Recommend a movie

[thecolorsblend]

Yeah, I'm the guy in the room who doesn't get into Goodfellas as much. It comes down to a distaste for Ray Liotta and, to a greater extent, Lorraine Bracco. They have always irritated me in everything I've ever seen them in and Goodfellas has tons of them running around and being annoying. Just not for me.

[The Laughing Fish]

Yeah, I'm the guy in the room who doesn't get into Goodfellas as much. It comes down to a distaste for Ray Liotta and, to a greater extent, Lorraine Bracco. They have always irritated me in everything I've ever seen them in and Goodfellas has tons of them running around and being annoying. Just not for me.

Let me guess...not a fan of Liotta's psychotic laughter? 

[The Laughing Fish]

I watched David Ayer's Fury for the first time in five years. A great war film, that details the struggles of a tank battalion squad in their final moments together during WWII. As good as Brad Pitt and Jon Bernthal were in Fury, and they were very good, the one actor who impressed me the most would have to be Shia LaBeouf. I was very surprised to see this guy is capable of playing character actor roles. Reminded me a little bit of John Cazale.

The scene where the squad takes a break in the local German women's home before that place gets blown up to bits is gutwrenching. That whole sequence was a fascinating combination between peace and quiet, tension and tragedy rolled into one - a great reminder of the brutality of war.

[The Laughing Fish]

I watched The Irishman a couple of nights ago.

Although I don't think it's in my top 3 Scorsese films of all time, it's still better than most of the crap that's out in theaters nowadays. It's great to see Joe Pesci once again, but the highlight for me was Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa. Superb.

But if Scorsese is genuine what he is saying, this might very well the last film he'll ever make in this superhero-dominated climate. It's a shame. The Irishman deserved to be seen in theaters.

Your intervention over Marvel and superhero films this year turned into a major news story. How calculated was it?

Obviously, we have been discussing this a lot, that theatres have been commandeered by superhero films – you know, just people flying around and banging and crashing, which is fine if you want to see it. It's just that there's no room for another kind of picture. I don't know how many more I can make – maybe this is it. The last one. So the idea was to at least get it made and maybe show it for one day at the NFT, maybe one day at the Cinémathèque in Paris. I'm not kidding.

We are in a situation now where the theatres are only showing the latest superhero films. You have 12 screens – and 11 are the superhero film. You enjoy superhero films, fine, but you need 11 screens? It's crazy for a picture like, you know, Lady Bird or The Souvenir. Those films may not necessarily be hugely commercial, but there are films that are modest and genuine and find a large audience. Just because a film is commercial doesn't mean it can't be art. What has consumed the theatres is product. A product is to be consumed and thrown away. Look at a commercial film like Singin' in the Rain. You can watch it again and again. So the question is: how are we going to protect the art form?


Now, you don't have to like the picture, but you couldn't get The Aviator made today. You could not get Shutter Island made today, even with me and Leo [DiCaprio]. The Departed got made despite itself – the star power helped. We realised when we were taking this project around that the doors are closing. So what's going on? I looked over at the theatres right down the block – 10 screens showing the same picture.

People comment that we've only shown this film in theatres for four weeks. We tried to get more, but the theatre owners and Netflix couldn't come to terms. But you know, I've had pictures play only one week and get thrown out. In the US, The King of Comedy closed in a week. That film was ignored for 10 years.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/dec/20/martin-scorsese-maybe-the-irishman-is-the-last-picture-ill-make

[thecolorsblend]

I watched The Irishman a couple of nights ago.

Although I don't think it's in my top 3 Scorsese films of all time, it's still better than most of the crap that's out in theaters nowadays. It's great to see Joe Pesci once again, but the highlight for me was Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa. Superb.

But if Scorsese is genuine what he is saying, this might very well the last film he'll ever make in this superhero-dominated climate. It's a shame. The Irishman deserved to be seen in theaters.

Your intervention over Marvel and superhero films this year turned into a major news story. How calculated was it?

Obviously, we have been discussing this a lot, that theatres have been commandeered by superhero films – you know, just people flying around and banging and crashing, which is fine if you want to see it. It's just that there's no room for another kind of picture. I don't know how many more I can make – maybe this is it. The last one. So the idea was to at least get it made and maybe show it for one day at the NFT, maybe one day at the Cinémathèque in Paris. I'm not kidding.

We are in a situation now where the theatres are only showing the latest superhero films. You have 12 screens – and 11 are the superhero film. You enjoy superhero films, fine, but you need 11 screens? It's crazy for a picture like, you know, Lady Bird or The Souvenir. Those films may not necessarily be hugely commercial, but there are films that are modest and genuine and find a large audience. Just because a film is commercial doesn't mean it can't be art. What has consumed the theatres is product. A product is to be consumed and thrown away. Look at a commercial film like Singin' in the Rain. You can watch it again and again. So the question is: how are we going to protect the art form?


Now, you don't have to like the picture, but you couldn't get The Aviator made today. You could not get Shutter Island made today, even with me and Leo [DiCaprio]. The Departed got made despite itself – the star power helped. We realised when we were taking this project around that the doors are closing. So what's going on? I looked over at the theatres right down the block – 10 screens showing the same picture.

People comment that we've only shown this film in theatres for four weeks. We tried to get more, but the theatre owners and Netflix couldn't come to terms. But you know, I've had pictures play only one week and get thrown out. In the US, The King of Comedy closed in a week. That film was ignored for 10 years.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/dec/20/martin-scorsese-maybe-the-irishman-is-the-last-picture-ill-make

The simple fact of the matter is that most of Scorsese's filmography has considerable merit on artistic grounds. Some movies are better than others, to be sure. But the average quality level is remarkably high. And even on that basis, he's been on a serious winning streak for about 10 or 15 years now. Shutter Island is probably the weakest of the bunch, and it's still light years beyond what most films aspire to.

I don't have much regard for Marvel films, as I've said zillions of times now. There's nothing wrong with them. But I don't think there's really anything right with them either. And on the best day Endgame could've ever had, it's still only worth the smallest fraction of what Scorsese is worth as an artist and storyteller. I'll take one "flawed" Shutter Island over a hundred "perfect" Endgames any day of any week in any lifetime ever.

I hope Scorsese isn't forced out. But honestly, if the alternative is knuckling under to all this corporate product then maybe it's best that he retire on his terms rather than someone else's. Or worse yet, that he knuckle under and make comic book films himself just to continue working.

Many people have attempted to create an alternative community to Hollywood. George Lucas famously went down in flames over it because none of his Hollywood buddies (including Scorsese, sadly) were willing to follow him. And (even more sadly) it looks like they're not reaping what they failed to sow. It bugged the f**k out of Lucas that same faceless, unaccountable corporation could control a filmmaker's artistic freedom. He TRIED. I'll give him that much. And he wasn't completely unsuccessful either. But he was not even close to a complete success.

But if Lucas, Spielberg, Scorsese, Redford, DePalma and others had launched a mass exodus from Hollywood forty years ago and spent the intervening decades developing a true alternative to Hollywood, we might be in a better place these days. At a minimum, I don't see how it could be worse. For all the "democratization" that the Internet promised new generations of aspiring filmmakers, so far there haven't been any breakout successes or game-changing filmmakers to come out of YouTube or where-TF-ever. The oasis of creative freedom glimpsed in the distance has been, to date, a mirage.

If The Irishman truly is Scorsese's swan song... well, he had a helluva run. We all have to go out sometime. But this is all so undignified.

[The Laughing Fish]

I'll take one "flawed" Shutter Island over a hundred "perfect" Endgames any day of any week in any lifetime ever.

Same. You make me want to go watch Shutter Island now. Last time I saw was when it first came out nearly ten years ago. It may be the most unlikely type of film Scorsese would do, but it shows he's capable of shooting scenes with such a creepy disturbing atmosphere. The style of that film reminds me a little bit like David Fincher.

I agree with everything else you said too. Hollywood has always been profit first, but now the big studios are too invested in IPs and franchises more than ever, it seems. To the point studios like Warner are now investing less in director-driven projects other than brand name directors. To the point they're now withholding films from public access for believing they won't be commercially viable in the current trendy climate for mass audiences i.e. Zack Snyder's Justice League or The New Mutants. In that sense, film-making is less imaginative than ever. I'd go far to say it's worse than ever.

I really doubt the critics care what Scorsese says about superhero or Marvel movies; in fact, I wouldn't put it past them they secretly agree with him. But I suspect they get incentivised for the good reviews by Disney, as the company has shown to have a monopoly on the whole industry. You look at Disney, you can see the MCU has dominated the landscape. But even their other properties take up much of the cinema market, such as Pixar and Star Wars (you might say it's diminishing returns, sure, but they still make some money because of the brand). I remember reading about Disney pressuring smaller theater chains to keep showing screenings of Last Jedi or they'd get, basically, financially penalised: https://www.inverse.com/article/37976-star-wars-the-last-jedi-box-office-theaters-disney-rules-wsj

In that sense, Scorsese's original "theme park" comments can be extended to Disney's entire monopoly.

Then, you have greedy bastards like Bob Iger who says he wants to "talk" to Scorsese about his Marvel criticism. As if such a personal opinion on superhero movies are really that important, or deserve any sort of rebuke. Get f***ed, Iger. 

On the plus side, at least streaming appears to come to the rescue, as far as cinematic, dramatic storytelling is concerned. On the downside, could it be possible its emergence has given the studios the comfort to focus on the franchises? I can't say. But according to the director of Red Sparrow, the industry is changing so rapidly that he doesn't even believe that movie could get made today. And that movie was released nearly two years ago!

It was already a different world from the moment we decided to make 'Red Sparrow' to when 'Red Sparrow' came out. I mean, for many reasons. One in terms of what people were going to the theaters to see, but also in terms of sexual politics. So it was a very different world that movie was released into. I certainly would not make that movie now or expect anybody to allow me to make it now at a studio for a theatrical release. I do believe that you could get a movie like that made at Netflix or Apple or maybe HBO or HBO Max or one of the other streamers. Not Disney+, clearly. But I feel like you can make that movie.

I just don't think any studio is doing it. I don't think Fox is doing it. I don't think Warner Brothers is doing it. I feel like they're all so kind of desperate for IP-driven movies because they're so afraid of what people are actually going to see that they're just not doing it. And that's the great thing about streaming is that you can do all kinds of stories.

https://www.worldofreel.com/blog/2019/12/red-sparrow

[thecolorsblend]

Never saw First Blood all the way through before. So I thought tonight would be a good night to correct that little situation.

I. Freaking love. That movie.

If you've never seen it before, do yourself a favor and watch it. Satisfaction guaranteed.

PS- David Caruso is in the movie, how tf did I never know that?

[The Dark Knight]

Never saw First Blood all the way through before. So I thought tonight would be a good night to correct that little situation.

I. Freaking love. That movie.

If you've never seen it before, do yourself a favor and watch it. Satisfaction guaranteed.

PS- David Caruso is in the movie, how tf did I never know that?

I saw the modern masterpiece LAST BLOOD during a flight in January.

Like JOKER, it's very much a film for the here and now. Rambo is a man of few words, but his words are truthful. The plot is simplistic because the situation is what it is. As Rambo says, there are bad people in the world who do bad things, cannot be redeemed and only get worse.

The secret to a good film is having a good villain, and LAST BLOOD more than satisfies that criteria. We are given a realistic depiction of what the cartels are capable of. Kidnapping, drugging, killing and cutting without remorse. It's confronting stuff and it should be.

When Rambo leads these savages to his barn it's one of the most satisfying sequences put to film. You hate what they've done and what they represent. You want him to GET them. Violence is the only language they understand, and Rambo speaks it better than they ever could.

Forget all the cliches such as 'only light can drive away the darkness'. That means nothing. In reality, you must be badder than the bad guys. For THEM to feel fear and grief. Lives are forever ruined by these animals - they rip out the hearts of families. Thus they deserve the same treatment, and not symbolically. Stallone is never going to be praised for this movie, but that doesn't change how I feel about it.

[thecolorsblend]

Never saw First Blood all the way through before. So I thought tonight would be a good night to correct that little situation.

I. Freaking love. That movie.

If you've never seen it before, do yourself a favor and watch it. Satisfaction guaranteed.

PS- David Caruso is in the movie, how tf did I never know that?

I saw the modern masterpiece LAST BLOOD during a flight in January.

Like JOKER, it's very much a film for the here and now. Rambo is a man of few words, but his words are truthful. The plot is simplistic because the situation is what it is. As Rambo says, there are bad people in the world who do bad things, cannot be redeemed and only get worse.

The secret to a good film is having a good villain, and LAST BLOOD more than satisfies that criteria. We are given a realistic depiction of what the cartels are capable of. Kidnapping, drugging, killing and cutting without remorse. It's confronting stuff and it should be.

When Rambo leads these savages to his barn it's one of the most satisfying sequences put to film. You hate what they've done and what they represent. You want him to GET them. Violence is the only language they understand, and Rambo speaks it better than they ever could.

Forget all the cliches such as 'only light can drive away the darkness'. That means nothing. In reality, you must be badder than the bad guys. For THEM to feel fear and grief. Lives are forever ruined by these animals - they rip out the hearts of families. Thus they deserve the same treatment, and not symbolically. Stallone is never going to be praised for this movie, but that doesn't change how I feel about it.

One thing I've came to appreciate during the 2010's is how little respect I ever had for Stallone compared to how much he actually deserves. To put it plainly, I sold the man short far too many times. Even after the masterpiece that was Rocky Balboa, I didn't completely appreciate the man's talent. But The Expendables series along with a deep dive into his 70's and 80's work has put everything into clearer focus for me.

Stallone is awesome, simple as that.

[The Joker]

The Stallone posts in this thread has got me in the feels right now.