May 30, 2008

R.I.P. Harvey Korman

Too many of these this week. Here's to you Mr. Korman. Thanks for the laughs.

Sidenote: There's a "thing" in theatre about "breaking character." Sure, Conway is chewing the scenery here. But the real laughs come from Korman going ahead and laughing at him. Korman knew exactly what he was doing.

Posted by John on May 30, 2008 at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Current Affairs , Entertainment , Film , Movies , Pop Culture , Television , The Creative Life

May 29, 2008

Disney brand standards apply. Even to Jack Sparrow.

A guy learns the hard way that there are rules about playing Disney characters.

Via LA Mag and Joe.

Posted by John on May 29, 2008 at 05:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Brands , Current Affairs , Entertainment , Film , Opinion , The Creative Life

March 12, 2008

Fuck Hungry Man.

Posted by John on March 12, 2008 at 09:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Film , Pop Culture , The Creative Life

February 24, 2008

And the Oscar for Best Ad on the Oscars goes to...

Tonight, is a big, big night for brands.  Star brands, studio brands and marketer brands all mix on the red carpet. We can count on the Nicholson brand doing well tonight. It's a tradition to cut to him grinning in the audience. His smile is as iconic as the Clydesdales. But what about the marketers that are making their big bet with this event instead of the hyper-hyped Super Bowl?  Follow a live chat with the pundits on Adfreak's new OscarFreak. If you are so moved, leave your opinions on the winners and losers here or as an audio comment. We'll update this post with our own opinion in the morning. In the meantime, we already know what Judd Apatow thinks of the whole thing.

UPDATE: I'll be honest, Sunday night laundry made me miss a lot of the spots. The one I caught that I found really intriguing was MasterCard "searching eye." It's paid off online here.

Posted by John on February 24, 2008 at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Current Affairs , Entertainment , Film , Movies , News of the Ad World , Opinion , Television

October 19, 2007

40th Anniversary of Patterson-Gimlin footage

This Saturday marks the 40th anniversary of the film that made the Sasquatch pop culture royalty. So, here's to you Mr. Big and Smelly. Jack Links, Coldstone and Coors (among others) salute you.

Posted by John on October 19, 2007 at 03:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Classics , Current Affairs , Film , Pop Culture

October 01, 2007

Product placement 25 years later.

Last week, Netflix delivered E.T. to our door. The kids had never seen it, and it'd been years since I sat down to watch. I'd even forgotten it was in our queue. When Elliott starts dropping the Reese's Pieces, my oldest asked for some clarification. "Well, he's using the Reese's Pieces to show E.T. how to get to his house," I answered. Nothing much more was said at the time. The next day, however, my wife came home with a big box of the peanut butter treats. Seems the boys simply had to try some. Half an hour later, the colorful shells were being used to lead me all over the house to discover various caches of toys. Subsequently, the candy was officially declared as "our favorite."

25 years later and the M&M's brand is still paying for not listening to Steven Spielberg.

Posted by John on October 01, 2007 at 04:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Brands , Entertainment , Film , Food and Drink , Marketing Trends , Movies , Pop Culture , Product placement

September 06, 2007

Go mind-to-mind with Manning.

Another NFL season kicks off tonight and that can only mean one thing: a heavy dose of Manning marketing. Here's some from Goodby and Sprint.  This sports trivia advergame let's you take on Peyton (though he seems to go pretty easy on you). Last year, we crowned Peyton as the best of the NFL pitchmen. We can expect to see lots of him in the next few months. Think Brand Manning can get overexposed or spread too thin?

Posted by John on September 06, 2007 at 02:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Brave New Marketing , Current Affairs , Film , Marketing to Men , Pop Culture , Sports

July 22, 2007

Work that reminds us why we love advertising #1.

Had not seen this Gold Lion winner until last week. Genius. One can only hope to do as well with a full two minutes to communicate an idea. Great concept. Great script. Casting is dynamite. And the direction? So good it can't be fully appreciated until the end. Flat out wonderful. Credit where it's due: Agency: NORDPOL+ HAMBURG Creative Director: Lars Ruehmann Art Director: Bjoern Ruehmann/Joakim Reveman/Matthew Branning Production Company, City: PARANOID PROJECTS, Paris Country: FRANCE 2nd Production Company, City: PARANOID US, Los Angeles Country: USA Director: The Vikings

Thanks to Andrew The Planner

Posted by John on July 22, 2007 at 07:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (3)
Categories: Advertising , Copywriting , Film , Television , The Creative Life

May 02, 2007

Thanks for the memories, Tom

Tom Poston. October 21, 1921 — April 30, 2007.

On TV and advertising:

"When I started out, I was sorry I'd missed vaudeville,'' Poston told New York magazine. "I was sorry I'd missed silent movies. At the time, it didn't occur to me that I was participating in the beginnings of television. TV was a weird option because of the advertising. When it first started, I said, `I don't want to have anything to do with promoting beer and cigarettes and cars. I don't want to peddle snake oil.' I had studied to be a classicist.''

On his famous, bumbling characters:

"In ways I don't like to admit, I'm a goof-up myself. It's an essential part of my character. When these guys screw up it reminds me of my own incompetence with the small frustrations of life."

Posted by John on May 02, 2007 at 08:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Entertainment , Film , Pop Culture , Television

April 25, 2007

Spinal Tap is back.

If you happen to do some work on a green brand (or a brand that wants to go green), now may be the time to strike a deal with the lads from Spinal Tap. Since we've been so nice to them, maybe the fine folk at W+K London will see fit to fly us over the pond for the show at Wembley?

Posted by John on April 25, 2007 at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Classics , Current Affairs , Entertainment , Film , Movies , Music , Pop Culture

March 27, 2007

Lily and Orson and the micromanaging creative.

Sometimes directors have their hands full. Of course, sometimes directors really blow it. I'm not sure which is the case in the above video from the set of I Heart Huckabees (which is so not work safe). Watch all the clips in the series before you make up your mind.

Of course, this makes me wonder what the talent is really thinking when a micromanaging creative or client begins to pick apart their performance in a studio or on a set. How many of us really know how to direct an actor properly? When it comes to coaxing a performance from either a voice talent or an actor in a TV spot,  do you consider yourself a good director or are you really just a good dictator?

Reminds me about the classic recording of the poor agency bastards who ran up against the mind and ego of Mr. Orson Welles. If you haven't heard it in awhile or if you've only heard bits and pieces, sit back, relax and thank your lucky stars you're not selling frozen peas today. Then again, it's hard not to appreciate where Mr. Welles has to say.

Posted by John on March 27, 2007 at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Classics , Entertainment , Film , Movies , The Creative Life

March 13, 2007

Oh, you mean you were serious about that copyright thing?

But we thought the law was just so analog.

Posted by John on March 13, 2007 at 03:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Brave New Marketing , Current Affairs , Entertainment , Film , Marketing Trends , Movies , Music , News of the Ad World , Pop Culture , Web/Tech

March 04, 2007

Another Reason to Hate Sheep

Posted by SethyG on March 04, 2007 at 08:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Entertainment , Film , Movies

January 08, 2007

Now You'll Listen to the Kids

A while back MSNBC posted a story about new cell phone ring tones for kids that adults couldn't hear. I didn't believe it. Then I saw several news stations reporting on the same thing, with real life examples. I still didn't believe it.

I was chatting with a friend last week and he mentioned that he was trying to figure out some way to work it into a marketing message for one of his clients. Sadly, he was too late to the punch. Sony is releasing a new movie in February called The Messengers and has a mobile strategy that goes along with it. The synopsis: there are some things only kids can see...and hear. On the web site, you can test to see if you can hear the kiddy noises, or not (I could hear some of the first one, but none of the second one).

Great, just what we need is more kids running around telling us they're better than we are. Only at hearing! Brats.

Posted by SethyG on January 08, 2007 at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Brave New Marketing , Film , Movies , Pop Culture

October 16, 2006

Evolution of Beauty

I hadn't seen this before, however, judging by the views on YouTube, I'm likely in the minority. If you haven't seen it, it's truly worth a look. The Campaign for Real Beauty continues to find its way. I think this film is one of the strongest executions to date.

Thanks to Bret for the tip.

Posted by John on October 16, 2006 at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Brave New Marketing , Film , Opinion , Pop Culture

August 23, 2006

Why being an asshole creative is bad for your career.

If I had to put money on it, I'd wager that senior clients and agency heads really aren't that much different in mindset than the people who run the big studios.

After all, each of these managers use a creative product to make money. All have learned to be quasi-adept at working with creative souls. All allow a certain amount of eccentricities to slide. But no matter how great a creative you happen to be, consistently acting out just because you can will eventually cost you money.

Everyone loves your freak flag. Just know when to put it away. Your personal credibility as a source for smart thinking and ingenious solutions is worth much more than any any street cred you think you're building with some asshole act. As Jeff Goodby once said, "All we're asking for is a little fucking judgment."

Posted by John on August 23, 2006 at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack (1)
Categories: Current Affairs , Entertainment , Film , The Creative Life

August 22, 2006

AC #44 Now Available

The Late to the Partay Edition:

In this episode, John and Tug talk about all the stuff the rest of the world already talked to death last month. In fact, some of what we say is so dated, it's not even true anymore (see note below).

We begin with a brief discussion on ill-fated attempts at positioning (1:30). We make a poor transition to a brief, yet slightly confusing, discussion of hyperbolized copy getting in the way of a good benefit (5:41). After the break, the lads take on Tea Partay (8:50) and, proving that they are so four weeks ago, finally weigh in with a take on "the video" (14:36). Tug splits after a toast to some friends, leaving John to offer his $.02 about Snakes on a Plane's less than stellar opening (19:01).

Hear ye it now.

Note: teapartay.com is now up and running. Our take still stands. The site is an afterthought. A lot of opportunity was missed, and continues to be. At this writing there really isn't much additional content outside of the video. We've seen that. Give us more reasons to spend time with the brand.

Posted by John on August 22, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: AC News , Advertising , Brave New Marketing , Current Affairs , Entertainment , Film , Pop Culture

August 17, 2006

Snakes on AC

Is this another make your own Tahoe commercial debacle? Hmmmm. They're not screening the custom trailers before, and you can host them wherever you want. My thought is no, any press is good press for this movie. So you're either on the bandwagon, or not. If so, make your own Snakes on a Plane trailer now!

Posted by SethyG on August 17, 2006 at 03:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Brave New Marketing , Film , Pop Culture , Web/Tech

August 13, 2006

Snake on a Plane.

To celebrate Samuel L. Jackson's pre-cult movie opening this week, we pulled this aircraft service crew poster out of the archive. More important than any old poster is the new marketing that has guaranteed this movie will strike it big for its opening weekend at least.

For those of you who've not plugged into this film yet here's the low-down:

Social media has been instrumental in generating unexpectedly extreme hype for the flick fans affectionately call SoaP. Part of the credit goes to Jackson. The star insisted that the working title remain the market title. See, the studio, New Line Cinema, wanted to change the name to Pacific Air 121. According to Entertainment Weekly, Jackson responded with this gem: "If you're coming to see this movie, you're going to see a plane full of deadly-ass snakes. That's what it should be called. Deadly-ass Snakes on a Plane. COME ON!" You've got to love the man.

Turns out, Jackson's instinct was right. SoaP's title instantly engaged the movie geeks. Soon would-be fans were off and generating content such as songs, t-shirts, poster art and even some fiction pieces. A piece of that content actually ended up in the film. It was a blogger, not a screenwriter, who coined Jackson's soon-to-be-famous line: "I've had it with the motherf***ing snakes on this motherf***ing plane!" The line proved so popular, producers made sure they got it on film during reshoots. By all accounts, it's in the final cut. That's an amazing turn of events. Particularly when you learn that producers considered sinking their fangs into the first spate of fan-generated content with cease-and-desist orders. Smarter heads prevailed. Not only did producers hold the studio lawyers at bay, they actually started feeding the blogs official material. This was genius. They didn't try to make their own stuff. They just threw fuel into the organic fire. Props to them again for recognizing that they'd lost control of the message and embracing the opportunity. Should Snakes on a Plane do well beyond its open, we've got a new title for the production: The Accidental Case Study.

Posted by John on August 13, 2006 at 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Entertainment , Film , Pop Culture

July 07, 2006

Noted Without Comment

From my heart and from my hands why don't people understand my intentions?

Posted by Tug McTighe on July 07, 2006 at 03:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Film

June 27, 2006

Coming Not-So-Soon to a DVD Near You

The movie battle of the century has begun.

No, I'm not talking about Brandon Routh vs. Kevin Spacey. We already know how that's going to turn out. I'm talking about HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray. Both high-definition DVD formats are on the street now, and we have no clue who's going to win that battle. And the truth is, most of us don't care. We just want one of the formats to hurry up and become obsolete already, so we can buy the other one and start watching DVD movies in high-def in our own houses.

But I'll make you a bet. No matter how high-tech DVD movies become, they will have one thing in common with the first movie your grandparents ever saw. Before you can watch the movie you paid to see, somebody will try to make you watch a bunch of previews.

For some reason, the coming attractions at the movie theatre don't annoy most of us. Maybe it's because previews in a theatre take away a little of the time pressure. The published movie start times give us another deadline to meet, but this one's a soft deadline. The movie's supposed to start at 7:10, but we know it won't really start until about 7:30. So as we're standing in line for popcorn, we can resist the urge to kill the fat guy who waited until he got to the head of the line to think about whether he really wants Hot Tamales or Jujyfruits. We're a captive audience at the movie theatre, and we've become accustomed to enduring certain delays.

But at home, it's different. We've chosen the time we want to watch this DVD, and it's right now, dammit. Not five or ten minutes from now. And unless it's my imagination, there are even more previews before a DVD movie than there are before a theatre movie. A lot of DVDs want me to sit through three or four "now playing in theatres" previews, followed by three or four "now available on DVD" previews. They want me to, but I don't. I hit "Menu", and skip right past the whole batch.

So if I can push one button and get what I want, what am I bitching about? Just this. Marketers are missing a big opportunity by using the same old 1930s coming attractions strategy with 2006 movie audiences. We love movies. That's why we bought or rented this DVD. We'd probably like some of the movies you're hyping in your previews, too. But when you try to hold us hostage before letting us enjoy our main attraction, you make us mad. And maybe I'm wrong, but making a potential customer mad seems like a slightly flawed marketing strategy.

So what's the alternative? Paperback books are using a different technique right now. Here's how it works. I'm reading a book I've really enjoyed. I come to the last pages, wishing it wouldn't end. In about sixty seconds, I'll finish this book, I'll be ready for a new one, and I'm in the perfect frame of mind to consider reading something else by this same author. If a marketer could reach me now, I'd be a prime target. So I turn the page, and there's the first chapter from the next book by this same author. It's a coming attraction. But it's offered to me after the main attraction, not before. And it's offered like a little gift. It's "a complimentary first chapter." That doesn't make me mad. It makes me feel good about the publisher, whether I read the complimentary first chapter or not.

Would that same strategy work for movies on DVD? Letting us choose to watch a few previews at the end, when we're still on an adrenaline high from the main attraction?

Posted by Joe on June 27, 2006 at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Brave New Marketing , Entertainment , Film , Pop Culture

June 22, 2006

Nipples - 7, Quality Filmmaking - 0

Apparently the Pirates who are hawking this DVD in Chinatown felt that George Clooney's take on cold war newscasting just didn't have enough T & A.

So they put some on the cover.

Wow, that Edward R. Murrow. What a hot piece of ass.

Posted by Tug McTighe on June 22, 2006 at 03:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Film

June 04, 2006

No More Original Ideas?

Soon (June 9), Disney will be releasing Pixar's latest film, "Cars," in theaters. While I'm a big believer in Pixar and celebrate their success over the past few years, I'm not completely sold on the concept of this movie -- and I've heard the same sentiments from others, as well. I'm not saying it will be a bad movie, I'm sure it will be incredible (currently getting a 89% on Rotten Tomatoes), but it's just not as appealing as their other films have been.

But is the concept of talking cars all that new? Nah. Over dinner last night, my memory was jarred even furthur back than the likes of the talking cars from MASK and Knight Rider.

Let's flashback to 1952 and the cartoon-master Tex Avery. In that year, Tex directed a cartoon called "One Cab's Family," about a happily married pair of taxicabs are delighted when Junior enters their lives, but this delight turns to consternation when he states his ambition to become a hotrodder. It was a fun cartoon which is sometimes confused with "Little Johnny Jet."

I'm not saying that Pixar copied off of this concept, but I knew that when I first saw a trailer for "Cars," I had seen something like it before. Funny, because it appears that "One Cab's Family" was pretty much a remake of Friz Freling's (another Looney Tunes alum) "Streamlined Greta Green."

Posted by SethyG on June 04, 2006 at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (14) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Entertainment , Film , Pop Culture

January 05, 2006

Bill Gates "Urges" Us

Recently, with a logo that has a G that's pretty damn similar to the Q in Quicktime, Bill Gates and Microsoft unveiled their plans for the new music "URGE."  The nuts and bolts of this application (that hopes to be iTunes' biggest rival) is while it will have the normal purchasable music, there will also be an all-you-can-eat subscription (I imagine similar to Napster's current model).  In addition to all this, Microsoft has made a deal with MTV to offer exclusive material on URGE.

Pretty cool idea, hitting up the younger MTV market and strangely pairing them up with Microsoft.  I wonder how that will go over.  I actually wonder if it will go over at all... you see, things purchased on URGE won't be compatible with Apple's iPods.

Huh?

Back in May of 2005, it was reported that Apple had a 90% market share in hard drive-based mp3 players and 58% market share in flash-based mp3 players.

So why would you create a new service, aimed at kids, and NOT allow iPod integration?  Who knows, but apparently Microsoft employees are hiding their iPods at work and then there's rumors that the new version of Windows (Longhorn, Vista, whatever you want to call it) will also ban iPods.

Take it for what it's worth, but I don't think I'd be keeping such a large market share out of the picture with this service.

Posted by SethyG on January 05, 2006 at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Current Affairs , Entertainment , Film , Pop Culture , Television , Web/Tech

October 18, 2005

Beware of The Fog

Worst. 
Movie. 
Ever. 

Here's a conversation between Selma Blair and her career:

Selma's Career:  Why, Selma, why did you do this to me?  Why did you try to kill me?
Selma: It sounded good at the time.  I mean, John Carpenter had a hand in it.  How bad could it be?
Selma's Career:  Well, we've always got Playboy to fall back on.

You've been warned.

Posted by Neil G on October 18, 2005 at 08:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Entertainment , Film

August 31, 2005

DVD commentaries, podcasted

You may remember we wrote about the idea here a couple of months ago -- now it's out there. In the  website Spoilers Podcast, film fans Rick Yaeger and Bill Douthett have been podcasting their own movie commentaries to dvds that don't feature their own commentary track.

After a short intro, Rick and Bill count to three so you can press "play" together with them and start listening to back stories, trivia, and anything else you'd expect to hear in a regular dvd commentary track. So far they have commentary podcasts for "Office Space," "Mallrats," and "Sin City." Each mp3 file turns out to be two hours long -- but even if you don't have time to sit and watch, they have posted a summary of each podcast in their website as well. Pretty cool.

I'm still waiting for the High Fidelity commentary, though.

Posted by Brazilian Art Director on August 31, 2005 at 01:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Film , Podcasting

July 25, 2005

Michael Bay makes the logo bigger

If you have an extra $7.75 laying around (or if you and your friends just watched Wedding Crashers and have no qualms about going into the restroom, spending a minute or two there and then walking into the theater next door, for old time's sake), I suggest you go and see The Island.

Not because it's a good movie at all (although you can't go wrong with 30 square feet of Scarlett Johansson for two hours), but because the product placement orgy is almost comedic. There's about twenty brands crammed there (everything from Mack trucks to MSN Search to GM to A-B to Ben & Jerry's), and it's all done so badly, the twelve people who were in that theatre with me last weekend would break out laughing every time a Michelob bottle was perfectly placed in center frame and would hang out there for that uncomfortable extra second. The result? It seems like every single review of the movie brings up product placement, and colors the issue with words like blatant, disgusting, and grotesque.

Product placement was supposed to be an "under the radar" tactic for an audience that skips commercials and ignores web banners, but there's nothing under the radar about bombarding a viewer with a huge logo that looks straight into camera every five minutes. Or the sterile-looking underground compound that only breaks its white and gray color scheme to place a huge neon-green Xbox logo on the wall, less-than-subtle Aquafina containers, or Puma logos in every piece of clothing on screen.

Anyway, it's great watching if you're in advertising, so you know what not to do.

Or if that depression has made you numb to the beauty in the world, Scarlett Johansson fixes that.

P.S.: Michael Bay's next endeavour is a live-action Transformers movie due out in 2007. He's going to take one of my favorite childhood memories and turn it into a long and expensive car dealership commercial.

Posted by Brazilian Art Director on July 25, 2005 at 02:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Film

June 27, 2005

Hollywood Homicide?

In a time... no "in a time." Sorry, Tug and I LOVE that damn trailer.

But seriously, I'm very confused on the state of Hollywood right now. I love movies. I love going to the movies (when there aren't teenagers on phones or people talking). I love talking about movies and movie trailers. And I thought that everyone else in America did too. Apparently, I'm wrong... about the going to the movies part.

Right now, Hollywood is having a bad streak. I'm talking about 17 straight weeks of declining box-office sales. Ouch.

What's the problem? I'm sure there's plenty to point fingers at: DVDs and Home Theaters, Bootlegging, High Ticket Prices, Crap Movies, etc. etc. etc.

What's the solution? I really don't know how to even start to make you think that I know the answer. But I'll tell you one thing, sinking $438 Million in pre-show advertising probably isn't the best bet.

ATTENDANCE IS DOWN! That doesn't mean you should spend more! And while we're at it, how about some better targeting? I've seen the same Coke, Army and Online Ticket Sales commercials in every movie I've been to lately (Star Wars, Land of the Dead, Batman Begins and Monster-in-Law, yes Monster-in-Law). It's scary to think that companies are investing a lot of their money in ads before movies that no one wants to see. Fast-forwarding on a DVR is one thing, ads at the movies just make people mad.

Like I said, I don't know the answer. But I think that Hollywood, and especially movie theater chains, need to take a good look at the horizon and get a good game plan.

On a lighter note, I saw that the King Kong trailer debuted online today. The link I saw wasn't pointed to the King Kong web site, but rather to Volkswagon.com (which eventually does lead you to the Kong web site). I'd say that's a pretty good way of getting some people to visit your web site. Though, I'm not sure how VW is going to be a big sponsor to Kong... unless they're going to modernize the Model-T (via Ford, of course).

Posted by SethyG on June 27, 2005 at 11:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Film

April 23, 2005

Speaking of Rocky

I was a fool. Of course, I WAS seven at the time, but a fool nonetheless. I'm a fool for never noticing that "The Karate Kid" was almost an exact duplicate of "Rocky," for kids. Ralph Macchio (who was 23 when making the film) practically re-acted the part of the Italian Stallion, only younger and with a stolen black belt.

It doesn't quite fit into that "same, but different" category that the GoBots (uhhh, what happened here???) and Transformers, "Red Planet" and "Mission to Mars," and "Supernanny" and "Nanny 911" already occupy... but I suppose it's right along those same lines.

Anyone that has the desire to watch this film again, it's currently catching rotation time on Encore this week.

Posted by SethyG on April 23, 2005 at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Film