Movies - Take Two. Action!

[mozo-pg]

Yeah, I think Breakdown often gets overlooked as a suspenseful movie, and from Kurt Russell.

Punch-Drunk Love--one of Adam Sandler's better films. A quirky, romantic comedy.

I saw this one but can't remember it. Spanglish is also very strong.

[GuitarGeek]

Best extra scenes in the credits or after..

The Stoned Age: that bit with Buck Dharma and Eric Bloom selling bootleg Blue Oyster Cult t-shirts.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off: Ferris telling the audience to go home

I remember the joke about some of those early 80's Burt Reynolds movies was, it got to a point where the outtakes shown during teh closing credits were funnier than the movie itself (The Cannonball Run, though, was a classic, totally hilarious now and forever).

My favorite after-the-movie scenes have to be the outtakes they put with the credits in Being There.

Peter Sellers was really upset about that. Some prints just show TV static during the credits.

[Hal...]

Ava (2020). Stars Jessica Chastain in the title role as an alcoholic hitwoman whose life gets very complicated after a hit goes wrong. Decent movie... except that there's something just slightly off about it. Given the plot, it's not like I expected some great dramatic movie but it felt to me like some in the crew were second tier; especially the screenwriter and choreographer. I saw on Wikipedia these comments from a couple of reviews that say it best:

The film provides an adequate showcase for its producer-star's unexpected prowess as an action hero—yet Matthew Newton's skimpy, dial-a-cliché script makes the whole enterprise feel more like a mid-range series pilot than a major star vehicle. (Variety)

And...

Chastain is utterly convincing in another tough-as-nails role. If audiences stick with the movie, it's largely thanks to her movie-star charisma, which almost compensates for the increasingly ridiculous plot. Malkovich and Farrell seem to understand they are A-list talent in B-movie roles, and relish the opportunity. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Peppermint (2018). Stars Jennifer Garner as Riley North. "After her family is murdered, a mild-mannered mom remakes herself into a badass vigilante in order to exact violent justice." (Netflix)

I watched Ava first because I figured I'd like the story better and because, well, has Jennifer Garner had a starring role in anything decent since The Kingdom (2007) or Alias? Not to mention she married Ben Affleck, which calls into question her judgement. Oh yeah and her Capitol One commercials are annoying. But I have to say, for what it is, Peppermint is a damn good movie; so much better than Ava. Yeah, there are a few clichés, but Garner handles the action/fight scenes much better and I didn't find the story contrived. Altho, I did think the writer and/or director missed an opportunity to flesh out part of Riley's background and I found the back and forth editing of a couple of scenes a little irritating, but those are minor quibbles.

For what it is, I thought the movie was great and while both movies scored dismally with critics on RottenTomatoes, the audience scores say it all:

Ava - 33%
Peppermint - 71%

[NogbadTheBad]

I enjoyed Peppermint, it was a fun movie.

[Hal...]

Quick survey for those who've seen 2001: A Space Odyssey: in the first part of the movie, when the ape throws the bone in the air, there's a cut to something in space. What have you always understood that something to be?

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

^^^That is the ship taking Dr. Heywood Floyd from Earth to the space station.

[Rogue Mail]

^^^That is the ship taking Dr. Heywood Floyd from Earth to the space station.

No, that was the Pan Am flyer that docked with the spinning circular space station.

I have always assumed that the ship in that cut was simply a satellite.

[hippypants]

^^^I always assumed it was symbolic of from the past to the present age.

Taken 2--Action film starring Liam Neeson. If you enjoyed the first one, you'd probably like this one too.

[Hal...]

^^^I always assumed it was symbolic of from the past to the present age.

Yes, it's a flash forward. But that's not what I meant. What is the actual object floating in space? A satellite, a ship, what?

[spellbound]

Watched Cronos last night, Guillermo Del Toro's latest (?, new on dvd at the library) horror flick. Good one.

[Rogue Mail]

Yes, it's a flash forward. But that's not what I meant. What is the actual object floating in space? A satellite, a ship, what?

Like I said above, I think it looks like a satellite. As far as I know its never referred to or explained in the film.

[Hal...]

Like I said above, I think it looks like a satellite. As far as I know its never referred to or explained in the film.

Yeah, I saw your post. I was responding specifically to hippypants.

I always thought it was a ship, as did most people at the time. And if you look closely after the next cut to another spacecraft, you can see exhaust ports. There are two more shots of things orbiting Earth, one of which is obviously a communications satellite, which I always kind of took to be a nod to Arthur C Clarke, who first proposed the idea of geosynchronous orbit for comms satellites. But I guess they were all intended to be satellites.

What I just discovered, however, is that in the original script, those were actually satellites with nuclear weapons. One was from the US, one from the USSR, and the other two I think were German & Chinese. There was also supposed to be narration that explained the stalemate. Kubrick scrapped the narration after the US & USSR signed some treaty (in 1967) to agree not to put nukes in space. And given the plot of the story, the idea of a nuclear stalemate just didn't fit, so that was the other reason he scrapped the idea. Ultimately, he left them in as ordinary satellites.
[Sidebar: what's interesting to me is that I assumed they were as large as they were given the era and that satellites would get smaller as time progressed. However, the very first satellites launched in the '50s were actually quite small, so I guess I had it backwards]

My purpose in asking the question, tho, is that there are people "out there" who think they're still nuclear weapons satellites. But when you analyze the film textually, there's absolutely no indication of that, thus, they're just satellites. Indeed, what Clarke himself said in one of the special features on the DVD was, "what we were trying to do was to convey the wonder and the beauty and, above all, the promise of space exploration." That's an optimistic worldview and leaving in the "satellite as nuclear weapon platform" idea is antithetical to that premise.

[hippypants]

Yes, it's a flash forward. But that's not what I meant. What is the actual object floating in space? A satellite, a ship, what?

It looks like a lightsabre from Star Wars, but this explanation says it's a missile, which makes sense.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Watched Cronos last night, Guillermo Del Toro's latest (?, new on dvd at the library) horror flick. Good one.

Umm, Cronos is from 1993, it's del Toro's first feature film.

[Rogue Mail]

Yeah, I saw your post. I was responding specifically to hippypants.

I always thought it was a ship, as did most people at the time. And if you look closely after the next cut to another spacecraft, you can see exhaust ports. There are two more shots of things orbiting Earth, one of which is obviously a communications satellite, which I always kind of took to be a nod to Arthur C Clarke, who first proposed the idea of geosynchronous orbit for comms satellites. But I guess they were all intended to be satellites.

What I just discovered, however, is that in the original script, those were actually satellites with nuclear weapons. One was from the US, one from the USSR, and the other two I think were German & Chinese. There was also supposed to be narration that explained the stalemate. Kubrick scrapped the narration after the US & USSR signed some treaty (in 1967) to agree not to put nukes in space. And given the plot of the story, the idea of a nuclear stalemate just didn't fit, so that was the other reason he scrapped the idea. Ultimately, he left them in as ordinary satellites.
[Sidebar: what's interesting to me is that I assumed they were as large as they were given the era and that satellites would get smaller as time progressed. However, the very first satellites launched in the '50s were actually quite small, so I guess I had it backwards]

My purpose in asking the question, tho, is that there are people "out there" who think they're still nuclear weapons satellites. But when you analyze the film textually, there's absolutely no indication of that, thus, they're just satellites. Indeed, what Clarke himself said in one of the special features on the DVD was, "what we were trying to do was to convey the wonder and the beauty and, above all, the promise of space exploration." That's an optimistic worldview and leaving in the "satellite as nuclear weapon platform" idea is antithetical to that premise.

I agree with the weapons satellite theory. Last night I did some searching and found images of model recreations someone had made of that ship, and it was titled German weapons satellite. So the notion that there were weapons satellites up there from China and USSR also would make sense.

[Painter]

Quick survey for those who've seen 2001: A Space Odyssey: in the first part of the movie, when the ape throws the bone in the air, there's a cut to something in space. What have you always understood that something to be?

They are orbiting nuclear weapons satellites.

[spellbound]

The Gunfighter - 1950 Excellent B&W Western starring Gregory Peck. The downside of being the fastest gun.

[hippypants]

Speaking of space, here's a recent interview with astronaut, Terry Virts on what it's like on the ISS.

[Hal...]

The Gunfighter - 1950 Excellent B&W Western starring Gregory Peck. The downside of being the fastest gun.

One of my favorite westerns. Where did you see it or did you find the DVD at the library?

[spellbound]

Library DVD.

[nycsteve]

Isn't it B&W? Patronize the B&W thread , its my favorite

[TheLoony]

The Bookshop - Emily Blunt, Bill Nighy. Lady decides to open a bookshop in what I assume is a small town in England 1959. I'm finding every time I see Nighy he's awesome. He has a great scene with the evil bitch Patricia Clarkson. Not really either a happy nor sad ending but it had a little twist that I thought was fantastic.

Mighty Oak - No one I've ever seen in it. Up and coming rock star dies and ten years later his sister/manager of the band thinks this kid is his reincarnation. Nice movie and the kid was cool. He actually could play some guitar, maybe not on the level shown but he's not totally faking it. Nothing great about this one but it's enjoyable.

[TheLoony]

Found another movie besides The Thing and It:2 with almost the same line. This one was "Are you fucking kidding me" but it's good enough. Vault is the flick and it's based on a real heist. Gotta love a true crime heist flicks.

[TheLoony]

Was just reading some UFO stuff and the movie Contact was brought up. I've seen that pretty much the whole internet has hated that movie and I haven't seen it for some reason.

I have, however, read the book and thought it was pretty cool.

I thought the book had a fitting ending and I assume the movie was the same based on Mr. Garrison's thoughts on it.

I don't know, I just wanted some thoughts on it, hopefully from someone who has read and seen it.

[NogbadTheBad]

I liked Contact a.lot.