View Full Version : Range15
TOMAHAWK9521
06-17-2016, 09:08
I had the opportunity to view the movie down in Denver on Wednesday, the 15th. It was about as crude, offensive, raunchy, and hilarious as one might expect. Think South Park with live actors. I wasn't expecting Oscar-winning performances considering what I've seen these guys put out on YouTube. It was movie strung together with a number of squad/platoon skits like the ones you might see in the barracks or patrol base but with better props and special effects.
Considering they did all the filming in something like 13 days with little more than a million dollars for a budget, that came largely from many small dollar donations from other vets and businesses, I thought they did a pretty good job.
The one thing I found odd was that it was a sold-out showing but hardly anybody showed up to see it. I believe there were only something like 150 tickets and yet I don't think I counted more than 30 of us in the theater. Where the other 120 or so people went, I haven't a clue. Most of us in there served at some point during our current conflict, but there were a few family members in there as well.
If you get a chance to see it, don't expect to see any previews for other movies. It starts right away and the opening credits come later. I'm not going to give anything away but I will say that I enjoyed it for what it was: A military movie made by a lot of military people having fun and telling Hollywood and the mainstream to go f*ck themselves. :lifter:D
P,
Which theater did you see it at?
I saw it at the Alamo Drafthouse in Littleton. We were one of the first theaters in the country to sell out when they booked the venues. In fact, the drafthouse moved it to one of their bigger theaters to accommodate the high volume.
The place was packed and raunchy as hell.
I got an email from TUGG.com that they will be doing an encore showing of the film at the drafthouse on Thursday 30June.
I will definitely go and see it again, seeing that you miss some dialogue and action, due to the fact you're laughing so hard from something said or done previous.
Mayan theatre in Denver was sold out with Rangers. Reports from Cherry Creek said about half full. I watched it in CoS and it was about 90% full.
Lots of cameos from service members, Bill f'ing Murray, Coture, and others.
I just heard Tim Kennedy on the radio and he said, "When you have a bunch of mentally impaired military guys that have free rein to run around, this is what you end up with." :D
Pat
TOMAHAWK9521
06-17-2016, 16:59
P,
Which theater did you see it at?
I saw it at the Alamo Drafthouse in Littleton. We were one of the first theaters in the country to sell out when they booked the venues. In fact, the drafthouse moved it to one of their bigger theaters to accommodate the high volume.
The place was packed and raunchy as hell.
I got an email from TUGG.com that they will be doing an encore showing of the film at the drafthouse on Thursday 30June.
I will definitely go and see it again, seeing that you miss some dialogue and action, due to the fact you're laughing so hard from something said or done previous.
I saw it the AMC Cherry Creek 8. Maybe that was too upscale of a venue for it. I don't know. I do know that it sold out but hardly anyone showed up. :confused:
I saw it in Albuquerque and it had sold out. The theater had 5-6 seats empty.
It was funny and we had family members there.....
At Bragg it's going to be at the Cameo Art House screening at 8:30 PM on the 17th and 18th.
Nick Palmisciano and Jack Mandaville will be there, not sure which day.
Source U.S ArmyWTF Moments.
I havent seen the movie yet but according to IMDB web site it said this:
.
That would have added to the entertainment.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4687276/
Is it showing in the Olympia WA area anyone know?
Go here:
https://www.tugg.com/titles/range-15
Find a showing near you. Then reserve a ticket.
I had the opportunity to view the movie down in Denver on Wednesday, the 15th. It was about as crude, offensive, raunchy, and hilarious as one might expect. Think South Park with live actors. I wasn't expecting Oscar-winning performances considering what I've seen these guys put out on YouTube. It was movie strung together with a number of squad/platoon skits like the ones you might see in the barracks or patrol base but with better props and special effects.
Considering they did all the filming in something like 13 days with little more than a million dollars for a budget, that came largely from many small dollar donations from other vets and businesses, I thought they did a pretty good job.
The one thing I found odd was that it was a sold-out showing but hardly anybody showed up to see it. I believe there were only something like 150 tickets and yet I don't think I counted more than 30 of us in the theater. Where the other 120 or so people went, I haven't a clue. Most of us in there served at some point during our current conflict, but there were a few family members in there as well.
If you get a chance to see it, don't expect to see any previews for other movies. It starts right away and the opening credits come later. I'm not going to give anything away but I will say that I enjoyed it for what it was: A military movie made by a lot of military people having fun and telling Hollywood and the mainstream to go f*ck themselves. :lifter:D
Having had a small role to play in the Range 15 circus, due to TUGG.com and partner theatre requirements, there were different minimum pre-sale thresholds required to guarantee individual showings.
Depending on local demographics, some were easier to get over threshold than others.
In some cases, folks bought extra tickets to ensure local showings or were donated by generous benefactors, given away as freebies to Vets and first responders, or seats left open to remember the deployed and the Fallen.
In one case a local promoter managing a TUGG Range 15 showing 2 hours from home got pinched speeding by the cops.
When the cop asked why he was speeding he apologised and fronted up by saying he was in a rush to get to his promoted Range 15 showing.
The driver was a Marine, the cop was a Marine and a big fan, and provided high speed lead escort to the theatre with photographic evidence :)
I got to see the premiere in Hollywood a few weeks back. Great fun, but I'm a bit biased having seen it from the inside.
My only minor complaint is that I will have to watch it again a few times to catch all the jokes I heard on set and read in the script
Due to hearing damage, too many people laughing in the theatre making it hard to discriminate the rapid fire jokes at times, and/or just a bit too low volume I missed hearing a few jokes.
I'm never going to think of popcorn the same way ever again, as well as a few other things.
I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I do.
The movie business is hard, and everyone involved in this worked even harder. Really cool to see a movie being made in person by some awesome people who were mostly Veterans outside of the necessary industry pros.
One of the most memorable parts for me was late one night after filming walking into a conversation that had a local angle for me related to an incident in the ME about 15 years ago.
After introductions were made , I developed a couple of fantastic contacts within your current and prior service SF community that have been very helpful and valuable in my other part time job.
So cheers to you guys!
I saw it in Albuquerque and it had sold out. The theater had 5-6 seats empty.
It was funny and we had family members there.....
My wife has to see it first(once digital download is available in a few months) before we have the conversation about at what age our children can see it.
It's worth noting the movie could not get an MPAA R rating, and there's no nudity in it.
The humour in the movie is darker than that fancy new vantablack stuff.
I saw it the AMC Cherry Creek 8. Maybe that was too upscale of a venue for it. I don't know. I do know that it sold out but hardly anyone showed up. :confused:
LMMFAO !!!!!!!
Holy Shit !!!!!!
The AMC in Cherry Creek !!!!!!
That's just too fvcking funny .... A movie like this shown in that AO !!!!!
Major props to the promoter for setting that up. :D :D :D
Having had a small role to play in the Range 15 circus, due to TUGG.com and partner theatre requirements, there were different minimum pre-sale thresholds required to guarantee individual showings.
Depending on local demographics, some were easier to get over threshold than others.
In some cases, folks bought extra tickets to ensure local showings or were donated by generous benefactors, given away as freebies to Vets and first responders, or seats left open to remember the deployed and the Fallen.
In one case a local promoter managing a TUGG Range 15 showing 2 hours from home got pinched speeding by the cops.
When the cop asked why he was speeding he apologised and fronted up by saying he was in a rush to get to his promoted Range 15 showing.
The driver was a Marine, the cop was a Marine and a big fan, and provided high speed lead escort to the theatre with photographic evidence :)
I got to see the premiere in Hollywood a few weeks back. Great fun, but I'm a bit biased having seen it from the inside.
My only minor complaint is that I will have to watch it again a few times to catch all the jokes I heard on set and read in the script
Due to hearing damage, too many people laughing in the theatre making it hard to discriminate the rapid fire jokes at times, and/or just a bit too low volume I missed hearing a few jokes.
I'm never going to think of popcorn the same way ever again, as well as a few other things.
I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I do.
The movie business is hard, and everyone involved in this worked even harder. Really cool to see a movie being made in person by some awesome people who were mostly Veterans outside of the necessary industry pros.
One of the most memorable parts for me was late one night after filming walking into a conversation that had a local angle for me related to an incident in the ME about 15 years ago.
After introductions were made , I developed a couple of fantastic contacts within your current and prior service SF community that have been very helpful and valuable in my other part time job.
So cheers to you guys!
Okay Mate, please don't take this the wrong way ....
Aw FVCK it .... I could give two shits how you take it but .... I DON'T LIKE YOU
I tried like hell to get on that production.
I sent my Production resume to Ross, Rocco, Matt ... hell, anyone I could find on FB that was associated with the project.
Ross and I traded quite a few emails, but it ended up that they had the crew they needed.
I know they were working on a bare bones, minimum budget and I was willing to work for 1/4 pay.
I just wanted on !!!!
As you said The movie business is hard ...
So I guess I should give you props and congratulations for securing a spot.
But I still DON'T LIKE YOU. :mad: :p :D
TOMAHAWK9521
06-18-2016, 07:01
LMMFAO !!!!!!!
Holy Shit !!!!!!
The AMC in Cherry Creek !!!!!!
That's just too fvcking funny .... A movie like this shown in that AO !!!!!
Major props to the promoter for setting that up. :D :D :D
I also found it odd, okay, amusing, that they were going to show it there. However, at the time of my ticket purchase, I was already tracking on moving out of CO and figured this might be the best chance for me to catch the movie before I closed on my house. I'm still tracking on moving but the house sale has been pushed to the right.
As for the large number of empty seats, that's a lot of donations somebody made.
I would like to see it again but someplace where there are actual bodies filling up the seats. Part of the fun is listening to the reactions of other people in there. I get a kick from discovering the different levels of tempering of other vets in the audience. Those who saw a lot from long careers in combat arms are usually the ones laughing loudest while the single-tour/short timers from, say, Mess-Kit Repair are gasping with shock at the gallows humor.
I also found it odd, okay, amusing, that they were going to show it there. However, at the time of my ticket purchase, I was already tracking on moving out of CO and figured this might be the best chance for me to catch the movie before I closed on my house. I'm still tracking on moving but the house sale has been pushed to the right.
As for the large number of empty seats, that's a lot of donations somebody made.
I would like to see it again but someplace where there are actual bodies filling up the seats. Part of the fun is listening to the reactions of other people in there. I get a kick from discovering the different levels of tempering of other vets in the audience. Those who saw a lot from long careers in combat arms are usually the ones laughing loudest while the single-tour/short timers from, say, Mess-Kit Repair are gasping with shock at the gallows humor.
That's why I went down to the Springs to watch it. Full theatre, everyone laughing, most drinking... It was worth the drive
Okay Mate, please don't take this the wrong way ....
Aw FVCK it .... I could give two shits how you take it but .... I DON'T LIKE YOU
I tried like hell to get on that production.
I sent my Production resume to Ross, Rocco, Matt ... hell, anyone I could find on FB that was associated with the project.
Ross and I traded quite a few emails, but it ended up that they had the crew they needed.
I know they were working on a bare bones, minimum budget and I was willing to work for 1/4 pay.
I just wanted on !!!!
As you said
So I guess I should give you props and congratulations for securing a spot.
But I still DON'T LIKE YOU. :mad: :p :D
No worries!
If it helps, I certainly wasn't helping in a paid role, in fact quite the opposite digging deep into my pocket to help get this thing off the ground for early momentum just as it launched.
Funny story. I was hungover(actually still technically intoxicated after somehow passing my SNCO course) over a year ago and skyping Matt/JT.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Then my wife is all "WTF?!? Are we getting ripped off by Internet fraud?"
And I'm like "Leave it, this is man business, we're making a movie."
She's like "Who's making a movie?"
I'm like "OPSEC, if you stop asking so many questions I'll buy you something shiny on my next trip and I won't start asking how your shoes are multiplying faster than my guns."
Now she's like "Where's my Range 15 shirt big shot?"
Keep your fingers crossed as there's a decent shot at a sequel.
In all seriousness, if you were after some movie credits it might have some value volunteering.
All I know is it was worth the dosh to help make it happen. Met lots of great folks, and it also helped paved the way for our own local Veterans Support group called No Duff based on the Drinkin Bros Vigilant Guard(and Aussie Overwatch).
Mayan theatre in Denver was sold out with Rangers. Reports from Cherry Creek said about half full. I watched it in CoS and it was about 90% full.
Lots of cameos from service members, Bill f'ing Murray, Coture, and others.
I just heard Tim Kennedy on the radio and he said, "When you have a bunch of mentally impaired military guys that have free rein to run around, this is what you end up with." :D
Pat
Watched it in the Springs too. Loved it. The Making of after the movie caused another outbreak of allergies.
Ya, I can really see Mat Best as a Sweet Transvestite From Transexual Transylvania. :D
‘This might be our community’s “Rocky Horror Picture Show”’: How a zombie movie became a hit with troops
By Matt White July 21
It will not be on the marquee at your local multiplex, but ‘Range 15,’ a zombie apocalypse comedy made by veterans with no previous Hollywood experience, is this summer’s underground hit with military audiences.
Since its mid-June debut in the U.S., the comedy has brought in close to $700,000 at the box office in fan-sponsored screenings across the country. One of those screenings was late last month at Ashburn’s Alamo Drafthouse, selling out a 135-seat theater in a day. It was at that Virginia theater that Nick Palmisciano, a West Point grad and one of the movie’s stars and producers, began to wonder if the movie had hit a nerve.
Predictably, most of the audience had military ties but, to Palmisciano’s surprise, about a third of the crowd had already seen earlier screenings. As the jokes and gore ratcheted up, he sat stunned as fans began to shout out dialogue.
“I’m getting the vibe this might be our community’s ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show,’” he said.
The audience included groups from across the military spectrum, from Pentagon staffers to local SWAT teams to active-duty soldiers fresh off Afghanistan deployments with Arlington National Cemetery’s “Old Guard” 3rd Infantry Regiment, plus a mix of veterans now working as civilians. The event, Palmisciano said, felt “as much about getting together with everybody and celebrating our shared background as it is the movie itself.”
The movie will be released on DVD and online in August, but some deployed troops will get a chance to see it before then. Three of the creators — Palmisciano, former Army Ranger Mat Best and Air Force veteran Jarred Taylor – are in Iraq to put on screenings in the region this month.
“Range 15″ features several established Hollywood actors, including William Shatner, Sean Astin, Keith David and Danny “Machete” Trejo. But, uniquely, it also showcases well-known service members, such as Medal of Honor recipients Leroy Petry and Clint Romesha, former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell and Special Forces soldier-turned-MMA fighter Tim Kennedy.
Connecting with veterans and military members, Palmisciano said, was always the goal of the film, which was the brainchild of Palmisciano and four veteran business partners, Best, Taylor, Army veteran Vincent “Rocco” Vargas and former Marine Jack Mandaville. If those are unfamiliar names, you almost certainly have not served in the military during the Afghan/Iraq era. The men in the group have gained a wide following in military and young veteran circles through their T-shirt businesses and online videos.
“I always say, you could be Justin Bieber with a million screaming little girl fans,“ said Best. “Or you could be us with maybe a few hundred thousand awesome supporters who are the baddest people on earth.”
The group connected after launching similar small businesses. Palmisciano attended business school at Duke University, then quit a corporate job in 2006 to form Ranger Up, a military-themed T-shirt and apparel retailer in Durham, N.C. Best, who left 2nd Ranger Battalion in 2008, worked for several years as a security contractor before founding Art 15 Clothing with Taylor and Vargas in El Paso, patterned in large part after Ranger Up.
“Ranger Up are the godfathers of the military-apparel clothing space,” Best said.
Both companies sell T-shirts, apparel and collectibles that carry strong military and law enforcement themes and slogan, ranging from wry humor (“Medium Speed, Some Drag”) to bold lifestyle slogans (“Unapologetically American”).
By early 2015, both companies had built large followings through online videos, which tended to feature some mix of R-rated humor, authentic military themes and gear, and lots of fake blood. Among their biggest hits were a Palmisciano video, mimicking a well-known meme, of things “veterans don’t say” (“Where’s the light beer?”), while Best produced several insult-filled battle-raps comparing SEALs, Rangers, MARSOC and other elite units. Many of the jokes from those videos now echo in military circles as widely as lines from “Top Gun” and “Full Metal Jacket” did in previous generations.
But unlike those films, which created a Hollywood version of military life for civilian audiences, Palmisciano and Best say they always intended to connect directly with active-duty fans.
“This movie was a way of showing the community, really, anything is possible,” Palmisciano said. “If we can do this, anybody coming out of the military can do anything.”
While there has never been a shortage of mass-produced military-themed movies and books, few are developed wholly by veterans. But “Range 15″ falls into an emerging trend of young veterans pushing into arts and media. Former Marine Phil Klay won the National Book Award in 2014 for “Redeployment,” a collection of short stories, while another former Marine, Maximilian Uriarte, recently published a graphic novel, “The White Donkey,” based on his experience in and after Iraq. Online, a string of websites like Task & Purpose, War on the Rocks and SOFREP have emerged in recent years, recruiting veteran writers to reflect authentic military experiences.
Keith Jeffreys, whose nonprofit, United States Veterans’ Artists Alliance, runs workshops and provides studio space to veteran artists in Los Angeles, thinks “Range 15″ represents a breakthrough for authentic veteran voices in film and the greater arts world.
“Actors, directors, poets, novelists, cartoonists — everyone will express their experience in a different way,” said Jeffreys. “There are a lot of organizations that are not veteran-centric, that take projects that involved veterans and turn them into products, whether a gallery exhibit or a film. ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ or ‘Hurt Locker’ are examples. Those weren’t a veteran’s story.
“What’s interesting about ‘Range 15′ is the model they chose. Self-produced, self-written, released independent of studios, taking a real entrepreneurial approach.”
The film won the GI Choice Award at the GI Film Festival in Washington in May against a number of films produced by civilians. Despite the topics, said Best, most films at the festival lacked an authentic military voice.
“Civilians or others with very little military experience were bringing products that were either glorifying the military or super negative,” he said. With “Range 15,” Best hopes veterans will be encouraged to pursue artistic instincts that the military might have little use for.
“In the military, it’s cool to see there are so many creative dudes around you that can sing or draw or write,” said Best. “We want to say, ‘If you can use those skills and those you were just taught, you can be very successful in a business sense.’”
During filming, said Palmisciano, the crew’s military instincts helped make up for their total lack of Hollywood experience.
“Even right now I could probably stand on this table and recite the entire movie,” said Palmisciano. “Every character, every single line. All of us among the five principal actors, we know the movie.”
The movie filmed in just over two weeks, a blistering pace for a full-length film.
“Our director told us, the script that you guys want, with all these special effects and fights, it cannot be shot on our budget,” recalled Palmisciano. “You can either outperform every Hollywood actor I’ve ever seen, or we can cut.”
At one point, the group even enlisted fans to solve a vehicle issue that would have left most civilians helpless.
“Our Humvee went down two hours into the first day of shooting,” Palmisciano said. “We needed a slave cable [a military-grade jumper cable]. We put it out on our social media, and some Marines from a local base grabbed a toolkit on their own volition during a workday.”
“We lost about 2½ hours instead of a whole day because some Marines were like, ‘You know what, we’re coming,’” he said. He would not say what base the Marines responded from since they had left post without permission.
Fans like those Marines, said Best, were what motivated the movie from its inception. “When you get to meet a young soldier who is, like, 20 and is like, ‘Dude, I watch your stuff all the time,’ I say, ‘Man, you just got back from Afghanistan doing direct-action raids. You’re the badass.’”
Matt White was a pararescueman in the U.S. Air Force and Alaska Air National Guard.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/07/21/this-might-be-our-communitys-rocky-horror-picture-show-how-a-zombie-movie-made-by-veterans-became-a-hit-with-troops/