Movies

[Soren Ras]

46 minutes ago, Ivanhoe said:

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2024/08/13/disney-pr-nightmare-rachel-zegler-declares-free-palestine-while-promoting-snow-white-trailer/

 

The apparent vapidity and politics of Ms Zegler aside, she is seriously miscast as Snow White opposite Gal Gadot as the evil queen. Zegler is pretty in a girl-next-door kind of way, while Gadot is in a whole other league, so having Zegler be the one young girl who is prettier than the queen, is casting-adjacent to having Ivanhoe preferring Joan Fontaine over a young Elizabeth Taylor.

All the CGI in the world won't allow the audience to suspend its disbelief. 

 

--

Soren

[Ivanhoe]

fact-check: verified

I do prefer Taylor, if only by looks.

That said, I'd throw Taylor into the ditch to make room for Ava Gardner, given the chance.

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

What about Gloria Grahame?

I was always struck by what an absolute stunner Deborah Kerr was.

[Ivanhoe]

18 minutes ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

What about Gloria Grahame?

I was always struck by what an absolute stunner Deborah Kerr was.

Grahame was beautiful, but not in the same category as Gardner. However, she had a very expressive face on film, and that adds about 2 points.

I used to think that Grace Kelly was the most beautiful actress ever, until I watched a bit of Mogambo. In the same shot, Kelly looked like a character actress compared to Gardner.

[sunday]

Good French movie, The Count of Monte-Cristo

 

[Ssnake]

First the Three Musketeers (again, for the umpteenth time), now the Count... how many remakes and reboots does the world need?

Apparently, at least one more.

[Stuart Galbraith]

And only one 'Master and Commander' film.

 

[Ssnake]

I don't think it's the French's film industry's duty to promote British Navy vessel lore. Maybe the British should do more, here.

[bojan]

Promoting navy of the white men? That would be racist... 

[Ssnake]

Well, you could emphasize the rainbow angle with a focus on the buggery and lash parts to woke it up.

Brokeback Navy

Thar He Blows!

Come on, the script is practically writing itself.

[Stuart Galbraith]

In fact in the Patrick O Brian novels, there is at least one freed slave on board (In fact, the Captains Son was black, the result of a brief liasion in the Caribbean) There was usually several women as well, albeit usually of a disreputable sort. Authentic really, some women were even working in the surgeons cabin on Victory at Trafalgar, usually wives of some of the crew.

The first novel, the navigator is regarded suspiciously by the crew as a buggerer, and Lucky Jack comments to Dr Maturin that he doesnt generally approve of that kind of thing in the Kings service, but he is a first rate navigator so he will overlook it. Then about 5 books in, the most unpleasant Admiral in the Royal navy (whom hates Jack because Jack was ploughing his wife)  gives lucky jack a purse of gold sovereigns, and tells him to go to North Africa and buy (and free) a slave (Preferably a Christian) for what seems to be purely sentimental reasons. Then for various reasons, he blows up. (The Admiral, not the Slave).

Really, the whole series already subverts and parodies the woke generation about 40 odd years before everyone else got there. Well worth reading if you get the chance.

 

Edited August 17, 2024 by Stuart Galbraith

[bojan]

4 hours ago, Ssnake said:

Well, you could emphasize the rainbow angle with a focus on the buggery and lash parts to woke it up.

Brokeback Navy

Thar He Blows!

Come on, the script is practically writing itself.

Nonono, gay and BDSM is last decade news, now unless you have disabled trans asian african-british women non-binary person you are just as oppressive as patriarchy.  

[Ssnake]

...and I want it lame!

[lucklucky]

On 8/15/2024 at 6:38 AM, Soren Ras said:

The apparent vapidity and politics of Ms Zegler aside, she is seriously miscast as Snow White opposite Gal Gadot as the evil queen. Zegler is pretty in a girl-next-door kind of way, while Gadot is in a whole other league, so having Zegler be the one young girl who is prettier than the queen, is casting-adjacent to having Ivanhoe preferring Joan Fontaine over a young Elizabeth Taylor.

All the CGI in the world won't allow the audience to suspend its disbelief. 

 

--

Soren

 That is not new,  as a child i always found in comics first and afterwards animations, snow white bland and without interest . I always asked myself if there was something wrong with me for preferring the evil witch. 😝

[Ivanhoe]

3 hours ago, lucklucky said:

 That is not new,  as a child i always found in comics first and afterwards animations, snow white bland and without interest . I always asked myself if there was something wrong with me for preferring the evil witch. 😝

Lana Parrilla from Once Upon A Time series;

 

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

God help me, I liked that series. I felt guilty about liking it, but it had... something. Amy Acker probably.

[Ivanhoe]

19 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

God help me, I liked that series. I felt guilty about liking it, but it had... something. Amy Acker probably.

I watched several episodes from Season 1 and enjoyed them, but I kinda lost interest a bit despite the eye candy.

It may be that I have a low tolerance for stories that constantly have time/universe jumps.

[Stuart Galbraith]

It certainly ran out of ideas in season 2. But hey, clever conceit for a series, particularly with so many people trying to put out the same kind of dreck.

 

[Yama]

On 8/20/2024 at 2:58 AM, lucklucky said:

 That is not new,  as a child i always found in comics first and afterwards animations, snow white bland and without interest . I always asked myself if there was something wrong with me for preferring the evil witch. 😝

Yep in Disney 'Snow White', the Queen is way hotter. And in 'Snow White and the Huntsman', Queen is Charlize Theron and Snow White is Kristen Stewart. I mean, you can't argue about matters of taste, but... 

[rmgill]

I think Morena Baccarins' role in SG1's later seasons and V indicate a certain ability to do evil characters well 

Edited August 23, 2024 by rmgill

[Yama]

On 8/9/2024 at 2:27 AM, bojan said:

Problem with characters is not that they are women, problem is that they are written like insufferable, hysterical girl bosses who are always right just because they are women.

OTOH, that goes under bad writing also.

 

Hmm, I don't think any Star Wars female film characters fits the bill, except maybe Jyn Erso - and for some reason she seems to get a pass. I haven't watched enough of the shows to make a judgement.

Character issue with Rey, for example, is that her motivations are muddled and ever changing - does she want to get her parents back, does she want a father figure, or a romantic interest, or develop her Jedi powers etc...and then she is given abilities to match her ever-switching goals. Several other ST characters suffer from this same issue to lesser extent, most notably Kylo Ren.

It's a problem when story is written by 'But it will look cool' guideline, where any long-term coherence is sacrificed for something which looks cool for 1 minute: it's why you should never let JJ Abrams to touch any setting-intensive franchise like Star Wars or Star Trek.

 

On 8/9/2024 at 2:27 AM, bojan said:

It was "good" because rest of SW at that point was utter shit, so a 3+ movie felt like it was something really good. Same goes for a first season of Mandalorian. Fundamental problem with Rogue One is that it is movie with a mixed idea of being both "rag tag bunch of misfits" and "down to earth SW". Problem is that it had no real sympathetic character that can lead movie (absolute necessarily for a "rag tag bunch of misfits movie") and overall tone was set too "light" (because it is SW movie and needs to be kids safe) for it to function on more serious level as Andor does. Because of that I was highly skeptical about Andor initially, but it was even more down to earth, introduced really good anti-heroes and villains with their own backgrounds and believable motivations and such "grey" characters worked in it.

I agree that R1 was, for whatever vices it had, much more solid work than Sequel Trilogy (which, personally, I don't see as all bad, just extremely uneven work). Also I agree with the characters - if you remember original trailers, they had Jyn as this badass rebel chick, and apparently test audiences hated her. Actually the most sympathetic person of the flick is the robot - never a good sign!

My problem with R1 is that it is completely unnecessary. We didn't need to know how rebels got the plans. It was not a hole in Star Wars lore which required further exploration. And we certainly didn't need to know that weak spot of Death Star was intentional, as that only lessens the heroism of their triumph. 

'Solo' seems to have got bit of a cult following interestingly. But I think most people expected it to be complete junk, and were positively surprised when it turned out to be passable.

Any way, we're not about to run out of SW movies in the future, Disney is assuring we will have plenty of material which to complain or argue about in upcoming decades. Mandalorian movie is being shot as we speak and 3 others are in pre-production, with like dozen more being  in various stages of writing.

 

[Skywalkre]

10 minutes ago, Yama said:

My problem with R1 is that it is completely unnecessary. We didn't need to know how rebels got the plans. It was not a hole in Star Wars lore which required further exploration. And we certainly didn't need to know that weak spot of Death Star was intentional, as that only lessens the heroism of their triumph.

Does a story have to be necessary if it's just well made?

11 minutes ago, Yama said:

Any way, we're not about to run out of SW movies in the future, Disney is assuring we will have plenty of material which to complain or argue about in upcoming decades. Mandalorian movie is being shot as we speak and 3 others are in pre-production, with like dozen more being  in various stages of writing.

Several SW projects have been started and canceled.  Given the recent demise of Acolyte if SW can't learn how to make movies/shows that are affordable and actually make money (i.e., not suck) we could certainly see the franchise disappear.  You could largely argue the franchise has disappeared from the pop culture scene already.  Who would've believed that 25 years ago?

[Yama]

2 minutes ago, Skywalkre said:

Does a story have to be necessary if it's just well made?

 

If you make it part of a setting, then the viewer expects it to fit in the setting somehow, and add something to it. Otherwise, why not just make it a stand-alone scifi movie?

 

2 minutes ago, Skywalkre said:

Several SW projects have been started and canceled.  Given the recent demise of Acolyte if SW can't learn how to make movies/shows that are affordable and actually make money (i.e., not suck) we could certainly see the franchise disappear.  You could largely argue the franchise has disappeared from the pop culture scene already.  Who would've believed that 25 years ago?

Well, 25 years ago Phantom Menace had just come out so... 

[Skywalkre]

15 minutes ago, Yama said:

If you make it part of a setting, then the viewer expects it to fit in the setting somehow, and add something to it. Otherwise, why not just make it a stand-alone scifi movie?

Here on TN I get I'm alone in thinking R1 was great.  I think all of us agree Andor was terrific.  I'm just confused what Andor supposedly adds that R1 doesn't to the greater SW lore?  To me it's not really relevant what is added, what matters is how the story is told.  Both, IMNSHO, just do a good job telling a good story (something all the other TV shows and movies have failed at) within the SW universe.

As for 25 years ago, remember all the hubbub and fanfare over Ep1?  Now a new SW show comes out and you get a collective 'yawn' if you get anything at all.  The franchise used to be special...

Edited August 24, 2024 by Skywalkre

[NickM]

28 minutes ago, Skywalkre said:

Here on TN I get I'm alone in thinking R1 was great.  I think all of us agree Andor was terrific.  I'm just confused what Andor supposedly adds that R1 doesn't to the greater SW lore?  To me it's not really relevant what is added, what matters is how the story is told.  Both, IMNSHO, just do a good job telling a good story (something all the other TV shows and movies have failed at) within the SW universe.

As for 25 years ago, remember all the hubbub and fanfare over Ep1?  Now a new SW show comes out and you get a collective 'yawn' if you get anything at all.  The franchise used to be special...

No, be assured you're not alone in liking Rogue One.  It's the only movie of the "new bunch" that's anywhere capturing the vibe of the OG trilogy. Every time it's on, I record it and watch it.  Ol' Gareth had a great eye for visuals and action.