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[MOVIE] FEBRUARY 2016 DISCUSSION


RIPPA

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On another topic, I finally watched pretty much all of Dune today as it was on BBC America and I caught it in time. I've only seen maybe 45 minutes to an hour of the end of it. Completely incomprehensible, but cool looking film that will baffle you in all kinds of ways -- like for example, how did they get these four in one frame and not have the film in the camera melt from the talent level, and still be an utter mess? 

 

Dune-5.jpg

 

Oh, and it also has two of my all time film crushes in it: Sean Young and Virginia Madsen. How the fuck THAT happened is really beyond me. Just watching the end credits roll is madcap. 

 

Whoops, make that three if you count Alicia Witt, though she was a toddler then. That's how freaky the cast is. There's a toddler-age Alicia Witt for no reason whatsoever. WITH SPEAKING PARTS.

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Whoops, make that three if you count Alicia Witt, though she was a toddler then. That's how freaky the cast is. There's a toddler-age Alicia Witt for no reason whatsoever. WITH SPEAKING PARTS.

In her debut role, as Paul's creepy little sister. She even kills the main villain, and does so with her bare hands! AND speaks the final lines in the movie. No wonder she's had such a bizarre career, after an introduction like that.

But overall, yeah, Dune is one of the most bizarre collections of an all-time great cast, even though they're lost at sea with the inexplicable material. "We need a bunch of people for fairly irrelevant characters who were complex people in the book but in the movie they just show up in two scenes and then die... get me Brad Dourif, Linda Hunt, Dean Stockwell, and Max von Sydow!"

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Seeing Dean Stockwell made me laugh my ass off. Brad Dourif was suitably twitchy, and then of course later in the day Child's Play came on again (I think it's on again right now) so go figure. Dourif Saturday

 

And Sting standing there dripping with sweat and completely nude aside from a thong made out of I think rubber wings was really fucking bizarre. Then he's holding a plastic box with a tied up cat and rat inside?!

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My wife and i rented Dune a few years ago and had this conversation about it:

 

Wife: "You know, at times it almost seems like there's a good movie in there trying to get out."
 

Me: "Yep.  Unfortunately for the filmmakers, that good movie did get out.  Then it hauled ass away from the rest of this mess and was never heard from again."

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Also, there's a sliding scale when it comes to these sorts of things. The Pianist is a dark fuckin' movie about the Holocaust, but the atrocities in that one aren't quite as soul-searing as Schindler's List on the same topic. And neither of them have ANYTHING on something like Men Behind the Sun, which is just one of the most appalling experiences I've ever had while watching what's technically a "good movie".

 

Trainspotting and Requiem for a Dream spring to mind.

 

They're both very dark, unflinching films about the sheer horror of drug abuse, but at least Trainspotting has some funny lines and the occasional spot of hope.

 

Requiem for a Dream, however, I simply couldn't sit through again. It's too much.

 

Trainspotting gets the exact same point across and it's also far more watchable and not nearly as preachy. 

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The sequel to Trainspotting's coming out next year, you know. They haven't decided if it'll have the same title as the book though.

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I've never seen Trainspotting and now seeing that little tidbit makes me never want to see it.

 

For real: It's one of the few films better than the novel it was based off of. 

 

And I quite liked the book, too. But the film totally blows it away.

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Watched 2 good movies this weekend.

1. SICARIOOOOOOO. I liked this movie, but I think I liked the way it was made a lot more than the actual story it was telling. This was Villeneuve officially announcing himself as ready for the big time....so of course, all Hollywood has for him is the goddamn BLADE RUNNER sequel. Ugh. Better or worse than a superhero movie? I dunno. Anyway, all of the phenomenal cinematography and editing was undermined by a story where the main character is completely irrelevant to the plot. Seriously, it's another one of those movies where everything would've happened exactly the same if the main character wasn't in it. The great Emily Blunt - our next great action hero, if there was any justice in the world - is totally wasted as an ineffectual character who is just there for the men to explain things to and then be apalled and/or sob in reaction to whatever that is.

I also felt like the over-the-top nature of the action and the CIA's activities hampered my ability to take the film seriously as a rebuke of the drug war. As entertained as I was, at no point did I think this was in any way a real thing.

2. MISSISSIPPI GRIND. Terrific movie. This is the one with Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendehlson gambling their way down the Mississip on the way to big home game. The plot is very loose, but the interplay between Reynolds and Mendehlson elevate it beyond the slight, Indie trifle it might otherwise be.

This is the performance of Reynolds' career, which I realize is not a high bar to clear, but what makes it really stand out is the fact that it's not a reinvention of himself or an overtly ACTORLY! performance. It's Reynolds doing his usual Reynolds thing, but reframed in the context of a lonely guy who gambles out of a desperate need to connect with people. And it works. And Mendehlson, for his part, takes your standard sad sack, down-on-his-luck gambler character and refines it to the point that it doesn't feel so familiar.

There are innumerable movies devoted to exploring the depths of the lows of a gambler on a bad run, but very few that accurately capture the feeling of the highs that keep addicts locked into the cycle - especially the small-time highs of small-time players like these two. This movie hits all the highs and lows, and by the end, the guys have been up and down so many times, you realize it doesn't matter if the movie ends with them on a win or taking a beat, because they're never going to change. They'll be right back at the table or on the rail tomorrow.

I would actually be way more interested in seeing a movie about the continuing adventures of Curtis and Gerry than the proposed sequel to SICARIO about Alejandro.

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Rented Grease yesterday after the live TV the previous weekend... first time probably in decades where I watched it all the way through and it still holds up quite nicely. Watching it as an adult you really pick up on the stuff you aren't necessarily supposed to be focusing on, such as Jon "Bowzer" Bauman mugging away like a fucking fiend during the dance contest. Makes me wish "Sha Na Na" was still on TV somewhere.

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Now watch Grease 2.

 

Having been in a house that got HBO for awhile in 1984-1988 or so, I've seen GREASE 2 probably as many times as I've seen STAR WARS.

 

It was like a daily loop on HBO:

 

MIDNIGHT MADNESS

GREASE 2

THE FOUR SEASONS

They fit Over The Edge in there too.

There needs to be an HBO Classic channel that just replays what HBO played circa 1981 to 1989, just play on February 9, 2016 what they played on February 9, 1983.

 

Also, thanks for getting the Midnight Madness theme stuck in my head!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFQTeIIVPk0

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Went and saw Hail Caesar today. I liked it, thought it was a lot of fun. Your mileage will vary on how much you know and like the studio system era of movies. . . . 

 

Has anyone seen Hail, Caesar yet?

Yes, yes I did. . . .

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Went and saw Hail Caesar today. I liked it, thought it was a lot of fun. Your mileage will vary on how much you know and like the studio system era of movies. . . . 

 

Has anyone seen Hail, Caesar yet?

Yes, yes I did. . . .

 

How can something so bright and vibrant be so fucking boring.

 

I loved the "Would that it were so simple" scene.  Aside from that... yuck.

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