Spartacus came out of Ben Hur pretty well
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First I watched Amadeus and was :amadeuspriestface: for it. I keep thinking about a quote on the wikipedia page from the director where he added 20 more minutes to the film because you can on DVD and it will definitely make the film better. That was the version I watched and While I didnāt notice fat that needed trimming or superfluousness I didnāt like it either.
The next film with Bob Hoskins and Hellen Mirren: The Long Good Friday was fun though. It has a Bob Hoskins shower scene! And a young Pierce Brosnan being gay in a pool. Itās also a London gangster film with too much racism. It is homoerotic and I liked itās last shot (which was similar to Amadeusās last shot.)
The greater narrative of Amadeus is a priest goes to ask for a confession and then has to listen to an old man talk for 18 hours straight.
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one time i wrote captions for the long good friday
donāt tell anyone i told you though itās illegal for me to tell you
is this the axe
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BTW I didnāt come back to say it last night, but man, Rebels of the Neon God was great. Way better sleazy city night vibes even than Michael Mann. I canāt wait to watch Stray Dogs!
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Just FYI Stray Dogs is 100x more abstract and weird than Rebels of the Neon God, and even most of Tsaiās later movies too. I liked it but it is one of those movies that is kind of designed to test your patience
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i think the movie iāve seen thatās tested my patience the most was 1900, which is 5 hours and 17 minutes long and only has about a third of a good movie inside of it. itās real pretty italian marxist propaganda though and the middle of it really likes salo and donald sutherland headbutting cats to death
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this cat has communism
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big news everyone, Netflix now has the 1990 Mel Gibson / Goldie Hawn picture āBird on a Wireā, aka the first PG-13 movie I knowingly watched as a child, and therefore expected to basically be a combination hardcore porn/snuff film, which I was then extremely bored and disappointed by
I wonder if it holds up
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Iām very happy that Criterion Channel has doubled down on Tsai and Jia. I watched Unknown Pleasures for the first time in ~10 years and got much more out of it. I tried to turn it into a double feature afternoon with Elephant Sitting Still but there is only so much nihilistic ennui that I can endure.
I watched The Sun Is Also a Star
The two lead actors are gorgeous. They are fashionably dressed throughout, and relatively charming. Though some of the guyās dialogue and behavior is a little cringe.
The scenario doesnāt feel real. The characterās donāt feel real.
The coincidences/magic feel(s) neither earned nor charming.
Itās based on a young adult novel and it feels like itās based on a young adult novel.
Some of the moment to moment dialogue is pretty good, but it doesnāt fit well into the whole.
Basic synopsis
Boy meets girl.
The girl is being deported.
She sees a lawyer and becomes convinced sheās not going to get deported.
then she gets deported.
Then she comes back.
I feel like if you took away either
-She sees a lawyer and becomes convinced sheās not going to get deported
or
-Then she comes back.
This could have been a tighter more entertaining story.
The idea that there are moments in your life that are really powerful, and even if a person doesnāt stay in your life they can still change who you become is a fun idea. One worth playing with. The movie starts to go that way, and then āNah, just kiddingā look! itās fate, look they meet up again 5 years later!
And if they wanted to go with the everything is fate and magic route they could have taken out the false hope in the middle, making the whole thing seem more hopeless until she returns which would have felt more magical.
I donāt recommend it.
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This movie is great I highly recommend watching it
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Iām convinced that The Long Goodbye is the truest Raymond Chandler adaption
well, maybe not that denoument
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god, another fucking great movie randomly showing up on Amazon Prime in a better state than itās ever been released before! itās cool and all but likeā¦sorta wish Amazon didnāt rly have a stranglehold on these kinds of things. California Split rules everyone should watch it
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california split is the only good movie that has playing cards in it
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thereās an equal number of 4k transfers that are only on iTunes or only on Disney plus with equivalently little fanfare. almost all of them get ripped is the good thing! but itās funny what a nonevent they are
I mean itās not even 4k, itās likeā¦HD transfers of previously butchered movies that havenāt had a home video release since like VHS days randomly showing up with a new transfer. Iām really fascinated with how that happens considering how recitient studios are to do that kind of thing especially with obscure films
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Subscription servicesā hunger for content is rapacious and very good for certain niches at the moment. A guaranteed $100k or so from Amazon Prime could pay for an automated transfer and cleanup. I doubt theyād do this just to list it on a digital storefront. And the sales you need to make physical media print runs worthwhile ā forget it.
Itās really interesting how a boutique label like Shout! can survive doing tiny print runs when a studio would lose money, and how GOG and Nightdive can do it for games with a little legwork. Thereās just so much overhead and opportunity cost for a big company despite so how many thing theyāre terrifyingly efficient at next to the little guys.
$100k is high even factoring in whatever overhead a studio that has Amazon as a client might charge, Iām almost certain that some of our guys here could do a commercial 35mm print for under 30 with cleanup without underselling their labour if they actually wanted to.
Iām just spitballing on the money Amazon pays you, esteemed copyright holding company
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Iām just glad some psycho executive somewhere is like yeah sure fuck it weāll do better transfers of obscure Robert Altman and Abel Ferrara movies whatever
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