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21 hours ago, Relic said:

I'd be loving Tokyo Vice right now if it wasn't for the lead. God, what a punchable face. 

I've only watched the first two episodes, but my problem with the lead is that he is supposed to speak excellent Japanese and he doesn't. Also, why is he constantly reverting to English with his Japanese coworkers? It ruins the immersion because it's nonsensical.

I know the actor worked hard to get the dialog right, but I would have preferred that they find an actor who is fluent in Japanese for the role instead of using a semi-recognisable name for the lead.

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The Japanese colleagues also unrealistically choose to speak English a lot of the time. It's a thing the show has done, not the actor.

Have to give Elgort credit, though, he genuinely learned Japanese. At the press junket in Tokyo he had a translator providing him translation of questions from the journalists, but mostly opted to reply on-the-fly in Japanese, or sometimes start in English and then end up switching to Japanese. You can tell he's still at a conversational level, but it seems he did some really intensive learning for a substantial period of time (and seems maybe to have kept it up?):

Back on topic, watched a couple of things:

Cyrano, starring Peter Dinklage in a new adaptation based on his wife's musical of the same name, opened in Sweden. It's directed by Joe Wright and looks truly sumptuous -- it was filmed on location in Noto, Sicily, and it is a truly gorgeous-looking place. Dinklage is not much of a singer but doesn't let that stop him. Haley Bennett as Roxanne is charming. And there are a couple of actually quite nice songs. The score and music was composed by Bryce and Aaron Dessner, aka two of the four members of The National.

The best song in the whole thing is "Wherever I Fall". It comes quite late in the film, but it's very moving (and includes an appearance and verse from Glen Hansard.) 

On the whole, I tend to think the film did not live up to my hopes based on the really terrific trailer. It's a solid effort, with some real pathos and beauty, but it's not by any means perfect.

Then finally go around to seeing Spider-Man: No Way Home. I was not as wowed by it as many audiences seem to be, but I imagine it worked better in the vibe of a theatre. I can definitely see it's a proficiently-made crowd-pleaser of a film, a nice swelling score towards the end, some great callbacks and beats. I have to say, I never really rated Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man, but his turn here was very eye-opening and made me like his Peter Parker a lot more. 

 

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8 minutes ago, Ran said:

The Japanese colleagues also unrealistically choose to speak English a lot of the time. It's a thing the show has done, not the actor

Yes, it is a problem with the show, and it ruins immersion for me.

10 minutes ago, Ran said:

Have to give Elgort credit, though, he genuinely learned Japanese.

Absolutely, that is a significant challenge in a short time frame, and like you said, he seems conversational. It's an accomplishment of which he should be proud. But his character is fluent enough that he works for a newspaper. That requires fantastic mastery of the language. And if you observe in that table interview, Elgort's Japanese is more halting and uncertain and his accent is pretty off compared to his costars. 

It's possibly something others would consider a nitpick, but for me it's a constantly distracting issue.

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39 minutes ago, Ran said:

Then finally go around to seeing Spider-Man: No Way Home. I was not as wowed by it as many audiences seem to be, but I imagine it worked better in the vibe of a theatre. I can definitely see it's a proficiently-made crowd-pleaser of a film, a nice swelling score towards the end, some great callbacks and beats. I have to say, I never really rated Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man, but his turn here was very eye-opening and made me like his Peter Parker a lot more. 

 

I think you hit this one on the head. Certain movies are just better when seen in a large format with a crowd. The theater was packed when I saw it and the "surprise" appearances really had an effect on the crowd and the feel as a whole.

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2 hours ago, Ran said:

I have to say, I never really rated Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man, but his turn here was very eye-opening and made me like his Peter Parker a lot more.

Yeah I thought he was significantly better here than in the Amazing Spider-Mans.  I just chalked it up to him improving as an actor in the intervening years, albeit he wasn't that young to begin with.

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1 hour ago, dbunting said:

I think you hit this one on the head. Certain movies are just better when seen in a large format with a crowd. The theater was packed when I saw it and the "surprise" appearances really had an effect on the crowd and the feel as a whole.

Also anticipation due to Covid delays. that certainly played a factor.

I dunno. I remember being extremely disappointed with FFH. I still don't understand the praise that film got. I probably rated the Garfield films higher than the consensus. Hopefully NWH will be better for me. 

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Watched a few things over the last week or so:

Finished up Ozark S4, can't wait for the 2nd half this weekend.

Watched Spiderman: No Way Home and I really enjoyed it.  Seeing all the characters from all the Spiderman movies was great as I liked all of the Spiderman franchises - and some of the back and forth between all the Peter Parkers was amazing :lol:.  I wasn't a fan of the ending, but it feels fairly minor compared to the rest.  Even my 3 year old likes it, so I'm counting down the days before this requires a multi-viewing and I start memorizing it.  The mid-credit scene was stupid.

Spoiler

Why was venom even there?  That version doesn't know Peter Parker is Spiderman.  If anything it should have been the venom from Spiderman 3

Saw The Batman and really liked this one.  Huge fan of the focus being on Batman and his detective skills, while showing just briefly how broken Bruce is.  I thought that worked really well.  I loved that they didn't do any kind of origin story and that the first hour (90 minutes?) we only see Batman.  It felt tighter because of it.  Didn't mind the length, but this one is up there with my favorite Batman movies.

Currently watching WeCrashed on Apple.  Enjoying it a lot, but seems so similar to Inventing Anna in the story that it's telling and doesn't help that one of the actors is in both, basically playing the same character.  Everyone pretty much sucks and we're almost to the point of failure.  I think we only have a couple episodes left.  If you liked Inventing Anna, you'd probably like this one.  Jared Leto is great in it.

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Network (1976)

I've only watched the legendary "I'm mad as hell" rant on YouTube, but finally got around to sitting down and watching the whole movie. It's incredible how a movie made nearly 50 years ago can still be so incredibly relevant today. 

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)

One of Taika Waititi's earlier films before he exploded in popularity. A charming and quirky adventure film with Sam Neill forming a father/son relationship with a juvenile delinquent. I'd imagine it's great to watch with small kids.

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7 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Haven't seen Tokyo Vice yet, but the language authenticity complaints remind me of what I heard from my Japanese relatives not digging the lead actresses "not even being Japanese" in Memoirs of a Geisha.:D

Well, Tokyo Vice has a Japanese playing a Japanese-Korean.

The too much English thing for being in Japan.  This is the trend, it seems, as more and more productions attempt to be multi-lingual, while still catering to the home culture's primary language.  I quite like this trend.  I particularly enjoy watching English being the subtitled language in a production centered on Spain or Italy or Turkey, wherever.

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8 hours ago, aceluby said:

Watched Spiderman: No Way Home and I really enjoyed it.  Seeing all the characters from all the Spiderman movies was great as I liked all of the Spiderman franchises - and some of the back and forth between all the Peter Parkers was amazing :lol:.  I wasn't a fan of the ending, but it feels fairly minor compared to the rest.  Even my 3 year old likes it, so I'm counting down the days before this requires a multi-viewing and I start memorizing it.  The mid-credit scene was stupid.

  Hide contents

Why was venom even there?  That version doesn't know Peter Parker is Spiderman.  If anything it should have been the venom from Spiderman 3

Spoiler

In the Venom 2 movie there is an end credit scene where we see him crossover. Just before crossing over, Venom tells Eddie that he has a hive mind which transcends universes. Thus, if one Venom knows Spiderman, they all know him.

And of course, Sony wanted Tom Hardy's Venom to have a link with the current movies, not Topher Grace. 

 

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19 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Haven't seen Tokyo Vice yet, but the language authenticity complaints remind me of what I heard from my Japanese relatives not digging the lead actresses "not even being Japanese" in Memoirs of a Geisha.:D

 

I mean, I can't blame them: that even annoyed me. Such a weird decision.

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Last night I watched An Interview with the Vampire for the first time* after having read the book last year and really enjoying it. I don't think the film has aged too well. I'm wondering if it was perceived as being quite hammy back in 1994? Did either of the leads win awards for this? Hope not. As I can't really say they were super nuanced performances. Bloody loved Kirsten Dunst though. Epic. She should've won an award. Anyway, the book was better. 

*I say 'the first time' but the whole thing felt VERY familiar to me. Not sure if that's because I've just seen so many clips from it over the years? I did have a couple of full on deja moments, maybe because the film follows the book closely? Or, I'm beginning to wonder if it's simply one of those films that I have actually watched but then immediately forgotten about. I did that with the third Matrix film back in the day - I realised right at the end, that I'd already seen it but for the first 90% of the film I had zero memory of it. 

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16 minutes ago, Fury Resurrected said:

Anyone else watching Outer Range? I am really really enjoying this and Josh Brolin is wonderful as always

Not yet, but I put it on my watchlist after hearing him talk about it on Hot Ones. And of course he was even great on that. 

 

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2 hours ago, Isis said:

Did either of the leads win awards for this? Hope not. As I can't really say they were super nuanced performances.

MTV Movie Award nominations for Cruise and Pitt, and Pitt won. Plus a Golden Raspberry for "Worst Screen Couple" for them.

IMO, Cruise's performance was kind of revelatory, and won Rice over after she had publicly disavowed him when he was cast initially. It presaged performances in things like Magnolia

2 hours ago, Isis said:

Bloody loved Kirsten Dunst though. Epic. She should've won an award.

Nominated for a Golden Globe, won an MTV Movie Award. She was really good indeed.

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