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#221 Re: Guns N' Roses » If GNR releases nothing in 2023, is this the end for you? » 146 weeks ago
I remember Thayil talking about this situation with Soundgarden before the reunion....how it dawned on him one day how they had ignored their own "brand" for so long that generations were passing them by without really knowing anything about them.
It's why they almost immediately released a new GH/best of compilation to get things started...among other things.
GNR pushed an old GH disc they had previously told fans to boycott.
It's all fucked up....every which way but loose.
Aside from the obvious garbage management that will have no idea what to do with the material if/when he dies, the main problem is this: they don't have enough material for another GH/compilation album to restore the brand. I mean they can't just put out Guns N' Roses GH 1995-2015 or whatever.
And that's his problem for only releasing one album in 30 years. There is no other carrot to dangle that will move the needle back. Late 80s live stuff? Should have been released w/the Appettite giant box set. Ditto 90s, except it should have been released with Illusions. I'd be interesting in maybe a pro shot 2001 vegas show but that aint moving the needle in terms of reinvigorating fan interest or spearheading releasing material (such as deluxe albums/outtakes) that will just help restore the brand.
If they ever end up releasing some Chinese leftovers album + outtakes/different versions of songs. It'll just be the swan song /bookend for the band. There won't be several live albums or anniversary editions of stuff to come.
#222 Re: Guns N' Roses » 2023 Tour Dates » 147 weeks ago
There's one point in the timeline where it might have happened....the spark to potentially ignite it anyways....
2001
He really wanted the album out at this point in the timeline. It's finished...and the Village Sessions back this up.
The label should've just let him release the goddamn thing. It wouldn't have hurt anything. Its release would've opened up two possibilities....
1. It's a success...couple decent hits...decent album sales...and new GNR gets a run similar to Audioslave as we enter the 2000s. As we get closer to the end of the decade, he gets new GNR out of his system and is ready to move on(reunion).
2. Chinese Democracy is a huge bomb... briefly becomes a joke. People listen, laugh, and then move on. Axl moves on as well... opening the door to the obviously inevitable reunion.
The label benefits from either option.
Having said all that....if he truly wanted the record out in 2001.....why not go get an A list manager to negotiate its release?!?
Yeah, it had to be 2001 or at worst 2002. They were riding high then. He had come out of the hermit cave and showed up for several shows (Vegas, RIO) and gotten back into the public eye. He had enough of a cache built with the label that he could ride out the bomb/disappointment. And there's enough interest there in the band/what he was doing.
He's basically his own worst enemy at that point. And having a beggar on (Goldstein at that point) was counterproductive. Because they wouldn't tell the truth to his face. If you get it out also you don't blow those extra millions tinkering in the studio or whatever he did. In retrospect, Niven leaving was one of the downfalls along with Izzy. He just wasted a lot of YEARS doing nothing aside from the occasional money grab tours.
OT but I've always felt that if they released If the World earlier like in 2001 or what and put it on a film, it would be a decent hit or get the public talking about them/him. Body of Lies in 2008 or 2007 didn't really work because at that point the album and band were a joke.
#223 Re: The Sunset Strip » Most Recent Movie You've Seen » 147 weeks ago
I still haven't watched one of those Wick movies. It does look ridiculous. I should at least try the first film...they are constantly pushing them on Tubi/Amazon.
Go with the first Wick film. It's storyline based and less ridiculous than the ones that follow. It's basically a dark neo-noir with a moderate amount of fight scenes. It's not basically just a setup for a bunch of kills.
I forgot Heat! She's pretty good in that but it's a really small role.
That's actually my favorite side story in Heat. And she makes it work. Her storyline hits the apex at the end /last 20 mins. And it works beautifully for me. It wouldn't work if she didn't make you feel that there was some connection with her character and Vincent Hanna. He probably has a closer relationship with her than he does his wife.
#224 Re: The Garden » The Wrestling thread » 147 weeks ago
Neemo wrote:Marty Janetty... I don't know his story at all
Considered the more talented rocker...only cares about drugs..blows his opportunity to be a solo star like Michaels.... does more drugs...his daughter came back into his life as an adult and he might have had an affair with her....and he witnessed a murder.
I think that covers it.
Did he witness it or did he commit the murder? I've read he killed the guy. Oh as an addon, he kept on getting rehired by the WWE in different decades (90s, 2000s) despite being a gigantic druggie/screwup. Think about this: Michaels did a shit ton of drugs in the 90s and managed to remain employed. Jannety managed to somehow do worse than that.
I remember he won the IC title in 1993 on Raw and somehow managed to totally piss that away pretty quickly. He was in his prime too.
#225 Re: The Sunset Strip » Most Recent Movie You've Seen » 147 weeks ago
Speaking of choreographed fights...this might be the best/worst example....
I love the Mission Impossible series....but holy shit.
That's more like a dance than a fight. Nobody is getting hurt....and nobody would be walking straight or looking pretty after enduring that much pain.
Most realistic scene in that sequence is Ilsa shooting him in the face when she walks down...which is something someone in that dicey situation would do.
I know it's also not realistic to have Cruise and Co. walking around with black eyes, busted lips, and limping throughout the movie....but there has to be a middle ground.
These types of scenes make movies feel more like video games.
They are not really realistic fight scenes at all. Those aren't the worst ones though. The 1 vs 10 people with only one weapon or two are the damned worst ones (they aped that from that one scene from Oldboy w/ the hammer). Most of those modern action movies are glorified video games. John Wick mows down 30-40 bad guys. Great. Too bad it gets boring after a while. Or the other type of movie is the shitty CGI fest, replete with crappy jokes.
Brothers - Natalie Portman film....her husband is assumed killed in action in Afghanistan and she starts getting close to his loser ex convict brother.
It's pretty good....but I can't stand Tobey Maguire...in anything.
Portman was on fire in the mid-late 2000s....so it's unfortunate that she didn't pick better films at the time. She needed more Black Swans and V for Vendettas and less No Strings Attached.....
I think I may have seen this I'm not sure. Portman's problem was that the Star Wars stuff basically set her up for life and she could whatever she wanted to do. Looking up her imdb stuff, that appears to be the case. She just was in a lot of different stuff, some of it mainstream, a lot of it not.
I kind of respect her more in that case. She really could have been in more mainstream films if she wanted to.
#226 Re: Guns N' Roses » How do you feel about CD potentially being the last GNR album? » 147 weeks ago
Yeah, there's not enough rockers on CD and it gets old listening to some dude complain about his issues song after song.
#227 Re: Guns N' Roses » 2023 Tour Dates » 147 weeks ago
The problem with Oh My God was the lack of follow through.
It was a wacky song to unveil a new version of GNR as we were headed to the 21st century. Wouldn't be the end of the world though.
He does an MTV interview mentioning the song, album, and Live Era, but allows the song to be buried on a soundtrack and doesn't actually promote the new lineup.It was also the CD saga's first bait and switch. Fans got a live Jungle video when this new material was supposedly the top priority. He also talked more about the rerecording of Appetite to Loder than he did CD.
When OMG failed to cause mass snake dancing down the street....mainly because you had to watch the movie or buy the soundtrack to hear it, he walked the hype back and claimed it was a demo.
Like I was saying to Monkey earlier....too much talk, not enough action. He sabotaged his own band/project but everyone else gets the blame.
I think he half assed it also in the back of his mind he always felt that Slash would come back and rejoin at some point in the near future. I think it was just a phase for him music wise, the techno stuff. I don't think he could have went fully modern/industrial etc. Most of the CD songs sound like Illusion-ish. I don't think there was any intention to turn them into GNR for the 21st Century. Or if it did, that thing died fast after OMG failed. What's weird is that you have a few of his "comtemparies" (Metallica and Motley Crue) go in totally different directions in the late 90s and they still went back to their roots afterwards.
Metallica doesn't get tired of playing their old stuff because..gasp...they actually enjoy making and releasing new music. Also they give a shit about their fanbase. Those things seem to be foreign to GNR.
#228 Re: Guns N' Roses » If GNR releases nothing in 2023, is this the end for you? » 147 weeks ago
Just let em push tacky shirts and scented candles to the casuals until they run out of road.
It's probably why they want Hard School out of the way....gotta make room for more shitty merch.
Problem here is that if they are bleeding casuals no one is buying that half assed merchandise. All I can say is that Izzy lucked out when they got too greedy and left him out of the reunion.
#229 Re: Guns N' Roses » How do you feel about CD potentially being the last GNR album? » 147 weeks ago
Unfortunately....I do believe now it's their last album....other than a compilation or another box set.
They clearly have no desire to record or release new material.... crystal clear....so I will no longer pretend some sort of forward movement is on the horizon.
Had there been any desire to do something....they wouldn't have waited until year seven of the reunion shindig to get it going.
It barely counts as a GNR album anyways. It's already slipping through the cracks of time and 87-93 is really all that matters when you get down to brass tacks.
As I've said before....the CD saga now just feels like a long con and a bait and switch.
I wouldn't mind it as much if it were the real CD not the hacked up final "version" we got in 2008. If they released some deluxe version (lol yeah right) with the Beaven mixes or whatever different cuts along with some reworked versions with Slash and Duff I'd be fine with it.
You've mentioned this or come close to it regarding, everything we thought we knew or assumed as "hurdles" in releasing this thing was just incompetent management and just Axl not giving a shit at some point say past 2003 or 2004 (maybe before that).
#230 Re: The Sunset Strip » Most Recent Movie You've Seen » 147 weeks ago
Maybe that's why The Eiger Sanction is so wacky. It's a beautiful film... especially the training scenes....but there's something missing.
Watch that film...and then imagine how it would be if Tom Cruise remade it.
On the other hand...there's something unique about a more realistic approach to assassinations on a mountain. Yes it lacks action...but you can picture it happening.
If Tom Cruise is on that mountain, we get an over choreographed fight sequence and him jumping off the peak with no parachute...
I'm gonna have to watch it again.
The training parts are some my favorite scenes in that movie. They are like in Arizona and he's training and chasing some hot chick who is in fatigues. I think she ended up being his love interest in the film.
There's something about the realism of films in the 70s and 80s that resonates with us more (we are all around the same age group) than the slick shit that has taken over modern cinema. It totally sucks me out of the film when they do that choreagraphed stuff.
I often wonder if a different ending would have been better. It's kind of a deflater for me. I'm totally into like maybe the first 30-40 mins then it just loses me. But the concept itself, especially in the 70s, and this isn't some James Bond stuff, is really intriguing. I think the Killer Elite with James Caan might be similar but it suffers from bloat too and is also overlong.
There are independent movies out there. Usually art movies, horror and comedies. Clint Eastwood is the only guy I know who makes "Hollywood movies". That's why I love stuff like Absolute Power so much. On the surface it looks like your typical thriller, but you notice the little quirks and lack of production values that reveal it as an independent effort. There is purity in Clint's approach. Where Hollywood tries to make a movie yes, at least back then, they are a machine with committees and agendas. All of that tend to interfere in the process. With Clint it's just Clint making the decisions. Kinda like how De Palma tries to make a better Hitchcok movie, Clint tries to make a better Hollywood movie. And when he succeeds the result is really good.
I have to rewatch Absolute Power because I read the book and really liked it. The movie was kind of long and had some dead spots like Lofton noted. It didn't help that I enjoyed the Wesley Snipes film, Murder at 1600 which dealt with a similar plot.
Anyway, yeah with Clint you can always tell there are some "independent touches" there that set it apart. Yeah, it's Hollywood but it's not cookie cutter shit that bores. Mystic River is another really good film that doesn't get mentioned.
I don't think that Depalma should get compared to Hitchcock anyway. His films are easier to get into, and I've seen a TON of Hitchcock films. Plus there's always fun watching how he uses the camera. That one scene from Dressed to Kill has been copied a bunch of times (most notably Basic Instinct). One of my favorite modern De Palma's is Femme Fatale. Just a beautiful film. I even enjoyed the last one he made . I mean it wasn't prime De Palma but it was still fun and watchable.
