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I just wanted to say I read this thread title as "107 Penises From Heaven" and thought it would be a very different film.

I like this tidbit in particular: When asked in Rolling Stone about the film's box-office failure, Steve Martin said: "I'm disappointed that it didn't open as a blockbuster and I don't know what's to blame, other than it's me and not a comedy. I must say that the people who get the movie, in general, have been wise and intelligent; the people who don't get it are ignorant scum."

I started watching the miniseries on youtube today. The first episode is really good. Bob Hoskins is giving a very different performance that isn't so creepy (yet). Unfortunately, I see the last episode isn't in youtube and there's no place to stream it. So, I guess I had better give up before I get too invested.

Umm... (Just kidding)

Yes I feels so right yet he has done nothing (criminally) wrong. I think it's because we've seen him selfishly ruined two people's (three depending on your stance of where life begins) lives that there is a lot of emotional anger towards him that seeing him die is cathartic. The other thing I will say is while he did nothing to the girl I did get creepy vibes from their meeting. When he tells her that she's the most beautiful woman he's ever seen I just thought "how is he going to ruin her?" Wasn't sure if he was being honest of had ulterior motives but it just made me uneasy. I think therefore subconsciously blame him for her death that just meeting him jinxed her.

You know that was one of the thing I wanted to bring up. I thought for the first 15 minutes or so that Steve Martin was miscast. I felt he was a bit muggy at first. In the musical numbers I could get it because being a style thing but maybe I was just thinking of his more toned down later dramatic work. I think it wasn't until he picked up the accordion man that I started to click more with his performance. Then by their next meeting I was sold on him and his performance which I think only gets better the more we see his character unfold. I'm curious if going back to the start now knowing who he is and what he's really like if the performance is better for me. Like you said it's more because Martin is kind of unassuming. He can be funny, he can be charming, be innocent and he can have a bit of an edge to him. I think Hoskins was a great actor but it's hard to shake that feeling that he's two second from a knocking your lights out even when he's being a nice guy. I think Jonathan Pryce would have been good. Nooooooope. One of my unpopular opinions is that The Shining is overrated. In the truest sense of that. Not that it's bad, it's a good and very well made movie but not the untouchable scariest movie of all time it is often sold as. The biggest problem I have with the film is Jack Nicholson. He's not a bad actor but the character is suppose to slowly slip into madness as he struggles with his alcoholism and inner demons. I think you don't get that from him at all. He's almost at the same level through and film and from the start seems already a little off. Considering that the Arthur role requires a bit of the same I just don't see it at all.

I really liked this film, atmosphere, misery, music and all, and it only deepened my respect for Steve Martin as a performer and as the architect of his own career. When comparing the film to the series, a BBC miniseries is going to, by necessity, be of a much smaller scale and confined, maybe even claustrophobic. While this may be appropriate thematically for the story's motifs of isolation, delusion, and base desires, but you lose the grand 1930s Hollywood Busby Berkeley-style musical numbers. Why, I think, they work in the film is that they initially provide some respite from the grim setting (especially the Bernadette Peters number with her class in the gleaming white performance space), but once we get to the Christopher Walken performance in the seedy bar, the musical numbers become just as much a nightmare as real life. Even the fantasy is despairing. Ultimately, the film goes back on that with the sort of "dream" ending, which strikes me as just as outlandish as Steve Martin, due to a wild set of coincidences, going from arrest to hanging in what seems like two hours, so I'm still on the fence on the ending as a whole.

That’s a great point! He’s such a weasel that you want to see him punished — but the punishment doesn’t fit the crime at all. That’s such an interesting dynamic. Why does a death sentence feel justified here?

I first heard about this movie years ago when they covered it on The Canon. It was weird because I had pretty much stopped listening to it at that point so why I decided to randomly hop back on for one episode, particularly for a an episode covering a movie I'd never heard about, is pretty odd. It's one of those weird vivid memories of a prosaic event type things. I remember what I was doing at the time and everything. Weird. Anyway, the way Amy spoke about it made me super curious and it's always been in the back of my mind that I need to see it. So a couple months ago when I saw this on sale, I picked it up right away. Pretty much, I agree with what everyone has been saying. Although, I think I disagree with Martin being miscast. I especially wouldn't want someone like Walken in the role as I feel like he would be too intimidating, and I think the role requires someone a little more off beat. Besides his physicality, I think Martin brings brings an off-centeredness to his character. He seems handsome and normal, but there's something that's not quite right about him, too. It's more than just being a horny creep. He gives off an almost serial killery vibe, or, too normal to be normal, if you catch my drift. Anyway. I'm glad I bought it. I doubt I will watch it often, but I think I will definitely revisit it from time to time.

Put a horse out of work, ride a cowboy

I’d also ad that Hoskins must have been right for the role because he originated it in the miniseries.

Not arguing with you at all. While I like The Shining, I agree with you 100%. To me, it’s a three-star art house B-movie that’s fun and stylish, but also cold and not very engaging on an emotional level, which I feel more and more any time I rewatch it. I thought Doctor Sleep-while not perfect-was a much better film in terms of being character driven and I actually prefer that movie. I wasn’t arguing that Jack should have been cast, just wanted to point out that this oroject was already in the works before Steve Martin got involved.

I am happy to see you and I appreciate you thinking my dick could reach all the way to my pocket.

Here’s a link to some interesting trivia: Steve Martin was not the initial star the film was offered to— it was Jack Nicholson. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082894/trivia

I watched this for the first time last year also because of Amy. She gushed about it on Unspooled. I'll admit to tuning out the first time (and a bit this time). As you said in your review, it's kind of repulsive in a way. I think Martin is a great choice (partly because I assume he pushed to get this made therefore, it doesn't get made at all without him). I think he's able to give off the vibe of a guy who really does believe in this dream world he's built up around himself. I haven't watched the miniseries, but I don't get this feeling even from Bob Hoskins as an actor. I suspect the tone is a bit more, I don't know, grimy? because Hoskins feels a bit more rough around the edges than Steve Martin. For this version, I'm not sure who else you could cast in 1981 that can pull off the dreamer character in this way. Robin Williams maybe or Jonathan Pryce (if he can do an American accent). One thing that's weird about this is that, I felt like Steve Martin deserved to be arrested. He didn't do anything though. He didn't kill the blind girl. I don't condone cheating on one's spouse, but that's the only thing wrong he really did. I'm not sure why I felt glad that he was caught.

This was produced by the same team as the original Christopher Reeve "Superman" films, and they wanted to create the same large-scale, heroic "origin story" for Santa here. John Lithgow's performance is an iconic level of batcrap crazy and I love it.

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt8305692/

Roger Ebert said in his review of this movie, “It's so escapist it escapes even from itself.” That’s pretty much how I felt about it, so there’s not really much to pick apart or examine with the film. However I did want to add one correction...when Paul was listing the films they’ve done that beat this at the box office, he included Godzilla. However Godzilla came out in 1998, not 2000.

I accidentally dvr-ed this, thinking this was one of the Fast and Furious movies that I had not seen. This is what Fast and Furious would be if your budget was $500, and you only get 1 day to shoot it, and you forgot the script at home! It is fantastic—for your podcast. I found it playing on showtime basic cable. I hope you enjoy!

My friends and I just watched this via Netflix Party and we can't stop talking about it. You'll have no idea who any of the characters are or what their relationships are to one another, there's no real reason for this cruise ship to capsize (but that doesn't stop it from being the entire plot!), totally bizarro casting, and plenty of absurd scenarios to confound the viewer (plus one actual moment of real emotional impact??) – but damn if we didn't have a total blast watching this movie and talk about it every single day in the group chat. GARBAGE movie, but also maybe my favorite movie??? Honestly, we thought we were putting on Ghost Ship and we were thrilled we fucked it up.

Let's not forget that Kurt Russel's corpse twitches and hits the button needed to stop the propeller to save the other characters.

except in home depot commercials