The documentary Marwencol was rather good and worth a watch. This, on the other hand, is outright groan-inducing.

I dunno, I'd recommend the documentary for the real story, but that doesn't preclude the movie being fun in its own way.

 

EDIT:

 

Mandy trailer:

It's Nic Cage gon crazy movie, it can only be good.

Its directed by Panos Cosmatos who did BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW so you get crazy nic cage vs crazy people with probably some crazy visuals to boot.

 

Saw Hostiles, found it to be a profoundly moving film. Haven't seen any other of Scott Cooper's work, but I might have to.

This did kind of amuse me..

 

When you get a professor of Medieval History who enjoys films running a take down of King Arthur...

 

Tor - Bruckheimer making boom with the real King Arthur (2004)

This did kind of amuse me..

 

When you get a professor of Medieval History who enjoys films running a take down of King Arthur...

 

Tor - Bruckheimer making boom with the real King Arthur (2004)

 

Hah, I did enjoy that, for a short while when this movie was somewhat fresh, I would have a handful of students that were aware of Hadrian's Wall. Trying to explain the history of the Romans in Britain to middle schoolers is a bit tricky.

Its directed by Panos Cosmatos who did BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW so you get crazy nic cage vs crazy people with probably some crazy visuals to boot.

 

 

Interesting, I didn't know it was by the same director as that who made Beyond the Black Rainbow. Unfortunately the visuals are the *only* thing that film has going for it, and even that aspect grows stale after a while - but Mandy does seem to have a bit more going in its favour and initial reviews are very promising indeed. Here's looking forward to it.

I did catch the recent Tomb Raider.

 

It was.. disappointing. There were a lot of good elements to it, the way they stripped the supernatural element out and turned it into a "realistic" thing was interesting. But at the same time Tomb Raider should have that element of psuedo-fantastical to it.

You had the fan service of several scenes / images being taken from the rebooted game, but then they lost huge chunks of the story. Some of it seemed heavily compressed and simplified.

Plus, they had a Lara Croft who had no knowledge of archeology at all which was a bit weird, and then they used flashbacks to show "Oh, she learnt archery when she was 12" to explain the one skill as a hobby/sport rather than some drive to have training.

Pff, it's just the modern day hero(ine) that needs no school and knows everything anyway. Bit like Rey(?) from the new Star Wars, who touched a lightsaber for the first time and instantly knows how to use it.

 

I thought the movie itself was ok-ish. Not really better or worse than the old movies.

The Incredibles 2

 

A++

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-44708983

 

Ahmed Best considered suicide due to hate over Jar Jar

 

Sorry to Bother You looks great.

Sorry to Bother You looks great.

 

Opens tomorrow.

 

Currently at 95% with 64 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes.

Edited July 5, 20187 yr by ktchong

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-44708983

 

Ahmed Best considered suicide due to hate over Jar Jar

 

Kind of brings into focus how toxic fandom can be. I love me some Star Wars, but I can't imagine driving someone to such a place because I am not a fan of their work.

I never even thought about the actor behind the cgi. :D

Internet fandom can definitely be overboard and toxic, but you also need a thick skin if you want to be in entertainment biz. If you don't have a thick skin for criticism in general, may be best not to be in that career. Not trying to be mean, but that's just how it is. Not everyone is cut out for high-pressure and/or potentially public-eye careers.

 

This is ridiculous. We cannot criticize movies and characters now? Because we might hurt the actor's feelings?

The guy is either looking for attention or have mental problems. 99% of Jar Jar critics didn't even know who this fellow was. I was sure Jar Jar was CGI and voiced by Lucas.

 

 

You can critique the work, but there's a difference between giving criticism of a film or actor and being an absolute seething bullying / threatening them with "I want to kill you because you destroyed my childhood" etc.

 

Get into a discussion of what went wrong, tell them clearly once that this didn't work or that didn't work, or they screwed up over the other.  Don't turn it into a repeated over and over, don't go out of your way to stalk them down and hammer them with threats and nasty messages.

 

That's the difference.

 

Edit: Also in consideration, when you're simply a working actor doing a supporting role, you don't necessarily expect the horde of fandom that is Star Wars to focus all seething hatred on you.

Edited July 6, 20187 yr by Raithe

Yeah, Best was not going to be recognised by the vast majority of people since he was playing a CGI character, and most people simply wouldn't recognise his name. I have a lot less sympathy for him than for Tran who has played a 'hated' character in the social media age or Jake Lloyd, who was a kid and does seem to have been effected quite badly by things (then again, child stardom is seldom a path to mental stability). In all cases the primary blame for the characters' failure as characters lies on the writer/ director, since it would be doubtful anyone could have made their characters successful without a rewrite or Fordesque disdain for bad writing (and of course none of them had Ford's clout).

 

I've actually read two articles and in both it's clear Best was primarily disappointed with how Jar Jar was received and took it personally- rather than being the subject of personal abuse.

 

The framing and undertone of the articles is one of those contextual things, there's been a fairly consistent attempt to frame dislike of TLJ as being neck beard misogyny because so many people loathed Rose and Holdo (and want to get rid of Kathleen Kennedy; a load of old bollocks since Lucas, Jar Jar and Anakin all got pilloried as much if not more), and as professional reviewers and entertainment writers largely loved it but it was highly divisive to fans. But, if the people who didn't like it were all bullying women haters stuck in the past that means they're wrong, their opinion can be disregarded and the entertainment writers were right all along. And at worst all the haters might just shut up in case they get accused of being bullies.

Edited July 6, 20187 yr by Zoraptor

I knew who Best was.  There were a bunch of interviews with him in the lead-up to Phantom Menace coming out, so I'm not sure he was a nobody to SW fans.

 

It has sounded (for years) that Best took criticism of Jar Jar personally, but IIRC from those interviews he created a lot of stuff for the character, and so probably had a high feeling on investment in JJ.  And I have seen criticism over the years that DID target him specifically in the Jar Jar hate.

Star Wars fans - or at least the ones to be bothered about Jar jar - are the types to obsess over minutiae and given the fuss over Episode 1 pre-launch, so is very likely a decent chunk of people have heard about him.  Hearing some fan tell you you killed their childhood with a movie character really should make one laugh rather than upset. 

 

Hopefully they keep Kennedy on and the films continue to wind up the fanbase, is amusing watching these people rage.

The response people had to Jar Jar was pretty over the top. He was basically held up as the symbol of destroyed childhoods when the prequels came out. Made me think of this.

 

The response people had to Jar Jar was pretty over the top. He was basically held up as the symbol of destroyed childhoods when the prequels came out.

 

Jar Jar ended up being a stand-in for everything in The Phantom Menace. Mostly because he was the most iconic and arguably irritating part of the film. It certainly also didn't help that he was the only character in the movie with understandable motivations and even someting of a character arc while at the same time being only in the film because Lucas wanted to sell Jar Jar toys to little children.

 

In essence, well, Jar Jar was a very memorable part of TPM, and not in a good way.