Movies - Take Two. Action!

[SteveSly]

I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking it was utterly terrible. It's always been an eye-roller as far as long "just follow your dreams" speeches and awkward moments, but that amateurish mess last night made me actually wince. And predictably this morning, there are cries of outrage that Chadwick Boseman did not win Best Actor - because he died, you know, so he apparently deserves the award over everyone else.

My tipsy wife's comments made it bearable though. I think my favourite was when she shouted at Frances McDormand: "Have you not heard of a hairbrush? You look like Richard Lewis!"

I could only stomach a little bit of the show. I tuned in about half way through for about 20 minutes and it was all I could take. I agree, really bad stuff.

As for Boseman, "Ma Rainys Black Bottom" was one of the few nominated films I saw this year. He was good in it, but I think he has done better performances. It is tragic that the guy died as such a young age, but not sure that he would even have been nominated had he not passed away.

[spellbound]

In previous years, the academy awards show would be aired twice, once at 5:00 pm PST (presumably live for the east coast audience) and once at 8:00 pm (presumably repeated for the west coast audience). They didn't bother with the 8:00 pm rerun this year. Perhaps because they knew it was crap, or possibly because they believe their audience all have the capacity and equipment to record the show and watch it at their leisure. Either way, this may have been the last year I waste my time on it. No loss. Even back when they tried to put on a decent show, back when they hired a host, I would lose interest after the opening monologue, or during the opening music and dance extravaganza.

I read somewhere yesterday in a review of the awards show, that most (all?) of the nominated movies were the product of streaming studios like Amazon, Apple, or Netflix, rather than traditional movie studios. Not something I would pay attention to, normally, but things have changed, and whether they will change back after the pandemic or not, is anybody's guess.

[Rogue Mail]

There was a time back in the 90s when I would watch the Oscars religiously, sit up all night, have friends over etc.

But I found that as the decisions got more and more political, and more and more awards ceremonies were introduced (How many are there now?), I just got utterly bored with it all.

It also became clear as time went on that such ceremonies are nothing more than a marketing tool to make people go and watch these movies.

I am the kind of person who is not swayed by awards. If it does not appeal to me, I am not going to watch it. I don't do the " it must be good if it won all those awards" thing.

So I don't watch any awards shows these days. I am content to find out who won the next day, and if a film or actor I admired wins, I just think "that's nice". No more. I am not into that batching that people do, about why it's a crime X did not win and how disgusting it is that Y won instead.

The whole business means nothing at all to me. I just watch movies.

[Lou]

There was a time back in the 90s when I would watch the Oscars religiously, sit up all night, have friends over etc.

But I found that as the decisions got more and more political, and more and more awards ceremonies were introduced (How many are there now?), I just got utterly bored with it all.

It also became clear as time went on that such ceremonies are nothing more than a marketing tool to make people go and watch these movies.

I am the kind of person who is not swayed by awards. If it does not appeal to me, I am not going to watch it. I don't do the " it must be good if it won all those awards" thing.

So I don't watch any awards shows these days. I am content to find out who won the next day, and if a film or actor I admired wins, I just think "that's nice". No more. I am not into that batching that people do, about why it's a crime X did not win and how disgusting it is that Y won instead.

The whole business means nothing at all to me. I just watch movies.

[SteveSly]

Watched this one last night. Not terrible, but not great either. Not sure that I would recommend it:

[Scott Bails]

There was a time back in the 90s when I would watch the Oscars religiously, sit up all night, have friends over etc.

.

Nailed it.

[spellbound]

But I found that as the decisions got more and more political, and more and more awards ceremonies were introduced (How many are there now?), I just got utterly bored with it all.

A week or two ago I heard a country artist introduced (not on an awards show) as winner of some award by both ACM and CMA. Wait, those aren't the same thing? I just thought there was one country music awards show that was on several times a year because they were full of themselves. I didn't give it my undyslexic attention because I didn't care. Reminded me of Life of Brian by Monty Python (Judean People's Front or People's Front of Judea).

[dropforge]

Just watched: Hired Gun

I found this 2016 documentary on Tubi (via Roku). A doc on touring & session musicians ("hired guns") isn't new, but it's chock full o' great stories, and this one has more rock & metal reps, like Rudy Sarzo, Jason Hook, Phil X, Richard (Butch) Patrick, Phil Buckman, Alice Cooper, Nita Strauss, Eric Sobel, Eric Singer, and Steve Lukather, along with Kenny Aronoff, Jay Graydon, Ray Parker, Jr., and Billy Joel's former drummer, Liberty DeVitto.

Granted, some of them get afforded a lot more time, but who doesn't like hearing Rudy Sarzo wax about his halcyon days with Ozzy and Quiet Riot? Aronoff has a great story about putting his foot down with Mellencamp. DeVitto has many cool insights on his time with Joel and how it all came to a grinding halt (I won't spoil it).

Butch Patrick was Nine Inch Nails' original touring guitarist. In a nutshell, he describes how he became what he initially disliked about his arrangement with Reznor. But his former (Filter) bassist Phil Buckman lays it out candidly, and it's not pretty. Buckman's post-Filter gig was quite a revelation. You've heard his voice on some major commercials, but you didn't know it was him.

One hilarious anecdote involves Lukather and Graydon. They wrote George Benson's 1981 hit "Turn Your Love Around." But when you learn how it was written, you'll never regard it the same way again.

There's some playing, too. Aronoff always impresses. That guy is smooth but plays with a lot of power.

A solid documentary, but it's only 98 minutes!

[Scott Bails]

Just watched: Hired Gun

Butch Patrick was Nine Inch Nails' original touring guitarist. In a nutshell, he describes how he became what he initially disliked about his arrangement with Reznor. But his former (Filter) bassist Phil Buckman lays it out candidly, and it's not pretty. Buckman's post-Filter gig was quite a revelation. You've heard his voice on some major commercials, but you didn't know it was him.

Hired Gun was really good. The Billy Joel stuff got most of the headlines, but I found the Butch Patrick stuff to be very interesting. That didn't go the way I expected.

[dropforge]

Hired Gun was really good. The Billy Joel stuff got most of the headlines, but I found the Butch Patrick stuff to be very interesting. That didn't go the way I expected.

I watched the Patrick/Buckman segment twice. The one-two punch of the "pizza boy" bit and Buckman's dismissal of his former employer's business practices was something else.

[Scott Bails]

I watched the Patrick/Buckman segment twice. The one-two punch of the "pizza boy" bit and Buckman's dismissal of his former employer's business practices was something else.

Right. I was actually angry at the way he handled Filter.

[SteveSly]

Just watched: Hired Gun

I found this 2016 documentary on Tubi (via Roku). A doc on touring & session musicians ("hired guns") isn't new, but it's chock full o' great stories, and this one has more rock & metal reps, like Rudy Sarzo, Jason Hook, Phil X, Richard (Butch) Patrick, Phil Buckman, Alice Cooper, Nita Strauss, Eric Sobel, Eric Singer, and Steve Lukather, along with Kenny Aronoff, Jay Graydon, Ray Parker, Jr., and Billy Joel's former drummer, Liberty DeVitto.

Granted, some of them get afforded a lot more time, but who doesn't like hearing Rudy Sarzo wax about his halcyon days with Ozzy and Quiet Riot? Aronoff has a great story about putting his foot down with Mellencamp. DeVitto has many cool insights on his time with Joel and how it all came to a grinding halt (I won't spoil it).

Butch Patrick was Nine Inch Nails' original touring guitarist. In a nutshell, he describes how he became what he initially disliked about his arrangement with Reznor. But his former (Filter) bassist Phil Buckman lays it out candidly, and it's not pretty. Buckman's post-Filter gig was quite a revelation. You've heard his voice on some major commercials, but you didn't know it was him.

One hilarious anecdote involves Lukather and Graydon. They wrote George Benson's 1981 hit "Turn Your Love Around." But when you learn how it was written, you'll never regard it the same way again.

There's some playing, too. Aronoff always impresses. That guy is smooth but plays with a lot of power.

A solid documentary, but it's only 98 minutes!

You nailed it. Great documentary, but it could have been much longer.

[dropforge]

You nailed it. Great documentary, but it could have been much longer.

Think of how much they left out!

[dropforge]

Right. I was actually angry at the way he handled Filter.

He does come off like a jerk.

[Progatron]

We watched My Octopus Teacher last night. Beautiful and unique documentary, quite touching in places. Worth seeing!

[Lou]

Watched this one last night. Not terrible, but not great either. Not sure that I would recommend it:

I also watched this last night, and would certainly recommend it. Does it look to you like Russell Crowe is morphing into John Goodman? I digress.
I thought this was a very intense movie, with some of the most brutal vehicle crashes ever. Fans of violent action films should step right up.
Klonk, watch this!

[Jerjo]

I just read that in the new Thor film, Russell Crowe has a role. As Zeus. Now there's something that intrigues me.

[Hal...]

Re: the Oscars. From what I could see, the only two good things they did right was eliminate the orchestra and have Questlove as a DJ, and eliminate the songs.

The presenter reading over the brief resumes of all the nominees was dull.

The only presenter I found entertaining was Steve Yeun.

I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking it was utterly terrible.

I took two days to watch it because of that. And I skipped through all the stupid and irrelevant stuff.

...but that amateurish mess last night made me actually wince.

I had high hopes when I saw that two of the producers were Stacey Sher and Steven Soderbergh. Sher has been a producer for a long time and has worked with Terry Gilliam, Barry Sonnenfeld, Quentin Tarantino, and Soderbergh. I'm sure everyone knows who Soderbergh is.

I don't know that I'd say it was amateurish, rather, most of it just didn't work. "Cringeworthy" is good word, tho.

And the most cringeworthy moment was watching Glenn Close dancing "da butt". Gotta give her props for knowing the song and that it was used in a Spike Lee movie, tho.

My wife: Frances McDormand is out of fucks to give

Sounds like something she'd say.

Being happy about a couple winners is all you can hope for these days.

As I said, I took two days to watch it and at the end realized I'd missed a couple of awards so I watched it as I rewound it and still couldn't find the best actor and best actress awards. And the reason for that is because they mixed up the order of the awards. It used to be the show started with supporting actress/actor at the beginning, everything else in between, and finished up with best actor/actress, director, and film. WTF?

It's only from reading this thread that I surmised Hopkins & McDormand won.

[Hal...]

Watched [Unhinged] last night. Not terrible, but not great either. Not sure that I would recommend it

Agreed. I watched it several days ago and have already forgotten much of it. I also thought the mother's final line as she killed the bad guy, while humorous, didn't really work, either. Seriously, can we end with the witty line before someone gets killed, already? "Go ahead, make my day" dates back to 1983 and "hasta la vista, baby" dates back to 1991.

[spellbound]

I took two days to watch it and at the end realized I'd missed a couple of awards so I watched it as I rewound it and still couldn't find the best actor and best actress awards. And the reason for that is because they mixed up the order of the awards. It used to be the show started with supporting actress/actor at the beginning, everything else in between, and finished up with best actor/actress, director, and film. WTF?

I caught that when it happened, but only because the whole mess was so boring. I looked at the clock and saw that the show was supposed to be over (it ran longer, as always), and I asked my wife if we had missed the best actor/actress awards. We hadn't missed them, they put them after best picture, which we thought was the last award, as it always had been.

It's only from reading this thread that I surmised Hopkins & McDormand won.

They did. Hopkins wasn't there, so the show ended on an award without an acceptance speech.

[SteveSly]

I also watched this last night, and would certainly recommend it. Does it look to you like Russell Crowe is morphing into John Goodman? I digress.
I thought this was a very intense movie, with some of the most brutal vehicle crashes ever. Fans of violent action films should step right up.
Klonk, watch this!

We have a friend of ours who watched it and loved it, so what do I know It was intense in spots, I will give you that and the car chase scenes were brutal.

[nosebone]

Two very good Kanopy finds:

The Monster With a Thousand Heads (2015) Mexico
When her insurance company refuses to approve the care her husband needs to survive, Sonia Bonet (Jan Raluy) takes things into her own hands. Up against an unyielding bureaucracy and disinterested workers, she is pushed to her breaking point: with her son in tow, she attempts to fight the system.

Beautifully crafted and shot.

Samui Song (2017) Thialand
A soap opera actress finds herself increasingly pressured by her husband, a rich foreigner entirely devoted to a charismatic cult leader.

A Coen brothers screenplay makes its way to Thailand!

[Hal...]

For you sci-fi fans with Netflix: Stowaway

[Lou]

We have a friend of ours who watched it and loved it, so what do I know It was intense in spots, I will give you that and the car chase scenes were brutal.

Different strokes sir. We each like what we like.

[Paulie]

I also watched this last night, and would certainly recommend it. Does it look to you like Russell Crowe is morphing into John Goodman?

Funny, at some point, we kind of saw the trailer somewhere. Like a week later, we said, "Hey, let's watch that new John Goodman flick." For the life of us, we couldn't remember the name of the movie, so I searched the John Goodman filmography on IMBD to no avail. We gave up. Later, when browsing Amazon Prime, there it was. We laughed our asses off. We liked it, by the way.

7.5 out of 10 short courtesy honks.