I am annoyed at this man!

Message

#1 Post by **Doc Ibold** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:52 pm

James,

I think we'd better set this guy straight:

http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/56/magnumpi.htm

Read "Afterwards", citation 10.

Chump....

#2 Post by **J.J. Walters** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 3:57 am

Hmmm.......

Wow, he bashed our show pretty good, didn't he? I think he actually makes some good observations & parts of it are quite funny, but the article is full of errors!

There are no Magnum books, and no Magnum sites online.10

Ah, how about Larry Manetti's Aloha Magnum book? And there are several Magnum sites/forums on the net (obviously). The guy apparently never took the time to do a Google search on "magnum pi fan site" (or some combination thereof). Magnum Mania! comes up #4 on such a search.

Tom Selleck never looked comfortable punching out bad guys or blowing them away. He was more of, well, let’s say it, a male model. With that porn star moustache, dimples that made John Davidson look shallow, and a chest that resembled an acre of shag carpeting, Selleck always looked like he just climbed off the cover of a romance novel

Are you kidding me?! I know this is subjective, but I don't think I've ever heard anybody describe TS as Magnum in such a way. The guy handled action scenes effortlessly - he's athletic & and he definitely knows how to throw a punch!

As for the Japanese and Chinese, they hardly exist.

Hello?! Tozan? Choi? Sato Osawa? Aiko Tamura? Tran Quoc? The "Lemon Brawl" Japanese Ladies?

SelleckLover · #3 Post by **SelleckLover** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 6:49 am

I think Alan Vanneman should really take his antipsychotic medication BEFORE he writes a review. Oh, and another thing....he really needs to seriously lay off the crack!

grapeshot · #4 Post by **grapeshot** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 7:22 am

Wow. That was quite a withering review of MPI. The charm of this show is completely lost on that viewer, eh?

It's difficult to take an article with such ill-informed facts seriously. The most casual google or wikipedia search, or eBay search, would've shown that this show is still popular, and its artifacts are still sought after.

Worse yet, this is a very mean-spirited article. Personally, I tend to discount reviews that have incorrect facts, especially if written with such a mean tone. This author has an ax to grind, and I don't want him/her grinding it on me.

This right here is quite a howler:

It’s a good guess that Bellisario and Larson had an appetite for noir, both on paper and celluloid, and the glamour of old-time Hollywood. But in 1980 what was hot was not LA noir but Vietnam, thanks to the massive critical and box-office success of The Deer Hunter (1978), plus the more than massive publicity surrounding the release of Apocalypse Now (1979), hardly dented by the fact that the film was a huge disappointment to all but the most devoted Coppola fan.

This is so ill-informed that it's hard to know where to begin.

A quick look at Donald Bellisario's body of work, and you can see that he has no particular penchant for "noir". Actually, how can this author pretend to know what motivated or inspired Bellisario? On the other hand, if Bellisario had wanted to make a "noir" series, what's wrong with that? Why the sneering tone?

I never thought MPI was a particularly "noir-ish" show, Furthermore, "LA noir", whatever this author might imagine it to be, has never been either "hot" or not "hot". That is, "noir" productions are generally not popular with mass audiences, so most movie studios don't make lots of them. I can think of no television show that was, or is, even remotely "noir-ish". Indeed, the author seems to have only a vague conception of the term "noir", and would've been smart to take the time to look up what the term actually refers to before throwing it around so casually.

However, I do remember that there was a minor fad for Humphrey Bogart and 30's glamor in the seventies. (Remember Woody Allen's "Play It Again, Sam"? Or even "Young Frankenstein"?) As such, MPI's occasional reference to the thirties and forties, i.e. Rick's affinity for the Bogart character in "Casablanca" (also called Rick), or Magnum's dream episodes, would've been nods to popular cultural references -- something that all Americans engage in. IIRC, more than one show had done an homage episode or two to 30's glam. ("Moonlighting is one such show that comes to mind.)

As for Viet Nam being "hot", wow. That's just an utterly stupid statement. Up until 1980 there were only a handful of films that dared to touch a subject that was still a painful one for the nation. This author can only cite two such movies, hardly a "hot" trend in movie making.

However, on television, the Viet Nam war as a dramatic subject was completely invisible. The only way the subject could even be broached was sideways -- like the way MASH was ostensibly about the Korean War, but the hidden sub-text was the Viet Nam war. The "success" of movies such as "The Deer Hunter", "Apocalypse Now", and "Platoon", or even the two Rambo movies not withstanding, the Viet Nam War was never a "hot" concept for Hollywood. (Oh, and "Apocalypse Now" was actually a critical success, and continues to land on the "best movies of all time" lists even today.) I suppose the closest that Hollywood came to making the subject of Viet Nam "hot" was with the second Rambo movie.

As you can see, this author has packed quite a large amount of ignorance into this short paragraph. At this point, I stopped reading the rest of the article. Someone this ignorant isn't worth my attention.

I guess the good thing about the internet is that everyone can air their opinions. The bad thing about the internet is that everyone can air their opinions.

Frodoleader · #5 Post by **Frodoleader** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 12:54 pm

I guess the good thing about the internet is that everyone can air their opinions. The bad thing about the internet is that everyone can air their opinions.[/quote]

That's it in a nutshell.

Shermy · #6 Post by **Shermy** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 5:34 pm

I'm curious how he decided that not all 6 seasons are available for purchase on dvd- despite the fact that he admits they exist. I assumed the note he added would elaborate on the issue, but instead it was just an excuse to complain about the double-sided discs.

308GTS · #7 Post by **308GTS** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 7:16 pm

his mindless mind-games with Higgins, intended to win him the use of the tennis courts (but we never see him play) or “the camera.” (“Oh, boy! Now we can take pictures!”). Magnum’s clients rarely got laid; an odd blending of father/big brother and cabana/stable boy, Thomas was a creature of midnight dreams and fantasy, not flesh and blood passion

This is interesting. Correct me if I am wrong but didn't TM play against Rick and that rather nice Eastern european chick in "Mixed Doubles", plus we saw TM practising his backhand and follow through throughout the episode.

Also didn't Mimi Rogers stay the night with TM in "Italian Ice" plus Sharon Stone got to sample TM's love charms if I am not mistaken. Alan Vannerman is a total jerkoff and he's rude and factually incorrect as JW has pointed out. Personally I thought that the "voice over" was a great idea.

#8 Post by **Doc Ibold** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 8:07 pm

Glad to see that I wasn't the only person who thinks this guy is a bag of hot air.

He obviously didn't check out anything before he started writing.

IslandHopper · #9 Post by **IslandHopper** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 8:12 pm

What is this guy's problem? I wonder what his motivation for writing that article was? He doesn't appear to be very objective. Maybe he auditioned for the role of Mickey on "Squeeze Play" (season 4) and was turned down because he was too goofy?

Not only did he seem to have some sort of an agenda in writing this article, but as you all have mentioned, he didn't seem to bother to check many of his facts.

Or, maybe he believes that readers will take him at his word since he doesn't seem to think there are any Magnum, P.I., fans left (no fan websites) who will know his article is only suited to line the bottom of the bird cage of Elizabeth Barrett's Macaw.

Magnum92 · #10 Post by **Magnum92** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 7:53 am

What a Turkey, that guy is an idiot.

Mack · #11 Post by **Mack** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 7:01 pm

Well, Mr. Vanneman may not be one of us, butt his review of brokeback mountain seems to be favorable. Sounds like he likes cowboy movies. Read his article for yourselves.

http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/51/brokebackav.htm

Jean-Claude Fornier · Sun Dec 09, 2007 10:36 pm

Alan Vanneman :

A number of similar episodes followed, buzzing around, hinting at, but never explicitly confronting the ugliest episodes in the entire Vietnam nightmare — deliberate atrocities by American troops, as documented by the investigation into the My Lai massacre. In “No Need To Know,” Higgins’ old army commander shows up, just for a visit, ostensibly, but in fact the old boy is hiding out from the IRA. There are strong suggestions, never made explicit, that he supervised torture of IRA members in the past and now fears retribution. The Brits keep Magnum in the dark and treat him with private contempt — his Boy Scout ideals are useless in the confrontation with “evil.” Naturally, it’s Magnum who saves the day when the IRA terrorists show up and Magnum who lectures the Brits on their elitist mentality

Well, I hate this type of guys. Unfortunately, in France, we've got too much of these bastards from the far left wing who spend their time vomiting on french colonial past.
Generally, these bastards, when young, were conscientious objectors and of course, are potential collaborators.

magnumrules · #13 Post by **magnumrules** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 4:33 am

Yeah, this guy is a dork.

Mack · #14 Post by **Mack** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 6:54 am

Yip, he's a dork.

Lt Tanaka · #15 Post by **Lt Tanaka** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 8:02 am

Anyone that starts off an article saying Apocalypse Now (one of the greatest movies of all time) was "a huge disappointment to all but the most devoted Coppola fan" shows that they don't have much going on between the ears.