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WatchOutForSnakes

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Posts posted by WatchOutForSnakes

  1. Posted

    On 2/25/2020 at 9:58 AM, gigi-tastic said:

    The worst part is she never actively left him. She pawned her bracelet for his guitar and tells him she's thinking of making a career choice. She was always up front with him and wasn't saying she was going to be sleeping with Morris or even that she liked his music. Just that she thought it was a good job for her and she *might* take it. The Kid is SO jealous and insecure he hit her because she was talking about the possibility of taking a job. That's like your boyfriend going ape shit over you taking a job at Pizza Hut when he's a sworn Dominoes man. And it's not like he helped offer get her any work! Not even as part of his act or at the club.  In fact, of the two Morris was technically the only one to actually help her do anything.  Was he doing it because he was a creep? Yes. But does he hit women who he's seeing? No he technically has his best friend/ butler/ side kick throw them in dumpsters. Is this better? Not really but at least he kept his word? 

     

    You guys a man literally threw a woman in a dumpster in this film. I cannot stress that enough

    Yes! Jerome! That blew my mind.

    Also, I've been listening to too much Lizzo lately, so he constantly reminded me of: 

    (I bet he's the kind of guy who would throw ladies in dumpsters)

    • Like 4

  2. Posted

    On 2/21/2020 at 7:35 PM, ol' eddy wrecks said:

    Hey, You're back!

    I have not seen High and Low - I wouldn't describe my knowledge of Kurosawa as complete.

    But I did wonder about the boy's obsession with Native Americans and having him basically mimic how a lot of Americans have treated the issue up until... actually not that long ago.  Tribute to old westerns?  Is it the Park's family imitation of how they view America (which given how it's how Americans viewed their own mythology only a few decades ago is also an extra layer of commentary)?  Is it just an allusion to other cinema that Bong likes?  Reference to the Native American genocide?

    I don't really track down interviews with the director, but that is definitely something I'd be curious what the authorial intent was.

     

    High and Low is on Criterion (I think it is still). I think the idea with Parasite and the Native American play struck me as being ironic that they would play at being violent amidst an actual outburst of the very bloody violence they're mimicking. 

    And thanks for the welcome! I have been much distracted after adopting a puppy. My usual movie watching has been usurped by play and training. Today is actually our 6-month adoptaversaary!  She's @frida_von_schmiegen on IG. ;)

    • Like 1

  3. Posted

    7 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

    Here's a favorite Prince moment

    James Brown is closing a show. Calls Michael Jackson on stage, who comes up and kills it. Then JB calls Prince up there, who gets carried to the stage piggyback by a Hodor-sized roadie, and then BLOWS EVERYONE AWAY

    https://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/rembert-explains-the-80s-james-brown-prince-michael-jacksonat-the-beverly-theater-in-1983/

     

    You win! 

    • Like 2

  4. Posted

    1 hour ago, GrahamS. said:

    I actually suggested this as an HDTGM film, not because I think it’s bad (I’d give it a C+, for reasons I’ll get into) but because it’s insanely 80s (which I’m sure June would enjoy) and also intensely problematic.

    Here’s what I said:

    Thisï»żï»żÂ willÂ ï»żï»żbe a controversial choice. I just watched this. Here are the things that are good about this movie.

    ï»żÂ 1. Prince’s opï»żening and closing performances.

    2. Morris Daï»ży (who’s also fucking awesome). Acting-wise, he’s the best thing in this film. Pretty much every scene he’s in is funny. And his music numbers are entertaining.ï»ż

    otherwise, holy shitï»ż,Prince is a fucking asshole in this film. And I’m a Prince fan. I’m legitimately surprised that he allowed hiï»żmself to look THIS bad. Perhaps he thought he was giving off a tortured artist vibe—and the film is semi-autobï»żiographical—but he treats Appolonia (and pretty much all the women around him) like shit. Why her character is romantically drawn to him is a totally underdeveloped mystery, since he abuses her fairly roï»żutiï»żnely.

    Also: I will go out on aÂ ï»żlimb and say Computer Blue is a terrible song. So is Appolonia’s song.

    Dont get me wrong, the soundtrack to this movie largely kicks ass andï»żÂ some of the musical sequences are great (and besides Morris Day, they’re the main reason to watch the film). But man, there’s some dark stuff here that’s givenÂ ï»ża superficial 80s music-video style treatment, andï»żÂ it’s pretty fucking jarring.

    i know people—especially Jason—would object, but I would be interested inï»żÂ hearing Jason, June and Paul take an honest look at this film. I knoï»żw thisï»żÂ filï»żï»żï»żm hï»żas an iconic reputation, buï»żï»żï»żt goï»żï»żdï»żï»żdaï»żï»żmn is iï»żt proï»żblemï»żatiï»żï»żc

    The treatment of women in the film is really quite shocking. Though I did appreciate that he at least seemed to come around somewhat when he credited the women with writing Purple Rain. The acting is terrible, but I agree that Morris Day was a real delight. Oh, that dancing!!!! 😂 It is all so very much of its time. I could watch this movie on a loop though just to watch him perform. 

    Side note: last summer I went on a tour of Paisley Park and got to see a bunch of his memorabilia from the  movie, including his motorcycle, and a suitcase piano he used to DANCE on!  He was a tiny, tiny human!  Creativity just seemed to ooze out of him, and I'm so glad he got to perform and produce as much as he did. He was working on a jazz album when he died. I'd have loved to hear the finished product (side, side note: he use to play in the mixing booth and mix while he was recording the band). I just love him to pieces. If you find yourselves in the Minneapolis area, I highly recommend the VIP tour. It's 1,000% worth the admission price. 

    • Like 6

  5. Posted

    I loooooved Parasite. I definitely get more out of it on repeated viewings. I thought it was a real homage to Kurosawa’s High and Low. It first struck me with the little boy’s obsession with playing at being Native American since the boys in the opening and crucial scene of High and Low are playing the same way. A small detail that I may be reading too much into 😉

    • Like 2

  7. Posted

    12 hours ago, GrahamS. said:

    I was going to recommend The Boys as well, even though I haven’t finished the season yet. Also Homecoming—from the creator of Mr. Robot and based on an excellent podcast—is supposed to be good.

    I’m looking forward to watching Purple Rain. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, but I remember it being a good match of performer and material.

    It’s certainly not beyond criticism, 😂 but I’ll never tire of watching Prince perform. 😍 I rewatched it this weekend and it made me cry though I’m not a cryer. I just still am so sad he’s no longer with us. 

    • Like 5

  8. Posted

    Hi all!! I know I've been away from the forums for a while. in fairness,  I adopted a puppy last fall so my movie watching has been interrupted by play and training. ;) (she's on Insta at @Frida_von_schmiegen). I"m excited to jump back in with something I just noticed is streaming on Netflix. I have some backups if we've done this one, but my pick is....

    giphy.gif

    Purple Rain!

    ETA - Thanks Cameron for the heads-up that it was my turn ;) 

    • Like 7

  9. Posted

    I also saw it and was blown away by it. Pitt is at his best this summer. He really carried that role and of course it was beautiful! It was at once infinitely expansive and intensely internal. My only nit pick was the end scene at Neptune. It felt more melodramatic and more of a stretch than the rest did. 

    • Like 1

  10. Posted

    Finally catching up on Musical Mondays, and got the chance to watch this on Saturday. I had no idea what to expect and certainly wasn't expecting it to be so silly. That windmill attack scene was easily my favorite. I'd say I enjoyed the movie overall and would watch it again. I agree that it is probably better the second time when I'm not so confused about what is going on. My biggest nitpick of it is that I got real tired real quick of the constant rape-y scenes with Sophia Loren. I loved her character and the acting, but it really got old by the end.

    • Like 3

  11. Posted

    Okay, two things: 

    1. Are we not going to talk about Helen Mirren's full hair, makeup, and jewelry? Is she getting the Al Capone treatment in there? 

    2. We've established that Hattie injected the virus in capsules into her hand. The capsules will dissolve after the longest 72 hours ever and then.. end of humanity. When they plan what to do if they can't extract the virus in time, why does she have to die and burn her body? Why not just amputate her hand?! Is that a fate worse than death? Why is this not an option? 

    • Like 5

  12. Posted

    4 hours ago, topherwhatever said:

    I'm sure that's the idea, but does it make any sense? 

    Overcompensating - compensating too much. 

    Undercompensating - not compensating enough. 

    I'm pretty sure he's trying to say that his dick is more impressive than his cars. The usual hierarchy is dick size < car awesomeness. Here, he's saying car awesomeness < dick size. He's saying his dick is so big, he's using the cars to downplay the dick size. To overcompensate, we are providing an excess in Column A to make up for a deficit in Column B. To undercompensate, you would necessarily undercut Column A to make up for the excess in Column B. He's saying his dick size is soooooo excessive, the cars are less great than it. For his cars to overcompensate for a dick size, they'd have to be like made of unicorns and rainbows and hot chicks. 

    I've gone cross-eyed. 

    • Like 2

  13. Posted

    5 hours ago, taylorannephoto said:

    Okay I believe it is time for the moments in movies when I get most frustrated...

    That's right it's time for This Week in Feminism.

    I was delighted to hear an audience member mention things that I also wanted to mention, because one of my first points was, "Where are the fucking women?" But the response of the crew didn't satisfy me and here's why -

    Yes, Hattie is a badass through and through. She was an operative for MI6 and went head to head with Luke Hobbs without even blinking an eye. She sacrificed herself so that Idris Elba wouldn't get the virus, and at the end of the day it was her plan that got the blood machine so that she could ultimately live. Definitely a badass. However, that doesn't actually answer the question. Hattie is one woman. To answer the question, "Where are the women?" with, "Well Hattie is a badass," implies that multiple women can't just be in scenes talking to each other because we already have the one woman being a badass and that's good enough right? They also mentioned the team of vigilante women lead by Eiza Gonzalez in Russia, but here's my problem with them - Only Eiza has any lines. There are 4 other women in this group and their only purpose for this movie is to look sexy in lingerie and be intimidating. That's not really showing any other badass women considering we never actually got to see them in action. The marketing for this movie completely hyped up Eiza's role and it really disappointed me that she didn't have anything better to do for a longer portion of the movie.

    Michelle Rodriguez had posted after F8 that if this franchise didn't step up it's representation of women then she would leave the series, and I think with this movie they took one tiny baby step in the right direction. Now I know this movie is a spin-off and has nothing to do with the set of movies that Michelle was actually talking about because she's in the camp of "fuck Hobbs & Shaw" but it's still part of the series none the less. With Hattie being a total badass and being central to the plot instead of a side character I do think that they want women to be part of the story, but in my opinion, even though Hattie is a total badass, she's just a plot point she's not actually involved in her own story a la Natalie Portman in Thor: The Dark World. If you took that virus out of Hattie's blood she no longer becomes relevant to this story, and it still all resolves around Hobbs & Shaw more than likely doing the bulk of the work to get the virus away from Eteon. She's kidnapped twice to be rescued by the two men, and in the final climax fight of the whole movie she's regulated to sitting in the rain with a gun pointed at her head. To me, this isn't badass empowering writing. This is lazy "feminism" that is stuck in the early 2000s.

    But honestly the thing that frustrated me the most is that this didn't even pass The Bechdel Test. It would've been so fucking easy for them to do. They had multiple named women who were literally standing in the same room together, but never once do any of them address each other, instead they talk to the men about things the other woman brought up instead.

    • The female guard with Helen Mirren doesn't have a name - Fail
    • Hattie is the only woman on her entire team - Fail
    • Eiza is the only named and speaking woman on her team - Fail
    • Hobb's daughter never speaks to the woman she is staying with - Fail
    • Hattie and Eiza stand face to face and only talk to Hobbs & Shaw - Fail
    • Hobbs's mother doesn't have a name - Fail
    • There are no lines between Helen Mirren and Hattie at the end of the movie - Fail

    It's the simplest of things that in 2019 should literally be the bare minimum for writing female characters. I'm not asking for the entire story to be changed, because honestly the overarching thing doesn't bother me despite poking holes in the "baddassery" of it. But to not have two women even speak to each other when they're literally standing face to face discussing ultimate plans for how to get a blood machine is absolutely ridiculous.

    Literally I just want women to be able to talk to each other about things not related to men. That would be grand.

    I second all of this. Welcome back :)

    • Like 5

  16. Posted

    On 8/13/2019 at 7:33 PM, jerahmaya77 said:

    Just watching DDF for the first time (after all these years) and come to find that it was filmed in my hometown of Minneapolis.  Awesome to see the city way I remember as a younger lad, far more chill and sleepy...long before gentrification and condos came to turn this place into a butthole of tech bros, pedal pubs, Apple stores and gridlock traffic.  I'm allready adding this to my list of Mpls Movies.  Not sure if I'm team Fred or team Sanity yet...but I'll check back in later.  

    This was filmed at Paisley Park, Prince's estate. Funny enough, that was not highlighted during the VIP tour I took this summer. 

    • Like 1

  17. Posted

    On 8/2/2019 at 12:34 AM, Cronopio said:

    I showed it to my 14 year old kid three months ago and he loved it. He'd seen Reservoir Dogs two years ago, and Kill Bill last year, so he was already familiar with Tarantino's style. By now he's seen most of his films, and Once Upon a Time... is his favorite.

     

    I'm gonna go out and a limb and say Once Upon a Time.. is also probably my favorite (though I haven't seen all). I've seen it twice, and will probably go this weekend to a screening in 35mm. For me, it's up there with Jackie Brown.

  18. Posted

    On 8/8/2019 at 10:58 AM, ol' eddy wrecks said:

    I don't know if this is relevant for why the national anthem was part of the campaign, but Robert Altman was 6 when The Star-Spangled Banner was designated the US's national anthem.

    Though The Pledge of Allegiance came even later (and the "Under God" change came when he was 29), and that isn't mentioned. So it may have been more something in the zeitgeist at the time. 

    I agree that the national anthem might have been a lot more on people's minds at this time given the bicentennial and cultural changes the country was going through with civil rights, women's right's and Watergate. 

    I ended up just buying this movie and watched it start to finish for the first time yesterdsay. I decided to watch it before listening to the Ep all the way because Paul had mentioned going in without any idea what was going to go on, and I wanted that same experience. I found some of it kind of hard to follow, but I think this is definitely one of those movies that will be more rewarding on re-watches. There's so much going on that I'm sure I'll find all kinds of new threads and details I didn't catch the first time around. Most of the music I really could have done without (but I'm not really a country fan), but I'll say I loved that last song Barbara Jean did going on about the road trip with her parents. There was something that felt like it was poking fun at the genre and I can only imagine some of that had to be improvised, but it was genius. It fit the character and the placement in the film perfectly. I also really loved the set the trio did followed by Tom's song staring at Lily Tomlin. That whole storyline was great too.  But, ugh, political assassinations. The shooting (and all dramatized shootings) really caused me anxiety. That was hard to watch. Do I think it deserves to be on the list? Eh...  I think I'd say so. This is really a break in form, and while it didn't hold my attention 100% for its very long run time, Paul and Amy kind of sold me on it. 

    One bee in my bonnet: I take umbrage at the "get lawyers out of Congress" line ;) I'd prefer the people writing the laws to understand the law. But I'm biased. 

    ETA: I think a great companion film to this is Coal Miner's Daughter, which i only just realized came out 5 years later. It is excellent. 

    • Like 3

  19. Posted

    On 8/3/2019 at 12:29 PM, The_Triple_Lindy said:

    Fully Team Fuck This Movie. It's tearing us apart!!!!

    tenor.gif

    I'm way late to the game on this one, but ... exactly! 

    Without having read through the whole thread, here's my take: Lizzie is clearly having psychotic breaks. Fred (as Imaginary in "imaginary friend" suggests), is a figure of her mind. She hallucinates him there as an entity separate from herself, and he encourages her to cause mayhem to gain attention and/or hurt her mom. We, as viewers, see Fred as Lizzie sees him, but we can't impose her onto his physical nature - as in, when he does an up-the-skirt look at her mom, it's not Lizzie actually looking up her mom's skirt, or even imagining herself looking up the skirt, she was imagining Fred as the type of guy who would do that. Whether that means she's also curious about looking up other girls shirts  - who's to say. 

    But fuck this movie. Carrie Fisher was the only good thing about it! 

  20. Posted

    On 7/26/2019 at 7:32 AM, Cameron H. said:

    Yes! I meant to bring this up as well!

    Honestly, all we know about these guys is that they are hit men, that Vincent has been in Amsterdam for three years, and they work different areas of town. They don’t really come off to me as pen pals. To me, they came off more as co-workers.  You try to have an easy relationship with them because if you don’t, it just makes your work life harder. They might have sort of known each other from before Amsterdam, but you wouldn’t exactly call them friends. Even their conversations sounded more like things work acquaintances talk about to kill the time. For example, in my previous job, there were a couple of guys I used to hang out with whenever work was slow. We’d talk about everything - politics, religion, relationships, movies. We all looked out for each other. From the outside, we all seemed pretty close, but as soon as I quit, we all immediately lost touch. 

    Vincent and Jules are the guys in the trenches. They respect each other, they like each other, but they’re not close. Vincent doesn’t know Jules doesn’t eat pork. Jules doesn’t seem to be into drugs - beyond maybe pot. Vincent doesn’t know Jules’ friends. They’re cordial with one another because the alternative is to have to work with someone you don’t really like. We tend to unconsciously force these relationships, which can involve real affection, to help keep our sanity in the face of vocational boredom. 

    So, yeah, I think their relationship is done well, but not in the way described in the episode. 

    To add to this, I actually thought these two were at best acquaintances who were spending the day getting to know each other. When they have that whole conversation about whether a miracle occurred, Vincent seemed completely taken aback by Jules's sincerity. I thought they became close over the course of the movie, but not that they started that way.

    • Like 2

  21. Posted

    On 7/27/2019 at 2:59 AM, Elektra Boogaloo said:

    I am concerned that actual Michael Bay is making so much money off troll Michael Bay. (Am I the only one who hopes he is making the DVDs himself illegally somehow? I suppose I shouldn’t promote that but it would make me feel better about how much our MB is spending on this bit.)

    I have never seen a Transformers film, and I don’t want Paul to give in. But... It could be funny if HDTGM covered one that wasn’t Revenge of the Fallen. Maybe?

    I mean, what if it IS Michael Bay sending the stuff? Just sayin' :) 

  22. Posted

    On 7/24/2019 at 7:48 PM, theworstbuddhist said:

    As a PKD fan I would not mind a remake that is closer to the source, or at least not a big sloppy mess, but unfortunately most of the film adaptations of his stuff are neither. :(

    While I'm on about it though I will throw out recommendations for the following PKD adaptations that haven't been widely seen:

    Barjo (French adaptation of the non-SF novel Confessions of a Crap Artist)
    Screamers (Low-budget adaptation of the short story "Second Variety" starring Peter Weller)
    A Scanner Darkly (Animated film by Richard Linklater adapting the autobiographical SF novel of the same name, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson)

    Also, RIP Rutger Hauer :(

    Based on this recommendation, I watched A Scanner Darkly this morning. Mind blown! 

  23. Posted

    11 hours ago, CapnBob said:

    I know this is months late but I’ve been catching up with HDTGM after months away looking after sick parents (violins). It is in reference to the question in the episode asked by all the regulars and guests as to why the hell Kate Beckinsale took this role (and others). This is what I heard...

    I was staying at a B&B in Yorkshire, England to attend my Godson’s christening in 2004. I came down to breakfast (full English, of course) and sat opposite the only other guest at the only table in the little dining room. She was British just arrived from the US and so was I (I live in SF) so we got chatting. Turns out she was Kate Beckinsale’s recently ex-assistant (due to visa issues, apparently) and her stories were much more interesting than mine. One of which was why Kate B was making the choices she was at the time (Underworld, Van Helsing, etc.). Turns out she’d broken up with her husband, the Welsh National Treasure, Michael Sheen (Lucian the werewolf in Underworld) and had taken up with the director of Underworld, Len Wiseman (new husband as of May 2004). This was a shock to her system (and Sheen’s too, I bet) and she apparently resolved to get ‘dat ass’ into as many pairs of tight leather/vinyl/spandex pants making “hero landings” before it no longer defied gravity (she was about 30 at the time). According to this person, this explained her action hero period which has extended through most of the Underworlds (to 2016), Total Recall (remake), etc.

    i thought the HDTGM crowd might appreciate the info...

    Wait, how did I not know there was a Total Recall remake?! It's so perfect, why would they remake it? I suggest both are perfect for HDTGM.

  25. Posted

    On 7/21/2019 at 11:55 AM, Cameron H. said:

    God, I’d really love to be a part of this conversation. Unfortunately, even though the movie was less than two hours long, I was somehow unable to finish it before my rental period ended. To be clear, I had ample time to watch it. I just couldn’t watch more than three minutes at a time due to apathy. I finished a bunch of sudoku puzzles though...

    I, unfortunately (?), own this movie now, since renting it was the same price on Amazon Prime.

    • Like 1
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