Ronin Sequel or why NPR is a good thing

[British_Rover]

So I was listening to studio 360 on NPR this morning and heard this segment interviewing striking writers.

One of the writers they interviewed was Bruce Feirstein who wrote a few James Bond movies.

As they started the interview they mentioned that if not for the writer's strike Bruce would be working on a sequel to the 1998 movie Ronin. Now that got me excited so maybe if the strike ends before too long we will get a sequal to Ronin sometime in late 2009.

http://www.studio360.org/episodes/20...segments/92692

That is the link to the interview and the part on Bruce Feirstein is about four minutes in.

[Viper007Bond]

Ronin sequel?

[Redliner]

As much as I fear sequels, this could turn out to be very good....at least the original is.

[RedMist]

sequel to Ronin! Please God make this not suck..

[Hercules286]

FWIW, maybe it was because it was rather warm in the room, and I was sitting on a bed... But my GF and I had to work real hard not to fall asleep during that movie. I think we watched about 45 minutes of it, stopped it and went to sleep.

I remember the part where that fat guy said he wanted an S8 plus some special fuel injectors. Those were mentioned at least three times, which was three times too many. WHAT THE FUCK DO I CARE IF SOMEBODY SWAPS OUT SOME FUEL INJECTORS ON A LAND BARGE, MR SHIT DIRECTOR?

*cough*

Anyway, I failed to take this movie seriously after fuel injectors were mentioned, which was rather early on.

It was also one of those movies where I didn't care what happened to any of the people in it. Like Silence Of The Lambs. I mean, what was that all about, some bastard boss sends some bitch inspector to go talk to some douchebag serial killer, all presented in complete lack of colour. Big whoop, stopped watching after 15 minutes.

Back on Ronin:
Some chick: You'll be paid something for doing that job.
DeNiro: I ain't doing that job until I know what it is or I'm not doing anything.
Some chick: You'll be paid MORE something for doing that job
DeNiro: I need to know more about the job or I'm not doing anything.
Some chick: I'm sorry, that's all the money I'm authorized to offer.
DeNiro: Look, I need to know about the fucking job or I'm not doing anything.
Some chick: You'll do the job.
DeNiro: OK.

I mean, WTF.

[Flynn]

Ay! I loved Ronin. Mad epic shit. Mad epic. Dude, you obviously don't know Deniro's style.

[British_Rover]

Ronin is an awesome movie come on everyone knows that. Even my mom and wife like ronin.

I couldn't find any other mentions of a Ronin sequel on the net so this might be a NPR scoop.

[BlaRo]

Originally Posted by petarkb

FWIW, maybe it was because it was rather warm in the room, and I was sitting on a bed... But my GF and I had to work real hard not to fall asleep during that movie. I think we watched about 45 minutes of it, stopped it and went to sleep.

I remember the part where that fat guy said he wanted an S8 plus some special fuel injectors. Those were mentioned at least three times, which was three times too many. WHAT THE FUCK DO I CARE IF SOMEBODY SWAPS OUT SOME FUEL INJECTORS ON A LAND BARGE, MR SHIT DIRECTOR?

Bullitt didn't win an Oscar for Best Dialogue, either. Guess what? IT'S ABOUT THE CARS. Hence the fuel injectors; it's as much about the cars as it is about the melodramatic storyline. The cars in that movie are just as much a character as Jean Reno and that blonde chick. 45 minutes and you've missed both car chases? Go watch it again for the chases, not necessarily for the acting (though DeNiro and Reno are a badass duo forged in the depths of awesome) or the plot. And keep in mind that the chases are real, just like the way they used to make movies. (Hence the lack of pathetic shaky-cam seasickness like in the Bourne movies.)

And leave the GF out of it, methinks she's a bad influence.

[Blind_Io]

Ok, Bruce Feirstein wrote Goldeneye, The World is Not Enough and Tomorrow Never Dies, some of the worst Bond movies ever, outside of On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Moonraker. He's done a couple video games based on the original Bond, some crap in the 80s and his current project is a theatrical release of The A-Team for 2010.

Sorry, but this one has "Shit-tastic" written all over it. The original Ronin was well done with a nice balance of intrigue and believable, realistic action; based on what I've seen of this guy so far he will single handedly destroy the Ronin name by making it over-the-top with gunfights and explosions and cars flipping over for no reason.

[British_Rover]

Oh come on it takes more the one person to make a movie and Golden Eye was actually a pretty good movie IMO.

Rotten Tomatoes agrees with me. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/goldeneye/

They gave it an 84 percent score

The World is Not Enough and Tomorrow Never Dies got fairly poor scores in the low 50s and that is about accurate as they aren't that good.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tomorrow_never_dies/

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/world_is_not_enough/

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/on_h...ecret_service/

On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a great movie and that is borne out by the 86 percent Score.

I liked Moonraker but I realize I am in the minority for that.

[Blind_Io]

The only thing Rotten Tomatoes is good for is proving my theory that most people are idiots with no taste or culture.

Among true Bond fans, On Her Majesty's Secret Service is considered the worst Bond movie of all time and it's never been considered part of the Bond canon.

[Whappeh]

Originally Posted by Blind_Io

Ok, Bruce Feirstein wrote Goldeneye, The World is Not Enough and Tomorrow Never Dies, some of the worst Bond movies ever, outside of On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Moonraker. He's done a couple video games based on the original Bond, some crap in the 80s and his current project is a theatrical release of The A-Team for 2010.

WTF! Moonraker and Goldeneye were awesome! How dare you!

[Blind_Io]

I stand by my statement that Moonraker and Goldeneye sucked. At least Goldeneye had it's moments of cool, it certainly was not the bottom of the barrel when it comes to Bond, but I was disappointed.

Izabella Scorupco is smokin' hot in it.

[Hercules286]

Originally Posted by BlaRo

Bullitt didn't win an Oscar for Best Dialogue, either. Guess what? IT'S ABOUT THE CARS. Hence the fuel injectors; it's as much about the cars as it is about the melodramatic storyline. The cars in that movie are just as much a character as Jean Reno and that blonde chick. 45 minutes and you've missed both car chases? Go watch it again for the chases, not necessarily for the acting (though DeNiro and Reno are a badass duo forged in the depths of awesome) or the plot. And keep in mind that the chases are real, just like the way they used to make movies. (Hence the lack of pathetic shaky-cam seasickness like in the Bourne movies.)

And leave the GF out of it, methinks she's a bad influence.

The car chases I saw looked slow and clumsy, and in some places the driving style made no sense at all. I'll pass on the re-watch.

[The_Finn]

I am willing to bet the reason the car chases look slow and such is because they were done in real time with real cars and no special effects. When compared with the special effects laden chases in say bourne or some of the bond films it is bound to look slow however they are awesome for being actual car chases not some BS on a sound stage. You really should rewatch it but do what you like. I didn't enjoy 2 lane blacktop the first time i saw it so there is hope for anyone

[BlaRo]

Moonraker was hilarious, especially unintentionally so. Too bad nobody could take Jaws seriously after that.

Originally Posted by petarkb

The car chases I saw looked slow and clumsy, and in some places the driving style made no sense at all. I'll pass on the re-watch.

The chases were done in the style of the 70s, as in without speeding the camera up and other fake visual tricks modern movies employ today (like CGI). Simply pure driving excitement. Compared to today's inflated chase scenes it's going to look less exciting, but when you have such an eye for reality and film an actual chase in actual locations with actual cars it's not going to be as in-your-face.

Bullitt looks dull and slow compared to, say, the newer Gone in 60 Seconds, but it's not exactly Peter Yates' fault.

Basically, if you don't watch it again you'll be banned from petrolheadland.

[Hercules286]

Originally Posted by BlaRo

The chases were done in the style of the 70s, as in without speeding the camera up and other fake visual tricks modern movies employ today (like CGI). Simply pure driving excitement. Compared to today's inflated chase scenes it's going to look less exciting, but when you have such an eye for reality and film an actual chase in actual locations with actual cars it's not going to be as in-your-face.

I didn't say it looks slow and clumsy compared to say, Transporter, I said it looked slow and clumsy period. The camera angles were boring, the in-car out-car segments didn't flow into each other, it was just poor and I don't see why you're defending it. I usually avoid movies about cars unless they're funny (yes, F&F counts towards being funny) for that exact reason - they're either wildly unrealistic, or poorly made.

Although yes, Ronin's chases were probably more realistic than ones in The Wraith.

[SuperStalin]

I really enjoyed the chase scenes in Ronin.