Saturday Evening Movie Thread 12-09-2017 [Hosted By: TheJamesMadison]

Unpleasantness

There’s a class of protagonist in storytelling. This particular class are those types of people you wouldn’t want to spend any time with in real life. These characters range from finding an actor’s voice grating to thinking that the character is a moral reprobate and deserves no sympathy whatsoever. You know the types. Not just certain bad guys in movies (Blofeld feels like a bore, and Boss Paul from Cool Hand Luke feels generally detestable), but also certain "good guys" like Jake Gyllenhal's character in Nightcrawler. Dolley hated Nightcrawler because she hated Gyllenhal's character so much and wanted him to die, which he never did. And yet I loved the movie.

The difference between my enjoyment of Nightcrawler and Dolley's hatred of it seems to stem from how we view the purpose of main characters in storytelling. Dolley wants to watch someone she likes. I want to watch someone interesting. Neither of us are right, of course, but the difference is still interesting to me.

Daniel Plainview

The towering example of this phenomenon in my mind is Daniel Day Lewis' character of Daniel Plainview in There Will be Blood.

Plainview is a bad man. He's driven almost purely by his misanthropy. He acquires wealth in order to secure himself from the rest of the world. When he must operate in the real world with real people, he puts on a façade that allows him to deal with the people he obviously disdains. He adopts a son, but the boy is never more than a way to ingratiate Daniel to the people he's trying to deal with, a distraction from himself.

I've heard and read people who hate There Will be Blood and it almost always has to do with the fact that people hate Plainview himself. And yet, he's still fascinating to me. His ambition and greed, masked by some level of inauthentic ease, is always great to watch. His speech to his supposed brother about how much he hates people is engrossing. And on top of all that, Paul Thomas Anderson builds a wonderful movie around him.

But that’s not the only complain people level at the movie. The other main character, Paul Dano’s Eli, is just about as reprehensible as Daniel. Watching the film, I never get the sense that Eli is an less misanthropic than Daniel. He seems to use people to his own ends in much the same way that Daniel does. They’re really two sides of the same coin, and the conflict between them is what drives the picture and makes it compelling.

But, if you just simply don’t like watching movie with unpleasant main characters, I can totally see how There Will be Blood would be a tough slog.

That’s Not Entertainment

I guess this conflict of visions about movies comes down to how one consumes media. Some of us see movies as akin to a night out with other people. You wouldn’t want to spend a night at a bar with someone you couldn’t stand, so why would you want to spend two hours in a movie theater with someone like that? There’s nothing wrong with that vision, it just means that there are going to be movies that I love but I know aren’t going to be for you (Man Bites Dog comes to mind).

So, what about you? Do you need that likeable main character to get through a movie?

Movies of Today

Opening in Theaters:
Just Getting Started
The Disaster Artist

Next in my Netflix Queue:
Longford

Movies I Saw This Week:
Coco (Netflix Rating 5/5 | Quality Rating 4/4) Poster blurb: "Absolutely wonderful entertainment." [Theater]
Django (Netflix Rating 4/5 | Quality Rating 3/4) "It may not actually be good, but it’s damn entertaining." [Netflix DVD]

Contact

Email any suggestions or questions to thejamesmadison.aos at symbol gmail dot com.
I've also archived all the old posts here, by request. I'll add new posts a week after they originally post at the HQ.

Posted by: OregonMuse at 07:00 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 I'm like "Dolly" - I want at least some level of likeability.

Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 07:00 PM (W+vEI)

2 Movie time, watching a Star wars sequel but not into it much

Posted by: Skip at December 09, 2017 07:01 PM (aC6Sd)

3 Posted this in the previous thread, just as the movie thread went up. Probably fits better here anyway -

For those who might be interested, it looks like James Cameron is finally going to make the Battle Angle Alita movie that he's been wanting to make for decades. The trailer's out now. One interesting thing that they're doing - all of the characters look normal (aside from the massive amount of cybernetic parts on some of them), except for Alita, who has large anime-ish eyes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj8mN_7Apcw

Never read the manga myself, though I heard enough about it to know that it was popular back when it was an ongoing series.

Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 07:02 PM (YZveB)

4
Great theme for this one. I liked both Nightcrawler and There will Be Blood.

Posted by: otho at December 09, 2017 07:02 PM (qGuLD)

5 Man Bites Dog.......lord.....

Srpski Film, anyone?

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Booking Agent, Aero Pinochet at December 09, 2017 07:03 PM (fA1SL)

6 Watch my movies you popcorn eating lemmings. Ficus ain't free!

Posted by: Harvey Weinstein at December 09, 2017 07:03 PM (bc2Lc)

7 Well hello, Dolley!

Posted by: Weasel at December 09, 2017 07:04 PM (Sfs6o)

8 Never saw There Will be Blood though had chance, generally like Danel Day Lewis( especially in LotM)

Posted by: Skip at December 09, 2017 07:05 PM (aC6Sd)

9 Not foist! ;-)

I finally started reading 'Screenplay.' I should've read it a long time ago.

Also I've realized, I need to watch some classic flicks. In the next couple nights, I'm gonna try watching:

- Casablanca
- Sunset Boulevard
- White Heat (very first viewing)
- Treasure of Sierra Madre (very first viewing)

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:05 PM (eMKNe)

10 I don't need my main character to be likable, but I don't want him to be celebrated if he's awful. (Which is one of my issues with Scorsese and Woody Allen for that matter.)

Posted by: moviegique at December 09, 2017 07:05 PM (CcUfv)

11
On the last thread, Ben Had said Ritabootoo passed away. Prayers for the repose of her soul.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at December 09, 2017 07:05 PM (0gmhd)

12 The classic horrific protagonist, of course, is Alex DeLarge of A Clockwork Orange.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:06 PM (eMKNe)

13 If you're in the Los Angeles area, the North Hollywood Laemmle is having a Paul Thomas Anderson month in January. So you can see Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Hard Eight and There Will Be Blood on the big screen if you so choose.

Posted by: moviegique at December 09, 2017 07:06 PM (CcUfv)

14 My son and I went to see Nightcrawler. We both loved it. Very interesting movie and watching him turn into the monster that he really was was gut wrenching and kind of sad but Jake Gyllenhaal's performance was top notch. I have to admit I am a huge fan. I think he's a fabulous actor. His sister is a nut case and I'm sure he is too. But I will watch him in anything. Doesn't hurt that he's kind of a hottie. Yeah.. I may be old but I still like to look!

Posted by: Jewells45can handle your jewels at December 09, 2017 07:06 PM (CNHr1)

15 OT and I don't care. Our beloved Ritabootoo has passed into the hands of our Lord.
She loved this place so much.

There is no other place in the blogosphere that cares so much for each other.

Posted by: Ben Had at December 09, 2017 07:06 PM (460VS)

16 @9 - Casablanca
- Sunset Boulevard
- White Heat (very first viewing)
- Treasure of Sierra Madre (very first viewing)
----------------------

Casablanca's easily my favorite film, and imo American to its core.

Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 07:07 PM (YZveB)

17 12. Do you like Huey Lewis and the News?
* dons plastic raincoat*

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Booking Agent, Aero Pinochet at December 09, 2017 07:07 PM (fA1SL)

18
On this theme, I just watched Trainspotting 2 the other night. Had put off catching it for ages. It was actually very good. The first is monumentally good, but it was not one that I was comfortable rewatching. After getting through T2 unscathed, I think enough time and distance has passed to revisit the original. It's next up on my list.

Posted by: otho at December 09, 2017 07:07 PM (qGuLD)

19 No Country for Old Men fits the bill for me on this theme. Javier Bardems character is so awful to watch, yet in an interesting and well presented way.

Creepy haircut really puts the bow on the terrifying package.

Posted by: squeakywheel at December 09, 2017 07:07 PM (pnl52)

20 What do i say in this thread? I'm not a movie buff. should i stay in the cellar?

Posted by: Cannibal Bob at December 09, 2017 07:08 PM (xFBfz)

21 "For those who might be interested, it looks like
James Cameron is finally going to make the Battle Angle Alita movie that
he's been wanting to make for decades. The trailer's out now. One
interesting thing that they're doing - all of the characters look normal
(aside from the massive amount of cybernetic parts on some of them),
except for Alita, who has large anime-ish eyes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj8mN_7Apcw

Never read the manga myself, though I heard enough about it to know that it was popular back when it was an ongoing series.

Posted by: junior"

But she's not Japanese. Sigh.

Posted by: AshevilleRobert at December 09, 2017 07:08 PM (w+Jhj)

22 "These characters range from finding an actor's voice grating to thinking that the character is a moral reprobate and deserves no sympathy whatsoever."

This is about me isn't it?

Posted by: Pee Wee Herman at December 09, 2017 07:08 PM (UdKB7)

23 I enjoyed the hell out of There Will Be Blood, but I never could finish it. I don't know why, either. I liked it the same way I liked Deadwood and for many of the same reasons, but I've had to turn it off twice within twenty minutes of the film.

I sort of think I don't want to know how it ends. Not the ending itself, just how the characters end each other.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Han didn't shoot first. ONLY Han shot at December 09, 2017 07:08 PM (y8m+O)

24 Another great topic TJM. Thanks for yet another great movie thread. Your copy of Misery is on the way, I just mailed it yesterday.

For my upcoming screenplay I want to show you all, I hope you're all conflicted about the lead character, Marc. If he comes off as a sad sack or a one-dimensional cartoon character, something's wrong.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:08 PM (eMKNe)

25 16. The Maltese Falcon - wonderful cinematography, and Caspar Gutman is just perfectly translated from the pages of the novel. Mr. Greenstreet, in the role he was born to play. Dude steals every scene.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Booking Agent, Aero Pinochet at December 09, 2017 07:08 PM (fA1SL)

26 Plainview may be hateful, but I'm looking for an interesting story. There Will Be Blood is a character study, like most of PTA's films, but this one has a more classic story-arc structure than most of his films ("The Master", "Magnolia", etc.), which makes it more satisfying than usual.

Still, any film like this live and dies on the performance of the main character. There Will Be Blood is great entertainment precisely because Lewis is so mesmerizing in the role.

Posted by: Rusty Nail at December 09, 2017 07:09 PM (toi7g)

27 Nightcrawler is a good movie. Gyllenhall is creepy and not likeable at all

Posted by: Ghost of halleljah at December 09, 2017 07:09 PM (t7YHP)

28 11
On the last thread, Ben Had said Ritabootoo passed away. Prayers for the repose of her soul.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at December 09, 2017 07:05 PM (0gmhd)

Posted by: auscolpyr at December 09, 2017 07:09 PM (pzA2L)

29 Jake Gyllenhaal is another I have liked in any movie I saw with him, his sister is a piece of work.

Posted by: Skip at December 09, 2017 07:09 PM (aC6Sd)

30 @21 But she's not Japanese. Sigh.
-----------------

Is she a Japanese android in the manga?

Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 07:09 PM (YZveB)

31 Oh Ben..I'm so sorry. RIP Rita. Damn...

Posted by: Jewells45can handle your jewels at December 09, 2017 07:10 PM (CNHr1)

32 Not foist! ;-)

I finally started reading 'Screenplay.' I should've read it a long time ago.

Also I've realized, I need to watch some classic flicks. In the next couple nights, I'm gonna try watching:

- Casablanca
- Sunset Boulevard
- White Heat (very first viewing)
- Treasure of Sierra Madre (very first viewing)

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:05 PM

OMG, Steve... you haven't seen White Heat? Watch it tout d'suite and strap yourself in for the ride of your life.

Posted by: otho at December 09, 2017 07:10 PM (qGuLD)

33 I have watched "Sicario" 4 times and I like it as much each time.

Posted by: Ben Had at December 09, 2017 07:10 PM (460VS)

34 Junior, yup. IMHO it's not only a great film, it's a film aspiring writers like me can learn a lot from.

I also love its ending. So many directors would have tried to find some ridonkulous way to keep Bogie and Bergman together, but Michael Curtiz had the guts to say, no, that just won't work for this story.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:10 PM (eMKNe)

35
Speaking of Uncle Harvey and the ficus, Lauren Sivan, she of the ficus incident, told of another incident with Roger Ailes, back when she had just started to work with FOX.

Roger called her into his office. He was concerned she was projecting her voice properly. He had her sit on his lap so he could feel her diaphragm and help her with that.

Posted by: publius, the Persistent Poperin Pear at December 09, 2017 07:11 PM (8O3HH)

36 Just watched No Country for Old Men. Extremely violent, and that is about it.

Posted by: Concerned Peoples Front at December 09, 2017 07:11 PM (2X7pN)

37 19 No Country for Old Men fits the bill for me on this theme. Javier Bardems character is so awful to watch, yet in an interesting and well presented way.

Creepy haircut really puts the bow on the terrifying package.

Posted by: squeakywheel at December 09, 2017 07:07 PM (pnl52)

---

It's a shame All the Pretty Horses wasn't as good. One of my favorite stories, and it may as well have Matt Damon f*cking up the role for all eternity.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Han didn't shoot first. ONLY Han shot at December 09, 2017 07:11 PM (y8m+O)

38 I finally watched Kick Ass (2010). It was delightful.

I'm halfway through KA2, which is not as good.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at December 09, 2017 07:12 PM (xF8yJ)

39 - Treasure of Sierra Madre (very first viewing)

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:05 PM (eMKNe)

Perhaps my favorite Bogart movie.

Posted by: davidt at December 09, 2017 07:12 PM (PRM97)

40 I prefer main characters to have some trait that is, if not likeable, at least worthy of respect. A criminal with a code of honor, for example.

What I hate is when a main character's likeability is forced on the viewer in a virtue-signalling way. For instance, when the movie demonstrates the character's goodness by showing them engaging in some sort of progressive cliche, like working at a homeless shelter or working for Greenpeace. It's not at all integral to the character or the story and you can tell they just tacked it on to establish the character's "goodness".

Posted by: Hands Solo at December 09, 2017 07:12 PM (EzdLW)

41 squeakywheel, Anton Chigurh is NOT the protagonist of No Country For Old Men, he's the antagonist. At least that's what I've always read and how I interpret the flick.

But oh man, Chigurh's the kind of antagonist I wish I had thought of. He came straight out of a Kubrick film, and Stanley always had fantastic antagonists.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:12 PM (eMKNe)

42 Give me a good bad guy that does get his just desserts without a dues ex machina or some other BS. Haven't seen TWBB.

I like the Shaw Bros. solution, have two or more good guys defeat the actual villain in combat. (See: Lo Leih Abbot Pei Wei flicks). On that note, I've come to appreciate the subtleness and greatness of "Come Drink with Me" after multiple viewings.

Posted by: auscolpyr at December 09, 2017 07:13 PM (pzA2L)

43 otho, thanks, that's what I've heard. :-)

Doesn't hurt that I've read the conclusion takes place right in Long Beach.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:13 PM (eMKNe)

44 Clockwork Orange's Alex for the win.

I was cured, all right!

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 07:13 PM (pV/54)

45 "So, what about you? Do you need that likeable main character to get through a movie?"

Was Micheal Douglas' character in "Falling Down" likeable? Maybe, maybe not. But I had no problems getting through the movie.

Certainly Robert De Niro in "Taxi Driver" wasn't likeable.

Posted by: AshevilleRobert at December 09, 2017 07:14 PM (w+Jhj)

46 It's a shame All the Pretty Horses wasn't as good. One of my favorite stories, and it may as well have Matt Damon f*cking up the role for all eternity.
Posted by: Moron Robb

The book, while hard to read is much better. Isn't it always?

Posted by: auscolpyr at December 09, 2017 07:14 PM (pzA2L)

47 Say my name.

Posted by: Walter White at December 09, 2017 07:15 PM (QGf75)

48 Ignoramus, yup.

There's a school of thought that says Alex is dying at the end of the film, but I dunno.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:15 PM (eMKNe)

49 'Treasure of Sierra Madre (very first viewing) '

That's a great movie. You don't need a bunch of explosions, lasers, monsters, homos, and CGI to make a great movie

Posted by: freaked at December 09, 2017 07:16 PM (UdKB7)

50 squeakywheel, Anton Chigurh is NOT the protagonist of No Country For Old Men, he's the antagonist. At least that's what I've always read and how I interpret the flick.

---

The same way the Empire represents the bad guys in Star Wars and the folks seeking out orphans to brainwash into their religious cult to become single-minded killing machines dead-set on assassinating duly-elected government officials are the good guys.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Han didn't shoot first. ONLY Han shot at December 09, 2017 07:16 PM (y8m+O)

51 @38 I'm halfway through KA2, which is not as good.
--------------------

Apparently round the time that KA2 was released, they were talking about making KA3 as if it was a sure thing.

It obviously never happened.

I've never seen either movie, but I can guess why.

Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 07:16 PM (YZveB)

52 47
Say my name.

Posted by: Walter White at December 09, 2017 07:15 PM (QGf75)

That guy was so irritating. "Wow!"

Posted by: davidt at December 09, 2017 07:16 PM (PRM97)

53 Was Kick Ass the one with Dwight from the Office in the lead?

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Han didn't shoot first. ONLY Han shot at December 09, 2017 07:16 PM (y8m+O)

54 re:Anton Chigurh is NOT the protagonist of No Country For Old Men, he's the antagonist. At least that's what I've always read and how I interpret the flick.

Huh. I thought Tommy Lee was the antagonist.

Posted by: squeakywheel at December 09, 2017 07:17 PM (pnl52)

55 Very Bad Things (1999)

None of the characters are likeable and they have few redeeming qualities, with the possible exception of Daniel Stern's character.

I think a lot of people hate this movie, but I thought it was funny. A very dark comedy.

And the main characters get their just deserts in the end. I do prefer seeing justice in a story, even if the character(s) aren't likeable.

Posted by: Hands Solo at December 09, 2017 07:17 PM (EzdLW)

56 Unlikable main character? Ebenezer Scrooge. FYI - wasn't just a movie.

Posted by: Charles Dickens at December 09, 2017 07:17 PM (bc2Lc)

57 squeakywheel, I think Tommy Lee isn't the protagonist or the antagonist, but more or less a bystander; the film is from his POV.

I believe Jeff Daniels' character is the protagonist.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:18 PM (eMKNe)

58 I saw a lot of the Randomness of Fate in Anton Chigurh, coin flip and all.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 07:18 PM (pV/54)

59 'Unlikable main character?'

Annie Skywalker

Posted by: freaked at December 09, 2017 07:18 PM (UdKB7)

60 Treasure of Sierra Madre (very first viewing)

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:05 PM (eMKNe)

Perhaps my favorite Bogart movie.
Posted by: davidt at December 09, 2017 07:12 PM (PRM97)

- - - - - -

Yep. Bogart was much better playing villains than heroes. See his performance in "The Desperate Hours".

Posted by: Hands Solo at December 09, 2017 07:19 PM (EzdLW)

61 Hands Solo.. that's one of my husbands favorite movies!

Posted by: Jewells45can handle your jewels at December 09, 2017 07:19 PM (CNHr1)

62 I wouldn't say Josey Wales is "likeable" ... but I like the character and the movie.

I also wouldn't say Cool Hand Luke is "likeable" ... he's certainly not somebody I'd let drive my daughter to school ... but I like that one as well.

Janeway in Star Trek was "interesting", but I wish they would have flushed her Goody Two Shoes By The Book Ass out a torpedo tube.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 07:19 PM (fiGNd)

63 The book, while hard to read is much better. Isn't it always?

Posted by: auscolpyr at December 09, 2017 07:14 PM (pzA2L)

---

I like McCarthy's writing style. I know it wears on some people, but it suits me and makes me happy to read it. He tells a good story, too. It's a shame so few of them become good movies.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Han didn't shoot first. ONLY Han shot at December 09, 2017 07:19 PM (y8m+O)

64 @59 'Unlikable main character?'

Annie Skywalker
-------------------------

Little Orphan Annie Skywalker?

Did they have the character singing songs about tomorrow and smiles?

Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 07:20 PM (YZveB)

65 I passionately hate all the characters in The Big Chill.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at December 09, 2017 07:21 PM (YiCkI)

66 Moron Robbie, well hey.

IMHO Robert Shaw did a great job of making Henry VIII, of all people, a little bit relatable in A Man For All Seasons.

A surprising scene in the movie is when Henry *thinks* he sees Thomas More at one of his parties, post his marriage to Anne. Henry is so happy to see Thomas and have his apparent blessing after all the bad blood that's gone down, and so disappointed when it turns out it's not him. Lends a lot of humanity to Shaw's portrayal.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:21 PM (eMKNe)

67 Signing in.

Posted by: andycanuck at December 09, 2017 07:21 PM (QCX64)

68 Snatch and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels seems to fit that slot, too.

Yeah, I guess I do like interesting characters with questionable morals and drives.

I also tend to like my main characters to die at the end.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Han didn't shoot first. ONLY Han shot at December 09, 2017 07:22 PM (y8m+O)

69 A Kiss Before Dying

The 1956 version with Robert Wagner.

Posted by: Hands Solo at December 09, 2017 07:22 PM (EzdLW)

70 >.And the main characters get their just deserts in the end. I do prefer
seeing justice in a story, even if the character(s) aren't likeable.

Yeah, I liked that one. It was sort of a stealth underdog story in that the white trash chick that seemed like the least powerful - not rich, not cheerleader hot, not an authority - pwned the rest of 'em.

Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 07:22 PM (W+vEI)

71 Yep. Bogart was much better playing villains than heroes. See his performance in "The Desperate Hours".

Posted by: Hands Solo at December 09, 2017 07:19 PM

Yep. Bogie did slimy like no other. The Roaring 20's, Angels With Dirty Faces, Oklahoma Kid (all Cagney flicks), as well as "Treasure OTSM".

Posted by: otho at December 09, 2017 07:22 PM (qGuLD)

72 'Little Orphan Annie Skywalker?'

Went trans and hit the Great White Milky Way. Sad.

Posted by: freaked at December 09, 2017 07:22 PM (UdKB7)

73 The thing to keep in mind about TWBB is that the movie takes the viewpoint that OIL is evil. Not just Plainview, but OIL. Hence the discordant music on an oil strike--something you won't find in previous oil-well movies.

NCFOM, the protagonist is Tommy Lee Jones, and he fails. It's a very dark film when you realize that.

Posted by: moviegique at December 09, 2017 07:23 PM (CcUfv)

74 I also tend to like my main characters to die at the end.
Posted by: Moron Robbie - Han didn't shoot first. ONLY Han shot

Have I got a show for you!

Posted by: George RRRRRRRRR Martin at December 09, 2017 07:23 PM (5wCUq)

75 Jewells45can handle your jewels at December 09, 2017 07:19 PM (CNHr1)

----

Jewells:
Very Bad Things or The Desperate Hours?

Posted by: Hands Solo at December 09, 2017 07:23 PM (EzdLW)

76 "Is she a Japanese android in the manga?

Posted by: junior"

Not specified in the original, which means that by default she would have been Japanese.

Her name in the original manga was "Gally". For some reason the translators that released the manga in the US changed it to "Alita". The company that released it (Viz) was fond of changing things around in their versions of many anime and manga.

Posted by: AshevilleRobert at December 09, 2017 07:23 PM (w+Jhj)

77 I don't particularly like Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman (now playing on MeTV - "Disco Devil") - she's such a prude! - but I enjoy watching her.

Posted by: Anchorbabe fashion cop at December 09, 2017 07:24 PM (8iiMU)

78 "There's a school of thought that says Alex is dying at the end of the film, but I dunno."

Don't see it, but I get it.

I see Travis Bickle dying while fantasizing at the end of Taxi Driver.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 07:24 PM (pV/54)

79 not somebody I'd let drive my daughter to school
----
And who wants to be trapped in a car with a guy who's eaten 50 eggs?

Posted by: andycanuck at December 09, 2017 07:24 PM (QCX64)

80 Have I got a show for you!

Posted by: George RRRRRRRRR Martin at December 09, 2017 07:23 PM (5wCUq)

---

The trick is to have an end, though.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Han didn't shoot first. ONLY Han shot at December 09, 2017 07:24 PM (y8m+O)

81 In the original Star Wars, I didn't particularly care for the putative heroes. I liked Vader, and wrote a defense of him to Famous Monsters of Filmland. I got the cover, and credit, but not even a contributor's copy as payment. I found out it'd been published when I bought a copy at an AFX in Germany while Mr. Empire was stationed there on an accompanied tour. I think it was Issue 42, but that was so long ago I can't be sure.

Posted by: empire1 at December 09, 2017 07:25 PM (Elfgk)

82 Jewells:
Very Bad Things or The Desperate Hour

Very Bad Things. We both laughed our asses off. Dark comedy for sure!

Posted by: Jewells45can handle your jewels at December 09, 2017 07:25 PM (CNHr1)

83 Ignoramus, yup. There's also a school of thought that the final acts of both Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, are both entirely in the characters' heads.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:25 PM (eMKNe)

84 Hands, Jewell--

I love "Very Bad Things". I thought I was the only one!

Cool Hand Luke is a good example of a difficult character who was worthy of a film. Bonnie and Clyde are just dumb, violent jerks, by contrast.

Posted by: moviegique at December 09, 2017 07:25 PM (CcUfv)

85 Nein! Das ist nicht der echte Nightcrawler!

Posted by: Kurt Wagner at December 09, 2017 07:26 PM (ANIFC)

86 Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman gets whatever she wants from me for being the woman that made me realize women were different in interesting ways.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Han didn't shoot first. ONLY Han shot at December 09, 2017 07:26 PM (y8m+O)

87 Night and the City - also very good. Absolutely cold-blooded.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Booking Agent, Aero Pinochet at December 09, 2017 07:26 PM (fA1SL)

88 79 not somebody I'd let drive my daughter to school
----
And who wants to be trapped in a car with a guy who's eaten 50 eggs?
Posted by: andycanuck at December 09, 2017 07:24 PM (QCX64)

Or some dude who's best reference is "Grin like a Baby, but Bite like a Gator".

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 07:26 PM (fiGNd)

89 I prefer movies and books with characters I like.
The main reason I've stuck with Supernatural is Dean.

Posted by: votermom pimping great books! at December 09, 2017 07:27 PM (hMwEB)

90 57 squeakywheel, I think Tommy Lee isn't the protagonist or the antagonist, but more or less a bystander; the film is from his POV.

I believe Jeff Daniels' character is the protagonist.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:18 PM (eMKNe)

++++

We still on No Country for Old Men? Josh Brolin was the protagonist. Jeff Daniels wasn't in that movie, was he?

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at December 09, 2017 07:27 PM (pvjTE)

91 Ooh, how about "Sweet Smell of Success" for a classic film about unlikable people.

Burt Lancaster as a downright evil, probably Weinsteinian type.

Kirk Douglas as the toady trying to leech of him.

Great flick.

Posted by: moviegique at December 09, 2017 07:27 PM (CcUfv)

92 oh, man, that 'Short And Sweet' video in the sidebar is good! Hope that gets some viewage.

Posted by: t-bird at December 09, 2017 07:28 PM (dEefA)

93 The trick is to have an end, though.
Posted by: Moron Robbie - Han didn't shoot first. ONLY Han shot

I had an end envisioned but HBO put the kibosh on it. Said a parade of flaccid dicks wasn't a "satisfying conclusion". Suits, man.

Posted by: George RRRRRRRRR Martin at December 09, 2017 07:28 PM (5wCUq)

94 movieqique.. saw it when it came out. Boy I'm giving my age away... but I hated how they tried to glamorize those two. Hell the whole crew.. we were somehow supposed to feel sorry for them I guess?? Cold blooded killers. But.. that's Hollywood for ya.

Posted by: Jewells45can handle your jewels at December 09, 2017 07:28 PM (CNHr1)

95 Anon, you are correct, Josh Brolin. Got him mixed up with Jeff Daniels, who was in the Coen's next flick True Grit.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:28 PM (eMKNe)

96 Thanks for the A Man For All Seasons reminder, btw. I saw it a loooong time ago, but I need to see if I can track it down. Maybe it's on the netflixes or Amazons.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Han didn't shoot first. ONLY Han shot at December 09, 2017 07:28 PM (y8m+O)

97 HBO, famous for not ending crap, RE: Rome, Carnivale...

Posted by: auscolpyr at December 09, 2017 07:29 PM (pzA2L)

98 Moron Robbie, you are welcome. I love that flick. Was just recommending it to a millennial at work this past week.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:29 PM (eMKNe)

99 Does Godzilla count? I love the Big G, but is a hundred foot high radioactive something-a-saur that smashes cities to bits be considered likeable? I mean, there are movies where Godzilla (Gojira for you purist snobs) is defending Tokyo or the Earth against some other giant monster. But is he (it?) likeable.

A deep philosophical question, this is. I must enter a zen-like state and ponder.

Posted by: Zombie Ishiro Honda at December 09, 2017 07:29 PM (EzdLW)

100 Josh Brolin was not the protagonist of NC4OM. You don't kill the protagonist of your book at the end of act 2.

It's Sheriff Bell (Jones). His struggle is whether or not he's going to confront evil, knowing that the evil will kill him if he does.

That's why when he goes to the hotel room and Chigurh is there, he lies to us and tells us he wasn't. He backed down. It's why he has the bad dreams and feelings of doom. He failed.

Posted by: moviegique at December 09, 2017 07:30 PM (CcUfv)

101 96 Thanks for the A Man For All Seasons reminder, btw. I saw it a loooong time ago, but I need to see if I can track it down. Maybe it's on the netflixes or Amazons.
Posted by: Moron Robbie - Han didn't shoot first. ONLY Han shot at December 09, 2017 07:28 PM (y8m+O)

=====

I got the Blu-ray from twilight media when they released it. One of very few movies I'm willing to pay$30 for.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone at December 09, 2017 07:30 PM (Jj43a)

102 I fucking loved Burt Lancaster. I know many say he over acted but damn... he had a presence on the screen. I loved him in Field of Dreams even though it was a small part he was so wonderful in it.

Posted by: Jewells45can handle your jewels at December 09, 2017 07:30 PM (CNHr1)

103 "HBO, famous for not ending crap, RE: Rome, Carnivale..."

Some would put The Sopranos on that list.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 07:30 PM (pV/54)

104 Dolley hated Nightcrawler because she hated Gyllenhal's character so much and wanted him to die, which he never did. And yet I loved the movie.

Yeah, the creepy factor overwhelmed me; won't rewatch. I want a main character with some redeeming qualities. I also haven't had the urge to rewatch There Will Be Blood.

Now there are some 'bad guy as protagonist' movies I love. Payback, with Mel Gibson, is a prime example. Their advert tagline 'Get ready to root for the bad guy' is sooo apropos. Parker is not completely without values. He primarily targets other bad guys for his scores (but not always).

Posted by: GnuBreed at December 09, 2017 07:30 PM (0ogQG)

105 Watched Taking Chance last week. Awesome movie. I think everyone here would love it

Posted by: JW at December 09, 2017 07:30 PM (0zETA)

106 We still on No Country for Old Men? Josh Brolin was the protagonist. Jeff Daniels wasn't in that movie, was he?
Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at December 09, 2017 07:27 PM (pvjTE)

I've heard lots of people not like No Country for Old Men. To each their own. I, of all peeps, ain't gonna' tell anybody what to like.

But I thought the movie was all about Josh Brolin, and his transition from a dude that literally "picked up the bag of money" ... to what happens next.

It's a scenario we've always talked about every place I've ever worked. I liked the way the movie played it.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 07:30 PM (fiGNd)

107 HBO, famous for not ending crap, RE: Rome, Carnivale...
Posted by: auscolpyr

They had a nice ending for the Sopran

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 07:31 PM (5wCUq)

108 The trick is to have an end, though.
Posted by: Moron Robbie - Han didn't shoot first. ONLY Han shot

That was about me, wasn't it?

Posted by: J-LO at December 09, 2017 07:31 PM (EzdLW)

109 Night & the City
'Are you trying to get me killed, Phil?'
'Yes, dear boy. There comes a time in every man's life when he has to learn the facts of life. And of death. Now is your time, Harry.'

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Booking Agent, Aero Pinochet at December 09, 2017 07:31 PM (fA1SL)

110 Jewell--

I just saw it for the first time when TCM showed it in December.

http://moviegique.com/index.php/2017/09/15/bonnie-and-clyde-1967/

I'm convinced it was "Look, we're pretty! So we're lovable!" Yuck.

Posted by: moviegique at December 09, 2017 07:31 PM (CcUfv)

111 97
HBO, famous for not ending crap, RE: Rome, Carnivale...

Posted by: auscolpyr at December 09, 2017 07:29 PM (pzA2L)

...Deadwood, John From Cincinnati.....

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at December 09, 2017 07:31 PM (8iiMU)

112 A deep philosophical question, this is. I must enter a zen-like state and ponder.
Posted by: Zombie Ishiro Honda at December 09, 2017 07:29 PM (EzdLW)

At least TImmy liked me.

Posted by: Gamera at December 09, 2017 07:31 PM (pzA2L)

113 I stumbled into a Mel Gibson movie titled 'Edge of Darkness' which is a telling/retelling of the Silkwood story. Evil corporation making money building evil nuclear weapons and evil government secret security agencies.

There were some interesting character studies. One major hole in the plot you have to wave away, but it was interesting watching the Mel Gibson character work his way through the puzzle.

I liked it. Found it on youtube; suspect it was a bootleg copy. Seems to be a lot of that on youtube. People upload them faster than youtube can take them down.

Or it might be some kind of secret marketing plan. I have no idea. There is also a lot of drek on youtube and it baffles me that people can secure funding to make those awful movies.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at December 09, 2017 07:31 PM (KdDCu)

114 auscoplyr, I could have watched Rome for a long time.

Posted by: Ben Had at December 09, 2017 07:32 PM (460VS)

115 >>I fucking loved Burt Lancaster. I know many say he over acted but
damn... he had a presence on the screen. I loved him in Field of Dreams
even though it was a small part he was so wonderful in it.

Yes, he was good in that! Also good in "Rocket Gibraltar."

Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 07:32 PM (W+vEI)

116 TJM, same here! Twilight Time has been good about releasing some stuff no one else will, for whatever reason.

I've also been meaning to get TT's edition of Moscow On The Hudson.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:32 PM (eMKNe)

117 Do you like Huey Lewis and the News?
* dons plastic raincoat*

My kids' social studies teacher is named Patrick Bateman. Yeah, that threw me off the first day of school.

Posted by: no good deed at December 09, 2017 07:32 PM (eIQHF)

118 I don't particularly like Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman (now playing on MeTV - "Disco Devil") - she's such a prude! - but I enjoy watching her.

Posted by: Anchorbabe fashion cop at December 09, 2017 07:24 PM (8iiMU)

She is oh so nice to watch. As is Kerry Sherman in this episode

Posted by: TheQuietMan at December 09, 2017 07:32 PM (SiINZ)

119 I feel like my brain has been much for about a week. Finished draft 2 of book 4, it's the busy time at work, and I'm just tired all the time.

I'm glad you guys enjoyed the past, cause I felt like I half assed it.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone at December 09, 2017 07:32 PM (Jj43a)

120 Jewell--

To hell with the Lancaster haters, says I!

I've never seen him in anything where he wasn't compelling. Including "Field of Dreams". Even in the awful "Tough Guys" with Kirk Douglas. But he's great in SSOS and "The Professionals" and "From Here To Eternity!"

Posted by: moviegique at December 09, 2017 07:33 PM (CcUfv)

121 95 Anon, you are correct, Josh Brolin. Got him mixed up with Jeff Daniels, who was in the Coen's next flick True Grit.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:28 PM (eMKNe)

++++

Nope, not in that one either. Are you running for president of the Jeff Daniels Fan Club?

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at December 09, 2017 07:33 PM (FUu/Z)

122 Ooh, how about "Sweet Smell of Success" for a classic film about unlikable people.

Burt Lancaster as a downright evil, probably Weinsteinian type.

Kirk Douglas as the toady trying to leech of him.

Great flick.
Posted by: moviegique at December 09, 2017 07:27 PM (CcUfv)

Oh yes. And Tony Curtis, too. Another solid performance. And crackling dialogue.

Posted by: J-LO at December 09, 2017 07:33 PM (EzdLW)

123
love the Big G, but is a hundred foot high radioactive something-a-saur that smashes cities to bits be considered likeable?

He was getting his life turned around, starting community college, an aspiring hip hop artist.

If GorillaPundit had a son, it would be Godzilla.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at December 09, 2017 07:33 PM (0gmhd)

124 ScoggDog, yup.

IMHO No Country For Old Men is in many ways a Kubrick movie, made by someone other than Stanley.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:34 PM (eMKNe)

125 Yes, Moron Robbie got it, Snatch was excellent in this regard. A bunch of reprobate characters, including the ones you're rooting for. A friend of mine hated it for precisely that reason -- he didn't like any of the characters enough to want them to succeed. I thought it was awesome and hilarious. Plus, the black guys actually survived to the end!

Posted by: Jim S. at December 09, 2017 07:34 PM (ynUnH)

126 It has to do with whether I am looking for what I call "The Love Boat phenomenon." Sometimes I want predictable, light entertainment. For those times, The Love Boat suffices.

Aaron Spelling made a fortune off of this concept.

Posted by: Texican (ette) at December 09, 2017 07:34 PM (CjE8v)

127 Casablanca
- Sunset Boulevard
- White Heat (very first viewing)
- Treasure of Sierra Madre (very first viewing)

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:05 PM (eMKNe)

They are all very good movies. Sunset Boulevard must have really pushed the envelope at the time regarding Holden and Swanson's relationship in the movie

Posted by: TheQuietMan at December 09, 2017 07:34 PM (SiINZ)

128 The protagonist can be flawed, and even be an asshole, but he has to have at least some redeeming qualities for me to like the movie.

Posted by: Aunt Luna at December 09, 2017 07:34 PM (Zd2ZF)

129 J-LO -- Tony Curtis not Kirk Douglas, you're right, I always reverse those. I once said it was the best role Douglas had ever played. Heh. (That might not be wrong!)

Posted by: moviegique at December 09, 2017 07:34 PM (CcUfv)

130 Jeff BRIDGES. Dangitalltaheck!

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:34 PM (eMKNe)

131 >>Now there are some 'bad guy as protagonist' movies I love. Payback, with Mel Gibson, is a prime example.

"The Limey" with Terrence Stamp.

Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 07:35 PM (W+vEI)

132 Posted by: Ben Had at December 09, 2017 07:32 PM (460VS)

Was going to binge watch but then realized there's no end. Was was into Carnivale but just abruptly quit, like WTH?

Posted by: Gamera at December 09, 2017 07:35 PM (pzA2L)

133 I passionately hate all the characters in The Big Chill.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at December 09, 2017 07:21 PM

That means you're healthy.

Here's a protagonist I can hate: Michael Clayton. Clooney's smug mug didn't help.

Posted by: Rusty Nail at December 09, 2017 07:35 PM (toi7g)

134
So I finally got around to watching "Downfall" after seeing the parody scene 43 million times. Why didn't you people come to me like a man and tell me it was a excellent flick?

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at December 09, 2017 07:35 PM (r+sAi)

135 LA Confidential - a Christmas movie, in many ways. There are no redeeming qualities for any of the main characters.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Booking Agent, Aero Pinochet at December 09, 2017 07:35 PM (fA1SL)

136 Posted by: GnuBreed at December 09, 2017 07:30 PM (0ogQG)

Yes. Maybe a distinction should be made between "unlikeable" and "irredeemable."

Posted by: Hands Solo, taking off my J-LO sock at December 09, 2017 07:35 PM (EzdLW)

137 121 95 Anon, you are correct, Josh Brolin. Got him mixed up with Jeff Daniels, who was in the Coen's next flick True Grit.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:28 PM (eMKNe)

++++

Nope, not in that one either. Are you running for president of the Jeff Daniels Fan Club?

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at December 09, 2017 07:33 PM (FUu/Z)

---

It's always neat to see Hordememes develop in real time.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Han didn't shoot first. ONLY Han shot at December 09, 2017 07:36 PM (y8m+O)

138 If we shift to TV, House M.D. was a character that people loved and hated. I read that when David Morse was asked to guest star he initially turned it down because he couldn't comprehend how a show with such a terrible person in the lead role could be popular.

Posted by: Jim S. at December 09, 2017 07:37 PM (ynUnH)

139 To hell with the Lancaster haters, says I!

He was a commie bastard who had the acting ability of a 2x4.

Posted by: TheQuietMan at December 09, 2017 07:37 PM (SiINZ)

140 Why didn't you people come to me like a man and tell me it was a excellent flick?

Posted by: Guy Mohawk

Steiner was supposed to do that.

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 07:37 PM (5wCUq)

141 George Clooney.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Han didn't shoot first. ONLY Han shot at December 09, 2017 07:37 PM (y8m+O)

142 Okay, Dumb And Dumber is a Jeff DANIELS flick I liked. (Yes I looked it up on IMDB first.)

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:38 PM (eMKNe)

143 The main reason I've stuck with Supernatural is Dean.
Posted by: votermom pimping great books! at December 09, 2017 07:27 PM (hMwEB)

Dean, really? The whole Heaven and Hell, God is an absentee Father, Hell is a mirror of our government in Washington, the what's going to happen next 10-year adventure of Good vs. Evil...... and you stick around for the dark-haired beefcake????

Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at December 09, 2017 07:38 PM (br2jI)

144 To Hell, TQM!

Posted by: moviegique at December 09, 2017 07:38 PM (CcUfv)

145 LA Confidential - a Christmas movie, in many ways. There are no redeeming qualities for any of the main characters.

I disagree. I think Russell Crowe's overprotectiveness of women was redeeming.

Posted by: Jim S. at December 09, 2017 07:39 PM (ynUnH)

146 "The Limey" with Terrence Stamp.

Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 07:35 PM (W+vEI)

He was also very good in The Collector from 1965. A look at a rather disturbed/very socially awkward man

Posted by: TheQuietMan at December 09, 2017 07:39 PM (SiINZ)

147 C'mon, I was excellent in Dumb and Dumber. I think that was me.

Posted by: Jeff Daniels at December 09, 2017 07:39 PM (pzA2L)

148 134
So I finally got around to watching "Downfall" after seeing the parody scene 43 million times. Why didn't you people come to me like a man and tell me it was a excellent flick?

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at December 09, 2017 07:35 PM (r+sAi)

=====

I been saying it for years.

It makes me cry to watch the young teenagers dying for a death cult so willingly.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone at December 09, 2017 07:39 PM (Jj43a)

149 I liked RUSH ... Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jason Patric - and Sam Elliot as every Horny Housewive's dream being a less-than-heroic dude for once.

I liked that one because NOBODY is the good guy. Sure, there's some bad guys, but no good ones. Except maybe the witness that hangs himself rather than narc on his friend.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 07:39 PM (fiGNd)

150 'Pay Back'. I didn't really 'like'. Mel Gibson's character gets beaten up a lot. His only strength seems to be that he doesn't die, apparently.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at December 09, 2017 07:40 PM (KdDCu)

151 LA Confidential - a Christmas movie, in many ways. There are no redeeming qualities for any of the main characters.
Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine

In many ways, isn't this also the story of the Obama Administration?

Posted by: Bozo Conservative....menace to society at December 09, 2017 07:40 PM (S6Pax)

152 I am not a fan of movies. I have seen only 2 movies in the last decade and that was only at the request of a friend for her birthday. The other was for a charity showing of "The Trouble with Angels" which was filmed at St.Mary's Villa orphanage with is located near me. So since I can not contribute anything to this post I will go to Amazon and read all the reviews for the Deplorable Cookbook. I expect to be amused!

Posted by: arieswoman at December 09, 2017 07:40 PM (fwWWI)

153 Hmmm.... 'M' comes to mind. While we support KP komissar Lohmann, we root for the criminal syndicate and the bums. And then we pity the killer. It's a real trip.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Booking Agent, Aero Pinochet at December 09, 2017 07:40 PM (fA1SL)

154 C'mon, I was excellent in Dumb and Dumber. I think that was me.
Posted by: Jeff Daniels

It was you alright.
https://youtu.be/b7l6jg4Hlog

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 07:41 PM (5wCUq)

155 100 Josh Brolin was not the protagonist of NC4OM. You don't kill the protagonist of your book at the end of act 2.

It's Sheriff Bell (Jones). His struggle is whether or not he's going to confront evil, knowing that the evil will kill him if he does.

That's why when he goes to the hotel room and Chigurh is there, he lies to us and tells us he wasn't. He backed down. It's why he has the bad dreams and feelings of doom. He failed.

Posted by: moviegique at December 09, 2017 07:30 PM (CcUfv)

++++

Jones had no effect on the actions of anyone or the story itself. He just followed the action around after the fact. He was completely ineffectual.

Brolin is the guy who set the story in motion and was working in opposition to the antagonist, Chigurh. He was the one we were rooting for. Once he was killed, the story was all but over. Other than Chigurh finishing up his goals, collecting the money and killing the wife, not much to see.

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at December 09, 2017 07:41 PM (pvjTE)

156 >>LA Confidential - a Christmas movie, in many ways. There are no redeeming qualities for any of the main characters.

I liked that the initial impressions of characters were not the same as when I left the theater. Still can't believe that was beat by Titanic for best picture.

Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 07:42 PM (W+vEI)

157 George Clooney.
Posted by: Moron Robbie - Han didn't shoot first. ONLY Han shot at December 09, 2017 07:37 PM (y8m+O)

Pretty sure Jeff Bridges played George Clooney. Common mistake, dude.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 07:42 PM (fiGNd)

158 Okay, there's a movie that has--

1. A really terrible title
2. Two very stiff leads--one of them doing a really good Keanu Reeves imitation.
3. A lot of Paint-by-numbers "Let's explain things" dialog
4. Almost every cliche ever, plot-wise

But I'm really starting to love it. It has a huge amount of imagination, and visually--well, it's not just visually spectacular, it's visually intoxicating. It also has a lot of fun moments and calls back to one of the director's big hits. "The Fifth Element."

Yes, I'm talking about "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" or whatever the actual title is.

I definitely recommend it for a look.

Plus, jazz pianist Herbie Hancock plays a role. Who could have foreseen that?

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at December 09, 2017 07:42 PM (l9m7l)

159 Okay, Dumb And Dumber is a Jeff DANIELS flick I liked. (Yes I looked it up on IMDB first.)

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:38 PM

Daniels is pretty good. His contribution to DAD is terribly overlooked.

Posted by: otho at December 09, 2017 07:42 PM (qGuLD)

160 Why didn't you people come to me like a man and tell me it was a excellent flick?

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at December 09, 2017 07:35 PM

I thought this flick's excellence was common knowledge. I have the Momentum blu-ray imported from the UK. It's stunning.

Posted by: Rusty Nail at December 09, 2017 07:42 PM (toi7g)

161 These characters range from finding an actor's voice grating to thinking that the character is a moral reprobate and deserves no sympathy whatsoever.

This is about us, nej?

Posted by: almost every Scandinavian film made in the last 20 years at December 09, 2017 07:42 PM (EzdLW)

162 I've touted Downfall since forever.

Magda Goebbels is the most evil of all.

In all of filmdom, she's #2 to Lady Kaede in Kurosawa's Ran, who's in a league of her own.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 07:43 PM (pV/54)

163 To Hell, TQM!

Posted by: moviegique at December 09, 2017 07:38 PM (CcUfv)

I'm sure I'll end up there, but read about Lancaster. He was a raging leftist and probably a communist.

Posted by: TheQuietMan at December 09, 2017 07:43 PM (SiINZ)

164 The original Get Carter with Michael Caine. Great movie and none of the characters had any redeeming qualities. Plus, everybody gets what they deserve in it.

Posted by: Puddleglum at December 09, 2017 07:43 PM (peJQi)

165 No Country For Old Men. Heh. I've run across people with contraband and lots of money. I mean people who had no way of keeping me from taking their stuff. I never have. To me it's just evidence. Liked the movie though, except for seeing Anton get away with it.

Posted by: Eromero at December 09, 2017 07:43 PM (zLDYs)

166 145. See, I dunno. He was more or less psychotic. He managed to channel that violent rage into good(ish), however. But he was also a one-man wrecking crew with a taste for brutality.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Booking Agent, Aero Pinochet at December 09, 2017 07:44 PM (fA1SL)

167 Those who enjoy the past are condemned to belief it.

Posted by: andycanuck at December 09, 2017 07:44 PM (QCX64)

168 Anon, yup re NCFOM.

ScoggDog, Rush is a fantastic flick. Who knew Gregg Allman could act?! Nice surprise ending to it, too.

TQM, yes re Sunset Boulevard. I imagine it was considered quite adult in 1950.

Anon, thanks for setting me straight.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 07:44 PM (eMKNe)

169 I saw M by Fritz Lang the other night. Very well done. The subtitles were a little distracting but my Kraut is rusty. Brilliant photography and the pre-Nazi police v mob v serial killer was amazing.

Posted by: Winston at December 09, 2017 07:44 PM (XlcO7)

170 Alpha Dog (2006)

Full of ne'er do wells.

Justin Timberlake's character, I think maybe is supposed to be close to likeable, but really isn't.

Posted by: Hands Solo at December 09, 2017 07:45 PM (EzdLW)

171 103 "HBO, famous for not ending crap, RE: Rome, Carnivale..."

Some would put The Sopranos on that list.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 07:30 PM (pV/54)

++++

No I. The Sopranos had a definite ending. Rome doesn't really belong on that list either. It did have an end. They just gutted out the middle. Deadwood is one they just abruptly cut short.

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at December 09, 2017 07:45 PM (pvjTE)

172 Reservoir Dogs - brilliant. Tarantino places us on the bad guys' side from the very start.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Booking Agent, Aero Pinochet at December 09, 2017 07:46 PM (fA1SL)

173 I like Burt Lancaster especially in The Train

Posted by: Skip at December 09, 2017 07:46 PM (aC6Sd)

174
John Wayne's character in Red River was supposed to be an unlikable sort and very ruthless. I didn't like the end of that movie.

Posted by: TheQuietMan at December 09, 2017 07:46 PM (SiINZ)

175 LA Confidential - a Christmas movie, in many ways. There are no redeeming qualities for any of the main characters.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine

Nuts. There's a big difference between a flawed character and an irredeemable one. None of them live up to who they wish to be and pretend they are, but Bud, Ed, Lynn, and even Jack Vincennes all had good qualities.

Posted by: Rusty Nail at December 09, 2017 07:46 PM (toi7g)

176 The original 'House of Cards" is the last eight years.

Posted by: Ben Had at December 09, 2017 07:46 PM (460VS)

177 Plus, jazz pianist Herbie Hancock plays a role. Who could have foreseen that?

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at December 09, 2017 07:42 PM (l9m7l)

---

"Rockit" Herbie Hancock? That's great. I remember reading that he had already enjoyed a pretty great career (something with Miles Davis?) before his pop hit, and it's neat that he's still going strong.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Han didn't shoot first. ONLY Han shot at December 09, 2017 07:46 PM (y8m+O)

178 In all of filmdom, she's #2 to Lady Kaede in Kurosawa's Ran, who's in a league of her own.
Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 07:43 PM (pV/54)

Yeppers, https://youtu.be/qEsPqJOKmiQ

Posted by: Jeff Daniels at December 09, 2017 07:47 PM (pzA2L)

179 >>So I finally got around to watching "Downfall" after seeing the parody scene 43 million times.

Bruno Ganz is good in every movie I've seen him in - "Bread and Tulips," "Vitus."

Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 07:47 PM (W+vEI)

180 I like the movie Battleship. I cannot watch the first 30 minutes of though or I spend the rest of the movie hoping the lead male character dies. That first half hour makes me hate that character so much that I can't enjoy the rest of the movie. So I skip the first 30 and enjoy the rest.

Posted by: madamemayhem (uppity wench) at December 09, 2017 07:47 PM (yTnCT)

181 Magda Goebbels is the most evil of all.

In all of filmdom, she's #2 to Lady Kaede in Kurosawa's Ran, who's in a league of her own.
Posted by: Ignoramus

She was evil, but the scene that gets everybody (killing her children in their sleep) was probably the humane thing to do considering what the RUSSIANS would have done to them.

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 07:47 PM (5wCUq)

182

Michael Caine in 'Get Carter' comes to mind...

Posted by: In Vino Veritits at December 09, 2017 07:48 PM (T/KY7)

183 Tommy Lee Jones' character in No Country For Old Men seemed, to me, to be a vehicle to verbalize on the danger of Chigurh ... and nothing more.

Just me I guess.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 07:48 PM (fiGNd)

184 162. Pfft! Lady Asaji from Throne of Blood. That's an evil bish.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Booking Agent, Aero Pinochet at December 09, 2017 07:48 PM (fA1SL)

185 "It's Sheriff Bell (Jones). His struggle is whether or not he's going to confront evil, knowing that the evil will kill him if he does."

I agree with this. Think of the title.

McCarthy is fascinated with the history of the Southwest border territory. Sheriff Jones is overwhelmed by a new kind if evil. Chiggurh is merciless -- he's Bad Fate. You only survive if you're lucky. And no one is lucky for long.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 07:49 PM (pV/54)

186 Any movie that includes a cameo by a real-world MFM reporter automatically has at least one unlikeable character

Posted by: Hands Solo at December 09, 2017 07:49 PM (EzdLW)

187 Pfft! Lady Asaji from Throne of Blood. That's an evil bish.
Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Booking Agent, Aero Pinochet

What am I, haggis?

Posted by: Lady Macbeth at December 09, 2017 07:50 PM (5wCUq)

188 181 Magda Goebbels is the most evil of all.

In all of filmdom, she's #2 to Lady Kaede in Kurosawa's Ran, who's in a league of her own.
Posted by: Ignoramus

She was evil, but the scene that gets everybody (killing her children in their sleep) was probably the humane thing to do considering what the RUSSIANS would have done to them.
Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 07:47 PM (5wCUq)

=======

She didn't kill them because if Russians, she did it because she didn't want them to love in a world without national socialism.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone at December 09, 2017 07:50 PM (Jj43a)

189 Any movie that includes a cameo by a real-world MFM reporter automatically has at least one unlikeable character

Well, except for Airplane II: The Sequel, where Pat Sajak played a TV anchor. But I suppose that doesn't count, because he's not a real MFM-er.

Posted by: Hands Solo arguing with himself at December 09, 2017 07:50 PM (EzdLW)

190 I don't require likability any more than I require a typical Hollywood happy ending, which would involve Weinstein and a potted plant in front of a cowering teenaged starlet. Ahem.

If you also like good drama, realistic and flawed characters and not-so-happy endings, you might enjoy the flick I watched last night, through a slight fever and lots of hacking coughing. 'Tis the season. It's a holiday heartwarmer called, "Krisha." It's about the relative we all have, who has issues which make it difficult to be around them. I thought it was great, and definitely shows what can be done with a small budget outside the gross blockbuster system of crapola.

Posted by: Octopus at December 09, 2017 07:51 PM (TjN6o)

191 I hated all the characters (if you could call them that) in The Blair Witch Project. They get what they asked for, good and hard.

Posted by: Hands Solo at December 09, 2017 07:52 PM (EzdLW)

192 128 The protagonist can be flawed, and even be an asshole, but he has to have at least some redeeming qualities for me to like the movie.

Posted by: Aunt Luna at December 09, 2017 07:34 PM (Zd2ZF)

++++

Yes. I think many here are misinterpreting TJM's test. The test is not whether the protagonist is likable. It is whether or not he is unlikeable.

When it comes to a guy who has his flaws but also has his pluses, someone like that is watchable. You can spend time with a guy like that looking at his world through his eyes. But, when the guy is completely unlikeable, that's when it gets tough to spend time with him.

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at December 09, 2017 07:52 PM (FUu/Z)

193 Since we're talking about movies ... "The Road".

Two scenes in - I was thinking I'd shoot Strider and take his shit myself.

Liked the movie, though.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 07:53 PM (fiGNd)

194 Kirk Douglas in Detective Story. Great film, with Eleanor Parker and ... Joseph Wiseman.

Posted by: Texican (ette) at December 09, 2017 07:53 PM (CjE8v)

195 She didn't kill them because if Russians, she did it because she didn't want them to love in a world without national socialism.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone

True, but cyanide in one's sleep beats being raped to death by commies.

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 07:53 PM (5wCUq)

196 Another Burt Lancaster fan here. He is impeccably eccentric in "Local Hero," one of my favorite movies.

Michael Caine's Get Carter gets 5 stars because.. Britt Ekland.

That is all.

Posted by: goatexchange at December 09, 2017 07:53 PM (YFnq5)

197 I got sick and I watched SICARIO, I thought it was a really good movie, everyone but the man Character is good, I could not stand the FBI agents, but I could tell they were purposely written that way.

The Movie to me was more about Illegal immigration and than the Drug war, because we don't want to become like Mexico corrupt and broken.

Posted by: Patrick From Ohio at December 09, 2017 07:53 PM (dKiJG)

198 I bet there are any number of old "Drunken Fist of the Shaolin Master" style kung fu movies where this is more common than not.

I used to love those things.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Han didn't shoot first. ONLY Han shot at December 09, 2017 07:53 PM (y8m+O)

199 What am I, haggis?
Posted by: Lady Macbeth at December 09, 2017 07:50 PM (5wCUq)

No ,just an eastern-western so chill and grab some germ x

Posted by: auscolpyr at December 09, 2017 07:53 PM (pzA2L)

200 I started watching "The Mist" series on netflix & hated the characters so much I stopped watching after 5 minutes.

Posted by: josephistan at December 09, 2017 07:53 PM (ANIFC)

201 187 Pfft! Lady Asaji from Throne of Blood. That's an evil bish.
Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Booking Agent, Aero Pinochet

What am I, haggis?
Posted by: Lady Macbeth

Relax Lady, she was paying you respect by copying you in every way.

Throne of Blood fan boy here. Love that movie. Macbeth but with Samurai's.

Posted by: Puddleglum at December 09, 2017 07:54 PM (peJQi)

202 102
I fucking loved Burt Lancaster. I know many say he over acted but
damn... he had a presence on the screen. I loved him in Field of Dreams
even though it was a small part he was so wonderful in it.

-----------------------

Atlantic City.

Posted by: Javemsd at December 09, 2017 07:54 PM (yOqwj)

203
On this theme, I would heartily recommend the rather overlooked classic from the 70's... "Straight Time". Dustin Hoffman, Harry Dean Stanton, Gary Busey, Kathy Bates, M. Emmet Walsh.

Posted by: otho at December 09, 2017 07:54 PM (qGuLD)

204 I hated all the characters (if you could call them that) in The Blair Witch Project. They get what they asked for, good and hard.
Posted by: Hands Solo at December 09, 2017 07:52 PM (EzdLW)

Get Steve Odinkirk's "The Blair Thumb" and you will completely re-think your view on The Blair Witch.....

Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at December 09, 2017 07:54 PM (br2jI)

205 And then they kill Blondi and I just lose it.

Posted by: andycanuck at December 09, 2017 07:54 PM (QCX64)

206 The Third Man - Joseph Cotten's character was irritating to me.
The Element of Crime - another film full of unlikable characters. Kim, maybe, I could tolerate.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Booking Agent, Aero Pinochet at December 09, 2017 07:55 PM (fA1SL)

207 "What am I, haggis?"

Ran has a lot of Shakespeare in it, mostly King Lear. If you haven't seen it you should.

Lady Macbeth is driven by ambition, Lady Kaede by revenge.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 07:55 PM (pV/54)

208 Oh, and for TV series, Breaking Bad was, to me, an example of a show where i was really rooting against every character on screen. Every. One.

Posted by: goatexchange at December 09, 2017 07:55 PM (YFnq5)

209 >>Jones had no effect on the actions of anyone or the story itself. He just followed the action around after the fact. He was completely ineffectual.

Yeah, he's NOT a hero. That's sort of the point. The hero, Brolin, gets killed. The protagonist, Bell, the one with the character arc, is the one who learns that he'd rather be alive than heroic.

Posted by: moviegique at December 09, 2017 07:57 PM (CcUfv)

210 Oh, and for TV series, Breaking Bad was, to me, an example of a show where i was really rooting against every character on screen. Every. One.
Posted by: goatexchange at December 09, 2017 07:55 PM (YFnq5)

The Walking Dead was that for me. I watched the first half-dozen or so shows the first season ... I quit when I started rooting for the Zombies.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 07:57 PM (fiGNd)

211 Oh, and for TV series, Breaking Bad was, to me, an example of a show where i was really rooting against every character on screen. Every. One.
Posted by: goatexchange at December 09, 2017 07:55 PM (YFnq5)

Gus seemed nice.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at December 09, 2017 07:57 PM (zmvwV)

212 191 I hated all the characters (if you could call them that) in The Blair Witch Project. They get what they asked for, good and hard.
Posted by: Hands Solo

Hated that movie. After wasting time watching these stupid losers stumbling around in the woods, whining and moaning like bitches, I wanted them brutally slaughtered. Instead I get,,,,,nothing. I was pissed.

Posted by: Puddleglum at December 09, 2017 07:57 PM (peJQi)

213

Dumbo is a very unlikable character.

A gender fluid emotional train wreck whose sheer incompetence is compounded by xit's psychopathic passive-aggressive efforts to trip up these around xit and manipulation of the feelings of others that lead, ultimately, to xit's rising above the crowd at the expense of others wants and needs. And really, isn't this also the story of Obama?

Plus, imagine the size of the turds that thing dumps everywhere. Dumbo I mean, not Obama.

Posted by: In Vino Veritits at December 09, 2017 07:58 PM (T/KY7)

214 Last week I watched a movie I'd somehow missed from '98, when the kids were young and all we did was drive them around and work like dogs to pay for everything. Ah, I miss those days.

"A Simple Plan", directed by Detroit's own Sam Raimi, stars Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton and Bridget Fonda. It's a gem. I think it's Thornton's character that steals the movie, but it's all pretty good.

Posted by: Octopus at December 09, 2017 07:58 PM (TjN6o)

215 Myrna Loy was also a die-hard leftist, but I agree with Jimmy Stewart: Any man who isn't in love with her...well, there's something wrong with him.

Posted by: moviegique at December 09, 2017 07:58 PM (CcUfv)

216 Dogg, you outlasted me. Wifey and I tried TWD; she quit after 20 mins, i gave it a full first show, then nevermore.

Posted by: goatexchange at December 09, 2017 07:58 PM (YFnq5)

217 I hated all the characters (if you could call them that) in The Blair Witch Project. They get what they asked for, good and hard.

Posted by: Hands Solo

Hated that movie. After wasting time watching these stupid losers stumbling around in the woods, whining and moaning like bitches, I wanted them brutally slaughtered. Instead I get,,,,,nothing. I was pissed.

Posted by: Puddleglum at December 09, 2017 07:57 PM (peJQi)

I completely agree with both of you

Posted by: TheQuietMan at December 09, 2017 07:59 PM (SiINZ)

218 Last week I watched a movie I'd somehow missed from '98, when the kids were young and all we did was drive them around and work like dogs to pay for everything. Ah, I miss those days.

"A Simple Plan", directed by Detroit's own Sam Raimi, stars Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton and Bridget Fonda. It's a gem. I think it's Thornton's character that steals the movie, but it's all pretty good.

Posted by: Octopus at December 09, 2017 07:58 PM

That is a fantastic movie. Very different from the book, but for good reason.

Posted by: otho at December 09, 2017 07:59 PM (qGuLD)

219
Plus, imagine the size of the turds that thing dumps everywhere. Dumbo I mean, not Obama.
Posted by: In Vino Veritits

The size of the debt says Obama drops the bigger turds.

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 07:59 PM (5wCUq)

220 OK, found it. FMoF #142, and my article was titled "Dark Sith Lord Darth Vader -- Badnik or Merely Misunderstood?"

I would dearly love to replace my copy, lost in our many moves since then, but I doubt it will ever happen.

Posted by: empire1 at December 09, 2017 07:59 PM (Elfgk)

221 Patrick from Ohio. Have you ever seen 'Unthinkable"? The FBI is portrayed in much the same way.

Posted by: Ben Had at December 09, 2017 08:00 PM (460VS)

222 Dogg, you outlasted me. Wifey and I tried TWD; she quit after 20 mins, i gave it a full first show, then nevermore.
Posted by: goatexchange at December 09, 2017 07:58 PM (YFnq5)

The premise hooked me ... Scogg - here's how you're god-awful gun cabinet, prepping, and shitty attitude could pay off !!!

But no ... Shane's screwing Rick's old lady, Carl's an idiot, and Rick's riding a horse down the road wearing his uniform.

I'd grenade them all.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 08:01 PM (fiGNd)

223 Another Burt Lancaster fan here. He is impeccably eccentric in "Local Hero," one of my favorite movies.
...
Posted by: goatexchange at December 09, 2017 07:53 PM (YFnq5)

I love that movie. I don't like Lancaster but he was perfect in that role.

Posted by: DR.WTF - Duke of Righteous WTF? at December 09, 2017 08:01 PM (T71PA)

224 Lady Macbeth is driven by ambition, Lady Kaede by
revenge.
Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 07:55 PM (pV/54)

Lady the Cocker Spaniel was driven by bitch-in-heat.

Posted by: Zombie Walt Disney at December 09, 2017 08:02 PM (EzdLW)

225 Fear the walking Dead is a show I couldn't get to like any characters, so wished the zombies well. I still watch TWD

Posted by: Skip at December 09, 2017 08:03 PM (aC6Sd)

226 Gus, the fast food mogul who dealt with (and then mass murdered) Mexican
meth cartel, enslaved his cooks, and was partners with the
international German criminals? What a peach!

(yes, i know you were prob being sarcastic.....hehehe)

Posted by: goatexchange at December 09, 2017 08:03 PM (YFnq5)

227 True, but cyanide in one's sleep beats being raped to death by commies.
-----
Don't knock till you try it!

Posted by: don lemon at December 09, 2017 08:03 PM (QCX64)

228 I didn't like the mini-series Olive Kittredge, and Olive certainly was unlikable. It got interesting in the last few minutes when she meets someone who challenges her instead of just tolerating her, then - poof!- it's done.

Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 08:03 PM (W+vEI)

229 Lady the Cocker Spaniel was driven by bitch-in-heat.

I'd hit it. Oh wait, I did. Woof!

Posted by: The Tramp at December 09, 2017 08:04 PM (EzdLW)

230 I liked the first season of Peaky Blinders. Lost interest after that.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 08:05 PM (fiGNd)

231 I'd hit it. Oh wait, I did. Woof!
Posted by: The Tramp

I got there first dawg.

Posted by: Rin Tin Tin at December 09, 2017 08:06 PM (5wCUq)

232 Octopus @214. I read that book about the same time the movie came out. Hated the book and the main characters so I never saw the movie. I like Paxton and Thornton and didn't want to hate them in those characters.

Posted by: madamemayhem (uppity wench) at December 09, 2017 08:07 PM (yTnCT)

233 225 Fear the walking Dead is a show I couldn't get to like any characters, so wished the zombies well. I still watch TWD
Posted by: Skip at December 09, 2017 08:03 PM (aC6Sd)

Same here. I wonder if FTWD has gotten any better?

Posted by: josephistan at December 09, 2017 08:07 PM (ANIFC)

234 I'd hit it. Oh wait, I did. Woof!
Posted by: The Tramp

I got there first dawg.
Posted by: Rin Tin Tin at December 09, 2017 08:06 PM (5wCUq)

B!tch lied to me? And then she goes and hogs all my spaghetti.

Ow ow owoooooooh!

Posted by: The Tramp at December 09, 2017 08:08 PM (EzdLW)

235 Dean, really? The whole Heaven and Hell, God is an absentee Father, Hell is a mirror of our government in Washington, the what's going to happen next 10-year adventure of Good vs. Evil...... and you stick around for the dark-haired beefcake????

Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at December 09, 2017 07:38 PM (br2jI)

Well, and Crowley.

Posted by: votermom pimping great books! at December 09, 2017 08:10 PM (hMwEB)

236 @225 - I had the same reaction to both Walking Dead shows. Just don't like anyone, and they're boring.

But I often like movies or shows where I don't like the people. Narcos, for example. Not sure what the distinction is . . .

Posted by: Bear with Assymetrical Balls at December 09, 2017 08:11 PM (H5knJ)

237 ring! ring! ring!

Posted by: uncle tio at December 09, 2017 08:11 PM (QCX64)

238 Gyllenhaal is in the running for Matt Reeve's upcoming Batman film (trilogy?) A very Christian Bale pick. He can get super jacked as we saw in that boxing movie, but he's not a big guy. Not physically imposing. But he can be scary, Donnie Darko anyone?

Posted by: Max Power at December 09, 2017 08:11 PM (QCc6B)

239 "They had a nice ending for the Sopran "

ISWYDT

I was joking about it not having an ending. IRRC they changed it for replays and DVDs so it goes to Black, not "my cable died grey and white buzz."

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 08:11 PM (pV/54)

240
If any want to see some more Melania dress porn, look up the LBD she wore to a WH Hanukkah thing Thursday night.

I just stumbled across some pictures of that.

Posted by: publius, the Persistent Poperin Pear at December 09, 2017 08:12 PM (8O3HH)

241 ring! ring! ring!
Posted by: uncle tio

beep

Posted by: Capt. Pike at December 09, 2017 08:12 PM (5wCUq)

242 I wanted all the Fear The Walking Dead people to get et. The Walking Dead though, have seen them all thus far and like the series. Best zombie ideology ever.

Posted by: Eromero at December 09, 2017 08:12 PM (zLDYs)

243 97 HBO, famous for not ending crap, RE: Rome, Carnivale...
Posted by: auscolpyr at December 09, 2017 07:29 PM (pzA2L)

I. LOVED. Carnivale. I was pissed to the gills that they never finished it.

Posted by: Insomniac - Nobody in Particular at December 09, 2017 08:13 PM (NWiLs)

244 @207 Ran has a lot of Shakespeare in it, mostly King Lear. If you haven't seen it you should.

Lady Macbeth is driven by ambition, Lady Kaede by revenge.
-----------------

Goneril and Regan in Lear are bad enough. But Kaede basically takes Edgar's role, in a story that doesn't have a Gloucester.

She's scary.

Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 08:13 PM (YZveB)

245 How about Hamlet? What a putz. Dude needed to either sh*t or get off the throne.

Posted by: Zombie Laertes at December 09, 2017 08:14 PM (EzdLW)

246 I just like movies to make sense. It can be make believe sense as long as it has some rationale to it.

When they get political is when I bail out.

I want entertainment not lectures.

Posted by: jakee308 at December 09, 2017 08:14 PM (M06hO)

247 200 I started watching "The Mist" series on netflix & hated the characters so much I stopped watching after 5 minutes.
Posted by: josephistan at December 09, 2017 07:53 PM (ANIFC)

You're lucky you stopped. I gutted it out through the whole thing, just because. It sucks donkey balls. It's not wonder it got canceled.

Posted by: Insomniac - Nobody in Particular at December 09, 2017 08:16 PM (NWiLs)

248

Hamlet was a comedy. Looking at it as drama leads to confusion.

Posted by: In Vino Veritits at December 09, 2017 08:16 PM (T/KY7)

249
I was joking about it not having an ending. IRRC they changed it for replays and DVDs so it goes to Black, not "my cable died grey and white buzz."

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 08:11 PM (pV/54)

++++

I don't think that's true. I remember watching it on HBO when it was first available, and it did not go to grey and white. It just went black, and I too though that something had gone wrong with the feed. After some vehement cursing on my part, the credits started to roll.

Nothing changed, it's just that people know what's coming, so that moment of confusion is no longer there.

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at December 09, 2017 08:16 PM (pvjTE)

250 >> I want entertainment not lectures.

Like I always said (and I said a lot of shit), if you want to send a message, call Western Union, not me.

Posted by: Sam Goldwyn at December 09, 2017 08:17 PM (8O3HH)

251 I. LOVED. Carnivale. I was pissed to the gills that they never finished it.
Posted by: Insomniac - Nobody in Particular

I loved The Borgias and was pissed Showtime just dropped it. I realize it was ungodly expensive to produce, but don't just leave us hanging.

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 08:17 PM (5wCUq)

252 This is actually a topic I feel rather strongly about.

I believe that the insistence on a "likable" protagonist is more or less a triumph of the Left.

The SJW's destructive hysteria over anything morally or philosophically complicated has driven writers/directors to pursue simple popcorn stories where there is a "good" protagonist aligned against a "bad" antagonist.

But, as much as I like reading a popcorn story from time to time, or watching a popcorn movie, they are to a certain extent stunted and boring because there is no growth of the characters, there is no story arc for the good protagonist who is already a wonderful human being.

Novels in the past from Heller to Twain through Dickens through Thackery and Fielding and Smollett contained complicated protagonists.

As did movies previous to roughly the 1960's-70s. Look at "The Treasure of Sierra Madre", would that morally complex storyline with complex characters be made today?

Nope. Not without Humphrey Bogart giving high-fives to Walter Huston as they drank pina coladas on a beach in Jamaica at the end..

Static characters stuck within a certain box is of a piece with the left's insistence that everyone and everything fit within the boxes they assign for them.

Any "complicated" movie or story is one that follows a leftist meme.

I would love to see movies and novels break free of these constraints imposed by fear and the left and once more give us real feeling stories with real feelings and personal change and growth for the protagonist and....Hey, why not? The antagonist.

YMMV.

Posted by: naturalfake at December 09, 2017 08:17 PM (9q7Dl)

253
Trainspotting?

Posted by: otho at December 09, 2017 08:18 PM (qGuLD)

254 When first aired the end of The Sopranos went to grey and white and buzz. I remember it well because I ran over t check the cable.

It threw a lot of people off.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 08:18 PM (pV/54)

255 I just like movies to make sense. It can be make believe sense as long as it has some rationale to it.
Posted by: jakee308 at December 09, 2017 08:14 PM (M06hO)

This is about me, isn't it?

Posted by: David Lynch, wtf? at December 09, 2017 08:18 PM (EzdLW)

256 Unthinkable"? The FBI is portrayed in much the same way.
Posted by: Ben Had at December 09, 2017 08:00 PM (460VS)

Yes, that is the worst movie.

I was really surprised how good SICARIO was, I watched it several times when I was sick this week and I noticed how good the Director is, the Shootouts were excellent and I like how they had all these missing person signs in the background as they are stopped in Mexico to hammer how lawless the place is.

Posted by: Patrick From Ohio at December 09, 2017 08:19 PM (dKiJG)

257 natural fake, either a likable character or a character I can root for

otherwise, if I don't care WHAT happens to these people then I'm out as a viewer (or reader)

Posted by: votermom pimping great books! at December 09, 2017 08:20 PM (hMwEB)

258 235 Dean, really? The whole Heaven and Hell, God is an absentee Father, Hell is a mirror of our government in Washington, the what's going to happen next 10-year adventure of Good vs. Evil...... and you stick around for the dark-haired beefcake????

Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at December 09, 2017 07:38 PM (br2jI)

Well, and Crowley.
Posted by: votermom pimping great books! at December 09, 2017 08:10 PM (hMwEB)

Crowley and Dean are my favorite Supernatural characters.

Posted by: Insomniac - Nobody in Particular at December 09, 2017 08:21 PM (NWiLs)

259 Never been tempted to watch "There Will Be Blood" since I heard a sound clip from it.

You're just the afterbirth, Eli. You slithered out of your mother's filth. They should have put you in a glass jar on a mantlepiece.

Done for shock, and moreover, it seems derivative. Compare Full Metal Jacket: "It looks to me like the best part of you ran down the crack of your mama's ass and ended up as a brown stain on the mattress"

Or Fierce Creatures (Fish Called Wanda II): "You've been a disappointment to me since the day your mother farted you out of her womb"

Only Congress deserves to be talked to this way.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at December 09, 2017 08:21 PM (/qEW2)

260 You're right. Cut to black

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 08:22 PM (pV/54)

261 On the other side of the coin, are there otherwise good shows / movies that had one character that was just so annoying you are tempted to quit watching?

Posted by: votermom pimping great books! at December 09, 2017 08:22 PM (hMwEB)

262 Fox and science fiction - rearrange the episodes, and then cancel the show after half a season.

Firefly is the most famous for this, but I was also pretty irritated when it happened to Almost Human.

Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 08:22 PM (YZveB)

263 Crowley and Dean are my favorite Supernatural characters.

Posted by: Insomniac - Nobody in Particular at December 09, 2017 08:21 PM (NWiLs)

*hi-five*

Posted by: votermom pimping great books! at December 09, 2017 08:23 PM (hMwEB)

264 262 Fox and science fiction - rearrange the episodes, and then cancel the show after half a season.

Firefly is the most famous for this, but I was also pretty irritated when it happened to Almost Human.
Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 08:22 PM (YZveB)

Firefly was one of the best things ever to happen to science fiction and to TV in general. So naturally they had to cancel it. Dicks.

Posted by: Insomniac - Nobody in Particular at December 09, 2017 08:23 PM (NWiLs)

265 Hi all,
we are currently rewatching Windtalkers on the History Channel, good flick.

Posted by: Farmer - 2017 GNAMM Survivor at December 09, 2017 08:23 PM (yJ1e6)

266 Thank the Divines, I was wrong! Once I had the issue number, I was able to find a copy from an independent seller on Amazon. Eighteen bucks, but at least I'll get to see it again -- and wince at my awful writing so many years ago -- before I pass it along to my sister to pass on to her grands.

Posted by: empire1 at December 09, 2017 08:24 PM (Elfgk)

267 The title Sicario hurt at the box office. Should have been a big hit.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 08:24 PM (pV/54)

268 Borgias I thought Netflix picked it up?

HBO finished Rome but I too wish they finished Carnivale

Posted by: Patrick From Ohio at December 09, 2017 08:25 PM (dKiJG)

269 I'll add Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) in Clockwork Orange. I especially like him because he is subconsciously acting out against a government that is a mix of 1984 and today's Democrat party.

Posted by: Knaws at December 09, 2017 08:26 PM (8FfnY)

270 I loved the look of Boardwalk Empire, but I quit watching it because I got sick of Knucky.

I didn't have that problem with Walter White. Go figure.

Maybe it's because Knucky turned into a monster faster than Walter. I dunno.

I recently read Brian Cranston's autobio "A life In Parts" & liked it a lot.

Posted by: strawdog at December 09, 2017 08:26 PM (Cssks)

271 263 Crowley and Dean are my favorite Supernatural characters.

Posted by: Insomniac - Nobody in Particular at December 09, 2017 08:21 PM (NWiLs)

*hi-five*
Posted by: votermom pimping great books! at December 09, 2017 08:23 PM (hMwEB)

They have the absolute best dialogue in the show. And Crowley is just gleefully evil.

Posted by: Insomniac - Nobody in Particular at December 09, 2017 08:26 PM (NWiLs)

272 I sometimes have the following complaint about the Coen brothers: real life has some very good people and also some horrible people. I generally don't like movies where every character is an awful person, no matter how interesting. It doesn't ring true.

Posted by: chris not rock at December 09, 2017 08:26 PM (WO0/g)

273 267 The title Sicario hurt at the box office. Should have been a big hit.
Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 08:24 PM (pV/54)

=====
Mid budgeted, serious minded movies don't draw in the millions of people on opening weekend.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone at December 09, 2017 08:26 PM (Jj43a)

274 254 When first aired the end of The Sopranos went to grey and white and buzz. I remember it well because I ran over t check the cable.

It threw a lot of people off.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 08:18 PM (pV/54)

++++

Your memory is playing tricks on you. If you can link to a source that says it was originally white and grey and that they changed it later to be just black, I would love to click that link.

It is easy to find reviewers discussing the cut to black ending. Not so for your claimed cut to white and grey. It just didn't happen that way.

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at December 09, 2017 08:26 PM (FUu/Z)

275 267 The title Sicario hurt at the box office. Should have been a big hit.
Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 08:24 PM (pV/54)

Good movie. Bleak as hell but good.

Posted by: Insomniac - Nobody in Particular at December 09, 2017 08:27 PM (NWiLs)

276 Freaks and Geeks is a cult favorite that only got one season. NBC did everything it could to strange it in its crib.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 08:27 PM (pV/54)

277 I like Sicario, but then I don't really see del Toro's character as unlikable or even as a villain.

Posted by: Bear with Assymetrical Balls at December 09, 2017 08:27 PM (H5knJ)

278 I too wish they finished Carnivale

As do I. I was invested in it, and then, poof, nothing. Was Nick Stahl having drug and alcohol problems then or did it just not garner good enough ratings?

Posted by: no good deed at December 09, 2017 08:27 PM (eIQHF)

279 I conceded cut to black @ 260

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 08:28 PM (pV/54)

280 272 I sometimes have the following complaint about the Coen brothers: real life has some very good people and also some horrible people. I generally don't like movies where every character is an awful person, no matter how interesting. It doesn't ring true.
Posted by: chris not rock at December 09, 2017 08:26 PM (WO0/g)

We come back tomorrow und vee cut off your Chonson!

Posted by: Insomniac - Nobody in Particular at December 09, 2017 08:28 PM (NWiLs)

281 natural fake, either a likable character or a character I can root for

otherwise, if I don't care WHAT happens to these people then I'm out as a viewer (or reader)

Posted by: votermom pimping great books! at December 09, 2017 08:20 PM (hMwEB)

Well...a morally complex character can have likable characteristics.

But, if somebody is already "Wonderful Joe" where is the growth? Where is the arc of the character?

Look at the latest, Star Wars, Rey is such a wonderful, competent Mary Sue, she's not the least bit compelling and the story suffers for it.

As a popcorn movie or story I'm all for that, but popcorn all the time?

I want something with more Fiber, vitamins, and protein and flavor sometimes. And gravy! Lots of rich, tasty brain gravy.

Posted by: naturalfake at December 09, 2017 08:28 PM (9q7Dl)

282 Borgias I thought Netflix picked it up?

Posted by: Patrick From Ohio

I think the did their own series "Borgias", but "The Borgias" with Jeremy Irons as Alexander VI was canceled after 3 of 4 seasons.

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 08:28 PM (5wCUq)

283 245 How about Hamlet? What a putz. Dude needed to either sh*t or get off the throne.
Posted by: Zombie Laertes at December 09, 2017 08:14 PM (EzdLW)

That was the focus of the Olivier version of Hamlet: "A story of a Man who could not make up his mind."

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 09, 2017 08:29 PM (ycWCI)

284 277 I like Sicario, but then I don't really see del Toro's character as unlikable or even as a villain.
Posted by: Bear with Assymetrical Balls at December 09, 2017 08:27 PM (H5knJ)

He was ruthless but not exactly villainous. The whole movie was about having to bad things to stop even worse things.

Posted by: Insomniac - Nobody in Particular at December 09, 2017 08:30 PM (NWiLs)

285 Concur with the thought about the Coens. I won't waste time on a movie where I despise everyone it it and want them all to die horribly. Why bother? I can get the same satisfaction just by walking out, or turning it off.

Posted by: Tom Servo at December 09, 2017 08:30 PM (V2Yro)

286 For those who liked Sicario (and Hell or High Water), check out Wind River. Written by the same guy as the other two, plus he takes the director's chair this time.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5362988/

Very well done movie.

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at December 09, 2017 08:31 PM (FUu/Z)

287
Boogie Nights?

Posted by: otho at December 09, 2017 08:31 PM (qGuLD)

288
I remember reading some Hollywood creative type, and this was years ago, lamenting that political correctness meant that only the villains could have any color. There was such a checklist of PC characteristics a good guy had to have, that you couldn't make the character any fun.

So the villains are the only ones who get to say funny shit.

Posted by: publius, the Persistent Poperin Pear at December 09, 2017 08:32 PM (8O3HH)

289 I'm back. Had to run out to fetch dinner.

Was just asking myself, what Kubrick film could the Coen Brothers do a halfway good remake of?

I'm thinking, Paths of Glory. They could never beat the original, but I bet they could turn out something pretty good with it.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 08:33 PM (eMKNe)

290 I think likability may be the wrong line to take. 'Relatability' might be better. The ability to see something of yourself or something that you like to believe about yourself in the character.

This is the problem for me with Mob movies. The whole mob lifestyle has no mystery or attraction to me and while I can see a mob movie and say: "That is well done." it leaves me completely cold.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 09, 2017 08:33 PM (ycWCI)

291 Yeah pretty much I want a main character I can at least at some level like. I don't think its bad storytelling to have a detestable main character, but for me as a consumer I want at least something noble or sympathetic about them I can connect with.

Too much modern entertainment is about awful people doing terrible stuff in a miserable world: Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, the new western series Godless, etc. They can be very well done, but in the end, I don't care to watch them because its just miserable. I feel like I'm stained by the experience.

There's a lot of stuff on Netflix like that, things I might otherwise want to see but are just so grimdark and miserable I don't watch like Frontier. Nobody seems to even believe in heroism or goodness any longer.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 08:33 PM (39g3+)

292
Popcorn? You ought to see what I do with popcorn.

Posted by: Uncle Harvey at December 09, 2017 08:33 PM (8O3HH)

293 I understand about flicks where there's no one to root for, but who do you root for in Dr. Strangelove?

Seems like all the good guys in that flick are flinching wimps.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 08:34 PM (eMKNe)

294 Yes, I am obsessed with Kubrick. Why do you ask? ;-)

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 08:34 PM (eMKNe)

295 Unlikeable character - James Cagney in The Fighting 69th. Great ending.

Posted by: Count de Monet at December 09, 2017 08:35 PM (QLvwG)

296 There's a lot of stuff on Netflix like that, things I might otherwise want to see but are just so grimdark and miserable I don't watch like Frontier. Nobody seems to even believe in heroism or goodness any longer.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 08:33 PM (39g3+)

What I find hilarious (in a grim way) is that this is people trying to be 'edgy'. They want to stay away from stories and plots that are 'trite' 'classic' or whatever. The thing is people: There is a reason those stories are classics and legendary- they resonate for people.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 09, 2017 08:35 PM (ycWCI)

297 Well...a morally complex character can have likable characteristics.

==

absolutely, I agree with you there

in BTVS the antagonists to root for were Spike and Anya

Posted by: votermom pimping great books! at December 09, 2017 08:35 PM (hMwEB)

298 Speaking of movies with exclusively unlikable characters, I hated "Requiem for a Dream". I hated everybody in that and wanted them all to die horribly. The only one I could identify with was the black guy who was the drug dealer what made Jennifer Connelly perform double-dildo action with some ho as entertainment at his party. He seemed cool.

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 08:35 PM (5wCUq)

299 Aetius, good point.

I don't know if James Caan's lead character in Thief is entirely likable, but he is relatable.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 08:35 PM (eMKNe)

300 "Was just asking myself, what Kubrick film could the Coen Brothers do a halfway good remake of? "

I'd go with The Killing, an early Kubrick caper robbery flick. Very Coen.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 08:36 PM (pV/54)

301 I believe that the insistence on a "likable" protagonist is more or less a triumph of the Left.

Now ... I'd say different.

Been in more than one heated argument here, amongst peeps that identify as something not quite Left of Center ... about Jimmy Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence.

I can't stand Stoddard in that movie. Not from the first clip.

Now ... did a Leftist cast him as such ? That movie - to me - was the first Anti-Establishment film of many I ever saw. Cool Hand Luke was another. Most Clint Eastwood movies were in that mold.

But there is no doubt ... most people Right of Center don't see Stoddard in the same light that I do.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 08:37 PM (fiGNd)

302 Ignoramus, hmmm... ;-)

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 08:37 PM (eMKNe)

303 I'm back. Had to run out to fetch dinner.

Was just asking myself, what Kubrick film could the Coen Brothers do a halfway good remake of?

I'm thinking, Paths of Glory. They could never beat the original, but I bet they could turn out something pretty good with it.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 08:33 PM

The Killing. Spartacus, perhaps. Most of Kubrick's flick would be a difficult fit for them as SK has a very different approach to characters. The best fit might be the old one Kubrick didn't finish... One Eyed Jacks.

Posted by: otho at December 09, 2017 08:37 PM (qGuLD)

304 @296 What I find hilarious (in a grim way) is that this is people trying to be 'edgy'. They want to stay away from stories and plots that are 'trite' 'classic' or whatever. The thing is people: There is a reason those stories are classics and legendary- they resonate for people.
------------------

And in their attempts to be 'edgy', the writers invariably end up all aping each other.

Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 08:37 PM (YZveB)

305 Hamlet seems indecisive and weak, but if you dig into the story and his character it actually works. Its not stupid pointless delay, its kind of rational. The uncle doesn't seem like that awful a person, the only 'proof' he has is a ghost's word which; is that even real? What if its a lie? What if he's going crazy and seeing things? He pushes everyone away from him in the fear he's going nuts.

And in the end, its not easy to kill someone, unless you're a psycho. He really seems to like his mom and she loves the uncle. The uncle treats him pretty well, could you go through it it? Yeah in story terms it seems weak but its all too real to me.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 08:37 PM (39g3+)

306 There's a lot of stuff on Netflix like that, things I
might otherwise want to see but are just so grimdark and miserable I
don't watch like Frontier. Nobody seems to even believe in heroism or
goodness any longer.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 08:33 PM (39g3+)

Age of Obama movies. Give it a while and Trump age movies will have heroes again.

Posted by: Count de Monet at December 09, 2017 08:38 PM (QLvwG)

307 277 I like Sicario, but then I don't really see del Toro's character as unlikable or even as a villain.
Posted by: Bear with Assymetrical Balls at December 09, 2017 08:27 PM (H5knJ)

Ruthless, good description. I heard that ending wasn't the original ending.

And for some odd reason I liked Brodin character even after het set Blunt straight after yelling about going down the wrong tunnel.

Posted by: auscolpyr at December 09, 2017 08:38 PM (pzA2L)

308 >> but who do you root for in Dr. Strangelove?

You said it. You root for Dr. Strangelove.

I'm sure you know about the pie fight ending that was cut out. I read a long description of how that went one time.

Peter Sellers did a bit during all that, with the huge pie fight going on in the War Room, where he had a mortal struggle with his alien hand, which had grabbed a pistol and was trying to blow his brains out.

His other hand and arm was fighting with it, the gun goes off, and that stops the pie fight. They all though Dr. Strangelove did that on purpose to stop the pie fight.

So, Dr. Strangelove was going to be master of the post nuclear world, I think.

Posted by: Uncle Harvey at December 09, 2017 08:38 PM (8O3HH)

309 "293 I understand about flicks where there's no one to root for, but who do you root for in Dr. Strangelove?"

I want to say the nukes, but seriously, look how much good work that film does making you root for the B-52 crew, struggling to see their mission through. You know it's a terrible thing they're trying to do, but you can't help but feel a swell of admiration for how diligently they are performing their duties.

Posted by: Tom Servo at December 09, 2017 08:39 PM (V2Yro)

310 Fear the Walking Dead will merge with The Walking Dead. Its the backstory to Alpha.

That's the theory of you read the comics.

Posted by: Walter White at December 09, 2017 08:39 PM (QGf75)

311
Yeah, Dr. Strangelove might work.

Posted by: otho at December 09, 2017 08:39 PM (qGuLD)

312 otho, also interesting.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 08:39 PM (eMKNe)

313
'Stormageddon' a made for TV movie.
It was interesting enough, at 3am when you can't sleep. A computer program becomes self-aware and takes over military assets and starts blowing stuff up.

Three cyborgs, one is the good guy, the other two are bad guys. The good guy hosts the emergency shutdown code should the suddenly self-aware AI go rogue. Unfortunately, the good guy cyborg has to die to upload the shutdown code to the 'net.

But what really freaked me out was when the movie ended, and I closed the youtube window, a Windows 10 notification popped up and ordered me to link my 'phone to my desktop pc.

No way, Jose, was I going to do that after watching a movie about a rogue AI taking over the 'net and everything connected to it. Serious freak out time.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at December 09, 2017 08:39 PM (KdDCu)

314 who do you root for in Dr. Strangelove?

I was rooting for the Coca-Cola Company.

Posted by: Col. Bat Guano at December 09, 2017 08:40 PM (EzdLW)

315 I liked TWD and still do.

I had high hopes for the LA based Fear The Walking Dead. I was very interested in seeing the events as they happened, rather then the our hero has been in a coma approach.

But I hated all the characters in Fear. When your most likable character is a junkie who sneaks in to sick peoples rooms to steal their pain meds you start rooting for the zombies.

In Breaking Bad I did kinda like Gus and Mike and even Saul and have liked Better Call Saul more then breaking bad.

Posted by: Big V at December 09, 2017 08:40 PM (MVE/7)

316 And in their attempts to be 'edgy', the writers invariably end up all aping each other.
Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 08:37 PM (YZveB)

Exactly. So all they have is: How can I make people truly feel horrible watching/reading this?

I'll go back to watching John Wayne movies or reading Robert Jordan- you know, the stuff that makes you feel 'positive' emotions, no matter how quaint that is in our particular society.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 09, 2017 08:40 PM (ycWCI)

317 What I find hilarious (in a grim way) is that this is people trying to be 'edgy'. They want to stay away from stories and plots that are 'trite' 'classic' or whatever. The thing is people: There is a reason those stories are classics and legendary- they resonate for people.

I agree whole-heartedly. Its like painters and musicians who decided all those rules and all that beauty and order was passe, that they needed to do something new and different and more "real" and ended up with nonsense and trash.

Yes you can bend or break rules in art. But if you bend or break all of them without anything better to offer, all you have is brokenness.

The problem is, when you reject every concept of badness (he hung out with bad people, he's just different, who am I to judge, its his narrative, there are no absolutes) then you can't even know what good is any longer. There are no heroes any more, just people who try to protect themselves or react to very bad situations.

Look at what they did to Captain America. He went from a hero who fought evil because it was evil to someone who didn't like "bullies."

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 08:40 PM (39g3+)

318 Uncle Harvey and Tom Servo, also hmmm... :-)

(My 'hmmm's are good, by the way)

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 08:40 PM (eMKNe)

319 Speaking of Kubrick, Eyes Wide Shut might fit the bill - who is likable in that film? I recently rewatched it for the first time since it first came out. Originally hated it; enjoyed it this time. Age (and maybe a decade plus of marriage) perhaps changed my perspective?

Posted by: Bear with Assymetrical Balls at December 09, 2017 08:41 PM (H5knJ)

320 Yep, Slim Pickens was committed.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 08:41 PM (pV/54)

321 284 277 I like Sicario, but then I don't really see del Toro's character as unlikable or even as a villain.
Posted by: Bear with Assymetrical Balls at December 09, 2017 08:27 PM (H5knJ)

He was ruthless but not exactly villainous. The whole movie was about having to bad things to stop even worse things.
Posted by: Insomniac - Nobody in Particular at December 09, 2017 08:30 PM (NWiLs)

Del Toro had some of the best lines in the movie.
You will not survive here
You are not a Wolf
And This is a land Wolves now.

Those lines explain the Female FBI

Did they ever explain all the dead bodies in the walls and why they were the Result?

Posted by: Patrick From Ohio at December 09, 2017 08:41 PM (dKiJG)

322 You are suppose to hate the characters in Fear the Walking Dead.

Posted by: Walter White at December 09, 2017 08:41 PM (QGf75)

323 about Jimmy Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence.

I can't stand Stoddard in that movie. Not from the first clip.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 08:37 PM

===

Interesting perspective. The movie is about the confusion about who is heroic. Before you see it, you think the title refers to Stoddard. Afterward, you have a different idea.

On the one hand, civilization ruins the West. On the other, it is inevitable. Whatcha gonna do?

Print the legend, I guess.

Posted by: Texican (ette) at December 09, 2017 08:42 PM (CjE8v)

324 Look at what they did to Captain America. He went from a hero who fought evil because it was evil to someone who didn't like "bullies."
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 08:40 PM (39g3+)

I actually think they did a decent job with Captain America. Especially compared to the other superhero movies.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 09, 2017 08:43 PM (ycWCI)

325 Texican, yup.

Liberty Valance had an ahead-of-its-time theme and moral, IMHO.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 08:43 PM (eMKNe)

326 322 You are suppose to hate the characters in Fear the Walking Dead.
Posted by: Walter White at December 09, 2017 08:41 PM (QGf75)

PEOPLE are the REAL monsters man!

Posted by: George Romero at December 09, 2017 08:43 PM (ycWCI)

327 Did they ever explain all the dead bodies in the walls and why they were the Result?
Posted by: Patrick From Ohio

Dead bodies necessary for wall. Make strong foundation.

Posted by: The Chinese at December 09, 2017 08:44 PM (5wCUq)

328 Also Loki from Avengers and Thor is an interesting detestable character.

Posted by: Count de Monet at December 09, 2017 08:44 PM (QLvwG)

329
Ficus fouler sock off.

Put "Dr. Strangelove pie fight scene" in Google. You can read a description of it, and see stills. There's one of George C. as Gen. Buck Turgidson covered in pie mess.

They cut it out. Me, I think they should've left it in. As the nukes are going off, our Top Men are in a pie fight in the War Room.

Posted by: publius, the Persistent Poperin Pear at December 09, 2017 08:44 PM (8O3HH)

330 Look at No Country For Old Men. The hero is just a guy who stole money from a drug buy that went wrong. The villain is portrayed as the hero who wins in the end by killing every single person that he meets and getting away with the money.

And the cop for whom the movie is named does nothing, helps no one, solves nothing and spends the movie complaining about how bad things are getting -- and he's right -- but the film ends with a slam on his entire case by another old guy saying "well things have always been awful, this old west story about pointless horror."

Its soulless. Even films like The Avengers, the bad guys they fight are usually created or forced by their own actions. They make their enemies then have to fight them. Loki's not bad he just feels rejected and unloved! The only classic bad guy is in Ant Man, where he's created by the very guy who makes Ant Man.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 08:45 PM (39g3+)

331 At this point I'd like to congratulate y'all on getting past 300 comments on a Movie Thread with no one mentioning Blade Runner.

Posted by: Hands Solo at December 09, 2017 08:46 PM (EzdLW)

332
IOW, George C. Scott looked like Harvey's ficus.

Posted by: publius, the Persistent Poperin Pear at December 09, 2017 08:46 PM (8O3HH)

333 Interesting perspective. The movie is about the confusion about who is heroic. Before you see it, you think the title refers to Stoddard. Afterward, you have a different idea.

First time I saw that movie was on LaserDisc (yeah). I was in late Elementary School.

I didn't like the way he strolls his ass in there and starts ordering people around about "put on his boots" and such. He's not a big dude.

And then they flash-back.

I didn't like him from the word go in that movie. Jimmie Stewart the man ... seems like a hell of a dude from all accounts.

But I hated Stoddard from the first time I saw him.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 08:47 PM (fiGNd)

334 Hands Solo, I almost did. :-)

I've noticed atmosphere was a big deal in numerous early 1980s films, including Blade Runner and Local Hero. They almost literally *take you into the picture.*

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 08:47 PM (eMKNe)

335 326 322 You are suppose to hate the characters in Fear the Walking Dead.
Posted by: Walter White at December 09, 2017 08:41 PM (QGf75)

PEOPLE are the REAL monsters man!
Posted by: George Romero at December 09, 2017 08:43 PM (ycWCI)

There's a good case for reliability instead of likability being the key trait.

Not only did I hate all of the characters and wanted to see them die,

which I might actually have hung around for

but I couldn't relate to any of the characters at all.

They all seem to have been written by Martians. Stupid actions by insanely stupid people.

I gave up after 3-4 shows.

Posted by: naturalfake at December 09, 2017 08:47 PM (9q7Dl)

336 Christopher, I agree that NCFOM is kind of unclassifiable in terms of the type of story it tells. I don't know if I've ever seen or heard of a story that's similar.

It's almost more of an illustrated essay, than a whole and complete story.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 08:48 PM (eMKNe)

337
That would work today.

I can easily see our Deep State Top Men having a pie fight in Weather Mountain while nuclear Armageddon goes off.

Of just jacking off all over each other.

Posted by: publius, the Persistent Poperin Pear at December 09, 2017 08:48 PM (8O3HH)

338 I actually think they did a decent job with Captain America.

They did, but at the same time they kinda proved they don't really understand what makes him tick. The actor seems to, but the writers don't. Someone who just doesn't like bullies wouldn't jump on a grenade or sacrifice himself to stop that bomber. It goes a lot deeper than that.

Braveheart, the hero screams freedom at the end (when all they wanted in real life was self government), but what does that mean? In the context its just "freedom to not have your wife humped by an English Lord." There's no discussion or understanding of rights or liberty, its just a really long revenge story that tacks freedom on at the end.

Nobody understands good or evil, or heroism in Hollywood any longer, so they can't really write them any more.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 08:49 PM (39g3+)

339 hey make their enemies then have to fight them. Loki's not bad he just feels rejected and unloved! The only classic bad guy is in Ant Man, where he's created by the very guy who makes Ant Man.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor

I mean, I say "I made you" you gotta say "you made me." I mean, how childish can you get?
You wouldn't hit a guy with glasses, would ya?

Posted by: Jack Nicholson as The Joker at December 09, 2017 08:49 PM (5wCUq)

340 Kaiser Soze is the quintessential evil character, but the most subversive thing about "Usual Suspects" is how it works to get you to admire his intelligence, his determination, his abilities. He is evil through and through, but you at the ned you're thinking "wow, he really IS better than everyone else."

I also think we could have a fun thread on all the comments dropped throughout that film hinting that Kaiser Soze is Satan himself. One thought - everyone ever associated with Kaiser in any way is eventually destroyed, but Kaiser always walks away without a scratch, and without a care.

Posted by: Tom Servo at December 09, 2017 08:49 PM (V2Yro)

341 Never watched the whole thing all the way through, so for the first time in my life I am finally watching It's a Wonderful Life. Love it so far!

Posted by: Jewells45can handle your jewels at December 09, 2017 08:49 PM (CNHr1)

342 We're interviewing candidates to write a screenplay based on the cookbook.

Posted by: Weasel at December 09, 2017 08:49 PM (Sfs6o)

343 The villain is portrayed as the hero who wins in the end by killing every single person that he meets and getting away with the money.

++++

Much of what you say is true, but Chigurh was not portrayed as a hero. Never, not in any part of the movie. Yes, he won, but it takes more than winning to be the hero.

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at December 09, 2017 08:50 PM (pvjTE)

344 Dead bodies necessary for wall. Make strong foundation.

"They make really good mortar"
Spartans

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 08:50 PM (39g3+)

345 @330 Its soulless. Even films like The Avengers, the bad guys they fight are usually created or forced by their own actions. They make their enemies then have to fight them. Loki's not bad he just feels rejected and unloved! The only classic bad guy is in Ant Man, where he's created by the very guy who makes Ant Man.
----------------

Red Skull?

It's made clear in the movie that he was a pretty nasty piece of work even before he used the super-soldier formula. The formula just made him worse.

Also, Obediah Stane in the first Iron Man movie.

Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 08:50 PM (YZveB)

346 It's worth it to get to Season 3 of Fear. By far the best.

Posted by: Walter White at December 09, 2017 08:50 PM (QGf75)

347
Speaking of pie fights, Moe Howard, Moe of Three Stooges fame, was the undisputed champion pie thrower.

He was the one to call when you wanted to stage a pie fight. He could throw pies with perfect aim.

Posted by: publius, the Persistent Poperin Pear at December 09, 2017 08:51 PM (8O3HH)

348 Weasel, I volunteer!

"IN A WORLD where flavorless fast food and SJW chefs have ruined American cuisine, ONE HORDE dared to enter the kitchen with no pants on..."

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 08:51 PM (eMKNe)

349 Look at No Country For Old Men. The hero is just a guy who stole money from a drug buy that went wrong.

Well ... I reckon an upstanding palladin like yourself would have put out an ad in the local publication, returning the ill-gotten gains to their rightful first point of theft.

Dude was, after all, just out hunting deer. Then again, a cat prowling around in the desert like that probably got what he had coming.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 08:51 PM (fiGNd)

350 >>I believe that the insistence on a "likable" protagonist is more or less a triumph of the Left.

Think it's more their insistence that the evil guy is the main character and they get you to root for him, empathize, maybe even like him - Tony Soprano, Dexter, Walter White, etc. Their idea of complexity or edgy is to elevate the bad/mostly bad person and mock the better person/typical hero. They're not too interested in taking a good but flawed person who works hard, achieves - no, they want to take a serial killer and make you root for him.

Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 08:52 PM (W+vEI)

351 Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 08:45 PM (39g3+)

Is it nihilism, CRT? That's what I'd been thinking of, but "soulless" is an good description. I hate stories with that big nothing in them. I can deal with an unlikeable, even evil, main character, but not with an unlikeable, even evil theme / worldview / ethos or whatever you call it.

Posted by: Hands Solo at December 09, 2017 08:52 PM (EzdLW)

352 >>ONE HORDE dared to enter the kitchen with no pants on..."

Been there, done that.

Posted by: Celebrity Chef John Besh at December 09, 2017 08:52 PM (8O3HH)

353
348 Weasel, I volunteer!

"IN A WORLD where flavorless fast food and SJW chefs have ruined American cuisine, ONE HORDE dared to enter the kitchen with no pants on..."
Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 08:51 PM (eMKNe)
------
You're hired!

Posted by: Weasel at December 09, 2017 08:52 PM (Sfs6o)

354

Weasel, I would like to write the pie-fight scene for the near-end of the cookbook movie. It will need to include sailors being cast into a ravine to be devoured by giant spiders and the internal-to-external parasitic devouring of a Hitlery-like character. PG-13 at least.

Posted by: In Vino Veritits at December 09, 2017 08:52 PM (T/KY7)

355 The Walking Dead I can't figure out. Its just slow and unlikable, the characters do ridiculous, undefendable stuff, contradict themselves constantly, the zombies are apparently able to teleport around undetectably despite being literally made up of rotting meat, and the group is just surviving without any purpose or meaning. They all know in the end they're doomed to be zombies anyway, there's no purpose, no hope, nothing to their entire existence. Why do people even like this show??

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 08:53 PM (39g3+)

356 I like Lindsey Vonn in Wipe Out On Karma Mountain.
Hahahahahah. It's a comedy. I hope Tigers ex cockholster misses the games altogether.

Posted by: Minnfidel at December 09, 2017 08:53 PM (L3YlV)

357 We're interviewing candidates to write a screenplay based on the cookbook.
Posted by: Weasel

Brian Dennehy to play the table.

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 08:54 PM (5wCUq)

358 My first official writing assignment! Gotta call WGA!... ;-)

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 08:54 PM (eMKNe)

359 Well ... I reckon an upstanding palladin like yourself would have put out an ad in the local publication, returning the ill-gotten gains to their rightful first point of theft.

The point is that he's not a good guy. He's just a guy. He's not even really given any real character, just the fellow who got some money and failed to get anywhere with it. Its meaningless.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 08:54 PM (39g3+)

360 If the writers and producers are not using Fear TWD to merge with TWD, then they will have wasted all of the fan base time. It would be pointless.

Posted by: Walter White at December 09, 2017 08:55 PM (QGf75)

361 @355 They all know in the end they're doomed to be zombies anyway, there's no purpose, no hope, nothing to their entire existence. Why do people even like this show??
------------------

Why do people like zombie stories to begin with? That's pretty much the plot of almost every zombie story.

One notable exception is Ringo's "Black Tide Rising" series. And incidentally, it's the only zombie series that I like.

Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 08:55 PM (YZveB)

362 Barry Lyndon, he's such an asshole

Posted by: Patrick From Ohio at December 09, 2017 08:55 PM (dKiJG)

363 It Was a Pleasure to Cook.

Fahrenheit Ace-Oh-One

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 08:55 PM (fiGNd)

364 Posted by: In Vino Veritits at December 09, 2017 08:52 PM (T/KY7)
----11-
OK. We're going to need some big car chase scenes, too.

Posted by: Weasel at December 09, 2017 08:55 PM (Sfs6o)

365 350 >>I believe that the insistence on a "likable" protagonist is more or less a triumph of the Left.

Think it's more their insistence that the evil guy is the main character and they get you to root for him, empathize, maybe even like him - Tony Soprano, Dexter, Walter White, etc. Their idea of complexity or edgy is to elevate the bad/mostly bad person and mock the better person/typical hero. They're not too interested in taking a good but flawed person who works hard, achieves - no, they want to take a serial killer and make you root for him.
Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 08:52 PM (W+vEI)

That's an interesting way to see it.

You may be right.

Posted by: naturalfake at December 09, 2017 08:55 PM (9q7Dl)

366 @350 Think it's more their insistence that the evil guy is the main character and they get you to root for him, empathize, maybe even like him - Tony Soprano, Dexter, Walter White, etc.
-----------------------

I vaguely recall reading that the guy who created Breaking Bad *didn't* want people rooting for Walter White, and was rather disturbed when they started doing so.

Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 08:56 PM (YZveB)

367 for the first time in my life I am finally watching It's a Wonderful Life. Love it so far!
Posted by: Jewells45can handle your jewels at December 09, 2017 08:49 PM (CNHr1)

The first time? Wow, you might really be 29.

That movie's in my all time top 10. Fundamental decency without being too maudlin or too simplistic. Even Mr. Potter -- he's a bad man, but at least he's still a part of a universe where there is good and bad.

Posted by: Hands Solo at December 09, 2017 08:56 PM (EzdLW)

368 There's something not of this world in the Chigurh character. When he's around there's Bad Fate. Bad shit may happen, and it's a flip of a coin.

He will sometimes give you an offer -- that's the best I can do -- that gets rejected, leaving you worse off.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 08:58 PM (pV/54)

369 Barry Lyndon, he's such an asshole

Posted by: Patrick From Ohio at December 09, 2017 08:55 PM

Hmmmmm.... Yeah, he's not exactly mr. stand-up-guy.

Posted by: otho at December 09, 2017 08:58 PM (qGuLD)

370 Its meaningless.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 08:54 PM (39g3+)

Well fuck ... so's talking about Ladies Panties and Bras instead of Politics, I guess.

Sometimes I just enjoy the Mindless Diversion. Guilty Pleasure, I suppose.

Better Minds surely look down upon the waste of time.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 08:58 PM (fiGNd)

371 This is an interesting line of discussion CRT, someone mentioned that Wonder Woman was one of the more 'heroic' of the superhero movie heroes. It also had a classic monolithic villain.

The movie... is not bad. For myself it feels like a poorly done Captain America (not counting the last act of Captain America when things get weird.)

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 09, 2017 08:58 PM (ycWCI)

372

Car chases, yes, Death Race 2000 meets It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World... got it... Fire ladder trucks with swinging ladders fitted with chainsaws... points and tally boards for running down progtards... like it!

Posted by: In Vino Veritits at December 09, 2017 08:58 PM (T/KY7)

373 who do you root for in Dr. Strangelove?
-----
Peter Sellers!!!

Posted by: andycanuck at December 09, 2017 08:58 PM (QCX64)

374 Apropos of this discussion: It's a Wonderful Life bombed at the box office. People did not want to see a movie this hard to understand.

Also, at a film retrospective of his work, THIS is the movie Capra wanted shown the night he attended. This one.

Posted by: Texican (ette) at December 09, 2017 08:59 PM (CjE8v)

375 I vaguely recall reading that the guy who created Breaking Bad *didn't* want people rooting for Walter White, and was rather disturbed when they started doing so.
Posted by: junior

I think they wanted to take Hank from lovable goofball to people rooting for him.

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 08:59 PM (5wCUq)

376 Actually a little, just a little, in Portsmouth/Norfolk VA

Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 09, 2017 08:59 PM (8tky7)

377 Scarlette O'Hara was not beautiful, but she was a One.

Gone With the Scogg

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 09:00 PM (fiGNd)

378
Why do people like zombie stories to begin with? That's pretty much the plot of almost every zombie story.

One notable exception is Ringo's "Black Tide Rising" series. And incidentally, it's the only zombie series that I like.

Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 08:55 PM (YZveB)

++++

I agree with you about zombie stories. Just don't finf them believable, so I can't get into them.

My exception was the dark comedy The Revenant. Just worked for me, for whatever reason. The end was amusing as well.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1336006/

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at December 09, 2017 09:00 PM (FUu/Z)

379 Okay guys, at this rate with these scenes, the budget's gonna be somewhere around $200 million.

The only guy in Hollywood with that kind of cash right now is... Harvey Weinstein. Now, I'm good at dressing up in drag but not THAT good... :-P

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 09:00 PM (eMKNe)

380 Heh.

Just found out that the Navy side of the stadium during the Army/Navy football game had a sign hanging in the stands that said "Not Communist".

Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 09:00 PM (YZveB)

381 I thought the writers of the Sopranos did a great job that later shows haven't gotten right. They took essentially bad people, showed them to be human, and gave them conflicts and experiences that were very normal to show them as being not entirely bad. Tony Soprano's woes with his family were all too familiar and often funny. Just trying to get his loser son to not be such a waste of skin was a story in its self.

Tony was a bad guy, but he had good foundations and work ethic. He just couldn't pass on any of that to his family because of his bad side as well. He had virtues like loyalty, but they were twisted by the work he did and the choices he made and in the end doomed them all.

It was well done, it didn't just sink everyone who watched into a pool of misery and filth, it gave moments of truth and justice and goodness as well. It showed the cost and the meaning of badness, which goodness can be contrasted with.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 09:01 PM (39g3+)

382 The Bra of Alex fled across the Board, and the ScoggDog followed.

The ScoggSlinger

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 09:01 PM (fiGNd)

383 Why do people like zombie stories to begin with? That's pretty much the plot of almost every zombie story.

One notable exception is Ringo's "Black Tide Rising" series. And incidentally, it's the only zombie series that I like.
Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 08:55 PM (YZveB)

Because Zombies are good villain material. Completely implacable, they can be fought, but there are always more of them than there are of you. They can be a great story 'setting', because of what they can allow you to do with characters and so forth. The problem is that Walking Dead seems to have a problem in actually writing characters that think and react rationally. Plus, it drifted from drama into melodrama.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 09, 2017 09:01 PM (ycWCI)

384 Bob Menery calls the play-by-play on The Walking Dead ( language NSFW )

https://youtu.be/HlgK4ax0IgQ

Posted by: Hands Solo at December 09, 2017 09:02 PM (EzdLW)

385
Car chases, yes, Death Race 2000 meets It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World... got it... Fire ladder trucks with swinging ladders fitted with chainsaws... points and tally boards for running down progtards... like it!
Posted by: In Vino Veritits at December 09, 2017 08:58 PM (T/KY7)
---------
Do we want to incorporate dream sequences where the car chases fade into musical sequences like in ThemSound of,Music?

Posted by: Weasel at December 09, 2017 09:02 PM (Sfs6o)

386 This is an interesting line of discussion CRT, someone mentioned that Wonder Woman was one of the more 'heroic' of the superhero movie heroes. It also had a classic monolithic villain.

I haven't seen it yet but I have heard that it is uplifting and the heroine is a genuinely good person trying to do right in a bad place, against real evil. That's pretty fresh, particularly for DC which is a moral swamp in the movies.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 09:02 PM (39g3+)

387 >>> I vaguely recall reading that the guy who created Breaking Bad *didn't* want people rooting for Walter White, and was rather disturbed when they started doing so.

I grew to hate the character. I liked Mikey.

Posted by: fluffy at December 09, 2017 09:02 PM (cHbmY)

388 An interesting film re: who's the good/better guy is "After the Wedding."
It's a drama, but it has an interesting juxtaposition between two lead characters. The main character is the ultimate do-gooder: he has worked on various NGO type projects all his life like getting a town clean water, but has never really accomplished much. Then he's invited to meet with a mega-rich builder who offers him everything he wants...with strings...an opportunity to really make a difference.

Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 09:02 PM (W+vEI)

389 In a basement in the ground there lived a Scogg.

The Scoggitt, JRR ScoggKein

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 09:03 PM (fiGNd)

390 andycanuck, right, except that Sellers' early character in the film (Mandrake?) is so ineffectual it's comic.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 09:03 PM (eMKNe)

391 Car chases, yes, Death Race 2000 meets It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World... got it... Fire ladder trucks with swinging ladders fitted with chainsaws... points and tally boards for running down progtards... like it!
Posted by: In Vino Veritits

And lots of Kaiju stomping on San Fransisco.

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 09:03 PM (5wCUq)

392 I vaguely recall reading that the guy who created Breaking Bad *didn't* want people rooting for Walter White, and was rather disturbed when they started doing so.

BS look at the premise they start with, the guy has terminal cancer, no money, no insurance, and doesn't want to leave his wife destitute. What's he going to do? At that point anything he does is justified in the minds of liberal leftists.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at December 09, 2017 09:03 PM (KdDCu)

393 OK. We're going to need some big car chase scenes, too.

Posted by: Weasel at December 09, 2017 08:55 PM (Sfs6o)

We're on it!

Posted by: Stunt Crew for The Blues Brothers No, the good one at December 09, 2017 09:03 PM (QLvwG)

394 Okay guys, at this rate with these scenes, the budget's gonna be somewhere around $200 million.

The only guy in Hollywood with that kind of cash right now is... Harvey Weinstein. Now, I'm good at dressing up in drag but not THAT good... :-P

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 09:00 PM

I'll back your movie. But I want someone fighting a killer octopus and for it to end with a big explosion.... oh, and a giant mechanical spider in it.

Posted by: otho at December 09, 2017 09:03 PM (qGuLD)

395 Why do people even like this show??
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor
------------

The suspense of waiting to see if Daryl will ever get a shower/shave/haircut. The anticipation is nerve racking.

That, and waiting for Carol/Ezekiel story to transmutate into a bodice-ripper.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 09, 2017 09:04 PM (w1zJX)

396 I'll back your movie. But I want someone fighting a killer octopus and for it to end with a big explosion.... oh, and a giant mechanical spider in it.

And this is how you get Wild, Wild West

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 09:04 PM (39g3+)

397 The James Madison -

I haven't seen you in the comments for a while. Do you just do cob stuff now?

Posted by: grammie winger at December 09, 2017 09:04 PM (lwiT4)

398 And cameos for Godzirra.

Posted by: Weasel at December 09, 2017 09:05 PM (Sfs6o)

399 @386 I haven't seen it yet but I have heard that it is uplifting and the heroine is a genuinely good person trying to do right in a bad place, against real evil. That's pretty fresh, particularly for DC which is a moral swamp in the movies.
---------------------

She's a bit na�ve, and the movie doesn't mind showing that. But yeah, it's a movie where there's no doubt who the good guys are.

Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 09:05 PM (YZveB)

400 Hands Solo.. don't know why, I just never took the time to watch it. But I can certainly see why it's a favorite. My BIL watches it every year without fail.

Posted by: Jewells45can handle your jewels at December 09, 2017 09:05 PM (CNHr1)

401 Hope you all have excellent credit...

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 09:05 PM (eMKNe)

402 384 Bob Menery calls the play-by-play on The Walking Dead ( language NSFW )

https://youtu.be/HlgK4ax0IgQ
Posted by: Hands Solo at December 09, 2017 09:02 PM (EzdLW)

Ok, that was funny.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 09, 2017 09:05 PM (ycWCI)

403 Their idea of complexity or edgy is to elevate the bad/mostly bad person and mock the better person/typical hero.
Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 08:52 PM (W+vEI)

You're channeling Evan Sayet, Lizzy. Good on ya.

Posted by: Hands Solo at December 09, 2017 09:05 PM (EzdLW)

404 The zombie apocalypse is a common gaming theme, board and miniatures, video as well but don't follow that.

Posted by: Skip at December 09, 2017 09:05 PM (aC6Sd)

405 It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times.

A Tale of Two Scoggy's

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 09:05 PM (fiGNd)

406 396 I'll back your movie. But I want someone fighting a killer octopus and for it to end with a big explosion.... oh, and a giant mechanical spider in it.

And this is how you get Wild, Wild West
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 09:04 PM (39g3+)

I was thinking Snakes on a Plane.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 09, 2017 09:06 PM (ycWCI)

407 I typed three Christmas sermons today and I'm halfway thru a bottle of Reisling. What's interesting on this thread? I'll skip to that.

Posted by: grammie winger at December 09, 2017 09:06 PM (lwiT4)

408 The Sopranos was meant to be the anti-Godfather.

The Godfather is a great flick, but it's conceit is to make you think the Corleones were noble, and to draw you in to root for the Family.

Tony Soprano is charismatic and seductive, but David Chase never stops reminding you what a scumbag he is, and how hypocritical his family is.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 09:07 PM (pV/54)

409 I hated Skylar White in Breaking Bad. In some ways she was just as bad as Walter. Plus she was stupid, bitchy and annoying as hell.

Posted by: Insomniac - Nobody in Particular at December 09, 2017 09:07 PM (NWiLs)

410 Car chases, yes, Death Race 2000 meets It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World... got it... Fire ladder trucks with swinging ladders fitted with chainsaws... points and tally boards for running down progtards... like it!
Posted by: In Vino Veritits
------------

People just outrunning explosions, so that they are actually lifted and blown clear by the blast.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 09, 2017 09:07 PM (w1zJX)

411 Never watched the whole thing all the way through, so for the first time in my life I am finally watching It's a Wonderful Life. Love it so far!
Posted by: Jewells45can handle your jewels at December 09, 2017 08:49 PM (CNHr1)

The Brother is an asshole, fucks his older brother so many times.

Posted by: Patrick From Ohio at December 09, 2017 09:07 PM (dKiJG)

412 I'm not religious ... but I'd like to see Grammie's typing on those sermons.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 09:08 PM (fiGNd)

413 I only watched a few episodes of Seinfeld for this very reason. Not a damn thing likable about any of the characters.

Posted by: tankdemon at December 09, 2017 09:08 PM (aD9zJ)

414 >> They took essentially bad people, showed them to be human, and gave
them conflicts and experiences that were very normal to show them as
being not entirely bad.

I get that, but why can't you take a mostly good person who has to deal with flaws and challenges to his goodness? Instead, they want to normalize the criminal.

The movie I mentioned above, "After the Wedding," is an example of taking a good guy - someone whom a Hollywood movie always makes a slam-dunk one-dimensional saint and then they peel away at the choices he's made to do good, and you see that it's not so simple.

Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 09:08 PM (W+vEI)

415 I vaguely recall reading that the guy who created Breaking Bad *didn't* want people rooting for Walter White, and was rather disturbed when they started doing so.

Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 08:56 PM (YZveB)

++++

Seems odd he would feel that way. Walter White started out as a respectable citizen. High school teacher, family man, baby on the way, disabled son that he provided for, etc. He is someone you should be willing to like.

The story is about his decline into criminality and depravity, but it occurs in steps. Since you already like him, it's not so hard to overlook his initial minor bad deeds. By the time he is doing the really bad stuff, people had already been liking him for awhile.

Now his bitch wife and that annoying son of his... How anyone could ever like them I will never understand.

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at December 09, 2017 09:09 PM (FUu/Z)

416
People just outrunning explosions, so that they are actually lifted and blown clear by the blast.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 09, 2017 09:07 PM (w1zJX)
--------
It's always pretty funny when the explosion people land in a heap a little bit on fire.

Posted by: Weasel at December 09, 2017 09:09 PM (Sfs6o)

417 Scogg, LOL.

"God is My Drinking Buddy" ;-)

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 09:10 PM (eMKNe)

418 I'm not religious ... but I'd like to see Grammie's typing on those sermons.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 09:08 PM (fiGNd)
==================

Rev came home and said he got the final copy of the Christmas Eve sermon I emailed him. I said, you did? What's it about?

No recollection of anything that happened more than 15 minutes ago.

Posted by: grammie winger at December 09, 2017 09:10 PM (lwiT4)

419 Now his bitch wife and that annoying son of his... How anyone could ever like them I will never understand.

Walter Jr. is the most annoying character in that entire show.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at December 09, 2017 09:11 PM (zmvwV)

420 Also hated Gwyneth in Se7en. What an awful human being.

Posted by: Insomniac - Nobody in Particular at December 09, 2017 09:11 PM (NWiLs)

421 I get that, but why can't you take a mostly good person who has to deal with flaws and challenges to his goodness? Instead, they want to normalize the criminal.

Sure, that happens, but that's not what Sopranos was about. David Chase came from writing Rockford Files, and moved from the Sopranos to Blue Bloods. He has stories to tell and a strong foundation in doing right and good. Sometimes that's best done by showing the bad guys -- if you can do it right. Unlike a lot of mob shows (like, Boardwalk Empire for example) the Sopranos existed in a better world, and it showed through their evil, highlighting it for what it really was.

Their shadow showed the light.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 09:11 PM (39g3+)

422 Tony Soprano is charismatic and seductive, but David
Chase never stops reminding you what a scumbag he is, and how
hypocritical his family is.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 09:07 PM (pV/54)

I never liked, at all, Carmela Soprano. Did not believe for a second that Furio had any attraction to her. Or the drunken priest. Or Tony for that matter.

Posted by: Count de Monet at December 09, 2017 09:11 PM (QLvwG)

423 No recollection of anything that happened more than 15 minutes ago.
Posted by: grammie winger at December 09, 2017 09:10 PM (lwiT4)

Alcohol induced amnesia?

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 09, 2017 09:11 PM (ycWCI)

424 The Igno-Son keeps making fun of me for missing the "I'm the one who knocks scene" in Breaking Bad."

That's because I use to DVR the episodes and skip through the Skyler scenes.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 09:11 PM (pV/54)

425 With all the awesomeness going into "Cookbook: The Movie" we're going to have to throw some beefcake to the 'ettes. Maybe a handsome Prince that makes it with all the hotties.
If only we had a Prince...

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 09:11 PM (5wCUq)

426 Why do people like zombie stories to begin with? That's pretty much the plot of almost every zombie story.

One notable exception is Ringo's "Black Tide Rising" series. And incidentally, it's the only zombie series that I like.
Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 08:55 PM (YZveB)

Because George Romero. Social commentary, man! It's literally a METAPHOR for the whole capitalist / consumerist SYSTEM. You far right wingers just don't get it.

Posted by: progtard zombie fan at December 09, 2017 09:11 PM (EzdLW)

427 @409 - I was kinda hoping Walt would off her. And Pinkman.

That's always my complaint with these shows though: "Why isn't he killing [insert annoying shitbird here]."

Posted by: Bear with Assymetrical Balls at December 09, 2017 09:12 PM (H5knJ)

428 No recollection of anything that happened more than 15 minutes ago.
Posted by: grammie winger at December 09, 2017 09:10 PM (lwiT4)

No shit ?

Guess I'm free and clear for the next 900 seconds.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 09:12 PM (fiGNd)

429 420 Also hated Gwyneth in Se7en. What an awful human being.
Posted by: Insomniac - Nobody in Particular at December 09, 2017 09:11 PM (NWiLs)

She seems all right, kind of just a cardboard cutout of a human being to stand in for the character. Or maybe that was just Gwyneth Paltrow.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 09, 2017 09:12 PM (ycWCI)

430 Alcohol induced amnesia?

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 09, 2017 09:11 PM (ycWCI)
==========================

Typing induced amnesia.

Alcohol is the remedy.

What's that?

Posted by: grammie winger at December 09, 2017 09:12 PM (lwiT4)

431
Steve, I'll throw in a few bucks too.

But you're gonna need to write in a busty lesbo scene or two.

Posted by: publius, the Persistent Poperin Pear at December 09, 2017 09:13 PM (8O3HH)

432 Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 09:11 PM (5wCUq)
------
Yes. Casting is always difficult.

Posted by: Weasel at December 09, 2017 09:13 PM (Sfs6o)

433 Tony Soprano is charismatic and seductive, but David Chase never stops reminding you what a scumbag he is, and how hypocritical his family is.

I tried to do that with Life Unworthy. Its not easy writing Nazis, but I tried really hard to make them likable or at least understandable at times, because I think that makes the evil they do all the worse. In particularly I tried to make the main Nazi bad guy somewhat like a knight in a bad situation but then kept reminding readers what an evil piece of work he was. I think bad guys are more effective that way: not a one dimensional moustache twirler, but something deeper and more complex.

Why did so many people go so badly so suddenly in Germany? Not because they are uniquely evil or something is innately flawed in Germans.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 09:13 PM (39g3+)

434 Think I found an existing script I can rip off.

It's titled "Heaven's Gate 2: Electric Boogaloo"

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 09:14 PM (eMKNe)

435 Harvey Dent is the Protagonist in The Dark Knight. He is not likable at all.

Posted by: Walter White at December 09, 2017 09:14 PM (QGf75)

436 vaguely recall reading that the guy who created Breaking Bad *didn't* want people rooting for Walter White, and was rather disturbed when they started doing so.
Posted by: junior at December 09, 2017 08:56 PM (YZveB)

Reminds me of RollerBall, between takes the extras played the game and were having fun

Posted by: Patrick From Ohio at December 09, 2017 09:14 PM (dKiJG)

437 414 >> They took essentially bad people, showed them to be human, and gave
them conflicts and experiences that were very normal to show them as
being not entirely bad.

I get that, but why can't you take a mostly good person who has to deal with flaws and challenges to his goodness? Instead, they want to normalize the criminal.

The movie I mentioned above, "After the Wedding," is an example of taking a good guy - someone whom a Hollywood movie always makes a slam-dunk one-dimensional saint and then they peel away at the choices he's made to do good, and you see that it's not so simple.
Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 09:08 PM (W+vEI)

Yes!!!

Exactly. i find that a far more compelling story as well as a way to tell a story than Goody Two-Shoes is good, and Baddy Two-Shoes is just fascinating.

Posted by: naturalfake at December 09, 2017 09:15 PM (9q7Dl)

438 Ugh. My Internet's been bunged up all day, my ISP apparently suffered somewhat from last night's weather. WHen your upload is faster than download it kinda hampers things...

Posted by: Brother Cavil, this space for rent! Call 1-800-MORON-AD for details! at December 09, 2017 09:15 PM (lLeln)

439 Deplorable the Cookbook done in the style of Spinal Tap, Best In Show, and that third one I can't remember.

Posted by: Count de Monet at December 09, 2017 09:15 PM (QLvwG)

440 publius, as long as you can get Mila Kunis and Anna Faris to play 'em...

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 09:15 PM (eMKNe)

441 >>Sure, that happens, but that's not what Sopranos was about.

It's the overall trend that I don't like, that Hollywood is more interested in the Tony Sopranos and skewering the good guys.

Aaaaaand now that the Weinstein, Spacey, Tobac, Singer, etc. stuff is coming it is a lot more obvious how much of this preference is because they're a bunch of deviants more interested in normalizing their sicko behavior. Not that we couldn't see this before...

Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 09:16 PM (W+vEI)

442 435 Harvey Dent is the Protagonist in The Dark Knight. He is not likable at all.
Posted by: Walter White at December 09, 2017 09:14 PM (QGf75)

He is supposed to be seen as an alternative to Batman. The thing is they pull no punches in making him likable. For myself, he would have been a better character if he was not getting all the accolades for saving the city AND stealing Batman's girl. It made his turn to evil/chaos more 'meh' in my opinion than it should have been. I can understand why it was done for the story, but it made the character on his own not work as well.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 09, 2017 09:16 PM (ycWCI)

443 Sometimes it's good to watch the bad guy win.

Posted by: thathalfrican - the calm before the storm at December 09, 2017 09:16 PM (IYHxL)

444 The Bada Bing is having it's liquor liscence taken away from it and will probably close

Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 09, 2017 09:16 PM (8tky7)

445 Deplorable the Cookbook done in the style of Spinal Tap, Best In Show, and that third one I can't remember.
Posted by: Count de Monet

For Your Consideration. A very underrated film.

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 09:16 PM (5wCUq)

446 Count De Monet: A Mighty Wind?

BTW, I have yet *two more* movies on DVD I can give away if anyone wants 'em:

- A Mighty Wind (new DVD, never watched/played)
- Young Doctors In Love (bought used but in excellent condition, DVD)

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 09:16 PM (eMKNe)

447 While we're on this topic we could do an entire retrospective of the Films of Kevin Spacey.

Life imitates are, no?

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 09:17 PM (pV/54)

448 BS look at the premise they start with, the guy has terminal cancer, no money, no insurance, and doesn't want to leave his wife destitute. What's he going to do? At that point anything he does is justified in the minds of liberal leftists.
Posted by: Skandia Recluse

I don't know whether it was all plotted out from the beginning, but it was an interesting look at how somebody went from being kind of a smart but scared "nobody", to a real sociopath, with a really dangerous reputation (called him "Heisenberg"). Had people killed, killed a couple of people himself. Was sort of loyal to Jesse, but Jesse, in the end, really suffered for his association with "Walter White".
In a way, it was escapism for middle class white people, who are tired of their humdrum lives, but wan t to "get even" with all the alleged bastards who wronged them.

Kind of like "Walter Mitty", who had this incredible fantasy life, but was a real wallflower in the real world.

I mean, it was funny to see how dark and demented Walter White could become, and how he managed to survive some of the scrapes with the real killer psychos he hung out with as he made crystal meth. And how he got worse, as a person, as the series progressed.

Posted by: Bozo Conservative....menace to society at December 09, 2017 09:17 PM (S6Pax)

449 Han(d) Solo?

That's another nickname for me!

Posted by: Masturbator at December 09, 2017 09:17 PM (8MK3R)

450 Se7en was an interesting experiment in storytelling, one of those "everything is on a rail" stories that the main character is manipulating everything down to the last toenail clipping to an exact end. But it has a lot of flaws under the surface to force everything to work out exactly that way.

Its a kind of ego piece, not really there for entertainment but to show how clever the filmmaker is.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 09:17 PM (39g3+)

451 We need to keep the busty lesbo scenes classy. Maybe start with a girl fight in a kitchen.

Posted by: Weasel at December 09, 2017 09:17 PM (Sfs6o)

452 Steve, I'll throw in a few bucks too.

But you're gonna need to write in a busty lesbo scene or two.
Posted by: publius, the Persistent Poperin Pear at December 09, 2017 09:13 PM (8O3HH)

I've seen some really mediocre films lifted to great heights by the addition of a well-conceived busty lesbian scene. I'd give you a few names but I don't think most of those movies actually have names.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at December 09, 2017 09:17 PM (zmvwV)

453 For Your Consideration. A very underrated film.

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 09:16 PM (5wCUq)

Thank you!

Posted by: Count de Monet at December 09, 2017 09:18 PM (QLvwG)

454 No recollection of anything that happened more than 15 minutes ago.

Posted by: grammie winger at December 09, 2017 09:10 PM (lwiT4)

Have you ever seen the movie Memento? Or maybe you have and don't have any recollection of that

Posted by: TheQuietMan at December 09, 2017 09:18 PM (SiINZ)

455 Weasel, yeah and they just happen to be wearing bikinis. And then they spill the veggie oil... :-P

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 09:18 PM (eMKNe)

456 Deplorable the Cookbook done in the style of Spinal Tap, Best In Show, and that third one I can't remember.

The Sound of Music?

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at December 09, 2017 09:18 PM (zmvwV)

457 Wild Things! A great flick IMHO

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 09:19 PM (pV/54)

458
I think Walter White was always that bad. He just found an excuse to let it loose.

Posted by: otho at December 09, 2017 09:19 PM (qGuLD)

459 If only we had a Prince...
Posted by: Prince Ludwig
-------------

A tough, but likable private detective.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 09, 2017 09:19 PM (w1zJX)

460 Its soulless. Even films like The Avengers, the bad guys they fight are usually created or forced by their own actions. They make their enemies then have to fight them. Loki's not bad he just feels rejected and unloved! The only classic bad guy is in Ant Man, where he's created by the very guy who makes Ant Man.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 08:45 PM (39g3+)

That's why Carnage is my favorite super-villain. He's just pure evil, and loves it.

Posted by: josephistan at December 09, 2017 09:19 PM (ANIFC)

461 For me the whole zombie horror thing is about how they did that. I love practical effects and TWD does that very well.

I tried to watch Z Nation on Netflix but the effects where nearly all digital and badly done so I could not make it through season 1. You can get by with second rate effects if you have either good charters or good scares but Z Nation had none of these.

If you want a good Zombie movie with so so effects Train to Busan was pretty good and getting back to the original theme of the post. It took a long time to find a character you liked in that film.

Posted by: Big V at December 09, 2017 09:19 PM (MVE/7)

462 "My pudding's alive with the Horde of Ace's"...

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 09:20 PM (eMKNe)

463 I could see Julie Andrews coming over a Alp mountain with cooking utensils in her hands

Posted by: Skip at December 09, 2017 09:20 PM (aC6Sd)

464 Aaaaaand now that the Weinstein, Spacey, Tobac, Singer, etc. stuff is coming it is a lot more obvious how much of this preference is because they're a bunch of deviants more interested in normalizing their sicko behavior. Not that we couldn't see this before...
Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 09:16 PM (W+vEI)

Ah ... come on. No less that George C Scott starred in Hardcore in '78. For cyrin' out loud, the man saved Europe !!!

This shit was a open secret - for anyone that could stand to look. They knew, we knew, they knew we knew ...

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 09:20 PM (fiGNd)

465 Have you ever seen the movie Memento? Or maybe you have and don't have any recollection of that

Posted by: TheQuietMan at December 09, 2017 09:18 PM (SiINZ)
===========================

My movie watching days pretty much stopped around 1979, so - probably not.

Posted by: grammie winger at December 09, 2017 09:20 PM (lwiT4)

466 >> Maybe start with a girl fight in a kitchen.

It's been done, but it's a winner. Yes, we start in the kitchen. Busty MILF wearing nothing but f-me heels and an apron. She's baking pie. She lets it cool in the window.

Naughty neighbor girl comes overs and steals her pie, sticking her fingers in it. She gets caught. She gets disciplined. Lots of pie spread around.

Posted by: publius, the Persistent Poperin Pear at December 09, 2017 09:20 PM (8O3HH)

467 BTW, I have yet *two more* movies on DVD I can give away if anyone wants 'em:

- A Mighty Wind (new DVD, never watched/played)

- Young Doctors In Love (bought used but in excellent condition, DVD)

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 09:16 PM (eMKNe)

Young Doctors in Love had vast tracts of land IIRC.

A Mighty Wind makes 4 of the mocumentary types.

Posted by: Count de Monet at December 09, 2017 09:20 PM (QLvwG)

468 Skip, LOL.

Just yesterday FXX ran the Simpsons episode, Sherry Bobbins.

One of my most favorite Simpsons episode endings, ever.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 09:21 PM (eMKNe)

469 The Dark Knight is really well done and entertaining but it has a few flaws.

The main one is that the Joker is supposed to be just one crazy guy without a plan, but clearly he's got a huge plan that is months into the future in every step. Plus, for being just a crazy guy with a really distinctive face, he has a magical ability to teleport explosives into very closely watched spaces without anyone noticing.

Then there's the basic problem with recasting Rachel Dawes. She was difficult to buy in her role as Katie Holmes, but at least you could believe that Bruce Wayne might have a crush on her.

No way do the two most handsome and powerful men in Gotham City fight over Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 09:21 PM (39g3+)

470 Naughty neighbor girl comes overs and steals her pie, sticking her fingers in it. She gets caught. She gets disciplined. Lots of pie spread around.
Posted by: publius, the Persistent Poperin Pear at December 09, 2017 09:20 PM (8O3HH)

Go on.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at December 09, 2017 09:21 PM (zmvwV)

471 I've been looking at Train to Busan I might have to watch that and Carnage is an awesome villain.

Posted by: thathalfrican - the calm before the storm at December 09, 2017 09:21 PM (IYHxL)

472 barry lyndon

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at December 09, 2017 09:22 PM (Pg+x7)

473 Because I love you guys, I'm willing to sacrifice my spare time to cast the busty lesbos.
Now... where's my ficus?

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 09:22 PM (5wCUq)

474 re Nightcrawler: Yeah, the creepy factor overwhelmed me; won't rewatch.

It might be one of those movies I buy but re-watch only when I'm trying to punish myself / to relearn some moral lesson. "Black Death" is another one of these.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 09, 2017 09:22 PM (6FqZa)

475 >> Go on.

That'll be $29.95. All major credit cards accepted.

Posted by: publius, the Persistent Poperin Pear at December 09, 2017 09:22 PM (8O3HH)

476 No way do the two most handsome and powerful men in Gotham City fight over Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 09:21 PM (39g3+)

Neigh.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 09, 2017 09:22 PM (ycWCI)

477 Naughty neighbor girl comes overs and steals her pie, sticking her fingers in it. She gets caught. She gets disciplined. Lots of pie spread around.
Posted by: publius, the Persistent Poperin Pear at December 09, 2017 09:20 PM (8O3HH)

Please stop. I keep throwing my credit cards at the screen - but when they bounce back, it hurts.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 09:23 PM (fiGNd)

478 Haven't zombies jumped the shark yet?

I'd like to see someone go pre-Romero and restore the zombie genre to its original Voodoo roots. One revenant, or a small group, raised from the dead against the will, and under the control of a witch doctor. White Zombie (1932) is a very eerie movie.

Instead of the same old virus-that-turns-everyone-into-slow-mo-cannibals-who-can-only-be-stopped by a head shot, versus the scrappy-band-of-post-apolcalyptic-survivors" storyline.

Posted by: Hands Solo at December 09, 2017 09:23 PM (EzdLW)

479 These scenes are always much more legit if the actresses are portraying doctors and accountants.

Posted by: Weasel at December 09, 2017 09:23 PM (Sfs6o)

480 Busty lesbian scene? Re-create the fountain / pool fight scene from Dynasty. Use the super slo-mo closeup action shots ala Avengers and 300 and the fight scene at the end of Vacation.

Posted by: Count de Monet at December 09, 2017 09:23 PM (QLvwG)

481 A Perfect World (1993) with Costner and eastwood was a good movie- escaped man with a kid hostage and his chase

Posted by: free tibet, with purchase of equal or greater value tibet at December 09, 2017 09:24 PM (CL76w)

482 >>This shit was a open secret - for anyone that could stand to look. They knew, we knew, they knew we knew ...

Oh, I know. It was there in the gossip publications, etc., but they've had the knob-gobbling MSM/entertainment press pretending they're all glamorous and oh-so saintly because of their various Lefty causes. That ginormous glass house has been smashed to pieces in the last few months.

Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 09:24 PM (W+vEI)

483
There was a scene from McCloud where Stefanie Powers and Linda Evans get in a cat fight.

Posted by: publius, the Persistent Poperin Pear at December 09, 2017 09:25 PM (8O3HH)

484 No way do the two most handsome and powerful men in Gotham City fight over Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Tee hee!

Posted by: Helen of ~~Sparta~~ Troy at December 09, 2017 09:25 PM (6FqZa)

485 Walter breaks bad by degrees. IRRC his first killing is when he can't let a drug dealer free, because he know the dealer will exact revenge. Step by step.

He's dying, but the thrill of the game first make him feel alive, and then he succumbs to the power rush.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 09:25 PM (pV/54)

486 I saw White Zombie cover Knights in White Satin at an undisclosed concert in SEC country.

Odd crowd. Most of them looked like cops.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 09:26 PM (fiGNd)

487 I think Walter White was always that bad. He just found an excuse to let it loose.
Posted by: otho

I think, underneath the facade of civilization, a lot of us (and I include myself), are tempted to do a lot of bad things. We're angry and frustrate with the world. I sometimes think some bad things about some of the people I work for.
Walter White finally gets to step over the line and be dangerous sociopath. And that's why some people who watched the show were rooting for him

Posted by: Bozo Conservative....menace to society at December 09, 2017 09:26 PM (S6Pax)

488 468 Skip, LOL.

Just yesterday FXX ran the Simpsons episode, Sherry Bobbins.

One of my most favorite Simpsons episode endings, ever.
Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 09:21 PM (eMKNe)

I love the "boozehound" song. I catch myself singing it sometimes

Posted by: josephistan at December 09, 2017 09:26 PM (ANIFC)

489 Spacey's character in Se7en would have been ... most unkind, to Spacey himself.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 09, 2017 09:27 PM (6FqZa)

490 ... actually, the narrative of a conflicted protagonist, warts and all, is pretty much the domain of english literature.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at December 09, 2017 09:27 PM (Pg+x7)

491 josephistan, oh yeah. Great song.

"Can I be a boozehound?"
"Not 'til you're fif-teeeeeen!"

I also love "Do a Half-Assed Job." ;-)

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 09:29 PM (eMKNe)

492 I thought Paltrow played a head in a box admirably well.

It's a role I'd like to see her reprise again and again.

Posted by: Bear with Assymetrical Balls at December 09, 2017 09:29 PM (H5knJ)

493 Walter White finally gets to step over the line and be dangerous sociopath. And that's why some people who watched the show were rooting for him

He was Milton's Lucifer. The screenwriters weren't subtle about it, especially toward the end when he couldn't enter a house where a cross was hung from the wall - until invited.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 09, 2017 09:29 PM (6FqZa)

494 bth, sounds like a vampire.

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 09:30 PM (eMKNe)

495 I think, underneath the facade of civilization, a lot of us (and I include myself), are tempted to do a lot of bad things.

I don't obey the law because I must. Or because I feel I should. For me, it's a day-by-day thing.

Really not meant to be a humble brag. But I think it explains part of why I'm so damn different from most other people.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 09:31 PM (fiGNd)

496 Walter White did not believe in God or that people had souls.1st season flashback.

Jesse said at the beginning people don't just break bad. 1st Season.

I'm literally the devil and evil.

Posted by: Walter White at December 09, 2017 09:31 PM (QGf75)

497 qdpsteve , people say that, but that's only became the vampire is a subset of creatures given unholy life by their master the devil.

Bram Stoker's Dracula makes this clear when Vlad renounces God so he can get revenge on the Turks.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 09, 2017 09:32 PM (6FqZa)

498 I'm not a bloody jukebox!

Posted by: Sherry Bobbins at December 09, 2017 09:32 PM (SEjl5)

499 most movies I watch are on netflix/amazon prime or the firestick through the kodi ->exodus app

I look for old movies usually, 30's- 50's.

Posted by: free tibet, with purchase of equal or greater value tibet at December 09, 2017 09:32 PM (CL76w)

500 I think Maggie Gyllenhaal owes her career to being willing to be Harvey's Ficus. Her brother, too.

Gwyenth Paltrow is tolerable in her roles, i kind of liked her in Sky Captain And The World of Tomorrow. But she's not very likable overall. I don't really like Tilda Swinton either, but she's treated as the second coming of Katherine Hepburn now.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 09:32 PM (39g3+)

501
Ah yes, Youtube comes through. Here's the catfight sceen between Stefanie Powers and Linda Evans:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrDyZ6wShyY

Posted by: publius, the Persistent Poperin Pear at December 09, 2017 09:32 PM (8O3HH)

502 Would busty, lesbian zombie "Night of the Living Dead" be a little much as a remake?

Posted by: dartist at December 09, 2017 09:33 PM (nisXv)

503 Youtube comes through. Here's the catfight sceen between Stefanie Powers and Linda Evans:

What's the Internet for?

Posted by: Trekkie Monster at December 09, 2017 09:34 PM (6FqZa)

504 Recommending a film from a mini-golden age of film, the late 40s...The Search, with Monty Clift. He grounds a film dealing with unbelievable subject matter.

Posted by: Big Fat Meanie at December 09, 2017 09:34 PM (SEjl5)

505 Heh. Spent a minute looking up Pollyana McIntosh, who plays the Landfill Queen on TWD.

As we all know, if you want a convincingly whacky character, it's best to get a genuinely whacky actor.

The only film of hers that I peeked at was called 'That Woman'. One reviewer called it "Disturbing and disgusting". Now that's a review.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 09, 2017 09:34 PM (w1zJX)

506 Googled Maggie Gyllenhaal. First ... chic must have been one hell of a speller in grade school.

Secondly ... a One.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 09:35 PM (fiGNd)

507 Skiing star Lindsey Vonn suffered a back injury during a World Cup super-G race in Switzerland Saturday, two days after she criticized President Donald Trump in an interview about next year's Winter Olympics.

Vonn crossed the finish line in obvious distress, almost one second behind the then-leader, and slumped to the snow

Is it wrong of me to be smiling?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 09, 2017 09:35 PM (8tky7)

508 Best catfight in any movie was in Undercover Brother

https://youtu.be/QK338Z4rd3M

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 09:35 PM (39g3+)

509 I reacted badly to Walter White. The final episode was horrible, and I was so glad that he was dead. I am not sure I could watch that sow a second time. On the other hand, I am thinking about watching Justified a third time.

That one worked.

Posted by: Pug Mahon at December 09, 2017 09:35 PM (bZ4w4)

510 Would busty, lesbian zombie "Night of the Living Dead" be a little much as a remake?

They already did that. Zombie Strippers, with Jenna Jameson as the villain.

It's good, btw, and not just because Jenna is in it and en fuego. It's actually funny and sort-of internally coherent.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 09, 2017 09:37 PM (6FqZa)

511 Is it wrong of me to be smiling?
Posted by: Nevergiveup

Only if you're tired of all this #Winning.

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 09:37 PM (5wCUq)

512 "Maggie Gyllenhaal" lets it all hang out as a street prostitute with aspirations in The Deuce.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 09:37 PM (pV/54)

513 I think, underneath the facade of civilization, a lot of us (and I include myself), are tempted to do a lot of bad things. We're angry and frustrate with the world. I sometimes think some bad things about some of the people I work for.
Walter White finally gets to step over the line and be dangerous sociopath. And that's why some people who watched the show were rooting for him

Posted by: Bozo Conservative....menace to society at December 09, 2017 09:26 PM

True. But, WW was more than that. He was only a "good guy", because he repressed his true nature and was in a rut that that allowed him to exist on cruise control, playing by society's rules, coz it would have required an effort and some imagination to actually let go. He was always a sociopath that was just operating on an auto pilot of normal relations. A lot of the later stuff he did wasn't just escalation of events. He would have always had that in him, but he never acted on it. This is not without precedent. A number of sociopaths/killers lived like that before finding a reason/opportunity to finally "let go". That's just my take on it, anyway.

Posted by: otho at December 09, 2017 09:37 PM (qGuLD)

514 Justified had a lot of shades of gray but overall, there was good, and there was bad. Sometimes the bad could do good things, and sometimes the good could do bad things, but the line was always there and always visible. It helped that Nick Searcy's character kept the guys grounded.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 09:38 PM (39g3+)

515 Is it wrong of me to be smiling?
Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 09, 2017 09:35 PM (8tky7)

Up to you.

But if she slumped over because of a Wisdom Tooth, and you smiled ... totally cool.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 09:38 PM (fiGNd)

516 McIntosh was in season one of Hap & Leonard; she played a sort of sociopathic Amazon. She's weird, creepy.

Posted by: Bear with Assymetrical Balls at December 09, 2017 09:39 PM (H5knJ)

517 Huh.

My comment disappeared into the Twilight Zone.

Well...basically, it was-

"The Revenant" is a fantastic horror comedy.

Maybe one of my top 20 movies.

Watch it today!

Posted by: naturalfake at December 09, 2017 09:39 PM (9q7Dl)

518 >>Justified had a lot of shades of gray but overall, there was good, and there was bad.

Yes, that was a good show.

Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 09:40 PM (W+vEI)

519 "Vonn crossed the finish line in obvious distress,"

You'd think people would learn by now.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 09, 2017 09:40 PM (pV/54)

520 507 Skiing star Lindsey Vonn suffered a back injury during a World Cup super-G race in Switzerland Saturday, two days after she criticized President Donald Trump in an interview about next year's Winter Olympics.

Vonn crossed the finish line in obvious distress, almost one second behind the then-leader, and slumped to the snow

Is it wrong of me to be smiling?
Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 09, 2017 09:35 PM (8tky7)

Diamond & Silk told us at the start - You dump on Trump, you gonna get stomped.

Posted by: josephistan at December 09, 2017 09:41 PM (ANIFC)

521 Youtube comes through. Here's the catfight sceen between Stefanie Powers and Linda Evans

------

You are a giver.

Posted by: MAGA at December 09, 2017 09:41 PM (LnOh3)

522 McIntosh was in season one of Hap & Leonard; she played a sort of sociopathic Amazon. She's weird, creepy.
Posted by: Bear
-------------
As I said, if you want a genuinely weird character, get a genuinely weird actor.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 09, 2017 09:41 PM (w1zJX)

523 509 I reacted badly to Walter White. The final episode was horrible, and I was so glad that he was dead. I am not sure I could watch that sow a second time. On the other hand, I am thinking about watching Justified a third time.

That one worked.
Posted by: Pug Mahon at December 09, 2017 09:35 PM (bZ4w4)

I lived.

Posted by: Walter White at December 09, 2017 09:42 PM (QGf75)

524 Christopher:

'E-bo-ny... and I-vo-ry..." ;-)

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 09:43 PM (eMKNe)

525 >>>I reacted badly to Walter White. The final episode was horrible, and I was so glad that he was dead.

Might not have died

Posted by: davidt at December 09, 2017 09:43 PM (PRM97)

526 I feel very bad for Lindsey Vonn. Shes been training her whole life to be in the Olympics and now she's out. Yeah she said something dumb, but I suspect she knows about as much about politics as she does how to speak Swahili.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 09:43 PM (39g3+)

527 522 McIntosh was in season one of Hap & Leonard; she played a sort of sociopathic Amazon. She's weird, creepy.
Posted by: Bear
-------------
As I said, if you want a genuinely weird character, get a genuinely weird actor.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 09, 2017 09:41 PM (w1zJX)

She cleans up nice from Queen of the Garbage People

Posted by: josephistan at December 09, 2017 09:43 PM (ANIFC)

528 Brad Pitt in Se7en is a destible unlikable Protagonist.

Posted by: Walter White at December 09, 2017 09:44 PM (QGf75)

529 Diamond & Silk told us at the start - You dump on Trump, you gonna get stomped.
Posted by: josephistan
------------

As I said earlier, Trump should tweet a condolence, something like, "Heard about your injury. Sad."

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 09, 2017 09:44 PM (w1zJX)

530 Just watched that Powers/Evans clip.

So glad our elders had the good taste not to watch that low-brow shit. You know - back in the good ol' days.

Later peeps and peep-ettes.

Posted by: ScoggDog at December 09, 2017 09:44 PM (fiGNd)

531 529 Diamond & Silk told us at the start - You dump on Trump, you gonna get stomped.
Posted by: josephistan
------------

As I said earlier, Trump should tweet a condolence, something like, "Heard about your injury. Sad."
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 09, 2017 09:44 PM (w1zJX)

"Well, I guess you don't have to worry about meeting me now, do you?"

Posted by: josephistan at December 09, 2017 09:46 PM (ANIFC)

532 I have had my own dreams crushed so much I can't enjoy it happening to anyone else. When I see a business that closed down it about breaks my heart. Someone tried really hard and it didn't work out. I know that feeling too well.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 09:46 PM (39g3+)

533 As I said earlier, Trump should tweet a condolence, something like, "Heard about your injury. Sad."
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 09, 2017 09:44 PM (w1zJX)

Or classy:
"Just wanted to say that my thought and prayers are with you after your injury. I would not wish a career ending injury to happen to anyone... whoever you are. One of my aides mentioned 'Tiger Wood's cock holster'? Wait, that can't be right."

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 09, 2017 09:47 PM (ycWCI)

534 Brad Pitt in Se7en is a destible unlikable Protagonist.

That's because Morgan Freeman was the protagonist. Pitt was the object lesson.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 09, 2017 09:47 PM (6FqZa)

535 He would have always had that in him, but he never acted on it. This is not without precedent. A number of sociopaths/killers lived like that before finding a reason/opportunity to finally "let go". That's just my take on it, anyway.
Posted by: otho

True. I think a lot of people COULD be like that underneath, or at least fantasize about it. They think about doing sociopathic things, but they are not true sociopaths. And after all, Walter White was a fictional character.

I've know several people that were serious drug addicts. A couple in particular are like that, the inner sociopath in their soul gets let out by their addiction. And even when they "rehab", it's still there.
Like my niece, my sister's daughter. My sister is such a kind and sweet person, she can't really comprehend what a monster her daughter has become, even though she has "rehabbed" from her heroin addiction.

And my sister blames a lot on herself. Really, her daughter was born to be a sociopath. Hard to turn against your own blood, your own kin. Unless you are a sociopath, like her daughter.

Posted by: Bozo Conservative....menace to society at December 09, 2017 09:47 PM (S6Pax)

536 Another movie that sorts starts with supposed good guys who are not so by the end is "The Last Supper." I've seen it a few times and I'm still not sure if the writer intends you to think the main characters - a group of roommates - are ultimately good or evil. Think it's set up so that you can go either way.

Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 09:48 PM (W+vEI)

537 Someone tried really hard and it didn't work out. I know that feeling too well.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor

As Dennis Miller said "Life's hard, get a cup."

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 09:49 PM (5wCUq)

538 As Dennis Miller said "Life's hard, get a cup."

Easy for him to say in his multi million dollar mansion while he's massaged by nubile redheads.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 09:50 PM (39g3+)

539 As Dennis Miller said "Life's hard, get a cup."
Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 09:49 PM (5wCUq)

Or Dennis Leary: "Life sucks, wear a fucking helmet!"

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 09, 2017 09:50 PM (ycWCI)

540 Aetius, or Sam Kinison:

"AAAAAAAA!! AAAAAAAAA!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

Posted by: qdpsteve at December 09, 2017 09:52 PM (eMKNe)

541 Dumbass Jack in Titantic, a truly loathsome character. And Rose too.

You just know their "love affair" would work all of two weeks if he live.

"Rose you SUFFOCATING my art"

Posted by: MAGA at December 09, 2017 09:53 PM (LnOh3)

542 That's like the super successful rich and famous person telling everyone to pursue their dreams because they do come true.

No, they don't. Not for 99.9% of us. Just because you got phenomenally blessed doesn't mean everyone can be if they just try and believe hard enough.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 09:53 PM (39g3+)

543 Easy for him to say in his multi million dollar mansion while he's massaged by nubile redheads.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor

Not so easy, since his career all but tanked after 9/11 when he committed the ultimate sin of siding with GWB. He's one of the few in that industry that chose country over career.

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at December 09, 2017 09:54 PM (5wCUq)

544 397 The James Madison -

I haven't seen you in the comments for a while. Do you just do cob stuff now?

Posted by: grammie winger at December 09, 2017 09:04 PM (lwiT4)

=======

Work has become super busy. I have no time for commenting anymore.

I do miss it.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone at December 09, 2017 09:54 PM (Jj43a)

545 541 - the other way around; Rose would lose interest in dead-broke Jack days within disembarkation.

Posted by: Bear with Assymetrical Balls at December 09, 2017 09:54 PM (H5knJ)

546 Dumbass Jack in Titantic, a truly loathsome character.

Its always a clue in a movie when the bad guy is made out to be REALLY bad and pointlessly nasty and petty... that's a sign their good guy isn't really all that great and they have to go overboard with the contrast.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 09:54 PM (39g3+)

547 Another movie which has maim characters that start off as jerks and devolve from there is Shallow Grave. It was Danny Boyle's first flick.

Posted by: tankdemon at December 09, 2017 09:55 PM (aD9zJ)

548 Holy crap, it's 48 degrees outside. I actually had to turn the heat on. Global warming!

Posted by: Insomniac - Nobody in Particular at December 09, 2017 09:57 PM (NWiLs)

549 >>Skiing star Lindsey Vonn suffered a back injury during a World Cup super-G race in Switzerland Saturday

2009 Crash :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuBPjWMiT_M

Posted by: garrett at December 09, 2017 09:58 PM (iNde6)

550 546 Dumbass Jack in Titantic, a truly loathsome character.

Its always a clue in a movie when the bad guy is made out to be REALLY bad and pointlessly nasty and petty... that's a sign their good guy isn't really all that great and they have to go overboard with the contrast.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 09:54 PM (39g3+)

Rose was the villain.

Posted by: Insomniac - Nobody in Particular at December 09, 2017 09:58 PM (NWiLs)

551 >>Not so easy, since his career all but tanked after 9/11 when he
committed the ultimate sin of siding with GWB. He's one of the few in
that industry that chose country over career.

Enjoyed his radio show. Miller has so many interests and seems to be a voracious reader. Interesting interviews will all sorts of people. Definitely not someone who lives and breaths Hollywood.

Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 09:58 PM (W+vEI)

552 Another movie which has maim characters that start off as jerks and devolve from there is Shallow Grave. It was Danny Boyle's first flick.

Posted by: tankdemon at December 09, 2017 09:55 PM

Boyle makes good movies.

Posted by: otho at December 09, 2017 09:58 PM (qGuLD)

553 2012 Crash:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4EEQMhYPOY

Posted by: garrett at December 09, 2017 09:59 PM (iNde6)

554 510
Would busty, lesbian zombie "Night of the Living Dead" be a little much as a remake?

They already did that. Zombie Strippers, with Jenna Jameson as the villain.

It's good, btw, and not just because Jenna is in it and en fuego. It's actually funny and sort-of internally coherent.

I knew there was a reason that I come here every fcuking day, gosh dammit!

Posted by: dartist at December 09, 2017 10:00 PM (nisXv)

555 >>Holy crap, it's 48 degrees outside.

If you add the temp for the last 3 days, we hit 48!

Posted by: garrett at December 09, 2017 10:00 PM (iNde6)

556 Brian Dennehy as the Iceberg in Titanic. Chilling.

Posted by: davidt at December 09, 2017 10:00 PM (PRM97)

557 "Holy heiroglyphics! This might mean a battle royal!", said Robin, just before they sprinted for the Batpoles.

Wait, wut?

King Tut is the villain on MeTV.

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at December 09, 2017 10:01 PM (8iiMU)

558 Is it wrong of me to be smiling?
Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 09, 2017 09:35 PM (8tky7)

Diamond & Silk told us at the start - You dump on Trump, you gonna get stomped.
Posted by: josephistan at December 09, 2017 09:41 PM (ANIFC)

DJT, the man is an iceberg. Hollywood, the shitbag media, the NFL, and a bunch of Twitter nobodies thought they could ram him but their crummy little ships have gone to the bottom for their troubles.

Mueller will be next.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at December 09, 2017 10:01 PM (zmvwV)

559 >>They already did that. Zombie Strippers, with Jenna Jameson as the villain.

Heh, reminds me of "Boy Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse" which is funny. "Oops I did it again..."

Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 10:01 PM (W+vEI)

560 King Tut is the villain on MeTV.

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at December 09, 2017 10:01 PM

Victor Buono FTW.

Posted by: otho at December 09, 2017 10:02 PM (qGuLD)

561
What? Lindsey Vonn had a G-string injury?

Posted by: publius, the Persistent Poperin Pear at December 09, 2017 10:02 PM (8O3HH)

562 Or classy:
"Just wanted to say that my thought and prayers are with you after your injury. I would not wish a career ending injury to happen to anyone... whoever you are. One of my aides mentioned 'Tiger Wood's cock holster'? Wait, that can't be right."
Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 09, 2017 09:47 PM (ycWCI)

Heh. He should put Sarah Sanders on this one.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at December 09, 2017 10:03 PM (zmvwV)

563 >> Victor Buono

He was a hoot. He played the Dr. Evil type villain in a lot of the classic shows. Man from UNCLE, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and others.

Posted by: publius, the Persistent Poperin Pear at December 09, 2017 10:03 PM (8O3HH)

564 ONT Up

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at December 09, 2017 10:04 PM (zmvwV)

565 Baker Mayfield wins the Heisman. Is that really a big deal any more?

Posted by: tu3031 at December 09, 2017 10:04 PM (O5Q3r)

566 Enjoyed his radio show. Miller has so many interests
and seems to be a voracious reader. Interesting interviews will all
sorts of people. Definitely not someone who lives and breaths Hollywood.

Posted by: Lizzy at December 09, 2017 09:58 PM (W+vEI)

I was listening to Dennis Miller once while driving (he is not on locally), and he recounted the two listener-supplied jokes that they rated 10/10.
The first: that the writers on strike in LA should have held up blank signs on the picket line, and (my favorite):
"English is the creme de la creme of languages."

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at December 09, 2017 10:05 PM (8iiMU)

567 Boyle makes good movies.
Posted by: otho at December 09, 2017 09:58 PM (qGuLD)

Yes he does. Not perfect, but he does some great scenes. I still am amazed at how he made London seem empty in 28 Days Later.

Posted by: tankdemon at December 09, 2017 10:07 PM (aD9zJ)

568 ... really. barry lyndon starts promising enough, and his story looks to be a rousing adventure, but he ends a thoroughly compromise figure. i had no sympathy for him when he was shot and disgraced by marisa berenson's son.

leon vitalli, who played the son, became kubrick's personal assistant, archivist, gopher, etc.for the rest of his life. read a story about him recently. he gave up his career for that job.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at December 09, 2017 10:09 PM (Pg+x7)

569 Came back to see if anyone on this thread commented on my comments, but no. Not surprised, that's the usual thing when I venture into these rapid-fire blurtfests at Ace's Place. Too many people, talking too fast. I know a lot of you know each other well from participating a lot over the years, but I'll bet there are a lot of people like me, who've been steady readers of the blog since the early times (whiskey) and haven't been regulars in the comments because, among other things, it's like talking to passing albatrosses in a 747's slipstream.

Anyways, I got some movie recommendations, and I had a few laffs. Thanks, guys. Here's a recommendation of a short-form movie of one of my favorite genres, about Teh Fertile Crescent. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YQM_zfYO7Q

Posted by: Octopus at December 09, 2017 10:29 PM (TjN6o)

570 545 541 - the other way around; Rose would lose interest in dead-broke Jack days within disembarkation.
Posted by: Bear with Assymetrical Balls at December 09, 2017 09:54 PM (H5knJ)

-------

"Jack, I want more than beans JACK!"

Posted by: MAGA at December 09, 2017 10:31 PM (MyBao)

571 19 No Country for Old Men fits the bill for me on this theme. Javier Bardems character is so awful to watch, yet in an interesting and well presented way.

Creepy haircut really puts the bow on the terrifying package.
Posted by: squeakywheel at December 09, 2017 07:07 PM (pnl52)

A totally BS movie, could never happen

Posted by: sofa saver at December 09, 2017 10:31 PM (4u7kU)

572 "28 Days Later" is one of the best movies ever. Movies with fast zombies are much better than the other kind. Oh, I'm just about done with "The Walking Dead" series -- one more king with a tiger-attendant, and it's over for me.

Posted by: Octopus at December 09, 2017 10:33 PM (TjN6o)

573 Scarlett O'Hara fits the perfect image of an unpleasant protagonist. She's selfish, cunning, a man stealer, spoiled, ungrateful...etc etc. But man is she arresting, with enough of a spark of redemption to make you root for her at times. Kudos to Vivien Leigh's exquisite portrayal. And Clark Gable's Rhett is the perfect charming cad to woo her.

For comedies, I love Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. They are all terrible people but even from the beginning, I only want good things for Michael Caine's character. Even if he is a thief.

Animated films, Howl in Howl's Moving Castle. Selfish, petty, lazy, stealer of women's hearts...but his relationship with everyone is fascinating, and the sap in me loves the romance between him and Sophie.

I don't mind morally ambiguous characters as protagonists. But if they are onscreen, give them a spark of humanity somewhere so I can connect with them. And for heaven's sake don't make them boring! Boring is death.

Posted by: LizLem at December 09, 2017 11:06 PM (hvf9s)

574 There Will Be Blood was as nasty a movie as I've seen in a long while. Left the theatre wishing bad things on anyone even remotely involved with it, from the ghost of Upton Sinclair to the spotty kid who sold me the ticket.

BTW, there's some kind of sci-fi thingy coming to my small-town theatre in a week or so. "Star-something." Anyone heard about this?

Posted by: Richard McEnroe at December 09, 2017 11:07 PM (OkKDg)

575 514 Justified had a lot of shades of gray but overall, there was good, and there was bad. Sometimes the bad could do good things, and sometimes the good could do bad things, but the line was always there and always visible. It helped that Nick Searcy's character kept the guys grounded.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at December 09, 2017 09:38 PM (39g3+)

Art was my favorite character. Nick Searcy was great in that role.

Posted by: Gem at December 09, 2017 11:15 PM (XoAz8)

576 I love the "boozehound" song. I catch myself singing it sometimes
Posted by: josephistan at December 09, 2017 09:26 PM (ANIFC)

Not a stabbin' hobo, then.

Posted by: Gem at December 09, 2017 11:18 PM (XoAz8)

577 >>> Why do people like zombie stories to begin with? That's pretty much the plot of almost every zombie story.

I don't know if anyone's mentioned Zombieland, but I love that one. The larger theme about connecting to others in the midst of tragedy. Not great people, but by the end of the flick I've bonded with them and only want good things for them. The search for Twinkies is a funny character subplot and the Bill Murray cameo is fantastic.

Posted by: LizLem at December 09, 2017 11:24 PM (hvf9s)

578 Just watched The Disaster Artist for the second time.
I think it might be a really good movie about a really bad movie.

Franco's best work.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards at December 09, 2017 11:28 PM (xJa6I)

579 And in answer to TJM's question: Yes, I ALMOST always have to like the main character.

Or if not the main character, there has to be someone that I like and want to succeed.

There are a very few exceptions but I will say that the only thing I value above 'likeability' is competence. I actually can tolerate a terrible person, an outright villain even, if they're competent.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards at December 09, 2017 11:35 PM (xJa6I)

580 In House, M. D., David Morse's character was every bit as unlikable as House was. I thought that was awesome.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at December 10, 2017 01:13 AM (jT9wB)

581 What? Lindsey Vonn had a G-string injury?

===============
Sprained her tongue!

Posted by: Concerned Peoples Front at December 10, 2017 01:19 AM (2X7pN)

582 If there is no evil to run in contrast, good is BORING!

Apone is a good NCO who collects ammo but the real interesting people are heavy weapons people who keep backup to operate their weapon and a corporal who lifts a 12 gauge from hiding.

Posted by: Headless Body of Agnew at December 10, 2017 03:27 AM (e1mEI)

583 Yeah, I think Jake Gylenhaals creepiness in Nightcrawler actually cost him an Oscar.

Posted by: rexbatt at December 10, 2017 08:50 AM (e0ofy)

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