Support




Contact
Ace:
aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
CBD:
 cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
Buck:
buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
joe mannix:
 mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum:
 petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton:
 sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com
Syndicate this site (XML)
Powered by
Movable Type





Saturday Evening Movie Thread - 4/18/2026

The Blank Check Film


Every few years, a studio decides to make a large bet on a younger filmmaker. A weirdly large budget to a filmmaker who had proven their worth in some large way. Think Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate or, more recently, Damien Chazelle's Babylon. Or, if you want, every movie Christopher Nolan has made since The Dark Knight.

The ones that interest me most are the weird ones. Think Richard Kelly's Southland Tales (though...is it a blank check movie? It was only made for $17 million), weird movies with way too much ambition and suddenly a lot of money to pursue it from filmmakers who've never worked at that level and probably have no right to suddenly command those budgets.

Which is to say that I showed Junior Close Encounters of the Third Kind a couple of weeks ago.

Beginnings


"Wait...TJM," you say. "Close Encounters isn't that weird of a movie. It's pretty standard Steven Spielberg, right? It's got his filmmaking touches and embrace of the everyman. It's just as much a Spielberg movie as Jurassic Park or Empire of the Sun or Raiders of the Lost Ark, right?"

No, no it is not. It is actually extremely different. And to get to that we have to talk briefly about the pre-production history.

Spielberg had wanted to make a movie about UFOs since his youth, making a film (now lost) called Firelight that seemingly served as some kind of prototype to what Close Encounters would become (there are reports that entire sequences were lifted from Firelight). After Spielberg made the jump from TV movies to the silver screen, he entered an agreement with Columbia Pictures to make that movie. He hired Paul Schrader, the writer of Taxi Driver and raised in a Calvinist household, to write the first draft.

Spielberg hated that draft, though. You can find it online, and it's not a good screenplay. Importantly, though, it provided what I see as the backbone to the whole final product.

Schrader's screenplay was about an Air Force lieutenant named Paul Van Owen who was tasked with going around to people who saw UFOs and convincing them that they weren't real. Then, he discovers that UFOs are real when he's hit by a blinding light on the road back to his hotel, and he spends the next couple of decades trying to find the proof of them. Does this sound like something...familiar? Well, it should. It's the story of Saul becoming Paul the Evangelist. It's a religious story.

And despite Spielberg's hatred of the original script, the rewrites he commissioned from other writers, and his own rewrites (Spielberg is the only credited writer on the final film), that underlying reality of a man on a religious search for truth remains. And that's where the weirdness of the movie begins.

Family Man


One of the major changes that Spielberg insisted on was changing Paul to Roy Neary. Paul was the military man with a family. Roy is the electrician early in his career with a wife and three children. That change to the everyman was important to Spielberg, and it brought the overall project within Spielberg's more familiar milieu. However, when Spielberg kept the undergirding idea of Neary abandoning his family in pursuit of the truth.

He is the sole breadwinner, working as an electrician in the early part of his career for the Indiana utilities industry. He supports his wife, Ronnie (played by Teri Garr), and three children when he's hit by that light in the night on the road to somewhere he can't find. His obsession steadily overtakes him in small forms (making a mountain out of shaving cream in his palm) until he simply cannot see why Ronnie would object to him tearing up their plants, throwing dirt through their kitchen window, and building an 8 foot tall replica of Devil's Tower in their living room.

And then, when he makes the connection between his sculpture and the real Devil's Tower...there's no more thought for his family at all.

I was reminded of a story I've heard about a medieval woman, a mother, who stepped over her own child in order to enter a convent. What Roy Neary does is a religious move. It's casting aside everything about this world in order to pursue something higher. Can it just be he's really into aliens all of a sudden? It can be, but the obvious religious undertones of the film is what pushes Roy from crank into believer, I think. And that's a marked contrast to pretty much the rest of Spielberg's filmography.

From Indiana Jones decided to take his father's hand instead of trying for the Holy Grail at the end of The Last Crusade to Dr. Alan Grant learning to appreciate the value of children in Jurassic Park to Ray Ferrier trying to protect his children in the face of an alien invasion in War of the Worlds, Spielberg's everyman heroes choose family over the strange, weird sights that they see, but not in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. For years, Spielberg has noted this contrast and insisted that he's uncomfortable with it, especially after he started his own family with Kate Capshaw.

This inversion of the typical family man, coming near the start of Spielberg's career no less (even Jaws had Chief Brody returning home after facing the terrible horror of nature on the seas), is one of those things about the movie that fascinates me in no small part because Roy Neary should be deeply unlikeable.

Wonder and Awe


Way back when, one of my first dozen or so posts was about awe in film. I mostly contrasted Avatar which seemingly had the elements to make something wonderous, and The Tree of Life, a film that really does hit me rather hard in its creation of the cosmos sequence. I outlined three elements that I think are necessary for a film to create awe in an audience. They were scale (things have to be big), difference (they have to be not typical things), and they have to have a veiled meaning. Avatar succeeded in the first but failed in the second and third. The Tree of Life succeeded in all three.

Close Encounters succeeds at all three, I think, and it's vital to the story, particularly to Roy as a character. Roy leaving his family because of flashing lights in the sky isn't enough. He needs a huge incentive to leave, and this is where the wonder and awe of the aliens works. How does Spielberg actually accomplish it?

Well, it's those three elements. Firstly, the idea of alien life and outer space is big on its own, but we also have the actual mothership that appears at the ending, which is huge. Scale? Check. What about difference. This is where the use of the five-tone musical cue (a tone, go up a tone, drop a major third, drop an octave, go up a perfect fifth) is important. Music is emotional on the surface with mathematical underpinings. It is a new way of thinking for most people and eschews literal translation. So, different? Check. Finally, the five tone cue could literally just mean hello (five letters, five tones), but Spielberg never explicates that. It sidesteps literal translation in favor of a more purely emotional form of communication. Combine that with the scale and difference of it all, and you've got the makings of wonder and awe.

And when Roy Neary makes it to the other side of Devil's Tower and witnesses the arrival of the alien mothership...it hits me. It all makes sense. The quest for the wondrous feels justified, even, because what Roy finds something so great, so much bigger than himself, and something so potentially meaningful that casting his family aside seems to just...be fine.

How weird is that? How many films not only try to do that but succeed at it fully?

Junior's Review


He liked it.

But other than that, I was kind of surprised that he sat through the whole thing. It was a risk. I just decided that he was going to watch it. I popped him some popcorn and we watched it all the way through in one sitting (the kid has some minor ADHD). He did ask me once Roy got to the other side of Devil's Tower how much longer it was. Any parent will know the voice he had. He was stretching the limits of his attention. "Almost over," I replied. There were 30 minutes left. And he didn't get up. Watched the wonder unfold. And he was happy with the experience.

And I think that's just a testament to the film itself. It's full of weird stuff considering the conventions of populist filmmaking in America, but this nearly 50 year old movie entertained my 12 year old. That's always nice to see.

Movies of Today

Opening in Theaters:

Lee Cronin's The Mummy

Normal

Movies I Saw This Fortnight:

The Gambler and the Lady (Rating 3/4) Full Review "Oh, well, I was surprisingly engaged with the film for a long stretch, even if the ending just kind of confused me." [YouTube]

Mantrap (or, Man in Hiding) (Rating 2/4) Full Review "Still, it's not terrible as it goes." [YouTube]

The Flanagan Boy (or, Bad Blonde) (Rating 2/4) Full Review "The end result is a dull affair that yields to something decently amusing. Well, at least it ends on a high note." [YouTube]

Spaceways (Rating 2/4) Full Review "I mean…the film is not good. But it's weirdly compelling in parts, and I have to give it props for that." [YouTube]

Face the Music (or, The Black Glove) (Rating 3/4) Full Review "An actual first act. A second act of investigation. A resolution that feels like it makes sense. It's just pretty good filmmaking all around." [YouTube]

Murder by Proxy (or, Heat Wave) (Rating 3/4) Full Review "It's tense and surprisingly intelligent emotionally while looking good and getting solid performances (especially from Dane Clark)." [YouTube]

A Stranger Came Home (or, The Unholy Four) (Rating 2/4) Full Review "So, I'm mixed on the film, which is not a surprise by this point. Hammer strikes out in a new direction with something good, and the films just kind of revert to the mean of competence and mediocrity." [YouTube]

36 Hours (or, Terror Street) (Rating 2.5/4) Full Review "So, the end result is a small surprise, something that actually does try at emotional heft but doesn't know how to follow through on it." [YouTube]

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.
My next thread will be on 5/9 and it will discuss something...I don't know yet.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at 07:45 PM




Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Good evening everyone

Posted by: Skip at April 18, 2026 07:45 PM (Ia/+0)

2 I remember going to theater to see Close Encounters, have a positive to it, not favorite Sci-fi though.

Posted by: Skip at April 18, 2026 07:47 PM (Ia/+0)

3 Really good thoughts on awe - so many movies try so hard to awe us, but they're just noise.

Did you see Project Hail Mary? Do you guys think it succeeded in being "awe-some?"

Posted by: Freddy at April 18, 2026 07:49 PM (DXPhz)

4 TJM, what an incredible adventure you are taking your son on. I can only imagine the discussions afterwards.

Posted by: Ben Had at April 18, 2026 07:52 PM (yAteE)

5 Spaceways (Rating 3.5/4) Full Review "I mean the film is not good. But it's weirdly compelling in parts, and I have to give it props for that."

This is the highest rating on the page and it's running up to 4/4. Not good...?

Posted by: gKWVE at April 18, 2026 07:52 PM (gKWVE)

6 I chirped at you over on YouTube about deviations from the text of DUNE

Let the algorithm flow …

Posted by: browndog on his cell at April 18, 2026 07:52 PM (TTAGa)

7 Did you see Project Hail Mary? Do you guys think it succeeded in being "awe-some?"
Posted by: Freddy at April 18, 2026 07:49 PM (DXPhz)

I saw PHM and thought that it was very good. So much so that, while it's unlikely to happen, I would be willing to pay to see it a second time in theaters.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at April 18, 2026 07:52 PM (ExV1e)

8 Project Hail Mary is 4/4.

Posted by: gKWVE at April 18, 2026 07:53 PM (gKWVE)

9
Jeebus, how many more Mummy moves do we need?

Get me Bernie Sanders, stat!

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 07:53 PM (xG4kz)

10 ... ah i see, TJM copied the wrong rating. Spaceways is 2/4 on the actual review page.

Posted by: gKWVE at April 18, 2026 07:54 PM (gKWVE)

11 "His obsession steadily overtakes him in small forms (making a mountain out of shaving cream in his palm) until he simply cannot see why Ronnie would object to him tearing up their plants, throwing dirt through their kitchen window, and building an 8 foot tall replica of Devil's Tower in their living room."

First thing you should have asked yourself is :"Where in the hell did that "obsession" come from?". That was my immediate question when watching "Close Encounters" for the first time.

Posted by: mrp at April 18, 2026 07:54 PM (rj6Yv)

12 "Still, it's not terrible as it goes."
---

There's a pull for the movie poster!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at April 18, 2026 07:55 PM (kpS4V)

13 Nicest movie this week was War in Wintertime, 2008 Dutch movie from Martin Koolhoven. Takes place at end of WWII

Posted by: Skip at April 18, 2026 07:55 PM (Ia/+0)

14
First thing you should have asked yourself is :"Where in the hell did that "obsession" come from?". That was my immediate question when watching "Close Encounters" for the first time.
Posted by: mrp

Good point, and on par with how was it that peoples all over the world were chanting / singing the five greeting tones?

Mind control
Joos

CandiO has entered the chat.

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 07:57 PM (xG4kz)

15 I did see PHM in theaters a second time.

Mainly because I realized the first theater was wildly overpriced and I wanted to do a cost-comparison with another, but I enjoyed it just as much the second time.

Posted by: Dr. T at April 18, 2026 07:57 PM (lHPJf)

16 A great example of the large bet on a young unproved filmmaker was The Godfather.

Paramount wanted to use Mario Puzo's novel as grist for some low-budget gangster cash grab. Coppola, who was basically a nobody, got the director gig in his early thirties. He had a vision of a story that was operatic in scope, and against all odds got Paramount hire him and fund it.

(Fun Fact: Paramount said "get Robert Redford for Michael" and Coppola said "no fucking way.")

Coppola's career gamble paid off with one of the greatest cinematic masterpieces of all time.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at April 18, 2026 07:57 PM (R+0al)

17 Alamo Drafthouse is severely enshittified.
Used to be cheap tix on the assumption you bought their food and booze. Now their food and booze is ridiculously overpriced - worse than it was - and the tix are overpriced too.
The food isn't good either.

Posted by: gKWVE at April 18, 2026 07:59 PM (gKWVE)

18 Redford would have made a good Moe Greene.

Posted by: gKWVE at April 18, 2026 08:00 PM (gKWVE)

19 Thanks for bringing to my attention something I didn't realize about "CEot3K" about not ultimately choosing family. I saw this movie recently on TCM and Dreyfus's character still seemed sympathetic because he had an unasked-for "conversion on the road" and had to follow the vision.

I thought the immense scale of the ship was nicely counterbalanced by the childlike stature of the aliens coming down the ramp.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at April 18, 2026 08:00 PM (kpS4V)

20
"Still, it's not terrible as it goes."
---
There's a pull for the movie poster!
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes

A late colleague of mine at DuPont -- I think that he originally was from New Jersey -- spoke of a slogan that a food supplier (ice cream, maybe?) had back in the 50s or 60s:

"As good as any, better than some!"

I appreciated the understatement.

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 08:00 PM (xG4kz)

21 I saw Close Encounters when it was new, but I've never watched it again all the way through. The scene I remember best involves the musical tones and the humans' attempts at answering, until one of the human techs says, "We're taking control of this conversation!"

I've never seen that moment again. Am I imagining it, or is it in the film?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 08:01 PM (fcdZC)

22 Remember that not only Roy but many other witnesses somehow know where the mothership is going to land. Some sort of telepathic link is implied.

Posted by: steevy at April 18, 2026 08:01 PM (YwEeS)

23
(Fun Fact: Paramount said "get Robert Redford for Michael" and Coppola said "no fucking way.")

Sometimes our blessings occur without our even being aware of them.

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 08:03 PM (xG4kz)

24 As for Project Hail Mary, I need to see it in the theatre if I can.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 08:03 PM (fcdZC)

25 Coppola's career gamble paid off with one of the greatest cinematic masterpieces of all time.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at April 18, 2026 07:57 PM (R+0al)
----

That book I read on Coppola, Lucas, and Spielberg really showed how strong of a stamp Coppola put on the story by shifting it from crime to one of family dynamics.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at April 18, 2026 08:03 PM (kpS4V)

26 Close Encounters was a fine movie, but the muppets level of special effects made it silly, but still enjoyable entertainment.

Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at April 18, 2026 08:03 PM (Fbc0I)

27 Looks like you saw a string of meh movies this fortnight. Hope next week includes some gems!

Posted by: Chairman LMAO at April 18, 2026 08:05 PM (cWLG3)

28
"As good as any, better than some!"
----

😆

"Eh, you could do worse!"(tm)

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at April 18, 2026 08:05 PM (kpS4V)

29 Just last night, I watched three days of the Condor on YouTube. Have not seen it in many years. It feels different now but there are some eerie echoes of what is happening in the world today

Posted by: Beverly at April 18, 2026 08:06 PM (UbW/g)

30 18 Redford would have made a good Moe Greene.
Posted by: gKWVE at April 18, 2026 08:00 PM (gKWVE)
---
So he could get shot through the eye amirite?

Posted by: Chairman LMAO at April 18, 2026 08:06 PM (cWLG3)

31 Thank you TJM.

I've been watching and enjoying Romero's zombie movies. They were good.

'Evil Dead Rise' 2023 - Ireland - New Zealand was good. Very gruesome and bloody.

I found a list of the most screwed up movies so I'm going to go through those. Seen a bunch.

‐-‐---------------------

Hey, some idiot in the UK has this beauty of a list.

https://tinyurl.com/3n984djh

The 19 most offensive movies ever made, from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to Forrest Gump




Posted by: Stateless - He ain't heavy, he's my dog. Old, but full of life. at April 18, 2026 08:06 PM (Sco7b)

32 "There are worse ways to spend two hours!"

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at April 18, 2026 08:07 PM (R+0al)

33
... until one of the human techs says, "We're taking control of this conversation!"

I've never seen that moment again. Am I imagining it, or is it in the film?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere

I can see where it would have fit into the flow of things and that is when they launch into running the musical motif through a series of more involved variations. But the aliens take that exercise up to eleven and then end it abruptly, as if to say, "Are you through playing your childish games, now?"

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 08:08 PM (xG4kz)

34 some idiot in the UK has this beauty of a list...The 19 most offensive movies ever made, from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to Forrest Gump

They've... they've all become poofters, haven't they?

Posted by: gKWVE at April 18, 2026 08:08 PM (gKWVE)

35 I didn't like the original Close Encounters. To be fair not a fan of alien abduction type movies One exception was Dark Skies.

Posted by: Harry Vandenburg at April 18, 2026 08:09 PM (0cOSz)

36 I just started watching "Primitive War", about recon guys in Vietnam encountering dinosaurs in the jungle.

You know it's 'Nam cuz choppers and Fogarty blaring, man! Cheesy dialog and acting, no dinos yet.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at April 18, 2026 08:09 PM (kpS4V)

37 9
Jeebus, how many more Mummy moves do we need?

Get me Bernie Sanders, stat!
Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 07:53 PM (xG4kz)

Yes. The one from 1999 was lightning in a bottle.

Posted by: Cow Demon at April 18, 2026 08:09 PM (T6aVk)

38 Watching now on Tubi, Marie's Song, a German movie taking place in 1813 in Prussia during the Napoleonic wars
1995 by Nico von Glasow

Posted by: Skip at April 18, 2026 08:11 PM (Ia/+0)

39
The horror of CEotTK is that the aliens are all Adam Schiff-like in appearance.

You know: tiny necks and big heads.

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 08:11 PM (xG4kz)

40 Oh, yesterday I watched "Phase IV". Now there's a good B bug movie.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at April 18, 2026 08:11 PM (kpS4V)

41 The only movie on that list I'd rate as so offensive I'll never watch it again is "American Beauty".
Well, "Birth of a Nation" gets an honorable(?) mention, because, uh, "Birth of a Nation". (I haven't seen it.)
Interesting that "Song of the South" didn't make the cut tho'...

Posted by: gKWVE at April 18, 2026 08:12 PM (gKWVE)

42 Posted by: Stateless - He ain't heavy, he's my dog. Old, but full of life. at April 18, 2026 08:06 PM (Sco7b)


The guy probably thought Human Centipede wasn't offensive at all.

Posted by: Harry Vandenburg at April 18, 2026 08:12 PM (0cOSz)

43 Harry Vandenburg, when the aliens took Quaid into their space ship, they... abused him... sexually.

Posted by: gKWVE at April 18, 2026 08:13 PM (gKWVE)

44 Thanks for bringing to my attention something I didn't realize about "CEot3K" about not ultimately choosing family. I saw this movie recently on TCM and Dreyfus's character still seemed sympathetic because he had an unasked-for "conversion on the road" and had to follow the vision.

I thought the immense scale of the ship was nicely counterbalanced by the childlike stature of the aliens coming down the ramp.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at April 18, 2026 08:00 PM (kpS4V)
=========

Roy wasn't the only character to have an unasked-for Pauline event. Several other character got the call, too. And that's a significant departure from a single-character story. It is repeated by all of the obsessed, they've all received the call - so who will win the prize? Yep, the guy who walks away from a loving Teri Garr.

Posted by: mrp at April 18, 2026 08:13 PM (rj6Yv)

45 Interesting that "Song of the South" didn't make the cut tho'...

----------

Song of the South is utterly benign. A perfect example of shrieking Karens regulating what is acceptable entertainment fare.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at April 18, 2026 08:13 PM (R+0al)

46 17 Alamo Drafthouse is severely enshittified.
Used to be cheap tix on the assumption you bought their food and booze. Now their food and booze is ridiculously overpriced - worse than it was - and the tix are overpriced too.
The food isn't good either.
Posted by: gKWVE at April 18, 2026 07:59 PM (gKWVE)

Saying something is "expensive" is just TOO HARD.

Res tantum valet quantum vendi potest.

Posted by: Cow Demon at April 18, 2026 08:14 PM (T6aVk)

47 Cicero, I know that and you know that; but do the poofters at the Indescribablyboring know that?

Posted by: gKWVE at April 18, 2026 08:15 PM (gKWVE)

48 I'm surprised there aren't public burnings of "Song of the South" or arrests of anyone who suggests there was such a thing.

Posted by: Cow Demon at April 18, 2026 08:15 PM (T6aVk)

49 Res tantum valet quantum vendi potest

Indeed.
The Alamo Drafthouse can go sell to someone else.

Posted by: gKWVE at April 18, 2026 08:19 PM (gKWVE)

50 Songs of the South kinda disappeared for decides from late 60s

Posted by: Skip at April 18, 2026 08:20 PM (Ia/+0)

51 I loved Close Encounters of the Third Kind, when I first saw it. I still like it today, but Dreyfuss leaving Terri Garr for aliens. No way. She was a hottie! Great movie though and still a favorite of mine. Spielberg did a mini-series called 'Taken', which had a similar Close Encounters vibe to it. It was ok, a bit uneven, well acted, kind of petered out at the end. Probably should have shaved a few episodes. Overall, it was ok. Saw it on the SyFy Channel. 2002, I think.

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at April 18, 2026 08:21 PM (qKYfj)

52 Skip, and then came the High Seas.
Yo ho
youtu.be/y9bXjttMxKY

Posted by: gKWVE at April 18, 2026 08:21 PM (gKWVE)

53 Since this is a movie thread . . . Same Time Next Year, the love story based on the play, is on Turner Classics with Ellen Burstyn and Alan Alda. The story starts in the '50s or '60s. Amazing, but I don't think I've ever seen Alan Alda's forehead before.

The host said that Ellen had played the role on Broadway, but the studio didn't want her co-star, Charles Grodin, and insisted on a bigger star (Alda).

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 08:22 PM (fcdZC)

54 Captive State with John Goodman is a very underrated Alien take over of Earth movie.

Posted by: Harry Vandenburg at April 18, 2026 08:23 PM (0cOSz)

55 And STNY will be followed by the classic of illicity romance, Brief Encounter, with Trevor Howard. If you've only seen him as a middle-aged man in Father Goose and the Brando-starring remake of Mutiny on the Bounty, you're in for quite a pleasant surprise. He makes a good romantic lead.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 08:23 PM (fcdZC)

56 6 I chirped at you over on YouTube about deviations from the text of DUNE

Let the algorithm flow …
Posted by: browndog on his cell


Dune is very difficult to put into movie form. I liked the SyFy Channel version better than the Lynch movie. Haven't seen the latest one.

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at April 18, 2026 08:24 PM (qKYfj)

57 48 I'm surprised there aren't public burnings of "Song of the South" or arrests of anyone who suggests there was such a thing.
Posted by: Cow Demon at April 18, 2026 08:15 PM (T6aVk)
That the one by Alabama?

Posted by: Eromero at April 18, 2026 08:24 PM (LHPAg)

58 I saw close encounters a shit load of times by the time I finally saw Devil's tower in person. That was a wild experience.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at April 18, 2026 08:24 PM (snZF9)

59 I fear that Disclosure Day is going to be Close Encounters but 49 years later.

Posted by: Cow Demon at April 18, 2026 08:25 PM (T6aVk)

60 I thought the miniseries was very good with alec mcmillan as paul and other characters

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 08:25 PM (bXbFr)

61
For my birthday this past week my son and his family (that of our two gKids) treated me to a movie and that movie was Pixar's "Loopers".

Now I stopped watching Pixar animated features at "The Incredibles", so I was dreading getting a dose of woke and "REPRESENTATION!" (you must vocalize that as emphatically as does Nerdrotic). There was a strong message that we all would be better off if we paid more attention to nature and harmed it less, but that was about it.

The story line was adequate and the humorous moments were quite funny. For example, a coterie of animals at one point gets control of a smart phone through which they are communicating with the human villain (who has a strong resemblance to Gavin Gruesome) and they excitedly begin hammering out their favored emojis which the phone vocalized ("beaver, beaver, beaver, chopped wood, chopped wood, lizard ...").

Honestly, the best part was to have been watching it with the gKids. And that made it a great birthday present.

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 08:26 PM (xG4kz)

62 I don't know why the powers that be keep boosting alien stuff these days, but it used to be counterculture not the Deep State flipping out over it.

Posted by: Oldcat at April 18, 2026 08:26 PM (Ai6WH)

63 58 I saw close encounters a shit load of times by the time I finally saw Devil's tower in person. That was a wild experience.

---------

Did you ever build a scale model out of mashed potatoes?

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at April 18, 2026 08:26 PM (R+0al)

64 Bug movies?

Svengoolie is on tonight, and the cable in the hotel room doesn't list a MeTV channel, so I can't see what he's got. His offerings can range from A-picture (Bride of Frankenstein, Forbidden Planet) to Grade Triple-Z. He's fair: He pokes affectionate fun at the A pictures as much as he does the Zs.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 08:27 PM (fcdZC)

65 I think Robert Redford is a terrible actor but I love Jeremiah Johnson, The Natural, Brubaker and This Property is Condemned .

The Sting and Butch Cassidy are okay.

Posted by: Harry Vandenburg at April 18, 2026 08:27 PM (0cOSz)

66 22 Remember that not only Roy but many other witnesses somehow know where the mothership is going to land. Some sort of telepathic link is implied.
Posted by: steevy


The scene at the end where the military was taking the civilians away by helicopter. The French guy yelling at the officer that 'THEY WERE INVITED'.

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at April 18, 2026 08:27 PM (qKYfj)

67
Just last night, I watched three days of the Condor on YouTube. Have not seen it in many years. It feels different now but there are some eerie echoes of what is happening in the world today
Posted by: Beverly at April 18, 2026 08:06 PM (UbW/g)



I really like Condor, especially The Alsatian, but Redford's influence on the script keeps me from loving the film.

The original book was about a rogue CIA cabal using the main character's section in a drug smuggling op. Redford turned it into a commie tree-hugger whine about oil. Which is the sort of thing he did with a bunch of his films.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at April 18, 2026 08:28 PM (y9nCu)

68 The space foldings aspects were different

There were great visual effects with the last film however plot wise

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 08:29 PM (bXbFr)

69 I want to make an AI trailer for "Wes Anderson's Plan 9 from Outer Space' but I don't know how.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at April 18, 2026 08:29 PM (IGXPy)

70 I just started watching "Primitive War", about recon guys in Vietnam encountering dinosaurs in the jungle.

You know it's 'Nam cuz choppers and Fogarty blaring, man! Cheesy dialog and acting, no dinos yet.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at April 18, 2026 08:09 PM (kpS4V)

A friend of mine mentioned watching it, but his precis is about as long as yours. however, finding dinosaurs in the jungle is a cool plot.

Posted by: Kindltot at April 18, 2026 08:30 PM (rbvCR)

71 Svengoolie has "Parents" tonight's which is a terrible awful weirdass movie.

Posted by: fd at April 18, 2026 08:30 PM (vFG9F)

72 58 I saw close encounters a shit load of times by the time I finally saw Devil's tower in person. That was a wild experience.

---------

Did you ever build a scale model out of mashed potatoes?
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at April 18, 2026 08:26 PM (R+0al)

every time I had mashed potatoes as a kid it was a scale model of a volcano with gravy lava

Posted by: Oldcat at April 18, 2026 08:30 PM (Ai6WH)

73
I'm surprised there aren't public burnings of "Song of the South" or arrests of anyone who suggests there was such a thing.
Posted by: Cow Demon

They would throw "Dumbo" on that burn pile, too. Racist crows, y'know.

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 08:30 PM (xG4kz)

74 The crows in Dumbo had the best lines!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at April 18, 2026 08:31 PM (kpS4V)

75 Yeah james grady who was a staffer for senator meltcalf had the drug running plot, now would the cia put out a hit team to silence a task force crazy right

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 08:32 PM (bXbFr)

76
When I remake CEotTK, the role of the mashed potatoes is going to be assigned to grits. Re-imagineer away!

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 08:32 PM (xG4kz)

77 The inclusion of Zulu on that list is one of the dumbest things about it. A number of scenes in Zulu show the besieged Brits expressing admiration for the Zulus ("They've got a lot more guts than we have, boyo." etc.) And the Brits in the flick survive because the admiration is mutual -- the Zulus on the hills in the almost-last scene could have rained down on the fort if they'd wanted to. Racist? White supremacist? Please.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 18, 2026 08:32 PM (q3u5l)

78 I think Robert Redford is a terrible actor but I love Jeremiah Johnson, The Natural, Brubaker and This Property is Condemned .

The Sting and Butch Cassidy are okay.
Posted by: Harry Vandenburg at April 18, 2026

***
There were certain things he did very well: the quiet comic exasperation, for instance, that made the role of Dortmunder the comic thief Redford's for all time, and which he displayed again in Brubaker. And in Butch Cassidy too, when they arrive in South America only to see a yard filled with chickens pecking the ground. "For all we know *this* is the garden spot of the entire country!" (With utter disgust) "Bolivia --!"

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 08:33 PM (fcdZC)

79 I just started watching "Primitive War", about recon guys in Vietnam encountering dinosaurs in the jungle.

You know it's 'Nam cuz choppers and Fogarty blaring, man! Cheesy dialog and acting, no dinos yet.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at April 18, 2026 08:09 PM (kpS4V)

A friend of mine mentioned watching it, but his precis is about as long as yours. however, finding dinosaurs in the jungle is a cool plot.
Posted by: Kindltot at April 18, 2026 08:30 PM (rbvCR)

there is a fantasy book out there where a wizard summons a crewed APC from vietnam to fight a Dragon for him.

There's also an old wargame TimeTripper where a pot addled trooper in Vietnam turns his radio into a time machine which keeps landing him in battles from the past.

Posted by: Oldcat at April 18, 2026 08:33 PM (Ai6WH)

80 21 I saw Close Encounters when it was new, but I've never watched it again all the way through.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 08:01 PM (fcdZC)

Ditto.
Close Encounters was a good movie to see in the theater, watched it in 70mm/dolby and was only playing in big city downtowns (no suburban showings back then).

Posted by: Joemarine at April 18, 2026 08:33 PM (y171U)

81 Except in ET, the story is about a family abandoned by the father and left to fend for themselves. That's why ET really comes, to help make the family whole, and that's why he leaves at the end, because the family can make it on their own...without him or the father.

That's what makes ET strong, because it's not about an alien and a boy. It's about a broken family and a missing father.

Just like War of the Worlds is about not just a war of interplanetary species, but Ray and his estranged children. Although, since the son leaves about half way in, they sort of lost the metaphor and it merely becomes about survival.

Posted by: Lex at April 18, 2026 08:33 PM (y4H1r)

82 I always why people who claimed encounters with extraterrestrials always reported that the ETs had the same concerns as certain political movements. "The aliens are concerned about what we're doing to the planet's environment." Or "The aliens want us to put aside our differences and unite under a one world government."

Weird, right?

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at April 18, 2026 08:36 PM (IGXPy)

83 Yeah james grady who was a staffer for senator meltcalf had the drug running plot, now would the cia put out a hit team to silence a task force crazy right
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026

***
I wasn't crazy about the novel of Condor, but Grady about 35-40 years ago wrote a wonderful pastiche of Chandler's Philip Marlowe for an anthology of new stories about the PI, set anywhere from the late '30s to the late '50s. Grady's story took place in a diner/service station in CA, in about 1950.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 08:36 PM (fcdZC)

84 65 I think Robert Redford is a terrible actor but I love Jeremiah Johnson, The Natural, Brubaker and This Property is Condemned .

The Sting and Butch Cassidy are okay.
Posted by: Harry Vandenburg


Yea, I was never a Bobby Redford fan either but Jeremiah Johnson was fantastic! Beautiful movie. Redford had about a paragraph worth of lines in it. Probably why its my favorite Bob Redford movie.

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at April 18, 2026 08:36 PM (qKYfj)

85 Yes that likely wouldnt have happened at rorkes drift later on possibly

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 08:36 PM (bXbFr)

86 Lotta hungry dinos now!

And really bad Russian accents.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at April 18, 2026 08:37 PM (kpS4V)

87 The inclusion of Zulu on that list is one of the dumbest things about it. A number of scenes in Zulu show the besieged Brits expressing admiration for the Zulus ("They've got a lot more guts than we have, boyo." etc.) And the Brits in the flick survive because the admiration is mutual -- the Zulus on the hills in the almost-last scene could have rained down on the fort if they'd wanted to. Racist? White supremacist? Please.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 18, 2026 08:32 PM (q3u5l)

The Zulus in that battle were all older men - 40s/50s that had missed the massacre the younger Zulus dished out to the Brits in the open field.

Posted by: Oldcat at April 18, 2026 08:37 PM (Ai6WH)

88 55 And STNY will be followed by the classic of illicity romance, Brief Encounter, with Trevor Howard. If you've only seen him as a middle-aged man in Father Goose and the Brando-starring remake of Mutiny on the Bounty, you're in for quite a pleasant surprise. He makes a good romantic lead.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 08:23 PM (fcdZC)

That was a GOOD movie. Trevor Howard was young back then. Forgot the female lead but she was lovely and it was directed well.

Posted by: Joemarine at April 18, 2026 08:38 PM (y171U)

89 I'm surprised there aren't public burnings of "Song of the South" or arrests of anyone who suggests there was such a thing.
Posted by: Cow Demon at April 18, 2026
*
That the one by Alabama?
Posted by: Eromero at April 18, 2026

***
Sweet potato pie and shut my mouth!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 08:38 PM (fcdZC)

90
The best dorm lunch meal at college was sliced roast beef between two slices of bread, topped with a scoop of mashed potatoes and then a lake of beef gravy was impressed upon that mound of potatoes.

Now, the rest of the story. I worked in the dorm's dish room. We collected the dirty dishes, rinsed them and then ran them through a Hobart belt-fed washer and steam dryer. With that background, I can solemnly assure you that idle minds with time on their hands could do astonishing things to glue plates to plates and bowls to bowls using only mashed potatoes.

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 08:38 PM (xG4kz)

91 I don't know why the powers that be keep boosting alien stuff these days, but it used to be counterculture not the Deep State flipping out over it.
Posted by: Oldcat

Trump Teases Upcoming UFO Document Release: “Very Interesting” Discoveries Coming

+

Trump activates FBI over missing scientists: "No stone will be unturned"

=
War of the Worlds

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster! at April 18, 2026 08:39 PM (ndZc7)

92 That happens in a whole bunch of films even innocuos ones like cocoon and terrible ones like peacekeeper the firsr season

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 08:39 PM (bXbFr)

93
Lotta hungry dinos now!

And really bad Russian accents.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes

The dinos speak Russian? Commisaurus rex?

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 08:40 PM (xG4kz)

94
Lotta hungry dinos now!

And really bad Russian accents.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes

The dinos speak Russian? Commisaurus rex?

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 08:40 PM (xG4kz)

95 Dune is very difficult to put into movie form. I liked the SyFy Channel version better than the Lynch movie. Haven't seen the latest one.
Posted by: Puddleglum at work at April 18, 2026 08:24 PM (qKYfj)

Which was the gist of TJM's video.

Another of his contentions was that the way Chani was developed, while wrong, didn't detract from the film.

I disagreed turning her character into a moody, angry, bitchy partner to Paul was so off putting as to make the me angry throughout the movie.

I also took exception to Liet-Kynes being changed from a man to a woman ... all in service of (say it with me now) "The Message" (Critical Drinkers voice)

Posted by: zombie Toe Blake at April 18, 2026 08:41 PM (3sXRv)

96 That was a GOOD movie. Trevor Howard was young back then. Forgot the female lead but she was lovely and it was directed well.
Posted by: Joemarine at April 18, 2026

***
Directed by David Lean, before he concentrated mostly on epics. The female lead was not your usual glamorous actress, no Joan Collins or anything, but lovely in her own quiet way.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 08:41 PM (fcdZC)

97 "The aliens want us to put aside our differences and unite under a one world."

They're Catholic?!!!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster! at April 18, 2026 08:42 PM (ndZc7)

98 The aliens are here (and they arent trying to hide)

Unlike that coppola adjacent cult series from the 90, first wave

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 08:42 PM (bXbFr)

99 The best dorm lunch meal at college was sliced roast beef between two slices of bread, topped with a scoop of mashed potatoes and then a lake of beef gravy was impressed upon that mound of potatoes.

Now, the rest of the story. I worked in the dorm's dish room. We collected the dirty dishes, rinsed them and then ran them through a Hobart belt-fed washer and steam dryer. With that background, I can solemnly assure you that idle minds with time on their hands could do astonishing things to glue plates to plates and bowls to bowls using only mashed potatoes.
Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 08:38 PM (xG4kz)

I used to hate having to unglue those plates when it happened to me. Messed up the entire flow

Posted by: Oldcat at April 18, 2026 08:42 PM (Ai6WH)

100 I know that return of the Zulus at Rourke Drift never happened, but it gets pretty good marks in general.

Posted by: Skip at April 18, 2026 08:43 PM (Ia/+0)

101 66 The scene at the end where the military was taking the civilians away by helicopter. The French guy yelling at the officer that 'THEY WERE INVITED'.
Posted by: Puddleglum at work at April 18, 2026 08:27 PM (qKYfj)

The French guy was the movie director, Truffaut, right?

Posted by: Joemarine at April 18, 2026 08:44 PM (y171U)

102 Would the "Blank Check" concept apply to George Lucas's American Graffiti? He was largely unknown then, except for his early effort THX-1138, so a studio might have been taking a big big risk to bankroll a nostalgia piece about teenagers in 1962. It paid off, and then they handed him another for this movie about battles in space, or something. How'd that work out?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 08:45 PM (fcdZC)

103 Posted by: zombie Toe Blake at April 18, 2026 08:41 PM (3sXRv)

Off Hockey Boss sock ...

Posted by: browndog says woof at April 18, 2026 08:45 PM (3sXRv)

104 I saw Close Encounters in high school I guess and I came away thinking that Spielberg was a fun director because he showed us the monkey. We saw the shark in Jaws and the aliens in CE. Not a quick glimpse but we got a good look. My estimation of him has declined over the years.

Posted by: Blutarski, Gradually then Suddenly at April 18, 2026 08:45 PM (cxFcK)

105
I always why people who claimed encounters with extraterrestrials always reported that the ETs had the same concerns as certain political movements. "The aliens are concerned about what we're doing to the planet's environment." Or "The aliens want us to put aside our differences and unite under a one world government."

Weird, right?
Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo

I am shocked that you failed to mention the LGM's fixation with anal probes. Nothing out of the ordinary there, nosirreee!

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 08:46 PM (xG4kz)

106 I dont know where that came from

The early project blue book stories didnt dwell on that

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 08:48 PM (bXbFr)

107 I get TJM's point a movie doesn't have to be verbatim of a book.
Certainly the best is Last of the Mohicans, the book is a mess, all movies are better. The 90s is one of my favorites

Posted by: Skip at April 18, 2026 08:48 PM (Ia/+0)

108 There are a number of things in Zulu that weren't that way in real life (the biggie being the wholly inaccurate portrayal of Pvt Henry Hook). But as a movie, Zulu is a NICE piece of work, and I don't think it's gathered much dust at all since it was made.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 18, 2026 08:48 PM (q3u5l)

109 Redford was indeed a bad actor but knew he had the look and the camera loved him. That was his approach.

He directed A River Runs Through It with a young and impressionable Brad Pitt and Pitt showed the same studied concern for the camera (no doubt from Redford's direction). Pitt outgrew that.

Posted by: Blutarski, Gradually then Suddenly at April 18, 2026 08:49 PM (cxFcK)

110 82 I always why people who claimed encounters with extraterrestrials always reported that the ETs had the same concerns as certain political movements. "The aliens are concerned about what we're doing to the planet's environment." Or "The aliens want us to put aside our differences and unite under a one world government."

Weird, right?
Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at April 18, 2026 08:36 PM (IGXPy)

That was the theme of the movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still"...also an allegory to Christ and the Resurrection.

Posted by: Joemarine at April 18, 2026 08:50 PM (y171U)

111 Yes but a blank check has a grand vision, i think thats a major element

Star wars had that grand scope the favored film, that year by the studio was damnation alley no joke

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 08:50 PM (bXbFr)

112 ...one of those things about the movie that fascinates me in no small part because Roy Neary should be deeply unlikeable.


He was.
He was a jerk. To me he came across as completely self indulgent. And what idiot is going to run out on Teri Garr?

Posted by: Diogenes at April 18, 2026 08:51 PM (2WIwB)

113 I wonder if there's a Unabomer cult bumping off these scientists.
tinyurl.com/3hhnmmrf
People dey tink dem fightin inna di Butlerian Jihad

Posted by: gKWVE at April 18, 2026 08:52 PM (gKWVE)

114
He directed A River Runs Through It with a young and impressionable Brad Pitt and Pitt showed the same studied concern for the camera (no doubt from Redford's direction). Pitt outgrew that.
Posted by: Blutarski, Gradually then Suddenly

Emily Lloyd was gorgeous in that film. Then she pretty much disappeared.

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 08:52 PM (xG4kz)

115 Hey, some idiot in the UK has this beauty of a list.

https://tinyurl.com/3n984djh

-
I guess my favorite films are offensive. In the immortal words of Paul McCartney, "Let It Be."

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster! at April 18, 2026 08:52 PM (ndZc7)

116 He hired Paul Schrader, the writer of Taxi Driver and raised in a Calvinist household, to write the first draft.

Yeh, but was he a yard sign Calvinist, or a Calvinist Calvinist?

Posted by: From about That Time at April 18, 2026 08:53 PM (sl73Y)

117 Except klaatus planetary federation was a totslitarian regime dave cullen the irisj podcaster noted this

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 08:53 PM (bXbFr)

118
And what idiot is going to run out on Teri Garr?
Posted by: Diogenes

A guy with hay fever?

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 08:53 PM (xG4kz)

119 Emily Lloyd was gorgeous in that film. Then she pretty much disappeared.
Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison!

I saw her in exactly one other film. A British film (I think she's British) and it was just terrible. I wonder what became of her?

Posted by: Blutarski, Gradually then Suddenly at April 18, 2026 08:54 PM (cxFcK)

120 Totalitarian empire, of course we could never prevail against such a force

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 08:55 PM (bXbFr)

121 Emily Lloyd was gorgeous in that film. Then she pretty much disappeared.
Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison!

I saw her in exactly one other film. A British film (I think she's British) and it was just terrible. I wonder what became of her?
Posted by: Blutarski, Gradually then Suddenly at April 18, 2026 08:54 PM (cxFcK)

often it means she got married to someone and didn't need to act anymore

Posted by: Oldcat at April 18, 2026 08:56 PM (Ai6WH)

122 I liked Heaven's Gate even though I was still a teenager. Always hated Richard Dreyfus the Movie Ruiner. He's one of those actors that always plays himself.

Close Encounters was dumb. No Spock.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 18, 2026 08:56 PM (RIvkX)

123 102 Would the "Blank Check" concept apply to George Lucas's American Graffiti?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 08:45 PM (fcdZC)

Definitely. And he didn't start out doing TV movies.

Posted by: Joemarine at April 18, 2026 08:57 PM (y171U)

124 Henry Hook was portrayed inaccurately, but it’s a marvelous cinematic figure. The unrepentant rogue who becomes a hero in spite of himself.

Amazing to realize that was Michael Caine’s first movie. What a start to a career!

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 18, 2026 08:57 PM (yGQJD)

125 Never saw the remake of Day the Earth Stood Still -- saw the original a number of times in high school, but haven't watched it in years.

The original didn't use the punch line from the story that served as its source, "Farewell to the Master," by Harry Bates. Might have been a bit more than Robert Wise and company wanted to go for. Did the remake use it?

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 18, 2026 08:57 PM (q3u5l)

126 Roy Neary's descent into some sort of madness would have been a pretty disturbing movie without the aliens.

Or maybe just a normal life for someone?

(raise hands)

Posted by: Martini Farmer at April 18, 2026 08:57 PM (AkEZC)

127 Trump cucked by Iran once again today. They’re just playing with him now. Donnie boy is adrift and aimless as dementia settles in.

Sad!!

Posted by: Le Haim at April 18, 2026 08:59 PM (LaPrx)

128 That was a sequel i pretend didnt happen (even though jennifer connelly was in it)

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 08:59 PM (bXbFr)

129 Robert Redford portrayed himself well in that Daisy Clover movie.

Posted by: davidt at April 18, 2026 08:59 PM (Q+gd/)

130 The Day The Earth Stood Still (original) is my absolute fav for sci-fy. A great movie. Was supremely disappointed in the remake. It could of been so much better.
And it wasn't.

Posted by: Diogenes at April 18, 2026 09:00 PM (2WIwB)

131 Except klaatus planetary federation was a totslitarian regime dave cullen the irisj podcaster noted this
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 08:53 PM (bXbFr)

In the original story (ive never seen the film) the Klatuu guy gets assassinated when he lands and the robot goes still. Later a dude notices that the robot is going around at night hunting for something -- he's trying to get information to clone/resurrect him. The dude gives a hint that the robot thinks should work and is leaving, he says "tell your master that the people of earth aren't like this" and the robot says "You misunderstand - I am the master"

Posted by: Oldcat at April 18, 2026 09:00 PM (Ai6WH)

132 He's one of those actors that always plays himself.”

That’s one of the reasons “What about Bob?” Was so funny. Richard Dreyfus plays a completely self centered and arrogant asshole.

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 18, 2026 09:00 PM (yGQJD)

133 Posted by: Le Haim at April 18, 2026 08:59 PM (LaPrx)

Off topic
Also, faggy

Posted by: gKWVE at April 18, 2026 09:01 PM (gKWVE)

134 In between matrix and john wick keanu was just dead weight in this one

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 09:01 PM (bXbFr)

135 129 Robert Redford portrayed himself well in that Daisy Clover movie.
Posted by: davidt at April 18, 2026 08:59 PM (Q+gd/)

He played Gatsby, right? Of course he did.

Posted by: Joemarine at April 18, 2026 09:01 PM (y171U)

136 We need a syfy movie, The Day Common Sense Broke Out! The aliens come down and tell us to end income tax, property tax, DEI/affirmative action, and administrative regulations.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster! at April 18, 2026 09:01 PM (ndZc7)

137 He's one of those actors that always plays himself.”

Redford played an English hunter in Out of Africa. He didn't even attempt an English accent. I guess maybe he thought he was cutting the hard edges off, but it really didn't work.

Posted by: Blutarski, Gradually then Suddenly at April 18, 2026 09:02 PM (cxFcK)

138 Watched 16 Candles a few months ago, its a decent movie

Posted by: Skip at April 18, 2026 09:03 PM (Ia/+0)

139 Anonosaurus at 136 --

And in that movie, all the governments of Earth would immediately unite to destroy the alien menace. We can't have a plague like common sense breaking out, now, can we?

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 18, 2026 09:04 PM (q3u5l)

140 Switched from "Parents" to "Beneath The Planet Of The Apes". Already this movie is 10x better.

Posted by: fd at April 18, 2026 09:04 PM (vFG9F)

141 WHAT ABOUT BOB? is highly underrated. Dr. Leo Marvin is indeed no different than Hooper.

Posted by: Lex at April 18, 2026 09:05 PM (y4H1r)

142 108 There are a number of things in Zulu that weren't that way in real life (the biggie being the wholly inaccurate portrayal of Pvt Henry Hook). But as a movie, Zulu is a NICE piece of work, and I don't think it's gathered much dust at all since it was made.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 18, 2026 08:48 PM (q3u5l
Gotta be one of my favorite musical war sagas.

Posted by: Eromero at April 18, 2026 09:05 PM (LHPAg)

143
Switched from "Parents" to "Beneath The Planet Of The Apes". Already this movie is 10x better.
Posted by: fd

That reads like a teaser for "The Gorilla Channel"

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 09:05 PM (xG4kz)

144 Redford played an English hunter in Out of Africa. He didn't even attempt an English accent.

-
Should've consulted with Meryl Streep.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster! at April 18, 2026 09:05 PM (ndZc7)

145 We need a syfy movie, The Day Common Sense Broke Out! The aliens come down and tell us to end income tax, property tax, DEI/affirmative action, and administrative regulations.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster! at April 18, 2026 09:01 PM (ndZc7)

Keith Laumer wrote a pretty funny story called "The Monitors" about a world where suddenly the world has peace imposed on it by pleasant, good looking people in gold and white. A guy is trying to find out on them as they start reforming all over, establishing plenty for all and moves through group after group claming they are Israelis, or this or that. He finally discovers they are aliens , and finds a way to defeat them..and in the end hires them to keep running things under contract.

Posted by: Oldcat at April 18, 2026 09:06 PM (Ai6WH)

146 Redford was indeed a bad actor but knew he had the look and the camera loved him. That was his approach. . . .

Posted by: Blutarski, Gradually then Suddenly at April 18, 2026

***
I don't think he was "bad" so much as "limited." You'd never cast him as Hamlet or Macbeth, he could never have played John McLane or Rambo or Reese in The Terminator. But he was good and sometimes superb at most of the big-screen roles he did.

He was in a Twilight Zone in the half-hour days, around '63 or so. Clearly he was cast because he was young and good-looking, which the character called for -- not because of anything else.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 09:06 PM (fcdZC)

147 Speaking of accents, the Australian twang is slipping through with a few of these "Yank" soldiers.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at April 18, 2026 09:06 PM (kpS4V)

148 Well that certainly is a kiss of death.

Jared Leto is voicing Skeletor.

Posted by: Anna Puma at April 18, 2026 09:07 PM (2GVsD)

149 101 66 The scene at the end where the military was taking the civilians away by helicopter. The French guy yelling at the officer that 'THEY WERE INVITED'.
Posted by: Puddleglum at work at April 18, 2026 08:27 PM (qKYfj)

The French guy was the movie director, Truffaut, right?
Posted by: Joemarine


I think so.

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at April 18, 2026 09:09 PM (qKYfj)

150 "Beneath The Planet Of The Apes"

=====

Holy Hand Grenade > Holy Nuclear Missile

Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 18, 2026 09:09 PM (RIvkX)

151 Should've consulted with Meryl Streep.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster!

I think she used a Danish accent? I don't remember. But yes, consultation would've been good.

Posted by: Blutarski, Gradually then Suddenly at April 18, 2026 09:09 PM (cxFcK)

152
149 Well that certainly is a kiss of death.

Jared Leto is voicing Skeletor.
Posted by: Anna Puma at April 18, 2026 09:07 PM (2GVsD)

The horrid slag podcaster in Texas(?) whose face looks as though it's a glacier that is overdue for calving off some icebergs? That foul mouthed and malodorous skank?

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 09:09 PM (xG4kz)

153 Not James Carville

The 'real' Skeletor from Masters of the Universe.

Posted by: Anna Puma at April 18, 2026 09:10 PM (2GVsD)

154 I first saw Damien Lewis in Band of Brothers and had no idea he was a Brit. Some time later I saw him in a British film where he used his natural accent and I thought "That's the worst British accent I've ever heard".

Posted by: Blutarski, Gradually then Suddenly at April 18, 2026 09:12 PM (cxFcK)

155 Well its like connery not even trying an accent

Yeah that part of the film they were going to detonate the bomb anyways one way or another

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 09:12 PM (bXbFr)

156 I just want to say, good luck. We're all counting on you.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at April 18, 2026 09:12 PM (xcxpd)

157 >>Not going to be a popular take here. Don't care. Its the truth.
Posted by: Yep
--

Troll Corp. pay you over scale?

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at April 18, 2026 09:13 PM (LA6Ib)

158
Carville had best keep his dentures in his mouth or his face will collapse upon itself like a desiccated apple.

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 09:13 PM (xG4kz)

159 We need a syfy movie, The Day Common Sense Broke Out! The aliens come down and tell us to end income tax, property tax, DEI/affirmative action, and administrative regulations.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster! at April 18, 2026 09:01 PM (ndZc7)

Do they give us automatic weapons and tell us to hunt anti American iran cheering leftists? I would go to the theater for that.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at April 18, 2026 09:14 PM (snZF9)

160 Should've consulted with Meryl Streep.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster!

I think she used a Danish accent? I don't remember. But yes, consultation would've been good.
Posted by: Blutarski, Gradually then Suddenly at April 18, 2026

***
Streep's character was the Danish writer "Isak Dinesen," Karen Blixen, so naturally she would have spoken English with a Danish tinge. Possibly they tried to get Redford to do a passable British dialect, and either they failed or he refused to try, I don't know.

WAs Redford's character actually English-born and -raised, or was he of English extraction and had lived in East Africa most of his life? If the latter, he might well have not spoken in the BBC pronunciation we think of as "Standard British."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 09:14 PM (fcdZC)

161 I thought frank langella was chewing the scenery in thar one but leto will be worse

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 09:14 PM (bXbFr)

162 E.T. was a much better alien story.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 18, 2026 09:14 PM (RIvkX)

163 Carville is a nameless horror

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 09:15 PM (bXbFr)

164 I first saw Damien Lewis in Band of Brothers and had no idea he was a Brit. Some time later I saw him in a British film where he used his natural accent and I thought "That's the worst British accent I've ever heard".
Posted by: Blutarski, Gradually then Suddenly

Hugh Laurie can fool you into thinking he's a yank, too.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster! at April 18, 2026 09:15 PM (ndZc7)

165 148 Thats a lot of words to say "Close Encounters is about the irrationality of Faith".

That's what it is.

Spielberg pays it off at the end. For whatever reason I couldn't tell you. But that's what it is. The absolute crazy of people pursuing faith.

Not going to be a popular take here. Don't care. Its the truth.
Posted by: Yep at April 18, 2026 09:07 PM (r2cqy)

Faith and rationality are...not the same thing. It's like comparing motor oil and peanut butter.

And pursuing faith is only crazy if you lack faith and lack intellectual honesty. From that point of view, yeah, it does look crazy. Christ said as much.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at April 18, 2026 09:15 PM (xcxpd)

166
Karen Blixen

It truly was a shame that Karen did not team up with her sister, Ingrid Donder and create a musical comedy act, Donder and Blixen.

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 09:16 PM (xG4kz)

167 155 Not James Carville
----

James Carville would be an excellent voice in an animated Sci-Fi or horror movie.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at April 18, 2026 09:16 PM (LA6Ib)

168 Thundarr >> He-Man

Posted by: gKWVE at April 18, 2026 09:17 PM (gKWVE)

169 OK everyone, no more excuses, is that I assumed it had to be available too see, that this has to be on some list of masterpieces somewhere;


But I was wrong,

but that is no longer so.


"The Fall" by Tarsem Singh is now available through a bundling that Prime is doing with MOBI.

I've recommended it to folks since I saw it in 2010 (it was on DVD) but the truth is saying they can't found it anywhere is the truth, up until now.

Posted by: pawn at April 18, 2026 09:17 PM (CGX3Y)

170 137 He's one of those actors that always plays himself.”

Redford played an English hunter in Out of Africa. He didn't even attempt an English accent. I guess maybe he thought he was cutting the hard edges off, but it really didn't work.
Posted by: Blutarski


Kevin Costner did the same thing when he played Robin Hood, unless Robin Hood was actually from Iowa.

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at April 18, 2026 09:17 PM (qKYfj)

171 The director travis knight is already trying to deep six the film

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 09:17 PM (bXbFr)

172 Hugh Laurie can fool you into thinking he's a yank, too.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster! at April 18, 2026

***
Yes; his Greg House sounds very East Coast, though not New Englander. When you see him in the remake of Flight of the Phoenix or as Bertie Wooster, or in the short scene he has with Jen Aniston on the plane on Friends ("Furthermore, you *were* on a break!"), you're astonished.

Nicole Kidman is another who can "do" American well. It's amazing when you hear her interviewed, that she sounds so classically Australian.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 09:18 PM (fcdZC)

173 It really is "funny". All this "troll" - which is short form here for shut up - doesn't happen in real life either.
Posted by: Yep
---

You're correct. In real life you would get a short-sheet.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at April 18, 2026 09:18 PM (LA6Ib)

174 171 Thundarr >> He-Man
Posted by: gKWVE at April 18, 2026 09:17 PM (gKWVE)

This is correct

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at April 18, 2026 09:18 PM (xcxpd)

175 Carville looks like a Stan Winston creature at this point. Like the Crypt Keeper.

Miles Davis looked to me like a skeleton covered in electrical tape and a bad wig.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at April 18, 2026 09:19 PM (kpS4V)

176 Ariel or Teela

You decide

Posted by: Anna Puma at April 18, 2026 09:19 PM (2GVsD)

177 Its not that hard to make a good he man film i dont think but they keep doing it

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 09:20 PM (bXbFr)

178 Eris

Crypt Keeper looks more human

Posted by: Anna Puma at April 18, 2026 09:20 PM (2GVsD)

179 Nicole Kidman is another who can "do" American well. It's amazing when you hear her interviewed, that she sounds so classically Australian.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere

I recently saw a film on Netflix starring Emma Thomson who plays a woman who lives in Minnesota. She did a surprisingly good accent.

Posted by: Blutarski, Gradually then Suddenly at April 18, 2026 09:20 PM (cxFcK)

180 178 And pursuing faith is only crazy if you lack faith and lack intellectual honesty. From that point of view, yeah, it does look crazy. Christ said as much.

The entire review is about Richard Dryfuss doing crazy shit but it gets justified in the end - only because the aliens really do show up.

That's faith. Again - no idea why Spielberg paid it off. But that - literally, in the literal use of the word - is the review. That's the movie.

Its a movie about faith. But instead of angels - Steve sends down aliens.
Posted by: Yep at April 18, 2026 09:18 PM (r2cqy)

Well...it is called Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It would a weird choice to make the aliens...government agents or a delusion.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at April 18, 2026 09:20 PM (xcxpd)

181 Speaking of Yurpeens, I thought this was funny.

https://tinyurl.com/55t23eaw

Minute and a half.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster! at April 18, 2026 09:21 PM (ndZc7)

182 Finally, the five tone cue could literally just mean hello (five letters, five tones), but Spielberg never explicates that. It sidesteps literal translation in favor of a more purely emotional form of communication. Combine that with the scale and difference of it all, and you've got the makings of wonder and awe.
=======

I was too cynical to suspend belief that the aliens could somehow make it to earth in a giant spaceship but could only communicate through the theme to Price is Right.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 18, 2026 09:21 PM (RIvkX)

183 And not a single reference to Closet Cases of the Nerd Kind?

Famous French scientist, "but what does it mean?"

Posted by: Anna Puma at April 18, 2026 09:22 PM (2GVsD)

184 156 I first saw Damien Lewis in Band of Brothers and had no idea he was a Brit. Some time later I saw him in a British film where he used his natural accent and I thought "That's the worst British accent I've ever heard".
Posted by: Blutarski


Dominic West, who played Baltimore Detective Jimmy McNulty, pulled off a very good American accent. He even did an American, trying a British accent, while undercover. He's a solid actor.

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at April 18, 2026 09:22 PM (qKYfj)

185 Ariel or Teela

You decide
Posted by: Anna Puma at April 18, 2026

***
The Little (red-haired, and hot) Mermaid vs. a gorgeous young girl with unconscious psi-power "luck," so that everything works to her advantage and not necessarily yours? Tough call!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 09:22 PM (fcdZC)

186 Okay, show of hands -- how many of you here would like to see a big-budget remake of The Crawling Eye? (Preferably without a woke rewrite, of course.)

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 18, 2026 09:22 PM (q3u5l)

187 180 Ariel or Teela

You decide
Posted by: Anna Puma at April 18, 2026 09:19 PM (2GVsD)

Ariel is sassy. Now Tara from Herculoids is quality Waifu material.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at April 18, 2026 09:22 PM (xcxpd)

188 >I first saw Damien Lewis in Band of Brothers and had no idea he was a Brit.
----

he was "Steve McQueen" in Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood

Posted by: Don Black, watching the game in another tab at April 18, 2026 09:23 PM (ZxPkt)

189 Dominic West, who played Baltimore Detective Jimmy McNulty, pulled off a very good American accent. He even did an American, trying a British accent, while undercover. He's a solid actor.
Posted by: Puddleglum at work at April 18, 2026

***
When I first saw the original of The Wicker Man, I thought Edward Woodward *was* a Scots actor. He wasn't; he was born in Surrey in England.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 09:24 PM (fcdZC)

190 When you see Hap & Leonard, it's hard to believe that James Purefoy is a Brit. He did a nice job in that show.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 18, 2026 09:24 PM (q3u5l)

191
Johnny One-Note wonders why he can't put together a band. Here's a hint: one note.

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 09:24 PM (xG4kz)

192 Okay, show of hands -- how many of you here would like to see a big-budget remake of The Crawling Eye? (Preferably without a woke rewrite, of course.)

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 18, 2026

***
I vote for Fiend Without a Face!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 09:25 PM (fcdZC)

193 James Carville would be an excellent voice in an animated Sci-Fi or horror movie.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others

The Emperor in Star Wars.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster! at April 18, 2026 09:25 PM (ndZc7)

194 I just want to say, good luck. We're all counting on you.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at April 18, 2026 09:12 PM (xcxpd)
=====

And don't call me Shirley.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 18, 2026 09:26 PM (RIvkX)

195
Speaking of Yurpeens, I thought this was funny.

https://tinyurl.com/55t23eaw

Minute and a half.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster!

That was brutal and true.

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 09:26 PM (xG4kz)

196 Guess its not a adaptation if John Boorman wrote the movie and the novel Zardoz

Posted by: Skip at April 18, 2026 09:26 PM (Ia/+0)

197 Maybe we should try and make a new movie off F. Paul Wilson's The Keep?

Posted by: Anna Puma at April 18, 2026 09:27 PM (2GVsD)

198 I really want to yell at TJM about that Dune video but...honestly, the Close Encounters video was pretty good.

I admire him continuing to put them out.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at April 18, 2026 09:27 PM (xcxpd)

199 re: Brits.

Forgot about Dominic West. Am currently revisiting The Wire, and yep, he's solid in there, as is the rest of the cast.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 18, 2026 09:28 PM (q3u5l)

200 Maybe we should try and make a new movie off F. Paul Wilson's The Keep?
Posted by: Anna Puma at April 18, 2026 09:27 PM (2GVsD)

The Tomb would would be insane

Posted by: Kindltot at April 18, 2026 09:28 PM (rbvCR)

201 Okay, show of hands -- how many of you here would like to see a big-budget remake of The Crawling Eye? (Preferably without a woke rewrite, of course.)

Posted by: Just Some Guy

I'd go The Man With the X-Ray Eyes.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster! at April 18, 2026 09:28 PM (ndZc7)

202 I admire him continuing to put them out.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at April 18, 2026 09:27 PM (xcxpd)
====
This.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 18, 2026 09:28 PM (RIvkX)

203 173 137 He's one of those actors that always plays himself.”

Redford played an English hunter in Out of Africa. He didn't even attempt an English accent. I guess maybe he thought he was cutting the hard edges off, but it really didn't work.
Posted by: Blutarski
--

Appreciate that. Actors trying to feign an accent is tedious and irritating.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at April 18, 2026 09:29 PM (LA6Ib)

204 Wolfus,

Yep, Fiend Without a Face too.

Hope the drive is going nicely and you don't run into much bad weather.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 18, 2026 09:30 PM (q3u5l)

205 The notes where if you wish upon a stsr (also the tones to the lab in moonrakers venice lab)

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 09:30 PM (bXbFr)

206 TJM's YT video I watched the other day puts a lot into perspective. There's a book out with the same title, I honestly don't know for sure, but it was supposedly based on some Spielberg outline or story.

A lot of speculation into the characters, especially Roy's, mindsets during the events depicted in the movie.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at April 18, 2026 09:31 PM (AkEZC)

207 I thought the style guide said "sad" troll had to do all it's comments in Haiku.

Posted by: Reforger at April 18, 2026 09:31 PM (WYOCN)

208 I lived in the area where large parts of Jaws II was filmed, and now I live where large parts of Close Encounters was filmed.

Posted by: toby928(c) at April 18, 2026 09:32 PM (4NO2D)

209 Dead Martian civilization.

Decoding the language.

Omniligual

Posted by: Anna Puma at April 18, 2026 09:32 PM (2GVsD)

210 Zulu has "introducing Michael Caine", and Lawrence of Arabia has "introducing Peter O'Toole". Incredible intro for both of them, they were fantastic, and the flicks were all-time epics.

Posted by: rhomboid at April 18, 2026 09:32 PM (U/Byj)

211 Wolfus,

Yep, Fiend Without a Face too.

Hope the drive is going nicely and you don't run into much bad weather.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 18, 2026

***
Met up with a little rain outside Little Rock, but otherwise just cloudy skies until midday. As I drove farther north and west, the air cleared and cooled. Going down to 38 in Fort Scott tonight, they tell me!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 09:32 PM (fcdZC)

212 Truffauts character is based on a real life researcher vallee

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 09:33 PM (bXbFr)

213
Appreciate that. Actors trying to feign an accent is tedious and irritating.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others

That they did not try to speak in Russian accents was a big part of the humor in "The Death of Stalin". Jason Isaacs, in particular, was hilarious.

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 09:33 PM (xG4kz)

214 They told me when I moved to Kansas in 85 that if I didn't like the weather all I had to do was wait five minutes and it would change.

So far, that's been the case exactly.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 18, 2026 09:34 PM (q3u5l)

215 187 I was too cynical to suspend belief that the aliens could somehow make it to earth in a giant spaceship but could only communicate through the theme to Price is Right.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 18, 2026 09:21 PM (RIvkX)

Hehe...

Posted by: Joemarine at April 18, 2026 09:34 PM (y171U)

216 Going down to 38 in Fort Scott tonight, they tell me!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere

One of the In Cold Blood killers was from Ft Scott. Dick...something? Not Perry Smith.

Posted by: Blutarski, Gradually then Suddenly at April 18, 2026 09:35 PM (cxFcK)

217 If aliens have been watching our commercials, they've probably quarantined us as a massive disease vector.

Posted by: Anna Puma at April 18, 2026 09:35 PM (2GVsD)

218
I lived in the area where large parts of Jaws II was filmed, and now I live where large parts of Close Encounters was filmed.
Posted by: toby928(c)

So you got to see Brian Denehy in person twice? How fortunate you are!

Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026 09:36 PM (xG4kz)

219 Appreciate that. Actors trying to feign an accent is tedious and irritating.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others
*
That they did not try to speak in Russian accents was a big part of the humor in "The Death of Stalin". Jason Isaacs, in particular, was hilarious.
Posted by: Krebs 'v' Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at April 18, 2026

***
Connery and Sam Neill did not "do" Russian dialect as the sub officers in Hunt for Red October, at least no more than actors in the TV Mission: Impossible did to indicate a foreign tongue was being spoken. As I recall, in HfRO, they did a neat trick: The character would begin his speech in Russian, with English subtitles. Then suddenly he was speaking English. We understood perfectly.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 09:36 PM (fcdZC)

220 Sean Connery is Scots-Russian in that movie.

Posted by: Anna Puma at April 18, 2026 09:37 PM (2GVsD)

221 Going down to 38 in Fort Scott tonight, they tell me!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere
*
One of the In Cold Blood killers was from Ft Scott. Dick...something? Not Perry Smith.
Posted by: Blutarski, Gradually then Suddenly at April 18, 2026

***
Hickok was his surname, I think, or Hancock.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 09:38 PM (fcdZC)

222 The might vaporize us like the vogons (just to make sure).the hitchhiker film wss wrong in a host of ways

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 09:38 PM (bXbFr)

223 I have tried to watch Dune many times, way to complicated for me

Posted by: Skip at April 18, 2026 09:38 PM (Ia/+0)

224 I just remember the English actors speaking Russian with English accents.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at April 18, 2026 09:39 PM (kpS4V)

225 War and Peace with over 900 named characters is easy

Posted by: Skip at April 18, 2026 09:39 PM (Ia/+0)

226 Which Dune?

The first one? The mini-series? Or the current series of movies?

Posted by: Anna Puma at April 18, 2026 09:39 PM (2GVsD)

227 Richard (Dick) Hickock it was, and Perry Smith. Did they start out from Fort Scott and drive all the way to Garden City, which is 3/4 of the way to CO? In 1959, with no Interstate, that was some drive.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 09:40 PM (fcdZC)

228 217 Zulu has "introducing Michael Caine", and Lawrence of Arabia has "introducing Peter O'Toole". Incredible intro for both of them, they were fantastic, and the flicks were all-time epics.
Posted by: rhomboid at April 18, 2026 09:32 PM (U/Byj)

Yes, two great movies and two great actors. Am guessing those were their first two movies.

Posted by: Joemarine at April 18, 2026 09:41 PM (y171U)

229 Omnilingual relied heavily on the story of the decipherment of Hittite, and I found it even more interesting because of that.

Posted by: Kindltot - Whoever becomes king after me and settles Hattusas again, may the Stormgod of Heaven smit at April 18, 2026 09:41 PM (rbvCR)

230 Eris

https://www.frazettamuseum.com/

To help with your decorating ideas.

Posted by: Anna Puma at April 18, 2026 09:41 PM (2GVsD)

231 If aliens have been watching our commercials, they've probably quarantined us as a massive disease vector.
Posted by: Anna Puma

They're disgusted by us flapping our meat at each other?

Posted by: zombie Terry Bisson at April 18, 2026 09:41 PM (VHUov)

232 In 1959, with no Interstate, that was some drive.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere

No I think they left from KC. Hickok was from Ft Scott and his father lived there when he was interviewed by the Kansas State police.

Posted by: Blutarski, Gradually then Suddenly at April 18, 2026 09:42 PM (cxFcK)

233 As I recall, in HfRO, they did a neat trick: The character would begin his speech in Russian, with English subtitles. Then suddenly he was speaking English. We understood perfectly.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026

***
The current trend to have actors speaking the foreign tongue among themselves while providing us with English subtitles, I think, is annoying and pretentious. Of course they are Russian or German; of course they'll be speaking their native tongues. We don't have to hear that.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 09:42 PM (fcdZC)

234 I vote for Fiend Without a Face!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 09:25 PM (fcdZC)


That movie still gives me nightmares. Saw it when I was a kid and I swear I didn't sleep for a week.
*ugh*

Posted by: Diogenes at April 18, 2026 09:42 PM (2WIwB)

235 >> I lived in the area where large parts of Jaws II was filmed, and now I live where large parts of Close Encounters was filmed.

I live and fish in an area where Jaws was filmed. Lots of pointy teeth, for real.

Posted by: JackStraw at April 18, 2026 09:43 PM (viF8m)

236 I better get to bed
Have a great evening everyone

Posted by: Skip at April 18, 2026 09:44 PM (Ia/+0)

237 In 1959, with no Interstate, that was some drive.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere

No I think they left from KC. Hickok was from Ft Scott and his father lived there when he was interviewed by the Kansas State police.
Posted by: Blutarski, Gradually then Suddenly at April 18, 2026

***
Even worse, to drive from KC in the NE corner of the state almost to the SW corner, and back. There were the Federal highways, but I don't think any of the Interstate system had been fully completed in '59.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 09:44 PM (fcdZC)

238 235 Richard (Dick) Hickock it was, and Perry Smith. Did they start out from Fort Scott and drive all the way to Garden City, which is 3/4 of the way to CO? In 1959, with no Interstate, that was some drive.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 09:40 PM (fcdZC)

Is Fort Scott a former military outpost, on what used to be the frontier?

Posted by: Joemarine at April 18, 2026 09:45 PM (y171U)

239 Good Germans speak like real people but bad Germans speak with an accent.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster! at April 18, 2026 09:45 PM (ndZc7)

240 I saw a report that 4 cruise ships made a "mad dash" for the Hormuz to escape the war zone.

No word on passenger make up... EU trash, ME $, Rubles or what.

Movie material? Dunno.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at April 18, 2026 09:46 PM (AkEZC)

241 Spielberg is the biggest bang for your buck director ever, his 10 biggest films cost 1b adjusted for inflation and earned over 13b.

Jaws had a 66x roi.
ET had a 71x roi
CEOTTK had a 18x roi.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at April 18, 2026 09:48 PM (XV/Pl)

242 And on that happy note, this kid's outta here for the evening.

Thanks for the thread, TJM.

Have a good one, gang.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 18, 2026 09:49 PM (q3u5l)

243 Is Fort Scott a former military outpost, on what used to be the frontier?
Posted by: Joemarine at April 18, 2026

***
I think so. There is a historic site in downtown with what looks like part of a military fort, and two big memorial name walls.

With my usual luck, in which I run into a parade whenever I travel somewhere, tonight was Prom Night for the local high school. People were trickling in from all over. A young guy with his blonde girlfriend drew up at a stop sign, his original Dodge Challenger (or maybe it was a Plymouth Road Runner, in bright blue) rumbling and growling like a scene from American Graffiti.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 09:49 PM (fcdZC)

244 One ping vassili

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 18, 2026 09:50 PM (bXbFr)

245 I'm pretty sure Fort Scott was right in the middle of the "Bloody Kansas" fussing before the Civil War, too.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 09:51 PM (fcdZC)

246 I'm pretty sure Fort Scott was right in the middle of the "Bloody Kansas" fussing before the Civil War, too.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere

Border Ruffians and Jayhawks. Good times.

Posted by: Blutarski, Gradually then Suddenly at April 18, 2026 09:51 PM (cxFcK)

247 The scene that haunted me from childhood was from Spellbound when the little kid slides down the concrete banister and accidentally impales the other little kid on the wrought iron fence.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster! at April 18, 2026 09:52 PM (ndZc7)

248 Fort Scott was named after Gen Winfield Scott, Old Fuss and Feathers

Posted by: Kindltot - Whoever becomes king after me and settles Hattusas again, may the Stormgod of Heaven smit at April 18, 2026 09:53 PM (rbvCR)

249 >>Spielberg is the biggest bang for your buck director ever, his 10 biggest films cost 1b adjusted for inflation and earned over 13b.

Hard to overstimate how big a deal Jaws was and remains in our cluture. And it was made on on what is for movies now peanuts.

Posted by: JackStraw at April 18, 2026 09:54 PM (viF8m)

250 >>> Posted by: Yep at April 18, 2026 09:38 PM (r2cqy)

Can't quit us, can you.

Posted by: pathetic at April 18, 2026 09:54 PM (9vFyc)

251 I saw a report that 4 cruise ships made a "mad dash" for the Hormuz to escape the war zone.

No word on passenger make up... EU trash, ME $, Rubles or what.

Movie material? Dunno.
Posted by: Martini Farmer

Blood Alley II.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster! at April 18, 2026 09:55 PM (ndZc7)

252 I am reading the memoirs of John Mosby, and the forward mentions that Mosby thought General Scott was the most influential officer on the success of the Union forces. Grant was a better fighter, but would not have been capable of organizing the Union army the way that Scott did.

Posted by: Kindltot - Whoever become king after me and settles Hattusas again, may the Stormgod of Heaven smite at April 18, 2026 09:55 PM (rbvCR)

253 https://www.frazettamuseum.com/

To help with your decorating ideas.
Posted by: Anna Puma at April 18, 2026 09:41 PM (2GVsD)
---

I'd love to see the originals!

Seeing the Barnes Exhibit masterpieces up close and personal showed me that no reproduction can really translate the wild colors with accuracy.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at April 18, 2026 09:56 PM (kpS4V)

254 Thanks for the movie thread!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at April 18, 2026 09:58 PM (kpS4V)

255 Opening in Theaters:

Lee Cronin's The Mummy

Huh?? I thought Lee Cronin died in '73???

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 18, 2026 09:58 PM (1Ff7Z)

256 Huh?? I thought Lee Cronin died in '73???
Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 18, 2026

***
Wasn't that one of Gene L. Coon's pen names, the one he used when he thought the script of his being filmed was beneath his standards?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 10:02 PM (fcdZC)

257 Nood ONT

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 18, 2026 10:02 PM (fcdZC)

258 Winfield Scott was a great organizer and a great mind, but by the time the civil war came around his aides had to rig up a block and tackle to put him on a horse, when needed. (And they needed a heavy duty draft horse to carry him)

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 18, 2026 10:03 PM (yGQJD)

259 The most impressive thing an actor can do is vanish so far into a part that you don't even recognize him. I first saw Damian Lewis in 'Band of Brothers' and he was excellent. Then came the PBS production of 'The Forsyte Saga' where he played the bad cousin with a strange, almost birdlike manner. This was closely followed by the PBS production of 'Wolf Hall' where he played an over-the-top Henry VIII. Each of these parts was so wildly different, yet he did an excellent job in each so much so that he simply vanished into the part.

Posted by: Brewingfrog at April 18, 2026 10:21 PM (TCiBY)

260 The hand motions in Close Encounters struck me as odd and unnecessary. I think they were trying to bring together the breadth of encounters across cultures, but weird.

I really liked the initial contact at the remote site, when the guy is playing the organ. He’s playing like mad until the person says we’ve got enough to turn it over to the computer, and the music really picks up the tempo. Along with that low note the mothership hits that shakes walls.

Posted by: Advo at April 18, 2026 10:22 PM (jO4mz)

261 Along with the space theme, though I don’t care for Kevin Spacey (SWIDT), he did an amazing movie called KPAX.

Posted by: Advo at April 18, 2026 10:26 PM (jO4mz)

(Jump to top of page)






Processing 0.04, elapsed 0.049 seconds.
15 queries taking 0.0123 seconds, 270 records returned.
Page size 157 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.



MuNuvians
MeeNuvians
Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Deal with the Cowbell?
Why is the Ace of Spades called "the Death Card"?
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Primary Document: The Audio
Paul Anka Haiku Contest Announcement
Integrity SAT's: Entrance Exam for Paul Anka's Band
AllahPundit's Paul Anka 45's Collection
AnkaPundit: Paul Anka Takes Over the Site for a Weekend (Continues through to Monday's postings)
George Bush Slices Don Rumsfeld Like an F*ckin' Hammer
Top Top Tens

Democratic Forays into Erotica
New Shows On Gore's DNC/MTV Network
Nicknames for Potatoes, By People Who Really Hate Potatoes
Star Wars Euphemisms for Self-Abuse
Signs You're at an Iraqi "Wedding Party"
Signs Your Clown Has Gone Bad
Signs That You, Geroge Michael, Should Probably Just Give It Up

Signs of Hip-Hop Influence on John Kerry
NYT Headlines Spinning Bush's Jobs Boom
Things People Are More Likely to Say Than "Did You Hear What Al Franken Said Yesterday?"
Signs that Paul Krugman Has Lost His Frickin' Mind
All-Time Best NBA Players, According to Senator Robert Byrd
Other Bad Things About the Jews, According to the Koran
Signs That David Letterman Just Doesn't Care Anymore
Examples of Bob Kerrey's Insufferable Racial Jackassery
Signs Andy Rooney Is Going Senile
Other Judgments Dick Clarke Made About Condi Rice Based on Her Appearance
Collective Names for Groups of People
John Kerry's Other Vietnam Super-Pets
Cool Things About the XM8 Assault Rifle
Media-Approved Facts About the Democrat Spy
Changes to Make Christianity More "Inclusive"
Secret John Kerry Senatorial Accomplishments
John Edwards Campaign Excuses
John Kerry Pick-Up Lines
Changes Liberal Senator George Michell Will Make at Disney
Torments in Dog-Hell
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
News/Chat

Ann Coulter
National Review Online
The Perfect World
Free Republic
Lucianne
The Note

Syndicate this site (XML)

Powered by
Movable Type