Episode 253.5 - Minisode 253.5

[Cameron H. 23786]

Is Andrew Lloyd Webber a thief? Are cats human sized? These questions and more are answered on this week’s mini! Paul offers up advice on the Help Line, goes through Corrections and Omissions from Cats, and announces next week’s movie.
 
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[Cameron H. 23786]

I haven't listened to the mini-episode, but I just learned what next week's movie is and I am outraged! I love Love's Labour's Lost!

[grudlian. 4725]

44 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

I haven't listened to the mini-episode, but I just learned what next week's movie is and I am outraged! I love Love's Labour's Lost!

I can't remember who picked this for Musical Mondays but I assumed it was you. It should have been Rockula.

[Cameron H. 23786]

51 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

I can't remember who picked this for Musical Mondays but I assumed it was you. It should have been Rockula.

I believe it was @EvRobert. And you’re right. The answer is always Rockula.

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

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. 

[Cameron H. 23786]

21 minutes ago, Elektra Boogaloo said:

He had an affair. 

Unsurprised.

We talked about this movie a while ago in our Musical Mondays thread. When I was in college, also an English major (*high five*) a theater major friend of mine introduced me to it. As I recall, her feelings about it were mixed. Personally, I have always enjoyed it. I don’t think it’s supposed to be a highly polished movie or anything, just Branagh having fun after his exhaustive production of Hamlet. I find its flaws charming rather than detrimental.

[Cam Bert 8145]

As far as my memory of this movie goes it was far from the worse Shakespeare adaptation ever. 

[DrGuts1003 462]

I’m hoping it’s a case of the show wanting to save better (worse?) movies for the show once they can do live shows in person again because this is another underwhelming pick.  The movies being chosen lately all have a flat sameness to them.  A bunch of insignificant movies that are focused on music and/or romance that never seem to have enough going on in them to really make fun of or pick apart.  

I mean, when was the last action movie covered on the show?  Money Plane?

Lately it’s felt a lot less like How Did This Get Made? and more Who Cares That This Got Made?

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

17 hours ago, Cam Bert said:

As far as my memory of this movie goes it was far from the worse Shakespeare adaptation ever. 

I don't know ... Ethan Hawke's Hamlet was pretty bad.

And if there's one that is truly worthy of this show, I'd say it was Ian McKellan's Richard III. 

[theworstbuddhist 572]

Sounds like everyone has forgotten Mel Gibson's Hamlet.

This made me curious so I went googling bad Shakespeare adaptations and this page has some pretty interesting suggestions, most of which I had not heard of (Cymbeline? Also with Ethan Hawke?).

[Cameron H. 23786]

3 minutes ago, theworstbuddhist said:

Sounds like everyone has forgotten Mel Gibson's Hamlet.

This made me curious so I went googling bad Shakespeare adaptations and this page has some pretty interesting suggestions, most of which I had not heard of (Cymbeline? Also with Ethan Hawke?).

I didn’t hate the Gibson Hamlet as much as I thought I would. I heard about Hawke’s Cymbeline about a year ago. From the description, it seems to be about a Son’s of Anarchy type motorcycle gang. I’m curious.

 

[theworstbuddhist 572]

1 hour ago, Cameron H. said:

I didn’t hate the Gibson Hamlet as much as I thought I would. I heard about Hawke’s Cymbeline about a year ago. From the description, it seems to be about a Son’s of Anarchy type motorcycle gang. I’m curious.

 

Branagh's Hamlet set an impossibly high bar I think, including for himself. I can't think of a better film version of Shakespeare.

As for Emma Thompson, she is every bit as talented as Branagh, and I feel it unnecessary to take sides over their long-ended relationship. It's a shame that their personal relationship ended in a way that they felt no longer able to work together.

[Cam Bert 8145]

On 11/29/2020 at 3:53 AM, theworstbuddhist said:

Sounds like everyone has forgotten Mel Gibson's Hamlet.

This made me curious so I went googling bad Shakespeare adaptations and this page has some pretty interesting suggestions, most of which I had not heard of (Cymbeline? Also with Ethan Hawke?).

I don't mind it either but that's probably because we had to watch it in high school. I think that for sure helped me appreciate it as flawed as it is.

On 11/29/2020 at 3:14 AM, The_Triple_Lindy said:

I don't know ... Ethan Hawke's Hamlet was pretty bad.

And if there's one that is truly worthy of this show, I'd say it was Ian McKellan's Richard III. 

At it's core I think it was a neat way to adapt it, but yes it's pretty bad. Still I would take it over a lot of the Romeo and Juliet knock offs.

[CNU2007 16]

As someone who hasn't seem Cats (because I'm not crazy), but in the mini-sode they mention a "heavy side layer." Is that heaven for cats? 

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

3 hours ago, Cam Bert said:

At it's core I think it was a neat way to adapt it, but yes it's pretty bad. Still I would take it over a lot of the Romeo and Juliet knock offs.

It's just soooooo over-the-top and heavy-handed. And the final scene, with Ian/Richard screaming across the battlefield in a panzer screaming, "A horse! A horse!" -- it's unintentional comedy gold.

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

I'm with those who don't remember this version of Love's Labour's Lost being a particularly bad movie. I guess it's a weird concept and not really a great movie, but I wouldn't have considered it HDTGM material.

Honestly, I didn't really consider any of these Shakespeare adaptations mentioned here especially bad, including the Mel Gibson or Ethan Hawke Hamlets. They all have their interesting elements. I guess I've never really hated any Shakespeare movie that used the original language.

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

I think when it comes to modernized Shakespeare adaptations, the far-out ones can be built around a solid core concept (ie. McKellan's Richard III as a Nazi allegory, or the hyper-stylized Luhrman R&J) but can become exhausting in terms of the viewing experience, which is exacerbated by the fact that the shortest of W.Sh. plays is 90 mins. Somehow, the adaptations that are a bit truer to historical context, like Branagh's Othello (with Lawrence Fishbourne) or even the more recent Merchant of Venice with the woefully miscast Al Pacino as Shylock, don't wear me out the way that some (not all) "updated" versions can feel.

If you want an updated version of Shakespeare, I think you'll have a better time going with the 10 Things I Hate About You or Lion King route -- same story but new characters, setting, and language. Although, the best counterargument to this might be, ironically, the updated of Othello of O with Mekhi Pfiffer. 

Along these lines, I just recently watched Spike Lee's Chi-Raq, which is a very interesting retelling of Lysistrata. It's not the original text, but it is written in verse with contemporary vernacular, so the whole movie has a battle-rap feel. Again, gets a bit exhausting toward the end, but it's built around an interesting central conceit.

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

49 minutes ago, The_Triple_Lindy said:

like Branagh's Othello (with Lawrence Fishbourne)

Oh wait, that was one using the original language that annoyed me. Branagh starred in it, but Oliver Parker directed and I found his decision to film it in a parade of extreme close-up shots very irritating.

Also not really "HDTGM" bad though.

[Cameron H. 23786]

5 hours ago, sycasey 2.0 said:

I'm with those who don't remember this version of Love's Labour's Lost being a particularly bad movie. I guess it's a weird concept and not really a great movie, but I wouldn't have considered it HDTGM material.

Honestly, I didn't really consider any of these Shakespeare adaptations mentioned here especially bad, including the Mel Gibson or Ethan Hawke Hamlets. They all have their interesting elements. I guess I've never really hated any Shakespeare movie that used the original language.

I have to agree, especially when so much of it relies on knowledge of Shakespeare. Like, as a writer, Shakespeare's pretty unassailable. So, really, that just leaves the actual filmmaking and casting, and, meh, I don't hate either in this case. I'm not saying it's my favorite Shakespeare adaptation ever, but it's certainly not HDTGM, Garbage Pail Kids/The Peanut Butter Solution terrible or anything. 

Personally, I found it to be pretty ballsy of both Branagh and the actors to stretch outside of their comfort zones. Overall, I think it works.

[GrahamS. 803]

I would think the Anthony Hopkins/Julie Taylor version would be the most HDTGM-worthy Shakespeare adaptation. Certainly it’s the most over-the-top (except for the Baz Luhrman R+J).