The Cinema Thread

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Article

[GoCubsGo]

Wow. Hard to believe.

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I think this is a good action-thriller:

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is a 2014 American action thriller film directed by Kenneth Branagh. Chris Pine, Kevin Costner, Branagh, and Keira Knightley star in leading roles. The film features the fictional character Jack Ryan created by author Tom Clancy. It is the fifth film in the Jack Ryan series but is presented as a reboot that departs from the previous installments. Unlike its predecessors, it is not an adaptation of a particular Clancy novel, but rather an original story. Pine stars in the title role, becoming the fourth actor to play Ryan, following Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, and Ben Affleck.

... Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit was met with mixed critical reviews. The film is dedicated to Clancy, who died on October 1, 2013.

[billy.pilgrim]

Chinese Takeaway is almost great.

[neoplacebo]

Sacha Baron Cohen has a sequel to his Borat movie coming out next month. It's title is "Borat: Gift of Pornographic Monkey to Vice Premier Mikhael Pence to Make Benefit Recently Diminished Nation of Kazakhstan." Here's a story about it and its predecessor.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/borat-sequel ... 00619.html

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I watched Clue (1985) - goofy, not terrible. I was sure throughout that Miss Scarlet was Susan Sarandon. Turns out it was Leslie Ann Warren. I guess I'm not the first to notice.

A mystery for you

Leslie Ann Warren, Actress (Clue, Victor Victoria, Color of Night) Born in New York City August 16, 1946
Susan Sarandon, Actress (Rocky Horror Picture Show, Thelma & Louise, The Client, Dead Man Walking) Born in Queens, New York, October 4, 1946

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3 years before Monty Python's Rabbit of Caerbannog there was:

Night of the Lepus (1972)

Giant mutant rabbits terrorize the south-west.

I'm not planning on watching, but I might flip to it during commercials.

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... I'm not planning on watching, but I might flip to it during commercials.

:!: I only regret that I missed, I assume:

Spoiler:

Them getting electrocuted en masse on booby trapped RR tracks.

You know that you're going to find it and watch.

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Night of the Lepus had an impressive cast:
Stuart Whitman (The Longest Day)
Janet Leigh (Psycho)
Rory Calhoun (How to Marry a Millionaire)
DeForest Kelley (Original Star Trek, Dr. "Bones" McCoy)
Paul Fix (Giant, To Kill a Mockingbird, El Dorado)

... "truly heinous dialogue" … famous as "one of the worst films ever made”…. bad special effects "make the entire film a huge joke”…. its biggest flaw was that "fluffy bunnies just aren't scary”…. the actors did the best they could with the material, and praised them for "[keeping] straight faces as they heroically stand against the onslaught of the bunnies".

Who would have ever guessed? They must have been paid a lot to agree to be in the film.

I finally watched Juno. Now I see what the buzz was all about. It deserved all of the awards and nominations it got.

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Kazakhstan adopts Borat catchphrase as official tourism slogan: ‘Very nice!’
Country had previously banned Sacha Baron Cohen’s first satire in 2006




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRGXq4t9wY4

Very Nice!

[neoplacebo]

Can't say much for the soundtrack other than I don't consider it very nice. Maybe they should have gone with "sexy time" for their motto.

[billy.pilgrim]

Can't say much for the soundtrack other than I don't consider it very nice. Maybe they should have gone with "sexy time" for their motto.

Really? We commented several times that the soundtrack was perfect.

Edit: oh, the commercial, not the movie.

Yeah, the commercial soundtrack sucked

[Vrede too]

Svengoolie tonight:

The Leech Woman (1960)

I was considering watching it, but it sucks.

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Some good 1988 nostalgic comedy:

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

A Fish Called Wanda

[GoCubsGo]

Some good 1988 nostalgic comedy:

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

A Fish Called Wanda

Two good movies.

Speaking of the 80's, I just finished binging Cobra Kai on Netflix. Never knew something could be cheesey and a bit compelling at the same time.

Interestingly, there's no true protagonist. Our hero is very flawed. Our main "protagonist" is shown to be very flawed also and given multiple layers.

It sort of winks at it's own cheese while pushing forward and makes good use of movie flashbacks. Worth a look.

I'm still in love with young Elisabeth Shue.

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... Speaking of the 80's, I just finished binging Cobra Kai on Netflix. Never knew something could be cheesey and a bit compelling at the same time.

Interestingly, there's no true protagonist. Our hero is very flawed. Our main "protagonist" is shown to be very flawed also and given multiple layers.

It sort of winks at it's own cheese while pushing forward and makes good use of movie flashbacks. Worth a look.

I'm still in love with young Elisabeth Shue.

"Old" Elisabeth Shue, too.

[Vrede too]

Freedom Writers (2007)



Yeah, it's another white savior film and the 'brand new teacher inspiring disadvantaged kids' theme has been done many times. However, it's got many things going for it:

It's a fact-based adaptation of the book written largely by the students The Freedom Writers Diary.
The Holocaust was used as a metaphor for the kids' lives, the class arranged for Miep Gies, the Dutch woman who sheltered the Anne Frank family, to visit them, and several actual Holocaust survivors have speaking roles in the movie.
The book was banned in Indianapolis, always a plus.
The film is well written and made.
Hilary Swank is always amazing.
The works of real world teacher Erin Gruwell continue through the Freedom Writers Foundation.

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Golden Globes 2021 nominations for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm:

Best Motion Picture ― Musical or Comedy
Sacha Baron Cohen, Best Actor in a Motion Picture ― Musical or Comedy
Maria Bakalova, Best Actress in a Motion Picture ― Musical or Comedy

“Poor Rudy Giuliani was snubbed for his brilliant turn acting like he was just tucking in his shirt."
-- Jimmy Kimmel

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Epic reputation crash, perhaps the farthest fall for any Trumpette:

Gifted Hands

2 hrs, 2009, TV-PG

An inspiring biography of Ben Carson (Cuba Gooding Jr.), who rose from impoverished beginnings and overcame various obstacles to become a renowned pediatric neurosurgeon ...

Sequel soon: Grifted Hands.

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Woman in Motion: How Lt Uhura Changed NASA

Coming to On Demand And Digital on February 16, 2021, Shout!Factory’s ‘Woman In Motion: Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek And The Remaking Of NASA’ is a great addition to Black History Month, and it gives insights into how one person can change the course of history. When Star Trek: TOS originally aired, “astronaut” was a job that only Caucasian men were doing; then one Black woman spoke out and firmly took the opportunity to make change....


“Where are my people? … I will bring you so many qualified people — the world will never be the same again!”

In the role of Lieutenant Nyota Uhura of Star Trek, Nichelle Nichols was involved in many important “firsts”: the first interracial kiss on American television; the first American live-action series with an interracial cast; the first American science fiction series with a continuing cast that told stories aimed at adults rather than children; the first African-American to place her handprints in front of the famous Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

Born in a village suburb of Chicago, and at heart a stage actress who loved doing musical theater, Ms Nichols had intended to leave the series after the first season, to pursue a job offer of a Broadway role in a musical. As fate would have it, the same day she handed in her resignation to Gene Roddenberry, she was introduced to “her greatest fan”, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. He made her aware that she was part of something of historical proportions. She stayed.


Dr Martin Luther King, Jr’s statement about Nichols/Uhura.

After ST:TOS had been off the air for a decade, Ms Nichols gave a speech in Washington DC under the auspices of the National Space Society, entitled, “New Opportunities for the Humanization of Space” or “Space, What’s in it for me?” In that speech, she chided NASA for multiple rejections of applications from qualified women, who had then felt disenfranchised and discouraged. NASA responded by contacting her with the offer of a position that would help them recruit women and People of Color.

In her own words, her response to NASA’s job offer (as told to the Smithsonian Magazine) was, “OK. I will do this and I will bring you the most qualified people on the planet, as qualified as anyone you’ve ever had and I will bring them in droves. And if you do not pick a person of color, if you do not pick a woman, if it’s the same old, same old, all-white male astronaut corps, that you’ve done for the last five years, and I’m just another dupe, I will be your worst nightmare.” She spent the next ten years as a NASA Recruiter.



In addition to Ms Nichols herself, ‘Woman In Motion: Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek And The Remaking Of NASA’ features a large number of celebrities, activists, scientists and astronauts who discuss and reminisce about the influence of this woman, who was not only at the right place at the right time, but who seized the opportunity to change our world.