Thursday, April 03, 2008

Magnum, P. I.?

I, for one, hope not.

16 comments:

Todd Mason said...

Selleck often gave off a vibe of "goofy but not unintelligent," which helped such a ridiculously handsome man be more likable (as long as the scripts were any good, in the first sevearl seasons); MM gives off a vibe of "affable but consistently stoned" which might help solidify the tendency toward irresponsibility of Magnum, but wouldn't quite work otherwise.

Unknown said...

Yeah, I just can't see it.

Benjie said...

This smells of the same kind of thing that happened to Starsky and Hutch, SWAT, and the Dukes of Hazard when big screen moguls tried to update them.

Unknown said...

And that worked out well.

Todd Mason said...

Indeed. But unlike those, the first several seasons of MAGNUM PI were actually good. Even by its tired end it was better than any of those.

Anonymous said...

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Randy Johnson said...

I would speak, but I'm throwing up over here in the corner.

Todd Mason said...

Perhaps the best we could hope for at the moment is an analog to the incompletely but nonetheless terrible WILD, WILD WEST film; the worst, the I SPY film.

Cap'n Bob said...

What, wasn't Pauly Shore available?

pattinase (abbott) said...

He's kind of the antithesis of Selleck. Smug and dopey at the same time. Do these people have no sense of what made a show work?

Fred Blosser said...

Although I've liked Selleck in his Western movies and on Rockford Files, I never got into Magnum. So for me it's kind of an "eh," except that it's irritating as another example of Hollywood's creative bankruptcy. I like McConaughey more than I do the other current guys (Vaughn, Stiller, Wilson, etc), and he turned in a good performance as the coach in last year's We Are Marshall.

Anonymous said...

*joins randy in the corner*

Look, the guy can be OK is some roles, but this is all wrong.

But then, didn't Jim Varney play Jed Clampett?


Jeff M.

Doc Quatermass said...

I thought The Beverly Hillbillies was about the only half decent "let's make a feature film out of an old TV show", primarily due to Varney, Cloris Leachman, Dabney Coleman, Lily Tomlin, Erika Eleniak, and Lea Thompson. I think the only other two I recall seeing is the "Leave It To Beaver" remake which was an okay family film if you didn't think of it being a remake of a classic TV show and one of the Lassie remakes which was a nice family friendly film without the obligatory juvenile body function jokes that seem the staple of kid and young adult films.

The thing with these remakes is that they aren't aimed at fans of the original, they're aimed at a new generation, as well as people of all generations who are into "movies" - having seen something is now like having read a book. It doesn't even have to be something high toned. It gives the viewer/reader the illusion of being "cultured". I know people who read nothing save, say Stephen King and think it makes them different than people who don't read because they are a "reader". Same with movies nowadays. I have a friend, Paul who's an idiot who gets all his "truth" from Rush, Quinn and Rose and Glen Beck. He looks at me with sometimes alarmed, sometimes amused incredulity because I'm completely blind to the fact that, like everyone who disagrees with his POV, I'm a socialist and a danger to this country. He's amused and dismissive of my interests, old authors, old movies, old TV and radio shows, etc. but he bought a ton of books (novels) at last year's library book sale and he's into seeing most every film put out today as he thinks it makes him a cultured intellectual even though he has no clue about what actually makes a film good or what a film is saying. (My Fundy X-ian in-laws have the same limitations in perceptions. Anyone who disagrees with their narrow Facist views, like scholars of any stripe, are blinded to God's TRUTH as related by God through his Holy Scripture.They think they're smart people because they're "readers".)

Doc Quatermass said...

Oh, last summer wifey and I went to the drive-in and saw the live action Underdog film paired with the latest harry Potter film. I went with low expectations but was surprised at how nice the Underdog film was. I think there were two body function jokes.

Anonymous said...

i thought magnum pi sucked. he lives with a guy that sounds like orson welles. he's got tons of money for some reason but he likes to risk his life for a living. the cases always sucked. that moustache was very very far from masculine. he was more concious of his sillouette than gardner mccay. he had a HELICOPTER readily available for touristy shots of hawaii to confuse people that they were watching McGarret. There was some weird link to viet nam that was supposed to elicit some sort of sympathy from the audience although he seemed pretty well adjusted to me from his viet nam experience, so what was he complaining about? oh, and did i say the cases sucked? so you get someone ten thousand times more invisible than even tom sellick was and threaten to make a magnum pi movie..... and people are tense and nervous? this sounds like it's gonna be the greatest pile of rancid horse pucky in movie history! I cant wait!!!

Anonymous said...

JJS,
If ignorance is bliss, than you must be high as a kite! The reason you don't like Magnum PI, is because you don't understand it!

The guy he lives with is a member of the British aristocracy. Magmum's character doesn't have "tons of money," Robin Masters does, Mr. Magnum lives on his estate and is allowed the use of its amenities in exchange for Magnum's security services (he is an ex-SEAL, intel officer from Vietnam). And yes, Vietnam is a big part of the plot because "Magnum PI" was the first Hollywood production to portray VietVets in a positive light. If you think his moustache was far from masculine, then what was it? Feminine? I hate to see the kinds of women you surround yourself with:)
Magnum didn't have a helicopter, he borrowed it from T.C. his old war buddy from Vietnam, who used to fly...uh!!! HELICOPTERS in the war!
And the cases sucked huh? And I bet CSI is sOOOOoo much "with the times." Go back to watching Tila Tequila on MTV.