WHEN EXTRAS STEAL THE MOVIE

GOING GREEN

Last night I saw The Green Lantern in 3D. The reviews for this movie have been hideous, but I actually enjoyed myself for reasons I don't think the film makers intended.


First of all, the dialogue in this movie is so bad, you have to laugh. If someone said "you have to face your fears" one more time, I was going to throw my popcorn at the screen. Luckily, I ran into my my friend John at the theatre, and we were able to laugh ourselves silly after the movie was over.

The villain in the movie is Paralax, a giant piece of space shmootz that kind of resembles a big dust bunny with a skeleton head. It feeds on the souls of the fearful and, of course, comes to a heavily populated city to enjoy an unlimited buffet. This is where my favorite part comes in.

As the dust bunny was attacking, I kept watching the extras. Having been an extra myself in movies, I know some of the shenanigans that people will pull to get onscreen to get noticed. Or even better, get that revered "bump" from extra to "featured". It means more money and sometimes, SAG insurance. So as this attack is happening, I can practically hear the Second A.D. on the movie screaming into a bullhorn, "Okay background! Now the creature is right behind you! Run away"! And then everybody runs flailing their arms in the air towards camera making their panicked faces.


"AH! But wait! Now it's in front of you! Run the other way"! So the crowd turns around! More faces! More overacting! More work for Central Casting. 


It cracks me up when extras "act" and force me to notice them onscreen. In the Green Lantern, during the attack of the shmootz, an African American extra, literally looks right into camera and makes a hilarious "oh no she didn't" face that looks like Marla Gibbs on The Jeffersons. I kid you not.


And apparantly, Paralax has a penchant for the fearful souls of  black female busdrivers. While indiscriminately, sucking souls of many of the extras (whom I'm sure got a bump), at one point he turns his attention to this woman who was able to rush kids off the school bus and then twist her ankle as Parlax savors the thought of eating this woman's fearful soul. Of course the Green Lantern saves her, because she was "featured" and not an extra. I'll bet the Marla Gibbs woman was pissed.

So yes. The movie is filled with some of the stupidest dialogue. But the special effects are fun and the extras are HILARIOUS! So go see the movie and watch the extras.
And...BACKGROUND...ACTION! AHHHHHHHHH!!!