MattHelm
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Posts posted by MattHelm
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Here's one:
In a scene in The Wrecking Crew, the soundtrack has Dean Martin singing made up lyrics to "King of the Road." Instead of the line "I'm King of the Road" what does he sing instead?
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Ok, I've got one:
In the movie Manpower, Edward G. Robinson, at a diner, asks for a bottle of wine and then tells them to wrap it up. How does the guy behind the counter rephrase the order when he yells it back to the kitchen?
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Davies ruined her own reputation. After all, if you're going to play with matches you're going to get burned. It was well known that she was Hearst's kept woman, and that Hearst was very married, well before Welles made Kane. With the names changed, why were they so dead set against the movie if it weren't already common knowledge? Hearst was a tyrant and used his newspapers to get his way and also to get Davies roles. It's said he'd tell studios that he'd refuse to advertise their movies in his papers if she didn't get a role she wanted, which was just about every major paper in that day. Which is why Welles made the movie, to be David to Hearst's Goliath. Whether you like Davies or not, everyone's responsible for their own actions, as she is for her own reputation's demise.
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My point is that Hollywood's radically liberal ideology is permeating a lot of movies and that's why a lot of adults aren't shelling out the bucks at the theater. I just used Clooney as an example. I know indie films have to get multiple backing most of the time, but do you honestly think Clooney didn't shop this movie at major studios first? Of course, he did. My point is about the Hollywood major studio box office crisis for the future of movie houses, not indie flicks. The majority of cinemas don't play indies for that to matter. GNAGL cost $8 million and made $23 in three months. Sounds good, but if he did get the money from a major studio, the movie would have most likely cost around what he's already taken in ... and would have just broken even. So, he's a bad risk in a major studio's eyes. A $15 million profit in Hollywood is a valet tip.
Syriana has only made $32 million in one month and had to have cost more than that to make. And that has Matt Damon in it too. It even has explosions for the dramatically-challenged. If it hasn't already broken even or made a profit by now as it's disappearing from public attention, then that's it. It's in 13th place, not a lucky number. Clooney says he only charged a dollar for the role because he believes its the message ... translation: he begged for it because he needs a comeback after a string of flops.
Both movies could be masterpieces, but a lot of people decide to see a movie on who they like or don't like. Clooney even admits he's not well liked but he blames everyone else but Clooney.
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The problem most period movies depicting that era make is putting the actors in brand spanking new clothes in that era's style, as opposed to that lived-in look. To me BTTF does that. Everyone is too clean cut. But I haven't seen it almost since it came out, never really cared for it. Anything with a Huey Lewis soundtrack gives me suicidal thoughts.
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Yeah, though JFK and Bobby really screwed him once they got in office.
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As far as Hollywood goes, Clooney has had it very bad the past few years. Not even Ocean's Twelve saved him. The fact that he had to get multiple financing for his indie film indicates that. Had he been on top like he was years ago, he'd have no problem. He still has a career but it's going downhill. If you look at the historical inconsistencies in Good Night, Good Luck, it's blatant propaganda and revisionism of the kind modern Hollywood usually bends over backwards for. The fact that it didn't points towards his involvment since his own projects have bombed one after another. His new movie isn't doing all that great and the Oscars these days are highly political, so the nominations aren't always based just on merit. They love throwing a controversial bone in the mix. Syriana isn't going to help his popularity much since it's a morally relativistic treatment of Islamofascism, which doesn't go over well with most people.
But Clooney was one example, I was referring to Hollywood as a whole. Prior to the release of Harry Potter, Narnia, and King Kong, the box office was down the lowest in 20 years and they were panicking. The summer blockbusters failed to deliver and even with the big three of the Christmas season they may not still. Since DVD sales and movie quality hasn't changed dramatically, I think people are turned off by the soapboxes. When most watch the Oscars they're not tuning in for a political speech by "political scientists" like Sean Penn or Adrian Brody. Actors live and die by the sword of their own popularity, so they should be careful what they say in public so they don't fall on that sword.
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Yeah, The Clan, The Summit, The Caucus ... they settled on The Rat Pack, after the Holmbly Hills Rat Pack at Bogie's, because The Clan was too close to The Klan.
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I only go to matinees, for two reasons: 1) only costs $6, and 2) less crowded. I don't know if everyone is referring to going to the movies at night but you could go to a matinee for half the money.
The box offices are at their lowest in years and Hollywood thinks it's because of home theater systems and DVDs. Some say it's the declining quality of movies. Some say it's the cost of admission. First, the home theater has been around for a long time to have such an impact on ticket sales. Second, the quality of movies is the same and since when did the majority of the public not like crap? And as for the cost of admission, like I said, there's the matinee, although gas prices may have deterred people from spending the extra money, but the box office was in a crisis before the oil costs went up.
I think the major impact on the box office is that not only has almost every actor gotten up on a soapbox every time a camera and mic are thrust in their faces, spouting vitriolic rants, but Hollywood is PC-ing everything to the point of revising history to force moral relativism down our throats. And most people (who are aware of it) are sick of it. For example, look how Clooney's career is in a slump after publicly making fun of Charleton Heston's Alzheimer's and other mean-spirited soapbox rants. Their hubris puts them out of touch with what most people think and people aren't going to pay for obviously biased propaganda.
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The Monkey's Paw reference was a good point. However, if I could invite dead (and a couple of living) stars the way they looked in their primes from the 1950s, the list would be:
Frank Sinatra
Dean Martin
Sammy Davis Jr.
Jerry Lewis
Robert Mitchum
William Holden
Shirley Maclaine
John Wayne
Don Rickles
Grace Kelly
I think the booze bill would wipe out my bank account.
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Jack Nicholson is an interesting choice I haven't thought of. But I'm wary of him, I think he might ham it up a bit too much like he's done in everything in the past 10 years. I can't see him affecting a believable accent either. I think Rickman would make a great Cratchit. The problem with most versions is that you don't care about Cratchit because he's just there. But Gene Lockhart's and David Collings (1970 musical) are good natured and sympathetic, and their small roles make the movies better. Depp's so versatile that I can actually see him as a good Scrooge. Kevin Spacey would make a good Scrooge or Cratchit, too.
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I think just the opposite, Back To The Future looks very 80s to me. A Christmas Story is one of the very few movies that gets it right. BTTF, and just about every other movie that depicts the 20s-50s, makes the mistake of basing the characters's looks on how Hollywood depicted them at the time in movies (or TV in the 50s). ACS bases the characters on real people, not that era's Hollywood version of the time. The only other movies that get this right are Woody Allen's, especially Radio Days.
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Beyond A Reasonable Doubt
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I don't know if anyone has mentioned this in this huge thread, but the Jerry Lewis movie The Day The Clown Cried has been held up in litigation for about 35 years.
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I would say Lord of the Rings ... it's actually one movie since all three installments were made at the same time. The King Kong remake is up there too, as is Kill Bill v. I and II.
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I think Yahoo.com has a feature like that in its TV section.
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Did anyone see this short between The Bachelor And The Bobbysoxer and Dream Wife tonight? Wasn't the beginning strangely like The Twilight Zone's opening? It had that strange Dali-esque landscape like The Zone had, with the same sort of intro narration. I think Serling lifted the idea of his opening from this.
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I'm not a big fan of Sims' Scrooge. I don't mind versions that add to the story, but that movie's additions were mostly boring clutter. I think Albert Finney was the best Scrooge even though it was a musical. None of the versions are really definitive of the book and you'd have to pick out certain performances a la carte from all of them to put together the best cast.
A Christmas story is a classic because it's the only movie that really captures what Christmas is to a kid, and it's so well done. I think Darren McGavin is hilarious in it. The looks he gives his family and shaking his head at them is a hoot.
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Michael Caine played him in A Muppet Christmas Carol. Even though it was a muppet movie, he played the part seriously and was good but not great. He has a limited range and his transformation from mean Scrooge to nice Scrooge wasn't that believable. I saw Michael Gambon in that bad HBO movie Angels In America and he played a ghost that looked like Scrooge. Ian McKellan would be great too. It would be great to see them both as Scrooge and Marley.
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Going My Way
Thunder Road
Some Came Running
The Young Lions
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The Night of the Hunter
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Watching High Society the other night, I thought that the Lord's mansion had the ugliest decor inside. On the flip side, it was one of the best movies for men's fashion.
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The Rat Pack. What could be more fun than that?
I wouldn't even want to meet any of today's actors/actresses, they're vacuous, shallow people for the most part.
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It's hard to compare the two as dancers, but if the question were whose movies were better, then I'd have to say Astaire's. I'm never compelled to fast forward or leave the room to do something during an Astaire dance number, but I do so during some of Kelly's. An American In Paris is great until you get to the long, boring dance parts.
TCM Remembers
in General Discussions
Posted
I finally saw TCM Remembers last night after reading about how bad it was here for days. I honestly didn't think it was that bad, or that good. Respectful? I don't know if it was or wasn't. I think they were going after a lonely, sad moody piece that reminded me of a Hopper painting of a girl in a hotel room, though more darkly lit. I think these tributes are just as much for the roles these people played as they are for the people themselves. After all, we only know them through their roles and not personally. And this tribute centered on, as they all do, footage from their films, not home movies or photographs. We love many of these actors from the flawed and failed characters they played, and I think that's as close to the human element as you can get with actors, unless you know them personally. I don't see this TCM Remembers piece as any different from the roles many of them have played in Film Noirs or other dramas that we admired them in, and maybe this is sort of their last performance. Doesn't mean you have to like it.