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@Detective  I just goofed bigtime -- tried to reply to your recent post, but my response to the longer quote got included inside the quote box.  I haven't yet figured out any way to fix this sort of thing, so I decided to just delete my post.  Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted yours instead.  Please forgive me.

If you would like to use the quotes in my post to help you reconstruct your lost post, I promise not to delete it again!

 

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I am rather late to the party on the Mission Impossible films.

I used to love the old TV show.

I only recently discovered that Simon Pegg was in them. So I will need to catch up on them one day, as I adore Simon.

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Saw "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" today.  It was a good time, about what you'd expect from a MI movie.  Now I feel the need to see the previous films, though.  I've only seen the first one.

This trailer played during the previews.  I'm not super into monsters, and especially not Godzilla, but it looks like it might be cool.

 

Not a movie, but I went to a comedy-thriller play the other day called "The Game's Afoot".  This is the description:

It is December 1936, and Broadway star William Gillette, admired the world over for his leading role in the play Sherlock Holmes, has invited his fellow cast members to his Connecticut castle for a weekend of revelry. But when one of the guests is stabbed to death, the festivities in this isolated house of tricks and mirrors quickly turn dangerous. It is then up to Gillette himself, as he assumes the persona of his beloved Holmes, to track down the killer before the next victim appears.

It was good fun, more comedy than thriller.  :happy:  Less Sherlock than I was hoping for, but oh well, lol.  I'd still recommend it for a night out.

 

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I haven’t seen the TV show. I have only seen the 4th, 5th and now 6th installment of the franchise, so I can’t compare the characters..

 

Mission Impossible are obviously not really character driven films, it’s the action that drives all the films, but the characters are compelling, well acted etc. that you do care about them. And big parts of the story rely on solid characters and their interactions, so I would say that the characterizations of Ethan Hunt etc. are all one could ask for in an action movie.

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[mention=1729]Detective[/mention]  I just goofed bigtime -- tried to reply to your recent post, but my response to the longer quote got included inside the quote box.  I haven't yet figured out any way to fix this sort of thing, so I decided to just delete my post.  Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted yours instead.  Please forgive me.
If you would like to use the quotes in my post to help you reconstruct your lost post, I promise not to delete it again!
 


This is funny, I was trying to find my post for forever and couldn’t do so. And I was a little confused because I was scrolling through the posts and going back to posts that were definitely posted before mine, and mine wasn’t anywhere to be found, and then I came back to yours, read it properly and was like ‘ok this makes sense now’.
Thanks for clarifying , and don’t worry about it!
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Just watched Wind River. What an unremittingly grim and bleak film. And it has a rape and murder scene that is much more graphic than it needs to be. What is it with all the graphic rape scenes on TV these days? It's disgusting. 

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3 hours ago, Detective said:

 

I haven’t seen the TV show. I have only seen the 4th, 5th and now 6th installment of the franchise, so I can’t compare the characters..

 

Mission Impossible are obviously not really character driven films, it’s the action that drives all the films, but the characters are compelling, well acted etc. that you do care about them. And big parts of the story rely on solid characters and their interactions, so I would say that the characterizations of Ethan Hunt etc. are all one could ask for in an action movie.

The characters in the TV show were pretty two dimensional.  They were just there to do stuff, and could almost have been robots, though I guess that would have lessened the sense of danger/suspense.  Sounds like they may have developed personalities.  :D

 

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I am rather late to the party on the Mission Impossible films.
I used to love the old TV show.
I only recently discovered that Simon Pegg was in them. So I will need to catch up on them one day, as I adore Simon.



He starts in the franchise at movie 3.
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On ‎8‎/‎24‎/‎2018 at 3:33 PM, Pseudonym said:

Just watched Wind River. What an unremittingly grim and bleak film. And it has a rape and murder scene that is much more graphic than it needs to be. What is it with all the graphic rape scenes on TV these days? It's disgusting. 

I seem to remember that was sort of a trend in the movies for awhile. Maybe it still is, I don't see enough variety of films to know. I think that's about when I started to get a lot pickier about what I would go see, at any rate. That, and when it started costing more to see a movie than to put gas in my car.

At any rate, I noticed something similar about Start Up (remember, the one with Martin Freeman?) and The Alienist, which I just watched recently; they were both front loaded with violent and/or meaningless sex that had nothing to do with the plot in the first few episodes, and after the audience had been properly "shocked", they got on with the story liked it was any other family hour drama. Now what do they think they're proving, pray tell? I don't get it.

Abrupt segue … I just watched most of the second Avengers movie on TV, and liked most of it better than I remember liking it in the theater. Some movies just seem to play better on the small screen, and in spite of all its epic battles (or maybe because of them?) Avengers 2 seems to be one of them. Lots of nice characters bits. But the fights are just dull. Not to diss Joss Whedon, but I suspect he's a better writer than he is a director.

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3 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

I noticed something similar about Start Up (remember, the one with Martin Freeman?) and The Alienist, which I just watched recently; they were both front loaded with violent and/or meaningless sex that had nothing to do with the plot in the first few episodes, and after the audience had been properly "shocked", they got on with the story liked it was any other family hour drama. Now what do they think they're proving, pray tell?

Damned if I know.  All I've seen of Start Up is a clip that I found on YouTube.  After seeing that, I have no interest in seeing the rest of it.  I mean, if that's their idea of sexy, I doubt that I'd be interested in their idea of exciting or interesting either.  Damn shame too, 'cause Freeman can do a really fine sexy.

12 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

I just watched most of the second Avengers movie on TV, and liked most of it better than I remember liking it in the theater. Some movies just seem to play better on the small screen,

I had that experience once.  I was visiting someone who left the TV on all the time, even if no one was in the room, and happened to walk through the living room just as something really funny happened on the TV.  I sat down to watch whatever it was (I had no idea, though I recognized most of the actors), and was enjoying it immensely.  At a station break, they gave the name of the movie, Murder by Death -- which amazed me because I'd seen it in the theater when it first came out, and hadn't found it all that funny.

It's possible that I was simply in a funnier mood the second time, but then again as I watched the rest of the movie, I thought the blocking was more suited to a smaller screen.

 

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Yeah, why is that? There's a few comedies that I watch every time they come on TV, like Mad Mad Mad World and The Russians Are Coming, because I remember laughing my head off at them when I saw them before, only to find they're not that funny … until the next time I see it, and I laugh my head off again. And back and forth. 

And yet there's some, like Young Frankenstein, that I find hilarious every time I see it. I don't get it. I just "happen" to be in the right mood every time I see Young Frankenstein? Or is Gene Wilder genuinely that much funnier than the entire cast of Mad Mad? :D 

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Ah, Arcadia, you have just opened up an entire Pandora's can of worms, which I shall attempt to untangle (insofar as what my own reactions have been in similar situations) and address as separately as possible. I suspect this may go on for several posts.

I have seen Mad Mad etc. precisely once, in full-fledged Cinerama, in a specially-equipped Cinerama theater.  I was underwhelmed.  I can think of several possible reasons for this:

1)  I was probably still in my "adults are stupid" phase, wherein my friends and I were allowed to tell silly, stupid jokes (the sillier and stupider the better, in fact), but if an adult made such a joke, I took them seriously and assumed they were ignorant.  As I recall, the humor in MMMMW is pretty stupid, but perhaps it's good-quality stupid, and I might enjoy it now.  (Or not.)

2)  I don't recall ever finding many of those cast members particularly funny as actors.  For example, although I enjoyed Jonathan Winters' improv routines on talk shows, I found his character on Mork and Mindy to be downright embarrassing.  Then again, I found that entire season of M&M to be pretty embarrassing -- so maybe it's just that those actors tend to be cast in a certain sort of production that I'm not fond of?

3)  The movie was filmed with special Cinerama cameras, so it was intended to be a Cinerama movie.  This may have affected the set design, writing, and direction in much the same ways that filming in 3-D does now,and I find those things distracting (especially when I'm watching in regular 2-D, though).

The movie's Wikipedia page says the theatrical release was severely pruned just to make it shorter, and that a pretty good approximation to the original director's cut was recently released on Blu-ray.  Maybe I should get that.

 

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Oh, I don't know, it's quite long enough already! And the humor IS stupid, but sometimes, for some reason, it just makes me roar. I remember in particular one time when my Mom and I were watching it together and giggling like school girls, which is SOOO unlike my mom. The scene at the end, where they're all being flung about by the fire truck, and Rochester lands in Lincoln's lap; I remember us both laughing so hard it literally hurt. But you're right, it's a really stupid joke and other times when I've seen the movie I know I just rolled my eyes at that bit. Weird.

 

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Analyzing humor is tricky at best.  No two people react the same, and as you've said, even the same person may react differently on different days.  I suspect that humor will always be more if an art than a science.

Back to your other examples:  I'm very fond of The Russians Are Coming, but don't recall ever finding it hilarious, more what I'd call humorous.  Young Frankenstein truly is hilarious, though.  Russians has a gentle heart, whereas Frankenstein is unrelentingly goofy.

I remember only one line of dialog from MMMW.  I'm sure it was supposed to be funny, but it was telegraphed so blatantly that when it did come, I was more relieved than amused.  On the other hand, there's an analogous situation in the ST: Next Gen episode where they find Scotty that had me in stitches the first time I saw it, waiting for the inevitable line.  So I don't even understand my own sense of humor all that well.  No, wait, I think I understand it, I just can't explain it.

In case anybody who has seen those two productions is wondering what those lines were:

 

From MMMMW:  "He kicked the bucket!

From ST:TNG:  "It is green."

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I'm pretty sure in the first one no one ever actually said it, they just showed it. I remember, because I didn't get why people were laughing until my dad explained it to me. Unless someone said it way later in the movie than when it occurred?

I have nooooo idea what the second one is referring to, nor do I even remember Scotty ever being a character in TNG! 

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They showed it, yes, which is what I meant by telegraphing the line.  And then, perhaps when everybody was already laughing (so that you missed hearing it?) somebody actually stated the all-too-obvious.  There appear to be a number of different cuts, though.  Perhaps they omitted that line later on -- or perhaps they inserted it after you saw, then deleted it again after I saw it?

As for the Trek episode, well, here's a link.

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Must've missed that one. Although now I dimly remember the line from the original Trek.

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Watched Alpha. 7/10

It's beautiful movie and eventhough some part feel rushed and the others feel dragged,  I enjoy it overall. I was worry that they would go to the direction

and kill the dog wolf

but luckily they didn't because I would go berserk.

Obviously there are some doubtful facts but it didn't disturb me too much as I have limited knowledge and the important is, the main plot line doesn't count on those, unlike other movies I b*tched about.

 

Rewatch Jurrasic Park.

It was on inflight entertainment that had perculiar problem of me not able to return to home page after I had chosen a movie. So what I did was dragging the slider until the end and wait couple of minutes for the credit to finish (because it can't be dragged to the very end!) before I could choose another movie. So I chose something at the very least I know I would enjoy and it had been forever since I saw the original.

It's so fresh and great compared to the sequels obviously. I like the lab, the idea of the park although there are many questionable things and some inaccuracies (for example that is one hell of velociraptor's size exaggeration)  but it's forgivable because it's classic. I don't remember correctly but I think he was way ahead of time when Dr.Alan (?) character mentioned that dinosaurs are related to bird instead of reptile.

Can't help to notice this time that the children and even adult could just crawl through the electric fence's gigantic holes instead of climbing the fence up and down. Geez!

13_Electrical-fence_Hawaii_Jurassic-_Par

But then again, I was asleep (it's those odd hours) when T-rex started to show up with screams and roars as my lullaby and only woke up again  when everything was settled. :P

 

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11 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

I think he was way ahead of time when Dr.Alan (?) character mentioned that dinosaurs are related to bird instead of reptile.

The movie was released in '93.  I remember reading a fascinating article about the bird-dinosaur connection in (I think) Scientific American back in the mid-70's, and then the same guy (I think) wrote a very readable book explaining all his reasons, which I found convincing.  (And apparently he wasn't even the first.)  Of course it took a while for the other scientists to agree (or die off), but the movie could have used the ideas anyhow.

Added:  I should mention that the 70's book was apparently pretty popular, because it was also available as a trade paperback with a nice full-color illustration on the cover, and was available in all the regular bookstores.

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That i interesting. I only heard about it much later, (depends on which 70-ies, most probably I could only had been a twinkle in my father's eye :tongue:) and even so, it was also not widely accepted. (And arguably even now?)

But won't you agree they should just crawl through that fence? XD

 

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Borg vs. McEnroe . . . 8/10 stars

Anybody who's been around this big blue marble long enough no doubt remembers the epic match-up, in July 1980, on the Centre Court at Wimbledon, between the reigning #1 tennis player in the world, stoic Nordic heartthrob, Bjorn Borg of Sweden & brash American bad-boy export John McEnroe.  You probably remember it even if you didn't actually watch it, because the rivalry between these two wildly different opponents became a world-wide phenomenon.  The movie traces the early beginnings of both men as child prodigies on the court all the way to their eventual showdown at the All England Club in the summer of 1980.  The emphasis is on Borg, then 24 years old and chasing his *5th* consecutive Wimbledon title against his 21-year-old opponent, making his debut at Wimbledon.  The man called 'Ice-Borg' around the world for his stoic, unemotional, quite nearly robotic absence of emotion and style of play was in actuality a seething cauldron of insecurities and anger that he worked hard to keep a lid on.  Not an iceberg at all, but more like a dormant volcano.  Their storied final match would go to an unprecedented 18-16 tie-breaker.  It was considered the greatest mens' final in tennis history, until the 2008 final which would pit reigning champ Roger Federer & rising star Rafa Nadal  in a battle that would be the longest in Wimbledon history.  Federer and Nadal are their generation's Borg & McEnroe, in terms of their styles of play and the rivalry of two evenly-matched adversaries.

I recommend this movie even if you don't care about tennis per se.  Tennis is only the backdrop to a character study of two men who seem to be complete opposites in every way, only to find that they share their most fundamental traits, drives and fears in common.  Borg and McEnroe became great friends after their rivalry on the court ended . .Borg was best man at McEnroe's 1994 wedding, a spot reserved for a man's 'best' friend.  Highly recommended . . and it may give you a fresh appreciation for Shia LeBoeuf as Jonny Mac.  It did me.  Newcomer Sverrir Gunarson is a dead-ringer for Borg and Bjorn's 14-year-old son Leo, himself the reigning junior tennis champion of Sweden, portrays his father at that age.  Look for the junior Borg to be on Centre Court in 5 or 6 years' time.

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Crazy Rich Asians … 7/10

If I were a bigger fan of romcoms I might have rated it higher. Standard plot, but well filmed and acted, and a few truly funny bits.

What got me, though, was that I recognized the actress who played Astrid, but for the life of me I couldn't place her … until I got home and looked her up. She was none other than our own Soo Lin from TBB (Gemma Chan.) I never realized she was so tall!

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My parents are visiting and I want to drag them to movie and thought maybe CRA could be something the would enjoy a tiny bit?

Dad like Jurrasic Park kind of movie and action. Mom like drama and action. (They like bond movies :D) But they could settle for light interesting comedy.

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