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WatchOutForSnakes

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Posts posted by WatchOutForSnakes

  2. Posted

    For what it's worth, Roger Ebert seemed to really like this movie, though I think he was mostly enamored with Vanessa Williams. 

    "A lot of the plot is standard, but a lot of it isn't, including the relationship between a young man from Cuba (the Puerto Rican singing star Chayanne) and a gifted dancer (Vanessa L. Williams) who says, "I don't want to be in love." It goes without saying that these two people are destined to fall in love. But the movie sees Ruby, the Williams character, clearly and with surprising truthfulness; she has a depth associated with more serious movies."

    • Like 1

  3. Posted

    12 hours ago, Cam Bert said:

    You can if you want but why would you? Blue cheese all day every day. Wings it's a must. Salad not a must but a good blue cheese dressing or the real deal crumbled in. Give me blue cheese all the time!*

    560.jpg

    *Cam Bert is well known to have very unpopular tastes in food.

    I literally had to spit my coffee out with this one. 

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    6 hours ago, the baa detective said:

     

    If this game/simulation is sort of being an escape and grief-dealing mechanism for the son, why does he make Baker Dill's life miserable? Baker is constantly strapped focash, and forced to serve asshole customers. Baker doesn't have to live like a king. Just give him a quiet and idyllic island life that doesn't require him to be constantly worry about money.

    But then they couldn't have given us the gem: "a hooker who can't afford hooks." 

    • Like 4
    • Haha 1

  5. Posted

    7 hours ago, Cam Bert said:

    I don't have the time now, and I don't want to just repeat what everybody has been saying but I have had strong feelings about this being on the list and maybe this is the episode I was looking forward to the most. I will give the TL;DR of it all now, and hopefully tonight bang out a tirade but to me everything that is wrong with the AFI Top 100 is summed up with this movie being on the list. It shows that a) series/trilogies are singularly represented to stand for the franchise, b) first is always best and nothing else is considered unless you are a well known or respected name c) "cultural importance" and actual pop culture impact are often different and d) genre token representation. Should a computer animated movie be on the list? It the grand scheme if it truly is one of the best movies then yes, if it's there to just represent "advancements in CGI" then maybe because it did kill traditional animation in a way. If you have to include one, should it be Toy Story. No. 

     

    3 hours ago, Cameron H. said:

    giphy.gif

    giphy.gif

    • Like 1

  7. Posted

    50 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

    I FINALLY FOUND SOMEONE ELSE!!!!!!!

    I prefer Star Wars to Empire. I like the world and world building more. Empire is better filmed and looks amazing. I love Yoda. But I also find the Millennium Falcon is a monster asteroid section kind of unnecessary.

    TBH, Jedi is my favorite. But it is also the first movie I ever saw in a theater. (yes, I'm dating myself on that). I remember looooooooving the Ewoks as a girl. In fact, I think The Ewok Adventure should be covered by HDTGM. 

    • Like 3

  8. Posted

    4 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

    I ended up voting “no.” I love the movie, but like they said in a previous episode, if you want to make a movie about the “first of its kind,” then cool. Do that. And I’m not saying influence can’t be a part of the criteria. But I would very much prefer the list to be comprised of the best movies - whatever the genre or medium - and I can think of plenty of other Pixar movies that I think are more deserving. 

    Toy Story is a fascinating template for Pixar’s success, but for me, including it would be like saying Da Vinci’s preliminarily rough sketch of the Mona Lisa is better than the finished product.

    I was literally going to make a Mona Lisa reference in my post before this response loaded on my feed, but took it out. I agree with you completely.

    • Like 1

  9. Posted

    I haven't listened to the ep yet, so I'm jumping the gun a bit here, but wanted to add my two cents on the first vs best conundrum. My thought is that if this were the list of AFI's most influential movies, then the first should definitely go on the list. But it's not. It's a list of the AFI TOP 100 movies. As I think we've seen with some of these before, a "first" isn't always the "best." There's something to be said about being the first to do something, to change the way we see things, but I think any Star Wars fan will agree that Empire is better than A New Hope. Second seasons of television shows are often better than the first. On one hand, we should recognize the invention of new forms and trail blazers in art, but If we're judging perfection here, I'd put the best over the first. 

    Also, as we've reached 50+, if there's one thing I've learned about these rankings, is that I'm absolutely no good at sorting them out individually. What makes 2001 a great film is so different from what makes Citizen Kane or The Wizard of Oz great films. I can put them in groups, but individually I'm stumped. 

    • Like 2

  10. Posted

    On 4/15/2019 at 11:37 PM, AlmostAGhost said:

    Geez you really truly believe it's real racism to note that Van Halen makes white people music?

    Racism and sexism are about power imbalances; we fight it when a majority targets hatred on a minority. That's not even remotely the same thing as pointing out white people like Van Halen. It's not even the same thing for a woman to dislike the state of the patriarchy. See how it works, and how Nicole isn't it?  Probably not, because you're an idiot. 

    All she did was mention race and you flipped your damn lid. White people are such snowflakes. Get over yourself. Haha "boldly and directly disparage everyone in the room" haha so ridiculous.

    I don't believe it to be possible that you're even remotely a fan of Conan O'Brien. Go away.

    I just happened upon this thread and my first thought as I'm reading down the list was "what would Taylor think of this?" Glad to see a friendly face call BS! 

    • Like 1

  12. Posted

    49 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

    I have a question about dance contests because the world of dance seemed weird to me.

    Would dancers in this kind of contest all be dancing simultaneously? Since everything is choreographed, it seems like that dancers would either be altering their routine on the fly or just bumping into each other constantly.

    Most ballroom dancing I've seen is like other creative/sport competitions like figure skating where the dancers go out one by one and receive a score from the judges. This felt more like the high school dance-off a la Grease. 

    That said, I think this movie was perfection! I don't see why anyone would have any nits to pick ;) 

    • Like 4

  13. Posted

    3 hours ago, Elektra Boogaloo said:

    Congratulations to Cameron for being back on top. I liked it when forum posters win and not those LOSER call-in people.

    I am excited for SERENITY. I feel a little responsible since I suggested it in the bad movie recommendation threads. I'll be curious to see what people who have never heard anything about it think is going on. I, unfortunately, only saw it after reading about it. So I was spoiled. IF anyone went in cold, I want to hear your thoughts.

    I'm so glad they're doing Serenity. I'm convinced MM was stoned and drunk out of his mind through the entire shooting. It was such a blatant excuse for a vacation. But Anne Hathaway kills it!  She knows exactly what movie she's in. 

    • Like 3

  15. Posted

    22 hours ago, AlmostAGhost said:

    I wanted to expand on me calling it 'superficial' as I keep pondering that. I think my main issue is all these points that they mention on the pod -- homosexuality, his mother, self-identity, earlier trauma, being raised by TV, even Vietnam I guess -- are raised so minutely in the film that I feel like it's just all on the surface. I take this movie as very straightforward almost, which maybe is at odds with its rep or intent. I see it as just about a guy with some sort of misguided dream, who meets another guy with a similar misguided dream.

    *edit to note that sycasey simulposted a similar explanation. :)

    Precisely! I felt like there were hints at commentary on homosexuality, TV influences, masculinity, and the rat race, but none of it landed. There wasn't enough meat on anything to really make the point.  

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    I had a very strong reaction to Midnight Cowboy. I watched it blind, meaning I had no idea what it was about or any of it's history. While I definitely didn't get that these two guys were supposed to be idealized (I  guess the way some people seem to have interpreted Travis Bickle), I had no idea why I should care about them. I found the flashbacks to Joe Buck's experiences in Texas to be entirely confusing and muddled. After hearing them discuss the book and how dark his time was in Texas, I could have understood his character and maybe developed a little sympathy for his ... eccentricities? To me, they seemed to be two guys willfully bumming around NYC (oh, that era NYC!!) deluded into thinking they can sell Joe's body for sex while neither of them has any clue how to interact with women. I see the intent of the director, but I think the vision failed for me. 

    Also, I mean... John Voight and Dustin Hoffman. I can't get past who either of them turned out to be. 

    • Like 3

  19. Posted

    18 hours ago, Elektra Boogaloo said:

    I love Lance Reddick. I thought he was great. I mean he's always great. But there was one scene of him fighting where his hands were shaking.

    There should be awards for amazing performances in ridiculous movies.

    100% I was so glad there was more of him in this one. He's such a delight! 

     

  21. Posted

    25 minutes ago, tomspanks said:

    What does the title mean?  I thought maybe the family's last name was going to be Temptation.

    ETA: I know the choir name, but WHY

    I was wondering this same thing. I was kind of in and out during my watch, but when Cuba said the name of the choir was inspired by Beyonce? Huh?

    And my random, unformed thoughts (to go along with the movie's theme)

    - I also thought they were going to play more on the whole jazz vs choir, and the parallel with Beyonce.

    - Why advertising? Aside from it being a major movie trope profession, why not make him an actual music producer, maybe a failed one. And the choir, and Beyonce are his ticket back?

    - Was Cuba pretending to be a bad dancer? On stage at the competition he seemed to be doing such terrible moving about, but in the end credits scene he does some breakdancing, and gives some hint that he's actually a good dancer. But if I never see him dancing like he danced on that stage again, it will be too soon. 

    - 40 minutes is too long to wait for Beyonce's introduction. 

     

    • Like 5

  22. Posted

    Imma take @taylorannephoto's side here. I have been slow to pitch in on how I feel about contributing to rapists/abusers. It's perfectly fine to draw the line that says, "I don't want to contribute one dime" to people who abuse women. Sure, there are levels of awfulness, and there are tons of people involved in the production of any single movie who could be awful; but its an order of magnitude worse when the awful person is the lead actor, director, producer, etc. When the main person or people responsible for the film are still in the industry and still making money, and still getting residuals, no mater how minimal, your money is still going into their coffers. Tayloranne wasn't saying that you should live by her standards, or anyone else's standards, but own the fact that your money is still contributing. And when these movies are covered by podcasts like HDTGM, if all the listeners, even if the money isn't much, it still evidences an audience exists that is okay with contributing and watching these people's work. 

    No, we can't rid the arts of sexist assholes who actively and systematically abuse women. But we can make a statement that it is not okay. And we can do that by avoiding the art that triggers us. When it comes to past works, it's clearly a very personal determination of what your moral compass tells you. (I personally, watched Shanghai Surprise, because it was free on Vudu, but I couldn't see Sean Penn without my mind constantly thinking of his history with Madonna, specifically.) Going forward, we can, and should, hold people to a higher standard and refuse to see movies when the people responsible for them are awful, horrible, terrible people. The whole problem up to the #metoo movement, has been that everyone has looked the other way. We aren't anymore. 

    I really appreciate your opinion and contributions @taylorannephoto. I wish this place didn't feel triggering for you. I think most regular contributors here are open minded and on your/our side. But I see how some of it turned specifically toward you, and I think unnecessarily so. You never make it personal, fuck those who make it personal against you. I hope you stay. 

  24. Posted

    21 hours ago, AlmostAGhost said:

    I never understood the attachment to Tom Bombadil! He's not that big of a deal, is he?

    I am still torn though on Mockingbird, not on how much I love it because I do, but on how much it really adds/changes from the book. Most of the positives I heard Paul and Amy mention are straight up from the book. Paul said the direction was sort of 'avant garde' and I'm not so sure I agree, it feels fairly straightforward and simple to me. I mean, obviously, not screwing up a very popular book is not an easy thing to do, so credit there. But as a top-100 film of all-time? What does this film do cinematically that's all so special?

    For example, I think the Lord of the Rings should be on there as an adaption, because it adapts such a complicated work of fantasy history and it pushed computer effects much further than just about anything before it. But I'm a little less sure about Mockingbird, which I'm having a hard time seeing on its own separate from the book. I'm leaning to the acting (by Peck and the kids and everyone!) as being enough to push it there, but I'm still a tiny bit torn.

    I agree. I'm not sure I've watched the whole thing from start to finish, so I'm watching that tomorrow. I don't know if I'll be able to completely divorce it from the book. And, aside from maybe being a faithful adaptation of a novel, I'm not sue it belongs on the AFI 100. But maybe at the time it was more revolutionary, and it's certainly earned its place in pop culture. It always pops up as one of the top legal films, and Atticus Finch always pops up as one of the most inspiring fictional lawyers, but I'm not sure I agree. Personally, I'd rather see My Cousin Vinny on the list.

    • Like 1

  25. Posted

    2 hours ago, mere_melon said:

    Did anyone else notice this strange artwork that looks exactly like Link from the Legend of Zelda? And that it says "Mercy for the brave boys"? Weird... 

     

     

    Screen-Shot-2019-05-11-at-5.55.22-PM.jpg

    A google image search of "Chinese war propaganda posters" (I highly recommend this search) yields a bunch of posters that are similar to that. But that completely looks like Link. 

    • Like 1
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