What are you watching & why? (splain)

And, if we're talking about animated "Cat" films the one to get is the X-RATED "Fritz-the-Cat.!"

It's based on a comic strip by R. Crumb who was also involved in the production. It's dated in terms of content but there's no other animated film like it.

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Haven't watched that one recently either and need to take another look at it too.
 
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And, lastly, I also just watched "Spiderman: No Way Home." The 8th in the series of Spiderman flicks going back to 2002.

anBn


Spiderman meets Dr. Strange who opens the multiverse and unites Spiderman w/his 2 prior selves and 5 prior villans in a climactic "save the world" (and the other "universes") from evil ending, which (in the way that it's discussed in the extras) may be the last of the Spiderman movies. We can only hope!

You could probably enjoy the movie strictly as "entertainment" w/o having seen any of the other Spiderman films but IMO you really need to have watched pretty much all of the prior 7 Spiderman films plus Dr. Strange to understand where all the characters are coming from and how they "fit" in the narrative.

I've seen all of the films and I still had to refresh my memory about past events to understand what was going on in "No Way Home" but for pure "escapism" it will still do on its own.

As with all movies like this, you have to be able to suspend all disbelief but, if you can, you should be able to enjoy it too.
 
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Many/most stage musicals of recent vintage do not translate well to the silver screen (I'm not counting films where they just captured the stage performances on film - like "Hamilton"). For example, I'm a pretty big Andrew Lloyd Webber fan. I think I've seen just about all of his musicals - many repeatedly. I even paid to see the pre-Broadway production of "Whistle Down the Wind" - what a trainwreck! But the translations of his musicals to the Big Screen may be the worst. I've seen the stage production of "Cats" three times, and while it's not my favorite by a long shot, I have always enjoyed it. The recent movie was a traveshamockery. One of only a handful of films I could not stomach to make it to the end. The only big screen adaptation of his I liked was "Evita" - surprisingly because of Antonio Banderas.

In recent years, I think "Chicago" and "Les Miserables" (my all-time favorite stage musical!) turned out extremely well (although many critics panned the latter). I guess folks liked "Sweeney Todd" and "Into the Woods" but me - not so much. "Rent" was not good. "In the Heights" was a critics' darling. Audiences gave it a hard pass. It was a bomb. IMO, it became too political and vividly illustrated the wide chasm between the politics of film reviewers and those of the majority of regular folks. I liked "Grease" - but it seems to be very polarizing with critics.

Original screen musicals seem to fare a bit better. IMO "La La Land" was terrific - on a par with its inspiration, "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg."

In olden times, film musicals like "West Side Story," "The King and I" and "The Sound of Music" seemed to liberate their stories and music from the confines of a stage.

On the other hand . . . IMO the 1958 film adaptation of "South Pacific" fails on that score. Which is a shame, because I believe "South Pacific" was the one of the most important and greatest musicals ever staged. But in the cancel-happy era in which we live today, it is unlikely to ever be remade without substantial editing. The irony being that a musical which was composed specifically to challenge racist beliefs in the 1940s, and which was attacked in parts of the south for that reason, is now itself seen as too racist to be shown in its entirety. Speaking of which . . . one of my favorite movie musicals is "Holiday inn." Irving Berlin's music is among the greatest ever written and Fred Astaire's dance numbers are mind-blowing. But I do not believe that it will ever be shown on TV, or streaming platforms, in its entirety ever again, and for very understandable reasons. A couple of parts of it are hard, hard, hard to watch. But it is still a damn shame to lose forever the glorious 95% of this film for the deeply offensive 5%.
 
Many/most stage musicals of recent vintage do not translate well to the silver screen (I'm not counting films where they just captured the stage performances on film - like "Hamilton"). For example, I'm a pretty big Andrew Lloyd Webber fan. I think I've seen just about all of his musicals - many repeatedly. I even paid to see the pre-Broadway production of "Whistle Down the Wind" - what a trainwreck! But the translations of his musicals to the Big Screen may be the worst. I've seen the stage production of "Cats" three times, and while it's not my favorite by a long shot, I have always enjoyed it. The recent movie was a traveshamockery. One of only a handful of films I could not stomach to make it to the end. The only big screen adaptation of his I liked was "Evita" - surprisingly because of Antonio Banderas.

In recent years, I think "Chicago" and "Les Miserables" (my all-time favorite stage musical!) turned out extremely well (although many critics panned the latter). I guess folks liked "Sweeney Todd" and "Into the Woods" but me - not so much. "Rent" was not good. "In the Heights" was a critics' darling. Audiences gave it a hard pass. It was a bomb. IMO, it became too political and vividly illustrated the wide chasm between the politics of film reviewers and those of the majority of regular folks. I liked "Grease" - but it seems to be very polarizing with critics.

Original screen musicals seem to fare a bit better. IMO "La La Land" was terrific - on a par with its inspiration, "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg."

In olden times, film musicals like "West Side Story," "The King and I" and "The Sound of Music" seemed to liberate their stories and music from the confines of a stage.

On the other hand . . . IMO the 1958 film adaptation of "South Pacific" fails on that score. Which is a shame, because I believe "South Pacific" was the one of the most important and greatest musicals ever staged. But in the cancel-happy era in which we live today, it is unlikely to ever be remade without substantial editing. The irony being that a musical which was composed specifically to challenge racist beliefs in the 1940s, and which was attacked in parts of the south for that reason, is now itself seen as too racist to be shown in its entirety. Speaking of which . . . one of my favorite movie musicals is "Holiday inn." Irving Berlin's music is among the greatest ever written and Fred Astaire's dance numbers are mind-blowing. But I do not believe that it will ever be shown on TV, or streaming platforms, in its entirety ever again, and for very understandable reasons. A couple of parts of it are hard, hard, hard to watch. But it is still a damn shame to lose forever the glorious 95% of this film for the deeply offensive 5%.

Lots to comment upon but I'll limit my remarks to just 2 topics.

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I agree that many movies to not translate well from the theater to film.

However, I'm less critical than you of the entertainment "value" of those films that do not "translate well" from theather to film. I use to be an avid theater goer but moving away from the "Big City" and the ridiculous increase in seat prices put me off "going to the theater."

So, the only way I can enjoy "the theater" now is by means of video or film.

My favorite theatrical muscial that I actually saw (a couple times) was "Phantom of the Opera' and I thought that the film version of the play was very good. I also happen to have liked the film version of "Rent" and "In the Heights", as well as Chicago, Les Miz and La La Land, none of which I saw in the theater, as I did the 3rd remake of "A Star is Born" w/Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga which I liked better than the original w/Garland and the 2nd remake w/Streisand.

The original (1934) version of "A Star is Born" starred Janet Gaynor and Frederick March but who remembers that one? LOL! :)

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I also agree that the CANCEL culture has gone too and might prohibit the current showing of "South Pacific" but you have to remember that "South Pacific" is not the only early musical to deal w/race -- Showboat -- another O & H production -- also dealt w/that issue.

The World of Suzie Wong (film) , Miss Saigon (theater) and Madam Butterfly (opera) also address "race" as an issue but not in the way that the Hammerstein movies did. It presents an image of Asian women that many Asian Americans today detest and object to as bigoted and racist in their conception and presentation in American media.

The thing is, that while "South Pacific" and "Showboat" might be cancelled in the current political enviornment, Suzie Wong, Miss Saigon and Madam Butterfly would not because there is no preceived "harm" among those in American media (or public) in the way that Asian women are depicted in these productions.

The hypocrisy is overwhelming to anyone who is sensitive to the issue. :mad:
 
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Holiday Inn has been my favorite musical since I was a kid. I think we wore out 2 VHS tapes of it over the years. I have it on DVD now and burned to a hard drive and I have the soundtrack on my phone.
As a matter of fact I was humming Easter Parade at work this morning.
 
Watching "Tehran" on Apple TV+ (Got a couple of months for free with our new iPhone.)

It's an interesting espionage series from Israel...involving an operation mounted in Iran.

It is not without moments of "WTF?"...but what series is anymore?

That said, I'm enjoying it after three episodes...despite the requisite suspension of critical thinking.
 
Watching "Tehran" on Apple+

It's an interesting espionage series from Israel...involving an operation mounted in Iran.

It is not without moments of "WTF?"...but what series is anymore?

That said, I'm enjoying it after three episodes...despite the requisite suspension of critical thinking.
Have you watched Fauda?
 
Just took a 2nd look at "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" on DVD because Jessica Chastian plays Tammy and won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance.

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Have to say that I really didn't realize that Chastain -- who is one of my favorite female actresses among the current crop of actresses -- was playing Tammy until I heard about her nomination and only gave the DVD as cursory glance the 1st time around.

The role is SO out of character for her when you consider her performances in "Zero Dark 30", "The 355" and "Miss Sloane" in which she plays a straight ahead, "in your face", very smart, hard edged woman taking on the men and beating them at their game.

Tammy is also very smart but (who like a lot of people - not just women - from the South) plays off not being so smart as a strategy to get what she wants but in a more around about way and, given how this role stretches her and how she executes it, I think that she probably deserved the Oscar for her performance.

So, if you haven't watched it yet or dismissed it out of hand (as I did when I 1st saw it on my DVD list), give it a look to decide if you think she deserved the Oscar or not.
I love Jessica Chastain so I will check this out. I remember Tammy Faye on TV back in the day, but I'm old. She leaned into the humor about her pancake makeup and became kinda an icon.
 
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I prefer the old Dune, the bad guys were scary and it was all gross and confusing. The new one has a lot of pageantry but disappointed me. And as a knife fan I was pissed that nobody bothered to find cool knives for this new really expensive movie that takes place in this knife-only universe.
I had not seen the original Dune since the eighties.I didn’t realize the original Dune was directed by David Lynch, and starred Kyle MacLachlan. I had forgotten that Sting was in it too. David Lynch does some strange stuff. I really enjoyed their work in Twin Peaks, that was one of my favorite shows. I started rewatching it last night on Starz, I’ll finish it up tonight.:thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
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