A Civil Action (1998)

"A Civil Action" is Boston's version of "Erin Brokovich". Based-on-a-true-story, a lawyer fights against big company polluters on behalf of working class people, and their leukemia-stricken children. This Boston lawyer has the Brokovich tenacity, but unfortunately is a greedy jerk. Oh well, it's still a good movie.

Every rising middle aged star from the 1990's makes an appearance in this film: post-"Fargo" William H. Macy, pre-"Sopranos" James Gandolfini, post-"Misery" Kathy Bates, pre-"Monk" Tony Shalhoub... the list goes on. John Travolta, post-"Pulp Fiction" miraculous comeback, stars as the arrogant but not quite competent lawyer who bankrupts his firm.

The real star, however, is Woburn. Dirty, dirty Woburn. The drinking water smells like a Disney park ride, and sometimes the river catches on fire, but you can't beat the location! Characters keep describing it as a quaint New England town. They clearly didn't see the strip malls. At least they pronounce the name correctly.

This movie is interesting, well-made, and true to life... which does make it a bit of a downer. Still, it's got a heart and a subtle sense of humor. If only they'd left out the line about Roger Clemens.

Final Score = A-

The Top 5 Things We Learned About College... from Boston Movies

We've been rewatching some movies in our recently abundant spare time (cough-unemployment-cough), and thought it worth mentioning Boston's second most cliche movie setting: College.

Boston has a shitload of institutes of higher learning. If Boston movie characters aren't cruising around Southie in a beat up car, then they're probably attending college classes somewhere. If it's a Matt Damon character, then he's cruising through Southie on the way to class.

THE TOP 5 THINGS WE LEARNED ABOUT COLLEGE... FROM BOSTON MOVIES

5) Nothing says Boston movie like a Harvard sweatshirt.

Boston has 17 colleges, but you'd never know it. All movie students commute across the river to Cambridge, a completely separate city, to attend Harvard. Or maybe MIT. They most certainly do not go to BU, Northeastern, BC, Emerson, or Suffolk.**

**The rare exceptions that we could think of are Matt Damon's character in "The Departed" (Suffolk), and the ex-girlfriend from the Facebook movie (BU). Still, it's sorta implied that they would've gone to Harvard if they could get in.

4) Professors are perverts.

Alec Baldwin's sleazy professor in "My Best Friend's Girl". Stellan Skarsgard's creepy math professor in "Good Will Hunting". Victor Garber's sexually harassing law professor in "Legally Blonde". Who said there was no easy A at Harvard? Just see the professor after class....

3) Janitors and homeless people are smarter than the students.

This might actually be true. While we're specifically referencing "Good Will Hunting" and "With Honors", there's also a real life example of this: BU once invited the late Mr. Butch, the homeless King of Allston, to give a lecture. Now that would have been a great movie scene!

2) We only have tiered lecture halls in Boston.

That way, when the professor makes a joke, smarmy laughter ripples uphill. The class always seats 200+ people. We don't know how to build a classroom any other way.

A little fun fact, by the way: If you're watching a Harvard movie, it probably was not filmed at Harvard. Ever since the crew of "Love Story" damaged property, the University hasn't let a film crew in their buildings.

Instead, we often shoot at BU or Suffolk, regardless of what the script says. No wonder all movie classes look the same.

Degenerates.

Ruined it for everyone.

1) These schools are incredibly easy to get into...

Especially if you're poor. There must be a "Compellingly Lower Class" box on the Harvard applications. Dead parent(s) and a chip on your shoulder? Make sure to include that when you apply!

Because nothing says "underdog" like going to Harvard.

xtra normal videos

Good afternoon, campers -

We've noticed the trend of anonymously posting work grievances through the animated site xtranormal.com. There have been ones made by the camera crew, locations, accounting, even the Teamsters have one up!

This passive aggressiveness isn't limited to film crew; my eye doctor posted Optometrist vs. Patient on his Facebook page. Everybody in the world hates dealing with stupid people at work.

Here are our PA relevant favorites thus far:

Background Production Assistant vs. Extra

...in which a PA tries to get an unruly Extra to come on set. As lowly as the PAs are on the crew, Extras get treated like stray dogs.

"You look like a clown prostitute. I don't care enough to change it, just get to set!"

Key Set Production Assistant vs. Production Coordinator

... in which the Key Set PA annoys the crap of the Production Coordinator. Somehow giving her a British accent makes this even more realistic.

Eco-Friendly Filming

Ignore the title of this post... film production is notoriously NOT ECO-FRIENDLY.

In an industry driven by $$, environmental concerns take the back seat to cutting costs, speeding up the process, etc. Crew members drink from plastic water bottles and abandon them at random around the set. We use entire trees copying script revisions. I've even been on sets where they don't have basic recycling for all the producers' Diet Coke cans. Yikes.

(Never mind the vehicle fuel used while idling the star car to keep it warm for the VIPs, hazmat regulations sometimes getting ignored when getting rid of paint and chemicals... it goes on)

Luckily, recent productions are changing their dirty ways. Many Disney/ABC productions have switched to the "Virtual Production Office". Instead of printing out multiple memos, schedules, oneliners, call sheets, etc., the Virtual Production Office keeps everything electronic. Good move, since honestly, nobody reads all those memos anyway.

Eco-actress Cameron Diaz bought the entire crew of "The Box" coffee mugs to keep refilling. Other shows have been making the move to reusable water bottles. This may add a new component to your PA duties: dishwasher. At least it's for the good of the planet.

Not-Boston Movie Review: Daisy Kenyon (1947)

We stumbled across this movie recently, and noticed that it partially takes place in Cape Cod. It's not filmed here of course -- somewhere in a LA studio lot, they brought in a lot of fake snow. But we wanted to mention it, albeit, briefly.

"Daisy Kenyon", we feel, is what would happen if you took Denis Leary's show "Rescue Me" and set it in the 1940s. No, there's no fire house, but hear us out.

In a movie making era with no nudity, and family-values fun for all, "Daisy Kenyon" deals with darker adult emotions. They can only hint at certain things, for censorship's sake. The movie touches themes of infidelity, WWII soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, child abuse, assault, and endless drinking to sooth the pain. These dysfunctions, put through the 1940's film filter, still come out looking like a romantic comedy. However, beneath the merry surface, these people are not okay.

Should you watch this movie? Maybe not... it depends if you like older films. It's just interesting to see how they handled untouchable issues. Also, it stars Joan "Mommy Dearest" Crawford as the title character, and Henry Fonda.

Final Score = B-

Box office WIN / Movie attendance FAIL

"The Social Network" was the big winner at the box office this weekend... we unfortunately can't give you an update or review because it was completely sold out when we went. Even our backup plan to see "The Town" was thwarted... it too was sold out.

Even with a Sox-Yankees double header, Boston Movies do well in Boston.

Five Dollar Friday

I was recently trying to explain "Five Dollar Friday" to someone, who didn't quite get it.

At the end of each shooting week, we like to decorate a bucket for "Five Dollar Friday". One of the Set PAs (or, in this picture, Jackie Chan) carries it around, and collects $5 bills from the crew. People either write their name on a scrap of paper, or on the bill itself -- which is defacing currency, but that's neither here nor there....

In fact, if you ever wind up with a $5 bill with a name written in sharpie, it probably came off a film set.

Anyway, at the end of the day, one of the names is drawn -- and the winner gets the entire bucket of money. It's like winning a raffle -- and there can be quite a chunk of change in there. Good manners dictate that you tip the bucket carrier $20 or more, and if you go grab drinks after, the first round is on you.

Happy Friday!