Mailbagsukidoji:
The Steady Leak
may not be so steady these days, but your letters have been, so I must
share them and answer them so that the wheels keep turning on this
crazy little bitch. Feel free to ask whatever about whomever or
whatever, and I’ll do my best to answer it. Letters in here might be
positive, negative, or indifferent and I’ll try to maintain a balance.
Please keep sending them in (SEND A LETTER), as it’s you who fuels this column.
I’m
doing a decent job of doing one or possibly two of these letters
columns a week, but I think it might be a little better if you guys
just ask random stuff instead of things just relating to the column or
the recent letters installments.
Provided
it makes sense and applies to entertainment in some fashion, send me
whatever questions you’d like! Also, since the Leak is less frequent
than I’d like, I’ll toss a few value added things in here from now on.
With that said, here we go….
Today’s Photo From Life:
Why isn’t this a whorehouse?
Communion.
Chad writes:
doubt be a gajillion or so corrections sent in, but let me be one of the many to
state…Gary Brandner wrote The Howling…Whitley Strieber wrote The Wolfen (and
The Hunger).
Nick’s Reply: Actually, only a few came in. Probably because the names Gary Brandner and Whitley Streiber are most known to folks who read horror in the 80’s when it was pure and visceral and before Barnes and Noble merged it with their fiction section. Thanks for the head’s up. I know Devin is kicking himself in his Communist ass for such a misstep.
Made and Made Anew.
April writes:
I’ve just started reading The Steady Leak and have
enjoyed what I’ve seen so far. You may have covered this at some earlier date
but I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask. The question is what is your opinion on
the use of old ‘classics’ for new movies. It seems that every day you hear
about another old ‘classic’ that is being remade into a movie. Invariably they
get it wrong. I’ve just heard about Jessica Alba in a remake of I Dream of
Jeannie. Whatever. Why do they concentrate on these old gems instead of
writing something new? Have they all lost their imaginations?
Since I said the word ‘lost’ I also
remembered that I heard of a fellow who claims the story for the hit tv show,
Lost was his and he has proof of that. Interesting development.
Nick’s Reply: I’m sure bunches of people have come up with a similar premise to J.J. Abrams’ show, but I doubt any of them could have succeeded at being a cocktease for a whole season like that one did. I think Deep Rising set itself up to be Lost way back when, but only with much more depth and 200% more Treat. As for the remaking bit, it’s not as if it’s a new phenomenon. We have to find our own personal peace with that and remember that the original films or shows are still pure regardless of what is done to them. Thankfully, I Dream of Jeannie is by no means sacred material.
Stuff.
Josh writes:
First off, Huge Chud fan. Love the leak! Was, is, and always will
be a fan. Keep the leak flowin!
Just a few things I wanted to mention,
ask, ext.
Am I the only person in this world who thinks that "Minority
Report" was a decent movie? While Spielberg may be getting a bit carried away
with the dry and/or confusing and/or overlapping plotlines, he still has been
doing some decent things. "Minority Report", even though the twists are endless,
and you dont know whats going on half the time, is still a good movie when you
look at the overall big picture. "War of the Worlds" was good too! Up until the
dry, pointless, dissapointing end. . .
And second. To bring back the
dead; Why do you think "Waterworld" bombed at the box office? I love that
movie!!! So what if it was over budget, and post-deadline. I was a badass
flick!
Lastly,Stealth was an awesome movie. I got my moneys worth with
that sucker. Right from the beginning, it was action packed, and so you looked
at it, and said "DAMN!" right off the bat. But getting to my point. .
.
"Nick’s Reply: It pains me to see this film doing so poorly because
it’s just so bad/good that I want it to spawn little Stealth sequels. .
."
Its gonna happen. Or something like thats gonna happen. Didn’t you see
the little easter egg after the credits? Since most theaters dont play the film
anymore, i’ll tell you what happened.
When the credits stopped,
it faded to the day after the AI plane rammed itself into the chopper to save
Beil’s Hot ass, and that one other guy so that they could get across the border.
The shot slowly dollys up to the AI’s processor Orb thingy, and the red light
flickers on, showing that the AI is still alive, then dramatic music plays. Then
it all goes from a climax in the music, to a halt and a cut to black. They HAVE
to be setting up for some kind of sequal or something. . .
Much love, and
hope to write again soon!
Nick’s Reply: Waterworld bombed because people couldn’t get past the bd press of the film. Unlike Titanic, which had even MORE bad press before it came out, the Costner flick just had an uphill swim. Plus, I don’t think they did a good job of explaining the premise of the story before it was released. Few people knew it was about Dennis Hopper without eyes. And the critics hated it, but critics sometimes enjoy riding bandwagons as much as anyone else. I thought Minority Report was just fine, a solid and intelligent sci-fi flick. People just let the Cruise and Spielberg names ruin their day. Of course, there are others who like the film strictly for those reasons so at the end of the day it’s moot. Thanks for writing.
Praise. Sorta.
Chris writes:
Nick- Just wanted to drop you a
quick ‘Thank You’, and to offer some feedback.
Saw my name listed as a ‘
winner, so Thank
You. The fact that you have
given out 54 (or there about) DVD’s in the last few contests to web surfers, who
probably have never once clicked on to any of the links that help support CHUD,
says many good things about the person that you appear to be. You may never be as good as an American as
Toby Keith claims to be, but you rank hell of a lot higher than some other web
based media moguls.
Now on to the
feedback.
The not so Steady Leak was actually
the one thing that got me hooked on the site so it’s a shame that the Leak has
become as regular as an old man without his bran. The first 100 Leaks came at a pretty good
pace, and perhaps that was the problem. As one of your readers, I came to expect
a new Leak around Thursday of each or every other week, so the massive
irregularity of the Leak has been a disappointment to me. The Leak Letters help, but they’re just not
the same as a full Leak.
Love ‘The Dark Him’, never cared for
‘Ron’. To me, some of the Ron stuff was
either too abstract or just fell flat, just my opinion. The teaser that you gave us for the new ‘Left
Turn’ comic has me intrigued, looking forward to the Sept. 6th
debut.
What is up with all of the hate for
Devin and Dave? The both of them put out
a lot of content on an almost daily pace, without them the site would be quite
stale info wise. I personally appreciate
the fact that there is new content each and every day that I click on my CHUD
bookmark, without them, hell we would have to rely on AICN and TV Guide for our
info. Shudder the
thought.
The Daily Graboids, are okay, just
really not my thing, but then again neither are the message boards. Not just your message boards, but all message
boards in general. Too many times there
seems to a handful of people on a message board who only post childish or
derogatory comments. Seems like a waste of time to wade through their spiteful
posts just to find one or two nuggets of useful info. I’ll stick to the main
page of the site.
That’s about it, keep the interviews
and the reviews coming. Here’s hope that
you can squeeze out a few Leaks in the following months and perhaps we can get
some MEG info from you soon.
Again, thanks for the DVD, and
remember, if someone doesn’t like you or you web site…just give them a quick
kick in the nuts and walk away.
Nick’s Reply: Nobody hates Dave. He’s too smart and doesn’t get involved in squabbles so he’s the teflon pedophile. As for the RON/Dark Him comments, thanks! I think RON is actually the most fun I’ve had on any project and there’s a collected issue arriving for purchase in a short while and I assure you that it will change some minds. It reads so much better on the page and in high rez. Also, we’re going to have a couple of pages of pin-ups should anyone fancy a stab at it. The Steady Leak being irregular is unavoidable as I just don’t have the time or enough things to complain about on a weekly basis. That said, I have a nice one planned for next week.
Loads O’ Stuff (and the obligatory Devin hate).
John writes:
I’ve been reading your website for many years now, and thought it was time to chime in. By the way, this letter will have many positive things to say, as well as some negative. You’re always whining in the Leak about how folks never write, so I hope you bear with me. I may also cover too many topics for one letter. Feel free to edit it down into installments, or just address what you like. Any response will validate me to some degree. (only half kidding there)
I love the Podcasts! I sure hope you stick with this new venture, because we all know how often things get started up and then fall by the wayside. ( Piss and Vinegar, If CHUD ran the movies, Steady Leak, anyone?) While the podcasts are not well-oiled machines yet, they
are entertaining and informative. My only real gripe in this area is your inclusion of Devin. You’re right; his laugh is annoying. But not as annoying as his writing. Every time I get about 3 sentences into an article and cringe at the stupidity of the remarks, I am never surprised to see his name in the by-line. Yeah, I know, you mention quite frequently that people don’t like him. Let me just add my voice to the chorus. He could very well be a great guy in person, but it just doesn’t come across in print. Sorry to say, I never read his articles.
I’ve always enjoyed your writing, however, and now that I’ve heard your Podcasts, also enjoy your talking. You have a very quick wit and a fantastic sense of humor. One other suggestion for Podcasts, though. You could cut down on the puns and silly word games you guys seem to get stuck in. By that, I mean the game where you guys try to out-wordsmith each other or pile on the obscure references. Do you have a name for this game? (just curious) Anyhow, I hope you guys continue the Podcasts and come up with a way to have some regular features. How about a discussion on guilty pleasures. Mine would be Desperate Living. What do you think of John Waters movies? Favorite directors, etc. You get the idea. Normal stuff that movie geeks often talk about.
By the way, the musical interstitials are VERY loud compared to the rest of the show. If I’m listening to it on my iPod earbuds, it is deafening. Perhaps you can fix this? Otherwise, you’re doing a great job and I’m sure it will only get better.
I read your site daily and try to get other people to read it as well. Whenever a discussion about movies comes up at work, I almost always throw in a plug for CHUD. The only problem is, the one person who actually listens to me and checks out your site almost always complains about the black background and white/green text giving them a headache. ( and I tend to agree ) There was a time when this was a clever way to get noticed, but now you see it all the time. It gives us the shakes, man. I look forward to the next redesign.
Regarding recent comments about cancer, bracelets, candles in bags, etc… I am a cancer survivor, and I think the idea is that these things actually raise money for cancer research, so as annoying as they are to folks like you, they do serve a purpose. I was at a cancer walk fundraiser a few years back, which was held at a high school race track. It was lined with brown paper bags with candles inside them and it was quite the moving experience seeing all the luminarias line the track and knowing each one raised a little money to cure a deadly disease. I’d give my left nut (oops, already did that from cancer) to see people like you and that yahoo who wrote in take another look at why they are so unfeeling about this topic. What gives? What if your daughter had cancer? Don’t you think you might see yourself raising a little awareness or money to help her out? I think you would. You seem like a stand-up guy, so I don’t get the attitude on this one. Lance Armstrong has become a role model to so many people. I think if you had things in common with him like I do, you might feel differently. (I must say, though, every time I see a ribbon on someone’s car about our "troops", I automatically dislike them.)
What are your thoughts on people who talk in movie theaters? I’m a big shusher, and feel it is well within my rights to shush anyone talking. The problem is, I’ve been assaulted twice (!) in theaters for just shushing a person or nicely (I swear, nicely) asking a parent to remove their child from the back of my neck. And by assaulted, I mean an angry brute putting his meaty mitts on my face, neck, or whatever they manage to get hold of. Do I need to get a license to carry mace just to see a fucking movie?! What would you do in this situation?
OK, I digress. I really enjoy your site and feel like some things are falling away there. So many of the things I loved about the site have either disappeared or morphed into something less stellar. I would like to thank you for what you do so well, but also want to encourage you to consider some things. I truly love your sense of humor, and would hate to see the site wither away. I know you’re busy being a family man and all that, but throw us a bone once in a while. Get some work done, too. Please?
Well, my contacts are about to permanently adhere to my retinas, so I gotta go. Keep up the good work and make some more podcasts real soon!
A fan,
PS – I didn’t like Rounders. Can you suggest something else? I do look to you for movie referrals, and still keep trying even though I don’t always agree…
Nick’s Reply: My wife is a Nurse Practitioner who works for the premier Cancer specialists in the Southeast and one of my best friends is a Testicular Cancer survivor as well as a big fan of the band Survivor. Believe me whenI tell you that I do not belittle Cancer research and all that but the funding is and has always been quite good and my gripe wasn’t with the cause but rather people feeling like their contributions are moot unless they have a tangible proof of it that they can wear as a statement. Screw that. Donate the money because it’s right, not for evidence. As for the site’s background, I can’t envision it ever being anything but black. I’m not doing the next redesign or programming so maybe someone will have a solution. As for Rounders, it’s only brilliant. I haven’t abandoned the Steady Leak, so just hang in there.
Pyun.
Timo writes:Could you explain the history between your site and the director extraordinaire Albert Puyn. You have mentioned it couple of times and I haven’t been reading your site long enough to know this story. By the way, thanks for running the best movie site on the net, lately I’ve especially enjoyed the podcasts.
Nick’s Reply: Thanks! As for Pyun, he’s always been a guy whose name we’ll drop out of love or as an instant punchline, because if you recognize the name, you’re reading the right site.
Cutest.
Andrea writes:
your daughter is SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nick’s Reply: Hell yeah she is!
Spawn.
Dan writes:
I’m a new Pop myself and can now totally relate to the comments you make about your little dreamer. I’ve been pining to show off my 6 week old little dude with pics on my site, but have always been a little hesitant about putting them out on the internet. The thought of anyone using them for anything other than saying "He’s the s**t" makes all fiery inside. Either way, it’s cool to see you’re not worried about it and are willing to share a little bit of your personal life with your readers. She’s a cutie, and with a love for baseball, that makes her a double threat. Congrats.
As always, thanks for a great site.
Nick’s Reply:
I know that there are always cocksuckers that will abuse the personal photographs I post on here but I also know how good my lawyers are.
Limey.
Andy writes:
Andy in England here again.
I just finished reading the Leak letters and saw the pics of your daughter. She
looks like a little princess Nick – the apple of mummy and daddy’s eye, I bet!
Anyway, it reminded me of a photograph I took of my son when he was 8 months
old, sat in an armchair with the TV remote in one hand and the VCR remote in the
other, watching Star Wars. It’s a really cool photo, and I was going to send it
but remembered all the evil bastards out in the world, and got concerned about
an image of my son being used to fuel some wanker’s sick perversion on the
web.
But that led me to thinking about
how now, almost six years after that picture was taken, he’s still a film-lover
just like me. Isn’t it amazing how we shape our children and teach them and
encourage them to grow, but also have that inescapable urge to ensure they have
a love for the same things as we do? I try my best to teach him manners, to be
polite, to be loving and generous, and to have fun. But I think what he really
“got” from me was how you can just get lost in films.
From early on, he loved coming to
the movies with me – a local cinema chain runs a Movies 4 Juniors club on a
Saturday morning. The place is filled with screaming kids of all ages, excited
to be not just in a cinema with a parent, but that they’re in a darkened theatre
where they’re about to experience something new to them.
We’ve watched hundreds of movies
together already – usually after a stint in the park, or just before bed time
when he’s not quite tired enough to sleep (his mum and I split up four years
ago). And every time we do I’m reminded of why I love movies – being taken to
see The Empire Strikes Back by my mum when I was five. We were not well off – my
mum had been on her own for a couple of years by then, working a couple of jobs
to feed and clothe my sister and I, but she was determined to take us to the
cinema in the winter of 1980. And to this day, that experience is what I cite as
the reason I have a couple of thousand-strong movie
collection.
So, here I am, rambling along to a
guy I never met. And why? Because we love movies. As an avid reader of the site
I’m intrigued as to where your passion comes from, Nick. Are you as predictable
as me and blame Mr Lucas for it? Or was it something different for you? For me,
it was Lucas all the way – so much so that at my recent 30th birthday
surprise celebrations, my wonderful fiancée hired a screen at the local cinema,
and me and 30 of my friends were treated to our own exclusive screening of Star
Wars. What a woman!
As far as my son goes, I’m going to
enjoy letting him take the voyage of discovery to make his own mind up about
what kind of movies he loves. But I’m really going to enjoy going along for the
ride.
Keep loving the movies
Nick.
PS: In response to my last letter,
you mentioned meeting up if you’re ever in England or vice
versa. Just to say that would be cool. You sound like a guy with similar
sensibilities to this Limey!
Nick’s Reply: I always look forward to your missives, Andy. Thanks for the really nice and personal letter. I might be in Madrid in a month or so and I might stop in England beforehand. You just never know…
DevilF.
Caroline writes:
guys certainly say stuff that we don’t agree with. But I think that’s why so
many people come back to read the articles you write. That’s what makes this
site fun and unique. Anytime I can, if it’s at school or work, I try and come to
your site. You guys have differing opinions, great content, and have great
recommendations on movies, tv, etc. You all have great stuff to recommend. Keep
it coming. It makes my day when I see something I agree with or I get excited
about a project.
Nick’s Reply: I love to post the Devin hate mail because it means we’re doing something right. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t crave sycophants and love all sorts of feedback. Devin is here to stay, and his reviews and news are far better than my own. Of course, I disagree with him all the time, but that’s the fun of it, isn’t it?
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