Episode 187 - Beautiful Creatures

[Cameron H. 23786]

What was the deal with Uncle Macon's love of Google? I get that he excuses away the crazy unnatural lightning phenomena by saying "Oh, weird things like that happen all the time ... just Google it." That seems to imply that casters have some sort of manipulative control over Google search results. That would be impressive power, but I wonder why whatever ancient force that lies behind their centuries-old powers would account for controlling a digital medium that's only been around for 30 years. I guess they can do anything because magic? Or maybe there's casters in Silicon Valley ... I bet Gilfoyle's a siren.

 

I think it’s more that Macon, a centuries old immortal, is simply enamored by the concept of Google. It’s sort of like how Arthur Weasley is obsessed with Muggle artifacts in the Harry Potter movies/books. He mentions Google in the same way an older relative might tell you how they just joined the Twitter. He’s simply impressed by something we all take for granted.

 

So, no, I don’t think he’s magicking Google search results or anything, but it is entirely possibly that magic might be involved in whatever strange phenomenon he’s trying to normalize by having them look it up for themselves.

[Cam Bert 8145]

Here's something I missed and I am hoping one of you all could fill me in on a line or explanation I might have missed. So Lena has a magic tattoo on her hand that is counting down the days until she turns 16. I get that, but why? I must have missed the line if this was explained or not but I don't get why the tattoo is even there in the first place. First, she knows when her birthday is. Second that's not going to help her blend in at school. It's big and right on her hand, so it's only a matter of time before someone says "didn't that say 83 the other day?" Also when did it get there? Was she born with it? Does it appear at puberty? Do all casters have magic count down clocks?

[Cam Bert 8145]

Also on a side note, I kept getting this movie mixed up with Nocturnal Animals all week. I can't explain it. The titles aren't that similar but for whatever reason that's the movie I kept looking for.

[Cameron H. 23786]

Here's something I missed and I am hoping one of you all could fill me in on a line or explanation I might have missed. So Lena has a magic tattoo on her hand that is counting down the days until she turns 16. I get that, but why? I must have missed the line if this was explained or not but I don't get why the tattoo is even there in the first place. First, she knows when her birthday is. Second that's not going to help her blend in at school. It's big and right on her hand, so it's only a matter of time before someone says "didn't that say 83 the other day?" Also when did it get there? Was she born with it? Does it appear at puberty? Do all casters have magic count down clocks?

 

I wouldn’t say it’s there to remind her so much as to make her aware of how much time she has left (and provide a handy ticking clock for the audience :)/> )

 

I kind of doubt she was born with 5,844 on her hand. They don’t say (as far as I can recall), but I’d say it would be reasonable to assume that “365” might have appeared on her hand on her 15th birthday.

 

As far as blending in at school, she’s not even supposed to be going to that school in the first place. She’s only there because she’s convinced Macon to let her be a normal-ish teenager until her claiming. Her compromise was to “not have friends.” I assume the hope was that she would just lay low and no one would ever get close enough to notice the tattoo. The only reason Ethan catches it is because he’s into her. The rest of the school is too busy accusing her of consorting with the Devil.

[Cam Bert 8145]

As far as blending in at school, she’s not even supposed to be going to that school in the first place. She’s only there because she’s convinced Macon to let her be a normal-ish teenager until her claiming. Her compromise was to “not have friends.” I assume the hope was that she would just lay low and no one would ever get close enough to notice the tattoo. The only reason Ethan catches it is because he’s into her. The rest of the school is too busy accusing her of consorting with the Devil.

 

Now I kinda want to see all the scenes of Macon home schooling her all these years. He must have done a good job if she got to skip a few grades.

[gigi-tastic 2322]

 

Now I kinda want to see all the scenes of Macon home schooling her all these years. He must have done a good job if she got to skip a few grades.

 

She moved around a lot at different schools. Wasn't that one of the things the Fake Church! Lady version of Emma Thompson used against her at that meeting? that there were a bunch of accidents at all her old schools and even a few deaths?

 

(sorry I keep commenting... this movie is taking over my weekend. I don't know why it just.. irritates me)

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

 

She moved around a lot at different schools. Wasn't that one of the things the Fake Church! Lady version of Emma Thompson used against her at that meeting? that there were a bunch of accidents at all her old schools and even a few deaths?

 

(sorry I keep commenting... this movie is taking over my weekend. I don't know why it just.. irritates me)

 

You have nothing to apologize for . Get it all out or it will only eat you alive.

 

 

[Cam Bert 8145]

I also want to know how movie theaters in small towns work. So when Han Solo is explain how small Gatlin is he says "by the time we get a movie it's already on TV and our theater always gets the title wrong." Which is fine but the movie showing as he runs by is Inception which came out in in July of 2010. Then a month or so later he and Lena are at the theater and are watching Final Destination 5 which came out in August of 2011. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say it was two months later. In two months they jump a year in movies? Is the population so small that they change the movie weekly because by then everybody who wants to see it has seen it? Between Inception and Final Destination 5 there were a lot of big movies released. Thor, Captain America the First Avengers, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1 and 2, Fast Five, Transformers Dark of the Moon, Piranha 3D (Hi, Paul!) all come out between these movies. If for some unknown reason this theater only plays Warner Bros. movies 22 of them came out between Inception and Final Destination 5. How does this theater make its choices and why Final Destination 5?

[Cameron H. 23786]

I also want to know how movie theaters in small towns work. So when Han Solo is explain how small Gatlin is he says "by the time we get a movie it's already on TV and our theater always gets the title wrong." Which is fine but the movie showing as he runs by is Inception which came out in in July of 2010. Then a month or so later he and Lena are at the theater and are watching Final Destination 5 which came out in August of 2011. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say it was two months later. In two months they jump a year in movies? Is the population so small that they change the movie weekly because by then everybody who wants to see it has seen it? Between Inception and Final Destination 5 there were a lot of big movies released. Thor, Captain America the First Avengers, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1 and 2, Fast Five, Transformers Dark of the Moon, Piranha 3D (Hi, Paul!) all come out between these movies. If for some unknown reason this theater only plays Warner Bros. movies 22 of them came out between Inception and Final Destination 5. How does this theater make its choices and why Final Destination 5?

 

Finally! Now we’re getting into the nitty-gritty...

 

 

 

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

I also want to know how movie theaters in small towns work. So when Han Solo is explain how small Gatlin is he says "by the time we get a movie it's already on TV and our theater always gets the title wrong." Which is fine but the movie showing as he runs by is Inception which came out in in July of 2010. Then a month or so later he and Lena are at the theater and are watching Final Destination 5 which came out in August of 2011. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say it was two months later. In two months they jump a year in movies? Is the population so small that they change the movie weekly because by then everybody who wants to see it has seen it? Between Inception and Final Destination 5 there were a lot of big movies released. Thor, Captain America the First Avengers, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1 and 2, Fast Five, Transformers Dark of the Moon, Piranha 3D (Hi, Paul!) all come out between these movies. If for some unknown reason this theater only plays Warner Bros. movies 22 of them came out between Inception and Final Destination 5. How does this theater make its choices and why Final Destination 5?

 

 

The town was clearly torn over whether the top was still spinning and needed multiple rewatches before they were able to form a consensus and only then did they come together and allow the movie theater to start playing Final Destination 5.

[grudlian. 4725]

I also want to know how movie theaters in small towns work. So when Han Solo is explain how small Gatlin is he says "by the time we get a movie it's already on TV and our theater always gets the title wrong." Which is fine but the movie showing as he runs by is Inception which came out in in July of 2010. Then a month or so later he and Lena are at the theater and are watching Final Destination 5 which came out in August of 2011. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say it was two months later. In two months they jump a year in movies? Is the population so small that they change the movie weekly because by then everybody who wants to see it has seen it? Between Inception and Final Destination 5 there were a lot of big movies released. Thor, Captain America the First Avengers, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1 and 2, Fast Five, Transformers Dark of the Moon, Piranha 3D (Hi, Paul!) all come out between these movies. If for some unknown reason this theater only plays Warner Bros. movies 22 of them came out between Inception and Final Destination 5. How does this theater make its choices and why Final Destination 5?

I managed a theatre for over a decade so I have a little information on this. Some caveats, my theatre wasn't a one screen in a small town and it's a different experience on what movies you get from a major chain multiplex. I also didn't work in the booking department and treated the content we got as not really my business. So, take this with a grain of salt.

 

Generally speaking, a theatre will have a booker who works with the studios to get the movies that will do best. A theatre might be able to make some suggestions ("movie X isn't expected to be popular, but our clientele happens to love this type of movie...get it for us"), but it's generally up to the booker. For a big theatre chain, this can mean making a bunch of deals to reach some compromise. Both the studios and theatres want to make money. So, a really broad scenario might be the studio saying "If you keep movie X for another week, we'll cut you a break on rental costs" or "If you carry this small movie that won't make much, we'll give you an extra print of our big budget blockbuster this summer." Unless the studio is Disney, then they just demand whatever they want and theatres kind of take it. I know a couple notable stories on how specific movies got releases, but that's a very general way of how it works.

 

For a one screen in the middle of nowhere, I think (and I'm speculating here) that you probably just get the biggest movie of that week or longer if it's a huge movie. Typically, most weeks have a really easy to predict box office winner. So, it's probably a really easy choice. No theatre owner is passing on Avengers this weekend to holdover A Quiet Place for a fourth week.

 

What happens with an off week in March with no clear winner? Or Valentines Day weekend 2016 where you have normal Valentine's release How To Be Single vs atypical Deadpool? I don't know. You might be able to alternate showtimes and run two movies (but twice the film rental one week might really hurt a small one screen theatre). You might be able to push for a movie your specific clientele wants but there's a story where a theatre owner shut down for a week rather than show Jackass 2 when he got stuck playing it. So, I really don't know.

 

Logically though, no theatre or studio benefits from playing a movie that got released years previously. There are still the limited releases to build word of mouth before a wide opening. There's still the occasional roadshow style opening where a very limited movie tours the country market to market but that's typically for very small movies that also wouldn't do well in huge releases. The last movie I can think of that had a roadshow style release that had large audiences wanting to see it was Paranormal Activity.

 

All that said, I do know a projectionist of a one screen theatre in a relatively small town that does play old movies but it's a local charity/arthouse type thing. Their movies are typically 20+ years old and movies are sponsored by local citizens who request them. But that city also has a totally normal multiplex 15 minutes away. So, it's not exactly what this movie is trying to portray.

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

One thing that struck me while I was watching was that the whole thing seemed like a clumsy, lame metaphor for a young woman's budding sexuality (which sounds gross even as I type it). The whole thing about how on her 16th birthday a girl can either go good or go bad, where going bad seems to make you into a sexy man killer, totally played off the madonna whore type tropes. Add in the fact that it is all tied to the moon (i.e. menstrual cycles) and it sure seemed like that was what it was going for.

 

Really, isn't this movie just Teen Witch without the fun musical numbers and with much more Civil War recreation?

 

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

As grudlian pointed out earlier, the comparison has to be between Die Hard and Die Hard With a Vengeance. Vengeance isn't bad -- it's probably the best of the sequels -- but it's nowhere near the caliber of Die Hard. And Rickman is arguably the best part of that movie.

 

Also, Jeremy Irons is a

 

I'm going to say that while Jeremy Irons has certainly given some legitimately great performances in his time, he gave up the right to never be called a "poor man's" anything as soon as he appeared in Dungeons & Dragons.

 

[ChunkStyle 1160]

I think it’s more that Macon, a centuries old immortal, is simply enamored by the concept of Google.

 

Are they immortal? If so I didn't get that. I thought he was telling the truth that his ancestors founded the town (which was said more than anything else in the movie?) not that he was covering up that he was the actual founder. I was actually kind of annoyed they called regular humans "mortals" because they seemed to be just as mortal. Then I decided to cut them slack since there isn't really a term for a non-magic user except for muggle. For every other decision they deserve to be dragged.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

I managed a theatre for over a decade so I have a little information on this. Some caveats, my theatre wasn't a one screen in a small town and it's a different experience on what movies you get from a major chain multiplex. I also didn't work in the booking department and treated the content we got as not really my business. So, take this with a grain of salt.

 

Generally speaking, a theatre will have a booker who works with the studios to get the movies that will do best. A theatre might be able to make some suggestions ("movie X isn't expected to be popular, but our clientele happens to love this type of movie...get it for us"), but it's generally up to the booker. For a big theatre chain, this can mean making a bunch of deals to reach some compromise. Both the studios and theatres want to make money. So, a really broad scenario might be the studio saying "If you keep movie X for another week, we'll cut you a break on rental costs" or "If you carry this small movie that won't make much, we'll give you an extra print of our big budget blockbuster this summer." Unless the studio is Disney, then they just demand whatever they want and theatres kind of take it. I know a couple notable stories on how specific movies got releases, but that's a very general way of how it works.

 

For a one screen in the middle of nowhere, I think (and I'm speculating here) that you probably just get the biggest movie of that week or longer if it's a huge movie. Typically, most weeks have a really easy to predict box office winner. So, it's probably a really easy choice. No theatre owner is passing on Avengers this weekend to holdover A Quiet Place for a fourth week.

I lived in a town of 5000 people from 4th grade through my freshman year in high school. We had a one-screen theater and a drive-in that showed double features. They both usually had pretty current movies. You might not be able to get the movie you want at the theater, but you wouldn't be watching stuff that was six months old either. We often drove the hour to get to Ft Worth to go see movies that our theaters didn't have, but I remember seeing quite a few movies at that theater (e.g., Batman Forever, Toy Story, The Mask) the week they opened.

 

The drive-in was cool, too. They'd usually show one new movie and bundle it with a movie that was a couple years old. You'd pay for a carload and get to see two movies. I don't remember the exact cost at the time, but it was something like $10-15/car. And that's how I saw the strange double feature of Independence Day and Addams Family Values.

 

Outside of the theater, we also had local video stores, which were booming at the time. We didn't have a Blockbuster or any of the other short-lived chain rentals places, but we did have a few small video shops. They would do great business because a lot of people would just wait to rent the movie they wanted instead of driving an hour for it.

 

And also....yeah, there's no way we would have gotten something like A Quiet Place pretty much ever. But I could see Infinity War playing for all of May.

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

Are they immortal? If so I didn't get that. I thought he was telling the truth that his ancestors founded the town (which was said more the anything else in the movie?) not that he was covering up that he was the actual founder. I was actually kind of annoyed they called regular humans "mortals" because they seemed to be just as mortal. Then I decided to cut them slack since there isn't really a term for a non-magic user except for muggle. For every other decision they deserve to be dragged.

 

You know what? I think you’re right. I think what I did was just assumed that if you’re calling someone “mortal” you’re positioning yourself as the opposite. My bad. That was sloppy forum posting

 

I still stand by my main point that Macon isn’t controlling Google searches. Even if it’s not because he’s immortal, it seems like if Casters want to do any research they still have to pour over stacks of dusty, old tomes. I think the convenience of Google would still be appealing to him.

[ChunkStyle 1160]

You know what? I think you’re right. I think what I did was just assumed that if you’re calling someone “mortal” you’re positioning yourself as the opposite. My bad. That was sloppy forum posting

 

I still stand by my main point that Macon isn’t controlling Google searches. Even if it’s not because he’s immortal it seems like if Casters want to do any research they still have to pour over stacks of dusty, old tomes. I think the convenience of Google would still be appealing to him.

 

I was wondering if it is more clear in the book. Honestly the movie portrays them as if they were immortal. They are the bored idle rich with seemingly no motivation or aspirations. Except for Sarafine who wants to kill literally every human? While I can't say I agree with her at least she had some ambition.

[tomspanks 9039]

I still stand by my main point that Macon isn’t controlling Google searches. Even if it’s not because he’s immortal it seems like if Casters want to do any research they still have to pour over stacks of dusty, old tomes. I think the convenience of Google would still be appealing to him.

 

I agree. They were going for the joke of an "old" person discovering Google. I mean, it was pretty funny when my father-in-law discovered emojis and sent the eggplant one because he was literally referencing the vegetable.

 

As the resident crazy cat person here, my reaction to this was "We don't do this...I do have an old cell phone I don't use. Could I download some cat friendly apps for them to play with when I'm gone?"

 

As another crazy cat person there are in fact apps made for cats. My cats are too lazy to use them though.

 

My cat didn't play with the phone, but he loves playing his cat game on the iPad. Maybe try it on a tablet?

[JessieLeonard 6]

I accidentally like this movie. For whatever reason, I find young Han Solo ridiculously charming in this film. I know it's a bad movie... I know it. But I like it. I really like it. It's worse that I haven't read the books - - my enjoyment is based on this movie alone. Also...

 

1. Jeremy Irons and Alan Rickman played brothers in the Die Hard franchise.

2. I think Emmy Rossum looks like Dakota Fanning in this film.

[gigi-tastic 2322]

I managed a theatre for over a decade so I have a little information on this. Some caveats, my theatre wasn't a one screen in a small town and it's a different experience on what movies you get from a major chain multiplex. I also didn't work in the booking department and treated the content we got as not really my business. So, take this with a grain of salt.

 

Generally speaking, a theatre will have a booker who works with the studios to get the movies that will do best. A theatre might be able to make some suggestions ("movie X isn't expected to be popular, but our clientele happens to love this type of movie...get it for us"), but it's generally up to the booker. For a big theatre chain, this can mean making a bunch of deals to reach some compromise. Both the studios and theatres want to make money. So, a really broad scenario might be the studio saying "If you keep movie X for another week, we'll cut you a break on rental costs" or "If you carry this small movie that won't make much, we'll give you an extra print of our big budget blockbuster this summer." Unless the studio is Disney, then they just demand whatever they want and theatres kind of take it. I know a couple notable stories on how specific movies got releases, but that's a very general way of how it works.

 

For a one screen in the middle of nowhere, I think (and I'm speculating here) that you probably just get the biggest movie of that week or longer if it's a huge movie. Typically, most weeks have a really easy to predict box office winner. So, it's probably a really easy choice. No theatre owner is passing on Avengers this weekend to holdover A Quiet Place for a fourth week.

 

What happens with an off week in March with no clear winner? Or Valentines Day weekend 2016 where you have normal Valentine's release How To Be Single vs atypical Deadpool? I don't know. You might be able to alternate showtimes and run two movies (but twice the film rental one week might really hurt a small one screen theatre). You might be able to push for a movie your specific clientele wants but there's a story where a theatre owner shut down for a week rather than show Jackass 2 when he got stuck playing it. So, I really don't know.

 

There's a small movie theater in one of the many smallish towns near mine that I grew up going to (my grandparents have lived in this area my whole life) and even though it's pretty small they started started doing the simulcasts from the Met Opera a few years ago and I've been able to see some really amazing productions I would never have been able to see otherwise.

[gigi-tastic 2322]

I also want to know how movie theaters in small towns work. So when Han Solo is explain how small Gatlin is he says "by the time we get a movie it's already on TV and our theater always gets the title wrong." Which is fine but the movie showing as he runs by is Inception which came out in in July of 2010. Then a month or so later he and Lena are at the theater and are watching Final Destination 5 which came out in August of 2011. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say it was two months later. In two months they jump a year in movies? Is the population so small that they change the movie weekly because by then everybody who wants to see it has seen it? Between Inception and Final Destination 5 there were a lot of big movies released. Thor, Captain America the First Avengers, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1 and 2, Fast Five, Transformers Dark of the Moon, Piranha 3D (Hi, Paul!) all come out between these movies. If for some unknown reason this theater only plays Warner Bros. movies 22 of them came out between Inception and Final Destination 5. How does this theater make its choices and why Final Destination 5?

 

Personally I'm surprised that they were allowed to show Final Destination 5 at the theater if this town is meant to be SO hardcore Christian that people who volunteer for Greenpeace are seen as Sinners doomed for hell. There's no way Harry Potter would be allowed and I feel like Thor would be pushing it what with Norse mythology and false idols and all

[gigi-tastic 2322]

You have nothing to apologize for . Get it all out or it will only eat you alive.

 

 

Thanks

I also just have no life and am obessive

honestly the only thing in this movie I'm ok with about this movie the fact that there are 12 churches and one library because I also live in a town with an obscenely large number of churches for some odd reason. The towns much bigger than Gatlin but I'm still not convinced it's not on top of a hellmouth. I can't explain why else we have so many of them. we have like 6 in our downtown street alone.

[AskMeAboutAirBud 10]

Why is no one worried about this glass shattering wind sweeping the nation? They're willing to organize a PTA meeting for the assumption that the new girl may be practicing Satanic rituals but are unwilling to protect themselves against some very suspicious weather activity? According to Geostorm a lot of shit is about to go down in the next few years and I fear this South Carolina town will not be ready for it.

 

On another note, do we really get any information on why we shouldn't join the dark side? They have cooler cars, dresses and seem to get to make out with whomever they want. Sure you don't always get invited to Thanksgiving, but the trade off seems trivial.

[tomspanks 9039]

On another note, do we really get any information on why we shouldn't join the dark side? They have cooler cars, dresses and seem to get to make out with whomever they want. Sure you don't always get invited to Thanksgiving, but the trade off seems trivial.

 

According to the caster wiki, the main drawback seems to be: "They will become sociopathic, no longer having empathy and remorse, and are incapable of love. They are taken over by negative emotions. Ridley says going Dark changes the way you feel about people. When a Dark Caster turns Dark, they sense the feelings they had, the things they loved, but those feelings are distant. They can fight the sociopathy, but can't successfully grow out of it."

 

So...I guess your personality shifts dramatically when you turn dark?

[Cam Bert 8145]

Why is no one worried about this glass shattering wind sweeping the nation? They're willing to organize a PTA meeting for the assumption that the new girl may be practicing Satanic rituals but are unwilling to protect themselves against some very suspicious weather activity? According to Geostorm a lot of shit is about to go down in the next few years and I fear this South Carolina town will not be ready for it.

 

On another note, do we really get any information on why we shouldn't join the dark side? They have cooler cars, dresses and seem to get to make out with whomever they want. Sure you don't always get invited to Thanksgiving, but the trade off seems trivial.

So where in the rules does it say a dog can't play basketball?