MovieChat Forums > Tyrannosaurus Azteca (2011) Discussion > My Favorite Set in the Movie

My Favorite Set in the Movie

posted 16 years ago by Big Dumb Ape
13 replies | jump to latest

My favorite set in the movie was the Sacrificial Altar made out of rock which...if you really squint your eyes...clearly looks like sheets of plywood. I'm talking plywood nailed down and painted so flat that you can actually SEE that it's plywood nailed down and painted flat. Because I know one thing: it sure as heck didn't look like rock!

Seriously, I don't want to sound like a mean guy or one of the usual IMDB message board nitpickers. Truth be told, I absolutely LOVE the craziness of low budget filmmaking and "what" comes out of it. And as someone who lives in Hollywood himself, I can appreciate what these guys went through to even get this thing made. Hey, that alone is an achievement worth celebrating, so I tip my hat to them and I congratulate everyone involved. So take a bow, cast and crew of AZTEC REX!

But even on a basic high school stage production level, here's what I still don't get. Why didn't they create a safe, sturdy, wooden frame for the altar...then nail the plywood sheets on top of that...and THEN simply apply Plaster of Paris (you know, newspapers and paste mushed together, something that we all learned to make back in grade school) TO the plywood in order to create a stone-like texture? Seriously, just scoop up some plaster...cup it in your hand and place it right onto the wood...and THEN paint it. Viola! Now you have a rock altar, Roger Corman style!

Of course, my second favorite set was the Chief's Throne, which apparently they borrowed from a local Fish Restaurant when nobody was looking. Even now I can hear the hostess having to apologize to some diners. ("Miller party of six? Oh, there you are. I'm sorry, but there's gonna be a slight delay in seating you. We seem to be missing a chair.") Seriously, I just LOVE that he was the Chief to an entire Aztec village, which apparently was soooooo sprawling and which had soooooo many people in it...

...That they all could fit into TWO LITTLE HUTS.
Because that's ALL you ever see in the background.

I realize this was shot on a very low budget (and thus they couldn't afford to build an entire village), but why didn't the Director put in a cheap matte painting or repeat a simple CGI establishing shot from time to time that would have given the village SOME sense of scope? Heck, even using one of the OLDEST special effect tricks in the book, why not put a painted perspective backdrop BEHIND the Chief? That way...even as he just sat there and simply said his lines...that would have established an entire city optically, and thus established some really cool Aztec scale.

And if you're wondering why I'm bringing that up, it's because of the actual PLOT to this thing. Look, they sacrificed villagers to the T-Rexes to keep them happy, right? They SAID they did this over and over and over again, right? Because after all, a well-fed Dino is a happy Dino, right? Well, since there are only 2 huts in the village, WHERE THE HECK ARE ALL THESE SACRIFICIAL VILLAGERS COMING FROM?

Finally, my third favorite set was -- oh, wait, there was no third set. That's because this whole movie took place squatting around the Chief's chair... standing around the Sacrificial Altar... or walking to and fro on the exact same dirt path over and over and over again. That's it.

So, I agree with someone else's post on this message board. This thing could actually become a new cult favorite simply BECAUSE of its production values. My friends and I like to have a "Bad Movie Night" where we sit around for an entire Saturday, just downing pizzas and beer and other goodies, all the while tossing in DVDs or tapes in order to give them the MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER treatment. And let me tell you, this thing is definitely going on the list for a future showing!

[–] EllenRipley47 16 years ago

Me and my friends routinely hold a "Bad Movie Night" where we sit around downing pizzas and beer and other goodies, all the while tossing in DVDs or tapes to give them the MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER treatment. This thing is DEFINITELY going on the list for a future showing!

LOL, you're really funny. I'd like to be a fly on the wall for such a movie night.

[–] Big Dumb Ape 16 years ago

>> LOL, you're really funny.
I'd like to be a fly on the wall for such a movie night.

Aw, thank you for the nice compliment. Humor is just one of those things we Big Dumb Apes develop to compensate for basically being shy and for thinking bananas are the greatest creation since...uh...well, bananas. Hey, what can I say? We apes aren't very demanding in life.

So, Ellen Ripley, eh?
I hope all is going well in space these days.
Say hello to Newt for me!

[–] EllenRipley47 16 years ago

Well, hmmm, Newt is dead. And I'm only a clone too. Ooops, I almost wrote 'clown'. :-)

Listen, could you suggest a few bad movies for my very own 'Bad Movie Night'? (Although it seems like anything from Sci-Fi Channel will do.)
But keep in mind, I'm not ready to kill myself yet, so only something mildly bad that won't make me wish I hadn't left Nostromo before it blew up.

[–] Big Dumb Ape 16 years ago

>> Well, hmmm, Newt is dead. And I'm only a clone too.
Ooops, I almost wrote 'clown'. :-)

Aw, you couldn't be a clown. Your posts are too nice. So I'm sure that's something you are the farthest from. Now as for us big dumb apes, we are clowns. But that's what you get for thinking that hanging upside down in a tree all day long is a steady job with a future. Seriously, in the monkey world, our idea of career advancement is moving up a tree limb!

As for Newt being dead (my hands over my ears and shaking my head)...uh-uh, I'm just not buying it. After all the running around and thinking smart on their feet (basically, after all the great ass-kicking that went on in James Cameron's ALIENS), I refuse to believe that BOTH Newt and Hicks died off-camera and that they went out like total punks. All because the writer of ALIEN 3 couldn't think of a way to work them in. Oops! I meant all because the lifeboat crashed a wee bit too hard (>wink wink<) Because, you know, it's not like you'd expect a SPACE LIFEBOAT TO BE ABLE TO ACTUALLY LAND SAFELY. Seriously, what's up with that? It can go up, it can fly around, but it can't come down? What, is everything in the future still built by the lowest bidder?

On the other hand, as for you being cloned, if that means there are alot more Sigourney Weavers running around as Gwen DeMarcos...

http://us.imdb.com/media/rm704813056/tt0177789

...Then that might make the galaxy a much more romping kind of place!
It's certainly a lot more fun than hanging out with those damn chest bursters!

>> Listen, could you suggest a few bad movies for my very own 'Bad Movie Night'? (Although it seems like anything from Sci-Fi Channel will do.)

As for making a few suggestions for a "Bad Movie Night" all your own, it would be my pleasure. But are we talking about you home alone and plopped on the couch for some private late night brain-melting fun OR were you planning to invite some geeky movie friends over to make a party out of things?

>> But keep in mind, I'm not ready to kill myself yet, so only something mildly bad that won't make me wish I hadn't left Nostromo before it blew up.

Okay, NOW we're talking. Per the end of ALIEN, the Nostromo can blow up, no problem. But aside from that -- as far as I'm concerned -- right now You, Newt, Hicks and Bishop are STILL in hyper-sleep on the Sulaco and headed home!

[–] EllenRipley47 16 years ago

LOL, re: clown. It was only a slip, not a Freudian though. Or was it? Hmmm, something to think about and then discuss on my next meeting in the mental ward.

Seriously though, if you can call yourself dumb, I can be anything, no? Even one of the Gwen DeMarcos "running" around in the galaxy. Although I personally prefer her as monster fighting, kick-ass girl, Ellen Ripley.

re: Bad Movie Night. Nah, no geeky movie friends, lol, I'm the only one who won't shy away from spending quality time on these kinds of movies. I've given up on trying to convince my friends that it COULD be fun. Let's be honest, that's one of the reasons why I can still call them 'my friends'.
Yeah, you could say that it's a one-girl show, lol, but the upside of it is that I'm having total control of the clicker. Oh, yeah... and the bag of M&Ms.

So, am I to understand that you stopped liking the franchise after I saved Hicks and Newt and collected Bishop's pieces and took off in the Sulaco? LOL
I personally liked the third and fourth films but you can't go by me; when it comes to either the Alien films or any of the Star Wars prequels and/or sequels, I'm blind like a bat.

[–] Big Dumb Ape 16 years ago

Sorry I didn't get a chance to reply to your last post before now, Ellen, so I hope you'll find this at some point! Some personal stuff came up, and one thing led to another and...oh well, I'm sure you get the picture. But I hope you've been doing well in the meantime.

>> I can be anything, no? Even one of the Gwen DeMarcos "running" around in the galaxy. Although I personally prefer her as monster fighting, kick-ass girl, Ellen Ripley.

And you were good (and gorgeous) as a con artist in HEARTBREAKERS.
So you certainly get around!

>> Nah, no geeky movie friends, lol, I'm the only one who won't shy away from spending quality time on these kinds of movies. I've given up on trying to convince my friends that it COULD be fun. Yeah, you could say that it's a one-girl show, lol, but the upside of it is that I'm having total control of the clicker. Oh, yeah...and the bag of M&Ms.

If that's the case, then you're in control of the one thing that counts: your comfort food. After all, everyone needs something that will get them through these movies -- antacid pills aside, that is. As for watching bad movies alone, no prob. Sometimes that's even more fun. Plus, if you're watching alone, at least now you don't have to explain WHY you're laughing so hard!

>> So, am I to understand that you stopped liking the franchise after I saved Hicks and Newt and collected Bishop's pieces and took off in the Sulaco? LOL I personally liked the third and fourth films but you can't go by me...

You liked the third and fourth movies?!?
Ohhhh, well now this matter's settled -- you ARE a lover of bad movies!

ALIEN 3 gets high marks from me because it has one of the all-time greatest "For The Stupid People In The Audience" moments ever. For the record, a FTSPITA moment is something my brother gets credit for pointing out. It's occurs whenever a character speaks a line of dialogue in a movie that actually recaps the entire plot up to that point. In short, it literally explains "what" the movie is about to all the truly stupid people in the audience who (apparently) can't figure it out for themselves.

In ALIEN 3, it occurs shortly after the Alien makes his presence known. We see Sigourney Weaver talking, at which point she has this drawn-out bit of dialogue where she actually says, "You're telling me that I'm the sole survivor of an intergalactic lifeboat, and it has crash landed on a prison planet full of men, and there is now an Alien running around, and we have absolutely NO weapons of any kind here to defend ourselves or to fight it off?"

As she delivers the line, the camera closes in on her face and what makes it a classic moment is the way Weaver delivers the dialogue bit with such an over the top, hammy emphasis on each and every story beat. When we first saw it in the theater, my brother just howled out loud laughing and said to me, "What the hell was THAT? A recap for the stupid people who haven't followed the plot? What, was that a recap for everyone who fell asleep and just woke up???"

As for ALIEN 4 nothing could be funnier than the first time we see the giant white blob thing at the end. And "giant white blob thing" is me being nice. How the producers could make an ALIEN movie and introduce an all-new incarnation that actually makes the audience laugh out loud instantly certifies it for bad movie status. In fact, I'm still not convinced that was an Alien versus a guest cameo by Slimer (the green flying food-eater in GHOSTBUSTERS).

>> when it comes to either the Alien films or any of the Star Wars prequels and/or sequels, I'm blind like a bat.

Blind as a bat? Well, that would certainly explain our different takes on these movies. You're not even seeing them!

[–] EllenRipley47 16 years ago

Yeah, I kept checking back to see if I have anything from you. But you're also on my Friends' list (as creepy as it might sound to you), I love to read your posts, they're funny and smart, a great combination. In other words, I'm stalking you. Nothing to worry about though. hehehe

Anyway, you're right about ALIEN 4 and "the giant white blob thing", lol. I've just seen the movie again recently and around the part with the birth of GWBT, I did exclaime how unbelievably stupid the whole thing looked.
And, to my defense, I saw ALIEN 3 probably only twice, quite a long time ago. One reason is that the fact that I died at the end somehow didn't sit well with me. :-)
But you have to know that I like these movies ONLY because of the original and its sequel (ALIENS), because they take me back to the world that I fell in love with when I was very young; not because I think they're good. I'm totally biased, I know. The same with the Star Wars prequels or even the ewoks in ROTJ. Do I sound like I'm trying to save face here? That's because I most definitely am. :-)
But I'll watch Alien 3 again, just to see the recap thing.

Hey, I've got a question for you. I just saw Anamorph (Willem Dafoe and Scott Speedman) over the week-end. I read quite a few very interesting theories on the board about it and it made me go back and watch it again. Have you seen it?

[–] slathrop73 16 years ago

LOL
I'd love to see what you do with my death scene!

[–] Big Dumb Ape 16 years ago

Hello, Shawn! It's Shawn, right? I clicked on your name and followed the links to your other posts about the movie, at which point I figured it out. It's nice to meet you...well, in a message board sort of way! LOL

As for making fun of your death, I'm trying to remember how Alvarado went out. Were you the one sleeping against the log and who then woke up with the T-Rex ALREADY eating his bitten off leg?

[–] slathrop73 16 years ago

Yep! That would be me! How'd you like the blood curdling scream? After two takes of doing that I was hoarse for a couple of days afterward. And both my legs fell asleep while I was sitting there waiting for them to finish setting up the shot. I had to have three guys pull me up off the ground.

[–] Big Dumb Ape 16 years ago

Hello again, Shawn!

To answer your questions, your blood curdling scream was nice. Sorry to hear the experience made you hoarse for a few days after, but that's the price of Hollywood, baby! Of course, what REALLY made me laugh about that scene -- no offense to you as an actor since you did your job most excellently -- was the idea that Alvarado actually has his leg bitten off and THEN he wakes up.

What the hell is that about? Is Alvarado the world's heaviest sleeper? I hear a car backfire and I'm up. I feel a slight itch in the night and scratch at it, and then I'm up. Meanwhile you have 100 million year old Dino gnawing on you...no, actually RIPPING OFF YOUR LEG...and you're still fast asleep.

Not to mention, given the sheer size of a Tyrannosaur's head (keep in mind we SAW it gobble down a horse early in the film) how the heck did a T-Rex manage to bend down and grab your leg WITHOUT lifting you up at all, also waking you up?

Besides, something snorting that much didn't wake you? That thing had eaten a horse and several people! It had stinky dead flesh breath! The minute it opened its mouth you should have woken you up!

[–] lotsofwordz 16 years ago

Never mind the two huts: the total number of Aztecs we get to see is 9, I think. Or it might be 8. Budget? Plenty of people are happy to be in a film for a pizza, beer and 55 cents. They could have hired 6 more villagers for a grand total of 200 dollars and rotated them around.
Who produced this lunacy of a film? GMS.

[–] slathrop73 15 years ago

YOu know lotsofwordz, you certainly seem to have taken a personal interest in criticising and slamming this film that many people worked hard to make. It reminds me of a quote by Zeuxis, "Criticism comes easier than craftsmanship." Goethe said, "Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him." So as an actor and a better person than you, I shall act in spite of your criticism and leave you to your obscurity in life.

God Bless!