If you guys think "GODS MUST BE CRAZY" was funny, seek out "THE CRAZY SAFARI"-the third sequel. It has it all: The fire hating rhino, hopping Chinese vampire, zombie, a frustrated wizard and his high strung employer (lost in the African desert), Zulu warriors and their crazy witch doctor, villianous Afrikaners and of course Nixau. Hysterical comedy has the spirit of BRUCE LEE takes over Nizau (who masters Lee's mannerisms while the music from "Enter The Dragon" plays in the background).
Great fun and a very large belly laugh!

Hopping Chinese vampire? That's "Mr. Vampire". I like that movie!

Sammo Hung I think plays the vamp with Ricky Huai and Lam Ching Chang
(both from Mr Vampire).
Anyone have this on DVD? I understand there is a great transfer with English subtitles (mine is an old, blurry tape with subs from the ever crappy "Video Search Of Miami"-one reason I stopped reading Video Watchdog for pushing their products).
As I said its a great film!

Sammo Hung I think plays the vamp with Ricky Huai and Lam Ching Chang
(both from Mr Vampire).
Anyone have this on DVD? I understand there is a great transfer with English subtitles (mine is an old, blurry tape with subs from the ever crappy "Video Search Of Miami"-one reason I stopped reading Video Watchdog for pushing their products).
As I said its a great film!

Sammo Hung didn't play in first film.

As I said I like Mr.Vampire, and I have DVD. I went to a theatre see it. Ricky Hui was the most hilarious Chinese actor.

This is the trailer.
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=T0E6sRwp9B0

The first movie grossed over 100 million dollars worldwide.

The two white leads were paid somewhere between
8-25 thousand dollars each.

The star of the movie, the Bushman, was paid somewhere
between $100 to $400 dollars, depending on which report
you read. He never received any residuals whatsoever.

If this isn't a case of exploitation (and a product one
should avoid buying or renting at all cost) I don't know
what is.

It is true that in the sequels he did receive more money
(but only an unfair fraction of the movies gross), and
was even flown around the world at no cost to promote
them...still, it's a pathetic face to put on such ugly
exploitation.

Mike

Well if he was a true Bushman, the money wouldn't have mattered to him at all. As for the white leads, it seems they were paid a reasonable amount for a movie that probably had a miniscule budget. You have to remember that it was a complete sleeper, no one could have predicted that it would gross so much.

The first movie grossed over 100 million dollars worldwide.

The two white leads were paid somewhere between
8-25 thousand dollars each.

The star of the movie, the Bushman, was paid somewhere
between $100 to $400 dollars, depending on which report
you read. He never received any residuals whatsoever.


*Poof*

The fact is that actors are paid a fair amount of cash for the work they do the day they do it. The investors take all the risk while the actors pocket what their contract initially promised. They take no financial risk, so asking for a portion of the profits is BS.

Say Clint Eastwood works for six weeks making a film about a police detective. In that six weeks he makes more money than an actual detective makes in 10 years. Say the film flops because it sucks. Clint still has his money and the studio takes a loss. That's business.

In real life, I go to the Goodyear and get my brakes replaced. I pay the mechanic. Is he entitled to a residual every time I stop my car? I don't think so.

I apologize for not being more "specific" in my language describing the actor's wants/desires. Marius Weyers (the white male lead of The Gods Must Be Crazy) did not demand profit participation in regards to the second film. He merely demanded getting paid a "fair" salary for his role in the second proposed film, based on the fact that the first was such a huge hit.

And rightly so. He knew their success was a direct result of his efforts and as such, he had become a "known quantity" Why should he sell himself short?

A perfectly normal and frankly reasonable thing to do considering the first movie made over 100 millions dollars, the vast majority of that pure profit. To the best of my knowledge he never demanded residuals from the first movie, and stood by "that" contract with nary a complaint.

And that speaks volumes for his integrity and character!

I believe what is implied in all this is that the "greedy" producers, sitting on their pile of millions, could easily have afforded to pay Marius 200 to 300 thousand dollars to return to the role, in the second movie, that had helped make the first movie such a success. And considering the "pool" of millions they were swimming in, it would have been NO "risk" to them whatsoever.

No argument here, and that speaks volumes for their character as well

There actually is "courtesy" and "respect" in the film business. When George Lucas's "Star Wars" (which cost 7 million dollars to make) grossed over 100 million dollars domestically, Lucas himself made a mint off of that. And what did he do? Did he ignore the actors and say "oh they got paid what their contract guaranteed them?" No. He did not. George Lucas gave every one of the leads in Star Wars "Bonus" checks, long after the movie came out, in appreciation, and respect, for what they had helped create.

This is probably the exception rather than the rule. If some trendy commentator blasted SW as a piece of s_it and the public avoided it like they did with Merlot after that film a few years ago and Lucas went into bankruptcy, do you think "guy in Chewbacca suit" or "guy in Darth Vader suit" would have helped to bail George out? Did either of these guys get a "bonus" on the scale that Hamil, Fisher, or Ford got? Did they get a "bonus" at all?

[QUOTE=Mike Hanson]
I'm not talking about simple reciprocity based on contract law and the rule of law in my rants.

I was speaking about the profession in general. Why should someone who was paid for that days work expect to be paid for same work repeatedly. If the film remained on the shelf forever, they were still paid for their effort on the day of filming. If they were to defer their pay until the product started making a profit, that would be different. As it is, they got a day's pay for a day's work.

I'm mostly talking about the black african Bushman, Nixau, who didn't have the western sophistication to even know how he was being exploited, and to what an ugly extent. Nixau didn't have an agent or a lawyer. I don't even think he had a contract. He just walked around in front of a camera because he was offered some subsistance money. No. Nobody put a gun to his head, but I think we (those of us with souls) can all agree that there was a moral and ethical onus on the uber-wealthy producers to have taken a modicum of pity on Nixau after the movie made them all multi-millionaires, and for Christ's sake given him and his village (who were all living in complete and utter povery, some starving) "something!"

Once again, no argument here. And again, their character is addressed.

And if people don't "get" that, and hide behind oblique arguments about "rule of law" and western civilization "contracts," then yes, you have an entire circle in Dante's Hell just waiting for you to check in.

I was never speaking about "rule of law" or "contracts" I was talking about getting paid fairly for a days work. Marius "got" it, he was paid fairly for the first job and that appears to have been fine by him. Asking for more for the second movie was only reasonable as he had established his potential for earning the producers a tidy return on their investment.

Oh why do I even bother. The sun will burn out before I could unroot even one western-civilization-raised human being out of their educated middle-class Judeo-Christian Democratic self-righteous Capitalistic mind-set.

And yes, I accept the condemnation of "arrogant hubris" for even trying do so...

Peace out.

Slan Leat!

"THE CRAZY SAFARI"-the third sequel to "THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY" has been put on youtube complete with English subtitles. Now is the chance to view it for a big belly laugh!!!!