# "Bright" on NetFlix (Spoilers)



## Ryujin (Dec 27, 2017)

So over the last few days NetFlix released "Bright." As stated in a previous thread this is sort of a modern day D&D/Shadowrun cross of a cop movie, set in Los Angeles, playing on the sort of issues you would expect it to given the history of LA cops and the cultural makeup of that city. Elves, humans, and orcs pretty much replace the normal social strata. 

Overall it very much reminded me of the old "Alien Nation" movie and TV series.


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## MarkB (Dec 27, 2017)

I enjoyed the movie. A decent entry in the buddy cop genre, with the fantasy elements being more an interesting twist rather than the main focus.

I also liked it as a setting. Being present-day makes it more relateable than Shadowrun, and doing away with the Muggle masquerade of settings like The Dresden Files means you can do more with the fantasy elements. I'd happily run an urban fantasy game in this setting. Maybe tweak it to allow a little more minor magic.


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## Scott DeWar (Dec 27, 2017)

Ryujin said:


> So over the last few days NetFlix released "Bright."  .. .. .. EDIT .. .. .. .. Overall it very much reminded me of the old "Alien Nation" movie and TV series.



 Ah, yes. Alien Nation. That is the feel I detected. I remember that the name of Sykes translated to an insult.


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## Tonguez (Dec 27, 2017)

Scott DeWar said:


> Ah, yes. Alien Nation. That is the feel I detected. I remember that the name of Sykes translated to an insult.




I got that feel too and was even waiting for them to reveal an Orc-specific drug. At least they suggested some interspecies fetishism. 

I would have liked a bit more of a back story on the fantasy elements, like who was Jirek? What do the blooded Orc chauffers do for their Elf clients? Who are the Circle of Light , why dont Fairies have rights? and where are all the Dwarfs?
Also what is the racial hierarchy? WIll Smith had human gangsta neighbours who dress exactly like the Orc ghetto hoodlums, what was the point of that scene?


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## Scott DeWar (Dec 27, 2017)

lots of questions .. .. .. .. .. to be answered in the series.


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## Ryujin (Dec 27, 2017)

MarkB said:


> I enjoyed the movie. A decent entry in the buddy cop genre, with the fantasy elements being more an interesting twist rather than the main focus.
> 
> I also liked it as a setting. Being present-day makes it more relateable than Shadowrun, and doing away with the Muggle masquerade of settings like The Dresden Files means you can do more with the fantasy elements. I'd happily run an urban fantasy game in this setting. Maybe tweak it to allow a little more minor magic.




D20 Modern worked very well for that sort of setting. I also added a couple of third party sourcebooks to include, among other things, Gun-Fu characters which worked very well, thematically, with elves.



Scott DeWar said:


> Ah, yes. Alien Nation. That is the feel I detected. I remember that the name of Sykes translated to an insult.




It's been a long time but I believe that his name sounded like two words in their language, "see iykes", meaning excrement and cranium 



Tonguez said:


> I got that feel too and was even waiting for them to reveal an Orc-specific drug. At least they suggested some interspecies fetishism.
> 
> I would have liked a bit more of a back story on the fantasy elements, like who was Jirek? What do the blooded Orc chauffers do for their Elf clients? Who are the Circle of Light , why dont Fairies have rights? and where are all the Dwarfs?
> Also what is the racial hierarchy? WIll Smith had human gangsta neighbours who dress exactly like the Orc ghetto hoodlums, what was the point of that scene?




I think that they did a fairly good job of laying out the hierarchy. One of the ways they did that was by doing exactly what you said; dressing the neighbours similarly to the orcs. It's actually the other way around in that they dressed the orcs like the neighbours, to visibly place them in the bottom rung of society. Humans were spread across all levels while elves, apart from the renegade Tikka, were dressed to the nines and in positions like the Federal magic investigator.


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## Deuce Traveler (Dec 27, 2017)

I also liked the movie and thought of it as a Shadowrun film tweaked by the DM to change up the backstory and world's history.  It has bad reviews, but it's definitely one of the only two RPG cinematic experiences I've enjoyed, the second being the World-of-Darkness related Underworld.  The only issue I had was how the badass villains suddenly became a bit depowered towards the end.  I think fans of Shadowrun will really enjoy this and I feel the movie shouldn't be receiving the negativity it is receiving, but then again I'm the target audience for something like this.


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## Ryujin (Dec 27, 2017)

Deuce Traveler said:


> I also liked the movie and thought of it as a Shadowrun film tweaked by the DM to change up the backstory and world's history.  It has bad reviews, but it's definitely one of the only two RPG cinematic experiences I've enjoyed, the second being the World-of-Darkness related Underworld.  The only issue I had was how the badass villains suddenly became a bit depowered towards the end.  I think fans of Shadowrun will really enjoy this and I feel the movie shouldn't be receiving the negativity it is receiving, but then again I'm the target audience for something like this.




Critics hate it but, apparently, regular folks like it. At least if the 30%/89% score on Rotten Tomatoes is to be believed.

I don't know if you're aware of this, because it didn't last very long, but there was a TV show that was based on World of Darkness. It was called "Kindred: The Embraced" and it suffered from being produced by that pillar of prime time soap operas, Aaron Spelling.


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## Deuce Traveler (Dec 27, 2017)

[MENTION=27897]Ryujin[/MENTION] , yeah I never watched Kindred, but I heard it was more of a mafia crime drama then horror or sci-fi.  The Midnight campaign setting also had a low budget movie made that wasn't highly regarded.  The second D&D movie was alright despite being made for cable, and it is better than its much high-budget predecessor, but it isn't good. These add to my original point, that there doesn't seem to be much out there for successful films based upon RPGs.  Bright comes out looking good.  So does the first Underworld.


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## Ryujin (Dec 27, 2017)

There was certainly a crime element to it but I would refer to it as being more "90210" with fangs, though it aspired to be "Dallas" with fangs.


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## jimtillman (Dec 27, 2017)

my wife and i enjoyed bright


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## smbakeresq (Dec 27, 2017)

I thought it was fine.  The set up is fine also.  It’s also very relevant today, it seems the whiter you are the higher your station.


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## cmad1977 (Dec 28, 2017)

I was expecting a blend of Bad Boys, Training Day and Shadowrun. I think It hit the target. 
It staggers through the third act but I enjoyed it. 


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## The_Silversword (Dec 29, 2017)

Justed watched it with the wife, she really enjoyed, it just left me confused. I would have liked a little back story. I felt like I was thrown in the middle of a story, like I was missing something. Did the 9 races always coexist on earth or did the fantasy races recently join humanity? It seems like if they been there awhile that things would evolve differently, but it pretty much seemed like modern day LA. Seems to me that if you have Elves and what not that the setting should be more fantastical, there should be more wizard towers or something not just skyscrapers! Givin the mundane look of the setting it seems to me that the Elves and Orcs and everything are a recent addition to our world, but then they make comments about all races joining together to defeat the Dark Lord or whatever thousands of years ago. I dunno, it just left me more confused than entertained.


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## MarkB (Dec 29, 2017)

The_Silversword said:


> Justed watched it with the wife, she really enjoyed, it just left me confused. I would have liked a little back story. I felt like I was thrown in the middle of a story, like I was missing something. Did the 9 races always coexist on earth or did the fantasy races recently join humanity? It seems like if they been there awhile that things would evolve differently, but it pretty much seemed like modern day LA. Seems to me that if you have Elves and what not that the setting should be more fantastical, there should be more wizard towers or something not just skyscrapers! Givin the mundane look of the setting it seems to me that the Elves and Orcs and everything are a recent addition to our world, but then they make comments about all races joining together to defeat the Dark Lord or whatever thousands of years ago. I dunno, it just left me more confused than entertained.




I think it was deliberately light on backstory, but one thing that was made pretty clear is that actual magic is both extremely rare and immensely powerful in the modern world - and there's a stigma to it, because the Dark Lord was trying to build a world based on magic. Plus only a handful of people can wield it, and the test to see if you're one of them is to pick up a wand and see if you explode.

Check out some of the long shots of the city skyline and you'll see some unusual and fancy architecture in the town centre, which is the Elven district.


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## Tonguez (Dec 29, 2017)

MarkB said:


> Check out some of the long shots of the city skyline and you'll see some unusual and fancy architecture in the town centre, which is the Elven district.




theres also the shot of a dragon flying in the distance, which was a nice touch

I think though, that those flourishes while nice only served to highlight the mundaneness of it all. 
I think I'm on the same page as Silversword in that regard, a modern world with fairies in the bird feeder and dragons flying across the city should be different, not just Training Day with Orc ganstas, it needed that little bit more spark of something or an expanation about Orcs have only just being allowed in to the city as 'Newcomers" (see 'Alien Nation' vibe)


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## MarkB (Dec 29, 2017)

Tonguez said:


> theres also the shot of a dragon flying in the distance, which was a nice touch
> 
> I think though, that those flourishes while nice only served to highlight the mundaneness of it all.
> I think I'm on the same page as Silversword in that regard, a modern world with fairies in the bird feeder and dragons flying across the city should be different, not just Training Day with Orc ganstas, it needed that little bit more spark of something or an expanation about Orcs have only just being allowed in to the city as 'Newcomers" (see 'Alien Nation' vibe)




I think that's missing the point of the setting. Yes, these people are orcs and elves and dwarves, but they're also Americans. Wondering why there's no orcish architecture in the ghettos is the equivalent of wondering at the lack of African architecture in real-world L.A.


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## Ryujin (Dec 30, 2017)

MarkB said:


> I think it was deliberately light on backstory, but one thing that was made pretty clear is that actual magic is both extremely rare and immensely powerful in the modern world - and there's a stigma to it, because the Dark Lord was trying to build a world based on magic. Plus only a handful of people can wield it, and the test to see if you're one of them is to pick up a wand and see if you explode.
> 
> Check out some of the long shots of the city skyline and you'll see some unusual and fancy architecture in the town centre, which is the Elven district.




It seemed that they had a whole specialist Federal enforcement division devoted to "Brights", putting magic likely on par with nuclear weapons or terrorism. If they do end up developing this into a series, or just a series of movies, then Will Smith's character has the potential for a rather interesting arc.


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## Ralif Redhammer (Jan 2, 2018)

Also enjoyed Bright. Naturally, I kept wondering where the dwarves were, and what those nine races were. We only saw elves, humans, orcs, and centaurs, excluding the faeries and lone dragon.


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## Istbor (Jan 2, 2018)

I liked it quite a bit. Part of me was really hoping we would see Will Smith swinging around a magic sword, but ah well.  One Super powerful magic wand is enough.  Hopefully more comes of this world.


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## Ryujin (Jan 3, 2018)

Ralif Redhammer said:


> Also enjoyed Bright. Naturally, I kept wondering where the dwarves were, and what those nine races were. We only saw elves, humans, orcs, and centaurs, excluding the faeries and lone dragon.




There were two others who were hinted at. There was a Lizardman Crossing sign in one of the street scenes and what I would assume was a Changling (human looking with nictitating membranes in addition to eyelids) in the strip bar scene. Someone mentioned Dwarves, but I saw no evidence for that race.


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## Scott DeWar (Jan 3, 2018)

Don't you get it? they ran the underground!!


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## Hussar (Jan 3, 2018)

Watched it and liked it. Good start to a series. I imagine that they will not get Will Smith to play if they do make this a serial. Can’t see him tying himself down to that. But I’m sure they can get someone to play the part. 

Thought it was nicely done. Lots of room to grow. 

Hrm, between The Expanse, Star Trek Discovery and if they make a serial out of this, my Netflix sub is pretty safe. 

Here’s hoping for another season of Dirk Gentley’s too. 


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## MarkB (Jan 3, 2018)

Ryujin said:


> There were two others who were hinted at. There was a Lizardman Crossing sign in one of the street scenes and what I would assume was a Changling (human looking with nictitating membranes in addition to eyelids) in the strip bar scene. Someone mentioned Dwarves, but I saw no evidence for that race.




The orc gang leader said that, back when he was in Miami, they'd hold big neighbourhood parties, and orcs, humans, elves and dwarves would all turn up and have fun.


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## Henry (Jan 3, 2018)

I loved it, and hope it becomes a series!


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## Ryujin (Jan 3, 2018)

MarkB said:


> The orc gang leader said that, back when he was in Miami, they'd hold big neighbourhood parties, and orcs, humans, elves and dwarves would all turn up and have fun.




Yup, I missed that. Twice. Caught it on the third.


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## Warmaster Horus (Jan 3, 2018)

I thought it was okay.  A buddy cop movie akin to Alien Nation but with Shadowrun races instead of space-dudes.  Toss in some _Training Day / End of Watch _LA urban edginess and there you go.  Serviceable action and a standard 'got to stop the bad guys from getting the super McGuffin' plot with a predictable twist about Will Smith's character.


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## Tonguez (Jan 3, 2018)

and Bright 2 has been ordered starring Will Smith

and the annoucement teaser is amusing
[video=youtube;wSjSLbktAiY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSjSLbktAiY[/video]


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## Scott DeWar (Jan 3, 2018)

kinda tongue in cheek one could say .. .. ..*cough cough* .. .. .. What?


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## Ralif Redhammer (Jan 4, 2018)

"and we could play Shadowrun together." Hahahah!

Apparently Max Landis is not going to be involved this next time around. Good thing, that.



Tonguez said:


> and Bright 2 has been ordered starring Will Smith
> 
> and the annoucement teaser is amusing
> [video=youtube;wSjSLbktAiY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSjSLbktAiY[/video]


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## Ryujin (Jan 5, 2018)

Ralif Redhammer said:


> "and we could play Shadowrun together." Hahahah!
> 
> Apparently Max Landis is not going to be involved this next time around. Good thing, that.




From that video it sounds like they've been reading fora and comments sections


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## Tonguez (Jan 6, 2018)

Ryujin said:


> From that video it sounds like they've been reading fora and comments sections




Okay time to confess, do you work for the Netflix marketing department and is this thread part of the creative process?

(because it would be waaay cool if it was)


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## Ryujin (Jan 6, 2018)

Tonguez said:


> Okay time to confess, do you work for the Netflix marketing department and is this thread part of the creative process?
> 
> (because it would be waaay cool if it was)




It would be cool, but nope


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## Mustrum_Ridcully (Jan 6, 2018)

The Bright 2 teaser is fun. But now I suddenly have an urge for a Shadowrun Movie. 



I just watched Bright, and I liked it. I wonder a bit what Will Smith's character did or experience to be such a good (and cold-blooded) shooter. But maybe that world is just a bit more fracked up then ours...


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## Ryujin (Jan 6, 2018)

Mustrum_Ridcully said:


> The Bright 2 teaser is fun. But now I suddenly have an urge for a Shadowrun Movie.
> 
> 
> 
> I just watched Bright, and I liked it. I wonder a bit what Will Smith's character did or experience to be such a good (and cold-blooded) shooter. But maybe that world is just a bit more fracked up then ours...




I've wanted a Shadowrun movie since the RPG came out but, given the treatment that "Johnie Mnemonic" got, I'd be afraid of what we'd get. Closest I've seen so far was "Natrual One" by Zombie Orpheus Entertainment but I'd really want to see a big budget treatment, with lots of practical effects.

[video=youtube;GIY1niCIKhQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIY1niCIKhQ[/video]


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## Ralif Redhammer (Jan 8, 2018)

Natural One was a hoot, but so is most of ZOE's stuff.

As for Johnny Mnemonic, I kinda liked it, in all its 90s glory. No other movie has a rant about wanting room service quite like it. Now, was it a good movie? No, no it was not.



Ryujin said:


> I've wanted a Shadowrun movie since the RPG came out but, given the treatment that "Johnie Mnemonic" got, I'd be afraid of what we'd get. Closest I've seen so far was "Natrual One" by Zombie Orpheus Entertainment but I'd really want to see a big budget treatment, with lots of practical effects.
> 
> [video=youtube;GIY1niCIKhQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIY1niCIKhQ[/video]


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## JacktheRabbit (Jan 8, 2018)

Watched the movie last night. Entertaining but had some points that got tired of quick.

1. Will Smith's character being an epic a-hole to everyone out the gate got old fast.
2. The social commentary was as heavy handed as a wrecking ball.
3. I felt like someone wrote a book of backstory and then let me see maybe 2% of it through bad dialogue.
4. Someone high up decided they needed an Orc on the force and wrote a memo then let the lower level racist cops decide how to implement it?
5. Several times Will Smith seemed to be saying Horc instead of Orc. Was that just me?
6. In a world where a Dark Jesus walked the Earth 2000 years ago there still was an Alamo?
7. Was bad Happy Anderson's character supposed to be human or a tall fat dwarf? Something about him didnt click with me.


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## Ryujin (Jan 8, 2018)

Ralif Redhammer said:


> Natural One was a hoot, but so is most of ZOE's stuff.
> 
> As for Johnny Mnemonic, I kinda liked it, in all its 90s glory. No other movie has a rant about wanting room service quite like it. Now, was it a good movie? No, no it was not.




I think that I've said it on this board before: My biggest issue with the cinematic treatment of "Johnny Mnemonic" is the same as the one that I have with 1995 "Judge Dredd", in that rather than being true to at least the concept of the source material, they simply made it a vehicle for a big name. In "Johnny Mnemonic", however, they took it one step further by taking a strong female protagonist (in the book) and morphing her into a virtual sidekick. Molly Millions is one of my favourite literary characters and they gutted her, turning her into someone who didn't even warrant a last name in the credits. Perhaps the biggest waste was that Dina Meyer would have made one hell of a good Molly.


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## Bagpuss (Jan 9, 2018)

MarkB said:


> and the test to see if you're one of them is to pick up a wand and see if you explode.




This stuck me as one of the more stupid aspects of the plot. Even if say 90% of Elves were brights, would you risk it? The elves seem to be onto a pretty good thing in general. It seems to me that, even if a wand gave you ultimate power you would have to be in a pretty desperate situation to want to grab one, if there is even a small chance you would explode.


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## Ralif Redhammer (Jan 9, 2018)

I could not disagree. Stallone’s and Reeves’ presences did little to help bring their respective source material to life. The movie is but a small (often butchered) percentage of Gibson’s world and genius. For me, though, it’s a fun and cult vision of the 90s’ vision of the future.



Ryujin said:


> I think that I've said it on this board before: My biggest issue with the cinematic treatment of "Johnny Mnemonic" is the same as the one that I have with 1995 "Judge Dredd", in that rather than being true to at least the concept of the source material, they simply made it a vehicle for a big name. In "Johnny Mnemonic", however, they took it one step further by taking a strong female protagonist (in the book) and morphing her into a virtual sidekick. Molly Millions is one of my favourite literary characters and they gutted her, turning her into someone who didn't even warrant a last name in the credits. Perhaps the biggest waste was that Dina Meyer would have made one hell of a good Molly.


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## JacktheRabbit (Jan 9, 2018)

Bagpuss said:


> This stuck me as one of the more stupid aspects of the plot. Even if say 90% of Elves were brights, would you risk it? The elves seem to be onto a pretty good thing in general. It seems to me that, even if a wand gave you ultimate power you would have to be in a pretty desperate situation to want to grab one, if there is even a small chance you would explode.




Except that grabbing a wand is not the only way to know if a Human was a bright. Didnt the drunk guy with the sword say that Will Smith's character was a Bright? Either they have some other way of knowing or the story is that this guy talked out of his butt AND Will Smith happened to be a Bright, which would be absolutely horrible writing.

Not that there is any real good writing in this story. Why was the guy drunk and swinging a sword in public? He was a member of an ancient "Anti-Dark One" order. How did he know his domestic disturbance would result in Will Smith showing up and not some other cop?


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## Ovinomancer (Jan 9, 2018)

DocMoriartty said:


> Except that grabbing a wand is not the only way to know if a Human was a bright. Didnt the drunk guy with the sword say that Will Smith's character was a Bright? Either they have some other way of knowing or the story is that this guy talked out of his butt AND Will Smith happened to be a Bright, which would be absolutely horrible writing.
> 
> Not that there is any real good writing in this story. Why was the guy drunk and swinging a sword in public? He was a member of an ancient "Anti-Dark One" order. How did he know his domestic disturbance would result in Will Smith showing up and not some other cop?




Magic?


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## JacktheRabbit (Jan 9, 2018)

Ovinomancer said:


> Magic?




Actually I think the answer if ever given will be "Magic's" far more annoying half brother of convenience "Prophecy".


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## Bagpuss (Jan 9, 2018)

DocMoriartty said:


> Didnt the drunk guy with the sword say that Will Smith's character was a Bright?




Pretty sure the drunk guy swinging a sword, was basically just your crazy prophet trope from various stories, hence he knew things normal people didn't.


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## Scott DeWar (Jan 9, 2018)

I do remember the word prophecy being mentioned.


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## MarkB (Jan 10, 2018)

Ryujin said:


> I think that I've said it on this board before: My biggest issue with the cinematic treatment of "Johnny Mnemonic" is the same as the one that I have with 1995 "Judge Dredd", in that rather than being true to at least the concept of the source material, they simply made it a vehicle for a big name. In "Johnny Mnemonic", however, they took it one step further by taking a strong female protagonist (in the book) and morphing her into a virtual sidekick. Molly Millions is one of my favourite literary characters and they gutted her, turning her into someone who didn't even warrant a last name in the credits. Perhaps the biggest waste was that Dina Meyer would have made one hell of a good Molly.




The thing that really annoys me about Stallone's _Judge Dredd_ is _Demolition Man_. That movie came out shortly beforehand, it features a parodic near-future which perfectly captures the humour of the Dredd comics, and has Stallone turning in a good performance in terms of action, character and comedy. It wasn't that they mis-cast Dredd, they simply did a lousy job of it.


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## Ovinomancer (Jan 10, 2018)

MarkB said:


> The thing that really annoys me about Stallone's _Judge Dredd_ is _Demolition Man_. That movie came out shortly beforehand, it features a parodic near-future which perfectly captures the humour of the Dredd comics, and has Stallone turning in a good performance in terms of action, character and comedy. It wasn't that they mis-cast Dredd, they simply did a lousy job of it.




Which is interestingly ironic, because Demolition Man was a very bad retelling of _Brave New World_.  Not that you'd recognize it.


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## Warmaster Horus (Jan 10, 2018)

Ovinomancer said:


> Which is interestingly ironic, because Demolition Man was a very bad retelling of _Brave New World_.  Not that you'd recognize it.




A very bad adaptation of _Brave New World_, yes.  A very bad movie, no.


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## Ovinomancer (Jan 10, 2018)

Warmaster Horus said:


> A very bad adaptation of _Brave New World_, yes.  A very bad movie, no.




Well, it's not a _good _movie.  It is, however, a _fun _movie.  It was last weekend's "Indoctrinate my teenaged son into my childhood/young adult nostalgia" movie.  This weekend, thanks to Netflix adding it to their lineup this week, will be both a good movie AND a good adaptation in _The Shawshank Redemption_.


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## Warmaster Horus (Jan 10, 2018)

Ovinomancer said:


> Well, it's not a _good _movie.  It is, however, a _fun _movie.  It was last weekend's "Indoctrinate my teenaged son into my childhood/young adult nostalgia" movie.  This weekend, thanks to Netflix adding it to their lineup this week, will be both a good movie AND a good adaptation in _The Shawshank Redemption_.




Agreed.  Definitely a guilty pleasure.


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## cmad1977 (Jan 11, 2018)

I was disappointed that Smiths family didn’t actually play more of a part. 
The scene with his daughter:
‘Why are you a cop? Everyone hates cops!!’
Is the last time you see her. 
The guys just been shot, he’s going back to work and everyone’s scared especially his kid... and it was left unresolved. 

Fun movie though. 


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