Matchstick Men, the movie set in Los Angeles (San Diego, Santa Ana: apartments, crime)

[Vicman]

I read a bit about Matchstick Men, the movie that I saw awhile ago.

So, what was the Los Angelean perspective about the movie?

The main characters live in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles. Several other Los Angeles landmarks are visible.

The girl character, Angela, first appears in Venice High School (in the Mar Vista section of Los Angeles, again).

And I found a comment about that: "(Plus why would a girl living in Woodland Hills go to Venice High--they're a LONG bumper-to-bumper drive over the Hollywood Hills from the Valley to the Santa Monica area!) " on an Amazon.com review.

This is from: http://www.amazon.com/Matchstick-Men...ews/B00012QLB4

[majoun]

Originally Posted by Vicman

I read a bit about Matchstick Men, the movie that I saw awhile ago.

So, what was the Los Angelean perspective about the movie?

The main characters live in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles. Several other Los Angeles landmarks are visible.

The girl character, Angela, first appears in Venice High School (in the Mar Vista section of Los Angeles, again).

And I found a comment about that: "(Plus why would a girl living in Woodland Hills go to Venice High--they're a LONG bumper-to-bumper drive over the Hollywood Hills from the Valley to the Santa Monica area!) " on an Amazon.com review.

This is from: http://www.amazon.com/Matchstick-Men...ews/B00012QLB4

We're used to that sort of thing here. Although the funniest LA geographical error I've ever encountered was in a crime novel written by a South American author bent on imitating Raymond Chandler (it was set in 1930s L.A. and it was pretty obvious the author only knew L.A. from reading old crime novels) which referred to the corner of "Vermont and Highland".

[Ankhharu]

Not the same type of error, but in "Sideways", the opening scene has a subtitle for Mile's apartment "San Diego, CA" however Paul Giamatti says in the commentary that the apartments were actually in Santa Monica or Santa Barbara...one of the Santa's, lol. There are a couple of other area's in the movie they do this.

[newportbeachsmostwanted]

Originally Posted by Ankhharu

Not the same type of error, but in "Sideways", the opening scene has a subtitle for Mile's apartment "San Diego, CA" however Paul Giamatti says in the commentary that the apartments were actually in Santa Monica or Santa Barbara....

They were probably filmed in Santa Monica. It's less costly. Outside of 60 miles, the production company, by law, must provide all crew workers with food and travel, and it makes for a more expensive production.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by newportbeachsmostwanted

They were probably filmed in Santa Monica. It's less costly. Outside of 60 miles, the production company, by law, must provide all crew workers with food and travel, and it makes for a more expensive production.

This is the reason why "The O.C." was filmed in Hermosa Beach and Pasadena rather than Orange County. The parts of OC within the radius wouldn't have fit the image of what that show was trying for. (Although I did hear jokes about "The Real Orange County: Santa Ana")

[fastfilm]

"Hollywood Escapes," a book by Harry Medved ("The Fifty Worst Films of All Time") was released this week, and is supposed to have as many film locations here in L.A. that he could match to specific movies, that were still recognizable as such. The long outdoors stairs that Laurel & Hardy hauled and dropped a piano down, in "The Music Box" is still supposed to exist.

If he annotated tv locations, I wonder if he would have our house in Van Nuys, which was used in "Beverly Hills 90210," "Models, Inc.," and a slew of shows forgotten by posterity and us personally after the shoots.

Majoun will probably concur that matching the L.A. locale to the goofs in continuity is a game many of us locals play while watching tv shows and films.

[newportbeachsmostwanted]

Originally Posted by majoun

(Although I did hear jokes about "The Real Orange County: Santa Ana")

Did you read the editorial in the LA Times? That Mexican who was basically saying he felt discriminated against because the shows didn't show enough Mexicans. He "called out" the Newport Beach city council for trying to change the name of John Wayne Airport to "The OC" Airport to make the airport "sound White."

"The show's characters derided the working-class, minority-heavy central part of the county. The problems we face — immigration wars, changing demographics, escalating home prices — disappeared in favor of potboiler sap and bad indie-rock."

No 16-year-old female in Nebraska cares about escalating home prices on Mexicans in Santa Ana. It's just a teenage drama for goodness sakes!
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-arellano22jan22,1,4046332.story?coll=la-news-comment (broken link)

Kids in Santa Ana made some "Real OC" show for local tv and tried to get it to go national.. Lol, you can guessed what happened to that. lol, And you can guess what their excuse was-Racism.

[Vicman]

What "O.C." is depends on what area of O.C. is seen. Much of O.C. is still the "rich white O.C.", but it is true that there are complete hell-holes like Santa Ana. In addition, several other parts of O.C. to the north are heavily Asian and/or Hispanic.

[puffle]

Originally Posted by fastfilm

"Hollywood Escapes," a book by Harry Medved ("The Fifty Worst Films of All Time") was released this week, and is supposed to have as many film locations here in L.A. that he could match to specific movies, that were still recognizable as such. The long outdoors stairs that Laurel & Hardy hauled and dropped a piano down, in "The Music Box" is still supposed to exist.

If he annotated tv locations, I wonder if he would have our house in Van Nuys, which was used in "Beverly Hills 90210," "Models, Inc.," and a slew of shows forgotten by posterity and us personally after the shoots.

Majoun will probably concur that matching the L.A. locale to the goofs in continuity is a game many of us locals play while watching tv shows and films.

Fastfilm, Did you know that the restaurant in Sherman Oaks called Cafe Bizou use to be Laurel from Laurel and Hardy's house? I believe he also had a home off Weddington and Woodman that has a huge property. Further down Weddington is where Barbard Hale from Perry Mason raised her family and further down across from Hazeltine the lead actor from CSI Miami owned a home around the corner from my parents, a very modest and old home. All the way down Hazeltine past Ventura the gorgeous actress that played Catwoman owns a beautiful home. This is what keeps the Valley interesting, the history of the beginning of movies, Tarzana where Tarzan was filmed, Encino where several stars lived including Clark Gable, Lake Sherwood near me where Robin Hood and several other movies where made.

[fastfilm]

Puffle, Bizou is on the same side of the street that my main digital custom photo lab in on, so I'm quite familiar with the neighborhood (try Bamboo next to Bizou- very good Mandarin food, and more my budget.) It's a row of businesses now, but the Sherman Oaks residential neighborhood behind it is quite nice (and unaffordable to working stiff peons like me.) Do you mean Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt or Michelle Pfieffer, all the beautiful Catwomen I can think of at present? P.S. Barbara Hale's actor son William Katt appeared in one of the "Models, Inc." productions shot at our house.

Here's a long gone, and now invisible former landmark that anyone in the Valley could have seen on a clear day. The whole hillside to the immediate left (west) of the 405 freeway, looking north from anywhere in the Valley, and across from the famous William Mulholland water cascade (this one is visible) for DWP (the movie "Chinatown" was based upon its inception) used to be the extremely large estate of Edward Everett Horton. Its palatial grounds and large hillside mansion were a very noticable landmark until it was razed to make townhomes.

Oldschool stars Marilyn Monroe and Robert Redford attended Van Nuys High School, hard as that would be to imagine today. Does anyone know if any of the other landmark estates from earlier Valley estates still exist outside of the West Valley, Chandler Blvd. and Toluca Lake? They've always been an endangered species. Instead of making them into parks like other cities occasionally do, they're immediately subdivided and conquered. The Dearden's store on Van Nuys Blvd. 4 blocks north of Victory used to be the estate of Isaac Whitsett, one of the co-developers of Van Nuys in 1911. I believe all the 90 year old tall palm trees around there make a "entrance" to this location, going to right there from Van Nuys Blvd. in both directions.