2024 MOVIES DISCUSSION THREAD

[(BP)]

Re: Four Rooms

I feel like the consensus is that The Misbehavers is the best room, followed by The Man from Hollywood, then the hostage one with Jennifer Beals, and the coven of witches one is dead last. The interlude phone call with Kathy Griffin is pretty good from what I recall. 

[HarryArchieGus]

5 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

Now I feel like you watched a completely different movie than I did, because literally none of that works in NBK in my view. Like, literally none of it. 

2 hours ago, Contentious C said:

Maybe you did?  Director's cut that no one likes?

But seriously, what cut are you watching? To me NBK from Theatrical to Director's cut is as widely different as the first two Blade Runner cuts. But in this case the Theatrical Cut is the far superior version IMO. Awhile back when I first saw the NBK Director's Cut I watched it with a pal who was seeing it, or the movie in any form, for the first time. We both hated it. I'd seen the theatrical a number of times and could clearly see that the pacing and effectiveness had been fucked up by the bloat. I pleaded with said friend to watch the theatrical cut after a gap of time - to which she (understandably) warily agreed to. She loved the theatrical cut. I'm not suggesting I expect this to be true for anybody else. I've heard plenty of reasons why NBK sucks over the years. Tho, I always wonder what cut they're referring to. 

3 hours ago, (BP) said:

There are plenty of Scott film’s I don’t care for, but I’d still argue if his movies are formulaic it’s because he was an enormous influence on the formula, and if his style seems indistinguishable from his contemporaries it’s because they were cribbing from him. 

I had dinner with two good friends last week that would agree. They were a bit flabbergasted by my disinterest in the T. Scott catalog. But during the conversation I did recall that I'm a fan of his first film the Hunger. 

3 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Last two of course. Rodriguez' was hilarious. The humor level was on the level of the children themselves, of course, but if your nose is too high in the air to accept that, then I feel sorry for you. The last one was, I firmly believe, a portrait of Tarantino being the exact person he was in real life at that time. Jimmy in Pulp Fiction was probably the same. (I sincerely hope Richie Gekko wasn't, however...) 

I only really recall the Rodriguez short. And loved it! I hazily remember the closer. Your recap compels me to take another look.

Edited February 3 by HarryArchieGus

[Contentious C]

8 minutes ago, HarryArchieGus said:

I only really recall the Rodriguez short. And loved it! I hazily remember the closer. Your recap compels me to take another look.

Curt says just enough left-field stuff that I probably have 10 or so things on my Letterboxd watch list because of it. The power of Curt compels you! The power of Curt compels you!

[odessasteps]

Of all the things I had to watch working on my QT thesis, Four Rooms was probably near the bottom, along with that episode of All American Girl. 

[Curt McGirt]

The last segment is Quentin playing an obnoxious young director who has gotten the penthouse suite in the hotel for the night (along with his buddy Paul Calderon and some other hangers on), and has a bet set up, based around an old Twilight Zone episode. I can't remember what the bet's over but it involves a meat cleaver. And they are drinking a lot of Cristal. Tim Roth drops the pretentious waiter act and hoity-toity accent and starts speaking Cockney. It has a very satisfying finish.

[piranesi]

I had no idea that was in there. That was a short story they made into a twilight zone ep. Then remade twice in later anthology series before this. 
‘man he was phoning this in for a check I guess?

Edited February 3 by piranesi

[Curt McGirt]

I think it was just made as a "friends movie" where Lawrence Bender said "let's take all of this Weinstein money and make whatever the fuck we want" to all his filmmaker buddies. You get a paycheck and you get a paycheck and you get a paycheck; everybody gets a paycheck! All you have to do is let Harvey peep in the dressing room, ladies!

[(BP)]

I’m pretty sure it’s the Alfred Hitchcock Presents with Steve McQueen and Peter Lorre, but maybe Twilight Zone did it too. There’s a Tales from the Crypt with Lance Henriksen that had a really great take on it as well. 

[Contentious C]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_from_the_South

[Brian Fowler]

2 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

The last segment is Quentin playing an obnoxious young director who has gotten the penthouse suite in the hotel for the night (along with his buddy Paul Calderon and some other hangers on), and has a bet set up, based around an old Twilight Zone episode. I can't remember what the bet's over but it involves a meat cleaver. And they are drinking a lot of Cristal. Tim Roth drops the pretentious waiter act and hoity-toity accent and starts speaking Cockney. It has a very satisfying finish.

Something to the effect of "I can get my lighter to light ten straight clicks" or similar. It's been a long time since I watched it.

[Curt McGirt]

Yeah, that's it. (Spoilered for those who want to be surprised)

Spoiler

Calderon hits the lighter and it doesn't go on the first click so Roth IMMEDIATELY hacks off the finger, pockets the money, and sashays out the door while they're panicking and calling 911, haha. Oh, and Quentin's lawyer, who is wandering around yelling on a cell phone, is Bruce Willis.

 

[Curt McGirt]

Here's the largest chunk of the segment I could find. There are earlier parts you can find if you look, but this has the full bet and consequences. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hugpRyTc1fE

To me, the biggest laugh is still when his voice changes all of the sudden 

[Kuetsar]

Loved Fear and Loathing, the book, but the film is nigh unwatchable. Some things that are amusing and interesting on paper are not good when made into a movie, but that's just my .02.

[The Comedian]

On 2/1/2024 at 10:34 PM, Curt McGirt said:

Ebert ripping it is one of those mind-bogglers. I think he had some weird beef with Hunter though. I actually read an article where they talked about I think five films that were shockingly unliked by Ebert, one notoriously being Blue Velvet, and Fear and Loathing was one of them.

EDIT: I was wrong. There's 15 of 'em, and Fear and Loathing... isn't?! https://collider.com/roger-ebert-worst-acclaimed-movies/

Christ, it should have been. He gave it ONE STAR. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas-1998

Ebert, great as he was, had this weird moralistic streak to him that often informed his horror movie reviews. Like, when I first read I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie, in with all the hilarious reviews of legitimately bad films, there's his 0 star review of The Hitcher. The original, not the remake, mind you. He just goes on about how morally wrong and off it is. I mean, I suppose you could complain about the fridging of the romantic interest, but the way Ebert goes on you'd think he was reviewing Salo or Cannibal Holocaust or fucking Human Centipede ...

[Technico Support]

I watched Equalizer 2 and was blown away to see TED ARCIDI in the credits.  Yes, it's that Ted Arcidi.

[driver]

Watching The Beanie Bubble. Really enjoyed it. I'll be damned if Zach Galifianakis doesn't look like a smaller John Goodman.

[Curt McGirt]

Man, it got trashed on the Ebert site. I don't even remember seeing the review initially. 

Galifianakis* looks like an entirely different person. I can only recognize the voice. Good to see he's still getting work cause it seems like a long time since I've seen him.

(* "...snatch that grovy up")

Edited February 6 by Curt McGirt

[Log]

10 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Man, it got trashed on the Ebert site. I don't even remember seeing the review initially. 

Galifianakis* looks like an entirely different person. I can only recognize the voice. Good to see he's still getting work cause it seems like a long time since I've seen him.

(* "...snatch that grovy up")

If you haven't watched Baskets, you should. Easily one of my favorite series from the last decade or so.

[(BP)]

Had a thought: What’s the most wholesome R-rated movie? Sweet, breezy, and not especially filthy, but a hard R nonetheless. 

I’m thinking My Cousin Vinny or Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. 

[Mister TV]

16 minutes ago, (BP) said:

Had a thought: What’s the most wholesome R-rated movie? Sweet, breezy, and not especially filthy, but a hard R nonetheless. 

I’m thinking My Cousin Vinny or Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. 

Those two are at the top of the list, you take just the use of the f-word out and they're basically PG. 

Does anyone remember Mystery, Alaska? When it first came out I thought it was some wholesome family friendly movie, then I watched it a few years later on HBO, besides being pretty bad there's a crazy amount of swearing, it was like they were going after the Goodfellas record.

[Curt McGirt]

Planes might be "sweet", but that's the most depressing fucking movie ever.

[Tabe]

1 hour ago, Mister TV said:

Does anyone remember Mystery, Alaska? When it first came out I thought it was some wholesome family friendly movie, then I watched it a few years later on HBO, besides being pretty bad there's a crazy amount of swearing, it was like they were going after the Goodfellas record.

One of my all-time favorite movies. I love, love, love that movie. And, yeah, other than the profanity it's a pretty darn wholesome movie. I'm general. I'm not sure why they leaned so hard into the profanity. They could've told the exact same story with a PG-13 level of dialogue. 

[Log]

21 hours ago, (BP) said:

Had a thought: What’s the most wholesome R-rated movie? Sweet, breezy, and not especially filthy, but a hard R nonetheless. 

I’m thinking My Cousin Vinny or Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. 

Superbad is really very wholesome. 

[(BP)]

4 hours ago, Log said:

Superbad is really very wholesome. 

My supremely genteel grandmother was one of those old people who would just show up at the movie theater and see whatever showtime was coming up soon, so she saw Superbad and enjoyed it. Of course, she also took me to both Kill Bills because I was underage and would watch the Candyman and Hannibal Lecter movies without batting an eye. 

[Curt McGirt]

Just got back from a showing of a 4K print of Escape from New York. It still looks as dark and gritty (literally) as ever. There is like one scene in daytime in the whole movie, so I was pretty much right when I thought the whole movie was set at night. Lee Van Cleef is still the most magnificent bastard in all of filmdom. Part that cracked me up the most was him holding up this giant walkie talkie/cell phone thing that was so exaggeratedly large it looked like a prop from Spaceballs or something; he also asks for "Cronenberg" which had to be the first instance of the '80s horror directors sneaking references to and then cameos of each other into their pictures. Meanwhile, the part that cracked everyone else up was Donald Pleasance blasting the shit out of Isaac Hayes. That got at least three big laughs. The shells flying out you could really see this time and that put on an extra layer of humor. And of course, the other part I laugh at is "He's gonna lead us out of here... by the neck!" (applause, pause... wait for it...) "ON THE HOOD OF MY CAR!" 

Quite a few people there for this one too. Nice to see.