Watch, Watched, Watching: Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion

[Veltigar]

A new thread, as I still have to respond to a lot of posts in the old thread and the thread is past 400 posts. 

Also have some other films I want to share thoughts on, when I have the time to properly write it all out. The thread title is a tip, so respect if you don't have to google it to find an answer 

Alternative titles:

1. Don't put The Thing in your mouth
2. You got to beat The Thing
3. Denton Van Zan is a God

[Maithanet]

Or alternative title 4:

Spoiler

"Why are you wearing that ridiculous man suit?"

Nice Donnie Darko and Thing crossover.

 

[Ghostlydragon]

Better Call Saul. On episode 5 of the first season. I may have only watched Breaking Bad for the first time last spring but why did i take so long to watch this show. I'm loving it. Looks like it will be a good couple of months while I watch every episode 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

1 hour ago, Ghostlydragon said:

Better Call Saul. On episode 5 of the first season. I may have only watched Breaking Bad for the first time last spring but why did i take so long to watch this show. I'm loving it. Looks like it will be a good couple of months while I watch every episode 

You're in for a treat. I just wish they didn't take so long between seasons.

[DireWolfSpirit]

I watched Mulan at Disney Plus last night.

I liked it a lot. Making it extra nice for me was that Gong Li was a main antagonist to the lead and I've been a huge fan of hers for as long as I've been watching movies.

It's kind of unfortunate that this movie became mired in controversy with the Hong Kong protests when the lead actress, whose quite young still, made pro Chinese comments.

[Ran]

Watched David Fincher's Mank. Good film, gorgeous of course in all the period detail, sets, costumes, etc., and the lensing is also A+. Oldman's terrific a the louche Herman J. Mankiewicz, Tom Burke does a very good imitation of Welles in terms of voice and mannerisms, Amanda Seyfried is very appealing. The film is ostensibly about Mankiewicz's role in writing the screenplay for Citizen Kane, inspired in part by his personal familiarity with William Randolph Hearst and his mistress Marion Davies as he was a regular guest at San Simone and was something of the "court jester"... but biographers of Orson Welles take exception to the film's portrayal of the matter of credit for the screenplay, and I can see their point. The film opens with Mank being lodged in a remote, "dry" ranch (he was an alcoholic, and BTW the location used in the film is that very same ranch in Victorville, California) to write the script for Welles, but skips the weeks of work he did with Welles beforehand in which they settled on things like the conceit of the film, the main character being based on Hearst and the film presenting a picture of a man partially seen through the accounts of others as flashbacks. 

Mank surely did deserve the writing credit on it -- hiring him as a "script doctor" when there was no script was all part of RKO's (and Welles') effort to keep pushing the idea of Welles as a one-man force of nature who produced, directed, and wrote films entirely on his own  -- but later hagiography of Mankewicz suggesting that Welles had no role at all in the screenplay, pushed by Pauline Kael most notably, was unfair. Citizen Kane as we know it owes tremendous amounts to Welles's genius as a director, actor, producer, and (ultimately) co-screenwriter. But at the same time, yes, diminishing Mank's importance (or Gregg Toland, the cinematographer who basically taught Welles the basics of cinematography so they could successfully collaborate) was equally wrong.

Still, all in all, a nice film. Particularly sharp is its portrayal of Louis B. Mayer. And a great cameo from Bill Nye, the Science Guy.

[RumHam]

5 hours ago, Ghostlydragon said:

Better Call Saul. On episode 5 of the first season. I may have only watched Breaking Bad for the first time last spring but why did i take so long to watch this show. I'm loving it. Looks like it will be a good couple of months while I watch every episode 

If you're using Netflix just be aware season five isn't on there yet. Hopefully sometime early next year. Great show. 

[DMC]

3 hours ago, Ran said:

pushed by Pauline Kael most notably, was unfair.

Yeah I think Kael's famous (or infamous) New Yorker piece clearly went overboard in attempts to "correct" the history, and the back-and-forth has unfortunately derived from that depiction ever since.  Don't see why everyone can't just agree on "Welles and Mank share credit on the screenplay - like shitloads of other screenplays" as a middle-ground.  Especially considering that was the crediting that won the Oscar.  Anyway thanks for the mini-review, look forward to watching it soon.

On the thread title, that's one of my favorite quotes I use all the time.  I especially enjoy when people don't get the reference and I get to explain the hilarity of the context.

1 hour ago, RumHam said:

If you're using Netflix just be aware season five isn't on there yet. Hopefully sometime early next year. Great show. 

Yeah I recently noticed this.  I still have cable so I'm hoping it's on-demand, otherwise I'm gonna be pissed cuz I had all of season 5 on my old DVR but (obviously) lost it when I finally was able to switch from Comcast to Fios back in August.  Guess that's what I get for procrastinating.

[Cas Stark]

I REALLY tried to like Mank.  I should be the bullseye target audience, classic Hollywood buff, and fairly well acquainted with the Citizen Kane lore, but it left me cold, and I thought the B/W cinematography was washed out and monochromatic. Great cast and good acting, but it never seemed to gel for me anyway.    

[williamjm]

13 hours ago, Veltigar said:

Also have some other films I want to share thoughts on, when I have the time to properly write it all out. The thread title is a tip, so respect if you don't have to google it to find an answer 

It's a pity Richard Kelly seems to have turned into the ultimate example of a Hollywood 'one hit wonder'.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

4 hours ago, DMC said:

Yeah I think Kael's famous (or infamous) New Yorker piece clearly went overboard in attempts to "correct" the history, and the back-and-forth has unfortunately derived from that depiction ever since.  Don't see why everyone can't just agree on "Welles and Mank share credit on the screenplay - like shitloads of other screenplays" as a middle-ground.  Especially considering that was the crediting that won the Oscar.  Anyway thanks for the mini-review, look forward to watching it soon.

This is one of the reasons the Screen Writers Guild has some pretty clear rules on what it takes to get (or keep) a screenwriting credit on a film. Same for credits for Directors, Producers, etc.

A more egregious (almost) example was Easy Rider. Dennis Hopper was an out-of-control megalomaniac and he wanted Fonda's writing credit. I'm not sure if Terry Southern was properly credited at the time so this might have given Hopper the sole screenwriting credit. Fonda finally agreed as long as he got story credit.  The response was, "No, Dennis wasn't all of it." Fonda's final offer was, "Fuck him. It stays how it is." They never worked together again.

Speaking of writing, I just watched Bad Santa on HBO and I was surprised to see that the film has been trimmed to exclude the immortal line, "He's been in Margaret Thatcher's pussy". Like, WTF, HBO?

[Iskaral Pust]

I watched The Old Guard which was ok but not great.  I was ready to criticize the very flimsy premise — why do they have to be violent vigilantes at all? — but then I heard that it’s a comic book adaptation, which really lowers the bar for any logic or coherence in the premise.  The fight choreography is very good, even if it’s noticeable that minions are just standing there waiting to be stylishly dispatched.  The ennui and sense of loss from outliving everyone was handled better by such deep and thoughtful art house films as Highlander and Wolverine, so I’m not sure why they slow down the movie so much to do it less effectively here.  And they broke their own logic: if Quynh has been waterboarded in unending torture for the past 500+ years, why did they ever abandon efforts to save her?  Especially since they keep making a big deal of never abandoning each other?

It very much tries to set up a sequel but I’m not sure that it earned one.

[Zorral]

Just finished watching Mank. Woo.  A lot to think about and react to, particularly since I just rewatched Citizen Kane last weekend.

Both positive and negative.  The negative comes from the metaness which worked or did not, when it came to technique, starting with the choice to do this in b&w. Because you know the writers never saw this while they wrote in black and white, but the living color in which they lived it.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

It's Die Hard time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TheLastWolf]

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

It's Die Hard time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas. Ohkaaay

But not without Home Alone 

[TheLastWolf]

Watched The Gods must be crazy 

Sequels were reputed to be unworthy so just saw this. Funny and with message without being preachy 

[Heartofice]

Started watching Mosul on Netflix. Iraq war movie shot in Marrakesh I understand but with local actors. Has a real edge of authenticity even if it does occasionally stray into war movie cliche. 
 

Also managed to get around to properly watching His Dark Materials on the BBC. I’m reading Secret Commonwealth right now which is why I bothered to watch this. I don’t think it is a good show to be honest, it’s just I can’t tell how much of that is due to the show and how much is the book.

It’s been a long time since I read the book so hard to remember enough, but I do think it’s by far the most childish of the lot and even then thinking it was a little silly with its armoured bears and Lee Scorseby. None of that feels better on screen. 
 

I think the show feels very rushed as well, like whole sections and motivations have been chopped out. Sure it seems to be doing a crossover with the second book so it isn’t the same but there are just too many times where I question why people have motivations or like each other when it just isn’t shown on screen. 
 

It does look nice though 

[Luzifer's right hand]

Watched Home Alone and Home Alone 2. I find seeing such movies in HD interesting as I notice many little details I missed when I watched them back in the day on the old tube. The first one is still great to watch. The 2nd one has some good gags but much less fun overall. Next on my list of old movies is Groundhog Day.

[DMC]

13 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

A more egregious (almost) example was Easy Rider.

Gotta say, while I love Easy Rider and was aware of Hopper's credit-hogging, the idea of people fighting over its screenplay is very amusing to me.  I mean, I can write most of the screenplay in, like, three minutes:

Spoiler

Sell coke then stash the money in the fuel tank of Fonda's chopper.

[Extended shots of Fonda and Hopper riding in their choppers to cool music]

Pick up a hitch-hiker, hang out at a commune, and get some acid.

[Extended shots of Fonda and Hopper riding in their choppers to cool music]

Get thrown in jail, hang out with Jack Nicholson, get him high, then he gets beaten to death by some local hillbillies.

[Extended shots of Fonda and Hopper riding in their choppers to cool music]

Hang out with some prostitutes and wander around Mardi Gras culminating in taking the acid then some weird scene in a French Quarter cemetery.

Extended shots of Fonda and Hopper riding in their choppers interrupted by getting murdered by some local hillbillies.

The End.

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

17 minutes ago, DMC said:

Gotta say, while I love Easy Rider and was aware of Hopper's credit-hogging, the idea of people fighting over its screenplay is very amusing to me.  I mean, I can write most of the screenplay in, like, three minutes:

  Reveal hidden contents

Sell coke then stash the money in the fuel tank of Fonda's chopper.

[Extended shots of Fonda and Hopper riding in their choppers to cool music]

Pick up a hitch-hiker, hang out at a commune, and get some acid.

[Extended shots of Fonda and Hopper riding in their choppers to cool music]

Get thrown in jail, hang out with Jack Nicholson, get him high, then he gets beaten to death by some local hillbillies.

[Extended shots of Fonda and Hopper riding in their choppers to cool music]

Hang out with some prostitutes and wander around Mardi Gras culminating in taking the acid then some weird scene in a French Quarter cemetery.

Extended shots of Fonda and Hopper riding in their choppers interrupted by getting murdered by some local hillbillies.

The End.

 

I've never scene Easy Rider. Thanks for the cheat sheet.