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Flash Gordon, 300 and More Short Cuts
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I'm not sure I'd bother with that interview Matt. I didn't see Flash Gordon myself (I don't have cable) but from what I've read about it, it was very bad. I know it was the first show, but sometimes people don't bother coming back if the first show is bad.
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Aug 16, 2007 9:43 AM
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So, should I book that Q&A with Gina Holden (aka Dale Arden)?
Only to ask what her plans are after this awful series is canceled.
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Aug 16, 2007 9:44 AM
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Tanya Memme's new album is called "Gemini?" I'm not sure that's the brightest move. Methinks there was a band named Gemini - back in the Dark Ages, of course - and those people might get upset.
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Aug 16, 2007 10:17 AM
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Hollow Man??? Who is buying these awful movies and why do directors think people want more??? This movie was 1 of the only blind buys I have ever regretted.
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Aug 16, 2007 10:34 AM
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Don't bother with an interview. This remake was a wasted opportunity. They've ruined the chances for a good Flash series for at least another 10 years. If not forever.
That first episode was a steaming pile.
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Aug 16, 2007 1:13 PM
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Yeah, I'd say people tuned in to Flash Gordon based on the name, and they will tune out in droves based on the cast, material, script, sfx, etc. Good luck to SciFi in trying to keep Flash's numbers as high as they think they are.
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Aug 16, 2007 1:31 PM
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Interview Gina Holden anyway -- she's got a bright future in showbiz ahead of her (she and Whitney were great at the Comic-Con panel). Be sure to ask her
1)just how cross-eyed *is* Karen Black -- err, Cliche?
2) what they were thinking when they cast a Princess Aura who's so close to Cliche in type?
Oh, and since those questions aren't likely publishable, please email me with the off-the-record answers.
-- Rob
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Aug 16, 2007 2:06 PM
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Flash Gordon does have some issues, like Ming being played by an actor that looks and sounds like a wuss. However, it was nowhere near as bad as Painkiller Jane. Unlike most people (or so it seems) I generally don't judge a show on just 1 episode, even uber bombs like Painkiller and John From Cincy.
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Aug 16, 2007 2:22 PM
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This has to be one of the most awful things I've ever seen. I want my 90 minutes back! No, I won't be watching anymore of this "hit" from SciFi Channel, which has sunk lower than ever.
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Aug 17, 2007 10:19 AM
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Yeah, my thought was, "At least it's not nearly as bad as Painkiller Jane." But that's not saying much 'cause it's pretty hard for me to stop watching a show once I've started and I stopped watching PJ after episode 6.
Flash Gordon is a premise that works, they didn't break the basic premise at all. The flaws are more in the casting and directing than anything else. While the leads, Eric Johnson and Gina Holden are both engaging, game leads and Karen Cliche is at least bearable, a change from her tenure on the trainwreck third season of Mutant X, the rest of the casting is wrong. Zarkhov is both misconceived and miscast, disappearing into the woodwork. The actress who was cast as Princess Aura looks a lot like Cliche's Bailan for no apparent reason (hopefully, it's a plot point yet to be revealed). And while Ming is necessarily reconceived as the Yellow Peril racism of the original version is intolerable, this new, corporate robber-baron fascist version of the character is horribly miscast.
The direction is perfunctory when it's not incompetent. The camera usage is inert, with far more master shots than coverage even in scenes without special effects, to the point that it looks like the cameraman is sleepwalking through the scenes. The blocking is mostly static and uninteresting. And the director of the pilot is, IIRC, an alumni of Mutant X, which, again, should tell you how little thought is going into the remake.
Also, the production values are so subpar that I can't imagine Kevin Dillon ever guest-starring on it even though the late Flash Gordon creator Alex Raymond is his grand-uncle (as Dillon recently mentioned in an interview with Reege and Kelly). Darn.
OTOH, it's better then practically every movie Skiffy airs on Saturday nights and moreover, it's more or less Stargate minus the various mythologies (Air Force, Jaffa, Goa'uld, Ancients, Asgard, etc.) Clearly, they're looking for something compatible with Doctor Who and in that, they've succeeded. But barely, and only because of the leads.
-- Rob
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Aug 17, 2007 12:55 PM
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Flush Flash. This show is garbage and all it took was two episodes, which was one too many for me.
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Aug 28, 2007 5:20 PM
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How low can this series get? Having begun its SciFi broadcast life in a hole deeper than the Mariana Trench, the latest episode sinks to even more impossible depths. And it does so with the weight of a stone searching for the limits of a bottomless pit.
Ironically entitled, "Ascension," this plodding episode features disappointingly grounded Hawkmen that seem to spend most of their lives cavorting about in a Mongo suburb that looks a heck of a lot like the city dump.
When not making strangled screeching noises in a kind of sad and desperate attempt to sound bird-like, the Hawkmen perform a curious dance with steps evidently inspired by a Tourette's sufferer burdened with a full bladder.
Flash, whose nickname really ought to be "Tedious," follows rather than leads his band of bored actors from one ridiculous scene to another, along the way sharing the culpability of the incompetent writers.
Exhibiting a singular flair for the pedestrian, even the villains of this series cannot generate enough enthusiasm to utter even one marginally malevolent remark.
How low can this idiotic drivel go? Let's just say that this show aspires to climb to the depths of mediocrity.
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Sep 15, 2007 3:27 AM
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