Bayesian

Grainy one. Every time. I don’t like my movies looking like generative AI made them.

I’m usually simpatico with your position on most things, but you’re way off base here—NTTD was a fine movie. Even got me a bit misty-eyed toward the end.

I’m going to one of these concerts one way or another. Two of my biggest musical idols under one ochre-colored roof… there was no way I was going to make it there for his first trip, but with 14 months’ advance notice now, I can properly plan for this one.

I voted for the Shaham/Feldman because I have a fondness for that entire album. Their performance of the Saint-Saens Danse macabre was one of my favorite things ever. I remember 20 years ago (or whenever it was I first bought the cd) replaying the final recapitulation of the theme, from about 4:55 to 5:12, over and over like a mental patient. Even now, here I am at my desk at work, and I've scrubbed back over those 17 glorious seconds about 8 times already. Listen to Feldman's right hand fly off into the upper register at 5:06... these are the moments why we have ears. Anyway, since this is a thread about JW, let me say how much I marvel at his devil's dance, which could have been written 175 years ago for the mastery of its form, that's how good it is.

Now this is exciting news! I hope it's got enough appeal for a theatrical release.

I can't believe I only discovered this thread now. Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin?? Color me curious -- and cautiously optimistic! I have fond memories of the Naked Gun movies. Along with the Hot Shots and Airplane movies, they made up the bulk of an entirely distinct category of comedy whose existence was like an island in the long timeline of Hollywood movies. The main reason the absurdist humor worked, of course, was that Leslie Neilsen played the role completely straight but also tongue in cheek. That's probably damn harder than it looks, and I hope Neeson gives a performance that can compare. He has to play the role like he knows the world he's in is ridiculous and absurd but still takes it dead seriously. More than that, though, the NG movies worked because everyone played their roles straight. There was no winking at the audience. I hope the script treats the audience like adults and doesn't stoop to Deadpool-style pandering. Also, I hope during the opening credits they do something like put up Leslie Neilsen's name and then awkwardly/frantically try to replace it with Liam Neeson's. That would make me laugh.

Here’s an article that discusses it in a little detail: https://cointelegraph.com/news/hans-zimmer-writes-tron-theme-song. Apparently, the “song” had been under development since 2022 (although the end result sounds like Zimmer only worked on it since 8:00 this morning.) Read the article. It quotes Zimmer on how this music represents the potential of Web3.0. The disconnect between what he says this song represents and the actual banality of the music itself is… well, it’s astonishing. I really believe Zimmer has somehow managed to achieve the impossible — he’s transcended his corporeal form to become a being of pure marketing.

The re-uptake of this thread has been a very interesting and thought-provoking read. (I also admire how civil we’ve all been so far in disputing positions!) A few years ago, my take would have been more conservative/conventional, namely that JW is representative of the skill set that a “proper” professional film composer should have and that composers with less formal musical backgrounds are slowly dragging down the quality of film scoring as an art. (Danny Elfman being a very important exception.) But I’ve become more sanguine about the whole thing lately. Not because I’ve begun to enjoy or appreciate the music of the likes of Zimmer or Balfe (I haven’t and never will), but because I realize composers such as them are, if nothing else, good at the very narrow thing they do and that there’s room in the movie business for their specialization. Zimmer’s music for Dune, for example, would be a godawful sonic experience for most people on its own, but as part of the movie, it definitely succeeds at evoking an otherworldly environment. As for the actual musical talent—piano performance, reading or writing music by hand, improvisation, etc— of the likes of Zimmer & co., it actually shouldn’t matter, in principle, whether a person can do these things if he can give the buyer what he wants. If producers want the Zimmer sound and a composer can give it to them without the benefit of a conservatory education or sight reading skill, well, why not? We shouldn’t want credentials (or the philosophy behind credentialism) to stand in the way of people finding their way to success. That kind of gatekeeping is classist and elitist and I’d love to think society has had its fill of such things finally.

Wish is now on Disney+ and I gave it a watch because of my morbid curiosity given all the bad reviews and press it got last November. And yeah, the movie is as middling and disappointing as everyone says. It's not a bad movie necessarily, but it's just so frustratingly weak in too many aspects. There's no soul or depth or nuance to anything (costumes, faces, settings, character arcs...). The overall impression you get is that this movie is a simulacrum made by an alien or generative AI of what it thinks human beings would enjoy in a Disney animated movie. Watching Wish is just a wan and emotionally flat experience. Except during the songs, when all you can do is cringe at the amateur quality of the writing. ("Throw caution to every warning sign"? What does that even mean?) You can't help but miss the genius of Howard Ashman and Stephen Schwartz when you hear talents like Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine do what they can to make lemonade from the artless rhyme-lemons foisted upon them. Also, it seems like every tenth word spoken in the movie is "wish." I never thought that word could get annoying to hear but, yes, it definitely can.

Yeah, I’m gonna have to agree here. That trailer was a masterpiece, selling us on Nixon’s life as a modern-day Greek tragedy. (The movie itself was just as great; probably Stone’s high-water mark as a filmmaker.)

Doesn’t Disney own the IP on Winnie the Pooh? I’m extremely surprised they’d allow this character to be used like this!

Some folks here have mentioned not having seen Insomnia. If you’re one of them, make point of watching it. It’s Nolan’s first movie and it’s really good. Robin Williams was masterful in it. Watching his performance will remind you that we lost him far too soon.

Her role couldn't be that big, could it? Haven't they been filming this one since 2022? I'd have thought principal photography had wrapped on this already, SAG/WGA strike notwithstanding.

That trailer is awesome. Several solid LOL moments in there for me. I'm gonna do my part to make this a box office hit. Plus, I'm not ashamed to say I love Will Smith, always have, always will. And they found a way to bring Capt Howard back, and not just in a silly cameo kind of way, but core-of-the-plot kind of way. That's seriously awesome.

I had no idea this was in the works. Very exciting! I hope we can look forward to an official cast recording. As Menken’s last contribution to the Disney Renaissance era (launched, of course, by he and Howard Ashman), it’s nice to see Hercules get the live musical treatment.