In other news (apolitical thread)...

[SFBadger96]

In other news...I'm reading about Stalin right now. Dude was charming. And a really bad guy. But also a true believer. Humans are weird.

[ELA]

Obviously I haven't seen it, but it seems like we're now in a copycat "biopic of an iconic / quirky musician" genre... I mean, we had Elvis, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Rocketman in the last few years. I saw the first two, but not the last. I thought Elvis was terrible and yet it was nominated for Best Picture.

I liked Elvis more than most people did.  I thought Bohemian was awful and I am a HUGE Queen fan.  Rocketman was easily the best of those 3 IMO, but it also was different.  It wasn't a strict biopic, as it was a musical about Elton John, set to Elton John music.  So it wasn't about where he was when he wrote various songs, it was finding songs to fit scenes, while still telling a story.  Also, because of that, it had more music than the other 2

[MikeDeTiger]

I liked Elvis more than most people did.  I thought Bohemian was awful and I am a HUGE Queen fan.  Rocketman was easily the best of those 3 IMO, but it also was different.  It wasn't a strict biopic, as it was a musical about Elton John, set to Elton John music.  So it wasn't about where he was when he wrote various songs, it was finding songs to fit scenes, while still telling a story.  Also, because of that, it had more music than the other 2

Agree about Elvis and Bohemian Rhapsody, and I am also a huge Queen fan.  I didn't see Rocketman.  We were thinking about it sometime after renting Bohemian and then we decided not to bother, probably because of the sour taste Bohemian had left.  

[MikeDeTiger]

In other news...I'm reading about Stalin right now. Dude was charming. And a really bad guy. But also a true believer. Humans are weird.

Apparently, Lenin could also be quite charming.  Must be all the Vodka they probably impounded from the Czars.  

[betarhoalphadelta]

Barbie. Overall, I thought it was a fine movie. It did a great job of taking a toyland and turning into a live action universe. Technically, it was really well done.

But the women's liberation story arc was ridiculous. SFIrish, who has worn pink hats and gone to DC for the Women's March, was put off by it. It was just soooo over the top.

Yeah, I was thinking about bringing that one up. 

My wife was hoping for ultimately a fun fanservice movie. She's didn't want politics to be pounded into her in a movie format about Barbie. She liked the start of the movie when Barbie was being Barbie. It was cute and funny. She grew up playing with Barbie. She loved the things like the start of the movie where Barbie is opening her fridge and it's just a cardboard display of what would be in it, because it was nostalgia for her. She wanted the movie to be entirely that...

...and I did not. I felt that would be a completely boring and useless movie, and because I didn't grow up playing with Barbie dolls, perfectly uninteresting to me. I was hoping that they would be able to turn Barbie into some sort of dystopian hellscape story. Because you have to do SOMETHING to make it interesting. You can't really make a strong movie based JUST on nostalgia. And in the end, I actually got my dystopian hellscape story...

...and yet, I still didn't like the movie. 

It just ended up seeming like they were trying to turn it into a political statement, and doing a really piss-poor job of it. They were trying to thread the needle of "fun because it's Barbie, y'all!" and "let's deal with these difficult social issues plaguing society". And they swung... And they missed. 

To me it's like when stand-up comedians tackle REALLY horrible societal issues. It's like taking on an Olympics movement/routine where the degree of difficulty is just absolutely insanely massive. If you nail it, it pays off big. If you miss, it's just cringe. Barbie ended up being cringe. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

I liked Elvis more than most people did.    

To me Elvis was just so overly stylized that I never really felt like I was actually watching something real. 

To me it was like the movie adaptation of Starship Troopers that almost seemed like it was filled with interludes of 1950s-ish stylistic propaganda about the humans fighting the bugs and ended up turning what is a pretty solid and serious book dealing with weighty issues about duty and the relationship between people and their governance into a pop sci-fi shoot-em-up. 

Elvis seemed like the cartoon treatment of Elvis Presley's life. 

[MikeDeTiger]

There are hardly any bio-movies about musicians/singers I've ever liked.  One thing even great actors hardly ever seem to be able to do is embody the enigmatic musicians. 

I thought Val Kilmer did about as good a job trying to do Jim Morrison as could be done.....and it still wasn't great.

Elvis suffered from that, even though I liked the movie overall.  The real Elvis was a thing that can't be imitated, and when the natural charisma and unique style he had isn't there, it's so much flatter of a character than the real person that people loved. 

There was an episode of Mad Men about that.  Somebody tried to duplicate an Ann Margaret commercial and nailed everything about it, except it sucked......because it wasn't Ann Margaret.  

[bayareabadger]

Barbie. Overall, I thought it was a fine movie. It did a great job of taking a toyland and turning into a live action universe. Technically, it was really well done.
But the women's liberation story arc was ridiculous. SFIrish, who has worn pink hats and gone to DC for the Women's March, was put off by it. It was just soooo over the top.

Because they are attached at the hip, I would say that Oppenheimer may have pushed the virtue signaling more than it needed to, but I don't think it was so overtly over the top as to make me shake my head about it.

I would love to see a film about the 442 Regimental Combat Team (consistent with Jgvol's comment above), but the parts of Masters of the Air that included the Red Tails were just silly. (In general, I thougth Masters of the Air was a ham-handed, by the numbers war epic, with really cool visuals of air combat, but nothing else.)

I’m more meant this year.

but yes, Barbie was excessively preachy. I didn’t totally feel that was Oppenheimer. Granted, I think the phrase itself is a little muddled anyway (but that’s a topic for a different board)

[utee94]

I thought Deadpool and Wolverine was enjoyable, but not that "good."  What I mean by that is, I think it got most of its mileage out of the fun cameos and finding yet another way for the multiverse to abuse meaningful story-telling and bring Hugh Jackman back, rather than tell an interesting story with an interesting plot or theme. 

But, I suppose Deadpool movies are more about Ryan Reynolds playing Ryan Reynolds again, and enjoying the moment, moreso than they're meant to be classes in plot or character development. 

Eh, I thought it was very well-made, and funny, and entertaining.  

I mean, it's a Deadpool movie.  It's not arthouse or fine literature.

I think Ryan Reynolds is the perfect Deadpool and it's obviously a pet project for him and he puts a hell of a lot into it.

So I guess what I'm saying is you are entitled to your own opinion, but you're also wrong.  Ole~.  Whatever.

[bayareabadger]

Apparently, Lenin could also be quite charming.  Must be all the Vodka they probably impounded from the Czars. 

I would bet the majority of really effective leaders are shockingly charming when they need to be. in some ways, It’s just a different kind of sales

[utee94]

I'm a huge Chalamet fan but I loathe Bob Dylan's music with the flaming hatred of a thousand suns.

I saw Chalamet sing the Dylan songs on Saturday Night Live last week.  He did an incredible job of sounding like Bob Dylan, and so consequently I despised his renditions as well.

[longhorn320]

I'm a huge Chalamet fan but I loathe Bob Dylan's music with the flaming hatred of a thousand suns.

I saw Chalamet sing the Dylan songs on Saturday Night Live last week.  He did an incredible job of sounding like Bob Dylan, and so consequently I despised his renditions as well.

I dont think many realy liked Dylans voice. To understand his popularity you would need to experience the times he lived in.  It wasnt his voice but his message that appealed to his fans.

[OrangeAfroMan]

just full go money grab seems to be working well for college football

unlike

[utee94]

I dont think many realy liked Dylans voice. To understand his popularity you would need to experience the times he lived in.  It wasnt his voice but his message that appealed to his fans.

Eh, it's not just his voice.  I'm not a huge fan of folk music in general, and his music ranges from folk, to folk that's trying to sound like rock but doing it poorly.  

As far as messages go, there are other artists of the time who had plenty of messages that I can relate to.  It's not a sign of the times, it's directly, Bob Dylan's music in and of itself, that I find objectionable.