt appear to be
an action-comedy. Gotta go with Costner on this one.
The laughter must be contagious. I experienced the same thing at my
local theater.
That trailer makes ya go, "Why on earth would someone make a movie
with a premise as laughable as this, but it's intended to be
serious?".
Trampas
Oh, the premise's all right (at least in book form)--And I kept a
moderately straight face at any references to WAAAAARRRRR...
--But watching Costner devote SCENE after SCENE of grateful frontier
villagers saying "You've brought us back civilization...You've given us
hope..." it's hard not to cringe, realizing the holy Costner hasn't
_quite_ gotten over himself yet...
Derek Janssen
dja...@ultranet.com
Trampas Ferree wrote in message <347419...@mail1.digex.net>...
>>That trailer makes ya go, "Why on earth would someone make a movie
>with a premise as laughable as this, but it's intended to be
>serious?".
What's so laugable about the premise?
I assume the premise is the same as that of the novel: after a
collapse of society, a man basically picks up a postal uniform and
begins acting as a postman. People begin to rally around the sign
that there is a possible return of stability, as represented by the
postman.
******************************************************************
Jim Mann jma...@REMOVETHIStransarc.com
Transarc Corporation
Technical Writer -- Encina Programming Documentation
http://www.transarc.com/~jmann/
Marriage should be a balanced stalemate between equal
dversaries. -- Amelia Peabody
I have to disagree. The "Great Expectations" trailer had me drooling,
especially that shot of Ethan taking a drink of water and Paltrow
licking his lip. Yeah -- I'm going to like this movie.
bb
I haven't had the chance to see the trailer for THE POSTMAN, but I do
agree that the trailer for "Great Expectations" was awful.
Ronie J Whalen
: If the trailer is an accurate representation of what is in the film, this
: has got to be the worst movie ever made.
I ve heard that up to 30% of all test market audiences went postal by the
first half hour of the screening.
As if mail carriers don't have low enough self esteem.
--
That's the "voiceover guy" that you hear in almost every trailer and a lot of
commercials... he gets paid LOTS and LOTS of money.
The Postman trailer was shown at Starship Troopers -- go see the world's worst
trailer, chase it down with the world's worst movie!
Bobby Bryant
Previews for *Wag The Dog* looked stupid. i hope this movie isn't a
comedy, cause i didn't laugh once. it'll bomb
-------------------==== Posted via Deja News ====-----------------------
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jun
I doubt it. Those of us who liked the book are less inclined to be pissed
off if it is a bad movie.
Brin's book is an exploration of an idea, not a doctrine. As with Contact,
I suspect that the idea will be watered down significantly. Perhaps it
will be a fun movie, but the preview looks like a movie that is both too
earnest to be fun and too dull-witted to be intriguing. (That actually could
describe Constner himself :-)
On the other hand, "Starship Troopers" is, essentially, a reactionary book,
so tampering with it brings out the reactionary fans.
--
Thomas Andrews tho...@best.com http://www.best.com/~thomaso/
"Show me somebody who is always smiling, always cheerful, always
optimistic, and I will show you somebody who hasn't the faintest
idea what the heck is really going on." - Mike Royko
Isn't there always one trailer at any given time that always seems to be on
every damn movie you see and it really makes you want the movie to come out so
you don't have to watch the damn trailer anymore?
Inventing the Abbots was one of them.
Great Expectations is pretty grating too, but at least you get to hear some of
the Miller's Crossing score in a theater.
And then there's the Horse Whisperer...
I'm getting sick of "As Good as It Gets", too. I really want to see the flick,
but the damn trailer seems to be on everything right now.
-M
"Where'd you learn to talk like that, in some Panama city "Sailor wanna
hump-hump" bar? Go sell crazy someplace else. We're all stocked up here."
>What's so laugable about the premise?
>
>I assume the premise is the same as that of the novel: after a
>collapse of society, a man basically picks up a postal uniform and
>begins acting as a postman. People begin to rally around the sign
>that there is a possible return of stability, as represented by the
>postman.
I guess you haven't seen the trailer.
Same thing here in L.A. where I saw it - the whole audience laughed at the end
of it.
This is not the worst trailer of all time, though. That honor goes to "Dead
Men Don't Dance," with Michael Biehn. What was that movie about, anyway?
Scotty
Oh, CRIPES! That's really in the _trailer_! I'm beginning to think that the
final scene will have Costner and (a CGI) Cleavon Little riding into the sunset
until a limousine picks them up. Or that the climatic battle will have Ewoks
taking out the Holnists. Or, oh forget it. . .
For anyone who has seen both _The_Postman_ trailer and _Dances_With_Wolves_,
may I get a comparison/contrast between the two in terms of mood, atmosphere,
and presentation of premise?
The bottom line so far seems to be that it will either be a surprise hit (like
_Dances_With_Wolves_) or it will fail so miserably that every postal worker and
militiaperson in the United States will hunt Costner down. I sincerely,
fervently hope for the former, but the latter will make this a self-correcting
problem.
At least the discussions about the film versus the novel will be as intriguing
as those for _Starship_Troopers_. . .They will, won't they? Hello? Anybody?
David Brin's _The_Postman_?
Damn.
Martin Laverdure
--
Matt Martinez <mma...@bgnet.bgsu.edu>
> Speaking of horrible trailers, I just saw one for HOME ALONE 3. Why did
> anyone think we needed another one?
Money !
Martin Laverdure
Fyodor
--
"We are serial killers. All our poems and symphonies, oils on canvas
will never change that. Man's noble aspect is the aberration." - George
Carlin
Want to email me? Delete all the 'b's in my address.
Which is what HOME ALONE 3 probably (and hopefully) won't see much of.
--
Matt Martinez <mma...@bgnet.bgsu.edu>
I fear that I don't understand your distinction between the definitions of
"idea" and "doctrine", but I'd like to propose a comparison between the two
stories as an argument against your statement:
IDEA:
_The_Postman_: A wandering survivor of the post-apocalyptic United States
rallies other survivors with the illusion of a "restored" United States.
_Starship_Troopers_: A young man of future Earth joins the military and helps
fight a war against alien invaders, becoming a citizen-soldier in the process
(I've never read the book but this seemed the best summary of the premise from
postings to this newsgroup).
DOCTRINE:
_The_Postman_: A free society relies on its citizens for the maintanence of
law and order (the best doctrine I could think of that applied to the main plot
involving the Holnists and the revolt against them).
_Starship_Troopers_: Society can only survive if its citizens are willing to
volunteer for its defence (again - this is a generalized summary from what I
have gleaned from postings).
> As with Contact,
I suspect that the idea will be watered down significantly. Perhaps it
>will be a fun movie, but the preview looks like a movie that is both too
>earnest to be fun and too dull-witted to be intriguing. (That actually could
>describe Constner himself :-)
>
>On the other hand, "Starship Troopers" is, essentially, a reactionary book,
>so tampering with it brings out the reactionary fans.
>--
Both from what I've observed and what I believe, the ideas and depth of
_The_Postman_ should encourage reactions just as strong as those to
_Starship_Troopers_. The main reason _The_Postman_ might die with a whimper and
not a bang is that its literary audience is probably narrower (_The_Postman_
was published in novel form in 1985(?); _Starship_Troopers_ has been out for
decades). I don't think "reactionary" fans are the only fans that vehemently
attack badly adapted works (no flame intended - but that seemed to be what you
were implying).
>Thomas Andrews tho...@best.com http://www.best.com/~thomaso/
> "Show me somebody who is always smiling, always cheerful, always
> optimistic, and I will show you somebody who hasn't the faintest
> idea what the heck is really going on." - Mike Royko
>
>
RSch...@aol.com
(P.S.: I would just use the initials TP for _The_Postman_ if I could get a
ng-wide moratorium on Cornholio impersonations.)
Anyway, in answer to your question:
Stubbornness--It's one of the strange quirks about studio execs that
they will NOT let a project go once they have (or had) a script ready...
Not if the star grows and washes up, not if the trend dies out, not if
thirteen directors, twenty scriptwriters or half a dozen studios change
hands--As far as they're concerned, the show MUST go on, audience or
not.
And only failure _after_ the fact will convince them otherwise.
(Hey, at least be glad we're not getting "HA3: Lost in Rio", as Culkin
Sr. was pressuring the studios to do, back when the Mac was still a
kid...)
Derek Janssen
dja...@ultranet.com
Ha, ha, ha!! You've just taught me a valuable lesson. I must completely space out
during previews. Perhaps I'm a poor target for their promotions. Because when you
described the preview, I suddenly realized I've seen it, at least once, maybe twice,
and I never paid attention to what it was a preview for. "Great Expectations," huh?
The Dickens book? And I've even read that book!
I kind of like the basic idea: reconstructing the United States by restoring a sense
of order, and connecting the isolated communities. But somehow the trailer turns
this simple premise into something overblown and ridiculous, and you come away
thinking "Damn, if I can't sit through a two minute preview for this thing, how can
they expect me to sit through the whole movie!?"
It looks like the script was crafted by the people who
do Baywatch.
k
Stability.. represented by a postman.
Hmmm.
----
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~rsrodger
"I did not get my Spaghetti-O's, I got spaghetti! I want the
press to know this." - Thomas Grasso, executed (OK) 3/20/95
>"Jim Mann" <jma...@REMOVETHIStransarc.com> wrote:
>>that there is a possible return of stability, as represented by the
>>postman.
>
>Stability.. represented by a postman.
>
>Hmmm.
NEWMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rich
Two things that every movie should have: Hockey and Lesbians. (Chasing Amy)
SOCK MONKEY
Washington Capitals: Let's Go Gacks!!!!
The Puff Daddy Millennium is coming
Looking for a copy of Jimmy James: Macho Business Donkey Wrestler
Unfortunately, the (yeesh!) poster is explained in the movie:
Pip (Ethan Hawke)'s passion for Estella is here demonstrated by the fact
that he wants to paint a neo-impressionist portrait of her, to capture
her "mystery"--
And, as you can see, he isn't very good...Expect ad art to be changed
LONG before the video release.
Derek Janssen
dja...@ultranet.com
Don't forget, we are talking science fiction here.
--
Mark E. Smith <msm...@lvnworth.com>
I haven't seen the trailer for Home Alone 3, yet. I guess from the bad
buzz concerning it I should find myself lucky.
Stephen K Buckles wrote in message ...
"George of the Jungle"'s trailer had my entire workplace and half of my
friends at
school endlessly reciting the theme song. I would have to disagree with
you. A
trailer that appealed to that many people cannot be one of the three worst
of all
time.
"Father's Day"'s trailer was blah. It didn't make me want to cower in fear,
nor did
it make me howl with laughter.
But I agree that "B&R"'s was very bad. For goodness sakes, it was a BATMAN
movie
and the trailer managed to convince me NOT to see it!
-JC
I do sometimes wonder whether I share the same planet with some of
these posters. Speaking only for myself, I saw both of these trailers
and was made interested in seeing the films as a result. Of course, I
have read the book "The Postman" and think that maybe Costner may have
done a decent job on this post-apocalypse tale. "Wag-the-Dog" looks
like a hoot, conceptually, the sort of thing that Richard Condon might
have scripted.
De gustibus ain't what they used to be.
Frank Eggleston
I agree with you about that line. The other line that had me cringing was
toward the end of the trailer when Costner's giving another speech and
says that "Once there was a postman for every street in America..." Looks
like it could be an interesting film minus the cornball dialogue.
Guy
> I do sometimes wonder whether I share the same planet with some of
>these posters. Speaking only for myself, I saw both of these trailers
>and was made interested in seeing the films as a result.
I saw the trailers, which I thought made the film look like a tacky B
movie. It also looked like the familiar "Waterworld" post-apocalyptic
mayhem, minus the water. If I were a betting man, I'd say that "The
Postman" will be at the dead letter office, soon after release.
T.Cruise
> I saw the trailers, which I thought made the film look like a tacky B
> movie. It also looked like the familiar "Waterworld" post-apocalyptic
> mayhem, minus the water. If I were a betting man, I'd say that "The
> Postman" will be at the dead letter office, soon after release.
>
> T.Cruise
Well, at least you resisted the impulse to add "Return to Sender"...
Did you ever notice that critics love catchy phrases? I'll bet that
they're secretly disappointed that "The Titanic" appears to be a
success. Now they won't be able to use "Titanic Sinks!", "Titanic
Should be Sunk!", "Film Hits Iceburg" or "Director Goes Down With the
Ship!" as headlines for their reviews.
>Really strange thing happened there. I really, totally, sincerely
>hated that trailer the first few times I saw it. I got stuck with
>seeing the damn thing again Tuesday (when I saw Starship Troopers
>again), and actually got interested that time. I *may* have to go see
>Postman, after all.
I'm planning on seeing it. I had to watch the trailer a few times after I
downloaded it from http://www.thepostman.com. The first time watching it
seemed corny, but the more I watched it the more interested I became in
the story. With soverign citizen movements and other organizations like
the Republic of Texas or the Montana Freemen trying to seperate from the
United States and with their ideas spreading to other people, it could be
a possible future for the United States if something like a nuclear war
shattered the social and economic structure of the country.
I'll also be seeing TITANIC as well.
Yours truly,
Daniel Perez - author of Terminator 3: Armageddon
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