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2020 MOVIE DISCUSSION


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9 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

Honestly, I think you can make a really strong argument for Babe being the best. That movie is really goddamn good.

I think I'd probably go with Il Postino of those 5 myself, but it is kind of a one-note film and if that doesn't work for you, then there's nothing to be done about it.  But yeah, Heat is loads and loads and loads better than any of those movies. I wouldn't be surprised if it got held out because of its similarity to Mann's other work; maybe someone decided to hold it against him for refining the same idea over the years.  And still not as egregious a mistake as Gump over Pulp Fiction and everything else the prior year, but...really close.

Edited by Contentious C
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...and Seven, The Usual Suspects, Leaving Las Vegas, Clockers...

EDIT: Hey, what was the name of that viking/barbarian movie that came out right before the Conan remake that was all gory? 

EDIT II: Nevermind. It's Pathfinder. And it came out a few years before Conan. I don't remember watching it but it looks like it might be fun, then again they had to cut it for an R and I'm always willing to watch a film that had that happen to it. 

 

Edited by Curt McGirt
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Finally got around to watching Pacific Rim: Uprising. Yeah, it's not winning any awards for anything, and Mako did not have to die. But it put a smile on my face, mainly because John Boyega is perfect as himself here. Excellent popcorn flick. 

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On 1/25/2020 at 1:27 PM, driver said:

Can't believe Casino got passed over that year as well.

Casino is a great fucking movie and speaking of rewatchable,  I've probably seen it 20 times,  30 times, who knows. I think it stands on its own as a great film but it does in many ways feel like a Goodfellas sequel so I am guessing that's why the Academy didn't give it it's proper due.  

The Heat oversight is far more egregious. Heat is legitimately one of the more influential films of our time.  Think about The Dark Knight and Winter Soldier, etc.   Nolan and the Russos were trying to make Heat

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22 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

...and Seven, The Usual Suspects, Leaving Las Vegas, Clockers...

EDIT: Hey, what was the name of that viking/barbarian movie that came out right before the Conan remake that was all gory? 

EDIT II: Nevermind. It's Pathfinder. And it came out a few years before Conan. I don't remember watching it but it looks like it might be fun, then again they had to cut it for an R and I'm always willing to watch a film that had that happen to it. 

 

I was working at a movie theater when Pathfinder came out, and they played a behind the scenes featurette that was just an interview with the director in his trailer while he was getting a vitamin B shot in his ass. I’ve never seen the movie, but I saw that dudes pasty ass for like a month straight. 

Posting it just so everyone knows I’m not crazy. NSFW I guess, but again this played at a movie theater concession stand for weeks. 

 

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Anyone remember the Rob Schneider flick The Benchwarmers? Well Netflix is running The Benchwarmers 2: Breaking Balls and I watched it! It's not good, not funny, really bad at trying to hide being filmed in Canada and the only returning cast member from the original was Jon Lovitz who phoned it in. Watching it made me realized I missed my calling as a screen writer for direct to video/streaming service sequels of forgotten flicks, give me a week or so I can could have hammered out The Benchwarmers 2: Back to the Bench or Backdraft 2: Bartel's Back. Yes there's a Backdraft 2 on Netflix and they somehow got both Billy Baldwin and Donald Sutherland to be in it, plan on watching it later this week.

 

Spoiler

The premise of Benchwarmers 2 is that Chris Klein get's his baseball career cut short via a wild pitch to the groin right before being called up to the big leagues and ends up coaching a softball team for a law firm owned by Jon Lovitz's character, Chris Klein phones it in just as bad as Lovitz. 

 

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Finally got to see I Heard You Paint Houses (AKA The Irishman) via free Netflix test subscription. Good, but did De Niro seriously need to be in that role? FFS, give it to somebody younger. Every single person in the movie looked like they were about to croak even with the digital de-aging. What I really took away with it aside from that is the power of Russell Bufalino in the Mafia. Even though I've read the book the film was based on years ago I don't think it quite sank in how much power he had, or Angelo Bruno for that matter. They aren't talked about as much as other bosses, probably because aside from Bruno's death they weren't extravagant enough, or maybe because their power gives government and the unions more of a black eye than others. 

And yeah, I lost it when Action Bronson showed up. Had to pause the film due to laughing so hard.

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Over the weekend-ish, I watched

The Irishman: (Well finished it, been watching it in parcels)  'twas good.  It's probably too long, but I'm not sure what should have been cut.  DeNiro was right, they should have retained the original title ("I Hear You Paint Houses").  The de-aging technology is really good, but it's also really apparent in some scenes that you're watching an older man try to play younger.  When De Niro beats up the shopkeeper and can barely lift his leg off the ground to kick the guy, it's clearly an older man trying to pretend to kick someone rather than the younger man he's portraying.  I can't decide whether Pacino did a good job as Hoffa, or an okay job as Pacino.  Harvey Keitel was really underused and I would have liked to see more Bobby Cannavale but I always want more Cannavale!  

Hustlers: I never thought a Jennifer Lopez stripping movie could be boring, but this pulled it off!  I really don't get the hype around this  (the case said "Movie of Year" -GQ which makes me think they only saw one movie all year).  Lopez was not snubbed for the Oscar, she should have never been in the mix, period.   Glenn Kenny's bludgeoning of it is maybe too kind:

A flat script, poorly directed. Every frame is all about whatever's in focus, in foreground; there's no background action, no production design; it's like they shot in a series of vacant lots. Jennifer Lopez's Terry Molloy impersonation is kind of funny, but anyone seeing Constance Wu for the first time in this movie might well wonder how she became a working professional actor. Julia Stiles shines as "Concerned Woman." The fact that this is getting so much praise indicates we are fully in the age of people making up the movie they want to see in their heads as the picture unspools, and gushing about that as they exit.

There was really no third act to the movie.  While I don't mind filmmakers eschewing the traditional narrative, it never really felt like the characters were any sort of peril.

It: Chapter Two: My takeaway from this is that Bill Hader is really good and should be in more stuff.  Thought it was an adequate sequel with great effect, but, much like everyone in the movie mocking Bill for his terrible endings, thought the ending was pretty poor.  I've never read the book, but thought

them just yelling "You're a clown!" at Pennywise which made him "small" was pretty stupid.


And why was it almost 3 hours long?! They could have chucked the whole storyline about the characters retrieving their "tokens" and lopped a solid 30-40 minutes off of this.

And just so it doesn't seem like I'm down on everything...

The Peanut Butter Falcon: was a complete joy to watch.  A guy with Down's Syndrome escapes the retirement home where he's living, in pursuit of a career in pro wrestling, and goes on a Huck Finn-esque adventure with a ne'er do-well crab fisherman (Shia Laboeuf), while being pursued by bad guys (John Hawkes and Yelawolf) and not-so-bad guys (Dakota Johnson).  Big-hearted and lots of fun.  It's probably my favourite film of 2019 (That I've seen, so far).

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3 minutes ago, caley said:

Harvey Keitel was really underused and I would have liked to see more Bobby Cannavale but I always want more Cannavale!  

Here here! Bobby should have probably been in De Niro's role honestly. 

The weirdest casting choice has to go to Dominick Lombardozzi playing Fat Tony Salerno in old age makeup though. Herc in piles of latex is just bizarre. 

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1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said:

Here here! Bobby should have probably been in De Niro's role honestly. 

The weirdest casting choice has to go to Dominick Lombardozzi playing Fat Tony Salerno in old age makeup though. Herc in piles of latex is just bizarre. 

Oh man I did not recognize him before you pointed it out!  I thought his voice was familiar!

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11 hours ago, caley said:

It: Chapter Two: My takeaway from this is that Bill Hader is really good and should be in more stuff.  Thought it was an adequate sequel with great effect, but, much like everyone in the movie mocking Bill for his terrible endings, thought the ending was pretty poor.  I've never read the book, but thought

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them just yelling "You're a clown!" at Pennywise which made him "small" was pretty stupid.

 

Spoiler

How else would you weaken a creature that feeds on fear?

And as not to seem to be an SK apologists, yeah, the movie is based on Stephen King long prose so it's about a 35% chance you're going to get an ending that satisfies you.

11 hours ago, caley said:

And why was it almost 3 hours long?! They could have chucked the whole storyline about the characters retrieving their "tokens" and lopped a solid 30-40 minutes off of this.

It doesn't help that IT is a million pages long and the Act II is definitely the weaker of the two story wise. 

I get it that King wanted to compare and contrast the power of innocence vs the power of wisdom, but the Loser Club as adults part of the story is not as well told as the kids part.

Edited by J.T.
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Well, that, and how did practically every kid out-act their adult counterpart (Hader and arguably McAvoy being the only exceptions)?  Both Bens were wooden as fuck, so that was a waste, but man, Sophia Lillis was just so much better than Jessica Chastain, which really shouldn't be happening.  Blame the director, I guess?

The one change to part 2 that I liked was Stan's letter.  I don't recall that being in the book at all, though I only read that 25 years ago and only the once.  That one piece, by showing that Stan "got it" even though he opted out, did as much to help the themes of the second movie as any of the other MacGuffin-chasing nonsense that happened.

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So I got a note at work today about a new film that's getting a "limited engagement" at our misfit cinemas on Valentine's Day. I present ...

FIRST LADY: A MODERN FAIRYTALE

Starring: Corbin Bernsen, Nancy Stafford, Stacey Dash

The only thing I understood about this trailer is that Corbin Bernsen apparently went nutzo at a Party City just before Halloween.

Learn more about this alleged film at https://www.firstladymovie.com/ -- seriously, I need to sign up to be a Golden Raspberry Award voter just for living here.

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I stick by thinking De Niro had to play that part in The Irishman because the third act would lack the power if Bobby Cannavale was in old man makeup. The last thirty minutes really needed De Niro and Pesci and felt like a culmination of all their crime roles. Also too much focus is put on that five second scene where De Niro weakly kicks the guy. It's silly, but I forgot about it as the movie progressed and it kind of fit the way he played Frank. Frank was kind of a loser not a bad ass so he shouldn't look cool beating someone down. Pacino could be divisive but I found him incredibly entertaining and he nailed some of the small character beats when he had to. There's one scene with him I thought was incredibly tense and amazingly acted. I guess I'm biased cause I thought it was a near perfect movie and the perfect blending of Marty's two sides with the crime epics mixing with the ultra serious mood pieces like Silence. 

Edited by brocklock
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After being indifferent about it I recently rewatched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood for a 3rd time, and I think I might truly love it now. I might as well watch it a 4th time because I just want to escape to that world the characters live in. No matter how beautiful Margot Robbie is the Sharon Tate scenes are still the weakest portion of the movie, though. But Leo’s performance as Rick Dalton has improved tremendously in additional viewings, and also knowing now what he based his performance on.

I honestly wouldn’t be upset now if Hollywood “Patted itself on the back”, and gave the Oscar to the movie over Parasite. But it still would be the right thing to do to give it to Bong Joon-ho’s film because it is currently the more important movie.

Edited by LoneWolf&Subs
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5 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Should I dig up my DVD and watch the extra six minutes of footage? Unless that was inserted into the film, and I didn't know?

Thanks for bringing this up. I had no idea about the extra footage. The digital version I rented did feel shorter. I just bought the Blu ray so I’ll see what exactly was added with the my 4th viewing. Also just rewatched Parasite. Even more entertaining on a 2nd viewing. Now I think it needs to win. If anything else wins, then it’d be utter bullshit. Although like I said I’ll be personally jumping for joy for Hollywood.

Edit: Finished watching the additional footage. It’s pretty great stuff. A couple of fake commercials. A longer cut of the opening Bounty Law footage. A whole new scene with the movie’s adaptation of Lancer. More scenes of Damien Harriman as Manson, with one bit featuring him meeting Cliff that should’ve been in the damn movie. Finally a bit that appears to be Leo, and Nicholas Hammond riffing with each other as their respective characters.

Edited by LoneWolf&Subs
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18 hours ago, LoneWolf&Subs said:

After being indifferent about it I recently rewatched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood for a 3rd time, and I think I might truly love it now. I might as well watch it a 4th time because I just want to escape to that world the characters live in. No matter how beautiful Margot Robbie is the Sharon Tate scenes are still the weakest portion of the movie, though. But Leo’s performance as Rick Dalton has improved tremendously in additional viewings, and also knowing now what he based his performance on.

I honestly wouldn’t be upset now if Hollywood “Patted itself on the back”, and gave the Oscar to the movie over Parasite. But it still would be the right thing to do to give it to Bong Joon-ho’s film because it is currently the more important movie.

I totally agree and I find the movie better and better on each viewing and one of the best films of 2019. There's a ton of depth and so many fun performances.

 

The weird Tarantino feet stuff is basically expected to whoever his female lead is at this point, but I thought it hurt some of Robie's performance. The scene where Sharon went to the theater to watch a movie she starred in was fantastic and poignant and sweet. Then you realize her dirty feet are framed at the center and are the focus of the scene and it takes a weird turn. Most of the Sharon Tate scenes are like that. I think Robie does good with the material, but Tarantino needs to either just find a different way to harness his foot fetish for his blonde female leads or just stop including it in scenes that are important and character building.

Edited by brocklock
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The scene where Rick got out of his head, and delivered "evil Hamlet" was my favorite thing in the movie. I don't know that I'd call it the best scene, but seeing that, both on the level of in the story (Rick finding himself, seeing, if only for himself, how good he can be) and the work from Leo (pulling off all of those layers of Rick, where you can see Rick putting Caleb together, but you can't see the seams of Leo putting Rick together)... Just electrifying acting.

I think Leo gave the second best performance I saw in 2019 (behind J-Lo, a fact that still blows my mind)

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23 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

The scene where Rick got out of his head, and delivered "evil Hamlet" was my favorite thing in the movie. I don't know that I'd call it the best scene, but seeing that, both on the level of in the story (Rick finding himself, seeing, if only for himself, how good he can be) and the work from Leo (pulling off all of those layers of Rick, where you can see Rick putting Caleb together, but you can't see the seams of Leo putting Rick together)... Just electrifying acting.

I think Leo gave the second best performance I saw in 2019 (behind J-Lo, a fact that still blows my mind)

Just out of curiosity, what did you see her in?

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