ya after donnie darko, jarhead, bubble boy (so great), prisoners, enemy, zodiac (probably my 2nd fav film), and nightcrawler, I was like man what an epic filmography and then just a whole bunch of face palm.

Jake isn't a writer or a producer or a director...he's a working actor. It's not like he's being offered The Whale and then chooses Ambulance instead. He takes the parts he's offered. Plus, no one knows if a movie is going to be good or not before it's made.

Oh, come on. Obviously you can tell if a movie will be good or bad before it's made, that's literally the reason B-movies exist. Everyone on earth knew what the Road House remake was going to be before a single second a "working actor" stepped foot on set.

Carrying water for Jake Gyllenhaal is also just weird. He's Hollywood A-List! Nepo baby! I imagine - without your industry insight, of course - that a lot of actual working actors would laugh if you put Jake ****ing Gyllenhaal in the same category as them.

you really can't - there's a lot of films which people thought would win best picture or be total blockbusters that wound up being terrible

director having the wrong vision, poorly edited together, miscast actor etc can all ruin a film

likewise so many films fail just because the marketing sucks or there was no marketing and thus nobody ever heard of it

obviously, everyone knew what kind of film a roadhouse reboot starring an mma fighter would be like - but even then, it's a very fine line between making another great action film that'll be adored for generations or some utter crap that everyone hates

every year there's a few films that studios really thought would be huge films and threw a ton of resources behind and they just bomb because the great idea on paper just didn't translate to film and/or wasn't executed well

I find that really interesting. Like I can't imagine how some films get sold because on paper it almost sounds ridiculous.

Like imagine trying to pitch Locke.

Writer: "So get this, this guy is on a long drive and he's talking to different people on the phone."

Exec: "ok...so what is he talking about?"

Writer: "Concrete! Some other stuff, but mostly concrete."

Exec: "So what happens after he's in the car driving?"

Writer: "No that's the best part! He never leaves the car and is just driving and talking the entire time!"

Exec: "um ok.

Writer: "But it stars Tom Hardy."

Exec: "sold."

The funny thing is if I turned down a lucrative job offer because it wasn't "authentic" or "artistic", I would be correctly doubted and questioned. However, we give actors crap for not doing that.

Like Dominic said, he's a working actor. It's a job. Steven Seagal was making 6-8 million per movie for all his horrible straight to video stuff he put out in the early 2000's. Sounds like a great gig to me if I'm an actor.

I admit that I like the original Road House, but it was an awful movie. Terry Funk was excellent! It was so awful that they made a sequel/reboot.

I think the only way to have any clue if a movie has a good chance of being good is based on the director then of course you can read the script see how that is but if you're making a movie with the coens, marty, fincher, QT, mann, ridley scott or andrew dominik etc chances are it's gonna be great if you sign up for a film with michael bay you have a good idea what you're signing up for.

the real unknown is when you do a film with a 1st time director like jordan peele and get out ppl must have had no clue how it would turn out and have to put a lot of faith in him and voila turns out to be a masterpiece.

but ya for most projects it's a real crapshoot which unfortunately is one of the reasons we have so many marvel n DCU movies because the studios know exactly what they're gonna get and has a built in audience (also why we get so many remakes).

you know what's really frustrating? when you type out a whole long post then realize everything you wrote was basically one big "uh ya duh ty capt obv" n you didn't contribute one original or new thought to the conversation.

COOL POST RBK TY FOR SHARING.

I watched most of "Brats," which I don't think should have been made. I think the elephant in the room is the fact that Andrew McCarthy just wasn't a very good actor. He got lucky to star in Pretty In Pink because Molly Ringwald pushed for him to co-star with her when the character was supposed to be a jock type. Then he was in St. Elmo's Fire, which I watched some of. It's an embarrassing movie that never should have been made. He thinks a magazine article that doesn't talk directly about him ruined his life. I haven't read the article but apparently there is a quote from another actor that he "plays all his roles with the same intensity. I don't think he's going to make it."

I think his movie is kind of embarrassing because the truth is that he got kicked out of NYU, got lucky to be in a big movie without having any real acting chops and thought his life was set. He was going to be a successful actor and live the good life. Well, that's not how life works. Later on you've got similar actors in Beverly Hills 90210, American Pie, etc. and none of them did anything after that. I guess Weekend At Bernie's and Mannequin did pretty well and then it was over. I can understand how crushing it is to have early success and not have things work out, but I bet he regrets not finding another line of work 35 years ago.

I was super excited for Brats but to hear that a couple of them, including my favorite, aren’t in it makes it seem pointless. I didn’t think it was going to be some kind of bullshit desperation move….

I only do one impression, it's a world-class Andrew McCarthy:

I stare directly at the person, and say, 'Like, I love her, man.'

? How would you know what it is if you didn't watch it? I mean, you don't have to lol.

It was weird. McCarthy seems really hung up on that article from 40 years ago that coined the term Brat Pack, as if it completely destroyed his career or something, but then he's interviewing all these other Brat Packers who went on to have incredibly successful careers afterwards, so you'd think he'd realize that maybe the article wasn't his real problem. I kind of got the impression that most of the others were sort of humoring him and didn't think it was that big a deal either. Maybe Molly & Judd feel differently, hence not wanting to participate.

Then he had this awkward interview with the article's author, which he seemed to want to be some sort of cathartic experience where he'd get an apology or something, but the guy was basically just like "lol, I don't know what to tell you man, it was clever, no regrets".

Anyway, it was still a fun nostalgia trip, and i enjoyed it overall, but McCarthy did come off as rather pathetic.

Clickbait headlines and from what some people have said.

couldn't make it past 15 minutes of brats. when he filmed himself calling all of the brats prefacing every conversation (or voicemail, unclear if they picked up) with "i know we haven't talked in 35 years but..." it was just sad. did make me wonder what happened to judd nelson though. sounds like he's lived a quiet life while still doing tv gigs throughout the years. apparently he was upset by the article, wanted to punch the author at dinner that night, and still maintains he would punch the author if he saw him again.

his one on one with emilio was very off putting really seemed like estevez had no interest in having that convo and just felt bad for andrew so said yes and regretted it the entire time.

I’ve already seen the entire season 3 of Shoresy, but it drops on Hulu, or has already dropped. I won’t spoil but I think it’s their best season and probably the best season of the entire Letterkenny universe.

COOL POST RBK TY FOR SHARING.

Hell yeah. Didn’t know S3 was already out.