Thunder Force

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I was going to say this is almost hard to believe, but maybe it isn't if you're familiar with Melissa McCarthy's comedic stylings in general.
Premise of this upcoming superhero movie: they're fat.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/a ... Force.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/a ... Force.html

The good thing is that it's probably going to be hilarious.

Pom Klementieff (Mantis from Guardians of the Galaxy) is in it, so maybe there's an obvious attempt to spoof Marvel Universe tropes.

One question is: will this movie make it *easier* or *harder* for a Faith movie (probably starring someone like Rebel Wilson) to follow it?

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat- ... ok-1124078 (from 2018 - no idea if it's still happening)

Another question is: will it get any grief from the video game series Thunder Force which has produced six games since the 1980s?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunder_Force
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Big girls can be sexy superheroines too. :)
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Yes, but NOT those two imho =)
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Shakeshift wrote:
4 years ago
Big girls can be sexy superheroines too. :)
Agreed. Never said they couldn't. We have a couple women with considerable heft in our own production, poured into spandex like everyone else.
Weaponz Tokyo has a regular villainess of larger proportions, and I'm sure there are many others.

But when you have *two* big girls as the protagonists, and the movie is called "Thunder Force", it's obvious what the premise is. Not an action movie replete with one-liners (Shazam, Deadpool), and not a superhero 'dark comedy' (Kick-Ass, Super). It's a comedic parody, like My Super Ex-Girlfriend turned up a few more notches, with sight gags, and the taste of Ghostbusters 2016 lingering in the mouths of the audience. (Unless McCarthy is radically stretching her acting chops, in which case she will surprise us all.)
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It's crap. Lazy. Stretched to make length like a C student's essay. Everyone leaves their A-game at home.
I don't think they even bothered with a training montage.
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I think Netflix made this movie for the US military to show in Guantanamo.
Every inmate will happily confess everything and snitch on anybody.... before they would be forced to watch this movie a 2nd time.
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I wish McCarthy would choose better roles. She was fantastic in 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?'.
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I bet she doesn't have many choices unless she funds them.
Doing this dreck for Netflix probably funds something interesting.
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On the contrary, I expect awful projects like Thunder Force exist precisely b/c McCarthy is in demand and there are people trying to work up the most profitable possible way to exploit that with minimum effort. Remember Chris Farley and Beverley Hills Ninja? Same shit.
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Or she's married to an ambitious, not very talented guy who is happy to exploit her talent to advance his own cred. Ever hear of Sonny Bono. Or Richard Carpenter (brother, not husband).
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Would all be part of the same thing if so, but explaining McCarthy's success through her spouse isn't Stop Number One for me. That said, who knows?
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NotUv2 wrote:
2 years ago
On the contrary, I expect awful projects like Thunder Force exist precisely b/c McCarthy is in demand and there are people trying to work up the most profitable possible way to exploit that with minimum effort.
Being in demand to replay the one dimension Hollywood can exploit for quick cash is not having choices.
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Imagineer wrote:
2 years ago
NotUv2 wrote:
2 years ago
On the contrary, I expect awful projects like Thunder Force exist precisely b/c McCarthy is in demand and there are people trying to work up the most profitable possible way to exploit that with minimum effort.
Being in demand to replay the one dimension Hollywood can exploit for quick cash is not having choices.
I guess that depends on your perspective. I would imagine there's a plentiful selection of said one-dimensional roles. But I can guarantee you she's not funding her own movies.
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Damselbinder wrote:
3 years ago
I wish McCarthy would choose better roles. She was fantastic in 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?'.
I agree that she has talent and can be great when she's working with a quality script.

Unfortunately as time goes by, I don't associate her name with quality scripts.
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Well, out of morbid curiosity I watched it.

Not... not good. Strictly speaking. OTOH not all bad. I don't regret calling it an awful project, but it does have more entertainment value than Beverley Hills Ninja. Admittedly that's like saying it tastes better than a turd.... but it's something.

There's actually a lot of funny people in this. McCarthy is, granted, mostly not one of them, she's not given a hell of a lot to work with. Yes, it being largely a McCarthy vehicle, that's a problem.

(And pace Imagineer, a good chunk of the movie is in fact a training montage. IDK if that's a good thing, though.)

But the ridiculously volatile villain, his henchmen, the running gag where he can't remember which of them he's murdered out of pique, deadpan weirdo Laser (whose supername is just off, you get the feeling it's a nickname from one of the morons she runs with that just stuck)... and The Crab. Really everything with The Crab. Even the nonsensical scene with the waiter who claims to know him but then tries to sell him the seafood tower... not great writing, no, but Bateman still managed to make it funny.

Pom Klementieff is really hot, too. Taylor Mosby is charming as Emily's (Octavia Spencer's character) daughter. Vivian Falcone, who apparently is McCarthy's IRL daughter, does well as young Lydia.

Does any of it come together? No. Is the directing and the action mostly flat and lifeless? Yes. Do even the good jokes get largely run into the ground? Yes. Is the great cast largely wasted? Yes. Would I watch again, or recommend it? No. Ultimately it feels like a movie made by someone who knows what a superhero movie is on paper but doesn't especially care for them.

But there were some bright spots. More than I expected given the savaging it got from YouTube guy.
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Lurkndog wrote:
2 years ago
Damselbinder wrote:
3 years ago
I wish McCarthy would choose better roles. She was fantastic in 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?'.
I agree that she has talent and can be great when she's working with a quality script.

Unfortunately as time goes by, I don't associate her name with quality scripts.
Hollywood seems to have these fat/ overweight flavour of the month actors thst they flog to death for a few years then move on to the next one
Belushi (OK he really died) John Candy, Rosranne Jack Black now McCarthy.
Never seem to be 2 at the same time to a degree it's always just one go to fatty for roles for a spell then onto the next.
That's the way it seems to me anyhow, and I aint seen my feet in 20 years.
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Definitely, there's a flavor-of-the-moment thing that goes on with fat comedy superstars.

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Ooooh, I remember where I know Pom Klementieff from, she was Mantis in GOTG. She's very cute.
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Well done for remembering but it was stated in the very first post in this thread so maybe just remembered that... 😀
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Oh, so it was! I'd like to say I was Definitely Paying Attention.... yeah, let's go with that. :D
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NotUv2 wrote:
2 years ago
(And pace Imagineer, a good chunk of the movie is in fact a training montage. IDK if that's a good thing, though.)
I went back and looked, because I wondered how a superhero movie could feel so terribly without rhythm.

There isn't a training montage. There are several feints toward a training montage, but it never develops. Every start grinds to a halt for a regular scene to flop about like a dying fish. It's not until 40m10s when they actually manage to string together five training-beat shots with day-count graphics. And then they run out of training.

I would say it's a victim of utterly incompetent editing, but I think it's more likely incompetent direction that didn't get enough story shot to make a movie. Like everybody expected somebody else to show up with a script. Seriously, hiring talented performers doesn't obviate storytelling unless you go full silly.

I am tempted to revisit Beverly Hills Ninja just because I cannot believe it could be a crappier production than this.

Jason Bateman's deadpan is still Jason Bateman's deadpan, though :)
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Imagineer wrote:
2 years ago
Jason Bateman's deadpan is still Jason Bateman's deadpan, though :)
On that, we agree. I guess your parameters for what constitutes a training montage are a lot more specific than mine? But it's not a big deal.

If you do rewatch Beverley Hills Ninja, let us know. A liveblog of that might be fun. :D
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Actually probably one of the best castings I've heard of lately is Melissa McCarthy playing Ursula in the upcoming gingercidal live-action Little Mermaid. Not gonna watch it, but it sounds perfect.
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shevek wrote:
2 years ago
Actually probably one of the best castings I've heard of lately is Melissa McCarthy playing Ursula in the upcoming gingercidal live-action Little Mermaid. Not gonna watch it, but it sounds perfect.
That actually does sound pretty rad.
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Some more Youtube savagings of Thunder Force. At this point, it's fish in a barrel (as opposed to, say, crabs in a bucket).





But the biggest disappointment of all? 312-021-2192 (the number from the diner receipt) is not a real phone number in Chicago.
They missed a great opportunity for some kind of merchandising where people call the number and join a fan club or order something.
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As much as I will never see this movie.....it would be an interesting experiment if they would swap these two....jurassic.....women with two insanely hot chicks in sexy costumes.
Let them speak the exact lines, the same lame comedy tries, same script etc.

I would bet that then many (men/gay women) would say: Oh yes! I wanna watch that! Must be a fun movie! Really love it! Such a good movie!
:hmmm: ;)
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Maskripper wrote:
2 years ago
As much as I will never see this movie.....it would be an interesting experiment if they would swap these two....jurassic.....women with two insanely hot chicks in sexy costumes.
Unfortunately, if the movie is bad enough, conventionally hot chicks in sexy costumes won't save it. Cf. Halle Berry's Catwoman, the original Supergirl movie from 1984, Jennifer Garner's Elektra. Pity: Thunder Force recast with fitness models but all the fat jokes and a certain running food-related gag left intact would be fascinatingly bizarre.
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NotUv2 wrote:
2 years ago
Unfortunately, if the movie is bad enough, conventionally hot chicks in sexy costumes won't save it. Cf. Halle Berry's Catwoman, the original Supergirl movie from 1984, Jennifer Garner's Elektra. Pity: Thunder Force recast with fitness models but all the fat jokes and a certain running food-related gag left intact would be fascinatingly bizarre.
Cause I don't think they had "hot suits" and they weren't exactly women men were dying to see. Heck Raquel Welch brought people in with her two movies, the caveman movie and the one where she's a spy, and all based on her being hot. Simply put there are no Welch style actresses any longer. I wouldn't go see a Gadot movie to see Gadot.

The woman knob has been turned down to 3 while the man knob is around an 8 or 9. Cavil, Mamoa, Evans, Pratt, Pine, Hemsworth, Rock... lots of shirtless man meat out there. Heck look at the griping about Lady Dimitrescu. We're shamed into accepting big women then when one comes along its "how dare you want this woman!!!".

So no I don't think "hot women" would save Thunder Force cause you are not going to see any Welch caliber "hot women".
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For my money there are plenty of gorgeous actresses working today, I guess it depends on your specific tastes, but also the media environment marches on. Welch could drive whole pictures with her physical charms in an era where you couldn't access all of pinup history and a vast library of hardcore porn at the touch of a button on your computer. Or, now, your mobile.

In any situation now where a mainstream superheroine property serves up PG13-friendly hot actresses and a bad script, the audience can easily just go away and either watch equally hot actresses with a better script and performances, or seek out equally hot women doing much more explicitly sexual things if they're more in that mood. The makers of Thunder Force were counting on its super-specific comedy niche to do the work for them, but it turns out that doesn't work, either.
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Honestly, it's all about the quality of the script. If the premise is solid and the acting is fine, a solid script is the prime mover on how well a movie will do... at least in pre-covid days. Now, it takes even a better script to get people to make the choice to see a movie with so many other options available to watch.
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I could not agree more. Even guilty pleasure movies like The Rundown are actually pretty well crafted and written well.
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