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Quasar Sniffer

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Posts posted by Quasar Sniffer

  1. Posted

    I agree that Frank's a charismatic villain, but their position to the characters they oppose are the subjects of mockery and derision, people who need changed. Brad and Janet are repressed (sexually, socially, etc.) squares,  Doctor Scott is conspiratorial and duplicitous, and Riff Raff and Magenta are opportunists who are quick to murder Frank when an opening presents itself. So if Frank is the villain, who is the hero? I know Brad is labeled as "A Hero," but that is almost certainly sarcastic.

    • Like 3

  2. Posted

    I also sort of resent this movie for usurping camp and the midnight movie in general. Maybe not so much anymore, but the fandom for Rocky Horror really did bring out this sort of sneering irony to midnight movies. So the Forbidden Planets, the Curse/Night of the Demons that were referenced in the song "Science Fiction" were now objects of derision and mockery. Midnight movies are now places where we throw spoons, not to be genuinely entertained or, God forbid, moved emotionally. That's not the film's fault, but it became part of the phenomenon. Jacques Tourneur was now silly because his movies had no ironic distance, because those kind of films DIDN'T turn the idea of aliens or the supernatural into a camp joke. 

    • Like 1

  3. Posted

    My concern with the movie is not really about trans representation. I think language has changed so much since the movie came out, we didn't have the words to really explain a gender and sexuality-fluid character in 1978, so Frank had to sing a song about it. Unfortunate that the backstory for Frank is that they are a LITERAL ALIEN and not just a person that is not all man or all woman, and attracted to both.

    My problem with the film is that Frank is so determined to get their rocks off, that Rocky is a being created for the sole purpose of getting fucked. Rocky is created with the mind of a child, designed to be nothing but the sex toy for this mad scientist. Not only that, Frank sneaks into both Brad and Janet's rooms, pretending to be the other's fiance, and they molests them until they like it. If we're going to call scenes like James Bond kissing Pussy Galore until she's not a lesbian in 'Goldfinger' a rape (it is), then I think we have to come to terms with what Frank does here. I know this movie is about sexual liberation and personal freedom, buy Frank is FORCING their sexual politics on Brad, Janet, and Rocky, the latter a creature Frank is responsible for bringing into the world. It's pretty gross. 

    Charles Grey is my favorite character.

    • Like 5

  4. Posted

    Even though none of my comments have been plagiarised (I know I haven't been posting much in the show threads), I do take that sort of thing pretty seriously. Last year, some of my comments (of a more weighty topic) were read uncredited on a podcast that I greatly admired, so I had the unenviable task of contacting the show and saying "hey... the show is great... but those are my words."

    The host immediately apologized profusely, other people from the show reached out to me, and I ended up guesting on the show. So they took it very seriously and demonstrated that what I had to say mattered, and that meant a lot. So for HDTGM or random callers in their cars to use someone's words as their own really irks me. The people who post here have both brilliant and hilarious insights. They deserve to be recognized.

    With all that said, I am really looking forward to hearing The Gang discuss Starcrash and The Visitor. Those movies are fonts of bonkers cinema!

    • Like 2

  6. Posted

    More stuff: So Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade has been my favorite entry in the Indiana Jones franchise since I was a kid, as well as being one of my all-time favorite movies. Ever since Raiders of the Lost Ark was covered on Unspooled, as well as listening to the Matts Gorley and Mira debate the series on James Bonding, I've been putting some serious thought into why I hold it in such high regard. This essay is the ultimate result of all that pondering. Enjoy if you so choose!

    https://www.film89.co.uk/indiana-jones-and-the-last-crusade-1989/

    • Like 4

  8. Posted

    I wouldn't describe it as bonkers, but it IS a gorgeous film with a great performance by Pitt. I think it does have some problems with character motivation and some of the voiceover is unnecessary and too on-the-nose for my taste, but it was just so wonderful seeing a heartfelt, adult science fiction film being made in 2019.

    • Like 1

  9. Posted

    There were so many sections and bits from this movie that were so dead-on, and the music was so good, my jaw was on the floor. Other times, like I mentioned in my Letterboxd review, there is only so much parody of the misogyny and homophobia in hip hop culture of the time you can do before it becomes just that. Show nearly naked butts as you sing about wanting to put your penis inside it isn't making fun of it, it just is that thing. We are what we pretend to be.

    Ultimately though, the movie is just too entertaining to be denied, and really feels like a proper skewering of rap and hip hop tropes. This is the era of hip hop that I have listened to the most, so maybe those tropes are just imbedded in my brain, with easy access for these jokes. The cast is wonderful, the performances are note-perfect, and there are one-liners galore (even if some are big ol' duds). I had never heard of this movie before watching it for Musical Mondays, but I am very glad I did. Thanks for introducing me to it!

    • Like 4

  10. Posted

    Hey all! I recently made my third appearance on the Film 89 podcast, and I am pretty proud of the result (mostly because I got to talk with two rather accomplished gentlemen about a topic I like very much). We discuss the 1959 Howard Hawks classic Rio Bravo, then pivot in to discussing horror films. My first two appearances on Film 89 were on Apocalypse Now and Star Trek the Motion Picture, so with this episode, I'm channeling some hefty Dad Energy, even if I'm a single dude. Anyway, podcasting with these guys was super fun and I love movies so I wanted to share it with you all. Thanks!

    https://www.film89.co.uk/the-film-89-podcast-episode-34-rio-bravo-1959-horror-film-special/

    41BDD2DB-44DF-4BC0-8995-23BBAE813755.jpe

    • Like 6

  11. Posted

    I... I love the new Dark Crystal. Loooove it. Honestly, I'm not the biggest fan of the original movie. I feel it's a compromised film, one in which the technical and narrative challenges of doing a full-length feature in the Henson puppetry style were worked out, which resulted in the far superior and magnificent Labyrinth. The Netflix show, however, feels like all the potential of the original is finally realized. As a huge Henson fan, it's a beautiful thing to see 

    • Like 3

  12. Posted

    We've been pretty fast and loose with the definition of "musical" in the past, even doing films that aren't musicals at all. At this point, we're open to any movie in which music plays a prominent role, whether they are musicals or not. So if you want to do The Music Man or This Is Spinal Tap, I think you are safe! Hell, if there's a great movie you want to share with us, even if it's not music-related at all, feel free to pick it (especially if it is streaming for "free" on Amazon, Netflix, Kanopy, etc.).

    • Like 2

  14. Posted

    I think anyone who read my Letterboxd review can probably guessed I enjoyed this movie more than most, at least it seems that way. I guess since so much of my life is comics (selling them, reading them in my own free time, writing about them) that I sort of have a instantaneous connection to any narrative that approaches superheroes with affection. Even though there is a lot of parody and satire of the superhero genre and comics, this was 1983, decades before the current glut of superhero films, years before the 1989 Batman, and just a few years after the Richard Donner Superman (though it was released in the same year as the rather stale Superman III, so I guess it COULD be skewering the first two Superman films).

    So I guess, in 1983, this movie would only be speaking to people who grew up with the Gold and Silver Age of comics and watched the Batman '66  TV show. Hell, it's even three years before Alan Moore's 'Watchmen' and Frank Miller's 'Dark Knight Returns' blew the doors open on commentary on superheroes and comic-book-stories about stories. To be so familiar with the Golden Age of superheroes, and how they were treated in the post-war era of Communist paranoia, to create this character in 1983, I just instantly felt reciprocal affection for Captain Invincible and for the filmmakers themselves. I guess that shifted my viewpoint for the rest of the film, especially since I enjoy watching Alan Arkin and Christopher Lee do anything.

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1

  15. Posted

    This movie is a strange collision of, as you smart people have said, the meaning of baby boomers nostalgia for the fifties and sixties and the immense popularity of Bruce Springsteen's music. Sure Springsteen and his image were backwards looking to the time of his childhood, and his songs had a ring of nostalgia to them, but they were also riddled with stories of people destroyed by their hometowns, by the morality of the 50s and 60s, and why people's inability to move on. Songs like "Born to Run" were fantasies of people who could get out, for people who could NEVER get out of that town this era was romanticizing. Hell, Glory Days hits the glorified cover band sequences of the film pretty on-the-nose, even if the literal characters of that song had their glory days in baseball. The nostalgia was really for a time when his characters had a future, not for the era itself.

    • Like 4

  16. Posted

    I never saw Drop Dead Fred growing up, and I'm about two thirds of the way through it now... and I have not enjoyed a single second of it outside of seeing Carrie Fisher being annoyed at everything going on. I wish the movie was about her instead. This is... rough. I'd rather rewatch Deadfall.

    • Like 2

  17. Posted

    3 hours ago, WatchOutForSnakes said:

    After reading the IMDb synopsis, I'll have to see if this is similar to Juliet, Naked, which I liked much more than I expected to. 

    I also REALLY enjoyed Juliet, Naked, but it bears little resemblance to Eddie and the Cruisers. They are very different films, not just in their plots, but also in their aesthetics and in how they treat the in-universe music.

    • Like 1

  18. Posted

    On 6/21/2019 at 1:34 PM, Cinco DeNio said:

    Last-minute curiosity question:  What kept this studio going until now?  It seems like the studio would get some kind of boost by Vanessa being a world-class professional but most people don't even know the place exists.  (I'm assuming Lovejoy's comment that no one was coming to the party was sarcastic but still...)  Also, how does Vanessa train for her pro career?  She obviously can't do it while teaching and wouldn't want to show up the students in the class by dancing professionally in front of them.  This seems especially egregious at the world championships where she and her partner are representing the ENTIRE U.S.A.!  If I understood the movie, her partner was based out of Chicago.  Did they meet in Kansas City to rehearse?

    Something tells me this movie didn't consider rehearsal logistics half the time it took you to write this post. It DID bother me that so little explanation was given for why Vanessa Williams was even at that studio, what benefit she got from it,. and why she was saddles with such a terrible partner. Seriously, all he did during the competition was tell her how awful she was doing when, in the movie's eye, she was outperforming everybody. He had no gauge of performance ability. Where was HE rehearsing?

    • Like 2

  19. Posted

    13 hours ago, AlmostAGhost said:

    Norway! My brother has been planning a trip for a long while and I'm gonna tag along as he takes his wife and kids.

    Fully expect a Scandinavian musical when I get back!

    Awesome! I went to Norway about 5 years ago and it was absolutely amazing. I hope you have a wonderful time!

    • Like 2

  20. Posted

    2 hours ago, Cinco DeNio said:

    Well, folks, I'm back.  The foot is 99% healed and things are starting to turn around.  I've missed you and look forward to sharing movies and conversation again.  The BIG news is I'm flying to Wales this fall!  My BFF lives there and it's our 50th birthdays this year so I'm going to mark the occasions with him.  The trip coincides with the halfway point between our birthdays so celebrating won't lean too much in one direction or the other.  Only staying a week this time but will do a bigger trip later.  (I have friends in Scotland and Bulgaria and have a standing invite to visit them.  MY BFF says if I go to Bulgaria I go alone. 🤣)

    Awesome news! Wales is a beautiful place. I hope you have a wonderful time.

    • Like 3

  24. Posted

    2 hours ago, Cam Bert said:

    Maybe I missed this but does Cuba not realize that Beyonce and her son are in the exact same position that he and his mom were? I was expecting him to finally open up to Beyonce and explain this or for that to come back in some big way but from what I recall he never mentions it. In fact he's such a liar I'm not even sure if his mom is really dead or not.

    Yeah, I feel like this should have been with central thematic base for the whole film, but it's hardly ever brought up, if at all. This damn thing was over two hours long, but something that could have provided some actual emotional resonance was totally excised, or never even addressed.

    And the whole monologue that Cuba give about malt liquor in the board meeting has been a criticism of that industry for decades, and is a valid one, but seems really out of place in the middle of this one. This should have been its own the movie, not shoe-horned into a musical about small town church choirs.

    • Like 4
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