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| Syd |
 Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2018 12:03 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Watched the original The Producers again and rediscovered why it has some of my favorite scenes of all times and why I don't find it a comic masterpiece. Gene Wilder as Leo Bloom is brilliant, "Springtime for Hitler" is a classic production number (about the only classic production number Mel Brooks ever did--the ones in Young Frankenstein were more Gene Wilder), and, unfortunately, Zero Mostel was really pretty awful. One vast improvement in the musical version was putting Nathan Lane, a man with actual talent, in the role of Max Bialystock. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2018 1:02 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: NYC
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Syd wrote: ...unfortunately, Zero Mostel was really pretty awful.
I loved Zero--his terrifying and overwhelming effect on poor Leo Bloom was quite believable. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 9:54 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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A Midsummer's Night Dream (1981). Yes, this is the BBC version, and, once I got used to all the actors not being the beautiful people (except for Helen Mirren as Titania, of course), I started to warm to it, especially after Bottom (Brian Glover) wanders off and gets an ass's head for his trouble. He actually looks pretty good and takes the transformation surprisingly well, especially when a bespelled Elf Queen throws himself at him. Bottom doesn't seem particularly besmitten by love (especially since Titania seems quite mad), but bears it with aplomb, and is charmed by Titania's attendants.
The antics of the four lovers is funny, especially when Hermia speculates the two men are besmitten by Helena because the latter is tall and thin, and Helena remarks that she can run away faster because she has long legs (the look on her face makes this funny. At first I thought Helena was insane because I didn't realize that she was Demetrius's fiancee when he became besotted with Hermia. (Which also explains why Hermia doesn't want anything to do with Demetrius, despite him and Hermia's love Lysander being interchangeable.)
In short, this has a lot of charm, climaxed when we see the mechanicals doing Pyramus and Thisbe as a comedy/tragedy, complete with a dumb show before the real thing. (The players do the same in Hamlet, so maybe the dumb show was something they did at the time.)
I've only seen this play once before, about fifty years ago when I saw 1935 version with Mickey Rooney as Puck, and I remember finding him distracting and irritating. I like the Puck in this one better; he's an adult and not adorable, and Puck really shouldn't be. Glover is quite good as Bottom, whether as human or whatchamacallit; he's still the same person inside, and a really pleasant one. Even if he'd like to play Pyramus, Thisbe, the wall AND the Lion. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 11:23 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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| Nick Bottom is my favorite character in all of Shakespeare. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2018 3:30 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Samuel Fuller's White Dog, is the film that Paramount refused to release because they were afraid of a boycott. It concerns an effort to deprogram an attack dog that has been trained to attack black people. (Such a dog is called a white dog, although the title dog is also a white German shepherd.) The guy attempting the deprogramming, incidentally, is black. This does not bode well.
Quite a good film, where the question is how much it is possible to reverse such training which starts with abuse of a puppy. Pretty bleak, and condemning of man for being capable of using his mind to create such a a creature. Although you also have Kristy McNichol as the dog's owner and Paul Winfield as the trainer, both pretty obsessed in trying to reverse the damage. (I would have had the dog put to sleep after the second attack that the owner witnessed.)
Disturbing, powerful film, and Paramount should have released it. Perhaps they were afraid someone might see it and think creating a white dog was a good idea. Though the film is so strongly anti-racism, you'd have to be really sick to get that idea from the film. Fuller was disgusted, and directed all his remaining films in France. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2018 11:41 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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White Dog has some cheesy elements, including the 70's look.
Re-watched Frankenweenie.
Held up real well.
I liked the pace which really zooms along.
On first viewing I liked the weirdo classmates, and they are still good.
There were a few small jokes I didn't recall and might have missed first time. I like how the students end up calling Mr. Razuszki "Mr. Rice Krispies" after a while.
There are a few intentional logic gaps. How does the dog live again with body parts falling off and being full of leaks? Mr. RiceKrispies says that science requires heart and passion for it to work, which is just not a good explanation.
But it's a fun film, looks quite good, has a lot of attention to detail in the background. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2018 4:23 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Get Out: very good satirical horror-comedy that gradually gets eerier until it explodes 55 minutes in. Chris is a black man who feels awkward toward meeting his white girlfriend's family, but they seem friendly but also awkward until he begins to get suspicious, especially toward the mother who is also a hypnotist. And why are the black employees so strange? Deserving of all its nominations, although probably not a winner. Best shot may be Original Screenplay. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2018 11:51 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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It deserves something bald and gold.
Finally saw "Mother!" and found it disappointing and self-indulgently weird, like Terry Gilliam at his worst. The characters are so unreal that they do not rise even to the level of surreal, which I assume was what Aronofsky was going for. I was ready to bail long before J-Law has her newborn baby eaten by cannibalistic fans of her husband. I didn't bail because of some foolish determination on keeping an open mind. Was this film supposed to be a spoof of the Obsessed Artist genre? |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 8:44 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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Saw The Light Between Oceans, with Jude Law* and Alicia Vikander. Deliberate to the point of the glacial. An interesting story, though so long in the telling it was hard to care much. Jude Law** plays a returning ANZAC soldier craving solitude who eagerly (well, "eagerly" implies a level of passion the movie does not allow Jude Law*** to display) accepts the role as the tender of a lighthouse so remote it can only be reached by boat. Off course, the desire for solitude per se do0es not preclude the need for the occasional emission of sperm, and Alicia Vikander is available so in a slow backward way, Law**** does not so much propose as hint at marriage. Law***** and Vikander have lots of sex but no surviving babies and so opt - Vikander with gusto, Law****** only after a good fifteen to twenty minutes of brooding and doubt - to raise a foundling who washes up in a row boat with a dead man as their own. Of course, there is a mother out there somewhere and eventually she appears in the person of Rachel Weisz and something approaching action and drama happens. My wife cried through the last twenty minutes or so, if that helps.
Beautifully shot, well acted by Law******* and Vikander. And a decent story that takes so long in the telling that I could barely hold on/
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* Actually Michael Fassbender
** Actually Michael Fassbender
*** Actually Michael Fassbender
**** Fassbender
***** Fassbender
****** Fassbender
******* You get the point. Every time Fassbender came on screen I had to disabuse myself of the notion that it was Jude Law. Not sure why. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 9:29 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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I hope you enjoyed writing that review as much as I enjoyed reading it, wp.
Other reports on this movie led me to think The Light between Oceans should be dumped into the oceans. This was partly owing to a personal bias regarding plots about lighthouse keepers, a bias upon which I should probably train the Fresnel lens of reason. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2018 4:10 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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| The movie gives you plenty of time to contemplate the differences between Jude Law and Michael Fassbender. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 6:27 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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| She didn't marry Law (in real life). |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 6:55 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| They were both cast to play Thomas Wolfe in "Genius." It went to Law when Fassbender dropped out. I don't know if he fought the Law and the Law won. Probably a schedule conflict. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2018 8:35 pm |
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Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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Befade wrote: She didn't marry Law (in real life). |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 12:31 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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| Just follow enough social media to know she married Fassbender. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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