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Do you know about the Asylum? If you have been in a rental store at some point in the last decade or so, you've probably seen some of their movies -- they make those films with names almost the same as big Hollywood films, that seem like they shouldn't be legal to sell (and sometimes aren't). Like Sherlock Holmes, where he fights a dragon in a hot air balloon that was built by Evil Iron Man. Or this movie, which is about robots from the moon:  They also produce original movies, as well, like this one:  The trailer of which you need to watch, right away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjNh3vA5wkQ Some might see them as a bunch of hacks, but I think they're great. Here's one of their managers' responses to someone sending them hate mail about their ripoff movies: quote:Ignoring the fact that only about 20% of our movies are Mockbusters, I’ll tell you why we bother making them: And I actually kind of liked Sherlock Holmes. So there's that. You can find out what else they're working on at their website. http://www.theasylum.cc
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Feb 14, 2015 22:14
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Their tv show Z Nation is a lot of fun, way more so than Walking Dead.
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Feb 14, 2015 22:40
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I liked The Asylum better when they were openly scam artists (literally saying in interviews that their business model is rushing their direct to dvd movies to stores so stupid people get them confused with tentpole movies that are still in theaters) and everybody hated them. This ironically liking them thing is bullshit. They're Roger Corman without the soul.
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Feb 14, 2015 23:25
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Call Me Charlie posted:I liked The Asylum better when they were openly scam artists (literally saying in interviews that their business model is rushing their direct to dvd movies to stores so stupid people get them confused with tentpole movies that are still in theaters) and everybody hated them. I don't believe in irony.
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Feb 14, 2015 23:27
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I like their films because they are essentially something you would come up with in the fifth grade after watching a movie and fantasise about filming for month before you see another flashy blockbuster. Asylum actually make those dreams come true even before they see the actual film they are inspired by. Every film is a postmodern art. And hey, their version of 50 Shades of Grey is not that much worse than the original.
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Feb 14, 2015 23:41
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Call Me Charlie posted:This ironically liking them thing is bullshit. They're Roger Corman without the soul. This. Nailed it. I can't stand Asylum. If it's not trying to scam grandmas who pick up Transmorphers by mistake it's pushing out manufactured "so-bad-it's-good" garbage.
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Feb 15, 2015 05:47
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If you can't see the soul in a movie about Santa Claus being allergic to cats then you are a broken man
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Feb 15, 2015 07:31
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Somehow I am okay with this.
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Feb 15, 2015 16:35
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On Youtube, "This Exists" just did an episode on mockbusters and the Asylum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_x_NH1RdvM.
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Feb 15, 2015 19:27
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Can we agree that Paranormal Entity owns though?
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Feb 16, 2015 01:27
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The Asylum made Titanic 2. gently caress The Asylum.
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Feb 16, 2015 02:13
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Jonny Angel posted:Can we agree that Paranormal Entity owns though? Unironically better than any of the Paranormal Activities
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Feb 16, 2015 02:14
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I wouldn't go that far personally but it's easily in the top 3 and maybe in the top 2.
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Feb 16, 2015 02:29
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They churn out so much stuff that some of it has to be interesting just going by statistics. Don't they have a division that does religious versions of secular movies? Like, Sunday School Musical and poo poo? That seems super-exploitative and callous.
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Feb 16, 2015 05:28
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corn in the bible posted:
"Yeah, well we keep a bunch of people employed and can sell our lovely movies to TV networks for a profit, so there!" I'm sure there's a worse justification for making terrible movies, but I certainly can't think of it.
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Feb 16, 2015 15:27
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Their films are super fun to watch if you actually now what you're in for and not a poor child whose grandma bought Transmorphers by mistake.
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Feb 16, 2015 15:30
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Jonny Angel posted:Can we agree that Paranormal Entity owns though? It's shockingly good.
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Feb 16, 2015 15:42
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Call Me Charlie posted:This ironically liking them thing is bullshit. They're Roger Corman without the soul. Or talent. Roger Corman knew film production like few people in Hollywood history. He was capable of stretching a budget like it was taffy. He was able to scout talent. He could make films that were at least watchable. Asylum can't do anything. It's not that they make cheap films, it's that they make boring, pointless ones that are shot poorly and written worse. And they're not even the fun kind of bad. They're the "I should really go clean out my garage instead of watching this" kind of bad.
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Feb 16, 2015 15:48
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raditts posted:"Yeah, well we keep a bunch of people employed and can sell our lovely movies to TV networks for a profit, so there!" Nothing could be better for an aspiring actor/director/cinematographer/gaffer than to forever have the big black mark that is an Asylum film on your resume! Random Stranger posted:Or talent. Roger Corman knew film production like few people in Hollywood history. He was capable of stretching a budget like it was taffy. He was able to scout talent. He could make films that were at least watchable. Exactly. The Asylum has never produced a Targets, or The Intruder, or even a Death Race 2000.
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Feb 16, 2015 16:41
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Someone should make a 'Let's talk about Roger Corman' thread because I hear all these stories about how he was a hustling genius and more about how he was a hack with luck and then a dozen more about how he forged modern Hollywood from a shoestring, and it's a little hard to seperate the myths.
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Feb 16, 2015 17:25
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Roger Corman is inferior to Isaac Florentine.
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Feb 16, 2015 17:37
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I think we're making some weird metric of quality based on how much something is or is not Roger Corman. Might I argue that it's possibly to appreciate or at least be fascinated by Asylum while acknowledging they're not Roger Corman?
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Feb 16, 2015 17:42
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Timeless Appeal posted:I think we're making some weird metric of quality based on how much something is or is not Roger Corman. Might I argue that it's possibly to appreciate or at least be fascinated by Asylum while acknowledging they're not Roger Corman? If you don't think Roger Cormens should be a unit of measurement I really don't know what to say.
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Feb 16, 2015 18:02
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I've never heard a bad thing about Corman, just that he can really stretch a budget and knew for a long time what would sell. Is there a seamy underside I don't know about?
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Feb 16, 2015 18:11
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Jack Gladney posted:I've never heard a bad thing about Corman, just that he can really stretch a budget and knew for a long time what would sell. Eh. He looks like a chimo I guess?
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Feb 16, 2015 18:15
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Timeless Appeal posted:I think we're making some weird metric of quality based on how much something is or is not Roger Corman. Might I argue that it's possibly to appreciate or at least be fascinated by Asylum while acknowledging they're not Roger Corman? I think it's that both specialize in low-budget, rush jobs in order to make schlocky movies to entertain kids and hungover college students. It's a fair comparison.
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Feb 16, 2015 18:40
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:Eh. He looks like a chimo I guess? In his youth he looked like an in-shape Joe Don Baker. Don't know if that's a plus or minus.
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Feb 16, 2015 19:26
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Now he looks like somebody's grandma. I'm sorry I said you look like a child molester, Roger Corman.
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Feb 16, 2015 19:34
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TrixRabbi posted:I think it's that both specialize in low-budget, rush jobs in order to make schlocky movies to entertain kids and hungover college students. It's a fair comparison. Timeless Appeal fucked around with this message at 03:45 on Feb 17, 2015 |
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Feb 16, 2015 21:38
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TrixRabbi posted:Exactly. The Asylum has never produced a Targets Well, there's one good thing to come out of this thread. It introduced me to Targets which is a genuinely good movie.
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Feb 16, 2015 22:38
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Timeless Appeal posted:I get the connection. I don't get how Asylum not being the guy who launched the careers of Jack Nicholson and Francis Ford Coppola means that Asylum can have value on its own merits. He got Martin Scorsese on the map as well.
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Feb 17, 2015 03:20
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Call Me Charlie posted:Well, there's one good thing to come out of this thread. It introduced me to Targets which is a genuinely good movie. Targets is a masterpiece and probably the best thing Bogdanovich ever did. Timeless Appeal posted:I get the connection. I don't get how Asylum not being the guy who launched the careers of Jack Nicholson and Francis Ford Coppola means that Asylum can have value on its own merits. It's not that Asylum hasn't done that or that they haven't cultivated new talent. It's that so many of the films they poo poo out are clearly assembly line products with no love or care for the medium. They make sardonic, bad-by-design poo poo like I Am Omega or Titanic II that are neither fun nor interesting. Corman could put out crap with the rest of them, but he loving tried. Note that the manager quoted in the OP isn't defending the films or their quality, he's simply rubbing in the letter writer's face that they've been successful. These movies make money, but I've yet to hear an actual defense for the films themselves. I watched that Santa Claws trailer and I wanted to scratch my eyes out. Why would anyone over the age of 5 want to watch that? Roger Corman is 88 years old and he's slowed down considerably. He revolutionized Hollywood and may very well be the most influential filmmaker of the late 20th century. Asylum is in a unique position to continue what he has done, but they just don't care enough. They could find and cultivate new talent on low budget movies. Or try to produce something original and entertaining. Instead they'd rather trick grandmas into purchasing the wrong DVD. How telling is it that the film of theirs with the most heart in it is loving Sharknado? But I'll level with y'all since I'm kind of coming in here and making GBS threads up the thread. Are there any Asylum films that are legitimately enjoyable films if I'm not just looking for something to mock and ridicule? Looks like Paranormal Entity might be one, so I'll give it a look and come back here. Any others, preferably on Netflix? Raxivace posted:He got Martin Scorsese on the map as well. The famed Roger Corman Film School. Not just Scorsese, Nicholson, Bogdanovich and Coppola but also Jonathan Demme, Ron Howard, Joe Dante, Monte Hellman, John Sayles, Nicolas Roeg, James Cameron, and Paul Bartel. Plus in the acting field you've got Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, Talia Shire, and David Carradine. TrixRabbi fucked around with this message at 03:24 on Feb 17, 2015 |
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Feb 17, 2015 03:21
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Roger Corman produced Battle Beyond the Stars so he can do no wrong. 
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Feb 17, 2015 03:42
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Jack Gladney posted:I've never heard a bad thing about Corman, just that he can really stretch a budget and knew for a long time what would sell. He talks very soothly.
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Feb 17, 2015 17:22
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Random Stranger posted:Or talent. Roger Corman knew film production like few people in Hollywood history. He was capable of stretching a budget like it was taffy. He was able to scout talent. He could make films that were at least watchable. Roger Corman's Fantastic Four was made for a million dollars in the nineties explicitly so someone could hang onto the rights. It is still a better movie than Fabulous Five or whatever the Asylum's version is (also better than both theatrical F4 movies!) I enjoy trash movies, movies that have no right existing. That's my thing. I like looking at some horrible trainwreck and wondering what mad god allowed it to exist. The thing that makes them fun and enjoyable to watch though is that you can almost always tell that someone was really trying to do the best they could, that they really believed in what they were making and wanted to show it to people. The Asylum's movies have none of that. It's assembly line horseshit churned out to make money, banking on idiots mistaking intentional badness for some kind of talent. BENGHAZI 2 fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Feb 17, 2015 |
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Feb 17, 2015 18:14
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I've only seen one of the Sharknado films and it wasn't very enjoyable at all. If we take Death Race 2000 as the canonical Corman, the contrast is like night and day. Unlike Sharknado, it actually attempted, and succeeded, at making a good, entertaining film that even got some social commentary in. Sharknado just came off lazy and stupid, with a minimal amount of entertaining scenes.
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Feb 17, 2015 18:40
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mobby_6kl posted:I've only seen one of the Sharknado films and it wasn't very enjoyable at all. If we take Death Race 2000 as the canonical Corman, the contrast is like night and day. Unlike Sharknado, it actually attempted, and succeeded, at making a good, entertaining film that even got some social commentary in. Sharknado just came off lazy and stupid, with a minimal amount of entertaining scenes. I'd never call Death Race 2000 good, but it definitely succeeded by diving straight into the most audacious aspects of the concept and running with them. Sharknado reached for some of those, but most of the running time was just milling around. Sharknado is a good film to dissect what is wrong with Asylum because it's the one that comes closest to succeeding. But how much of the running time is spent on driving around LA? Not only can they not effectively show driving around LA during a hurricane, in huge chunks of the movie they don't even try and just have their cast standing around in sunny southern California day. Classic low budget men would go, "We can't do a lot of exterior shooting so let's put as much of this action indoors as possible." Asylum just goes, "gently caress it. Who cares. We've made our money already."
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Feb 17, 2015 19:06
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TrixRabbi posted:But I'll level with y'all since I'm kind of coming in here and making GBS threads up the thread. Are there any Asylum films that are legitimately enjoyable films if I'm not just looking for something to mock and ridicule? Looks like Paranormal Entity might be one, so I'll give it a look and come back here. Any others, preferably on Netflix?
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Feb 17, 2015 19:12
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Random Stranger posted:Sharknado is a good film to dissect what is wrong with Asylum because it's the one that comes closest to succeeding. But how much of the running time is spent on driving around LA? Not only can they not effectively show driving around LA during a hurricane, in huge chunks of the movie they don't even try and just have their cast standing around in sunny southern California day. Classic low budget men would go, "We can't do a lot of exterior shooting so let's put as much of this action indoors as possible." Asylum just goes, "gently caress it. Who cares. We've made our money already." It's the only Asylum film I've seen where it felt like the filmmakers actually cared about what they were making. But it was also nothing but wink-wink-nudge-nudge look how bad it is bullshit.
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Feb 17, 2015 19:54
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Random Stranger posted:I'd never call Death Race 2000 good, but it definitely succeeded by diving straight into the most audacious aspects of the concept and running with them. Sharknado reached for some of those, but most of the running time was just milling around. And Sharknado 2 might as well just be 2 hours of the actors mugging at the camera because they're "in on the joke" this time.
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Feb 17, 2015 22:26
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