Amph At The Movies (film discussion thread)

So in the Cannes / Netflix contest, Orson Welles' gets screwed again by big corporations even after he's long dead as his final movie, which was to be released by Netflix, won't screen at Cannes. I think the distinction between what is a "movie" is pretty dopey in this day and age. but more on Cannes side, really. Well, almost entirely.

http://www.indiewire.com/2018/04/or...an-netflix-other-side-of-the-wind-1201951895/

“I was very upset and troubled to read in the trade papers about the conflict with the Cannes Film Festival,” Beatrice said in the email. “I have to speak out for my father. I saw how the big production companies destroyed his life, his work, and in so doing a little bit of the man I loved so much. I would so hate to see Netflix be yet another one of these companies.”

“Please reconsider and let my father’s work be the movie that bridges the gap between Netflix and Cannes,” Beatrice said.

 

Actually on this whole Netlifx/Cannes/movie thing, filmmakers weigh in but Jeremy Saulnier (Green Room. Freakin' Green Room, dammit!) has the best quote:

http://www.indiewire.com/2018/04/netflix-cannes-filmmakers-response-theaters-1201952113/

“But if anyone tries to tell me any of my modest movies aren’t actually movies they can kindly go stab themselves in the face several times and set themselves on fire.”

 

James McAvoy and Bill Hader are in talks to star as Bill and Richie.

 

While I'm not necessarily interested in seeing the movie in theaters, I've gotta admit the poster for The Meg is pretty clever; being a spoof of Jaws.

 

Jurassic World had a similar teaser poster, with a great white shark about to be eaten itself.

There's going to be a third entry in the "...Has Fallen" series starring Gerard Butler. In this new entry, "Angel Has Fallen," he's implicated in an assassination attempt on the President, with Morgan Freeman as the new President. What's interesting for this time is that Lance Reddick is apparently the new Secret Service Director, and he was also in White House Down (the PG-13 version of Olympus Has Fallen), and his characters had some sharp words about the entire Secret Service.

 

Yeah I see what you mean.

 

Yeah, I agree with this exactly. I think a Netflix movie should "count" as a movie and I find it rather strange that anyone would be particularly interested in arguing the other side of it. And the notion that a movie has to actually be presented in that cinematic format to qualify as a "real" movie just doesn't work for a couple of reasons. I mean, there are countless old movie that I haven't seen in cinematic format; should we remove those from those Oscar montages because they haven't been delivered to anyone in the audience cinematically? And with the way home media continues to improve watching something at home no longer means watching it on a tiny box in comparatively poor definition.

 

Yah and how many Academy members voted for Best Picture from just watching a screener at home? When you pare it down, it starts to smack of condescending attitude or, even a bit further, a genuine fear for the continued theatrical experience (which, lets be honest, probably isn't going anywhere) but maybe some Oscar bait / vanity projects won't make it to theatres which would put some oscar fishing people in a twist.

 

There's an old Meg concept piece from years ago.



One of many comparison bits you can find:

 

Rob Zombie is working on his sequel to the Devil Rejects: 3 from Hell. The Devil's Rejects was the only Zombie film I liked, so I will probably tune in.

 

In the live action Mulan remake, Donnie Yen will apparently be Mulan's commanding officer (no Li Shang). Also, Jet Li will play the Emperor. In a twist, the main villain isn't Shan Yu, but a witch, played by Gong Li.

Changes for this version of Mulan.

 

"New Zealand-born Chinese-Vietnamese actress Xana Tang also made it to the list, as Mulan’s sister."

I think I have to watch the original Disney movie; because I don't remember Mulan having any siblings.

 

She didn't. They've made some major changes for the live action remakes:

Maleficent: Aurora's father is the villain.
Cinderella: The Grand Duke conspires with Lady Tremaine to suppress knowledge about Cinderella.
Beauty and the Beast: Lefou reforms and turns to the good side by the end of the movie.

 

I heard that for the live action remake of The Little Mermaid, Ursala herself is the one that winds up with Eric in the end.

 

I hope not, and that is something I haven't heard.

 

I just kidding about that.

 

So, I'm a huge fan of Filmspotting, probably one of my top five podcasts, a really smart, witty movie podcast. One thing they've done ever since their inception is close most episodes with a top five list of some kind. I've been trolling their archives and I thought we might get some discussion mileage out of their categories. I thought I'd throw some up here. From their very first episode, back in 2005, the top five list was Movies About Movies.

We don't need to necessarily come up with our own top fives, but I thought it might be interesting to discuss some of the ones that we think are great and fit the category.

Just for reference, I'll include the lists from the show and then throw out a couple myself.

Adam's List:

5. Hearts of Darkness
4. Living in Oblivion
3. Day for Night
2. The Player
1. American Movie

Sam's List:

5. The Aviator
4. CQ
3. Full Frontal
2. Get Shorty
1. Adaptation

Well, I'm not going to duplicate their picks because I haven't seen a single one of those ten and I'd never even heard of CQ and American Movie.

I mean, the first two that leap immediately to my mind are Sunset Blvd. & 8 1/2. Very different films, but they both have great atmosphere. I think Mastroianni's performance in 8 1/2 as a director being ground up by the movie-making machine even as he has no idea what movie he even wants to make. I also really like a kind of obscure one by Vincente Minelli called The Bad & the Beautiful where Kirk Douglas is just firing on all cylinders as an egotistical, manipulative director.

Movies about the movies? You guys got any you like? Or don't like even?

 

Ed Wood is a great one.

 

I feel like Trumbo was divisive, but I really liked it. I liked that some of the side performances didn't just go full on impression. Like Michael Stuhlbarg as Edward G. Robinson; I thought he was quite good at capturing something of the essence of Robinson without resorting to an obvious impression. Could easily have tipped over into camp; Cranston was very broad, but I thought appropriately so.

 

Saving Mr. Banks.

 

Ed Skrein cast as villain for Maleficent sequel

I'm interested to see where they go with this. After all, the movie Maleficent basically retold the story of Sleeping Beauty, with major differences. My theory? Maybe Ed Skrein is a potential suitor (a rival for Phillip, perhaps) for Aurora's hand, but is only interested in controlling the Moors. Or maybe he's a sorcerer of some kind, an old rival of those in the Moors.