40 Armageddon

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cdnchris
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Re: 40 Armageddon

#101 Post by cdnchris » Fri Jun 17, 2016 1:53 pm

I'm sure a lot of people skipped the DVD because, you know, it's Armageddon, but it's actually a good edition. The commentaries are funny (you're right in that the scientists, who I believe were advisors on the film, do spend a lot of time explaining how they were ignored), the behind-the-scenes stuff was actually very well done and interesting, and the outtakes were pretty good (Fichtner complaining about how he was told this movie would be fun to make but it's not, Michael Clarke Duncan saying something along the lines of "I'm going to come out there and beat the fuck out of you," etc). It's one of those titles where I like the features a lot more than the movie.

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#102 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Jun 17, 2016 1:56 pm

And of course Steve Buscemi riffing in character on his love of Jacqueline Bisset in The Deep!

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#103 Post by Werewolf by Night » Fri Jun 17, 2016 2:53 pm

It's one of those cast commentaries on a contemporary film that Criterion used to do so well in that era. The cast commentary on Boogie Nights was another.

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#104 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sat Jun 18, 2016 12:10 am

You don't get much of those anymore Criterion or elsewhere it seems. There was one for Ocean's Eleven that was pretty good, too.

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#105 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Fri Nov 30, 2018 6:38 pm

Is "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" objectively the worst original song on a film in the Criterion Collection?

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Matt
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Re: 40 Armageddon

#106 Post by Matt » Fri Nov 30, 2018 8:06 pm

No. It’s not even the worst original Aerosmith song from that movie.
Last edited by Matt on Fri Nov 30, 2018 8:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#107 Post by domino harvey » Fri Nov 30, 2018 8:10 pm

Matt wrote:
Fri Nov 30, 2018 8:06 pm
No. It’s not even the worst original song from that movie.
How can that be, is there a longer version in it?

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#108 Post by Matt » Fri Nov 30, 2018 8:17 pm

It’s corny as hell and engineered for the pop charts, but it’s not “bad.” Try humming a few bars of “What Kind of Love Are You On” from memory.

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#109 Post by domino harvey » Fri Nov 30, 2018 8:40 pm

I had to look it up and for like thirty seconds I thought you were crazy, because the riff is good. Then the singing started and, well, one more data point for "Aerosmith suck"

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#110 Post by The Elegant Dandy Fop » Sat Dec 01, 2018 12:10 am

I'd argue that the "Come Together" cover by Aerosmith in this film sucks more.

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#111 Post by Big Ben » Sat Dec 01, 2018 12:53 am

Somehow, with each of your posts today you've reminded me just how much I dislike this film. I had blotted out out the music much like several other nineties atrocities.

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#112 Post by colinr0380 » Sat Dec 01, 2018 5:12 am

SORRY, CAN YOU REPEAT THAT? I CANNOT HEAR THE SONG OVER ALL OF THE EXPLOSIONS AND SCREAMING!I

I don't mind the Aerosmith song, and remember that at the time it was actually a blessed relief from Celine Dion. That reminded me that I love the Adam & Joe stuffed toy recreation: Toytanic!

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#113 Post by Big Ben » Sat Dec 01, 2018 6:40 am

I had a much bigger problem with the fact that the camera never stopped moving and that the average shot was about two seconds in length. It is an unbelievably awful film and the fact that it is two and half hours pushes it into the realm of a cinematic atrocity that achieves some sort of grandeur. It went on and on and on and on and by the time it was over I experienced a migraine pain so severe my consciousness was raised and I achieved some sort of Pyrrhic enlightenment into the suffering of all living things.

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#114 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sat Dec 01, 2018 11:30 am

domino harvey wrote:
Fri Nov 30, 2018 8:40 pm
I had to look it up and for like thirty seconds I thought you were crazy, because the riff is good. Then the singing started and, well, one more data point for "Aerosmith suck"
I barely remembered it from being played a little bit on rock radio around the same time the other song was on the pop charts.

I actually quite like Aerosmith, even for the music from the post-rehab period. The album they released a year before, Nine Lives, is actually really good. But this was the end of the line as far as any credibility for me. Steven Hyden wrote this incredibly sharp take on it all, that could put anything I could say on the subject to shame.

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#115 Post by McCrutchy » Mon Dec 03, 2018 12:48 am

cdnchris wrote:
Fri Jun 17, 2016 1:53 pm
I'm sure a lot of people skipped the DVD because, you know, it's Armageddon, but it's actually a good edition. The commentaries are funny (you're right in that the scientists, who I believe were advisors on the film, do spend a lot of time explaining how they were ignored), the behind-the-scenes stuff was actually very well done and interesting, and the outtakes were pretty good (Fichtner complaining about how he was told this movie would be fun to make but it's not, Michael Clarke Duncan saying something along the lines of "I'm going to come out there and beat the fuck out of you," etc). It's one of those titles where I like the features a lot more than the movie.
I'm going to have to dig out my copy, but I vividly remember falling asleep during this movie, and the disc going back to the menu, which was one of the "animated" variety that repeated ad infinitum, and featured, I want to say, Bruce Willis, humming "YMCA" as something like "WHYYYYY-M-C-EHHHHH, AH DIDGI, DIDGI, DA, DA, DA!" while in a spacesuit and doing some kind of jig.

EDIT: Actually, it might have been the extras disc? And I might be struggling to remember the exact phrasing of the last bit, but either way, that voice is seared into my memory.

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#116 Post by Andre Jurieu » Wed Dec 05, 2018 6:47 pm

McCrutchy wrote:
Mon Dec 03, 2018 12:48 am
...the disc going back to the menu, which was one of the "animated" variety that repeated ad infinitum, and featured, I want to say, Bruce Willis, humming "YMCA" as something like "WHYYYYY-M-C-EHHHHH, AH DIDGI, DIDGI, DA, DA, DA!" while in a spacesuit and doing some kind of jig.
I think you just described what my own personal hell would be. Man, I hope Satan doesn't read this forum. Of course, if he did, he would probably get notifications for this thread and take notes.

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Feego
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Re: 40 Armageddon

#117 Post by Feego » Sun Nov 21, 2021 8:14 pm

This title is listed as "Currently Unavailable" rather than Out of Print on Criterion's website, but it seems unavailable at pretty much every major retailer. Does anyone know what the actual status is?

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#118 Post by dwk » Sun Nov 21, 2021 9:39 pm

Ask Disney, as they are/were the ones that manufactured and distributed this (and the DVDs for the other Buena Vista/Touchstone/Miramax titles that Criterion "released" in the early 2000s.)

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#119 Post by cdnchris » Sun Nov 21, 2021 11:01 pm

Appears to still be available on Disney Movie Club... for $6.78!

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#120 Post by omegadirective » Mon Nov 22, 2021 8:10 am

I thought this title went out of print years ago.

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#121 Post by Feego » Mon Nov 22, 2021 9:33 am

Thanks everyone.

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#122 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Mar 14, 2024 9:55 pm

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote:
Sat Dec 01, 2018 12:10 am
I'd argue that the "Come Together" cover by Aerosmith in this film sucks more.
From a worse movie, even

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#123 Post by hearthesilence » Thu Mar 14, 2024 10:17 pm

I'm not really a big Aerosmith fan, but unless it was recorded again for the movie, that's actually one of the better covers of that song IMHO and one of their best tracks outside of anything from Rocks and Toys in the Attic. Two very good albums and a handful of good singles are nothing to sneeze at, but they also released a lot of mediocrities back in their heyday and they put out so much horrendous schlock during the '80s and beyond, I kind of pretend they never got back together.

Also, I just saw Chris's post on the extras from years ago - I imagine these are the outtakes?

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Re: 40 Armageddon

#124 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Mar 14, 2024 11:27 pm

My core memories of this movie:

That terrible Aerosmith song and music video, which I didn't get when I was nine and haven't budged since
Consequently, I feel like I spent a fair amount of time trying to understand why people thought either Steven or Liv Tyler were exceptionally attractive. I get it more now, because I'm not nine
I won two free movie tickets to this on the promotional scratch-offs on a McDonald's super size fries, back when those were a thing, and it felt like I had won the kid lottery
The movie itself was lame

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