Random Movie Thoughts Thread

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

His score was also chopped quite a bit for Phantom Menace. That kind of had to happen for it to fit the crazy editing in that film.

It's way worse for the other prequels, IMO

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I have seen The Big Clock a few years ago and liked it a lot. I'm also a great fan of Charles Laughton.
Seeing as we seem to be in sink here, may I ask if you have seen Laughton's only work as a director: Night Of The Hunter? It's got awesome cinematography and Robert Michum at his best. Another one of my all my all time favorites.

I also liked The Big Combo, DOA and Out Of The Past, to give you some idea of the kind of noir I'm looking for.

Night of the Hunter is exactly why I said "anything associated with Charles Laughton", because I was thinking of his only directorial effort. But yes the cinematography is hypnotic. It's an incredible movie.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

His score was also chopped quite a bit for Phantom Menace. That kind of had to happen for it to fit the crazy editing in that film.

I really like Empire of the Sun, the first three Indy scores, ET, Jurassic Park. For SW, I think Empire Strikes Back is the obvious best, although he did some really nice themes for the Prequel Trilogy. Temple of Doom or Empire of the Sun would probably be my favorites if I had to choose just from the Spielberg-Williams collaboration. I can't think of a lot of other great director-composer pairings that produced as many great scores....maybe Hitchcock-Herrmann? Goldsmith and Joe Dante? Anderson and Mothersbaugh? Morricone and Sergio Leone? Carpenter and Carpenter lol

Anderson and Desplat.

 

[Totenkindly]

The timeline in Seven doesn't add up. The package shipping....that was an improvised kill. How did he ship the clean package while covered in blood...there's a least one more body out there posed for wrath out there in the city.

You should file a request to reopen the case.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

It's way worse for the other prequels, IMO

Yeah I think they pasted at least one phantom menace cue into RotS? During the kashyyk battle scene IIRC. Unless it’s just Williams reusing that motif. But it sounded a lot like a cue from the invasion of Naboo. Lucas is not a great editor, he should have given Ben Burtt more freedom there

 

[Totenkindly]

Come on, geeks, where's all the Indy Jones reviews? I really want to know, before I buy a ticket!

 

[The Cat]

Come on, geeks, where's all the Indy Jones reviews? I really want to know, before I buy a ticket!

The reviews on youtube are not positive. I think most of the fan community is just wondering why at this point. There's several Indiana Jones novels that have some excellent stories some even with an older indy. But the movies keep being...things that happen. Theyre never going to top riding off into the sunset in the last crusade.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Yeah I think they pasted at least one phantom menace cue into RotS? During the kashyyk battle scene IIRC. Unless it’s just Williams reusing that motif. But it sounded a lot like a cue from the invasion of Naboo. Lucas is not a great editor, he should have given Ben Burtt more freedom there

The attack on the Jedi Temple doesn't have it's own music. It's from Aotc, during the arena.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

The attack on the Jedi Temple doesn't have it's own music. It's from Aotc, during the arena.

That annoys me. That sounds like a Lucas decision. But maybe Williams was just phoning it in at that point and didn't bother to record anything for that scene. I don't know that much about the behind the scenes production. Did Lucas do any reshoots or last minute scene additions and just not have time to get new music written by Williams? Or I wonder if it was a case of him having temp track music and just getting so used to it that he kept it in? That was the case with some of the music in Alien. Scott used earlier Goldsmith cues from the movie Freud, plus part of Hanson's second symphony, and he decided to keep them in the theatrical cut. That royally pissed Goldsmith off.

Older bond films would also often just drop the original 1962 bond theme recording over certaqin action scenes, even when Barry had written new cues specifically for those scenes. There's this really nice music he recorded for the Thunderball end credits, but the producers cut it and just dropped the Bond theme over the credits. Weak.

starts about 8:18:

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

vs

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

That annoys me. That sounds like a Lucas decision. But maybe Williams was just phoning it in at that point and didn't bother to record anything for that scene. I don't know that much about the behind the scenes production. Did Lucas do any reshoots or last minute scene additions and just not have time to get new music written by Williams?

I don't know about additions (now the whole Mace Windu/Palpatine sequence had those), but there was definitely stuff cut and I know at least some of the cut material was filmed. I think there was a lot of things with Anakin fighting and killing individual jedi. Like when we see the hologram with him fighting a Jedi who is actually stunt coordinator Nick Gilliard, there was much more to that which was just not shown. Also, there were clones pretending to be Jedi but I don't know if that part was filmed.

I'd be very suprised if new music wasn't recorded for that scene. It's so important to the entire series.

Also, the way Duel of the Fates is used at the end is a mess.

 

[Totenkindly]

Watched Nimona on Netflix. I never read the graphic novel / book, although when I compared synopses after, it looks like a chunk of the plotting was changed. (The book is more nuanced and into more unique plotting, the film is geared towards a 100 minute animated film that a kid has to follow.)

Apparently this had been well-along in production and then Disney bailed after they bought Fox, canceling it. They didn't like the more overt LGBT elements (although frankly the entire movie is queer-coded in a big way -- not a surprise, the writer is queer / non-binary / transmasculine) apparently and bailed. [Yeah, don't ask me what's going on with Disney. They fight with DeSantis over LGBT things, turn around and ditch projects for being too LGBT, or just throw in token LGBT stuff just to get by.]

I'm kind of glad Annapurna brought it back because I feel like it's a bit different enough to deserve exposure. The first 30 minutes was kind of bouncing all over and Nimona was kind of annoying, but then it settled in to its own form of humor and got much deeper as well and has relevance to current social conflicts. I think it's also a big deal to show how a legend or myth might be very different and much smaller in scale than the retelling centuries later, but people still cling to it.

But for every kid that feels different or person who has felt rejected for not meeting the institutional standard, this is for you.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Watched Nimona on Netflix. I never read the graphic novel / book, although when I compared synopses after, it looks like a chunk of the plotting was changed. (The book is more nuanced and into more unique plotting, the film is geared towards a 100 minute animated film that a kid has to follow.)

Apparently this had been well-along in production and then Disney bailed after they bought Fox, canceling it. They didn't like the more overt LGBT elements (although frankly the entire movie is queer-coded in a big way -- not a surprise, the writer is queer / non-binary / transmasculine) apparently and bailed. [Yeah, don't ask me what's going on with Disney. They fight with DeSantis over LGBT things, turn around and ditch projects for being too LGBT, or just throw in token LGBT stuff just to get by.]

I'm kind of glad Annapurna brought it back because I feel like it's a bit different enough to deserve exposure. The first 30 minutes was kind of bouncing all over and Nimona was kind of annoying, but then it settled in to its own form of humor and got much deeper as well and has relevance to current social conflicts. I think it's also a big deal to show how a legend or myth might be very different and much smaller in scale than the retelling centuries later, but people still cling to it.

But for every kid that feels different or person who has felt rejected for not meeting the institutional standard, this is for you.

You make it sound intriguing. I did find the trailer interesting, also. It seems like it is something different and refreshing. I liked the overall premise.

Do you think this is something an adult would find enjoyable? Usually I only watch kids movies I watched as a kid.

 

[Totenkindly]

You make it sound intriguing. I did find the trailer interesting, also. It seems like it is something different and refreshing. I liked the overall premise.

Do you think this is something an adult would find enjoyable? Usually I only watch kids movies I watched as a kid.

I think it's aimed at 15-22 year olds but adults will be fine with it and young kids will still probably get a kick out of much of it.

Has a lot of manic rock girl energy in the character design for Nimona.

 

[Totenkindly]

Box Office: ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ Stumbles With $60 Million Debut, ‘Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken’ Flops

Disney's "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" collected an underwhelming $60 million in its opening weekend.

variety.com

They really are betting badly... overmarketing films needlessly or undermarketing films so no one even knows they're releasing. Everyone knows Indy already and approaches the new film with prejudice... either excited cuz it's Indy 5 or totally hating the idea and not planning to go. Their feelings are not even based on the actual quality of this new film.

Meanwhile I think I only saw one trailer for Kraken ever... and it was when I went to see spiderverse, in the actual theater. Thought it could have been interesting but wasn't sure... kind of a flip of the mermaid trope.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Box Office: ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ Stumbles With $60 Million Debut, ‘Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken’ Flops

Disney's "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" collected an underwhelming $60 million in its opening weekend.

variety.com

They really are betting badly... overmarketing films needlessly or undermarketing films so no one even knows they're releasing. Everyone knows Indy already and approaches the new film with prejudice... either excited cuz it's Indy 5 or totally hating the idea and not planning to go. Their feelings are not even based on the actual quality of this new

I was completely uninterested in the 5th movie as soon as I heard about it. I felt like they had their chance with a fourth film and should have left things alone. I didn't even hate the fourth film, but it wasn't great. Mostly I just hated that the MacGuffin is just New Age bullshit and that they sprinkle that in with ancient aliens stuff. (It's a fine line between some the other MacGuffins and ancient aliens, admittedly, but the difference still matters to me. Unlike the other stuff, we know for a fact that the skulls are bullshit and have nothing to do with the Mayans or the Incas or anyone else.)

I will watch the movie when it comes out on streaming but ultimately I decided to go see Asteroid City instead. I felt like the experience of watching the Indy 5 would just depress me and I do not need that now.

 

[Totenkindly]

Yeah ,that pretty much supports my point, lol.

How was Asteroid City?

 

[The Cat]

The world is burning, the prices keep going up, the quality keeps going down.
People are only herd animals when you don't let them know you think they're herd animals.
So here's what you movie execs need to do. Instead of putting your money in your wallet, put it into hiring good writers not souless artless hack grifters. Have the goal be to make good movies make art not profit. Then you will make more profit. Honestly not everything has to be a grift.
More and more people are realizing they're not rich enough to even pretend to be the characters in movies. So movies arent as much of an escape as much as having your problems rubbed in your face by people who can neither see nor relate to you. There are still good things coming out. Those good things are good because they're well done, and/or have heart. They're movies you could have a beer with. Also a lot of people don't want to get shot or have to deal with karens in the wild, or honestly just can't afford it. The POTB are gonna have to do things that seem counter intuitive to them if they want to bring back the cinema. And they don't want to or really care. They'll wring the last penny out of movies, then move on to exploit something else.​

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Younger moviegoers give no shits about Indiana Jones and older fans aren’t super interested in watching a favorite series diluted and diminished. I think the old Indy scenes from the young Indiana Jones Chronicles and that one cameo Ford did for that series already served as great sendoffs for the character. Crystal Skull and DoD are unnecessary and I don’t think of them as canon

 

[Totenkindly]

Greta Gerwig to adapt Chronicles of Narnia after Barbie

Greta Gerwig wants to be a "big studio director," even if it means cashing in on the I.P. era of cinema

www.avclub.com

Interesting. I mean, I'm kind of curious to see what she would do with it. At least it wouldn't be pure pabulum.

Face it, in the first run films, Aslan felt like a lame lion, not even just a tame one. Tilda Swinton was really the best part.