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The Man From U. N. C. L. E. (2015)
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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 13, 2015 12:51 am    Post subject: The Man From U. N. C. L. E. (2015) Reply with quote

The teaser trailer for this big-budget reboot of the classic 1960's spy series is here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x08iNZ8Mfc
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Pow
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 13, 2015 7:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wonder why they did not use the classic U theme music at all?
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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 13, 2015 8:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Probably copyright issues as the original composer, Jerry Goldsmith, has died and he owned all his own work, NOT the studios.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 13, 2015 11:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That trailer really makes the film look GOOD! Great blend of comedy and action. I'm looking forward to it.

The two principal players do a great job of recreating the characters as portrayed by Vaughn and McCallum. I'm looking forward to it.

As for the music, they'll probably work the beloved theme in at key moments, the way the Get Smart theme popped up from time to time in that absolutely wonderful movie version of the old series.
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Krel
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 13, 2015 8:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Judging from the trailer, it is a "Man From U.N.C.L.E". movie with no U.N.C.L.E.. If there is no United Network Command for Law and Enforcement, then there can be no Man From U.N.C.L.E..

If it is how the story is how the trailer makes it look, then this in another on I can give a pass.

David.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 13, 2015 10:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Trailers just splash light across the screen and noise against our eardrums without telling us squat about the plot.

Here's what Wikipedia says about it. Sounds encouraging.
__________________________________________

Set against the backdrop of the early 1960s period of the Cold War, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. centers on U.N.C.L.E. agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin.

The two team up on a joint mission to stop a mysterious international criminal organization, which is bent on destabilizing the fragile balance of power through the proliferation of nuclear weapons and technology.

The duo's only lead is the daughter of a vanished German scientist, who is the key to infiltrating the criminal organization, and they must race against time to find him and prevent a worldwide catastrophe.

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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 13, 2015 10:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Krel wrote:
Judging from the trailer, it is a "Man From U.N.C.L.E". movie with no U.N.C.L.E.. If there is no United Network Command for Law and Enforcement, then there can be no Man From U.N.C.L.E..

If it is how the story is how the trailer makes it look, then this in another on I can give a pass.

David.


No, the basic plot line is about the creation of U. N. C. L. E. and the perceived need for it. I've been email chatting with Robert Short (who's working on the movie) and he believes that Jerry Goldsmith's 1st season theme will appear at the end of the film. He says give it a chance. U. N. C. L. E. fans will be pleasantly surprised.
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Krel
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 14, 2015 12:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Robert (Butch) Day wrote:

No, the basic plot line is about the creation of U. N. C. L. E. and the perceived need for it. I've been email chatting with Robert Short (who's working on the movie) and he believes that Jerry Goldsmith's 1st season theme will appear at the end of the film. He says give a chance. U. N. C. L. E. fans will be pleasantly surprised.


I'm a big U.N.C.L.E. fan, I've collected magazines and books on the show. I have all of the novels, including the unpublished final novel. I have the DVDs and soundtracks. I have no problem with this being a period piece, I like that part. I even like the actors. But this looks to me like it is another bastardization like the "Wild,Wild West", "The Green Hornet", both Lone Ranger movies and the new Trek.

There is so much that Sam Rolfe created, that the show never touched on, or highlighted. They could have really added to the U.N.C.L.E. mythos. Instead, it sounds like we are getting someones idea of what they think U.N.C.L.E. should be. Just like with "The Return Of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.".

When someone changes things like in the movies mentioned above. That says to me, that the people doing the movie have no respect for the property. That they believe that they have a better idea than the people that created the original version. They rarely do.

Will this be an exciting, entertaining movie? Probably. But it won't really be the Man from U.N.C.L.E., it'll just have the name. You can call an apple, an orange all you want. But it doesn't make it one.

I'll watch it when it comes on the FX Channel, like the ST and GH movies. But I'm not going to pay full freight. I've just been disappointed too many times.

David.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 14, 2015 2:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

_________________________________

This is going to sound awfully negative, and for that I apologize.

The new movie can't possibly succeed if it tries to remain strictly faithful to the TV series. Here's why.

TV shows like The Man from U.N.C.L.E. were spawned by the culture of the time -- a time long past. The core audience of those shows were young people (like me) who were mesmerized by the whole James Bond craze, a craze that seems pretty dated now for two reasons.

The first reason is that the world and our culture has changed dramatically. Dangerous Russian agents plotting against the Land of the Free have been replaced by religious fanatics who blow themselves up and everybody around them for reasons no sane person could possibly comprehend.

The world of James Bond is as gone as the world of Swing music and Kate Smith singing God Bless America.

The second reason is that the wide-eyed young audience who adored James Bond and all his spinoffs are grandfathers now and no longer yearning to be dashing secret agents with a martini in one hand and a Walther PPK in the other.

I'm not saying that loyal fans of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. can't continue to enjoy that beloved series, but I suspect their passion for the series is driven more by their nostalgic feelings than the depth of the show's plot lines or the complexity of it's characters.

As for the movie, it seems less than realistic to expect a movie made in 2015 -- specifically for audiences living in a culture a half-century removed from the quirky James Bond craze -- to duplicate the TV series, and then hope the modern audience will to react the same way young people did in the 1960s.

It's a little like thinking a very good Elvis imitator could record a remarkably Elvis-like song and have it zoom to the top of the rock charts because it sounds soooo much like the King of Rock 'n Roll.

Turn that idea around and imagine a hardcore rap song being played on a Top 40 AM radio station in 1962.

Times change. Cultures change. Audiences change. The movies and TV shows they watch change . . . a LOT.

Try taking DVD's of Grey's Anatomy back in time and showing them in place of Dr. Kildare.



Horrified families across America would be puking all over the living room!





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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 14, 2015 4:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Eeeeewww... gross!
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 14, 2015 9:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Seems like you are saying that we can't go home again, Bud.

I tend to agree with you.While they were able to update such concepts as Star Trek with 4 spin-off shows as well as 10 films, not counting the recent ones. However, Trek was that rare bird that was able to be resurrected & done well for the most part.

The shows we grew up with were also a part of our culture at that moment in history. Those moments pass like the seasons & you cannot relive them.

We clearly aren't the same country we were, or the same individuals.

I love seeing those reunion shows when they gather up the casts we loved on the shows we enjoyed & talk with them. Fun to see the interviews, hear the behind-the-scenes stuff & so forth.

However, whenever they attempt to take the original cast & put them into a new scenario of their former series & do a contemporary plot with our old friends, it seldom works. Updating with an entirely new cast also usually doesn't come off well either.

I was a huge fan of TMFU as a kid, all my friends were. I've seen a few episodes on MeTV. They have not aged well at all. That's another reality about some of the series we loved. Can a show that was done in one era be redone for another? I'd have to say, with rare exceptions, the answer is no it can't.
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 14, 2015 2:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
The second reason is that the wide-eyed young audience who adored James Bond and all his spinoffs are grandfathers now and no longer yearning to be dashing secret agents with a martini in one hand and a Walther PPK in the other.

I'm not saying that loyal fans of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. can't continue to enjoy that beloved series, but I suspect their passion for the series is driven more by their nostalgic feelings than the depth of the show's plot lines or the complexity of it's characters.

This, to me, carries a great percentage of the weight. I was deeply fond of my memories of movies and TV shows I enjoyed as a kid, long before I became aware of politics and international affairs. Then, once I had grown up and had the capability of viewing these same shows on home video, I thought, "This is what thrilled me?" I suppose that's why I'm mainly a hardware guy today.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 14, 2015 2:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

______________________________________

Holy cow, both of you guys and I feel exactly the same way about this!

I wrote the post above thinking I would just delete it after I "vented" my thoughts on the impossibility of recapturing the enthusiasm we once felt for beloved shows and movies.

When I finished, I had the cursor poised over the X to delete the message, but then I realized that your post about The Man of U.N.C.L.E. was a frank and well-written expression of your sincere feelings on a personal subject, and it deserved a frank answer.

I can offer an example of a fondly remembered show that was turned into a terrific movie recently -- but it doesn't succeed because it took a popular show and redid what made it great.

It took a successful series and did what the series did NOT do.

The series was Get Smart, a comedy that many people enjoyed in the 1960s and many people fondly remember today. I never thought it was very funny back then, and today I can't sit through an episode without cringing every time the explosive laugh track desperately tries to convince me the gag that just happened was hysterical when in fact it just plain damn wasn't.

But in 2008 the movie version was released, and the trailers convinced me they had fixed something about the concept that had always killed my enjoyment of the series.

They made Maxwell Smart . . . smart. (Click to play the amazing trailer. Very Happy)

__________

I hate comedies about people who are so stupid they do everything wrong and cause monumental problems for everybody in sight. That's basically what Get Smart was.

But that's definitely what the movie was not

Steve Carell's version of the hero is the ultimate victim of Murphy's Law: if something can go wrong, it will. But unlike the TV series, the mishaps are never his fault. Sh*t happens, and it happens more to him any anybody else.

But . . . and here's the good part . . . he never let's it affect his towering confidence, his boundless bravery, and his unshakable calm. He holds his head high while he walks through a world that thinks he's a fool, secure in the knowledge that they're dead wrong and he's dead right -- even when he misses it by that much . . . Very Happy

The scene when Max dances with the fat lady and they stun the onlookers by out-performing the gorgeous Agent 99 and her dashing dance partner is one the many moments of greatness in this fantastic movie.

This scene is more amazing than anything Superman ever did in all his movies.



And yet . . .

A very old friend of mine -- a die-hard fan of the TV series -- absolutely loaths the movie because of all the changes which made it magnificent. He likes nothing about the movie because it did not do what the series did -- which was to present a bumbling moron who can barely tie the laces on his shoe phone.

Weird, ain't it? Get Smart is a good movie that succeeded by offending the fans of the series and winning the approval of people like me who didn't like it.

And where, then, does that leave The Man from U.N.C.L.E.? It can't just copy the tone and structure of the old series, because . . . well . . . la la la la life goes on, as the Beatles said.

And it can't re-imagine the original concept in the context of today's shockingly different world, because that would be changing the very things the fans remember and love!

It's a delicate balancing act which is probably doomed to fail -- but they might make a movie which entertains modern audiences while showing love and respect for the classic series. That's what Get Smart did, and it worked.

But I know one fan who can't stand it because of all the things it did right!

Go figure, eh?

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Pow
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 12:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have encountered a few exceptions to that you can't go home again, Bud. I stand by what I wrote previously, but at times a rule can be broken successfully.

The Return of the Mod Squad, 1979. This was a made-for-TV movie which reunited the original cast. The case was typical tv fare but the cast still retained their onscreen chemistry. The movie comes of as a one time deal & does not appear to be intended to be a relaunch of the show.

Bret Maverick, 1981. James Garner reprises his 1950s cowboy/gambler Maverick. The humor is fun & having Bret settle down to owning a ranch & saloon in town seems like a logical progression for the aging character. And who doesn't like Jim Garner?

Mission:Impossible, 1988 -'90. Peter Graves returns as Jim Phelps & works with a new team of IMF agents.
As a huge fan of the original series I was quite impressed with this new version. Of immense help was the location filming in Australia.It offered superb locations & vistas & never had the feel of the backlot scenes from the original series.

Poderosa,2002.This was a prequel of the story of the Cartwrights from Bonanza. A young cast portrayed the family in the early days of building their ranching empire. It had a likable cast, gorgeous scenery(thanks again Australia) & it was great to see a horse opera once again.

The Time Tunnel, 2006. This was a pilot on the FOX Channel for a reboot of the 1966 Irwin Allen sf series.
Unlike Allen's version this update was cleverly & intelligently done.

Battlestar Galactica, 2004-'09. This was a miracle. They took a cheesy sf show from the past & rebooted it to be a compelling, fascinating series that far exceeded the original. The conclusion stunk, but the ride was terrific.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 1:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks, Pow. I haven't seen most of these, so I appreciate the info.
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