Elektra Boogaloo

https://tvline.com/2020/12/07/mario-lopez-sexy-colonel-sanders-lifetime-movie-kfc-commercial/ i don’t think we can just pretend like this isn’t happening. Though I don’t know if it’s really a “movie.” I do think we may need the return of the Mario Lopez-cast.

Harvey Weinstein was Executive producer so we know who thought inappropriate groping was a good idea.

I am history plays girl. In defense of Branagh (and again I am team Emma Thompson. He cheated on her), he has done commercial blockbuster stuff. Not just Potter, but directing “Thor, “ “Cinderella,” and “Artemis Fowl.” What is interesting is that he didn’t put himself as an actor in those movies, although he does a voice in AVENGERS INFINITY WAR, eta: oh wait I think that is the point you we’re making. He directed jack ryan too??? I didn’t know that. I read this too fast. Move along.

Ps while we are on the subject of Shakespeare being for common folk, I think maybe one thing that doesn’t work for me about this is that he’s comparing it to great musicals and great movies. Not that Shakespeare isn’t great. But show love to “low brow” popcorn movies instead. I would’ve preferred less Casablanca and more Marx Brothers, I think? Branagh picked brilliant movies. Brilliant songs. And was like together this will all be brilliant! But WHY

Amazing. I totally get why he would want to be in the movie and even Miramax wanting him in the movie. But the idea that he had to be THIS PART for the actors to agree to it? He already was directing it. He thinks Matthew Lillard would’ve been like, “nah, dawg, I get Shakespeare offers all the time, bro... OH I GET TO PRETEND TO BE YOUR BRO? Sign me up!l”

Ha this was the thesis of my paper on Shakespearean adaptations from college. But I didn’t use this one. I think the fact that you accept Branagh in this role is why you are forum Paul. You are the trusting one. Your brain made it work. The rest of us are more skeptical. Because I find it upsetting. I mean, it’s not the worst movie done on this show. I think this writer guy, Shakespier?, seems pretty talented.

One thing I think about whenever Kenneth Branagh is mentioned is one of my college professors (English major) said he just played himself in “Harry Potter.” Gilderoy Lockhart steals other people’s work to become famous and is totally full of himself. While I think he does have some good adaptations of Shakespeare, and he is a talented actor. I do think there is an element of hubris to his body of work that is Lockhartian.

Interesting. I have never seen this version of Love Labour’s Lost even though, as an English major I wrote a paper on modern adaptations of Shakespeare around this time. Mostly because it’s not my fave Shakespeare play. And also, though I know nothing of the circumstances of their split, I took Emma Thompson’s side in her divorce from Branagh. Because she is objectively better. eta: instincts confirmed. I googled it. He had an affair.

Sure. I also buy this. You all make excellent points.

I found this YouTube video by film critic Lindsay Ellis helpful. Incredibly proud to have know Elaine Stritch.

I might need to leave. I went to this Wikipedia article. It made me sad for penguins. But then I thought, “hey do cats rape (like dolphins do because I never miss a chance to tell people with dumb dolphin tattoos or jewelry that dolphins are known rapists. See Jaws 3) Cats are not listed among the animals, in case you DON’T want to bum yourself out by learning about animal rape. Then the next thing I thought was: if Macavity did rape Grizabella, did he shout “Macavity!” as he came. i will show myself out.

damn Cats

double Post

I have been thinking about WHY I thought this for awhile now. And I don’t know what to say. Maybe it just says more about me (and Paul!) than anything else. There is the line that she went off with Macavity, that is what happened to her. And I don’t know why I interpret that to mean he was her pimp and not just that he was abusive or stole all her stuff or any other scenario. I guess the world seems so dark and it seemed like she was out on the street waiting for someone to come pick her up. I thought that was what she was doing. And everyone was like, “oh there she is on her corner again.” What’s weird, and what I have been thinking about it since you brought it up, is that there shouldn’t be prostitution in a Cat world. That is a human vice. So maybe it just says I was never convinced they were actually cats is the problem. But I don’t know, maybe if the world felt more silly and joyful (and I have seen clips of the stage show that seem that way) then my brain wouldn’t have gone there.

Correction: Jason says Victoria is played by Cynthia Erivo and Paul says yes. She is not. The actress is Francesca Hayward, who is a ballet dancer. And I feel bad for her because this was supposed to be her big film debut and they barely even have her dance. Here she is starring in the Nutcracker.

I hate to disagree with you, forum Paul. But I do think that is a logical conclusion based solely on the film. Sure the poems are for kids and it’s a family musical, but in the FILM the cats are weirdly sexualized. And the Taylor Swift song , if I recall correctly, has catnip and it is sort of implied she is bewitching them. I don’t know. I got the impression she was once like the Taylor Swift cat and then she sort of fell into prostitution. Why else is she out on the STREET? She became a streetwalker! I don’t think Andrew Lloyd Webber would say she’s a sex worker... but, again, the movie is weirdly sexual in a way that I don’t like. And that is what I thought she was as well until I fell down the poetry rabbit hole (still mad at T.S. Eliot).

I haven’t seen it, only the commercials. But the dancing and spectacle always seemed like the draw of CATS, not the story. In the film they cast the ballerina as the main cat but then you never really get to see her do what I assume she can do. You just never got a cool dance sequence. Did they not have a choreographer or something? It was very flat. And, as June mentioned, they danced down the aisles and came out at the audience. There is nothing about the film that POPS that way.

The term jellicle comes from the T.S. Eliot poems (and he can go fuck himself). There is CATS fandom controversy over its origins. I quote the sources from a Cats wiki. Playbill: The National Theatre Magazine, April 30, 1991. Quote: "Eliot heard this word [Jellicle] from his young niece, who sounded as if she were saying "Jellicle cat" whenever she called for her "dear little cat" and "Pollicle dog" whenever she called for her "poor little puppy." The Letters of T. S. Eliot Volume 7: 1934–1935. Faber & Faber, May 30, 2017. Quote: "TSE's secretary replied, 25 June 1959: 'Mr Eliot has asked me to write and say that he does not wish to copyright the word "jellicle" and is quite content that it should be used without acknowledgement, so long as its use conforms to the definition of Jellicle Cats given in his poem about them. And jellicle, by the way, is not a diminutive of "angelical" but is a diminutive of "Jellylorum" which was the name of a cat of that description which Mr Eliot once owned.'" The movie has Judi Dench say “dear little cat” so they are siding with the Playbill explanation. But I think it’s bullshit because even if you do a crazy British accent with a lisp I still can’t get from dear little to jellicle. I think Eliot just used his own cat’s nickname. But I tend to think this because I do not like these poems and think it’s all dumb and people pretend all his poems are great because they had to read PRUFROCK in school. Eta I agree with Cameron’s theory about self actualization in the context of the film and, probably the musical. I haven’t seen it. But I also think the film and the musical give this weird word significance just because it came from the pen of a Pulitzer Prize winner. And it’s just s stupid thing.

Okay, if they did “Oh Hello” Jumanji crossover I would be very happy. Because I loved the first Jumanji, mostly because of Jack Black. And Jack Black has to be—mostly—the Black football player that Kevin Hart played in #1 in the second and I was NERVOUS. Because that could get racist real fast. And I was like, “oh he is actually better at it than Kevin Hart was” (because Kevin Hart was really just doing himself). But I was mad because I thought his character in Jumanji 1, Madison, was the real character that had the strongest arc and saved Joe Jonas and I was happy. And she is BARELY in 2. So I was pissed. Like I had to listen to the Rock do this weird Jewish stereotype voice (DeVito isn’t Jewish, is he?) and I didn’t get to see her at all. The Rock and Hart clearly think they are funny but they... shouldn’t be allowed. Karen Gillan does get fight the Hound (from Game of Thrones) with nunchucks which is kinda fun but I wish she got to kill Thanos instead.

Well thank you, all and Paul. I did not expect to win because I contributed nothing to the discussion. But I also win nothing so that’s fair. I just listened to this after my one year post surgery cancer check up. So I did tear up which is possibly not related to my winning nothing but more because I also just got a call that all the tests and blood work came back normal. Yay me.

This is a difficult time for me.

He should have been a scent instead of a symbol when he was fighting with his record company! Then he could hand you purple scented paper and you’d know... it’s HIM. Also, argh. I am mad I missed the CATS live show. I paid $20 for that when it was released.

It also didn’t work on my iPad and I had to listen on my phone (Android).

I sort of have a Prince story. Not sure if I should tell it but I will, you guys just be cool. I used to work at a book publisher and we did a book with him. And the contracts person told me that his reps asked that the book contract be printed on purple paper. She said she didn’t have any and I was like, you better get some. But I think she told them no. And this makes me sad. Especially since he died. Like was it too much to go to Office Max and get some colored paper? I bet I would have made the end of his life better.

Here is a podcast episode about the “Killer Clowns” and them being in vans. Jason was right. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/killer-clowns/id1380008439?i=1000492080039