TODAY I WATCHED (Movies, TV series) 2014

^^ Yup, I saw Dead Heat on HBO back in the day too, when it popped up on Netflix I couldn't help myself....

I seem to remember Joe Piscopo bad mouthing the movie when it came out, apparently he was concerned about the level of violence in the movie, cuz he was trying to cultivate a more family friendly image at the time. Supposedly when he signed on, he was told "don't worry about it, it'll be cartoon violence," but as he worked on the movie he was increasingly horrified at how bloody/gross it was. I guess he was pissed cuz he couldn't let his kids see it.

Monday Night Raw

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

007 wrote:

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

X2

thejokeriv wrote:

007 wrote:

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

X2

x3

"Cleanflix" (2009) ...documentary about the rise and fall of Clean Flicks, a Utah based chain of video stores that struck gold by renting and selling "edited" versions of blockbusters with all violent/sexual content and foul language removed to placate it's mostly Mormon clientele. When Hollywood gets wind of these unauthorized sanitized movies, of course, the law steps in and the battle between copyright holders and those on the moral high ground is eventually settled in court.
I followed some of this saga in the media while it went on in the mid 00s and thought it was pretty ridiculous at the time, but till I saw this doc I had no idea what a big business the "edited movies" industry really was in Utah. Now it's even more mind numbingly bizarre. Ironic that the video store owners , who claimed they were doing "the Lord's work," were found to be little more than garden variety bootleggers in the end.

Dual Survival

Westworld

The Amityville Horror (2005)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

American Horror Story : Coven

Fat Freddy wrote:

"Cleanflix" (2009) ...documentary about the rise and fall of Clean Flicks, a Utah based chain of video stores that struck gold by renting and selling "edited" versions of blockbusters with all violent/sexual content and foul language removed to placate it's mostly Mormon clientele. When Hollywood gets wind of these unauthorized sanitized movies, of course, the law steps in and the battle between copyright holders and those on the moral high ground is eventually settled in court.
I followed some of this saga in the media while it went on in the mid 00s and thought it was pretty ridiculous at the time, but till I saw this doc I had no idea what a big business the "edited movies" industry really was in Utah. Now it's even more mind numbingly bizarre. Ironic that the video store owners , who claimed they were doing "the Lord's work," were found to be little more than garden variety bootleggers in the end.

My former boss was a Mormon and he clued me into this practice. I thought the whole idea sounded ridiculous too at the time. And even though he liked the idea of it, he also felt a little conflicted over the copywrite issue, seeing how we work in the low-end of tv broadcast and all that.

Sounds like a doc I need to see, stat.

Quote :

I seem to remember Joe Piscopo bad mouthing the movie when it came out, apparently he was concerned about the level of violence in the movie, cuz he was trying to cultivate a more family friendly image at the time. Supposedly when he signed on, he was told "don't worry about it, it'll be cartoon violence," but as he worked on the movie he was increasingly horrified at how bloody/gross it was. I guess he was pissed cuz he couldn't let his kids see it.

I used to be a big Piscopo fan from his time on Saturday Night Live.  That made me a big fan of Dead Heat and Wiseguys.  Haven't seen either in probably 25 years.  I also thought it was cool that he was so into the fitness stuff.  In one of those SNL retrospective books they talked about what a nightmare he became with the Frank Sinatra impression.  Apparently he viewed it less as a comedic impression and more of a straight up tribute to Frank.  Piscopo was not loved by the others on SNL at all.  Probably goes a long way to explaining how much he fell off the radar.


One On One

Seventies movie starring and written by Robbie Benson about college basketball.  I used to love this as a kid and watched it over and over on HBO.  It didn't really hold up but the cheesiness and completely ridiculous earnestness of it all made it a fun view.  An assistant coach wears some of the most unbelievable loud seventies disco shirts that even John Travolta at the time would've said no way to.  Also the other players are pretty much bodybuilder types and all look 40+.  The thing is a mess in a fun way.  Also Annette O'Toole should've been a much bigger star.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

"Cleanflix" (2009) ...documentary about the rise and fall of Clean Flicks, a Utah based chain of video stores that struck gold by renting and selling "edited" versions of blockbusters with all violent/sexual content and foul language removed to placate it's mostly Mormon clientele. When Hollywood gets wind of these unauthorized sanitized movies, of course, the law steps in and the battle between copyright holders and those on the moral high ground is eventually settled in court.
I followed some of this saga in the media while it went on in the mid 00s and thought it was pretty ridiculous at the time, but till I saw this doc I had no idea what a big business the "edited movies" industry really was in Utah. Now it's even more mind numbingly bizarre. Ironic that the video store owners , who claimed they were doing "the Lord's work," were found to be little more than garden variety bootleggers in the end.

My former boss was a Mormon and he clued me into this practice. I thought the whole idea sounded ridiculous too at the time. And even though he liked the idea of it, he also felt a little conflicted over the copywrite issue, seeing how we work in the low-end of tv broadcast and all that.

Sounds like a doc I need to see, stat.

It's on Netflix streaming if you wanna check it out, MG. It was very cool, in a bizarre, can-you-believe-this-sh*t kind of way.

I'm not a Mormon, so I still can't wrap my mind around this mind set of "Well, we want to watch R-rated movies, but we don't want to see the stuff that makes them R-rated, so we'll just edit that stuff out"... and then somehow thinking that it would be perfectly OK with the movie studios.

...Clean Flicks wasn't the only company in Utah doing it, either. From what this doc sez, it seemed like there were dozens of them, all in competition with each other.

I remember watching something on the news years ago about one of the other "edited movie" services called "Movie Mask," which provided software to viewers which covered up nekkid boobies with digitally-inserted bras or t-shirts, or violent/gory bits in action films with little cartoon style "bang!" or "pow!" word balloons like on the old "Batman" TV show. They showed a clip of a particularly violent gun battle scene from "RoboCop" with the "Movie Mask" filter over it and naturally it looked absolutely f*cking ridiculous. I laughed till I nearly pee'd.

Fat Freddy wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

"Cleanflix" (2009) ...documentary about the rise and fall of Clean Flicks, a Utah based chain of video stores that struck gold by renting and selling "edited" versions of blockbusters with all violent/sexual content and foul language removed to placate it's mostly Mormon clientele. When Hollywood gets wind of these unauthorized sanitized movies, of course, the law steps in and the battle between copyright holders and those on the moral high ground is eventually settled in court.
I followed some of this saga in the media while it went on in the mid 00s and thought it was pretty ridiculous at the time, but till I saw this doc I had no idea what a big business the "edited movies" industry really was in Utah. Now it's even more mind numbingly bizarre. Ironic that the video store owners , who claimed they were doing "the Lord's work," were found to be little more than garden variety bootleggers in the end.

My former boss was a Mormon and he clued me into this practice. I thought the whole idea sounded ridiculous too at the time. And even though he liked the idea of it, he also felt a little conflicted over the copywrite issue, seeing how we work in the low-end of tv broadcast and all that.

Sounds like a doc I need to see, stat.

It's on Netflix streaming if you wanna check it out, MG. It was very cool, in a bizarre, can-you-believe-this-sh*t kind of way.

I'm not a Mormon, so I still can't wrap my mind around this mind set of "Well, we want to watch R-rated movies, but we don't want to see the stuff that makes them R-rated, so we'll just edit that stuff out"... and then somehow thinking that it would be perfectly OK with the movie studios.

...Clean Flicks wasn't the only company in Utah doing it, either. From what this doc sez, it seemed like there were dozens of them, all in competition with each other.

I remember watching something on the news years ago about one of the other "edited movie" services called "Movie Mask," which covered up nekkid boobies with digitally-inserted bras or t-shirts, and violent/gory bits in action films with little cartoon style "bang!" or "pow!" word balloons like on the old "Batman" TV show. They showed a clip of a particularly violent gun battle scene from "RoboCop" with the "Movie Mask" filter over it and naturally it looked absolutely f*cking ridiculous. I laughed till I nearly pee'd.

I heard they edited Showgirls and it ended up being a 2 minute movie.....

Quote :

I heard they edited Showgirls and it ended up being a 2 minute movie....

The guy in charge of Clean Flicks' "edits" did say that there were some movies that were so full of "objectionable" material that there was no point in even trying to produce an edited version. "Showgirls" wasn't mentioned but they did say "Brokeback Mountain" was one (big surprise) and I believe the "American Pie" series was another.

Quote :

Obviously I'm not a Mormon so I simply couldn't wrap my mind around the whole idea of "Well, we want to watch R-rated movies, but we don't want to see the stuff that makes them R-rated, so we'll just edit that stuff out"...

Like folks that eat "low fat" junk food. "Oh, I can't resist jamming this crap into my bloated food hole, but it's ok because these are 'Low Fat' Twinkies".   

My old boss also clued me in that the mega-hit 'Napolean Dynamite' was originally funded by Mormons and would have just been another bland production that noone outside of Utah saw until MTV got wind of it and bought the distribution rights.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

I heard they edited Showgirls and it ended up being a 2 minute movie....

The guy in charge of Clean Flicks' "edits" did say that there were some movies that were so full of "objectionable" material that there was no point in even trying to produce an edited version. "Showgirls" wasn't mentioned but they did say "Brokeback Mountain" was one (big surprise) and I believe the "American Pie" series was another.

'

A triple feature that lasts all of 10 minutes!

A Mormon version of "Brokeback Mountain" would consist of the opening credits, the end credits, and....nothing in between.

If someone's art offends you, ignore it and get on with your life. But don't presume that you have a right to change it (and profit from it) because you don't. I hope the movie studios bankrupt these clowns.   

Her (2013, Spike Jonze)



Lovely film that ponders what relationships might be like in our social media focused future. Phoenix and Johansson both create fully realized characters which is even more impressive in Scarlett's case because she has to carry everything solely with her voice (she is never seen onscreen). Contemplative, character-driven, intelligent sci-fi.

Boris2008 wrote:

If someone's art offends you, ignore it and get on with your life. But don't presume that you have a right to change it (and profit from it) because you don't. I hope the movie studios bankrupt these clowns.   

That battle's already been fought and won by the Hollywood studios. The "Clean Flicks" company got their asses handed to them in court and had to shut down their operations in 2006. Most, if not all, of their competition closed up shop afterwards out of fear of the same thing happening to them..

...ironically, according to the documentary, this has led to the creation of "secret" membership-only web sites where Mormons can go to download edited films. So much for that whole "Thou shalt not steal" thing.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Boris2008 wrote:

If someone's art offends you, ignore it and get on with your life. But don't presume that you have a right to change it (and profit from it) because you don't. I hope the movie studios bankrupt these clowns.   

That battle's already been fought and won by the Hollywood studios. The "Clean Flicks" company got their asses handed to them in court and had to shut down their operations in 2006. Most, if not all, of their competition closed up shop afterwards out of fear of the same thing happening to them..

...ironically, according to the documentary, this has led to the creation of "secret" membership-only web sites where Mormons can go to download edited films. So much for that whole "Thou shalt not steal" thing.

The "Mormon version" of most of the movies I watch would be shorter than the average TV commercial.

Take out all the nudity, bad language and especially VIOLENCE and you're pretty much left with opening credits, "Let's get outta here!" and end credits.

S.D. wrote:

Her (2013, Spike Jonze)



Lovely film that ponders what relationships might be like in our social media focused future.  Phoenix and Johansson both create fully realized characters which is even more impressive in Scarlett's case because she has to carry everything solely with her voice (she is never seen onscreen).  Contemplative, character-driven, intelligent sci-fi.

I'm really interested in seeing this. I've heard nothing but good things about it.

"After Porn Ends" (2010) - documentary that interviews some of the porn biz's legendary names and finds out how they're doing when they retire from the industry. Let's just say that there aren't many happy endings. Interviewees include Nina Hartley, Houston (who should win a "Biggest Plastic Surgery Disaster" trophy at the next AVN Awards), Randy West, Seka, Asia Carrera, John Leslie and many more.

TNA Impact

The Clean Flicks operation reminds me of Norway during the 80s up to mid 90s, except it was the government doing the censoring. We had a state approved agency who rated all the movies, and cutting out scenes they deemed inappropriate. We had the strongest censoring in the world. Lots of movies even got banned. Movies like RoboCop and Cobra were 20 minutes shorter in Norway, and most of the horror movies were totally banned. So the black marked for imported movies was huge. Luckily they stopped during the late 90s, so nowadays they only rate the movies.