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Posted: |
Dec 1, 2020 - 8:11 PM
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By: |
Solium
(Member)
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Bob, another Hallmark movie out now is Christmas In Vienna. It follows that same patterns that you describe. However, the whole movie is filmed in Vienna, and Vienna during the Christmas season is stunning. We enjoyed seeing all the places we visited years ago. It's unusual for these films to go on location. I suppose it was cheaper to actually go to Vienna than to re-create it elsewhere. The first two films I mentioned were shot in Vancouver and British Columbia, filling in for New York City and Kansas. Aside from some scene-setting Arizona shots, I suspect that most of FELIZ NAVIDAD was filmed in Canada as well. I see these movies all day long at work. The set design looks like Christmas vomited on the film. They're sooooo ridiculously Christmassy. No ones homes or towns are decorated like this. One Xmas tree isn't enough, how about we put 10 in the bedroom. Two candles aren't enough, how about we put a hundred candles in the room. There's so many Xmas lights it could blind a blind man. Hell I think even the trash cans on the sides of streets are wrapped in wreaths and Xmas lights. There's snow on the ground yet you can tell the temperature is probably in the low 70's. Their faces are perfect like on an indoor set. No signs of a red nose or rosy cheeks, or cold breath like you would see on a very cold day. And the themes are always job/romance related. Wheres the fantasy, the Xmas magic?
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Posted: |
Dec 1, 2020 - 9:49 PM
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By: |
joan hue
(Member)
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Henry, I am not really a big fan of Hallmark movies, but I’m glad your mom enjoys them. During the Christmas season I might watch 1 or 2 Hallmark Christmas movies. They are really very formulaic and predictable. They always have a happy ending, and there is no sex, graphic violence or nudity. None of them end like the movie The Mist. On the other hand, now and then I think viewers, even jaded viewers, NEED a touch of whimsy, quaintness, caprice and grace, a big bowl of saccharine, some fantasy, faces full of smiles, the possibility of finding everlasting love, and they-lived-happily-ever-after endings. Most of all viewers feel joy at the end of these movies. Given how extremely depressing our world is right now, I just may have to watch more than 2 this year.
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Posted: |
Dec 2, 2020 - 12:18 AM
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By: |
Rameau
(Member)
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The Hunt For Red October. For some reason I've never seen this before, it was okay, I wouldn't bother again. The way they did the language was interesting. Sean & the rest of the Russian submarine crew started off talking Russian (with English sub titles), & then a guy is reading a letter & the camera zooms in close to his mouth, & mid-sentence the Russian becomes English, & they all talk English after that (although we understand that they're actually speaking Russian), at one point the crew is singing the Russian national anthem in Russian, while a couple of the officers are speaking in English (actually Russian). It all sounds very complicated, but it isn't at all, the viewer just accepts it.
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Paranormal Activity: 5/10 This works better as a barebones character study of a subject afflicted with a haunting rather than anything approaching suspense or terror, emphasis on "barebones" (sparse, unconnected clues are sprinkled to lend an air of mystery that ultimately goes nowhere), ending in PSA fashion accounting what happens when you keep doing the same thing over and over again while not having any friends to tell you otherwise. It does raise an interesting question: Is harassment tragic to have happened in reality while comedic when performed for fictional shock value?
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Posted: |
Dec 2, 2020 - 8:59 AM
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By: |
Solium
(Member)
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The Hunt For Red October. For some reason I've never seen this before, it was okay, I wouldn't bother again. The way they did the language was interesting. Sean & the rest of the Russian submarine crew started off talking Russian (with English sub titles), & then a guy is reading a letter & the camera zooms in close to his mouth, & mid-sentence the Russian becomes English, & they all talk English after that (although we understand that they're actually speaking Russian), at one point the crew is singing the Russian national anthem in Russian, while a couple of the officers are speaking in English (actually Russian). It all sounds very complicated, but it isn't at all, the viewer just accepts it. This is one of my favorite movies. 5 out of 5 for me. The language issue is subjective but I really cannot find any fault or weaknesses in this film. Its a solid film with a tight script, interesting unique characters and marvelous performances.
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Posted: |
Dec 2, 2020 - 9:08 AM
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By: |
Solium
(Member)
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On the other hand, now and then I think viewers, even jaded viewers, NEED a touch of whimsy, quaintness, caprice and grace, a big bowl of saccharine, some fantasy, faces full of smiles, the possibility of finding everlasting love, and they-lived-happily-ever-after endings. Most of all viewers feel joy at the end of these movies. Given how extremely depressing our world is right now, I just may have to watch more than 2 this year. I admit they're a nice alternative to all the cynical, negative, violent entertainment we have out there nowadays. Completely harmless entertainment.
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Posted: |
Dec 2, 2020 - 11:45 AM
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By: |
Rameau
(Member)
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The Hunt For Red October. For some reason I've never seen this before, it was okay, I wouldn't bother again. The way they did the language was interesting. Sean & the rest of the Russian submarine crew started off talking Russian (with English sub titles), & then a guy is reading a letter & the camera zooms in close to his mouth, & mid-sentence the Russian becomes English, & they all talk English after that (although we understand that they're actually speaking Russian), at one point the crew is singing the Russian national anthem in Russian, while a couple of the officers are speaking in English (actually Russian). It all sounds very complicated, but it isn't at all, the viewer just accepts it. This is one of my favorite movies. 5 out of 5 for me. The language issue is subjective but I really cannot find any fault or weaknesses in this film. Its a solid film with a tight script, interesting unique characters and marvelous performances. I thought they handled the language very well, no criticism was intended. I just find it interesting the way films handle people speaking a foreign language. Like in Where Eagles Dare, when they're in the tavern, everyone is speaking English, but you know they're actually speaking in German. It's really quite sophisticated, but the audience who are cineliterate take it in their stride.
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I’ve stated this before, but Alec Baldwin is by far the best Jack Ryan. What a shame Baldwin is such a “difficult” actor, because his performance struck the perfect balance of bookish analyst and reluctant hero. I would have watched each and every subsequent Clancy novel film with great enthusiasm had he remained as the character. Instead, we got Harrison Ford on autopilot. Agreed. It probably helps that Baldwin was cast in the best Jack Ryan movie, and was the first to play the role. The character himself, at least as he appears in the books, is pretty boring. Perfectly acceptable to move the plot along, but otherwise completely unmemorable. Not unlike most of Tom Clancy's characters. To make the character work on screen you need an actor who can bring a lot of charisma to the character. Something Ford is normally great at, but not so much in his two films. Neither Chris Pine nor Ben Affleck brought anything to the character, but their respective movies were both pretty bad. I haven't seen the Amazon show yet, but I hear it is pretty good.
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CASUALTIES OF WAR 1989 Couldnt believe this De Palma film was 1989. Been some years since i saw it because i found it excruciatingly uncomfortable on first watch - clearly it was meant to be - and so revisiting wasnt very appealing. However, i did want to see how Ennio's score worked in the film again and so i summoned the courage to rewatch it. Its a very powerful piece but thoroughly nasty and distasteful. Good acting thoughout, and Sean Penn's character is utterly loathsome. It did made me squirm again but i tried to detach from it this time a bit. Ennio's score is pitched just right. 8 out of 10, but not a film i ever want to see again.
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CARBON COPY (1981) – 6/10 Rich, white corporate executive “Walter Whitney” (George Segal) has the world by the tail, with a good job, an attractive wife, “Vivian” (Susan Saint James), and his father-in-law (Jack Warden) as a boss. One day “Roger Porter” (Denzel Washington) shows up at Walter’s Los Angeles office and announces that he is Walter’s son, the product of a romance he had with a black woman twenty years earlier, prior to his marriage. Stalling for time as he figures out what to do, Walter takes the young man home, passing him off on his socially-conscious wife as an opportunity to “adopt” an orphaned African American teenager for the summer. When the truth soon comes out, Walter’s world falls apart. Vivian leaves him, he’s fired from his job, and since all his assets were in his wife’s name, he finds himself with just the $68 in his pocket. He and Roger move first to a low-class motel and from there to a run-down apartment in Watts, as Walter unsuccessfully looks for a job, after being blackballed all over town by his father-in-law. The film tries to mix comedy with a social message regarding the prejudices of the upper classes. That idea may have been saleable forty years ago, but today the upper classes are uniformly “woke,” and such messaging merely seems archaic. Today, having a mixed-race child out of wedlock would result in no more of a social stigma than would jaywalking, and would likely be celebrated in many upper class circles. So, the film has to succeed solely as a comedy, which it barely does. George Segal is always good in these frustrated, put-upon roles, while Denzel Washington is adequate in his first feature film appearance. Bill Conti’s unreleased score is a mix of dated synths and orchestral cues.
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Should put that in the carry on thread too mitch
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