Film and Episodic Content Discussion Thread

Well Hollywood accounting as a whole is a nebulous thing to begin with. Some even say it's just a giant money laundering operation.

Giant budgets are actually frowned upon, as it gives the perception of waste. It also means the studio has to make more money at the box office to recoup costs... if they underreport budgets, the movie is more likely to be seen as a success, since it's budget is not perceived to be as large.

 

The first one I need to revisit, it's been ages so I don't have much of an opinion on it.

The sequels were uniformly awful until they switched genres in Fast 5, which had a halfway decent script and was well directed. After that the movies were peaks and valleys of quality, with Fast 9 being the absolute worst of the post part 5 sequels (which is coincidentally when Justin Lin started writing them instead of series regular Chris Morgan).

Fun little anecdote.... I was a movie theater usher when the first movie was being test screened at a Hollywood theater. This bald white man with beads, looking like a student of Buddah came up to me and said "Hi, I'm Rob Cohen, director of The Fast and the Furious and we're testing the sound for tonight's screening, and there's some problems, can I speak to a manager?"

 

Any love for Shetland and Van der Valk? Shetland explores a major incident throughout the season and has good character development, quite moody, Van der Valk in 2 episodes per incident. Both quite enjoyable.

 

I never saw VAN DER VALK, but did manage to see 4-5 episodes of SHETLAND when it first came out. I really liked the show. The astounding scenery, which played a big part in each episode, was part of the attraction, for sure.

I wouldn't mind seeing all the episodes that came later, but I'm in the usual position of needing to purchase a new streaming services (in my case, BritBox) to do it.

 

Spoiler: trailer

Life After Beth (2014)
Rating: 3/4

Just in time for Valentines a rom-com with a zombie twist.

A cast of great comedic actors who are also good dramatic actors (Aubrey Plaza, John C. Reilly, and Molly Shannon). All of the heavy drama is handled by the male lead (Dane DeHaan) who does a good job adding depth to what is mostly a silly story.

The gold of this movie is the unique premise and Aubrey Plaza whom imo is the sultriest movie star of the last decade. She inherited the crown from Marisa Tomei whom imo was the undisputed boner queen for prior two decades in a row. Anyways, the movie is good but only giving a full recommendation if you want more Aubrey.

 

I had an accounting professor that professed he was a retired Hollywood studio accountant. He is the one that said budgets were inflated for tax reasons. fyi no idea if he was real deal.

Ive been listening to (RIP) Gilbert Gottfried’s podcast for the past several months during commute. The focus of the podcast is old hollywood so theyll interview actors, directors, historians, etc. As you can imagine its mostly a comedy show not serious cinephile stuff. Check out the list of episodes and maybe youll find a guest youre interested in being interviewed by Gilbert.

 

I'm a big fan of Audrey Plaza, and not just because she's beautiful. This woman kills at comedy and can really act. I never saw the TV work that made her famous, but the few films I've seen made me an instant fan, especially SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED. That was comic lighting-in-a-bottle due to the great chemistry between her and Mark Duplass. In fact, if you tried to invent an actress to be an ideal scene companion for Duplas (who also exhibits unpredictable timing and real talent for comedy and drama), you'd get Audrey Plaza.

Your post got me looking through AP's long list of film and TV credits. Many of the former are outright bizarre films: early in her career she was often cast in "babe" or "other girl" roles, which IMO was a tactical error, also a grave underestimation of what she can do for a film. I just added BLACK BEAR to my Prime watch-list. It has exactly what I want from her: nuanced acting in diverse roles (two same-named but very different characters in one film!).

I can strongly recommend one of her recent films, EMILY THE CRIMINAL (2022). Not a perfect film by any means--the end petered out somewhat---but the depth of writing of her character, a desperate woman on the edge of real criminality, really gave AP something to sink her teeth into. She's a terrific actress.

 

I purchased Britbox a few months ago for the exact same reason which was to finish watching Shetland. I find the price reasonable which is $10 CDN a month. I then watched a few other detective series : Maigret, w/ Rowan Atkinson (french detective), the first serious role I’ve seen him in; Poirot, w/ David Suchet, superb series IMO; Sherlock Holmes (the Granada TV series) w/ Jeremy Brett whom I personally feel to be the best actor to have portrayed the famous fictional amateur sleuth; Inspector Morse, w/ John Thaw. There are other excellent series also on Britbox such as, Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, etc.

 

Well internally people know what's going on. What gets told to the public is a different story. Perception is everything in Hollywood.

 

Of the series you mention, I greatly enjoyed SHERLOCK HOLMES w/Jeremy Brett (100% agree he was the Sherlock Holmes of all actors who've assayed the part) and INSPECTOR MORSE. The latter wasn't simply good on its own (it was very good, indeed), but it spun off two other shows of high quality:

• INSPECTOR LEWIS: This sequel is a well above average Brit policier, IMO most notable for the work of a fascinating actor I hadn't seen up 'til then, Laurence Fox
  • This show is available in sub-standard visual quality on Freevee/Prime
• ENDEAVOUR (Prime): This prequel featuring Shaun Evans as the young Morse is the best police procedural I've ever seen, superlative in too many ways to list here. Luckily for the viewers, the series also stars Abigail Thaw, the talented daughter of John Thaw, who so memorably played Inspector Morse (that's British acting: well fewer than 6 degrees of separation between many of the players)

BTW, I'm a broken record on this point: if you like police procedurals, you really owe it to yourself to try STRANGER, the great Korean police/prosecutorial procedural. It's one of the very best shows I ever saw. It takes the better part of episode-1 to lock in with the unfamiliar speech and behavior patterns of South Koreans (major culture differences). But once you get with it, it's smooth sailing for the rest. The plots of each season are very complicated, not easy to understand--but the acting, especially of the leads, is really outstanding. .

Note the high IMDB rating on this one:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6461346/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3

 

Stranger season one was great. Season two seemed more of a forced add-on due to demand. Lead actress excels in season 2 as her acting ends the season on a high note. And where have you been? (South) Korea has long been contributing great must-see cinema! seriously

One of the greatest drama shows Ive ever seen would be Fleabag on Amazon. I havent read anyone else’s impressions but I thought it was amazing. Season1: 4/4, Season2: 3.5/4. I havent rewatched becauase its a bit of a rollercoaster with depressing and funny moments. Lead actress funny and smart. The character and her sassy monologues to audience are reminiscent (but Fleabag much better) of the Enola Holmes character on Netlix. I suppose the earlier Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr already setup this archetype (to which im sure those monologues were inspired by someone else too).

imo, the BBC Sherlock Holmes with Benedict Cumberbatch is teh best Sherlock.

 

I've been all over S. Korean cinema for years. Wrote extensively in this thread about the best of those films that I've seen, BURNING.

But it wasn't until I got Netflix ~4 years ago that I started seeing S. Korean TV shows. Some are great and others are not, but they're all interesting to me.

 

My bad @Pharmaboy . I’ve read all the thread, I forgot you mentioned korean cinema before. And I didnt realize you were making a disctinction between series and movies.

Ive seen Burning and it was very good.

I think most people’s introduction to great korean movies was Oldboy.

Ive not seen a lot of korean tv shows, but my wife watches a lot of korean soap operas (tv shows).

 

It appears we similar tastes for that genre. I’ve seen some episodes of Lewis on YouTube. They’re not part of Britbox’s lineup. I enjoyed the ones I watched. I’ve heard of Endeavour but have yet to check it out. PBS carries the series also I believe. I’m familiar with South Korean movies. I own a few of them, so I was certainly interested with your suggestion of the STRANGER series. Found the two seasons and will be watching it for sure after finishing Dahmer later tonight. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

I also watched Burning a couple of months ago and thought it was very good & watched Oldboy a few years ago which is part of a trilogy if I remember correctly. I know I watched all three movies (one is about revenge) but can’t recall the title of the other two.

 

OLDBOY impressed me to no end: brooding, mysterious, extremely violent, perverse in ways it's hard for me to understand. I thought, "If this is Korean cinema, I want more of it."

Are you into Beat Takeshi? Yakuza movies? Obviously that's a different country & cinema style, but a degree of that nihilistic fatalism is there, too.

 

I dont know what is Beat Takeshi. I had to google nihilistic fatalism, sounds depressing, I like depressing. Also sounds like Japanese ethos for honor and tradition which is oft impressing and depressing. I know I've seen some films about Yakuza, Outrage immediately comes to mind.

 

It's not easy to explain Beat Takeshi. That was the stage name of Takeshi Kitano, who started out in some Tokyo variant of stand-up comedy/vaudeville, then progressed to write, direct, and/or star in a long list of film, many of them violent yakuza-centered films. Entire film festivals have been dedicated to his films.

Here he is on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001429/?ref_=nm_mv_close

I can recommend several of his films (many never made it to the U.S.):

• A recent film, OUTRAGE CODA, can be found on Prime/FreeVee.
  
• BEYOND OUTRAGE (2012) is on Prime
• I also liked BROTHER (2000), in which his violent, unpredictable Yakuza character goes to LA. and gets in all kinds of bloody trouble there

Takeshi specializes in playing men who either are Yakuza, or work for them; men who kill readily and often; men who literally don't care whether they live or die (that's the fatalism); men who, when they decide to take lives, kill everyone in sight (that's the nihilism). I know it sounds grim, but Takeshi almost always hints at a dark, morbid sense of humor. When he's not shooting at people, you simply have no idea what he'll say or do next.

As if that weren't enough, he also played any number of emotional roles that explore family live and relationships. Few if any of those films are available here.

If you imagine Clint Eastwood at his darkest & most violent crossed with Toshiro Mifune at his darkest and most violent, you're in the neighborhood of Takeshi Kitano.

 

Ive seen a few movies with Takeshi. After seeing Outrage I had to learn about this actor so googled his filmography (learned he self-directed Outrage) and watched a few more of his movies. Sonatine (1993) probably the oldest one I watched.

Takeshi’s (irl) stroke affected face puts his Outrage character over the top… stoic, unnerving, and gritty. The follow up to Outrage (Beyond Outrage) didnt do it for me, stylistically different with a much less intense atmosphere. The first movie felt realistic like a documentary almost, the second appeared relatively ordinary.

 

Next Im going to try watching Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). Like I said, Ive been listening to Gilbert Gottfried’s podcast and this is his favorite movie which he brings up whenever he can so Im interested in watching to at least understand his references. Comes up often enough since the focus of his podcast is old Hollywood, all the way back to Vaudeville and New York’s Yiddish Theatre.

Stream the movie free here, Im guessing its beyond copyright. If anyone knows of a free better quality upload then please share.