This week starts my Reader Revenge Month, in which I watch and review movies chosen by eaders in the earlier months of the year. This week gives us a nature-gone-wild movie which is surprisingly tame (see what I did there?)…
…and a surrealist political farce in a made-up language. Seriously, what’s not to like?
#1 by blake on April 8, 2010 - 7:56 am
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I’m still bitter that “Frontier” won instead of “Street Gangs from Hong Kong”. Darn those whose opinions are different from mine! 🙂
#2 by Nathan Shumate on April 8, 2010 - 8:35 am
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I guess you’ll just have to cover that one yourself!
#3 by blake on April 8, 2010 - 11:08 am
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I had a feeling that would be the response. I’ll have to see where I can get a hold of it.
#4 by lyzard on April 8, 2010 - 9:55 pm
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It’s the sheer weight of numbers of Frogs that seals the deal for me: it’s so ridiculously overpopulated by adorable creepy-crawlies.
By the way (it’s been a while), ARE there, in fact, frogs in Frogs? My memory is trying to tell me that there are only toads, but it may be exaggerating for emphasis.
#5 by Nathan Shumate on April 9, 2010 - 5:54 am
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Like I know how to tell the difference.
#6 by El Santo on April 9, 2010 - 7:16 am
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None of the readily visible differences are as clear-cut as some people would have you believe, but in general: frogs have smooth, slimy skin, whereas toads have dry, warty skin; toads can operate farther away from water, for longer periods, due to the aforementioned dry skin (which probably goes some way toward explaining why Frogs features so many toads); frogs have longer, stronger hind legs, and can consequently jump much farther; frogs usually have larger, more protrusive eyes (although the toad in your screen shot above shows how poor a distinguishing feature that can be); and though both families have glands for secreting substances that make them taste really bad to most things that might be tempted to eat them, the glands are usually too small to be seen in frogs, whereas toads have a pair of great, big, lumpy ones right behind their eyes. There are some internal differences, too, but nobody watching Frogs is going to be in a position to look for teeth (frogs have two of them, toads have none) or to examine the cartilaginous elements of the pectoral girdle.
#7 by Nathan Shumate on April 9, 2010 - 8:38 am
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I know the general distinction between frogs and toads; I just can’t tell by looking how moist an amphibian’s skin is or how close to water it would rather be in the middle of a movie production.
Next you’re going to be quizzing me on crocodiles and alligators.
#8 by blake on April 9, 2010 - 9:28 am
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“Next you’re going to be quizzing me on crocodiles and alligators.”
It’s all in the snout!
#9 by Nathan Shumate on April 9, 2010 - 9:34 am
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That’s what she said!
(I have no idea what I mean by that.)
#10 by blake on April 9, 2010 - 10:03 am
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We should play this game with you every time you review a movie with an animal in it.
Ex: The Giant Gila Monster – Were they using a Gila Monster, or just a Mexcian Beaded Lizard?
(I am just kidding)
#11 by Nathan Shumate on April 9, 2010 - 10:05 am
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I would confine myself to humans, then, but that’s not much better. (“Hey, Christopher Lambert isn’t a real Scot!”)
#12 by supersonic on April 9, 2010 - 2:06 pm
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“It’s the sheer weight of numbers of Frogs that seals the deal for me: it’s so ridiculously overpopulated by adorable creepy-crawlies.”
That was the thrust of the movie’s original ad campaign, at least in the radio version I remember: “Every female frog lays approximately nineteen thousand quadrillion eggs each year. What would happen if they all hatched??” They’re menacing purely through excess biomass.
#13 by MatthewF on April 10, 2010 - 2:14 am
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Next you’ll be telling me that Sean Connery isn’t spanish.
#14 by Nathan Shumate on April 10, 2010 - 7:06 am
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Nor Egyptian.
#15 by MatthewF on April 11, 2010 - 1:30 am
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But Toronto’s New York right?
#16 by Nathan Shumate on April 11, 2010 - 2:35 pm
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If Vancouver isn’t.
#17 by PCachu on April 12, 2010 - 9:28 am
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Whew! For a minute there I was afraid you’d tell me pro wrestling was fake.