What? My user page was wiped clean? Oh dear, I don't want to have to write all of that again!
And while I'm at it, do check out my movie reviews blog here
.
AMAZING TIME SKIP: Now that I have the time to edit some things, here is a sample of some of my contributions. If a whole sentence or section has be italitized, that means that it was contributed by another troper, adding on to or in response to something I had written. I genuinely appreciate that this community is about improving upon and adding to what others have done, as much as creating.
From The Social Network
- Adults Are Useless: Granted the main characters aren't small children, but all the adults they go to for help simply blow them off - Prince Albert, the lawyers (one can almost forgive Mark for his Jerkass behavious towards them) and most of all the Harvard president Larry Summers.
- Audience Surrogate: The junior lawyer.
- Bollywood Nerd: Divya Narendra.
The Social Network: Awesome moments
- The scenes where Zuckerberg gets the Eureka moment for ideas that would eventually become cornerstones of Facebook's success are really cool, especially the one where he chances upon the idea to add a relationship status to the profiles, when a classmate is asking him to help him ask a girl if she is single.
The Social Network: Funny moments
- Mark's disdain at the looping video of the Niagara Falls at "Caribbean Night", flatly stating that it has nothing to do with the Caribbean.
- Eduardo and Mark, after hooking up with their respective flings in the bathroom stalls, looking sheepishly gleeful. "We have groupies!"
- The whole character of Christy, really. She looked so serious and genuinely worried about Eduardo not changing his relationship status on Facebook, and seemed flatly ignorant of the fact that he had just been played out by Zuckerberg and Parker. Poor Eduardo had come to realise he wasn't quite right about Asian girls being so ideal, but it is played for laughs.
From Miss Saigon
- Chekhov's Gun: Done literally with Chris' gun - this actually follows the original "see a gun in the first act, fire it in the third" formula very well.
- Nonindicative Name: Kim does not actually win the "Miss Saigon" pageant - Gigi does.
- However, Gigi toasts Kim as the "real" Miss Saigon due to Kim and Chris falling in love and believing Kim will leave Saigon.
- Subliminal Advertising: Look very closely at the helicopter logo: you can see the face of a woman in the slipstream. Props go to the graphic designer, who was asked by Cameron Mackintosh to include the face of a woman somehow in the logo. '
Those who know me will vouch for the fact that my facetious penchant for spouting useless trivia is one of the highlights (or not) of sitting next to me on my favourite bench in the local cemetery (it's nice, quiet, airy and the dead are my only true friends)
From Hilarious in Hindsight: film
- In Batman Forever, Jim Carrey 's Riddler says "if knowledge is power, then A God Am I!" Several years later, he ends up playing a man endowed with all of God's powers, in Bruce Almighty.
- Rene Russo was initially cast as Dr. Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman 's role) when it was still believed that Michael Keaton would return as Bruce Wayne/Batman. However, when Val Kilmer took over, it was determined that Russo, being five years older than Kilmer in real life, wasn't a suitable enough of a love interest (yet, Nicole Kidman is about eight years younger than Kilmer in real life). Also in Batman Forever, we have Drew Barrymore as Two-Face's girlfriend/henchwoman Sugar... and Drew Barrymore bears a fairly striking resemblance to Rene Russo (albeit, about 20 years younger and a few inches shorter).
- Mel Gibson voices the dashing John Smith in Pocahontas who reconciles two warring races and falls in love with a woman of a different ethnicity - and doesn't blast racial slurs at her. Also, Christian Bale is mild, meek young soldier who doesn't seem like he would hurl verbal abuse at the Virginia Company's photographer. The Nostalgia Chick gleefully points this out.
- In Die Hard With a Vengeance, Samuel L Jackson plays someone who is suspicious of White people on the whole, and it's played for laughs. Over a decade later, in Lakeview Terrace, Jackson plays a cop who is just plain racist and is really upset that his new neighbours are a mixed Caucasian and African-American couple.
- Also related to the third Die Hard film is when Jeremy Irons' character, the villainous Simon Gruber, excalaims "I love this country!" in reference to America. Several years earlier, Jeremy sung the part of Henry Higgins in a concert of My Fair Lady, where he claims "in America they haven't used it (the proper English language) for years".
- In Disney's Cinderella, one of the heroine's evil stepsisters is named "Anastasia". Fast-forward about fifty years, and Anastasia becomes something of an evil stepsister to the Disney canon princesses, considering she was Don Bluth's answer to them, and Don Bluth used to work for Disney before leaving and establishing himself as a competitor.
- Even better, both Anastasias are/eventually become Red-Headed Heroines with love interests with humble backgrounds. (To this other troper, whoever you are, thank you! That's a good observation)
- Anna Paquin rose to fame as Rogue in the X-Men film series. Rogue is unable to have prolonged physical contact with anyone as she sucks out their life-force like a vampire. In True Blood, she deals with actual vampires, and it seems that all her character ever does is have prolonged physical contact.
- The Farelly Brothers comedy Stuck On You, starring Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear as a pair on conjoined twins, becomes even funnier after Green Zone, where Damon plays a soldier who is pitted against Kinnear's unethical beaurecrat.
- In Die Another Day, Toby Stephens plays the big bad Bond villain Gustav Graves. Several years later, he ends up providing the voice of James Bond himself in a BBC radio adaptation of Ian Fleming's Bond novel Goldfinger.
- At the end of The Hunt For Red October, Sam Neill's character lies dying and says he would have liked to have seen Montana. Come Jurassic Park, he is granted his wish - the first scene with Neill's character is of him at a dinosaur excavation site in Montana.
- In The Living Daylights, Art Malik plays a Mujahideen warrior who helps out James Bond. Several years later in True Lies, he plays a Middle-Eastern extremist about to detonate a nuke on United States soil. The sad/funny part (depending on your point of view) is that his character in True Lies could have in effect been the same one as in The Living Daylights, as the Mujahideen was the genesis of the Taliban and was where many future extremists were incubated.
- Arnold Vosloo played Darkman in the two sequels that followed the original starring Liam Neeson. Darkman was a master of disguise, and later Vosloo would play another famous master of disguise, Zartan in GI Joe The Rise Of Cobra.
- In Lean On Me, Morgan Freeman's character Joe Clark holds a baseball bat in his hand and proclaims "They used to call me Crazy Joe. Well now they can call me Batman!" Freeman would go on to play Batman's gadget guy and technical advisor, Lucius Fox, in The Dark Knight Saga.
- In Steven Spielberg's Hook, Robin Williams plays a lawyer who is very irate about not being able to proceed with a land development deal because endangered owls are nesting there. He asks "does anyone miss the Tyrannosaurus Rex?" Spielberg's next film Jurassic Park was indeed about people who missed the Tyrannosaurus Rex, and the consequences of bringing it and other dinosaurs back from extinction. Jurassic Park even included a line where they talked about using the technology to create whole flocks of endangered condors.
- Not only that, but the T-Rex's only human victim in that film was... a lawyer.
- In Spawn, Martin Sheen plays the evil and corrupt CIA Director Jason Wynn. It has just been announced that Sheen has been cast in another comic book film: the new Spider Man reboot as...Uncle Ben, quite possibly the nicest and kindest comic book character ever.
- Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman starred as rival ballerinas in the psychological thriller Black Swan. Come 2011, No Strings Attached and Friends With Benefits, both about a couple trying to keep their relationship strictly physical without love getting in the way (and destined to be Dueling Movies), will hit screens. The former stars Portman and the latter Kunis.
- Even better, No Strings Attached pairs Natalie Portman with Ashton Kutcher, who was Mila Kunis' onscreen boyfriend in That 70s Show.
- Another Black Swan example, but this one doesn't deal with the Mila-Natalie "rivalry." In the movie, the director asks Nina's (Portman) partner (IRL ballet dancer and the film's choreographer Benjamin Millepied, Portman's boyfriend of about a year when the movie came out) if he would fuck her. The partner laughs and says no. On December 27, 2010, three and a half weeks after Black Swan was released, Portman's representatives revealed she was pregnant by and engaged to Millepied.
- Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill did an intereview promoting The Empire Strikes Back on the morning show Today back in 1980. At the end of the interview, the host asks if they know which one of them will end up with Princess Leia. Hamill says that they want to keep as many surprises as possible, otherwise it would be like "your sister telling you what you're getting for Christmas". It's not clear if Hamill knew that Luke and Leia were twin siblings at that point, but it's very funny to watch that today nonetheless.
- In The A-Team, Murdock does a parody of Braveheart. As it happens, Mel Gibson's planned cameo in The Hangover 2 has been cancelled, and he has been replaced by none other than Hannibal himself, Liam Neeson. Bonus points as Bradley Cooper stars in both films.
From Playing Against Type'':
Film (Acting)
- Jet Li, known for playing the heroic badass in many a martial-arts action flick, played the ruthless triad crimelord Wah Sing Ku in Lethal Weapon 4. This was his first major American role.
- Li has said himself that he enjoys playing the villain, and has done it more times than you'd think: see The One, War, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
- The biggest example of Li playing against type was in the Hong Kong film Ocean Heaven, which is a romantic drama in which Li does not bust a single martial arts move.
- Hugh Jackman as a suave, manipulative and slimy corporate type in Deception.
- Jake Gyllenhaal: action hero? In Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, yes.
- Zac Efron, he of High School Musical, Hairspray and Seven Again fame, as a young man tormented by the death of his kid brother in Charlie St. Cloud
- And his (former) squeeze, the usually sweet and demure Vanessa Hudgens, as a kickass gun-toting babe in the upcoming Sucker Punch.
- Sex symbol Scarlett Johansson as a nerdy bespectacled student journalist in Woody Allen's Scoop
- In that film, Hugh Jackman turns out to be the murderer.
- Comedian Chi McBride as the serious but kind FBI agent in Mercury Rising, who is the immediate superior to Bruce Willis' undercover expert.
Film (directing)
- Andrew Davis, known for his action films such as Under Siege and The Fugitive as well as lesser-known action films like Ahnold's Collateral Damage, directed the family film Holes that was Shia LaBeouf's feature film debut, and was based on a childrens' book.
- Danny Boyle, director of Trainspotting, Twenty Eight Days Later and Sunshine, would make a family-friendly film about a child coming across a lot of money called Millions, and would also later direct the less-family-friendly but still child-oriented Slumdog Millionaire.
- Ed Zwick, best known for historical war epics and the like (including Glory, The Last Samurai and Blood Diamond) made his directorial debut with the romantic comedy About Last Night, and takes a break from the Oscar bait with his latest film Love and Other Drugs, a sex comedy about a Viagra salesman.
- Roland Emmerich, best known for large-scale disaster movies such as 2012, Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, will next tackle Anonymous, a historical mystery-thriller addressing the age-old question: "who wrote the plays attributed to William Shakespeare"?
From Tomb Raider
(Added the "films" section in the introduction, in addition to those about the games)
Films
Two live-action films based on the franchise have been made, starring Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft. The first film, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was released in 2001. It was notable for co-starring Jolie's real-life father, Jon Voight, as Lara Croft's dad, Lord Richard Croft. The films depart from the games in several plot departments, but Lara stays pretty much the same. In the first film, Lara is off looking for the Triangle of Light, which the Illuminati seek in order to control time. She has until the planetary alignment to do so, and has rival/love interest Alex West (Daniel Craig in Fake American mode) in her way.
The second film, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life has Lara in search of Pandora's box. Evil scientist Jonathan Reiss (Ciaran Hinds) seeks to weaponise the contents of Pandora's Box for biological warfare. Lara is paired with mercenary and former love interest Terry Sheridan (Gerard Butler), an ex-SAS man who betrayed the country and gets his chance to pay penance. depending on who you ask, the sequel was either as good as or worse than the first film. While the first movie embraced its video-game roots, the second attempts to insert a little actual drama and tries to take itself seriously as an action-adventure flick - so seriously that some considered it not fun enough.
(The following cover the movies and the games)
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: King Arthur was a real figure and the Excalibur was an ancient superweapon that granted him much power.
- Dismantled Macguffin: Used often enough. In the first film, the Triangle of Light is split into two pieces that were "hidden at the ends of the earth" and in Legend Lara must find the different pieces of Excalibur and reassamble them. In the first game, the Atlantean Scion is split into three parts. The second example is a variation of the trope, as the fragments were not necessarily all from the same version of Excalibur, as it is mentioned that there was more than one such sword.
- Hey Its That Guy: Before they became notable action stars on their own accord, Daniel Craig and Three Hundred Gerard Butler first played rival/love interest to Angelina Jolie in the Tomb Raider films.
- Lara's butler is in fact Arnold Rimmer.
- Her tech guy is Charlie Bucket's daddy.
- Hey Its That Voice: Amanda is Phil and Lil.
- James Rutland is voiced by The Batman.
- Hollywood Skydiving: Lara's BASE jump that opens the Kazhakstan level in Legend, which is an "interactive cutscene". If you don't press the right button as it appears on the screen, Lara won't deploy her chute and will fall to her death.
- Hot Mom: Lady Amelia Croft. Da-yum.
- Mook Horror Show: Lara can polish off entire armies of trained mercenaries by herself.
- Rated M for Money: Apparently, the new Tomb Raider game to be released later this year will be rated "M". The focus appears to be shifted to a Resident Evil - type survival-horror, as opposed to the puzzle-based platforming action-adventure formula which was a big part of the earlier TR games' success.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Real Life Designs the Costumes: The second film puts Lara in more outfits with longer sleeves. This was done because the makeup used to conceal Angelina Jolie's tattoos during the filming of the first film was not as effective as it was supposed to be.
- The scene in the first film where there is a large procession of Buddhist monks was not originally in the script. Simon West decided to shoot it because the monks just happened to be having their procession, and agreed to be filmed for the movie.
- The "duck boat" transports at the end of the first film were spotted on location, and the filmmakers requested to borrow them because they looked cool.
- Soft Water: in the third game, you are forced to dive off a cliffside. Lara's scream ends and starts again three times. Until you hit the water, just fine after falling roughly 100 ft.
- The "Ghana" level in Legend opens with Lara swan-diving off a cliff into a lake about 100 feet below.
- Basically, most of the time you jump from an incredible height but land in a body of water, you'll be alright (if it isn't too shallow, that is).
- Spell My Name With An S: It's Lara, not Laura, Werner not Verner, Larson not Larsen, Alister not Alistair, Allister or Alasdair, and Amanda Evert, not Everett. (several of these examples were added by other Tropers)
- The Walls Are Closing In
- In Legend, it is possible to push a crate ahead of you through such obstacles, so you are safely inbetween the two smashing walls that have been stopped by the crate.
- You Fail Biology Forever: As mentioned above, Misplaced Wildlife and Everything Trying to Kill You abound in most of the games. And Cradle of Life throws in a roaring shark for good measure.
Also, I have created the following pages:
Thanks a ton for looking!
