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Smigg.

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Posts posted by Smigg.

  1. Posted

    I agree the ages of the main characters were way too old. I would have guessed they were supposed to be college aged. I would have guessed 19 years old but they play in bars. So, 21 or 22 would be my guess for the intended ages.

     

    I wonder if the woman being 23 was meant to be a subtle hint that being a rock star wife ages you into cynicism. I might believe that if this were a better movie.

     

    That's what I was thinking too. Because later in the movie, the drummer was talking about his new girlfriend being high school age after his wife ran off with Peter Gabriel.

  2. Posted

    If the singer (Brian Beers) is getting fired, why is he even at the auditions for his replacement?

     

    I don't think he was getting fired, because Dominic Wood said "You want to go and do you're own thing, and that's fine!" So, I think he was leaving of his own volition, but then I think they were just openly disrespecting him, by making fun of him being gay, and by wheeling out knock-offs, showing him that they think he's just a meat bag who can be easily replaced by some jabroni off the street.

  3. Posted

    Okay, I tried tempering it, but I've got so much to get out about this movie, but there are plenty of little references to things that occured in the world of metal music.

     

    - When Chris was going into his audition, they were staring at a Bobby Beers tour outfit, that's a nod to Judas Priest, as Rob Halford would wear outfits like that. He's credited for introducing the "Metal Uniform" with the leather, studs, spikes and chains, most of which he got when he visited S&M shops in Soho, London. One particular store he would visit was "Mr. S. Leather".

     

    - Even though the story is based upon Tim "Ripper" Owens joining Judas Priest, the story itself seems to follow more closely to Jason Newsted joining Metallica. Newsted was a Metallica superfan who idolized their bassist, Cliff Burton. When Burton died, Newsted ended up joining his favourite band, and eventually left (albeit after 14 years, and not the 1 that Chris was in the band), because he wasn't able to add much creatively, as Metallica's frontman, and drummer (James Hetfield, and Lars Ulrich), wrote the songs, and it was Newsted's job to play what they wrote. Kirk Cuddy even plays the same guitar as James Hetfield, and both serve as rhythm guitarist in their respective bands.

     

    - The press conference Steel Dragon hold to introduce Chris is in the same place as Spinal Tap's

     

    - The guy who auditioned before Chris went on to become the frontman of Steel Panther

    - When Tim Spall said that MTV "don't play the lad's music as much after they trashed their studio" is a reference to Guns N' Roses trashing the studio for MTV's Headbangers Ball.

     

    - The tattoos on Steel Dragon's lead guitarist, Ghode, (played by Zakk Wylde) are the logo for Wylde's band, Black Label Society.

     

    - Noted rock/metal musicians who appear in the movie include:

    • Jason Bonham, who played Steel Dragon's drummer, has played for Foreigner, UFO and appeared in VH1's 'Supergroup' and is the son of Led Zeppelin's John Bonham.
    • Jeff Pilson, who was Steel Dragon's bassist, was also in Foreigner as well as playing for Ronnie James Dio, and Dokken.
    • Nick Catanese (Mark Wahlberg's lead guitarist in his tribute band) was in Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society
    • Zakk Wylde is the frontman of Black Label Society, Pride & Glory. and has solo albums to his name too, as well as being the guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne, and was also tapped to replace Slash in Guns N Roses but turned them down.
    • Myles Kennedy, who was Mike/Thor at the end of the movie, went on to become the lead singer of Alter Bridge (that band that was Creed, but then told Scott Stapp to go fuck himself)
    • Stephan Jenkins, the other Steel Dragon tribute singer, was the frontman for Third Eye Blind

    • Like 5

  4. Posted

    Tanya being transgendered might have been foreshadowed earlier in the movie.

     

    When Tim Spall was handing out backstage passes, Chris asked him for one, he said "Not without a blowjob and a sex change". Then, when Chris goes into his audition, he makes a comment that Tanya dated Bobby Beers for a while, then Bobby reveals he was gay.

     

    So, perhaps Tanya was dating Bobby because Bobby hadn't gone public with being gay. To be honest, I have no idea if that actually is the way it would work, but a 2001 movie would probably be working off the same level of ignorance.

    • Like 4

  5. Posted

    Now, if you look at the "Once in a Lifetime" montage (which I have LOTS of things to point out), one of the magazines opens up showing an article about "25 Reasons To Love Steel Dragon". However, it's actually an article about Rage Against The Machine and their influence on the Rap-Metal boom of the late 90s.

     

    The montage as a whole shows how fucked up the timing of the movie is, because it's all over the place.

     

    When the movie starts it just says "Pittsburgh - The 80s", like it's an episode of The Goldbergs, when it pans through the porno theatre (the title 'All That Jizz' was a personal favourite), and into the Blood Pollution rehearsal area, outside of all of the Steel Dragon paraphanalia, there's a Metallica poster, Metallica released their debut album, "Kill 'em All" in 1983, and when Chris is working on the copier in the office, Karma Chameleon is playing on the radio, which was released in the US in 1984, so far, so good... so what (that's a Megadeth reference for my own amusement if you didn't catch it.)

     

    When Chris joins Steel Dragon, he's on the "Livin' The Life Tour 1985", as written on the back of Tim Spall's jacket. So, the montage isn't about the years they've spent on the road, it's just for that tour, because the dates still show 1985, here's where the timing is fucked up.

     

    As pointed out earlier, those magazines were still coming out in 1985, why they all had Steel Dragon on the cover, I have no idea, however, when you look at some of the articles featured on them. You had:

     

    - "Heart: More Than Just Pretty Faces": Heart released their first album in 1977, so they'd been releasing stuff for 8 years at that point, everyone would already know that they were more than just pretty faces.

     

    - "Step Aside Jon Bon-Jovi": Bon Jovi released a couple of albums, not really breaking the top 40, however, it wasn't until 1986 when they really hit it big with "Slippery When Wet", so, Jon Bon Jovi wouldn't be stepping aside for Chris, Chris would be stepping aside for Jon Bon Jovi.

     

    Bon Jovi leads me to the the music they used in the movie, which is all out of line with when the movie takes place. They used "Livin on a Prayer" which came out in 1986, which isn't really the most egregious use of a song considering the time frame:

     

    - When Chris is getting his nipple pierced, the song that's playing on the radio is AC/DC's "Are You Ready?", that song is on the album "The Razor's Edge", which came out in 1990, Chris was getting his nipple pierced in 1984.

     

    - When they went to the after party for Chris's first show with Steel Dragon, the song playing in the nightclub was "The Devil Inside" by INXS, a song which came out in 1987.

     

    - Def Leppard's "Lets Get Rocked" came out in 1992

     

    - Motley Crue's "Wild Side" came out in 1987

     

    So I can see why people think this movie took place over many years, when really, it's the people making the movie didn't know their arse from their elbow when it came to the right music to use, and just said "Fuck it, that'll do".

    • Like 4

  7. Posted

    I'm glad the discussion about "Where the money went" was talked about. Chris wouldn't have really made much money, he wasn't in the band for even a year, sang on one album, and didn't write any of the songs. So, unless they gave him an advance to sign with the band (sort of like how Metallica offered Robert Trujillo $1,000,000 when he joined the band in 2003), he'd still be relatively poor.

     

    In fact, the question that should be asked is, where the fuck would he have gotten money for a Batmobile?! Or for a motorbike to just ride through hotels and smash into doors.

     

    Maybe he's having to hitch-hike because the little money he made, he pissed up against a wall buying Batmobiles and Hotel Motorbikes

    • Like 2

  9. Posted

    OK I want to talk about this movie because my boyfriend and I watched it last night and we laid in bed for about 90 minutes just discussing everything we had encountered with this movie and I think we ended up with more questions than answers:

     

    1) This part left me screaming - the end of the movie where Chris or whatever Mark's character's name is singing at a club or coffeehouse and Emily comes in and he sees her so he then tells his band mate that he's going to go talk to her and then WALKS OFF THE STAGE DURING THE SONG and no one seems to even notice! I can't deal with it.

     

    2) There seemed to be a lot of homophobia in this movie - the other "f word" was used a couple times, Chris's brother questions his sexuality in front of his parents, the band fires their lead singer and swears it's not because of his sexuality but then proceeds to taunt him about being gay ("I don't care if you're gay, just keep your cock away from me"), and then at the very end during the credits I feel like they try to insinuate that the lead singer started doing Riverdance because he's gay... This is 2001, mind you.

     

    3) On a related note, let's talk about the woman who's name I do not know but she has a black, bobbed haircut and she picks up Chris and Emily at the airport... at the end of that orgy scene are they insinuating that she has a penis because she's peeing standing up? If so, are they trying to make a joke that haha, Chris maybe slept with a trangendered woman and didn't know? Also, who is this person and what role does she play with the band? Cause she's too involved to be a groupie but not involved enough to be a manager or a musician. I don't get it at all.

     

    4) When Emily meets Chris in Seattle did they meet in Emily's home or a hotel? Because the dialogue left me confused about this. Also, Chris didn't seem high or drunk but just very very sleepy and instead of storming off I probably would have just asked him if he needed sleep or some kind of medical attention instead of breaking up.

     

    5) Do we ever find out what business Emily has? I don't think it's ever mentioned and the one shot from inside her place of business left me confused on what it was.

     

    1) That happens a lot during club/bar gigs, when there's a solo, the singer will leave the stage, sometimes to get something from the bar and let the guitarist/drummer/whoever to take centre stage.

     

    2) Not only is it a film from 2001, it's also set in the 80s, lot's of homophobia going around. Not only that, it sets up the members of Steel Dragon as horrible people, so then you can see why Chris wants to leave a dream gig.

     

    3) Tanya is basically like a consierge for the band, they tell her to get stuff, she'll go out and get it.

     

    4) It's a hotel. Emily is pissed because Chris has basically shoved her to the side to have this Rock Star lifestyle, it started when he chastised her for calling him "Chris" instead of "Izzy" in front of people.

     

    5) I think it's a coffee shop

    • Like 1

  11. Posted

     

    Great googly moogly, I have so many thoughts on this subject, but I will try and save them for the actual episode thread. For now, I will address this particular comment from Dave Mustaine, the bonehead of eternal irascibility and immeasurable musical talent and ability. The comment is emblematic of the problem Metal has had for decades, that is, a tinge of toxic masculinity in its response to anything it terms "feminine," yet those things it is criticizing are indeed formulaic copycat examples of the form, homogenized by record executives to make a splash on (at the time) mainstream radio and MTV. So it just encourages the toxic masculinity, which makes it more unapproachable to outsiders, no matter how fucking awful so much of that hair metal was. It would have been more constructive to avoid calling glam metal "gay" or "for girls" and just criticized it for being the musical version of hairspray-soaked rice cakes that it was.

     

    It's the Rob Halford paradox.

     

    You have one of the most respected guys in metal, up there with Ozzy and Lemmy as one of those guys who is universally respected by everyone in metal, and the guy happens to be gay. To make it even more ironic, he himself is calling things "gay".

  12. Posted

    The irony of glam metal was that it superficially embraced femininity while at its core being pure macho chauvinism.

     

    I always thought it was Guns N'Roses that killed glam, being that they came from Los Angeles and had a direct local impact on the scene. Not a metalhead so I may be off here.

     

    GnR didn't so much "kill" glam, but they bridged the gap between the glam and the "real metal" groups, they managed to get both sides, which is why they fell so hard after the infamous 1992 tour with Metallica, because they were made to look like poseurs.

  13. Posted

    Are you talking in popular culture or within the metal counterculture?

     

    If the former, I’d say Grunge/Alternative/Whatever had more to do with hair metal’s demise. I have no idea about what was going on within that group at the time so I’d have to take your word on thrash metal.

     

    Me: I love Def Leppard. They’re metal as fuck, right? ;)/> Wyld Stallyns were pretty great, too.

     

    Both.

     

    What was happening was Metallica were playing to sold out arenas with barely any radio play, and they didn't even have a music video, so they started collecting scalps for want of a better term, because they, as well as bands like Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer were guys going up on stage and playing this raw, fast, heavy metal.

     

    Megdeth kicked off the '90s with "Rust in Peace", absolute masterpiece of an album, I implore that you give it at least one listen, just for the technical mastery, that was the shot over the bow, it was a Top 10 album in the UK, and was a big seller in the US.

     

    Then Metallica's eponymous "Black Album" came out in 1991, same year as Nevermind by Nirvana, and just fucking blew up, that's when the pile of bodies started growing. In fact, this is how on their game Metallica were at the time, they did a tour with Guns n' Roses in 1992, and it basically sunk GnR for a long time, because of Axl's ego, he demanded that Metallica went on first, and they just destroyed everything in their path.

     

    In fact, Jim Breuer does an amazing telling of the saga:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGy_obJa_JQ

     

    So, what essentially happened was, the Black Album coming out so soon after Nevermind was this huge, landscape changing moment, and then the rest of the glam bands got picked off by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alica in Chains and Soundgarden, then all of the people who were wearing spandex with their hair all teased up and putting make up on, were now sporting flannel and work boots. So, you sort of had this thing where Grunge and Thrash could co-exist, particularly Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, as they had more of a metal influence.

    • Like 3

  16. Posted

    Whenever I talk about Glam Metal, I always end up thinking of three things.

     

    The first being the quote from Dave Mustaine when he formed Megadeth, "What do I think of Glam Metal? Well, its G-L-A-M, it's Gay LA Metal"

     

    The second is Riki Rachtman, who hosted Headbanger's Ball, talking about how difficult it was to programme, because he'd get it from both sides, he'd get guys sending him shit saying "If you're the 'Headbanger's Ball', why the fuck are you playing Firehouse?!"

     

    Then in the same mailbag, he's get girls sending him stuff like "Why are you playing Slayer?! Nobody listens to that!"

     

    That contrast leads back to my eariler point that both of these songs I've shown are both considered "Metal", that's why sub-genres become so important.

     

    The third thing is how the Glam Bubble ended up bursting. It became so homogenised that these glam bands would bring out an album, but they had to have three specific singles, all released in the same order:

    1) The "YEAH! WE'RE GONNA PARTY! ROCK & ROLL!!!" single, things like "Girls, Girls, Girls" by Motley Crue

    2) The heartfelt power ballad, like "Is This Love" by Whitesnake

    3) The acoustic song

     

    And because it had gotten so sanitised, they didn't see the impending threat that was marching over the hill, bands like the big four of thrash.

    • Like 2

  17. Posted

    Every time this god damn movie uses a previously existing song, from downright luminescent performers from Dio to Talking Heads, I'm thinking, "how fucking DARE you?!?!" Fuck this movie.

     

    I'm a thrash guy, so I find Glam/Hair metal to be distasteful. So, when I hear "Livin' On A Prayer", I don't think "metal", but some consider it to be. Take "Home Sweet Home" by Motley Crue, that's "Metal" because it's performed by Motley Crue.

  20. Posted

    Lol yes that's true. Exactly the reason why I, at 9 years old, was able to see American Beauty.

     

    We have a 12a age rating where kids can go in with an adult, but not on their own.

     

    The problem with this age rating is that now action movies are doing this thing where they release it in the cinema as a 12a, so that parents can take their kids in with them, but then release the DVD as an "Extended Edition" and it gets a 15 certificate, so you're not seeing the movie as it's supposed to be until the DVD comes out. They did it with the RoboCop remake, The Expendables 3 and Life Free or Die Hard and a couple of others.

     

    Case in point as to how strict it is, I went with my brother to a midnight release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and they literally had members of staff going around the shop, taking the game out of kids' hands and giving them to their parents and saying "You have to buy this, it's illegal to sell it to anybody under 18".

    • Like 1

  21. Posted

    I fucking love Big Fat Quiz of the Year. It's my fave NY's tradition.

     

    Yes we have a ratings system on all TV, movies, video games, etc etc but I guess when something here is rated PG for some parental guidance needed, people tend to think that's a catch all for this is a fluffy piece of children's show that I shouldn't have to worry about.

     

    Mostly my comment was how the political climate in this country has spilled over onto ALL things. There are a couple of right leaning media outlets that heavily rely on the words "triggered," "safe-space," and "snowflake," and they hammer that into the minds of everyone watching/listening to the point where that's the words they use for anyone that disagrees with them on ANYTHING. It's how they are purposefully trying to stop any conversation on rights for minorities and then justify swinging the confederate or Nazi flag around. So it's gotten to the point where you bring up the fact that Peter Rabbit is a bit problematic for children with deadly allergies and people will freak the fuck out and claim that these parents need their "safe-space" when all they are trying to do is create an environment for their children where they don't feel like they'll be killed by blueberries.

     

    Is it true that in the US, a kid can go into any movie if they're accompanied by an adult? Because I think that's how it's different in the UK, there's no way a kid's being let into a movie they're too young for, regardless of who's with them, and they're really strict with it

     

    Yeah, I've stayed away from all things political this last year or so, because it's vile, now it's just people calling each other horrible names, and nothing ever gets discussed. Sometimes I just want to turn into pull a V for Vendetta, who whatever show I'm thinking of, hack into all of the available screen in the world and just say "Look, just stop being dicks. You over here, stop doing Nazi shit, you over there, Air Conditioning isn't sexist, you're not helping anything", I think I'm just far too much of a centrist, because I get it from everyone, so I've given up.

    • Like 1

  22. Posted

    Not to get political but there are certainly a few different kinds of media being thrown into people's brains to cause that shit.

     

    It's also seems to be sparring from other things like if you see someone agreeing with a Nazi then that's a black and white scenario but like you said other situations (like a fucking Peter Rabbit movie) have nuance to them and deserve a discussion.

     

    I don't know how it is in the US, but here, we basically list out all the things that people would find objectionable. We put them on all movies, games and TV; So you look on the back of Mortal Kombat X for example, and it'll say "Strong Language, Intense Violence, Gory Images", so people know what to expect, and it covers pretty much everything from "Mild Peril" to "Extreme Violence"

     

    Before, I was guilty of being the "Oh, fucking sensitive people, what's wrong with that?!" but I've eased my stance on it because while I'm alright with pretty much everything, but there are things I see where I think "Well, that's not cool", so then I'd be a hypocrite.

     

    Case in point, we have a show here called "The Big Fat Quiz of the Year", and it's a comedy show where comedians of varying quality have a quiz about what happened in the year, they started talking about an advert for a bakery where they swapped out the baby jesus in a Nativity for a sausage roll, and a lot of their responses were "Fucking Christians?! What's wrong with that? If it was other religions, I could see why they would be, but what are the Christians getting mad about!" David Mitchell then said something that gave me this epiphany when he said "I can see why they would be, they've reduced their deity, their god, into nothing more than a pastry product".

     

    Which is where I've landed on it, I'm an advocate of creative freedom, however, those who do have a problem with things shouldn't necessarily be shouted down, instead, say "Okay, well, here's why I'm okay with it, but I can see why you'd feel that way".

    • Like 1

  23. Posted

    That's exactly what I mean when I say that parents do damage to each other.

     

    Every parent says the same thing ... 1. "Well, all kids are different and you shouldn't put too much stock in what other parents say ... " and 2. " ... but let me tell you about my experience."

     

    My wife and I always laugh at people who ask "What parenting books do you read?" Because we don't read parenting books, at all. We want our decisions to be based in our actual response to our daughter, not in what a book told us should work. Educating yourself is important but holding your child up to hypothetical standards does nothing but stress you out. Example: Our daughter never crawled ... she went from writhing around on the floor to cruising along the furniture. And the whole time, we were stressing about these developmental benchmarks and being told "Well, she's bound to start anytime ... but my child started walking right out of the womb." And nothing came from it ... she walks, runs, crawls, climbs ... you'd never know now that there was ever a problem.

     

    Same goes for what they learn from movies. Just pay attention and respond accordingly.

     

    Your "parents doing damage to each other" just reminded me of one of the single greated burns I've ever heard.

     

    When I was about 16, my mum visited some friends for the weekend, so she trusted my 19 year old brother and I was not burning the house down.

     

    Well, I met up with some friends, they decided to neck an entire three litre bottle of White Lightning each. This White Lighting was a cheap as fuck White cider, which might as well have been legally classed as paint thinner, you could get these three litre bottles, which were 8% vol, and you could get them for £2 a bottle. So, after they necked these bottles, they were pissed out their faces, And they left a mess for me to clean up before my mum got home, one of them had been sick on the patio so badly, it had stained the stonework.

     

    Well, my mum calls his house and said "He needs to come up here and clean it up!" and they argued about it, and my mum said "What was he doing with cider?!" and this guy's mum replied said "Oh yeah?! You're the one who left for the weekend, leaving your kids on their own!" and my mum just came back at her with "You were at home and your son drank an entrie three litre bottle of cider and was rolling around drunk! While my son didn't drink anything!"

     

    It was just beautiful.

    • Like 3

  24. Posted

    I'm also thinking that obviously every kid is different. If, for example, Peter Rabbit traumatizes a kid that has a severe allergy are we as a society not wrong for telling that mother or father to get over being angry at the movie that's supposed to be fun for children to watch?

     

    I have to agree with Triple Lindy that we really will never be able to tell what sticks in a child's mind (curse words tho - those always seem to stick) but I guess what I'm REALLY tired of is people telling someone they're overreacting and to get over it. Probably a little bit of personal exhaustion there since women certainly get told that a lot lmaaaoooo.

     

     

    That's one thing that's really frustrating now, is the "all or nothing" metality that people have. Say "I don't like this here", it's no longer "Well, that's your perogative, I disagree", it's "Are you triggered?! You wanna go to a safe space, snowflake?!" because nuance is all but gone.

    • Like 3

  25. Posted

     

    I was gonna say "Final Fantasy VII would be your best bet with that kind of thing", but then remembered it's a 12-rated game, so probably not best for really young kids.

     

    But holy shit, when Aeris dies, pack your bags kids, you're going on a feels trip.

     

    Minor update on this post, I've bummed myself out thinking about it, because then I thought to myself "I don't really cry at stuff like this, but this had an impact on me, that might have been the closest I've come to shedding a tear at a game... oh god, I forgot about John Marston", oh god I was sad for DAYS about that one, FUCK YOU EDGAR ROSS!!

    • Like 2
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