The Underground — Issue #127
Everything you need to know about in this weekly series: How not to adapt a movie, a biographical film about the man who created Winnie The Pooh, the new holographic RED smartphone that’s making waves, and Steve-O eats some hot wings.
At Social Underground we go beyond the mainstream stuff and see what’s underneath the surface. What should we get into, listen to, read, eat or watch? If there is something in our culture that needs attention that’s our job: Show you the underground things that you need to know about: Books, music, television, movies, comedians, art, and whatever else we can find to get you into something you never knew about. That’s The Underground.
1. How not to adapt a movie from the source material. One of the worst things in terms of entertainment is watching an adaptation of an iconic book, comic or anime into live-action is that it ignores what made the original great. Sure, the visuals can look beautiful like in the live-action Ghost in the Shell, but the story is completely put aside because it’s better to nail the look rather than the point the material is trying to make.
Another example of a bad adaptation is Watchmen. It looks great, but it missed the point of the novel. The colors used in the comic were meant to be completely different from most comic books, and the story was meant to show how horrible life would be even if it had superheroes. You can use the comic as a storyboard, but when you miss the point of it all, you might as well not even have dialogue.
The video below really nails what studios get wrong when trying to adapt a movie. I don’t even think I can stomach what the hell is going to be The Dark Tower.
2. Goodbye Christopher Robin tells the story of how Winnie The Pooh was created. I don’t know about you, but one of the mainstays of childhood was reading or watching Winnie The Pooh. The entire cast of characters were so well defined that a reader can and will get lost in the world. I can’t even look at a jar of honey in my cupboard with out thinking of Winnie The Pooh being stuff in a tree full of honey trying to stuff his face.
Premise: A rare glimpse into the relationship between beloved children’s author A. A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) and his son Christopher Robin, whose toys inspired the magical world of Winnie the Pooh. Along with his mother Daphne (Margot Robbie), and his nanny Olive, Christopher Robin and his family are swept up in the international success of the books; the enchanting tales bringing hope and comfort to England after the First World War. But with the eyes of the world on Christopher Robin, what will the cost be to the family?
Knowing that A.A. Milne was going through PTSD from the Great War was something I didn’t know. It was also news to me that his son was the inspiration for all of it. I have no doubt this will be a film that the whole family could sit through. It may even give deeper meaning to the world of Winnie The Pooh. I’m looking forward to learning more about the backstory. Check out the trailer below.
3. A closer look at the new RED Hydrogen One smartphone. I’m still skeptical on this phone. We posted a thing about it a few weeks ago, but all we really got was a few pictures of the phone, but we really didn’t have any proof of what RED was giving us. Knowing that RED makes some of the best cameras in the business for filming movies, we gave them the benefit of the doubt, but not so much benefit to pre-order a phone for $1,200.
This hands-on look at the phone gives us a bit more of what we’re promised, but we still don’t get to see what they are promising. All we really get is a reaction of the person looking at the phone while the phone is pixelated so we can’t see what’s happening. I’ve been fooled before on cool looking stuff, but ultimately walked away disappointed.
If this phone manages to capture all it promises, then I might consider investing in it. Right now I’m rocking a Samsung S7, but the fact that it heats up when I charge it or use VR is becoming a concern.
Have a look at this preview of the RED Hydrogen prototype below:
4. Steve-O eats Hot Wings, which is probably the least crazy thing he’s done. It’s hard not to love Steve-O. He was and still is willing to injure himself to make us laugh. What didn’t make us laugh was his hardcore drug abuse. Luckily, he has cleaned himself up, is hitting the stand-up comedy circuit to a great success, and he’s managed to sit down and do the Hot Wings challenge.
What makes this episode amazing is that he tells so crazy true stories. Knowing how adventurous Steve-O is, you can bet he will wow you with some tales of his life while also burning his mouth on some hotness.
Feature Image: WENN.com
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Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post, UPROXX, BGR and by just looking up his name.
Contact: jeff@socialunderground.com