Edmilson 7,471 Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 Tintin is not exactly a masterpiece, but it's better than both BFG and Indy 4. Bespin and crocodile 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bespin 8,484 Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 6 minutes ago, Edmilson said: Tintin is not exactly a masterpiece, but it's better than both BFG and Indy 4. The error was to mix different stories in one movie ("The Crab with the Golden Claws", "The Secret of the Unicorn" and "Red Rackham's Treasure")... that's surely why there is no sequel. Nobody can continue with what they've done, unfortunately. Edmilson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce marshall 1,315 Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 1 hour ago, Jurassic Shark said: Tintin is a wonderful movie, but if you think a movie should follow the book slavishly, I guess it's not for you. Tom says : you are a smart fella" 😅 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Romão 2,274 Posted December 20, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted December 20, 2020 3 hours ago, Nick1066 said: Nothing especially, except he did with Tintin what he wanted to do with Harry Potter...butchered a couple books and cobbled elements of both into one movie, and made it animated. I just think Spielberg, who once upon a time was a genius at such things, lost his touch with making whimsical children's tales long before Tintin (franchise dead), BFG (lost millions) or the one that got away, Harry Potter (wildly successful). In Spielberg's defense, Tintin's books are far shorter than Harry Potter's and there isn't much of continuous story thread running through them, so I thought they did well to combine the books the way they did. It's not jarring to me at all and I have loved those books since I was a kid. Jurassic Shark, Holko and Chen G. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce marshall 1,315 Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 Tintin Poirot Non! Bespin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 Tintin was boring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Sweeping Strings 2,363 Posted December 20, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted December 20, 2020 Die Hard + Die Hard 2 ... my annual festive season rewatch, on BluRay for the first time (thought it was about time for an upgrade, boxset of 1 - 4 was £12.95 inc. postage from eBay so not too bad). Because sometimes Xmas movies are better with gunfights, explosions and copious swearing. Naïve Old Fart, bruce marshall and Bespin 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
publicist 4,643 Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 1 hour ago, Sweeping Strings said: Die Hard + Die Hard 2 ... my annual festive season rewatch, on BluRay for the first time (thought it was about time for an upgrade, boxset of 1 - 4 was £12.95 inc. postage from eBay so not too bad). Because sometimes Xmas movies are better with gunfights, explosions and copious swearing. I saw Die Hard 2 on Prime and was bored to tears by it. The sequel 'jokes' about the same stuff happening to the same guy again were extremely annoying. bruce marshall 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweeping Strings 2,363 Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 Merry Christmas to you too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
publicist 4,643 Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 It isn't christmas yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 'Tis the season to be grumpy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chen G. 3,950 Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 13 hours ago, Edmilson said: Tintin is not exactly a masterpiece, but it's better than [...] Indy 4. That's a low bar. bruce marshall 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marian Schedenig 8,208 Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 13 hours ago, Romão said: In Spielberg's defense, Tintin's books are far shorter than Harry Potter's and there isn't much of continuous story thread running through them Which is also why the Potter films had to seriously dumb down and simplify the stories by removing most of the narrative devices. And yet most of them either feel rushed (because they try to cram too much story into too little film) or drag (because they attempt to not rush by adding awkward character/exposition scenes that don't work half as well as the stuff they've dropped). Tintin is easily a better paced and balanced film than most of the Potters. Romão and Holko 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Marian Schedenig 8,208 Posted December 20, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted December 20, 2020 Speaking of which, over the last three weeks or so I rewatched all the Potter films, for the first time since I switched to Blu-ray. With a distance of some 10 years, their flaws have only become more obvious. I re-read the books about two years ago, and while I've already forgotten much of the details again, it is disturbing how much of what made the books so good was simply dropped for the films. One thing becomes apparent: Since fantasy plots are usually based on… fantastic elements and plot devices, what makes them work is integrating all those uncommon elements tightly into the rest of the story, so that when they finally become important, you accept them, because you're not taken unawares. Remove that tight integration and reduce it to one block of in-your-face exposition, and the whole thing becomes painfully simplistic. Repeat it multiple times per story, and you turn a dynamic plot into a checklist of plot devices. Try to shake things up by dropping some of the explanations or moving them *after* their plot changing event*, and you've devolved a successful eucatastrophy into a primitive deus ex machina. *) The books have a lot of after-the-fact explanations, but they usually explain things that have been hinted at for several hundred pages before, which makes all the difference between feeling surprised and feeling cheated. I'd say this alone sums about 80% of the film series. It bothered me, when these films first came out, when I had the books fresh in mind. When less focused on the books, they don't bother me any less, because without my brain automatically filling in the blanks in the story, even more of Rowling's original vision is lost - without the books as backup, these are not much more than big budget blockbuster renditions of flat and rather primitive stories, that try to hard to make up for the missing bits by making the Important Bits stand out more, often turning them into painful cliches. (The books are full of cliches, but they're intentional and well integrated, which again makes all the distance). Ultimately, the only really successful entry in the series remains Azkaban. The first two films get half of their impact from introducing us to the magical setting, but once you're used to that, that all too easily turns into sugar overload (which I suppose includes the scores, at least to an extent, simply because they are very much in tune with the films). By contrast, the post-Azkaban films try to counter that by pretending to be more "mature". But they mostly fail to offset the "wonder of magic" by showing magic as an everyday thing, preferring to not show much of it at all - yet when they do, they still can't resist turning it into setpieces, which makes those moments stick out even more. That, and the way the plots and expositional elements are streamlined from the books' organically intertwined structure to a list of exposition scenes and setpiece payoffs, makes many of the scenes, and the dialogue, and by extent the acting (even of the most accomplished actors) seem awkward and artificial. In general, the pacing and timing within scenes is very uneven in most of these films. And while the Yates entries are partially successful in taking the series into a "darker", more teenage-angsty direction that is in line with the later books (although Azkaban was quite successful in also being dark in the right places), they still suffer from those same problems cited above, and botch up their impact by watering down their payoff (Order of the Phoenix's finale, which turns from the book's nailbiting tension (because you're invested in the characters' stakes) into a visual effects extravaganza) or just leaving it out altogether (despite its other problems, Half-Blood Prince's finale, with Spoiler Dumbledore's death and the following battle with Harry & Co trying to hunt down the invaders, could have had a lot of impact - but the first point wasn't half as intense as in the book, and the second point was reduced to Snape and Harry running). After a series of films where too much happened in too little time, nothing at all seems to happen for most of Deathly Hallows Pt. 1's running time until a confusing and logically dodgy ending. For the last entry, so many plot checkboxes are left to tick off that the big visual effects battle doesn't leave any time to identify with the characters (or even follow their motives), and the Big Emotional Moments are again placed awkwardly and emphasised so much that they too mostly turn into very shallow cliches. That's not to say that they don't work at all - each of the films has moments that work, and even move me. But many of those are just aspects of the story and characters that (at least if you know them from the books) still come through, even if the respective scenes often don't work well. As for the music, each score has its moments, but none after Williams' entries come close to even the most by-the-numbers moments of the second score. Some might find all the sugarcoating in the first two scores too much for their tastes, but even then there's no denying that it's high quality sugarcoating. Few moments in the post-Azkaban scores rise above functional underscore, and when they do they're short bits of nice melodies, or technically accomplished set pieces (Desplat has a few) - but hardly anything that would provide something truly memorable (thematic or otherwise). Williams, on the other hand, showed in Azkaban that he was perfectly capable of taking (some of) his themes and maturing them for the darker stories to come, mixing them with (relatively) avant-garde bits and also scoring against the scene when appropriate - both the spotting and choice of mood and themes in that score are unusually inspired. Some of the "season changing inserts" (with the Whomping Willow catching birds etc.) are actually "defused" by the score to not take you out of the darker mood of the surrounding scenes. It's the only film in the series that manages to organically carry a mood across multiple scenes, even if they contain lighter moments in between, and a good deal of that is thanks to the score. Despite having the highest stakes and the resolution in the final films, even Desplat (who does have some inspired and accomplished bits in the first of his two scores), fails to provide anything I would lastingly associate with the stories. Williams' music for Harry's first confrontation with Voldemort in the first film remains a darker and more impactful portrayal of their overall story than anything that came later. Naturally, this means they had to end the last film with Williams' original music (both for the last scene and the first part of the credits). There was nothing in the scores after Azkaban that could have served (tracked or redeveloped) as a worthy conclusion. Williams himself could have written one, that much is certain. Romão, Naïve Old Fart, Holko and 2 others 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 Why does HP have such a high re-read value among people? Usually once I've finished a book, I'm done with it and move on. Gruesome Son of a Bitch 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce marshall 1,315 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 32 minutes ago, The Big Man said: Why does HP have such a high re-read value among people? Usually once I've finished a book, I'm done with it and move on. Well, if you want something long to read, look above you😉. Maybe, you can write us a brief summary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 Unlucky Bastard 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 14 minutes ago, bruce marshall said: Well, if you want something long to read, look above you😉. Maybe, you can write us a brief summary. Tl;dr Williams' HP scores rule! The non-Williams suck the big one! bruce marshall 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSH 969 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 TITANIC - JAMES CAMERON Just awesome... on a technical and emotional level. I don''t know what to do.... I'm crying so much. By the way, the fairly recent score expansion was worth every penny. Shut up Thor. Chen G. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce marshall 1,315 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 I have the ost and " Back to..." More than enough for me!😍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holko 9,530 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 11 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said: By contrast, the post-Azkaban films try to counter that by pretending to be more "mature". But they mostly fail to offset the "wonder of magic" by showing magic as an everyday thing, preferring to not show much of it at all That's one of my biggest pet peeves, the books never lost that element of an inherently silly quirky world. Even the first two movies don't do a great job of capturing that, but the Yateses often don't even try and end up being bland as all hell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chen G. 3,950 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 I like that they don't even try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweeping Strings 2,363 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - you know the drill ... the Griswold clan gathers, and chaos ensues. Randy Quaid's slobbish 'cousin Eddie' pretty much steals the show. rough cut and Naïve Old Fart 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Naïve Old Fart 9,552 Posted December 21, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted December 21, 2020 "Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Kiss my ass. Kiss your ass. Kiss his ass. Happy Hanukkah. Merry Christmas". That scene never fails to elicit a huge belly laugh, from me. It's a very good film. Sweeping Strings, rough cut and Unlucky Bastard 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
publicist 4,643 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 4 hours ago, Sweeping Strings said: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - you know the drill ... the Griswold clan gathers, and chaos ensues. Randy Quaid's slobbish 'cousin Eddie' pretty much steals the show. All the Chase side gags are nothing to sneer at, either. I still cringe at the ladder-in-the-face gag. This was only a video premiere in Germany and it wasn't widely distributed. A few people watched it and it catches on like wildfire. By now it's a Christmas tradition for many. Sweeping Strings 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 We're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tapped danced with Danny fuckin' Kaye! Sweeping Strings 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweeping Strings 2,363 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 It's the scene where the really attractive shop-girl reduces Clark to a babbling mess of inappropriateness that does it for me 😆 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,373 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 One of the rare movies that I never get sick of rewatching and find some new bit I never noticed before each time Sweeping Strings 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce marshall 1,315 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 4 hours ago, Sweeping Strings said: It's the scene where the really attractive shop-girl reduces Clark to a babbling mess of inappropriateness that does it for me 😆 . Link please ..😁 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A24 4,345 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 Really well done without the usual American sentimentality. It is a pity that this genre (cinema about people) is no longer considered suitable for cinemas. Let's hope that 'streaming' (where this genre is still welcome for the time being) does not go in the same direction as the cinema. 7/10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 No sfx, no capes, no witty one-liners? Borrrrrring! Nobody wants to watch that shit. Totally inaccessible to the masses and Hollyweird's eager appeal to billions of Chinese viewers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweeping Strings 2,363 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 14 hours ago, bruce marshall said: Link please ..😁 Naïve Old Fart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmmusic 1,839 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 Has anyone seen the Klaus (2019) animation film? I hear it is very good (it's also no. 175 in best films of all time at imdb), but some people say the modern songs ruin the experience sometimes and I'm very sensitive as far as music is concerned in films. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4729430/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,373 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 I've never heard of it, but that's a pretty stacked cast Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chen G. 3,950 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 Apocalypse Now Fuck me! What... what the hell was THAT?! Maybe it’s the state of the world at the moment, but for pretty much the whole second half of this, I felt like I was slowly going insane with the characters. It made me seriously anxious. Just for that, it is one of the greatest films I’ve ever seen; handily. Outstanding! ***** out of ***** Naïve Old Fart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce marshall 1,315 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 15 hours ago, Sweeping Strings said: I am sick and tired of men being portrayed as dithering idiots who fall apart in.the presence of a buxom chick. This is a harmful stereotype that is especially prevalent on tv sitcoms where Fathers are inevitably portrayed as sex crazed morons! Men are people too!😝 13 hours ago, Jay said: . that's a pretty stacked cast I assume you refer to the LAMPOON clip above? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 What makes it funny is America is a sexually repressed society, and Clark is in a tug-of-war between his impulses and his marriage. That sort of struggle can make a man's brain fill up with error codes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koray Savas 2,251 Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 4 hours ago, Chen G. said: Apocalypse Now Fuck me! What... what the hell was THAT?! Maybe it’s the state of the world at the moment, but for pretty much the whole second half of this, I felt like I was slowly going insane with the characters. It made me seriously anxious. Just for that, it is one of the greatest films I’ve ever seen; handily. Outstanding! ***** out of ***** Chen G. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce marshall 1,315 Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 39 minutes ago, The Big Man said: What makes it funny is America is a sexually repressed society, and Clark is in a tug-of-war between his impulses and his marriage. That sort of struggle can make a man's brain fill up with error codes. Virtually every father figure on tv is portrayed as just this side of Homer Simpson. So, I have to laugh when women kvetch and whine about stereotyping! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 Women generally hate stereotypical depictions of themselves because they hate acknowledging the truth about what they really are. And the truth isn't all that terrible (unflattering certainly), it merely states that they're flawed, but those imperfections are too "unsexy" or "unromantic" for them to bear. Blokes are cooler cats about it and can generally laugh at themselves more. bruce marshall 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce marshall 1,315 Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 When RATCHED came out there were several articles about the " appropriateness" of the character being revived in our era! Laurel and Hardy were typical of an era when men were portrayed as ' henpecked'. And, NOBODY is funnier than those guys!😅 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A24 4,345 Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 8 hours ago, Chen G. said: Apocalypse Now Fuck me! What... what the hell was THAT?! Maybe it’s the state of the world at the moment, but for pretty much the whole second half of this, I felt like I was slowly going insane with the characters. It made me seriously anxious. Just for that, it is one of the greatest films I’ve ever seen; handily. Outstanding! ***** out of ***** It's one of those all-time-favorites that never quite did it for me, just like The Godfather. The last time I tried to love Apocalypse Now, it was the Redux version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naïve Old Fart 9,552 Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 I've not seen the DC, but REDUX puts so much meat back on to the bones of APOCALYPSE NOW. It makes a great film even greater. It truly is (along with GODFATHER I and II), among the greatest films ever made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quintus 5,399 Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 How long is the Redux version? Lawrence of Arabia? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce marshall 1,315 Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 20 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said: I've not seen the DC, but REDUX puts so much meat back on to the bones of APOCALYPSE NOW. It makes a great film even greater. It truly is (along with GODFATHER I and II), among the greatest films ever made. It's great to.have those extra scenes with Brando, and the plantation scene has some good stuff too# 9 minutes ago, Quintus said: How long is the Redux version? Lawrence of Arabia? Under three hrs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chen G. 3,950 Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 14 minutes ago, Quintus said: How long is the Redux version? Lawrence of Arabia? I watched the original cut, but then I looked around the various cuts (in fact, I’ve watched it again in the Final Cut by now). The redux is about 3 hours and 15 minutes, I believe, the Final Cut is just over 3 hours, and the original cut is 2:50. The ideal cut is probably somewhere between the final cut and the original. But ultimately all versions of the film have the same feel, which is quite unlike anything I’ve ever watched. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce marshall 1,315 Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 The final cut took out the Brando scenes!😵😡😠. But it also took out the PLAYMATE scene, which didn't really belong except for the nude babes. I would have shortened the plantation scene to also cut out the sex scene. REDUX is the one. Brando makes the film! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naïve Old Fart 9,552 Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 16 minutes ago, Quintus said: How long is the Redux version? Lawrence of Arabia? British Beatle mania As Chen says, REDUX is approximately 195 mins. bruce marshall 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A24 4,345 Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 24 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said: I've not seen the DC, but REDUX puts so much meat back on to the bones of APOCALYPSE NOW. It makes a great film even greater. It truly is (along with GODFATHER I and II), among the greatest films ever made. What happened to 'subjectivity'? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce marshall 1,315 Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 I've never considered GODFATHERS to be great. Especially the first one which glorified the.mob- even FFC admits that. Chen G. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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