Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 517 Chicago Film Review

   Paula Wagner came to Ronald and gave him some basic guidelines for an interview.

   "If you can't answer the questions raised by reporters, secretly modify the question to something you can answer, and then repeat the standard answer.

  If the reporter asks two questions, and you can only answer one, then answer the one you will first, try to prolong it as much as possible, and then deliberately forget to answer the question that you will not answer, and ask the next reporter to ask the question. "

  Ronald had a few drills with her, no problem. In short, if you can't fool the past, if you can't fool yourself, you talk to yourself and pretend to answer the question.

   "I thought there would be a lot of media going to interview me. Such a big-selling movie surprised everyone. There were breakdancers on the street. Why didn't anyone come to interview the crew?"

   After the drill, Ronald found that no one in Los Angeles had come to interview him.

"The box office of a movie takes time to accumulate. It takes a certain amount of time for a newspaper's interview from noticing the phenomenon to finally interviewing you, and the magazine is even slower." Paula rarely communicated business matters to Ronald, this time Nisita Catch her from Tom Cruise temporarily, and it's a Ronald movie that's about to explode.

   "Then I'll wait, there should be an interview in a few days."

   "In addition, it is possible that they are all waiting for film reviews. They should come out one after another in the past two days. At that time, reporters can ask questions."

"Well... you can help me collect the reviews of 'Break Dancing', and also collect 'Sixteen Candles'." Ronald is going to Chicago soon to attend a fan meeting in New York, and ask his agent to help He pays attention to collection.

   "Excuse me, Boogaloo Prawn, did you teach MJ to spacewalk?"

   Several reporters caught the creators who had just arrived in Chicago, and they were most interested not in the film itself, but in the final suggestion that Ma Dao taught MJ the steps of spacewalking. "

   "Uh..." The bougainvillea prawn had never seen such a scene before, so he didn't know how to answer.

"MJ and I are good friends, so I asked him to make a cameo. He is also very interested in the form of breakdancing, and he has incorporated this new element into his MV. He is a master of fashion and is very interested in fashion trends. He has a keen sense of smell." Ronald hurriedly came up and replied instead of Bougallo.

   "May I ask Director Ronald..." The reporter turned the microphone to Ronald, "Then MJ's dance was taught by the bougainvillea prawn?"

"Bougallo and Sabado are both masters of breakdance, their choreography is very high, and in the movie, they choreographed their dances by themselves. Including the motor broom dance. Lucinda herself and Kai Like Li, she also has a background in jazz dance, and her learning ability is excellent."

   "I asked if he taught...

   "Okay...you've already asked two questions, save the chance for someone else, next question"

   "Ronald, do you think this is your best film? Why do you think its box office was unexpected." Another reporter asked.

"I think the most important thing is that we have three very good lead actors. Do you like their dance? Sometimes, as long as I set the camera up, their talented dance will continue to be produced, and that person The guy who dances on the beach on crutches, his nickname is Hand Guy..."

   "You're really good at dealing with reporters." The bougainvillea prawn was not good at this, thanks to Ronald's rescue.

   "Hey, little idea."

   "Next time you have to brag about yourself," said the prawn Bougallo in a low voice, and today Ronald put all the credit on the actors.

   Ronald smiled, no one else could take away his credit. Anyway, no one in the industry would believe what he said about putting the cameras in there and letting the actors do their thing. The film's final box office, of course, is due to the director.

   "Okay, okay, reporter friends, we have to rush to the hotel. If you have any questions, we will ask after the audience meeting."

   It was a big hit at the box office, and Minahan didn’t want to shrink. He booked Ronald and the three main actors at the Hilton Hotel in Chicago.

   Ronald, who was staying in the room, immediately received a call from his agent Richard.

   "The film critic I've asked the hotel to put in your room, the two Chicago film critics didn't say anything nice about you."

   "I expected it."

   Ronald picked up the Chicago Tribune specially prepared by the waiter and read it with the Chicago Sun.

"There will be a couple of hip-hop movies this summer, and 'Breakdance' is the first, which gives them the edge. Lucinda is sweet and high-spirited, all three dancers are so good, they deserve a better script... "

   "Hehehe", this is Roger Albert's film review, Ronald is already immune to his irony.

   "It's truly a peculiar film: a stiff and awkward story interspersed by a dance of astonishing grace and power.

   Alas, the story was predictable from start to finish. We meet Kelly (Lucinda Dickey), a young Los Angeles dancer who is a student of a hateful choreographer. Through a friend, she met several breakdancers on the boardwalk in Venice.

   Their dance philosophy is completely different from hers; while she polishes her technique, they elevate the ghetto sound and immerse herself in the fun of hip-hop. She likes them, dances with them, and they form a team.

   So far so good. But then we had to sit back and watch blandly written, awkwardly performed scenes, including: famous choreographer coveting Kelly's good looks, jealous of hip-hop dancers, and trying to put the trio in black in a big dance competition list;

   A group of cocky high-society dance snobs who scoff at Kelly's friends;

   A pretentious dance judge with a British accent who miraculously changed his attitude when the trio started dancing and really appreciates breakdancing.

   Kelly and both partners have this gifted dance talent, Cyclone is a sensitive Latino who loves Kelly but is wary of any sign of offense, and Motor's hands and feet have a life of their own.

   They were so uninhibited in the scene where they danced with Kelly that they were surrounded by puppet-like supporting cast which was a shame.

I bet the director could have made an interesting documentary about how the three dancers met, how they learned to work together, how the hip-hop dancers taught their moves to the traditionally trained Kelly, and how they Get along off-screen.

   Isn't this a lot more interesting than those fictional plots? ——The script is too amateur, and the director is too clumsy to take advantage of the talented dancers of the three.

   Do you like breakdance? It's a great movie, if you can manage to ignore about two-thirds of the boring plot.

  Summer has another movie, 'Hot Street Guy' released by the free Orion, let's see what that makes a difference.

  PS: Michael Jackson's cameo at the end is amazing. "

  Roger Ebert gave his film two out of four stars. It is estimated that they are all played in dance and MJ's cameo.

   "This guy can't talk if he's not yin and yang, right?" Ronald threw the Sun newspaper aside and picked up Sisko's film review for the Tribune.

"I don't agree with my colleague Albert's assessment of 'Breakdance'. In fact it was a small production and the director did a great job of not falling into the trap of all kinds of clichés and gave us a A fresh movie.

  If it is other exploitation film directors, they must inevitably make some clichés that this film does not have, such as: Kelly will be raped by the choreographer of the dance class, and she will complain to the society about the shady scene here. After the trio wins the championship, they will go to Broadway, wearing colorful costumes and giving up those street spiritual dances.

   And I'm not at all surprised that the movie eschews those perfectly, since their director is Ronald Lee. I applauded his 'Fast-Paced Richmond High School' two years ago.

   This 'Break Dance' reminds me of another dance movie from many years ago, 'Saturday Night Fever', John Travolta is also so free, spiritual, and awkwardly challenging the mainstream society with his street dance.

  I give him two and a half stars.

   Of course, I'm more optimistic about another new film "Sixteen Candles" that was released over the weekend, the debut of John Hughes.

I give this movie three and a half stars out of four and it's "the best teen comedy since last year's 'Crazy Boys'. It's sure to draw lots of laughs, but more importantly Yes, it will also offer comfort to embarrassed young girls and boys.

   And moments of comfort and approval are sorely lacking in teen films, which often portray a world of violence and sexual mastery, and that’s a lie. "

  Sisko always speaks well for himself, and his Tribune readers are more educated and therefore more organized. And Albert, hey, the Sun's readers are mostly low-level manual laborers, that is, those who killed Chinese Chen Guoren. The "breakdance" plot demeans white dance teachers and praises Latinos and blacks. It seems that he I won't say good things about myself.

   But both rated "Sixteen Candles" higher. It seems that although "Breakdance" can lead at the box office, it loses in film reviews.

"It's time for us to go, the audience is waiting for us." The bougainvillea prawn knocked on Ronald's door. Today, he owed Ronald to his rescue, otherwise he would violate the agreement and not only give MJ the money for the choreography If you want to pay it back, you have to be fined by the MJ team.

"Come on", Ronald put on his coat and walked down the elevator with him, "Next time you encounter this kind of thing, you will pretend to be confused. If you don't know how to answer other people's questions, just answer one you will, and then pretend That's the reporter's problem."

   "The audience doesn't seem to be as enthusiastic as in Los Angeles." Several people walked into the arranged theater, and those audience members sat there in a proper manner, waiting for the movie to start. Ronald felt that it was not as crazy as the one in Los Angeles.

   "Yeah, yeah...Motor!"

   "Kelly, I love you!"

   After the movie was shown, Ronald found himself wrong. The predominantly white Chicago audience was no worse than the Los Angeles side.

Moreover, here in Chicago, there are more old-fashioned large-scale theaters, and the number of people in a single show is larger than that in Los Angeles. The three leading actors were blocked on the stage again. After performing the breakdance live, they signed the autograph for more than an hour before being accepted. let go.

   It seems that it is not only Latinos and blacks who like this dance, but mainstream white teenagers are still impressed by this energetic dance.

   (end of this chapter)