Well, it looks like Tarantinto's plan to include a throwaway, controversial scene to get lots of extra free publicity for the film has worked perfectly

I adored "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood" which I assumed to be a fairy tale from the outset. I especially liked the ending (and the vintage Elaine Hanelock Hollywood Movie Stars poster art visible all through it). In my book, this should be the last "Manson" movie, tv series, musical, etc. ever made. What's left to say about it?

As for Pitt beating up Bruce Lee, they just needed to establish just what a buzz-saw the Manson would-be killers were walking into, and it did it perfectly. It was no different in terms of its point in the narrative as seeing that Leonardo still had the flame-thrower from his WWII movie in his garage. Those devices are known as "Chekov's gun" which is to say a gun, for instance, shown (but not used) in Act 1 will come into play in Act 3. My feelings on Bruce Lee have not changed, despite a fantasy sequence where he gets the short end of the stick.

Other summer highlights for me were "Aladdin" which was approximately 20 times better than the original Disney animated version, especially the singing, and "Midsommar". This horror film told you from the start it was "The Wicker Man" on steroids, then showed in a series of paintings on a wall EXACTLY what was going to happen in the movie, and it was still brutally effective. Ari Aster, the director, is a master of horror only two films in. Can't wait to see what he does next. "Rocketman", the Elton John story was also teriffic. If Malek deserved an Oscar for his portrayal of Freddie, Taron Egerton deserves two for his Elton. He was electrifying.

Also pretty good were "Spider-Man: Far From Home", "Booksmart", and "Brightburn".

"Men in Black" wasn't bad, but I can see why it didn't hit. "Dark Phoenix" was indeed terrible, a sad end to the X-Men series that had been reinvigorated with "First Class".

I still plan to see John Wick 3, Lion King, Toy Story 4, Good Boys, Yesterday, Crawl, Godzilla, and Tolkien, but I'll be doing that at home.

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
and "Midsommar". This horror film told you from the start it was "The Wicker Man" on steroids, then showed in a series of paintings on a wall EXACTLY what was going to happen in the movie, and it was still brutally effective.

I am a big fan of the Wicker Man, ancient as it is, but the big difference between it and a somewhat similarly plotted Midsommar is that you felt the lost. You're right, you did know exactly what was going to happen and you didn't care or at least I didn't care. Those couples, if they had any sense at all, would have packed up and left 10 minutes after they got there. By comparison The Wicker Man was a noble effort.

I have a lot of movie watching to do... I am far behind.

My wife and I caught "Blinded By the Light" yesterday. It is a shame that it is not doing better. We both enjoyed it. I think the marketing of the film could have done a better job of promoting it as a coming of age family film vs Bruce Springsteen saved my life.

quote:

Originally posted by barobehere:
My wife and I caught "Blinded By the Light" yesterday. It is a shame that it is not doing better. We both enjoyed it. I think the marketing of the film could have done a better job of promoting it as a coming of age family film vs Bruce Springsteen saved my life.

I think they could have had a few problems just promoting the Bruce Springsteen aspect of the film. When I saw the title of the film, 'Blinded by the Light', I didn't even think of Bruce Springsteen. The only version of this record I had ever heard of was by Manfred Mann's Earth Band. Until I looked it up after reading about the film, I didn't even know it was a Bruce Springsteen track. I don't think I've ever even heard his original release of it.

I started listening to "easy rock" every day in the early 80's driving to school and back. Those stations have disappeared since then (last of the local rock stations from that time, KFOG, just announced it's shutting down) and the music is called "classic rock" now though it tends to be almost all 70's-80's stuff now and mostly 80's. Maybe every other time "Blinded by the Light" was played across that time the DJ mentioned that it was written by Springsteen. He used to write with other performers in mind or offer a song to a friend. The Greg Kihn band recorded at least one of his songs.

Jess

quote:

Originally posted by Kevin F:

quote:

Originally posted by barobehere:
My wife and I caught "Blinded By the Light" yesterday. It is a shame that it is not doing better. We both enjoyed it. I think the marketing of the film could have done a better job of promoting it as a coming of age family film vs Bruce Springsteen saved my life.

I think they could have had a few problems just promoting the Bruce Springsteen aspect of the film. When I saw the title of the film, 'Blinded by the Light', I didn't even think of Bruce Springsteen. The only version of this record I had ever heard of was by Manfred Mann's Earth Band. Until I looked it up after reading about the film, I didn't even know it was a Bruce Springsteen track. I don't think I've ever even heard his original release of it.

I think we have forgotten about Angel Has Fallen as a Summer hit. It was #1 and might stay there in a slow run up to September.

Now this is the 3rd film in what they are calling the Fallen series, behind Olympus Has Fallen and London Has Fallen. I have to admit I saw both of those and enjoyed them a lot, even though they are ridiculous actioners where something blows to pieces every 4 minutes. I will catch this one too. They may go for a fourth one.

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:

As for Pitt beating up Bruce Lee, they just needed to establish just what a buzz-saw the Manson would-be killers were walking into, and it did it perfectly. It was no different in terms of its point in the narrative as seeing that Leonardo still had the flame-thrower from his WWII movie in his garage. Those devices are known as "Chekov's gun" which is to say a gun, for instance, shown (but not used) in Act 1 will come into play in Act 3. My feelings on Bruce Lee have not changed, despite a fantasy sequence where he gets the short end of the stick.

Haha I would hope feelings on Bruce would not change based on this film.

I think what is being missed with all of the whine-fest in the news is that the film left the fight at 1 to 1. Pitt didn't beat up Bruce, he just won a round after losing the first. There was still a third round to go when Booth got kicked off the lot, which to me is the genius of the scene.

I think I read round 3 actually was filmed with Pitt winning the fight. If that's true, then Bruce got off easy, haha.

Obviously not a summer hit but the previews to the Peanut Butter Falcon actually looks pretty good.

Previews for the next installment of IT looks incredible!

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
The author is correct. There was no Hollywood stuntman who could land a punch on Lee much less catch him and throw him into a car. My stepdad would advise anyone who doubts that to ask Kareem Abdul-Jabaar or Chuck Norris.]

[/QUOTE]

There is an article in the August 21st Hollywood Reporter written by Kareem Abdul Jabbar and entitled "Tarantino Failed Bruce Lee" that pretty much says just that. He wonders why "Tarantino chose to portray Bruce in such a one-dimensional way". Lee worked hard to be more than a stereotype and he never had a need to prove himself according to Jabbar, who knew the man.

Considering that other Hollywood stars like Tate and Steven McQueen are handle fairly flatteringly, I wonder why he did pick on Bruce Lee too? I would have thought that Lee would have been a favorite of Tarantino's, given his love of action heroes.

He's already said he just needed to show that Pitt's imaginary character was basically the baddest man in the world. How better to show that than by him beating someone a lot of people thought of as that very thing?

The two characters in the scene even talk about Muhammad Ali (although they call him Cassius Clay, for some reason. He was already Ali by the time that scene took place). Ali was another person who was an example kids would use to brag about their father to other kids, as in, "My dad could beat up Muhammad Ali!", which I actually did say.

Some time later, my dad told me he was at a gym in Los Angeles where Ken Norton (a contemporary of Ali who faced him in three classic bouts) was training. Spotting my dad, who was a good-sized man among the onlookers, Ken said, "Come on up, big boy, you look like you could go a couple of rounds", to which my dad said back to Norton (who was built like the mythical Hercules) simply, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no."

Considering Ali beat Norton in two out of their three fights, as it turned out, by the transitive power of butt-kicking, my dad almost certainly could not have beaten up Muhammad Ali.

I stand by my statement at the top of this page, aside from the typo Regardless of the later significance of suggesting that Brad Pitt's character was capable of beating up others, the main reason for including Bruce Lee in the scene was to make it controversial in a way that would generate lots of additional 'free' publicity for the film. Judging by this thread alone, it achieved that aim. So it was a successful inclusion in both respects.

Summer was also front loaded with the big hits so it additionally benefited from coming out later in the season.

Also, I'm absolutely sure I could've taken Bruce Lee, and he wouldn't have scored even the one point.

So Angel Has Fallen did indeed stay at #1 for a second week with another 14M added. Certainly the last of the Summer hits and it was one because of the lazy scheduling. Over all its been a poor Summer box office wise with the big movies early and the rest set to compete in bunches as the holidays arrive.

Next weekend is IT and IT will clean up everything.

Joker is getting some great reviews for Phoenix out of Venice. But I don't know if it will find a big enough audience to be a smash hit or be one of those masterpieces with a Best Actor that only actors and critics love. It might bridge the two worlds, or it might put off both. This is really Taxi Driver Joker and the comic book fans may stay home because it's not the Batman villain and the serious minded intellectuals may stay home because it is the Batman villain. We shall see in a few weeks.

Luckily, I'm both, so they'll cancel out!

IT is predicted at a 91M opening. I had thought it could have broken 100M, since the First Chapter did $123M opening weekend. It kind of makes sense though. This movie is close to 3 hours and the number of daily showings will be lowered. Then the first part of the story with them as kids is actually the better part in both the book and the movies. Some people may just wait to put DVDs together. Either way IT will wind up in the top 10 for the year.