Tim Story
47 connections found
View:
Connections, in both directions
“Ride Along” quotes directly from such genre touchstones as “Training Day” and “Lethal Weapon” while indirectly calling to mind the likes of “Bad Boys,” “Midnight Run” and this past summer’s “The Heat” — all of which offered more dimensional characters and more inspired ways of navigating this well-trodden ground.
(The movie at least has the decency to acknowledge that its premise will remind you of the far superior “Training Day.”)
In fact, the movie makes repeated reference to “Training Day.”
In point of fact, "Ride Along" points out several times that what it is is a comedically rebooted " Training Day ," this time with glowering but teddy-bearish Ice Cube in the Denzel role and Hart…well, you can't say he's in the Ethan Hawke role.
Though it starts off more like a comedic variation on Training Day, Ride Along also bears more than a passing resemblance to last summer’s odd couple cop comedy The Heat, in which by-the-book Fed Sandra Bullock and unhinged Boston cop Melissa McCarthy bickered and took down bad guys while becoming best friends.
Think a low-rent "Training Day" but played for laughs.
Rush Hour (1998)
Directed by Brett Ratner
influenced Ride Along (2014), Ride Along 2 (2016)
Characters Plot
This is more in the vein of the "Rush Hour" flicks where it's funny to see little, five-foot-tall Kevin Hart get body slammed by Morpheus or for Ice Cube to toss a football at the back of Jay Pharoah's head (the "SNL" star has a funny cameo as a neighborhood snitch).
The motor-mouth comic takes on what’s essentially the loquacious Chris Tucker role from the “Rush Hour” movies, with Ice Cube standing in for Jackie Chan in the laconic straight-man part.
If there’s a surprise in this movie, it’s that Hart is marginally more restrained than his obvious influence: Chris Tucker in the “Rush Hour” movies.
Most of all, Ride Along seems struck from the same template that produced the Rush Hour series, which paired an all-business Jackie Chan with the live-wire Chris Tucker for comic effect.
Kevin Hart (left) and Ice Cube star in "Ride Along," a story about unusual police partners with a plot that might sound familiar to anyone who saw "48 Hrs." in 1982 or "Rush Hour" in 1998.
So even though Kevin Hart is basically playing Chris Tucker in Rush Hour and Ice Cube is basically playing Nick Nolte in 48 Hrs., some of their own patented patter breaks free every now and then.
The Fantastic 4: First Steps (2025)
Directed by Matt Shakman
influenced by Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
Plot
They compare this new Fantastic Four to previous live-action incarnations…
…how it stacks up against the previous iterations of the Fantastic Four…
Previous adaptations – 2005’s Fantastic Four, its 2007 sequel Rise of the Silver Surfer, and the 2015 remake – were defined by stilted dialogue, clichéd characterization…
They compare this new Fantastic Four to previous live-action incarnations…
The gigantic armoured man as a character was obviously too rich for the tastes of 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, as in that movie, he is shown as a malevolent cloud that eats planets.
…two mediocre Tim Story-directed blockbusters, Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, made decent money but failed to launch the characters into a similar cultural space as Spider-Man or the X-Men had found in previous years.
The decision to keep them animated, placed onto a live-action backdrop like another Space Jam or Who Framed Roger Rabbit , is an admirable strategy.
The mash-up style of animation and live action feels less assured than apparent predecessors Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Space Jam, however, Tom and Jerry certainly surpasses some more recent contemporaries like 2009’s Alvin and the Chipmunks.
These minor disturbances end up tying into a crime ring James has been investigating for the past three years—a development which recalls another Martin & Lewis-flavored buddy-cop comedy 2010’s The Other Guys .
Over the past few years, the only worthy scrapings from the bottom of this cinematic barrel have been oddball comedic jazz riffs such as “The Other Guys,” “21 Jump Street” and “The Heat.”
Ride Along doesnt offer the randomness and digressions of the similar, superior The Other Guys, and once again I find myself wondering what the film mightve been like if Hart and Ice Cube had swapped roles and played against their personae.
The gimmick never lets you forget that this is “Cloverfield” meets “Fantastic Four.”
By the way, first-time feature director Josh Trank is reportedly the top choice to help Fox reboot the “Fantastic Four” series.
With Fox advertising the movie on their network and cable shows, it should have more appeal to teen and slightly older guys, partially due to Fox deliberately leaking that director Joshua Trank may be up for the "Fantastic Four" reboot in order to entice superhero fans into theaters to check out his work, although anyone who remembersJumper may give this one a wide berth.
By eliminating the intrinsically Japanese context and focusing on the character dynamics from Katsuhiro Otomo's manga and anime film, Chronicle has pretty much squelched the proposed "official" remake before it could even begin production, much in the same way that The Incredibles made Tim Story’s Fantastic Four movie seem thoroughly unnecessary, regardless of the latter film’s more prominent legacy (and also largely because of its lack of quality , relative or otherwise).
The film’s inspiration seems to be the 21 Jump Street re-imagining by Lord & Miller.
In some ways, it is a little sad to see Parks' film turn into fodder for comedy but Story seems to take his cue from the recent "21 Jump Street" film that found a mix of nostalgia and spoofing its source material to work at the box office.
Of course a new writing team was brought in as well for credit (or blame, if you're so inclined), consisting of Zak Penn, no stranger to superheros with "X-Men: The Last Stand," and "Fantastic Four" under his belt; and no less than the star himself, Edward Norton, working on his first screenplay.
Screenwriter Zak Penn also has a mixed track record with Marvel adaptations of X-Men 2 and 3, Fantastic Four, and Elektra.
The script, by Zak Penn ("Fantastic Four," "The Grand") and star Norton, covers the bases well and with some wit.
In the eight years of the modern superhero wave, I'm not sure that there has been such a perfect example of a wholly mediocre comic movie, not as crushingly awful as Fantastic Four or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen , but still lacking even the slightest hint of inspiration on any level.
Think the likes of Fantastic Four and Daredevil, Batman and Robin and Catwoman and you’ll have an inkling for the flabbergasting, directionless mania of this shockingly bad Sony outing.
For a character as ripe for development as Venom, they had plenty of fertile ground to explore, yet instead deliver a highly derivative plot which has more in common with Francis Lawrence’s Constantine and Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four.
For every “Deadpool,” there’s at least one “Fantastic Four.”
It’s nowhere near the level of 2015’s Fantastic Four or even 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse and the bits that were cringey in the trailer play much better in the film with context.
While the orcs are often engrossing and the manifestations of wizardry more or less mysterious, the final effect is badly spoiled when a giant clay golem that looks laughably like the Thing in Fantastic Four blunders into the picture.
Y no, ésta no es la peor película del año, esta cinta no se compara con Fantastic Four (2015) y Duncan Jones, definitivamente, logró algo mucho mejor de lo que todos esperaban.
Our first proper introduction to their way of life is an appreciably tender moment in which a bland warrior named Durotan (“Fantastic Four” star Toby Kebbell) is goofing around with his pregnant wife Draka (Anna Galvin) in the privacy of their war hut.
Only if the orcs themselves decide to turn on Gul’dan, and they might, once chieftain Durotan (Toby Kebbell, of “Fantastic Four” ) learns a secret about the shaman that could ruin him.
And considering Toby Kebbell’s track record with big blockbuster movies (Warcraft, Fantastic Four, Prince of Persia, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice) it might be time for him to go back to smaller scale material where his quirky qualities as an actor are appreciated.
But in combat (against villains played by "Fantastic Four" member Chris Evans and "Superman" Brandon Routh), he becomes a guitar hero, winning power bars, extra lives, bonuses and magic coins in fight scenes of increasing difficulty that are designed using game-sequence choreography and comic-book composition.
Another is a narcissistic action star played by Chris Evans, Fantastic Four 's Human Torch.
Chris Evans (the Human Torch in "Fantastic Four" and soon to be Captain America) and Brandon Routh (who played the Man of Steel in "Superman Returns") both play exes, sending up their previous superhero roles.
It's as if Danza's character from the Taxi TV show were fast-forwarded.
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1966, following the most momentous civil-rights battles, Black Panther made his debut in an issue of Fantastic Four , moved on to The Avengers , and occupied a lot of real estate in the — *wince* — Jungle Action series, the title of which carried overtones of Tarzan, before appearing in many of his own comics under the title Black Panther .
From the pointless reboot of the Fantastic Four to an unwatchable Ghost Rider sequel to whatever the hell R.I.P.D. and Jonah Hex were supposed to be, even a comic-book geek with the most indiscriminate taste has limits.
At its heart, Black Panther has a fairly standard comic book sort of story: baddie Ulysses Klaue (a rare live-action Andy Serkis: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, War for the Planet of the Apes), one of the few outsiders who knows the secrets of Wakanda, and who had stolen a small quantity of vibranium decades ago, is up to no good again, with a scary dude nicknamed Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan: Fantastic Four, and both of Coogler’s previous films) at his side; they must be stopped by T’Challa, Nakia, and the absolute force of nature General Okoye (Danai Gurira), with an assist from CIA agent Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Sherlock).
(He deserved a superhero role this rich for suffering through Josh Trank’s disastrous Fantastic Four .)
Like Josh Trank’s “Fantastic Four” reboot, it’s often afraid to own up to its inherently endearing corniness, the very quality that made the franchise such a phenomenon for generations in the first place.
Based on its marketing material, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Dean Israelite’s Power Rangers falls into the same traps as Fantastic Four.
Even with such campy morsels to play with, the vibe director Dean Israelite seems to be going for is "Friday Night Lights" meets "Fantastic Four," which actually isn't totally awful at the beginning as we meet the five high school students destined to wield their newly found superpowers to save the world.
And believe it or not, not a single helmet is donned until at least halfway through the movie, the curse of the modern superhero origin story (see also: 2015’s “Fantastic Four”).
Breakfast Club meets Fantastic Four...with underwhelming results.
…acquire their powers in a rocky quarry play out like Josh Trank’s Chronicle (2012) – with not a little of his Fantastic Four (2015) sewn on for good measure.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)
Directed by Andy Serkis
influenced by Fantastic Four (2005)
Visuals
Rather than really make an effort to change things, the production clearly saw the previous movie’s success as validation of its bad choices, so it regularly succumbs to many of the same issues – maintaining the air of bad mid-aughts comic book movies like Mark Steven Johnson's Daredevil , Tim Story’s Fantastic Four , and Jonathan Hensleigh's The Punisher .
Hay que agradecerlo, en vez de una secuela Fantastic Four nos queda esperar ver a Cable en acción con Deadpool.
(See “Daredevil,” “Catwoman,” “The Green Hornet” and not one but two “Fantastic Four” efforts.
Half of Shaft (2019) serves as a vehicle for Jackson to make his "get off my lawn!" letter to millennials, which is much more enjoyable than, say, Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino .
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Directed by Zack Snyder
influenced by Fantastic Four (2005)
Themes
It's also the most nihilistic superhero picture I've ever seen, so dour and misanthropic that it makes Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy suddenly seem as chirpy as that animated Fantastic Four series from the '70s, the one which had the bright idea of replacing The Human Torch with a squat robot named H.E.R.B.I.E.
This doesn’t come off, partly because David is constantly lying to Iz — for her own good, supposedly, "so she doesn’t freak out" — and partly because Teller is curiously blank (possibly suffering post-traumatic acting stress from Fantastic Four).
Both Teller (partly making up for the awful "Fantastic Four" ) and Hill (playing a burnt-orange sleazebag) are terrific in their parts, and have a nice, unforced camaraderie.
It doesn't hurt that Teller is eminently unsympathetic, and not just because he helped ruin the latest Fantastic Four.
We’ve seen the wrath that comes when superhero movies fail the fans (2009’s Green Lantern, 2015’s Fantastic Four, 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice).
It’s the sort of vague and emotionally meaningless villain plot that we’ve seen before in bland and/or awful superhero movies like Thor: The Dark World and the latest Fantastic Four reboot, and Suicide Squad doesn’t do it any better.
If you can believe it, Suicide Squad is even worse than Fantastic Four .