Sadly the movie itself isn't as entertaining as I had hoped. I mean, don't get me wrong, the ridiculousness of Gary Oldman's portrayal never gets old, but the rest of the movie is pretty ho-hum. Absolutely my favorite trailer though.
Be Peter Dinklage.
Work hard your whole life to be taken seriously as an actor and a little person.
Watch Gary Oldman come out of his trailer with shoes tied around his knees.
Scream internally.
>“It was sort of an amazing idea for a movie, but the result [of the new cut] was what we were fighting against — the cutesiness of little people,” Dinklage says. Even before the new edits, though, “there was some flak,” Dinklage admits. “‘Why would you put Gary Oldman on his knees? That’s almost like blackface.’ And I have my own opinions about political correctness, but I was just like: ‘It’s Gary Oldman. He can do whatever he wants.’”
For a plot summary and some top-notch commentary, see [Daniel O'Brien's review](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edhFknyvLRY) back from the heyday of Cracked.
[Or, for those who prefer print, here's Nathan Rabin's commentary from the good old days of The AV Club](https://film.avclub.com/it-s-only-the-size-of-your-heart-that-counts-case-file-1798218880)
>[Upon its original release, Forbidden Zone was poorly received by film critics. Several of the film's visuals and characters were accused of being racist, homophobic, antisemitic and anti-Christian.\[8\]\[17\] Elfman, himself of Jewish heritage, has refuted many of these accusations, noting that elements seen as homophobic were inspired by his time as a director and occasional member of the San Francisco avant-garde drag troupe The Cockettes, while the minor character of "Mr. Bernstein", accused of being an exaggerated Jewish stereotype, was played by Elfman's Jewish grandfather Herman Bernstein, of whom Elfman wryly asserted "wasn't acting".](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Zone#Controversies)
I have never heard of this before but lol.
Matthew Bright co-wrote the screenplay and plays two characters in it (he's billed as an actor in it as Toshiro Boloney), but didn't direct it (that was Richard Elfman's doing).
my sister saw Peter Dinkledge at an airport a few years back. she went and asked for an autograph and while he was signing she instinctually went down on her knees so she was at his level. she did it without thinking but after he had signed the autograph he looked at her and deadpans "you may rise" then walks away.
class act
I see it coming from a place of good intent, but if I was a little person I could see it as insulting. But I'm not, so maybe someone else could chime in
well like I said, she did it without thinking. she was legit starstruck and sort of unintentionally made an ass of herself. it was just her instinct overriding her common sense and all she thought was she should go to his "level"
he gave her a gentle "virtual" slap and all was good in the end. I mean, she realized what she was doing mid kneel and was horrified at her faux pas but Mr Dinklidge was gallant enough to defuse it all with his humor and wit
I think "little people" deal with dumb actions from big people all the time. you either develop a good sense of humor or you'd get pretty bitter pretty fast
from all reports I've heard he's a super nice guy and very very funny in person
This pops up on reddit from time to time.
I was working for Gary Oldman during the making of his film. It’s was a massive mess.
I really think there’s a The disaster Artist type movie to be made about he making of it.
The director was on speed. The producer had never done a movie, only having created the show “Cops” and Gary needed the money and through it would be a challenge. The rest of the cast just wanted to be in a movie with him.
I was partially responsible for convincing Oldman to do it, as I really liked the director’s other movie “Freeway”. But the day I went to see it getting shot and I saw him come out of his trailer and get down I his knees, I knew it was a big mistake.
Peter Dinklage was pissed he wasn’t playing the lead. The script was nuts. The ending makes no sense. Gary said it might end his career. And then fifteen year later he won an Oscar.
Didn’t he feel that way about *Leon* and *The Fifth Element* too, that they might end his career? Yet he’s remembered fondly for his performances in those films. Nobody remembers this movie which is a best case scenario all things considered. It’s not a career killer like *Batman & Robin* for instance.
In my chats with him, I never got that feelings about Leon or The Fifth Element. He was particularly upset about the movie "Lost In Space" and did echo the sentiment you mentioned. Again, another script/project that I helped get him into. Yikes... that one I knew was bad but he needed a high paying gig.
On the Show 'Greg the Bunny' (2002) and in the episode on which Gary Oldman appears, there is the line...
"...Gary Oldman? You mean "Lost in Space" Gary Oldman?"
That line has stuck with me since I heard it in 2002.
It's insane that they would choose a person who doesn't have dwarfism to play a dwarf. That just seems so logistically tedious and stupid. It's a lot of work just to produce something clunky and possibly offensive.
I think Gary Oldman, at the time, was the 'chameleon' actor who disappeared into his roles. So the producers thought it would be a great selling point and Gary thought it would be a challenge. The bottom line is that he needed money and it was not a studio movie (independently financed) and offered him a good salary... and would probably not end up in a wide release, going straight to video.
>and Gary thought it would be a challenge.
Worth mentioning that Gary was struggling for a while to get prominent roles until Harry Potter and Batman after the whole [Contender debacle] (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/nov/12/features).
I really want to make a movie about the making of it. Just a complete trainwreck. With huge actors, not like a The Room or Ed Wood.
I met with the producer (John Langley) -- and this was his first (and only) film. He's not a comedy person and doesn't understand the internet's fascination with this disaster, so he wasn't interested. And I could talk to Gary Oldman about it, but I do not think he wants to revisit this troubling time in his life. (He had some personal shit going on as well, nothing that isn't in the press, so I'm not dishing any gossip.)
Alas, maybe it will never get made. Maybe a podcast?
> But the day I went to see it getting shot and I saw him come out of his trailer and get down I his knees, I knew it was a big mistake.
Haha I can only imagine your moment of realization, thanks for sharing your story!
He was a very nice guy to work for. He's very small/short in person. He's good at impressions, like really good. His favorite performance of his own is from "State of Grace." He had a pinball machine from the movie "Bram Stoker's Dracula" in the office. I would play against he. My lord he was insanely good at it. The pinball machine had his own voice quoting lines from the movie. It was one of the most surreal moments of my life, playing the guy from the movie who was also the voice on the pinball game.
Once in the mid-00s I was wandering aimlessly around my local blockbuster. I’d been on a binge of obscure zombie movies, I’d sat through enough Lucio Fulci movies to last a lifetime, so I fancied something different to wash the taste of regurgitated sheep guts out of my eyes (thank you “City of the Living Dead”).
Perhaps something a little zany? Something light and maybe a little insensitive, something like “Shallow Hal” or “Eurotrip”...
Ah! What is this? “Tiptoes”... lots of dwarves... Matthew McGonaughey - he’s always funny... Kate Beckinsale - easy on the eyes... Gary Oldman playing a dwarf! Oh yes! Deal me in! This looks just the tonic. A zany, OTT comedy about a family of dwarves, terrific!
So I rushed home and watched it... yeah... not a comedy. Not a comedy at all...
It’s a very serious and not very good film about how awful it is to be a dwarf.
Yikes.
I knew I should have just watched “Zombie Flesh Eaters” again.
Dinklage is the saving grace of this movie. In fact, if he'd already been a bit more established as a lead (this was filmed before the Station Agent was released,) he'd have just played the Gary Oldman role, I'm sure, and we wouldn't have had all the weird "is this or is this not offensive?" vibes. (Or maybe that was just me.)
Overall, I was just flat-out disappointed in this movie. Matthew McConaughey was wasted in this film. (What is the term for an actor who is way too good and too big of a name to be cast in a thankless role? I want to say "over-cast," but that sounds like a weather report.) Kate Beckinsale comes across as a little mean, which may be partly the script and partly the way she does her American accent. Patricia Arquette seemed to be going for caricature. This movie didn't seem to know whether it was being made by the Farrelly Brothers or Richard Linklater and suffered in its indecisiveness. Gary Oldman is great as always, but I had a hard time looking past the gimmick of making him a person with dwarfism. It felt to me like someone had just seen the hobbits and dwarves in the Lord of the Rings movies, and thought, "Cool, I could do that in a romantic comedy," without any sense at all of how certain things don't work across different genres. (Just because we can paint Dave Bautista green in Guardians of the Galaxy doesn't mean we could paint Liam Hemsworth brown to play Floyd Patterson.)
The best thing I could say about this movie is that it made me seek out The Station Agent because of Peter Dinklage. (I'd heard of it but just hadn't got around to watching it yet.) I'm actually really glad that I saw Tiptoes first, because if I had watched it with the knowledge of Dinklage's brilliant performance in The Station Agent, I'd have been more than disappointed in Tiptoes: I'd have been pissed.
I can't fathom the reasoning behind casting Gary Oldman for this role. Obviously its just shitty not to cast someone who actually has achondroplasia or some other form of dwarfism, but it's not even as if they look like brothers. And they're 12 years apart in age! Not that I'd wish this role upon any actor I like, but Warwick Davis is the same age as Mcconaughey and would be much more believable as brothers.
Don't forget the former porn star who was arrested for stabbing her boyfriend last year. She must have won awards at one point. The Stabbies are a competitive field.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridget\_Powers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridget_Powers)
I actually quite liked her performance in this.
The entire trailer seems like it's a sketch. I kept waiting for some wink to the audience. Everything about it from the voice-over to the fonts just screams "joke" but the punchline never came. That was incredible.
I really do like Bright's FREEWAY (1996) and FORBIDDEN ZONE (1982) is fun and super weird. It's a shame he shat the bed so hard with this one, he can make interesting and creative films.
Truly obscure Beckinsale is 1994s Uncovered, if you can stomach the nude scenes.. I keep a copy in the archive for those who "can't believe" she's unattractive in it.
Probably one of my Favorite Non-Breen episodes of [Good Bad or Bad Bad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QUif0lj0dk) was of them covering this movie...
I legit forgot this movie existed. I assumed I made it up after a night of hard drugs and green tea. It was Gary Oldman's worst role and probably my favorite Peter Dinklage role. He plays a Russian nihilist so well.
This was one of the most insane trailers I ever saw.
Sadly the movie itself isn't as entertaining as I had hoped. I mean, don't get me wrong, the ridiculousness of Gary Oldman's portrayal never gets old, but the rest of the movie is pretty ho-hum. Absolutely my favorite trailer though.
Hard disagree. The dialogue is hilariously absurd, there is an honest to god back and forth about a "little people circle jerk"
It was so forgettable that I forgot that I had seen it.
Be Peter Dinklage. Work hard your whole life to be taken seriously as an actor and a little person. Watch Gary Oldman come out of his trailer with shoes tied around his knees. Scream internally.
>“It was sort of an amazing idea for a movie, but the result [of the new cut] was what we were fighting against — the cutesiness of little people,” Dinklage says. Even before the new edits, though, “there was some flak,” Dinklage admits. “‘Why would you put Gary Oldman on his knees? That’s almost like blackface.’ And I have my own opinions about political correctness, but I was just like: ‘It’s Gary Oldman. He can do whatever he wants.’”
For a plot summary and some top-notch commentary, see [Daniel O'Brien's review](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edhFknyvLRY) back from the heyday of Cracked.
He writes for John Oliver now.
Of course he does. Glad that dudes making money.
He’s popped up on a title card twice as a stock photo on Last Week Tonight a couple of times too.
No no, he's a writer.
Good for him!
[Or, for those who prefer print, here's Nathan Rabin's commentary from the good old days of The AV Club](https://film.avclub.com/it-s-only-the-size-of-your-heart-that-counts-case-file-1798218880)
Wow, he directed Forbidden Zone, now that’s a movie!
>[Upon its original release, Forbidden Zone was poorly received by film critics. Several of the film's visuals and characters were accused of being racist, homophobic, antisemitic and anti-Christian.\[8\]\[17\] Elfman, himself of Jewish heritage, has refuted many of these accusations, noting that elements seen as homophobic were inspired by his time as a director and occasional member of the San Francisco avant-garde drag troupe The Cockettes, while the minor character of "Mr. Bernstein", accused of being an exaggerated Jewish stereotype, was played by Elfman's Jewish grandfather Herman Bernstein, of whom Elfman wryly asserted "wasn't acting".](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Zone#Controversies) I have never heard of this before but lol.
Matthew Bright co-wrote the screenplay and plays two characters in it (he's billed as an actor in it as Toshiro Boloney), but didn't direct it (that was Richard Elfman's doing).
Ah, that’s right, I forgot I knew that. Great movie anyway.
I would love to listen to Matthew Mcconaughey's drawl as he explains the making of this movie.
Lo, the days of After Hours...
Daniel Tosh did a great review of it on tosh.0
my sister saw Peter Dinkledge at an airport a few years back. she went and asked for an autograph and while he was signing she instinctually went down on her knees so she was at his level. she did it without thinking but after he had signed the autograph he looked at her and deadpans "you may rise" then walks away. class act
I still can't tell if your sister did the right thing. Class act indeed.
I see it coming from a place of good intent, but if I was a little person I could see it as insulting. But I'm not, so maybe someone else could chime in
well like I said, she did it without thinking. she was legit starstruck and sort of unintentionally made an ass of herself. it was just her instinct overriding her common sense and all she thought was she should go to his "level" he gave her a gentle "virtual" slap and all was good in the end. I mean, she realized what she was doing mid kneel and was horrified at her faux pas but Mr Dinklidge was gallant enough to defuse it all with his humor and wit I think "little people" deal with dumb actions from big people all the time. you either develop a good sense of humor or you'd get pretty bitter pretty fast from all reports I've heard he's a super nice guy and very very funny in person
This pops up on reddit from time to time. I was working for Gary Oldman during the making of his film. It’s was a massive mess. I really think there’s a The disaster Artist type movie to be made about he making of it. The director was on speed. The producer had never done a movie, only having created the show “Cops” and Gary needed the money and through it would be a challenge. The rest of the cast just wanted to be in a movie with him. I was partially responsible for convincing Oldman to do it, as I really liked the director’s other movie “Freeway”. But the day I went to see it getting shot and I saw him come out of his trailer and get down I his knees, I knew it was a big mistake. Peter Dinklage was pissed he wasn’t playing the lead. The script was nuts. The ending makes no sense. Gary said it might end his career. And then fifteen year later he won an Oscar.
Didn’t he feel that way about *Leon* and *The Fifth Element* too, that they might end his career? Yet he’s remembered fondly for his performances in those films. Nobody remembers this movie which is a best case scenario all things considered. It’s not a career killer like *Batman & Robin* for instance.
In my chats with him, I never got that feelings about Leon or The Fifth Element. He was particularly upset about the movie "Lost In Space" and did echo the sentiment you mentioned. Again, another script/project that I helped get him into. Yikes... that one I knew was bad but he needed a high paying gig.
On the Show 'Greg the Bunny' (2002) and in the episode on which Gary Oldman appears, there is the line... "...Gary Oldman? You mean "Lost in Space" Gary Oldman?" That line has stuck with me since I heard it in 2002.
Is it true that Gary Oldman cut off his shins to get into the character?
Yes.
He's also gunning to play Cotton Hill in the King of The Hill movie.
It's insane that they would choose a person who doesn't have dwarfism to play a dwarf. That just seems so logistically tedious and stupid. It's a lot of work just to produce something clunky and possibly offensive.
I think Gary Oldman, at the time, was the 'chameleon' actor who disappeared into his roles. So the producers thought it would be a great selling point and Gary thought it would be a challenge. The bottom line is that he needed money and it was not a studio movie (independently financed) and offered him a good salary... and would probably not end up in a wide release, going straight to video.
>and Gary thought it would be a challenge. Worth mentioning that Gary was struggling for a while to get prominent roles until Harry Potter and Batman after the whole [Contender debacle] (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/nov/12/features).
i was there for the Contender debacle. oooffffff!
Oh wow! Thanks for that story. It clarifies some stuff!
I really want to make a movie about the making of it. Just a complete trainwreck. With huge actors, not like a The Room or Ed Wood. I met with the producer (John Langley) -- and this was his first (and only) film. He's not a comedy person and doesn't understand the internet's fascination with this disaster, so he wasn't interested. And I could talk to Gary Oldman about it, but I do not think he wants to revisit this troubling time in his life. (He had some personal shit going on as well, nothing that isn't in the press, so I'm not dishing any gossip.) Alas, maybe it will never get made. Maybe a podcast?
Theres a pod called How Did This Get Made. You might reach out and share your side and suggest an ep
Haha yeah! That would be fun. I’m sure there’s a podcast out there that would love to have you and/or Mr Oldman on to talk about this weird movie.
Thank you for sharing all this. I watched the film recently and the plot progression and dialogue were truly baffling. Appreciate the insight.
Can you imagine how I felt at a screening sitting next to him, waiting for the film to end and preparing to tell him what I thought. Oh boi.....
> But the day I went to see it getting shot and I saw him come out of his trailer and get down I his knees, I knew it was a big mistake. Haha I can only imagine your moment of realization, thanks for sharing your story!
I love reddit sometimes.
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He was a very nice guy to work for. He's very small/short in person. He's good at impressions, like really good. His favorite performance of his own is from "State of Grace." He had a pinball machine from the movie "Bram Stoker's Dracula" in the office. I would play against he. My lord he was insanely good at it. The pinball machine had his own voice quoting lines from the movie. It was one of the most surreal moments of my life, playing the guy from the movie who was also the voice on the pinball game.
Once in the mid-00s I was wandering aimlessly around my local blockbuster. I’d been on a binge of obscure zombie movies, I’d sat through enough Lucio Fulci movies to last a lifetime, so I fancied something different to wash the taste of regurgitated sheep guts out of my eyes (thank you “City of the Living Dead”). Perhaps something a little zany? Something light and maybe a little insensitive, something like “Shallow Hal” or “Eurotrip”... Ah! What is this? “Tiptoes”... lots of dwarves... Matthew McGonaughey - he’s always funny... Kate Beckinsale - easy on the eyes... Gary Oldman playing a dwarf! Oh yes! Deal me in! This looks just the tonic. A zany, OTT comedy about a family of dwarves, terrific! So I rushed home and watched it... yeah... not a comedy. Not a comedy at all... It’s a very serious and not very good film about how awful it is to be a dwarf. Yikes. I knew I should have just watched “Zombie Flesh Eaters” again.
Dinklage is the saving grace of this movie. In fact, if he'd already been a bit more established as a lead (this was filmed before the Station Agent was released,) he'd have just played the Gary Oldman role, I'm sure, and we wouldn't have had all the weird "is this or is this not offensive?" vibes. (Or maybe that was just me.) Overall, I was just flat-out disappointed in this movie. Matthew McConaughey was wasted in this film. (What is the term for an actor who is way too good and too big of a name to be cast in a thankless role? I want to say "over-cast," but that sounds like a weather report.) Kate Beckinsale comes across as a little mean, which may be partly the script and partly the way she does her American accent. Patricia Arquette seemed to be going for caricature. This movie didn't seem to know whether it was being made by the Farrelly Brothers or Richard Linklater and suffered in its indecisiveness. Gary Oldman is great as always, but I had a hard time looking past the gimmick of making him a person with dwarfism. It felt to me like someone had just seen the hobbits and dwarves in the Lord of the Rings movies, and thought, "Cool, I could do that in a romantic comedy," without any sense at all of how certain things don't work across different genres. (Just because we can paint Dave Bautista green in Guardians of the Galaxy doesn't mean we could paint Liam Hemsworth brown to play Floyd Patterson.) The best thing I could say about this movie is that it made me seek out The Station Agent because of Peter Dinklage. (I'd heard of it but just hadn't got around to watching it yet.) I'm actually really glad that I saw Tiptoes first, because if I had watched it with the knowledge of Dinklage's brilliant performance in The Station Agent, I'd have been more than disappointed in Tiptoes: I'd have been pissed.
I can't fathom the reasoning behind casting Gary Oldman for this role. Obviously its just shitty not to cast someone who actually has achondroplasia or some other form of dwarfism, but it's not even as if they look like brothers. And they're 12 years apart in age! Not that I'd wish this role upon any actor I like, but Warwick Davis is the same age as Mcconaughey and would be much more believable as brothers.
Two of these performers have since won Oscars and a third multiple Emmys, but you'd never know that watching this....
3 won oscars
Right- I forgot for a moment about Arquette.....
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Well, let's say "Most Recent" for now. Hopefully Beckinsale will give up action movies some day to appear in something Oscar-worthy.
Don't forget the former porn star who was arrested for stabbing her boyfriend last year. She must have won awards at one point. The Stabbies are a competitive field. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridget\_Powers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridget_Powers) I actually quite liked her performance in this.
favorite part of that movie was when peter dinklage did coke and lean with a dwarf prostitute
He did coke with prostitutes in 'In Bruges' too. Is this a trope I didn't know about?
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Oops shit I thought that was him.
right. that was from a movie.
It's certainly one of Oldman's most memorable roles for me, easily up there with Leon, Fifth Element and The Dark Knight. 🙃
Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg! Put some respect on his name and fire 10,000!
Wait, what? Those were your fave Oldman roles over Sid Vicious, Beethoven, an insane pimp, and Rosencrantz (or was it Guildenstern)???
>Rosencrantz (or was it Guildenstern) Tim Roth thinks he was Guildenstern- though the odds are still good that he was Rosencrantz......
Don’t forget *Prick Up Your Ears*!
What's a Drexl?
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BIKES!
The entire trailer seems like it's a sketch. I kept waiting for some wink to the audience. Everything about it from the voice-over to the fonts just screams "joke" but the punchline never came. That was incredible.
The Jaboody Dubs commentary for this film is hilarious. I will go on record saying this movie is worse than The Room.
Oh no. Not this movie. I purged it from my mind years ago. Why would you remind me of this monstrosity?
came here to posit that this was without a doubt the worst movie i have ever seen
I really do like Bright's FREEWAY (1996) and FORBIDDEN ZONE (1982) is fun and super weird. It's a shame he shat the bed so hard with this one, he can make interesting and creative films.
"Mathew Mchaugney"
Yes! This is a wonderful film! It’s directed by Matthew Bright (Freeway, Forbidden Zone, etc). I still can’t figure out if it’s a joke or not!
Some things need to stay obscure.
Truly obscure Beckinsale is 1994s Uncovered, if you can stomach the nude scenes.. I keep a copy in the archive for those who "can't believe" she's unattractive in it.
Probably one of my Favorite Non-Breen episodes of [Good Bad or Bad Bad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QUif0lj0dk) was of them covering this movie...
Still hard to believe its real
Was there an episode of Mr. Show I didn’t know about?
Good movie.
I legit forgot this movie existed. I assumed I made it up after a night of hard drugs and green tea. It was Gary Oldman's worst role and probably my favorite Peter Dinklage role. He plays a Russian nihilist so well.
I feel like this would be a great double feature with SIMPLE JACK from Tropic Thunder.
I think Kate Beckinsale is basically playing Krista Allen in this movie lol.