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Post by Jep Gambardella on Mar 28, 2024 0:23:40 GMT
It looks like nobody went to see the new Ghostbusters, which would be in line with what I observed when I saw it: only four people in the theatre, which is depressingly little for such a high profile movie in its opening week.
I enjoyed it and was happy to see it on the big screen, but it’s not great. A little thin on the action for most of the middle section of the movie, too many characters, and a textbook example of one of my pet peeves in movies, which is characters making idiotic decisions for the sake of the plot (and, to make it worse in this case, the stupid decision was made by the smartest character).
Worth a watch for those who didn’t hate the previous installment, I suppose.
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Post by sdm3 on Mar 28, 2024 3:05:38 GMT
Ehh... it (Part Two) was good and all. Just not great. Do you ever get the feeling that you've already seen the best movie you'll ever see? And everything else just kind of pales in comparison? This was a perfectly fine sequel, better than the first Dune. Visually spectacular. More operatic and bombastic. Lots of stuff happened. So why, again, didn't it make me feel anything? And yet I'm seeing user reviews everywhere making claims like "this is the sci-fi fantasy epic of our generation," "this is the Dark Knight/Empire Strikes Back of our generation" etc. Clearly I'm not in the generation being referenced here... but do the young folk really like this that much? Since we were on the same wavelength regarding Dune, I wanted to follow up with you after seeing it again. Well, I saw it again and... sad to say I didn't get any more out of it the second time around. If people want to call this the best movie of the 2020s and the defining blockbuster of this time, that's their prerogative. I'm just going to have to accept that it's not for me. I don't connect to it - I simply found it hollow, and was even more underwhelmed by the action. We also saw Drive-Away Dolls, solo Coen Brother effort. Wholly forgettable - the most memorable part of the experience was the one guy who was sitting directly in front of us, then moved to sit directly behind us once the movie started, and fell asleep snoring halfway through.
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Post by Rey Kahuka on Mar 28, 2024 19:25:01 GMT
It looks like nobody went to see the new Ghostbusters, which would be in line with what I observed when I saw it: only four people in the theatre, which is depressingly little for such a high profile movie in its opening week. I enjoyed it and was happy to see it on the big screen, but it’s not great. A little thin on the action for most of the middle section of the movie, too many characters, and a textbook example of one of my pet peeves in movies, which is characters making idiotic decisions for the sake of the plot (and, to make it worse in this case, the stupid decision was made by the smartest character). Worth a watch for those who didn’t hate the previous installment, I suppose. Went with the family on Saturday, we all enjoyed it. I actually think it's better than Afterlife. I agree there were too many characters, but I thought they connected all the plotlines fairly well by the end. It felt like they had several ideas for a streaming show, and decided to throw them all into one movie; but again, it was fine. The old guard played a bigger role than I expected them to. Our theater was 2/3 full and the audience applauded at the end, so I guess there was more enthusiasm for the film around these parts.
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Post by Rey Kahuka on Mar 28, 2024 19:32:34 GMT
Since we were on the same wavelength regarding Dune, I wanted to follow up with you after seeing it again. Well, I saw it again and... sad to say I didn't get any more out of it the second time around. If people want to call this the best movie of the 2020s and the defining blockbuster of this time, that's their prerogative. I'm just going to have to accept that it's not for me. I don't connect to it - I simply found it hollow, and was even more underwhelmed by the action.We also saw Drive-Away Dolls, solo Coen Brother effort. Wholly forgettable - the most memorable part of the experience was the one guy who was sitting directly in front of us, then moved to sit directly behind us once the movie started, and fell asleep snoring halfway through. Yeah I don't entirely disagree with you. There were things I enjoyed more the second time around, but having watched Star Wars recently, I still find Dune underwhelming as a whole. I can't get over how great A New Hope still is, especially compared to Dune. The opening scene tells you all you need to know about the power dynamic in play here. The little rebel ship comes across your screen, then the Star Destroyer just keeps coming, and coming, and coming across the screen and you understand right then and there what kind of struggle this is. Small scenes like the Imperial officers arguing amongst themselves about the Emperor, the Death Star, and how to deal with rebel systems, etc. make the universe feel more lived in, and are things that, through two movies of Dune, we're yet to have a feel for.
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Post by Shane Falco on Mar 29, 2024 20:45:57 GMT
Watched a 4 episode documentary called Quiet on the Set which focused on early 2000's Nickelodeon kids/tween shows that focused on producer/creator Dan Schneider and his questionable (at best) behavior. He was behind widely popular shows like All That, The Amanda Bynes Show, iCarly, Victorious, Zoey 101 etc.
It focused on how toxic his sets could be and how he would treat some of these kids. As well as employing 3 pedophiles and sex offenders around these kids. One producer named Jason Handy was arrested after sending pictures of himself to kids while police raided his home and finding thousands of images and stuff of child porn as well as zip lock bags with names on them containing "tokens" one of which was like a nine year olds underwear.
Another producer named Brian Peck completely manipulated his way into Drake Bell's life (of Drake and Josh fame) since he was a cast member on The Amanda Bynes Show up until his own Drake and Josh show. This guy manipulated Drake into distancing himself from his father who was his manager and didn't trust Peck with his son because he felt there was something creepy with him, which was defended by other producers as him being gay and telling Drakes father that maybe he is homophobic when he tried to complain about weird touching. It lead to Drakes management being taken over by his mother who Brian Peck earned her trust and would take Drake on auditions hours away and let him stay at his home over night. Well, this of course leads to Peck sexually assaulting Drake when he was like 14 or 15 and Drake felt trapped. He was alone at this guys home hours away from home. Had no idea how to get out of the situation and was also getting his dream career while being preyed upon by a producer. The details of these assaults are disturbing as the series showed some of the accusations Drake made against Peck when he later got arrested. It took Drakes girlfriends mother to figure out something was off when this 40 year old was constantly calling her home while Drake was there. Eventually Drake couldn't surpress his trauma anymore and broke down. This lead to Peck confessing over the phone that was tapped by police. Because Drake was a minor at the time the documents were sealed and he wasn't named in the case. According to Drake nobody knew it was him that this producer assaulted multiple times. This series was the first time he spoke publicly about this. He talked about how much support this Peck guy got from people in Hollywood who sent letters of support to the judge. People like James Marsden, Alan Thicke, Rider Strong, etc. Drake sat in the court room with his brother and parents being the only ones 9n his side while Peck had an entire courtroom side filled with support. Peck only got like 14 months in jail and registered as a sex offender only to still get jobs on kid shows upon his release like Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
You had other former child stars that worked for Dan Schneider telling stories of how much of a nightmare he could be and how he played favorites. His big favorite was Amanda Bynes who he at one point tried to get her amancipated while letting her live at his house.
Schneider would also create very questionable scenes in these kids shows of sexual nature. On Zoey 101 a 13 year old Jaime Spears got yogurt squirted on her fame in what was a simulated c** shot. None of the kids in these scenes knew what was going on. Ariana Grande would suck her own toes (Dan had a perverted foot fetish and would have to see these kids feet as part of the audition process). Grande would also try and squeeze juice of of a penis looking potato as well as pour water on herself while upside down. Victoria Justice would have ketchup poured on her feet. Creepy stuff.
After watching this I did some Reddit and YouTube deep dives as I remember some of these stories and knew the weird foot fetish stuff but nothing more. Janette McCurdy from iCarly and Sam and Cat fame wrote a memoir titled "I'm glad my mom is dead" and went into detail about her traumatic experiences on set leading to eating disorders and other issues. Her mother was truly horrible btw. Included in her book was a letter her mother wrote her about how disgusting it was for her to be dating a black NBA player and that she and her brother would disown her, all while telling her to send money because their fridge broke.
While what I type next are strictly rumors I find them incredibly believable. Jaime Spears got pregnant which led to Zoey 101 getting canceled. Rumors are that Dan Schneider is the father. A blind item (usually anonymous tips givin to tabloids or TMZ types) was posted about a well known tween star being impregnated by a producer well her senior. This lead to what is rumored to be payments of hush money and payments to Jaime's ex to pretend he is the father when apparently they were broken up for a long while and in separate states this whole time.
While Amanda Bynes was living with Dan rumors are they were also sexually active leading to Bynes getting multiple abortions. She has had Twitter posts about things suggesting this and it was all part of her mental breakdown that lead to people brushing her off as nuts. She compared Dan to Harvey Weinstein.
Victoria Justice got black balled for a while because she refused to sleep with Dan. This lead to her being phased out of Victorious which she was the main star of in favor of Ariana Grande and Liz Gillies getting the majority of screen time. Gillies who was dating and later married a friend of Dans who was like 36 and she was 16 when they met, likely grooming there. Rumors are that Ariana was more willing to "play the game" for Dan which Victoria was unwilling to do which lead to bigger breaks for Grande. McCurdy would mention how much special treatment Ariana got on Sam and Cat which she was never granted. Another blind item from the same guy who brought the Spears situation to light mentioned how an of age cast member (Victoria was one of the only of age cast) declined advances from a producer who had multiple under age relationships on the side. It later came out this blind item poster was a lawyer of one of the higher ups at the studio and had been proven right multiple times to give further credence to these items.
Dan who would employ multiple pedophiles and would have friends 20 years older than a minor date. While having perverted scenes in his shows like a yogurt shot to Spears face, you have to question would he be above sleeping with these kids or assaulting them?
The whole thing is truly disturbing and it is amazing how some of these kids managed to grow up relatively normal (Miranda Cosgrove and Victoria Justice) while others suffer from alcoholism, drug abuse, mental breakdowns (Drake Bell and Amanda Bynes). Not all these kids had the same experiences but one has to question how much is still out there we don't know because people are still reluctant to speak out.
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Post by Horselover Fat on Mar 30, 2024 18:55:39 GMT
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Post by klawrencio79 on Apr 1, 2024 15:26:44 GMT
On Saturday, we watched Ferrari (2023), which might be one of the most confounding movies I have ever seen. There are some truly great things in it, but overall the movie doesn't quite gel. I'll start with what works. The film looks absolutely gorgeous, and is expertly shot. There are long takes, some beautiful cinematography and some of the driving sequences are really well shot. Performance wise, Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz are both fantastic, Cruz in particular. Outside of a ridiculous scene introducing her that is played for laughs but isn't funny, she is bringing her A game. Spoilers from here on out. I kinda like how the movie doesn't judge its protagonist and presents everything in a very storybook kind of manner. Here's a man who lost his son, had another son with another woman in secret and essentially bankrupted his own company by paying for her to live in a house. Then, when tragedy strikes during the Mille Miglia, he basically doesn't give a shit about the lives lost, he only cares about what it means for his company itself and when he arrives at the deadly scene, he goes right to the car and it's the only time in the movie where his stoicism fades. He's not a good man, and the movie doesn't try to lionize him as such, nor does it castigate or punish him for the things he has done. He is just an ordinary, flawed man. That's a good choice.
OK, so while I did think Driver was his usual excellent self, I have an issue with the casting. The one thing that I don't always understand is why put American actors into roles where they speak with an accent, but then have everybody speak English. I mean, I get it, it's a big budget Hollywood movie and you need some star power to put asses in the proverbial seats, but it's just a distracting choice. The worst example of this that I have seen is casting Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a Frenchman in The Walk. I realize this practice is here to stay, but I find it distracting, even when it works like it does here.
Sadly, not all of the performances are positive, as the perpetually terrible Shailene Woodley is somehow in this movie. She's barely even trying to do an Italian accent, and it wouldn't matter, because her performance is so listless, so bereft of anything resembling an arc or even emotion, that she may as well not even be there. I'm not exaggerating when I say that she is so distractingly terrible and miscast that it completely pulled me out of the movie. They could have casted Jim Varney in the role and it would have been an improvement.
Furthering the idea of the positive story choice about not judging the protagonist, the movie doesn't work as well as a.....well, as a movie. It shows these events happening, there's racing, there's family drama, and yet this might be the least exciting or interesting movie I have seen in a while. It's just boring. And frankly, I find this to be a consistent theme with Mann movies. The Rewatchables team fawns all over everything he does, sometimes bafflingly so, and I just don't get it. Sure, Mann has done some really great things - The Insider is A+ and riveting and is nothing but 2.5 hours of people talking, Manhunter is great, Collateral is really good, Heat is solid (although wildly overrated) - but he's also turned in some real duds. In trying to drill down my thoughts, I think his style is just overwrought. Last of the Mohicans is good, but it feels over-directed and kinda boring. Same with Heat and Public Enemies, which is really boring. Ferrari is a complete example of what I think of Mann. It looks great, but the story is just so uninteresting.
Also, I had no idea about the Mille Miglia or the tragedy that unfolded which this movie depicts. It's truly harrowing. In fact, when the race starts, and you see the cars zipping around on country highways, swerving around actual cars, I turned to my wife and asked if this was a real race (not that she'd know, it just seemed so unrealistic). How prescient of me, because minutes later an entire crowd of bystanders is wiped off the board. It's terrifying...but Mann kinda yaddas yaddas over its impact, but not before a few completely gratuitous gory shots of severed limbs and dead children.
So there you have it.
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Post by masterofallgoons on Apr 1, 2024 16:54:51 GMT
Watched a 4 episode documentary called Quiet on the Set which focused on early 2000's Nickelodeon kids/tween shows that focused on producer/creator Dan Schneider and his questionable (at best) behavior. He was behind widely popular shows like All That, The Amanda Bynes Show, iCarly, Victorious, Zoey 101 etc. It focused on how toxic his sets could be and how he would treat some of these kids. As well as employing 3 pedophiles and sex offenders around these kids. One producer named Jason Handy was arrested after sending pictures of himself to kids while police raided his home and finding thousands of images and stuff of child porn as well as zip lock bags with names on them containing "tokens" one of which was like a nine year olds underwear. Another producer named Brian Peck completely manipulated his way into Drake Bell's life (of Drake and Josh fame) since he was a cast member on The Amanda Bynes Show up until his own Drake and Josh show. This guy manipulated Drake into distancing himself from his father who was his manager and didn't trust Peck with his son because he felt there was something creepy with him, which was defended by other producers as him being gay and telling Drakes father that maybe he is homophobic when he tried to complain about weird touching. It lead to Drakes management being taken over by his mother who Brian Peck earned her trust and would take Drake on auditions hours away and let him stay at his home over night. Well, this of course leads to Peck sexually assaulting Drake when he was like 14 or 15 and Drake felt trapped. He was alone at this guys home hours away from home. Had no idea how to get out of the situation and was also getting his dream career while being preyed upon by a producer. The details of these assaults are disturbing as the series showed some of the accusations Drake made against Peck when he later got arrested. It took Drakes girlfriends mother to figure out something was off when this 40 year old was constantly calling her home while Drake was there. Eventually Drake couldn't surpress his trauma anymore and broke down. This lead to Peck confessing over the phone that was tapped by police. Because Drake was a minor at the time the documents were sealed and he wasn't named in the case. According to Drake nobody knew it was him that this producer assaulted multiple times. This series was the first time he spoke publicly about this. He talked about how much support this Peck guy got from people in Hollywood who sent letters of support to the judge. People like James Marsden, Alan Thicke, Rider Strong, etc. Drake sat in the court room with his brother and parents being the only ones 9n his side while Peck had an entire courtroom side filled with support. Peck only got like 14 months in jail and registered as a sex offender only to still get jobs on kid shows upon his release like Suite Life of Zack and Cody. You had other former child stars that worked for Dan Schneider telling stories of how much of a nightmare he could be and how he played favorites. His big favorite was Amanda Bynes who he at one point tried to get her amancipated while letting her live at his house. Schneider would also create very questionable scenes in these kids shows of sexual nature. On Zoey 101 a 13 year old Jaime Spears got yogurt squirted on her fame in what was a simulated c** shot. None of the kids in these scenes knew what was going on. Ariana Grande would suck her own toes (Dan had a perverted foot fetish and would have to see these kids feet as part of the audition process). Grande would also try and squeeze juice of of a penis looking potato as well as pour water on herself while upside down. Victoria Justice would have ketchup poured on her feet. Creepy stuff. After watching this I did some Reddit and YouTube deep dives as I remember some of these stories and knew the weird foot fetish stuff but nothing more. Janette McCurdy from iCarly and Sam and Cat fame wrote a memoir titled "I'm glad my mom is dead" and went into detail about her traumatic experiences on set leading to eating disorders and other issues. Her mother was truly horrible btw. Included in her book was a letter her mother wrote her about how disgusting it was for her to be dating a black NBA player and that she and her brother would disown her, all while telling her to send money because their fridge broke. While what I type next are strictly rumors I find them incredibly believable. Jaime Spears got pregnant which led to Zoey 101 getting canceled. Rumors are that Dan Schneider is the father. A blind item (usually anonymous tips givin to tabloids or TMZ types) was posted about a well known tween star being impregnated by a producer well her senior. This lead to what is rumored to be payments of hush money and payments to Jaime's ex to pretend he is the father when apparently they were broken up for a long while and in separate states this whole time. While Amanda Bynes was living with Dan rumors are they were also sexually active leading to Bynes getting multiple abortions. She has had Twitter posts about things suggesting this and it was all part of her mental breakdown that lead to people brushing her off as nuts. She compared Dan to Harvey Weinstein. Victoria Justice got black balled for a while because she refused to sleep with Dan. This lead to her being phased out of Victorious which she was the main star of in favor of Ariana Grande and Liz Gillies getting the majority of screen time. Gillies who was dating and later married a friend of Dans who was like 36 and she was 16 when they met, likely grooming there. Rumors are that Ariana was more willing to "play the game" for Dan which Victoria was unwilling to do which lead to bigger breaks for Grande. McCurdy would mention how much special treatment Ariana got on Sam and Cat which she was never granted. Another blind item from the same guy who brought the Spears situation to light mentioned how an of age cast member (Victoria was one of the only of age cast) declined advances from a producer who had multiple under age relationships on the side. It later came out this blind item poster was a lawyer of one of the higher ups at the studio and had been proven right multiple times to give further credence to these items. Dan who would employ multiple pedophiles and would have friends 20 years older than a minor date. While having perverted scenes in his shows like a yogurt shot to Spears face, you have to question would he be above sleeping with these kids or assaulting them? The whole thing is truly disturbing and it is amazing how some of these kids managed to grow up relatively normal (Miranda Cosgrove and Victoria Justice) while others suffer from alcoholism, drug abuse, mental breakdowns (Drake Bell and Amanda Bynes). Not all these kids had the same experiences but one has to question how much is still out there we don't know because people are still reluctant to speak out. Horrific stories in this thing, but I think the documentary is poorly focused and not generally well made. Despite what everyone has infers and all of these rumors that you mention, the general sense of this whole production is that Dan Schneider was a dick, and not a pleasant guy to work for, and possibly abusive but only just bad enough that he didn't cross certain lines. Meanwhile, only one of the three episodes is dedicated to the two separate guys that were actually horrific abusers in the worst possible ways... and Josh Peck, who is remarkably open about what happened to him, even says that the only person in the industry who was really there for him and supportive of him was Dan Schneider. And as for all of those suggestive moments on camera, yeah, that shit is gross, but also a lot of it is strung together to make it seem like everyone and anyone would know what it was suggestive of, while really some of it feels like sexually inappropriate, but also a lot of it can easily be chalked up to just kids finding gross or awkward things being funny. 10 year olds laugh at things like people falling into slime, or somebody getting hit in the face, or someone getting soaked by water, or some biting their own toenails, etc. There's legitimately horrible and illuminating stuff in here, but there's also a lot of other stuff that feels unnecessary to even bother with taking up the runtime. And the two ladies are talking heads in this thing that don't belong here add nothing. Everybody else has some insight or actual experience with this story, and meanwhile there are two women who are noted as 'Culture writers' who talk as if they have some authority on not only the facts of what happened, but also the morality of everything. It's a compelling story, but poorly made piece for a number of reasons, and like a lot of these kinds of documentaries it's just simply too long. Had they focused this thin into one feature length piece instead of 3 episodes of a series, it might have been more effective.
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Post by masterofallgoons on Apr 1, 2024 16:57:29 GMT
We also saw Drive-Away Dolls, solo Coen Brother effort. Wholly forgettable - the most memorable part of the experience was the one guy who was sitting directly in front of us, then moved to sit directly behind us once the movie started, and fell asleep snoring halfway through. So I've heard. I was quite taken with Joel Coen's Macbeth movie, but even so, I'm much more interested in the Brothers Coen getting back to working together again... Which evidently should be happening soon.
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Post by Rey Kahuka on Apr 1, 2024 17:01:34 GMT
On Saturday, we watched Ferrari (2023), which might be one of the most confounding movies I have ever seen. There are some truly great things in it, but overall the movie doesn't quite gel. I'll start with what works. The film looks absolutely gorgeous, and is expertly shot. There are long takes, some beautiful cinematography and some of the driving sequences are really well shot. Performance wise, Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz are both fantastic, Cruz in particular. Outside of a ridiculous scene introducing her that is played for laughs but isn't funny, she is bringing her A game. Spoilers from here on out.
So there you have it. Yeah as with any director I suppose, Mann is hit or miss. Last of the Mohicans is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I really enjoy Heat. It's bogged down with pacing issues due to so much extraneous information (I think we've talked about this on the board, but Heat was originally conceived as a tv show and was eventually condensed into a movie. It feels that way, but in a good way, at least to me.) But I'm with you on Public Enemies. There's a movie that could've been fun, or fascinating, or anything other than entirely forgettable, which is how it ended up. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it, but I like to view Collateral as a sequel to The Color of Money. The only real reason is that Cruise's character is named Vincent in both movies, but it actually works if you roll with it. This all came about in a very natural way. TCOM is one of my faves, and one day I was imagining a sequel set decades later, much like TCOM itself is a decades-later sequel to The Hustler. I thought to myself, just give Vince (Cruise) gray hair or something like his character in-- and it dawned on me that his name in Collateral was Vincent. He's gone down the slippery slope into the criminal underworld from throwing billiards matches to contract killing, why not? It makes Collateral 100% more fun for me, and now it's a highly rewatchable trilogy! All this to say I haven't even seen Ferrari, and going by what I've heard from you guys, avoiding it was the right call.
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Post by klawrencio79 on Apr 1, 2024 17:08:26 GMT
On Saturday, we watched Ferrari (2023), which might be one of the most confounding movies I have ever seen. There are some truly great things in it, but overall the movie doesn't quite gel. I'll start with what works. The film looks absolutely gorgeous, and is expertly shot. There are long takes, some beautiful cinematography and some of the driving sequences are really well shot. Performance wise, Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz are both fantastic, Cruz in particular. Outside of a ridiculous scene introducing her that is played for laughs but isn't funny, she is bringing her A game. Spoilers from here on out.
So there you have it. Yeah as with any director I suppose, Mann is hit or miss. Last of the Mohicans is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I really enjoy Heat. It's bogged down with pacing issues due to so much extraneous information (I think we've talked about this on the board, but Heat was originally conceived as a tv show and was eventually condensed into a movie. It feels that way, but in a good way, at least to me.) But I'm with you on Public Enemies. There's a movie that could've been fun, or fascinating, or anything other than entirely forgettable, which is how it ended up. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it, but I like to view Collateral as a sequel to The Color of Money. The only real reason is that Cruise's character is named Vincent in both movies, but it actually works if you roll with it. This all came about in a very natural way. TCOM is one of my faves, and one day I was imagining a sequel set decades later, much like TCOM itself is a decades-later sequel to The Hustler. I thought to myself, just give Vince (Cruise) gray hair or something like his character in-- and it dawned on me that his name in Collateral was Vincent. He's gone down the slippery slope into the criminal underworld from throwing billiards matches to contract killing, why not? It makes Collateral 100% more fun for me, and now it's a highly rewatchable trilogy! All this to say I haven't even seen Ferrari, and going by what I've heard from you guys, avoiding it was the right call. In both the Friday the 13th remake and the first Transformers movie, Travis van Winkle plays a douchebag character named Trent. That means that Friday the 13th and Transformers share a cinematic universe and I'm here for it. This is how Robot Chicken episodes are conceived.
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Post by Rey Kahuka on Apr 1, 2024 17:12:04 GMT
Horrific stories in this thing, but I think the documentary is poorly focused and not generally well made. Despite what everyone has infers and all of these rumors that you mention, the general sense of this whole production is that Dan Schneider was a dick, and not a pleasant guy to work for, and possibly abusive but only just bad enough that he didn't cross certain lines. Meanwhile, only one of the three episodes is dedicated to the two separate guys that were actually horrific abusers in the worst possible ways... and Josh Peck, who is remarkably open about what happened to him, even says that the only person in the industry who was really there for him and supportive of him was Dan Schneider. And as for all of those suggestive moments on camera, yeah, that shit is gross, but also a lot of it is strung together to make it seem like everyone and anyone would know what it was suggestive of, while really some of it feels like sexually inappropriate, but also a lot of it can easily be chalked up to just kids finding gross or awkward things being funny. 10 year olds laugh at things like people falling into slime, or somebody getting hit in the face, or someone getting soaked by water, or some biting their own toenails, etc. There's legitimately horrible and illuminating stuff in here, but there's also a lot of other stuff that feels unnecessary to even bother with taking up the runtime. And the two ladies are talking heads in this thing that don't belong here add nothing. Everybody else has some insight or actual experience with this story, and meanwhile there are two women who are noted as 'Culture writers' who talk as if they have some authority on not only the facts of what happened, but also the morality of everything. It's a compelling story, but poorly made piece for a number of reasons, and like a lot of these kinds of documentaries it's just simply too long. Had they focused this thin into one feature length piece instead of 3 episodes of a series, it might have been more effective. I haven't seen the doc, but I heard some podcasters discussing this last week, and I had the same thought. It's easy to make that stuff look creepy now that you've framed the showrunner a certain way. Say "It turns out (so and so) was into (insert creepy shit here)," and see how much of their stuff instantly takes on a whole new meaning as you view it with that in mind. I'm not defending anyone; I'm not familiar with all the facts, I haven't even seen those shows, much less the doc. Just saying it sounds like a heavily biased piece. I don't think most streaming docs these days are trying to inform so much as sway you to their side.
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Post by masterofallgoons on Apr 1, 2024 17:12:20 GMT
I was on a flight home the other day and was trying to find something to watch, and rather than do something real that I'd really have to pay attention to I watched The Equalizer 3. I don't know if I'd ever seen more than 30 mins of either of the previous 2 Equalizer movies, but this one was the perfect watch-on-a-plane movie. It's got a surprisingly relaxed pace for what's supposed to be an action movie, and in fact, it's got very little action. There were a few moments of Denzel kicking ass, and those scenes are compelling, but even those are done a remarkably slow pace for a bloody scenes of violence.
There's kind of a story, but nobody really cares. Denzel is charming and stoic, it takes place in Sicily, which looks beautiful (although it's apparently it was shot elsewhere in Italy), the men in town are nice to Denzel, the women are beautiful, and then he kills some guys in gruesome ways that sort of conflict with the otherwise easy pace and tone.
Anyway, it was a good time for a that doesn't require your full attention. Like one of those old man Liam Neeson action movies but clearly of a much higher caliber.
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Post by Rey Kahuka on Apr 1, 2024 17:13:06 GMT
Yeah as with any director I suppose, Mann is hit or miss. Last of the Mohicans is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I really enjoy Heat. It's bogged down with pacing issues due to so much extraneous information (I think we've talked about this on the board, but Heat was originally conceived as a tv show and was eventually condensed into a movie. It feels that way, but in a good way, at least to me.) But I'm with you on Public Enemies. There's a movie that could've been fun, or fascinating, or anything other than entirely forgettable, which is how it ended up. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it, but I like to view Collateral as a sequel to The Color of Money. The only real reason is that Cruise's character is named Vincent in both movies, but it actually works if you roll with it. This all came about in a very natural way. TCOM is one of my faves, and one day I was imagining a sequel set decades later, much like TCOM itself is a decades-later sequel to The Hustler. I thought to myself, just give Vince (Cruise) gray hair or something like his character in-- and it dawned on me that his name in Collateral was Vincent. He's gone down the slippery slope into the criminal underworld from throwing billiards matches to contract killing, why not? It makes Collateral 100% more fun for me, and now it's a highly rewatchable trilogy! All this to say I haven't even seen Ferrari, and going by what I've heard from you guys, avoiding it was the right call. In both the Friday the 13th remake and the first Transformers movie, Travis van Winkle plays a douchebag character named Trent. That means that Friday the 13th and Transformers share a cinematic universe and I'm here for it. This is how Robot Chicken episodes are conceived. I always knew I was in the wrong business.
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Post by masterofallgoons on Apr 1, 2024 17:18:10 GMT
Horrific stories in this thing, but I think the documentary is poorly focused and not generally well made. Despite what everyone has infers and all of these rumors that you mention, the general sense of this whole production is that Dan Schneider was a dick, and not a pleasant guy to work for, and possibly abusive but only just bad enough that he didn't cross certain lines. Meanwhile, only one of the three episodes is dedicated to the two separate guys that were actually horrific abusers in the worst possible ways... and Josh Peck, who is remarkably open about what happened to him, even says that the only person in the industry who was really there for him and supportive of him was Dan Schneider. And as for all of those suggestive moments on camera, yeah, that shit is gross, but also a lot of it is strung together to make it seem like everyone and anyone would know what it was suggestive of, while really some of it feels like sexually inappropriate, but also a lot of it can easily be chalked up to just kids finding gross or awkward things being funny. 10 year olds laugh at things like people falling into slime, or somebody getting hit in the face, or someone getting soaked by water, or some biting their own toenails, etc. There's legitimately horrible and illuminating stuff in here, but there's also a lot of other stuff that feels unnecessary to even bother with taking up the runtime. And the two ladies are talking heads in this thing that don't belong here add nothing. Everybody else has some insight or actual experience with this story, and meanwhile there are two women who are noted as 'Culture writers' who talk as if they have some authority on not only the facts of what happened, but also the morality of everything. It's a compelling story, but poorly made piece for a number of reasons, and like a lot of these kinds of documentaries it's just simply too long. Had they focused this thin into one feature length piece instead of 3 episodes of a series, it might have been more effective. I haven't seen the doc, but I heard some podcasters discussing this last week, and I had the same thought. It's easy to make that stuff look creepy now that you've framed the showrunner a certain way. Say "It turns out (so and so) was into (insert creepy shit here)," and see how much of their stuff instantly takes on a whole new meaning as you view it with that in mind. I'm not defending anyone; I'm not familiar with all the facts, I haven't even seen those shows, much less the doc. Just saying it sounds like a heavily biased piece. I don't think most streaming docs these days are trying to inform so much as sway you to their side. Definitely. I believe he was asked to comment and declined, but there is no representation of Dan Schneider's point of view other than to have the people who are denouncing him mention how he would frame these things. Now, it's worth noting that some of this shit is clearly inappropriate, and there are reports of people on set at the time saying so... but they string a lot of stuff together that really doesn't apply and it's a little unfair. Which is, of course, not to say that we need to defend people who did inappropriate things, but some of those moments are a lot more innocent than they are letting on, and the audience of kids laughed at those things for innocent reasons, and it just seems worse when you take it out of its context and put it into this context.
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Post by Rey Kahuka on Apr 1, 2024 17:19:29 GMT
I was on a flight home the other day and was trying to find something to watch, and rather than do something real that I'd really have to pay attention to I watched The Equalizer 3. I don't know if I'd ever seen more than 30 mins of either of the previous 2 Equalizer movies, but this one was the perfect watch-on-a-plane movie. It's got a surprisingly relaxed pace for what's supposed to be an action movie, and in fact, it's got very little action. There were a few moments of Denzel kicking ass, and those scenes are compelling, but even those are done a remarkably slow pace for a bloody scenes of violence. There's kind of a story, but nobody really cares. Denzel is charming and stoic, it takes place in Sicily, which looks beautiful (although it's apparently it was shot elsewhere in Italy), the men in town are nice to Denzel, the women are beautiful, and then he kills some guys in gruesome ways that sort of conflict with the otherwise easy pace and tone. Anyway, it was a good time for a that doesn't require your full attention. Like one of those old man Liam Neeson action movies but clearly of a much higher caliber. I still think the first one is the best (and no, not just because it takes place in Boston). It has its moments, but I remember being bored with this one. I appear to be in the minority, though.
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Post by masterofallgoons on Apr 1, 2024 17:20:05 GMT
Yeah as with any director I suppose, Mann is hit or miss. Last of the Mohicans is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I really enjoy Heat. It's bogged down with pacing issues due to so much extraneous information (I think we've talked about this on the board, but Heat was originally conceived as a tv show and was eventually condensed into a movie. It feels that way, but in a good way, at least to me.) But I'm with you on Public Enemies. There's a movie that could've been fun, or fascinating, or anything other than entirely forgettable, which is how it ended up. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it, but I like to view Collateral as a sequel to The Color of Money. The only real reason is that Cruise's character is named Vincent in both movies, but it actually works if you roll with it. This all came about in a very natural way. TCOM is one of my faves, and one day I was imagining a sequel set decades later, much like TCOM itself is a decades-later sequel to The Hustler. I thought to myself, just give Vince (Cruise) gray hair or something like his character in-- and it dawned on me that his name in Collateral was Vincent. He's gone down the slippery slope into the criminal underworld from throwing billiards matches to contract killing, why not? It makes Collateral 100% more fun for me, and now it's a highly rewatchable trilogy! All this to say I haven't even seen Ferrari, and going by what I've heard from you guys, avoiding it was the right call. In both the Friday the 13th remake and the first Transformers movie, Travis van Winkle plays a douchebag character named Trent. That means that Friday the 13th and Transformers share a cinematic universe and I'm here for it. This is how Robot Chicken episodes are conceived. You're telling me that Michael Bay produced movies weren't creative enough to come up with 2 different names (or actors) for a similar character?
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Post by masterofallgoons on Apr 1, 2024 17:27:23 GMT
On Saturday, we watched Ferrari (2023), which might be one of the most confounding movies I have ever seen. There are some truly great things in it, but overall the movie doesn't quite gel. I'll start with what works. The film looks absolutely gorgeous, and is expertly shot. There are long takes, some beautiful cinematography and some of the driving sequences are really well shot. Performance wise, Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz are both fantastic, Cruz in particular. Outside of a ridiculous scene introducing her that is played for laughs but isn't funny, she is bringing her A game. Spoilers from here on out.
So there you have it. Yeah as with any director I suppose, Mann is hit or miss. Last of the Mohicans is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I really enjoy Heat. It's bogged down with pacing issues due to so much extraneous information (I think we've talked about this on the board, but Heat was originally conceived as a tv show and was eventually condensed into a movie. It feels that way, but in a good way, at least to me.) But I'm with you on Public Enemies. There's a movie that could've been fun, or fascinating, or anything other than entirely forgettable, which is how it ended up. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it, but I like to view Collateral as a sequel to The Color of Money. The only real reason is that Cruise's character is named Vincent in both movies, but it actually works if you roll with it. This all came about in a very natural way. TCOM is one of my faves, and one day I was imagining a sequel set decades later, much like TCOM itself is a decades-later sequel to The Hustler. I thought to myself, just give Vince (Cruise) gray hair or something like his character in-- and it dawned on me that his name in Collateral was Vincent. He's gone down the slippery slope into the criminal underworld from throwing billiards matches to contract killing, why not? It makes Collateral 100% more fun for me, and now it's a highly rewatchable trilogy! All this to say I haven't even seen Ferrari, and going by what I've heard from you guys, avoiding it was the right call. The script for what would become Heat actually was a produced in the 80s as a TV pilot, but the show was cancelled... or not picked up, as it were. Eventually the pilot was aired as a tv movie called LA Takedown. I haven't seen it in forever (or Heat for that matter), but it strangely feels exactly like what it was; a cheaper, less polished version of the same story with most of the subplots excised for runtime, a less impressive cast and a director who was less in command of this skillset. Still if you haven't seen it and you're interested it's worth a look for curiosity's sake. The whole thing was on YouTube as of like a 2 years ago, and I imagine it's still there.
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Post by masterofallgoons on Apr 1, 2024 17:28:55 GMT
I was on a flight home the other day and was trying to find something to watch, and rather than do something real that I'd really have to pay attention to I watched The Equalizer 3. I don't know if I'd ever seen more than 30 mins of either of the previous 2 Equalizer movies, but this one was the perfect watch-on-a-plane movie. It's got a surprisingly relaxed pace for what's supposed to be an action movie, and in fact, it's got very little action. There were a few moments of Denzel kicking ass, and those scenes are compelling, but even those are done a remarkably slow pace for a bloody scenes of violence. There's kind of a story, but nobody really cares. Denzel is charming and stoic, it takes place in Sicily, which looks beautiful (although it's apparently it was shot elsewhere in Italy), the men in town are nice to Denzel, the women are beautiful, and then he kills some guys in gruesome ways that sort of conflict with the otherwise easy pace and tone. Anyway, it was a good time for a that doesn't require your full attention. Like one of those old man Liam Neeson action movies but clearly of a much higher caliber. I still think the first one is the best (and no, not just because it takes place in Boston). It has its moments, but I remember being bored with this one. I appear to be in the minority, though. This might just be the next series I dig into. There aren't that many and it seems like easy viewing that is not to be taken seriously. If only the other 2 were available on the plane I might have watched them all.
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Post by klawrencio79 on Apr 1, 2024 17:47:27 GMT
I was on a flight home the other day and was trying to find something to watch, and rather than do something real that I'd really have to pay attention to I watched The Equalizer 3. I don't know if I'd ever seen more than 30 mins of either of the previous 2 Equalizer movies, but this one was the perfect watch-on-a-plane movie. It's got a surprisingly relaxed pace for what's supposed to be an action movie, and in fact, it's got very little action. There were a few moments of Denzel kicking ass, and those scenes are compelling, but even those are done a remarkably slow pace for a bloody scenes of violence. There's kind of a story, but nobody really cares. Denzel is charming and stoic, it takes place in Sicily, which looks beautiful (although it's apparently it was shot elsewhere in Italy), the men in town are nice to Denzel, the women are beautiful, and then he kills some guys in gruesome ways that sort of conflict with the otherwise easy pace and tone. Anyway, it was a good time for a that doesn't require your full attention. Like one of those old man Liam Neeson action movies but clearly of a much higher caliber. This is probably the perfect description of that movie. You're right, it has an action set piece to start and then it's like an hour of him ambling around Italy, making me want to go visit there. Then he gruesomely murders some clowns. Then he turns into Michael Myers and gruesomely murders a bunch of clowns.
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