What did you think of this year’s crop of action movies, like Transformers?
“I liked it. I sat too close to the screen. I thought maybe Michael Bay exacted his revenge by the fact that I got there too late and I had a seat too near the front and I nearly had an epileptic fit. But when Transformers is doing what it’s supposed to be doing, which is robots smashing sh*t up, it does it very, very well, and I didn’t go home disappointed in the slightest. Maybe the hackers plot I could have done less with because I’d just seen Live Free or Die Hard and I felt like I was watching that film again. But I thought it was insane, yeah.”
How did you like Live Free or Die Hard?
“I liked it. Aside from the fact that I felt like I was watching the airline version of the film, because it was clearly shot as an R-rated film and you could tell it was watered down to be PG-13. That was my only real beef with it. I was enjoying it but it seemed a shame that John McClane wasn’t using the F word even though clearly he and Justin Long were saying it on the day. So I thought that ADR and post dubbing was a bit obvious but aside from that, I enjoyed it. That scene with the truck and the harrier jet was ridiculous and fun.”
That’s interesting because Die Hard was never about the swearing and blood for me. Was it for you?
“I think it seems odd to me. Definitely Die Hard was one of the films that it is violent and to my mind there is - some of the most famous lines revolve around swear words. I think the thing, maybe it’s just the fact that it seemed weird when a franchise that has three films that are all R rated have all grossed over 100 million dollars, that somebody said, ‘You know what? This film needs to be a PG-13,’ when most of your fan base is at least 17 if not older. I just didn’t really understand the wisdom in that, especially when there are date movies like Knocked Up coming out that are R rated films, why Die Hard is not allowed to be an R I don’t quite understand.
You could definitely tell it was shot as an R, even down to certainly in the first half, some of the impact sounds. There were scenes where people got thrown out of windows where henchmen are falling and crashing on the ground where even the sound effects felt muted because it felt like it had been… I really hope there’s going to be an unrated DVD of that because I’d be interested to see if it’s dramatically different in an uncensored form.”
Have you flushed any cakes lately?
“Not since the press tour. I know the guys from Superbad have done a cake flushing in honor of Hot Fuzz.”
