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2019 Q4 MOVIE DISCUSSION


RIPPA

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I don't think it's old men yelling at the clouds.  There are filmmakers out there who are still attempting to produce thought provoking material and are pushing the industry forward in terms of writing/direction/cinematography whatever you're interested in.  The issue is the studios are no longer going to take a risk on something unless it's established IP and so streaming services have become the new art house theaters or hell even the new AMC.  

Sometimes a director/writing team will slip something worthwhile into an established IP and it's great.  Most of the time it's an assembly line. 

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Saw Uncut Gems this afternoon. This is one hell of a movie. Sandler pulls off a role of a lifetime.

I knew he was a degenerate gambler, but not that much of one. An unlikable character, yet I still end up liking the guy. That fucking ending. Wow.

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8 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

Oh by the way,  Black Panther was an example of there being a lot more on screen than CGI colliding with each other.  The writing and character work was among the best in the genre. It was the third act CGI fluff that was the least enjoyable aspect. 

Just to be clear: 

“I hated ‘Black Panther.’ It makes me crazy. It gives young black kids the idea that this is something to believe in. Bullshit. It’s utter bullshit. I think the people who made it have never been to Africa,” he said. “They went and got some stylist for some African pattern fabrics and things. But I just I hated that movie, partly because the media were going on about the importance of bullshit.”

When asked if he felt that critical praise for “Black Panther” was a politically correct response that ignored aesthetics in favor of identity politics, Gilliam said, “It makes my blood boil.” The conversation pivoted to controversial remarks he made back in 2018 amid the Harvey Weinstein fallout and the wave of voices that responded to form the #MeToo movement. “We’re in the era of the victim. We are all victims. It’s all somebody else, abusing us, taking advantage of us. We are powerless, except except that we go out and do other things,” he said.

Gilliam, however, stopped himself there. “I’m just very frustrated of the world we’re living in,” he said. “I do things to prod people, to make them think or make them laugh. And I always get myself in trouble."

 

---

 

Yeah that's not so much complaining about CGI, my friend. Homeboy is bitching about "identity politics," and basically admits to trolling in the end. 

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On 12/24/2019 at 8:14 PM, driver said:

Saw Uncut Gems this afternoon. This is one hell of a movie. Sandler pulls off a role of a lifetime.

 

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I knew he was a degenerate gambler, but not that much of one. An unlikable character, yet I still end up liking the guy. That fucking ending. Wow.

 

You know, about that whole degenerate gambler thing:

Spoiler

The glass basically needed to be bulletproof for that whole last climactic scene to make sense, otherwise they would just have shot through it. But in the moment, I was thinking, "I bet he's staring down the barrel of a gun and lying about the glass being bulletproof."

The scene with the first time where they couldn't get the door to buzz open, and a million things were happening all at once, was just fucking amazing.

It's a very LOUD movie. Safdie Bros working that sensory overload gimmick.

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On 12/24/2019 at 12:59 PM, christopher.annino said:

Terry Gilliam hated Black Panther, in case anybody gave a shit or wanted to hear an old white dude talk about accurate representations of Africa. 

Because if its anyone who knows the real story of Africa, it is the proud citizen of a former slave holding colonial power, right?

Edited by J.T.
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On 12/25/2019 at 3:00 AM, christopher.annino said:

Just to be clear: 

It is better to stay silent and be thought an idiot than to open your mouth and confirm your stupidity.

On 12/25/2019 at 3:00 AM, christopher.annino said:

And I always get myself in trouble.

Then, uh, stop doing that, Terry. 

I still love you, old man, so please shut up.

Edited by J.T.
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Whilst it is possible to state a theory that Black Panther is very much an American film made by Americans, projecting a fantastical American vision of (a fictional country in) Africa that would be meaningless to most actual Africans... Gilliam is doing a pretty shit job of making that point. And as far as I know, most African people who watched Black Panther thought it was brilliant. It's one thing to go all 'cultural studies professor being contrarion' on matters such as these, but considering how much that movie meant to millions of people all around the world, criticising it strongly and without caveats is kind of a slap in the face to a lot of people. And when those people have spent a lot of their lives being patronised, marginalised or under-represented, to go after the one thing that says to them "These stories can be about people who look like you" kind of implies you have little or no respect for them personally. Which I would hope was not Gilliam's intention.

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19 hours ago, S.K.o.S. said:

You know, about that whole degenerate gambler thing:

  Hide contents

The glass basically needed to be bulletproof for that whole last climactic scene to make sense, otherwise they would just have shot through it. But in the moment, I was thinking, "I bet he's staring down the barrel of a gun and lying about the glass being bulletproof."

The scene with the first time where they couldn't get the door to buzz open, and a million things were happening all at once, was just fucking amazing.

It's a very LOUD movie. Safdie Bros working that sensory overload gimmick.

One more thing I noticed was 

the look of exasperation on Eric Bogosian's face when they got back in the showroom. It made me think that he just wanted the whole damn thing to be over with.

I might have to go and see that again this weekend. I can't remember the last time I saw a movie twice in a theater. I saw Pulp Fiction in a theater three times during it's initial run, but that was spread over six months.

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On 12/24/2019 at 7:14 PM, driver said:

Saw Uncut Gems this afternoon. This is one hell of a movie. Sandler pulls off a role of a lifetime.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I knew he was a degenerate gambler, but not that much of one. An unlikable character, yet I still end up liking the guy. That fucking ending. Wow.

 

Just came back from it.  I hesitate to say role of a lifetime, because he was phenomenal in Punch Drunk Love.  But this was a great movie, and not what I was expecting at all.  Go into this movie cold.  Adam Sandler is a gambler...just stop with that.  Because that just scratches the surface.  Not sure if Sandler wins the Oscar but he better get nominated.

Not to mention, I am not kidding when I say one of the best scenes in the movie involves Kevin FUCKING Garnett.  And this might have the weirdest cast in a major movie since The Informant!

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9 hours ago, sydneybrown said:

Just came back from it.  I hesitate to say role of a lifetime, because he was phenomenal in Punch Drunk Love.  But this was a great movie, and not what I was expecting at all.  Go into this movie cold.  Adam Sandler is a gambler...just stop with that.  Because that just scratches the surface.  Not sure if Sandler wins the Oscar but he better get nominated.

Not to mention, I am not kidding when I say one of the best scenes in the movie involves Kevin FUCKING Garnett.  And this might have the weirdest cast in a major movie since The Informant!

KG was great. I enjoyed Mike Francesa as well.

The one cameo that had me saying "HOLY SHIT!" was

John Amos

I can't remember the last time I saw him in anything. I didn't even realize he was still alive. I know he just had a birthday, which means he was pretty damned young when he had his best known role. 

I'll definitely keep and eye on the Safdies. A24 is on one hell of a roll.

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I never go to the movies but saw two the past week I loved for entirely differing reasons.

Uncut Gems is as stated above. It is really friggin’ good. Super fun even with gross sleazy characters. Adam Sandler rules in it. I love that every few years he is in something that reminds “serious” critic types that he is really talented. I just read a feature on him that was about why he makes crap like Grown Ups 8 and not more stuff like Uncut Gems. His answer is great. He is the producer for all of them so he calls the shots, the all make money, he makes them with his best friends, he does it when his kids aren’t in school so he takes his family to wherever they are filming for a vacation, etc. What a life and a perfectly acceptable answer. But, yeah, Uncut Gems is great.

Then yesterday I saw CATS. I never saw the musical despite growing up in the NYC burbs. I could only tell you what I knew from the incessant commercials growing up: It was at the Winter Garden Theater and it is “now and forever.” But I read a few reviews of the film version and a very funny friend of mine saw it and described it and I knew I needed to go. I fly the flag of wanting to watch misguided crap more than actually good things high.

And oh boy is this thing terrible. It is as bad as you have heard. I did not know the source material for this was so strange to begin with. But the film version is even grosser with horrifying cat fur CGI with all kinds of editing errors and ridiculous stuff throughout. I cannot begin to describe how unsettling it is to see Sir Ian McKellan’s character lick a dirty water bowl. Same with Judy Dench wearing a fur coat possibly made of her own fur. Or Rebel Wilson’s anthropomorphic cat character with her legs spread wide open scratching her bathing suit area.
 

It is so baffling and I am proud to say I saw it in the theaters. I have not drank in over 10 years or dabbled in marijuana for probably 15, and I barely did that to start with. But I would say that is drugs are your thing you should watch Cats while on something. I felt like I was on hallucinogens throughout. I would actually see this in theaters again because there is apparently all sorts of stuff I missed like them not CGIing Judy Dench’s wedding ring out.

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Took the nephew to see Spies in Disguise and it was pretty good. I thought it was funny and he did too, worth it if you have a kid in the age range.  I'm seeing ads for Bomshell all over my facebook, and I thought Megyn Kelly was playing herself; after looking up that its Charlize Theron, I have a hard time seeing her and not Megyn Kelly.

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Tammy and the Teenage T-Rex, the R version, is doing the rounds on Showtime, I highly recommend you checking it out if you want to see something that makes you go "what the fuck did I just watch?!" I only saw the end last night and wasn't even sure if it was the R because it was listed as PG-13. That wasn't PG-13 in any world I live in. 

If you're unfamiliar, Tammy and the T-Rex/Tanny and the Teenage T-Rex was a Denise Richards vehicle in the '90s that involved a human brain placed in a dinosaur. It was PG but there was a never released "Gore Cut" that was just discovered. It made its way to BluRay this year and had its first public viewing at Cinepocalypse in Chicago this Summer. 

Note: If the Showtime version is the original one, I still saw a disembowelment at the end so...

Edited by Curt McGirt
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