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Watch, Watched, Watching: The cancellations continue


Red Tiger

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I recently rented Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate  This was the original 3.5 hour non-Criterion release.

I had seen the documentary, "Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heavens Gate" several times (you can find it online), and I finally decided to see the film that generated such a violent reaction from audiences and critics.  This was the film of which Kathleen Carroll said,

"The more you saw that there was nothing on that screen, at all. Nothing at all. I mean not even a good performance. If you could even single out one great performance... Usually every movie has one great scene. Even bad movies have at least something good you can say about them. This one had nothing."

Oof. More recent appraisals have been less harsh.

Is it a great film? No. It's a film that had the potential for greatness.  Like, I think this could have been one of the greatest films ever made. It's a real shame because you can see glimpses of it but it just doesn't come together. I thought it was a compelling and interesting story, but maybe not one that audiences wanted in a post Star Wars, post Jaws world.  

The Good:

Unlike Carroll, I don't think there's a bad scene or a bad performance in it.  Aside from prologue, which could have been trimmed by a minute or two, I think the first hour of the film is flawless. Kris Kristofferson, who I never rated very highly as a lead, does a fantastic job and there's real chemistry between him and Isabelle Huppert. Sam Waterston is great as the villain.

This cinematography is outstanding. All shot on film; on location; no green screen; no digital manipulation. A truly beautiful film.  The original release had a sepia-tone color grading that apparently was removed for the Criterion release.  I don't know how to feel about that.  

Costumes, sets; all first rate.

The score is brilliant. Western film scores up to that point tended to be massive, booming, 100 piece orchestral affairs and this is the opposite of that. Haunting, beautiful, very spare. perfect for this film.

The bad:

Cimino shot a film that didn't cut.  I haven't seen the 2.5 hour version but the 3.5 hour version definitely feels like a film that has big chunks missing. Some scenes feel out of order and they don't necessarily follow from the scene before. The original version shown to UA executives was 325 minutes long. Sadly, it's lost.

The soundtrack is messed up. Some scenes have dialogue that's really difficult to hear.  Maybe they didn't have time for ADR or the track was damaged. I don't know.

The epilogue looks really wonky. It's the one part of the film that looks like it was shot on a set and it needed more post production work. 

Animal Cruelty.  See Wikipedia. 

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Definitely watch the documentary first.

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Finishing off the spooky films* we watched the other two of my favourite three werewolf films: Ginger Snaps and Dog Soldiers. The former is the best social commentary werewolf movie and the latter is the best action+comedy werewolf movie. Absolute classics and I won't hear a word said against them.

The only other wolfy film I didn't get round to re-watching is The Company of Wolves. Might do that one at Christmas. 

*we did a poor job of getting through our list last month, motivation (even to watch films) is hard to come by these days

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Watched Apocalypse Now, the Redux version which I've actually never seen before. The French Plantation scene was a very good addition. The Playboy Playmates follow-up was, on the other hand, an episode that they did well to leave out (as I understand it, the "Final Cut" version omits it, so Coppola seems to have responded to the critique). Still a brilliant, searing film. In part I watched it because it's shown up on Netflix, in part because Sofia Coppola referenced it in discussing soundtracks in the Soundtracking podcast I've started listening to, in relation to her father's collaboration with her grandfather Carmine Coppola, and in part because... well... everything else going on in the world, I guess. 

Going to dig into the final episode of Guadagnino's We Are What We Are. My critique of the depiction of the behavior of military officers, especially at the upper chain of command, is even stronger than it was before -- there's some extraordinary stuff that would never have flown if they had bothered to get someone to advise them -- but it's still beautiful and affecting when you put that aside. I'll need to read or watch some interviews to learn why the Army base component was no necessary. Simply a way to do an English-language series about teens in Italy is my guess.

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52 minutes ago, Ran said:

Watched Apocalypse Now, the Redux version which I've actually never seen before. The French Plantation scene was a very good addition. The Playboy Playmates follow-up was, on the other hand, an episode that they did well to leave out (as I understand it, the "Final Cut" version omits it, so Coppola seems to have responded to the critique). Still a brilliant, searing film. In part I watched it because it's shown up on Netflix, in part because Sofia Coppola referenced it in discussing soundtracks in the Soundtracking podcast I've started listening to, in relation to her father's collaboration with her grandfather Carmine Coppola, and in part because... well... everything else going on in the world, I guess. 

This seems to go against most peoples opinions from what I can tell. On its own the french plantation scene is actually well made and interesting element of Vietnam that doesn't get brought up. I did sort of enjoy it. It did pretty much kill the momentum of the movie however, it was very slow and a complete diversion from the everything else.

The playboy scene did feel pretty unnecessary.

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I would question how much 'momentum' Apocalypse Now has, Martin Sheen is looking for Brando and getting into increasingly weird situations the further down the river he goes, but beyond that, is there any real suspense? or plot?  Isn't the whole movie is more of a series of crazy vignettes that are only tangentially related to each other plot/story wise?  But then, I loved the French Plantation scene, so maybe I'm not objective.  I also liked the Playboy segment, but it was admittedly very long in the extended version. 

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Yeah, it's very episodic, and I don't think pacing so much matters as the layering together of the experiences that lead to this apocalyptic vision at the end. The extended Playmate scene bothers me because it's, first, very objectifying in a way that feels much worse and out of place than when they were first introduced doing their USO-style act that causes a riot. Second, Willard's casual immorality -- bartering fuel to get five men a chance to sleep with these two damaged, coerced women -- goes well beyond, "He's seen and done bad shit for his country."  Removing the scene preserves the idea that he's still on the knife's-edge rather than tumbled over into the abyss; even when he casually executes the injured Vietnamese girl, it's to continue his mission.

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2 hours ago, Ran said:

Watched Apocalypse Now, the Redux version which I've actually never seen before. The French Plantation scene was a very good addition. The Playboy Playmates follow-up was, on the other hand, an episode that they did well to leave out (as I understand it, the "Final Cut" version omits it, so Coppola seems to have responded to the critique).

Agreed on both counts.  I love the plantation scene and the Playmate scene was indeed overkill - plus their original scene was very well done, and got the point across, without getting uncomfortable.  I also enjoyed Brando's extended scenes in Redux.  Then again I'm quite biased as it's one of my favorite movies ever even though most of the standard criticisms are rather inarguable.

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I agree AN is pretty much just a collection of scenes and it doesn't rely on pacing in the same way a lot of narratives do. Having said that, the French plantation scene really did stand out because it just seemed to be such an obvious road block to the story. Basically the crew are going down the river, seeing all these horrors of war, but are on their way to something, they have a destination. That gets very much interrupted by their time with the French, it doesn't seem very much inkeeping with the gradually unfurling horror they were experiencing (which maybe is the point). It just felt like a detour. 

Maybe less of a problem for those who have watch Apocalypse now so many times that they are less bothered by a big chunk being added, but me personally it had been a long time since I'd seen it and so was viewing it almost as a noob, and it really bothered me. I had a real 'Get to Brando' moment during it. 

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I watched Bloodshot without expecting much from it, although I think it didn't even meet my low expectations. In terms of Vin Diesel films it makes the Fast and the Furious films look like comparatively plausible and it didn't even have the sense of fun those films did. I particularly liked the scene in "London" where they show Vin Diesel walking past a red telephone box and a black cab to prove he is in London before having an extended chase scene around somewhere that is obviously not London, including at one point grabbing a shotgun from a couple of police officers since British cops are well known for always going around armed.

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So rather than continue to watch the election coverage last night, I chose to watch a horror movie instead. I went with The Last Days on Mars which I had never seen. It was ok, largely predictable once shit went down, and scientific accuracy was marginal at best. It started losing me when in typical Hollywood fashion they confused nuclear warheads with nuclear reactors. The landing vehicle was ridiculous, an offshoot of the crafts in Avatar.

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19 hours ago, williamjm said:

I watched Bloodshot without expecting much from it, although I think it didn't even meet my low expectations. In terms of Vin Diesel films it makes the Fast and the Furious films look like comparatively plausible and it didn't even have the sense of fun those films did. I particularly liked the scene in "London" where they show Vin Diesel walking past a red telephone box and a black cab to prove he is in London before having an extended chase scene around somewhere that is obviously not London, including at one point grabbing a shotgun from a couple of police officers since British cops are well known for always going around armed.

If you enjoy the pod, How Did This Get Made did an episode on 'Bloodshot' a while back. I believe Adam Scott was the guest as the go-to Vin Diesel expert.

Speaking of Adam Scott, just rewatched most of 'Party Down' again. So great. I should check out iZombie I guess since I liked Party Down and Veronica Mars and it's a lot of the same people behind the show, but it just never sounded that interesting to me for some reason.

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1 hour ago, HoodedCrow said:

You guys are right about The Queens Gambit:) Knowlege of chess is not necessary, because the characters are well acted. The sets are amazing. I think it’s the sus...pe...n..C.e, that works so well.

Will continue to say this on here... my favorite thing all year. I could watch it again tomorrow and still be caught up in the drama of it. 

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Watched 21 Bridges, pretty much just because of Boseman. It was just ok. Gary Carr made a big impression in his small role. (and Jamie Neumann was in it, so though they didn't have any scenes together it was kinda a The Deuce reunion.) 

The title and trailer made it seem like locking down all the ways out of Manhattan was a major plot point. But it doesn't seem to impact the two criminal protagonists at all? Either way they can't leave till they clean the money and get new identities, and they're found while doing that and everything goes to shit. I guess Michael could have left the city at like 3:30 instead of tying that guy up and looking at the drive. But it still would have been a huge risk. There's barely anything about the impact it had on the city. 

I don't know this for sure, but the ending seemed like it was written as a quiet denouement, maybe ending with J.K. Simmon's character commiting suicide or suicide by cop. But then some studio excec insisted they needed to end with an action scene so they had EVERY CORRUPT COP IN THE MOVIE show up at his house inexplicably and start shooting. On and the FBI guys who were also somewhat inexplicably corrupt.

Then he gets the narcotics lady to put down her gun so she doesn't go to jail for murder. But he already knows she murdered Michael right in front of him to keep him from talking...

So yeah kinda a dumb movie but I enjoyed it and it wasn't overlong. Great cast. 

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5 hours ago, Vaughn said:

If you enjoy the pod, How Did This Get Made did an episode on 'Bloodshot' a while back. I believe Adam Scott was the guest as the go-to Vin Diesel expert.

Speaking of Adam Scott, just rewatched most of 'Party Down' again. So great. I should check out iZombie I guess since I liked Party Down and Veronica Mars and it's a lot of the same people behind the show, but it just never sounded that interesting to me for some reason.

I watched the first couple of episodes of iZombie a while back (like you mainly because I liked Veronica Mars and I thought they were entertaining. I was intending to watch more of it but I guess I got distracted by something else at the time, I should probably go back to it sometime.

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Watched Upgrade (2018). It was pretty good. I saw this on Reddit as one of the "forbidden recommendations" on a subreddit. It was forbidden since people had rec'ed it so much that everyone was sick of it.  I don't get the whole "best sf film of the past decade" thing that people were posting about it, but it was good.

I liked the ending.

Spoiler

I mean, it was pretty obvious that the AIs had already pretty much taken over. The main character was just the latest puppet in their plan to make a better, upgraded race. At least he can enjoy himself in virtual. I feel that it's gonna be a Matrix-like situation for most humans after this.

 

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Upgrade is a 'good' movie that got a lot of hype because it wasn't getting a lot of hype in the mainstream. That tends to happen. It was definitely enjoyable and the action sequences were well done. It was also pretty forgettable and in the end I felt like I'd just watched a good Black Mirror episode more than anything.

I watched the first episode of the second season of End of the F***ing World. I have no idea why it took so long to come to UK Netflix and I know it was on Dutch Netflix about 6 months ago. Seeing as the first season was one of my favourite things I've been drooling in anticipation over it! 
Unfortunately I was left feeling rather flat. Introducing a new character and spending all your time with them is a brave move, but if you are going to do that you'd better make sure they are interesting. So far she isn't, not compared to the two leads last season. Where they have charisma and spark and charm, coupled with that sense of blind youthful rebellion, this new character just is a flat, silent, monotone psycho.

It's been pretty boring so far. I hope it picks up.

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Vertigo was on TCM last night, so I watched it [again].  It may not be the 'best movie of all time' but it is one hell of an artistic achievement.  I go back and forth on Kim Novak's performance, sometimes I think she's often bad, and sometimes I think it works beautifully.  And I think? this is the closest to a bad guy that Jimmy Stewart ever played, he played some disgruntled ruthless Western guys, but nothing close to telling his girlfriend that her clothing and hair color didn't matter to her.  You're sort of watching the whole movie waiting for Jimmy to turn into Jimmy Stewart, the hero, but he just keeps breaking more fully.  The crazy lurid colors work so well here.  

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To look forward to:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/nov/06/mank-review-david-fincher-gary-oldman-citizen-kane-herman-mankiewicz

Quote

 

[....]It’s possible to go into a kind of trance at just how beautiful this film looks, a ravishing display created by cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt and production designer Donald Graham Burt, with costumes by Trish Summerville. It’s a view of Hollywood that is unfashionable in many ways – the current view is probably more in line with Ryan Murphy’s miniseries Hollywood, which is all about correcting the erasure of anyone outside the white-heterosexual system, and that isn’t really what Mank is about. But what an addictive romantic drama it is, mixing sentimentality with pure rapture.

• Mank is released on 4 December on Netflix.

 

 

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