King of the Impossible

Last night I went to a double feature showing of Flash Gordon and Battle Beyond the Stars. Both movies were pretty awesome, although, it's amazing to me how much better Battle is compared to Flash in terms of dialogue, acting, and well, special effects; but how much more people love Flash Gordon. Go figure.

I now have the Flash Gordon song stuck in my head...won't you join me?

The best part and worst part of the night was when Bernard Williams, the executive producer of Flash Gordon was on hand to talk about the movie.

He told us some awesome stories, one about how the star Sam Jones started making demands, like a personal chauffeur and more money, and the director said no. So they broke for xmas and Sam Jones never came back, most of the film was shot, so instead of meeting his demands, they used a double and dubbed all of his dialogue. I had no idea, I even met Sam Jones at comicon and got his autograph. I want my money back.

The bad part? Do you even have to ask? The questions. First of all, the moderator talked too much, as far as I'm concerned the moderators job is to keep the speaker talking and keep the questions on topic. Simple job, he couldn't do it though, moderator fail.

The 'questions' were awful. Just, awful. One woman, who was entirely too excited about the movie started her question by talking about herself, informing us all that she was getting her PhD in pop culture. Man, I went into the wrong field. And then her question was something like, I heard they were remaking Flash Gordon which is a travesty because the original is so perfect, how do you feel about all these classic films being remade and ruining our culture. That's an abridged version, the real question was much less coherent. Ok, all I'm gonna say is: the 1980's Flash Gordon is a remake. Yeah, it's called research, something a PhD student should be pretty adept at. Question fail.

I don't even remember the real questions, if there were any. Someone just wanted to say how much they love the movie, but had no question. Oh, and the best was the last question we had time for which was, I just want to know when Clockwork Orange is playing. Nice.

Favorite line from Flash Gordon:
Dale Arden: "Keeping our word is one of the things that make us... better than you. "

Favorite line from Battle Beyond the Stars:
Sador: "This is Frojo, my Third Officer. Frojo is expert at inflicting pain... while keeping the victim alive."
Nestor 2: "...It's good to have skills."

I'll leave you with a little video treat: