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| Syd |
 Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2018 6:45 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Befade wrote: By the by, Syd.....did you like Wonderful?
I saw Jumanji and Pitch Perfect 3. I thought Jumanji was clever....Bethany reminded me of my granddaughter who was sitting next to me. Ruby's dancing had my autistic grandson hiding his face and squeaking protests on my other side. I enjoyed Pitch with my granddaughter who is really into singing and dancing.
I feel the need to see 5 more current adult films........
Wonderful's okay and I've seen it three or four times, but it's not my favorite Christmas film. (That would probably be the original "Miracle on 34th Street," or maybe "Millions.") I'd probably like IAWL better if it wasn't overexposed. And Mr. Potter still got away with grand larceny. |
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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: Mon Jan 08, 2018 9:38 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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It's hard enough applying the paddles to Current and shouting "clear" and listening for a pulse - if it keeps derailing onto a 1940s track, then I will have to give up on posting review comments on the more recent stuff. Could you all move that chat to Couch?
Has anyone besides Knox seen Downsizing or Darkest Hour? Or Greatest Showman? Or All the Money? Or...?
And why has moderator Weeden vanished again? Crimony, if people don't want to post here at 3rd Eye, can they just say so, issue a farewell, and let the rest know not to expect comments from them? |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2018 3:03 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Downsizing was a mess. It begins with ordinary people talking about ordinary dissatisfactions with their lives. Then the scientific breakthrough which will make life more abundant......shrinking people to 5" tall. A sales pitch that works for the ordinary couple from Omaha.
Then there is a hilarious scene in the medical center where the shrinking takes place. Up to this point the movie is very watchable. But after the shrinking disappointment sets in. The expected lavish life style doesn't deliver.
Now switch to a scene of drug fueled partying and the revelation that there's some illegitimate stuff going on.
Now switch to a really depressing scenario where the house keeper lives.
Finally a trip to Norway where the shrinking began. And an invitation to join a new underground paradise.
These parts just don't fit together. On the other hand, a movie like The Shape of Water puts a bunch of different story lines together in a beautiful and satisfying way. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2018 6:02 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| bartist: I commented on The Greatest Showman one page back when we were still in the 21st century. |
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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: Tue Jan 09, 2018 9:58 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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Oops. Thanks. We saw TGS this afternoon and had similar reactions. Songs were unmemorable and yes, hard to distinguish, but advanced the storyline okay. Lovely to look at, highly kinetic, and like most 21st century films, it managed to deliver a pot of message about the empowering and inclusive.
Phineas Barnum, champion of social advancement for midgets, bearded ladies, and freaks generally.
Would have been interesting to hear an actual song that Jenny Lind would have sung on her tour - surely those are all public domain by now. But that would be boring for the younguns, I gather. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 1:53 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Picked up:
The Other Side of Hope - Aki Kaurismaki
The Florida Project
Wonderstruck
Also, there were a handful that sounded interesting, and I was wondering if anyone here has seen or has an opinion on:
Columbus
Rams (Icelandic film)
Lonely (Russian)
Goodbye Christopher Robin
Mother |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 8:26 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Thought Wonderstruck was like a children's afterschool special with expensive set design. It wasn't interesting, even annoying at times, while the period clothes and sets were just too fussy and sterile. Like they copied everything faithfully, but breathed no life into them.
This seemed aimed at young target audience, and largely happened without me. Everything with the black kid whose Dad is a Museum guard was bad, especially the kid's acting.
The Florida Project on the other hand is a pretty terrific almost-too-lived-in display of the lower class. Tattoos and cigarettes and cursing -- you know good ol' Trumpmerica. You feel bad for the kids even as they have fun exploring the area. While the absurd and surreal edge of Disney location is a character in its own right. A depressing film about kids growing up with moms who are childish themselves, amidst the weirdness of Florida. An impressive document of the times and decay of the USofA. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 11:23 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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I want to see TFP, but in good ol' America, the DVD release date is Feb. 13th.
I wonder if Norwegians get it sooner. I've heard, from our POTUS, that Norway is not a shithole. Around 1900, however, it was, at least where my ancestors were living. Kind of the whole point of immigration, a matter on which our POTUS seems confused. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 10:34 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| I find it interesting that the word "shithole" is getting so much more attention than the basic impulse behind Trump's comment. Would it have been okay if he had called them "garbage countries"? As for whether he's a racist--well, duh. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 9:06 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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So there's Trump praising Norway, a country with probably the most generous social welfare system in the world, as he's busy undermining the US safety net. Why would Norwegians want to come to America?(except to maybe visit our natural parks as tourists)
Immigration has long been a boon to the US, getting hardworking cheap labor in, creaming off the best educated (from Europe in the 30's & 40's, from Asia in the 90's- present), seasonal farm laborers from Mexico and points south to ensure cheap food, etc.
But I'm really worried about these immigrants who come to the US and take 7-11 jobs away from honest Americans . . . |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 7:40 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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"The Post" is a wonderfully scripted dramatization of the courageous stand taken by The Washington Post in publishing the Pentagon Papers in 1971. It was written by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer (Josh Singer won the Oscar for "Spotlight").
Both Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, in my view, reach heights they have never reached before. This cannot be said however for Meryl Streep. How can one climb pinnacles higher than the ones she has climbed before?
The movie was criticized for not giving due recognition to The New York Times for being the first to launch this risky venture. I think the criticism is unfair. The Times does get enough credit.
Since the movie is a paean to freedom of the press, it is a timely slap on Trump's face.
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 9:26 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Can't decide if I want to see The Post.
I never liked All The President's Men . . .
Picked up Dunkirk, Detroit, the Salinger film (Rebel in the Rye), and (Thurgood) Marshall.
Would have nabbed Brigsby Bear, but there was a crescent shaped scratch across disc radius.
Mudbound looked like a maybe.
Anyone have thoughts on that?
Also The Search (?) by Hazanivicius (will check spelling and title later).
THoughts on any of those? |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 4:42 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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I quite enjoyed Marshall.
It focuses on one early case in his long legal career, and a case in which Thurgood Marshall is constrained in court at that. A very solid courtroom film, with good acting, and a message that is direct but not preachy. It shows Marshall as a brilliant lawyer who also makes mistakes at times. It's also a good reminder how racist the North (and really the whole country) was/is -- Connecticut in this case.
Timely in a way in these days of sexual assault accusations.
One mystery is how/why this was funded by China.
The end credits had three associate exec producers from China, China Export-Import Bank listed, etc. Seems suspicious that mainland China would fund a film that criticizes a rigged justice system that treats minorities badly, and where civil rights attorneys are the heroes (and get beaten up). I'll need to look into that . . . |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 9:13 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Ghulam wrote: .
"The Post" is a wonderfully scripted dramatization of the courageous stand taken by The Washington Post in publishing the Pentagon Papers in 1971. It was written by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer (Josh Singer won the Oscar for "Spotlight").
Both Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, in my view, reach heights they have never reached before. This cannot be said however for Meryl Streep. How can one climb pinnacles higher than the ones she has climbed before?
The movie was criticized for not giving due recognition to The New York Times for being the first to launch this risky venture. I think the criticism is unfair. The Times does get enough credit.
Since the movie is a paean to freedom of the press, it is a timely slap on Trump's face.
The New York Times gets a lot of credit. At one point the entire staff of the Post is reading the the Times, chagrined that they were scooped and their headline was Tricia Nixon's wedding. Then things get hot for them, too...
Excellent movie, fine cast and exciting story, with a great performance by Streep, but lots of good supporting performances as well, including the actors playing Ellsberg and McNamara. (Robert McNamara was a long-time friend of Kay Grayson; probably not so much after the events of this film.) I loved the twinge of uncertainty when Kay makes the most important decision of her life. Also lovingly played is the difficulty of women getting men to take them seriously, even when the woman is the owner of the freaking newspaper. I liked it better than Spotlight, which was pretty damned good. Who knew collation could be exciting? |
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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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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 1:39 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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Syd, I too thought it is better than "Spotlight". Much better dramatization and greater complexity of the issues involved.
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