Let’s Talk Movies! #31: Pandas, Zombies, Male Models, Superheroes, Greeks and…Caesar!

[PeterG]

Watched South Pacific this weekend. Loved it! Even the strange (but somewhat alluring) various coloured lenses that were used at various points throughout the movie. Interesting choice for this viewing/movie, but I’m glad it didn’t become a standard practice, because I think I would have started to have an averse reaction to it rather quickly… But the performances were all top-notch. Had no idea that the movie was based on a James Michener novel. No wonder the movie had such a strong story. Lots of great music, with “You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" is especially note-worthy.

Great DVD extras as well, one a 60 Minutes piece taking Michener back to the island where he was stationed and mention of how the powers that be wanted the interracial themes of the movie taken out, which either Rodgers or Hammerstein completely balked at!! Another wonderful DVD extra was a medley from Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza who are fantastic doing a medley that aired on a mid-50’s TV show. Made me go look for Mary Martin movies at our library, but there are none… Another disappointment was the lack of Oscar nominations for South Pacific. It won one Oscar for best sound and was nominated for best score for a musical and for cinematography (color). It lost to Gigi for best score, so now I have to watch that movie to ensure South Pacific wasn’t robbed. As was Juanita Hall for not getting a best supporting actress nomination. I don’t know enough about the performances that year to be aware of whether the rest of the cast of South Pacific were robbed of nominations. Glad I got to see this movie, hope to see a live version of it one day.

I love MFL and particularly the score. I read that there was a backlash against Audrey because Julie Andrews played Eliza in the stage production and people felt it was unfair to her to not get that role. I don't really understand their logic.

In regards to this backlash…did the same thing happen against Julie Andrews when she was cast in The Sound Of Music over Marty Martin who originated the role on Broadway?

I think people really loved Julie in MFL on B'way that it was understandable the fans were upset when the studio gave the film role to another actress ...and a non-singer at that! I mean can you imagine Barbra Streisand not landing the film role of Funny Lady after having played the role to rave reviews on B'way? Audrey was lovely and was fine in the film, but I would've loved to hear Julie's voice on those songs.

The vocals discussion is a strange one in that Hepburn trained to be able to her own singing…and they even filmed some (or all?) of her musical numbers with her own voice. One number specifically has Hepburn singing half the song before Nixon’s vocals are dubbed in. I wonder if the decision to replace Hepburn’s voice came after filming was completed. If so, then Hepburn shouldn’t take any blame for any of this. That said, I agree that to hear Julie sing the songs instead of Marni’s voice (as capable as she was) would have been preferred.

I do think that casting a non-singer in a musical is very different from casting a non-piano-player in The Piano. But it was fairly common practice back then to cast "stars" and dub the voices. Showboat and South Pacific are just a couple of examples I can think of.

I agree, hearing an actor use their own voice (through speaking or singing) means much more than seeing an actors hands actually play an instrument as their character. I was going to ask you what you meant about South Pacific. My guess was that John Kerr as Joseph Cable was who you were talking about having his vocals dubbed. But Wikipedia says that of the four main characters, only Mitzi Gaynor did her own vocals. Now I wish I hadn’t looked! Oh well, I still love the movie.

 

[Jay42]

The vocals discussion is a strange one in that Hepburn trained to be able to her own singing…and they even filmed some (or all?) of her musical numbers with her own voice. One number specifically has Hepburn singing half the song before Nixon’s vocals are dubbed in. I wonder if the decision to replace Hepburn’s voice came after filming was completed. If so, then Hepburn shouldn’t take any blame for any of this. That said, I agree that to hear Julie sing the songs instead of Marni’s voice (as capable as she was) would have been preferred.

It's been years since I've read either of the biographies I have on Audrey Hepburn, but if I recall correctly, I believe Audrey Hepburn was told around the beginning of filming she was being dubbed. She wasn't happy because she had been working quite hard on training to be able to sing the songs but Jack Warner didn't seem to be a man prone to changing his mind.

My Fair Lady was the first Audrey Hepburn movie I saw, the singing always bothered me before I learned she was dubbed because Marni Nixon's singing voice was so much higher the Audrey Hepburns speaking voice. It didn't seem natural. You can hear Audrey Hepburn sing on Just You Wait. I think that's the only one though. It is a shame she didn't get to sing for My Fair Lady, she held up fairly well on Funny Face.

 

[Xela M]

OK, so in my delayed viewing of movies, I finally watched "The Departed". OK, so let me get this straight:

Spoiler

You have Martin Sheen, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson and freaking MARK WAHLBERG in a movie together, and the only one who survives is Wahlberg? He's like a damn cockroach!

Well done, but I get sick of movies that make me feel sorry for DiCaprio's character in the end, which is about 98% of his films. I would really like to see him play an unredeemable, nasty, flat-out a$$hole one day.

Have you not seen Django Unchained?

And I'd say his character in Wolf of Wall Street was an asshole

 

[Xela M]

My Fair Lady is my favourite Audrey Hepburn film. She's divine in it and the backlash about her singing is so stupid. I'm glad they dubbed her because her voice clearly wasn't good enough (as she can be heard in the beginning of one of the songs) but she was infinitely better for the role than Julie Andrews.

 

[gk_891]

My Fair Lady is my favourite Audrey Hepburn film. She's divine in it and the backlash about her singing is so stupid. I'm glad they dubbed her because her voice clearly wasn't good enough (as she can be heard in the beginning of one of the songs) but she was infinitely better for the role than Julie Andrews.

I'm not a big fan of Audrey Hepburn but I do agree that she was excellent in My Fair Lady (from what I remember of it, it's been so many years since I've seen it). And Marni Nixon's singing (as always) is fantastic.

 

[NinjaTurtles]

For those interested in what the film would have sounded like: Audrey's rehearsal track for I Could Have Danced All Night synced to the film.

 

[watchthis!!]

Experimenter came out last year and really bombed (made about $200,000 worldwide). Makes me wonder if the company that released it was about to declare bankruptcy or something. Shame that it failed because it's a pretty good movie. Peter Sarsgaard plays psychologist Stanley Milgramm, whose work focussed on everyday people and how willing they were (or weren't) to (blindly) obey authority. Winona Ryder plays his wife and a lot of famous names appear briefly as some of his subjects, including Anthony Edwards, John Leguizamo, Anton Yelchin, Taryn Manning (Orange Is The New Black), Kellan Lutz, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Josh Hamilton, Dennis Haysbert and Lori Singer. I found the story overall to be a bit dis-jointed, but they were focussing on so many various times of his life, the experiments he was working on, and how the reaction to those (often controversial) experiments affected his life. Worth seeing!

 

[Jay42]

Experimenter came out last year and really bombed (made about $200,000 worldwide). Makes me wonder if the company that released it was about to declare bankruptcy or something. Shame that it failed because it's a pretty good movie. Peter Sarsgaard plays psychologist Stanley Milgramm, whose work focussed on everyday people and how willing they were (or weren't) to (blindly) obey authority. Winona Ryder plays his wife and a lot of famous names appear briefly as some of his subjects, including Anthony Edwards, John Leguizamo, Anton Yelchin, Taryn Manning (Orange Is The New Black), Kellan Lutz, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Josh Hamilton, Dennis Haysbert and Lori Singer. I found the story overall to be a bit dis-jointed, but they were focussing on so many various times of his life, the experiments he was working on, and how the reaction to those (often controversial) experiments affected his life. Worth seeing!

I don't know that it was marketed that well. Winona Ryder was doing press for Show Me a Hero and Experimenter would get mentioned as well but it sort of felt like an afterthought. That would probably be at least part of the problem.

 

[mrr50]

I watched "The World Of Tomorrow" which is this year's Oscar winning animated short. It is a thoughtful SyFi piece. Had a problem though. My daughter and I watched it together. She found it disturbing in some ways. I couldn't stop laughing. I recommend it highly. You may not laugh through it, but it is thought provoking.

 

[PeterG]

Weekend Domestic Chart for March 11th, 2016

Zootopia stays at #1, it's at almost 150 million in North American in 10 days and almost 290 internationally for a worldwide total of 432 million. Should Star Wars be afraid?? The ratings for Zootopia at rotten tomatoes are extremely high: 99% with critics and 96% with the audience.

10 Cloverfield Lane debuted strongly at #2 with almost 25 million on a 5 million budget. Deadpool, London Has Fallen and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot round out the top with leaving the other debuts to take the following spots. #6 for romantic comedy The Perfect Match (just over 4 million on a 5 million budget), #7 for the Christian drama The Young Messiah (just over 3 million on a 17 million budget) and #8 for the Sasha Baron Cohen comedy The Brothers Grimsby (also just over 3 million on a 35 million budget).

Eye In The Sky, the Helen Mirren thriller, debuted down at #7 where it made only $113,803, BUT...it only played at five theatres. Hopefully they are expecting strong word of mouth and release the movie to more theatres week by week as the buzz builds?? Similary, the Sally Field romantic comedy Hello, My Name Is Doris debuted at #48 where it made about the same money as Eye In The Sky and the same per theatre average at the four theatres where it played.

 

[Artemis@BC]

The Lobster came out in the UK last year. Olivia Colman is who sold me on The Lobster, I've never been the biggest Colin Farrell fan, but I will watch Olivia Colman in anything.

So have you seen The Lobster? It's not playing anywhere here yet ...

ITA about Olivia Colman. I don't mind Farrell though, particularly when he's doing non-action roles.

 

[Aussie Willy]

He Named Me Malala...maybe one of my favourite documentaries ever. It has such a light feel to it, especially considering it's about a Pakistani girl who champions the right for other girls to get an education...and then is shot in the head by the Taliban for voicing such an opinion. I give a lot of credit to the director, Davis Guggenheim. He handles things so effectively and effortlessly both at the same time. And of course, having a subject like Malala, it's hard to not to have a great film, she is very charming, as is all of her family members. I really enjoyed the animation they used, simple but beautiful as well. I see that Guggenheim also directed An Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for "Superman". But this is definitely the best of the three.

I just watched this documentary (was on TV here). Agree with what you say. Very remarkable girl and her father is a very special man too, particularly considering where they come from and what they were up against.

 

[Jay42]

So have you seen The Lobster? It's not playing anywhere here yet ...

ITA about Olivia Colman. I don't mind Farrell though, particularly when he's doing non-action roles.

No, I live in a city with only a Cineplex. When the local Landmark cinema closed down we stopped getting smaller non-North American movies so I pretty much have to wait for iTunes or Netflix. I just have faith that anything Olivia Colman is in will be worth watching. It's worked so far.

 

[PeterG]

Two random things from old issues of Entertainment Weekly that I thought were interesting:

In an article about how 2015 was shaping up to be the biggest year in movies was this line: "We are on pace for the first $5 billion summer, the first $11 billion North American box office, and the first $40 billion global box office." (Quote from Paul Dergarabedian, a media analyst.) This makes it even clearer how a movie performs in North America matters these days. If this quote is accurate, 11 billion was what was expected from North American box office last year, but more than 2.5% more (29 billion) was expected internationally. I didn't think overall the difference was so big. So I googled for a while and came up with an article which states these predictions basically came true:

Global 2015 Box Office: Revenue Hits Record $38 Billion-Plus

And the second thing was a "tweet of the week" from Ryan Reynolds:

Paint one mural of Zayn on the hood of your car using gold leaf and real hair, and suddently you're "obsessed".

 

[made_in_canada]

I happened to turn to the tv on to entertain Mom and was completely sucked in by this movie: "Me, Earl and the Dying Girl." Sometimes when I see these films about teenagers beset with horrible illnesses I think these kids are too poised, too well-rounded, too wise even. I didn't feel that way at all with this film. These kids are bright but they are also awkward and stumbling through their teenaged years. They can also surprise you and they surprise each other. This film is charming without being syrupy. I liked it very much.

I watched this last night, and I completely agree with you. I'm so glad they didn't make it a love story.

Also, . Though there's just been too much cancer in my life lately so it's still a little sensitive.

 

[PeterG]

Indiana Jones 5 Memes Hit The Web... And They're Not Kind

Okay....am I sick, horrible person for wanting to see Harrison Ford take his bullwhip to all of these miserable people???

 

[watchthis!!]

Watch Jack Huston Recreate an Epic Chariot Race in the Trailer for Ben-Hur
http://time.com/4261425/ben-hur-trailer-jack-huston/

The film is the first major adaptation of the best-selling novel since 1959.

Interesting info about the original 1959 version in this article. The remake comes out on August 12th and co-stars Morgan Freeman and Rodrigo Santoro.

Indiana Jones 5 Memes Hit The Web... And They're Not Kind

Okay....am I sick, horrible person for wanting to see Harrison Ford take his bullwhip to all of these miserable people???

You can sell tickets to that as far as I'm concerned. As long as I get a discount.

 

[Cachoo]

Indiana Jones 5 Memes Hit The Web... And They're Not Kind

Okay....am I sick, horrible person for wanting to see Harrison Ford take his bullwhip to all of these miserable people???

Nope, not at all. But I was sure hoping our boy Pratt might get the role. Maybe Indy has a son???

 

[Cachoo]

Two random things from old issues of Entertainment Weekly that I thought were interesting:

In an article about how 2015 was shaping up to be the biggest year in movies was this line: "We are on pace for the first $5 billion summer, the first $11 billion North American box office, and the first $40 billion global box office." (Quote from Paul Dergarabedian, a media analyst.) This makes it even clearer how a movie performs in North America matters these days. If this quote is accurate, 11 billion was what was expected from North American box office last year, but more than 2.5% more (29 billion) was expected internationally. I didn't think overall the difference was so big. So I googled for a while and came up with an article which states these predictions basically came true:

Global 2015 Box Office: Revenue Hits Record $38 Billion-Plus

And the second thing was a "tweet of the week" from Ryan Reynolds:

Paint one mural of Zayn on the hood of your car using gold leaf and real hair, and suddently you're "obsessed".

I wonder how Bollywood affects the total. I also wonder if Asia has a Oscar/Bafta equivalent.

 

[PeterG]

I wonder how Bollywood affects the total.

The only thing close to knowing anything about that is that the box office in China is really growing (that might be in the article linked above), but nothing was mentioned about India/Bollywood. I did look at the box office charts for India a while back and only about three of the top ten movies for that week were made in North America. From that, my guess is that India isn't one of the top foreign markets for Hollywood movies. But I'm definitely ready to stand corrected on that!!

I also wonder if Asia has a Oscar/Bafta equivalent.

According to Wikipedia, The Hong Kong Film Award is "...the most prestigious film awards in Hong Kong and among one of the most respected in mainland China and Taiwan." Considering how much I've liked the Chinese films I've seen, I don't recognize most of the titles listed as Best Picture winners. One that I looooooved from the list is 2003's "Infernal Affairs" which I believe became the biggest-grossing moving of all time in China (although that's not stated at it's wikipedia entry) and spawned both a sequel and a prequel. And it was remade as an English-language film you might remember called "The Departed". But Infernal Affairs is much better!

 

[Cachoo]

Re: "The "Wolf of Wall Street" from A.V.Club:
In a story that should seem familiar, because it's happened before, actress Olivia Wilde, currently 32, says in a new interview that she was told she was “too old” to play the wife of fellow good-looking person Leonardo DiCaprio, currently 41.
This is why we need more women making decisions regarding age and casting. This is effing ridiculous.

Oh, I wanted to add that I finally saw "Kidnapped for Christ" and I honestly wanted the break plates and throw things after watching it. How could parents be so ignorant and make such cruel decisions?

 

[Artemis@BC]

I just got back from seeing The Little Prince. I found it utterly charming. The "wrap" approach, telling another story around the original Saint-Exupéry story worked for the most part, helping a modern audience (and a younger audience) "get" the fable -- although there was a chunk in the 3rd act that I found a bit silly and pointless. The animation is spectacular, and I particularly loved the contrast between hyper-realistic style of the the present-day added-on story, and the watercolour & "sculpted paper" animation style of the original story.

I'm not sure how old I was when I first read the story, but I read it again in French in high school. Now I want to go back and read it again -- though I wouldn't attempt the French!

 

[watchthis!!]

"Kill Me Three Times" is a very fun movie. Simon Pegg is the biggest name, he plays a hitman wrapped up in a much more complex story than he realizes. It also stars Teresa Palmer, Bryan Brown and a few other Australian actors you might recognize. It's also a very beautiful movie, filmed in southwest Australia around the Perth area. The beach scenes are to die for, I wish more of the movie could have taken place anywhere close to where we could see more of the beautiful beach scenery! The script is top-notch as is the direction. One of those movies somewhat like Momento where everything is not as it seems and we get to piece things together as the movie progresses. Easy to follow though, and thoroughly entertaining.

Re: "The "Wolf of Wall Street" from A.V.Club:
In a story that should seem familiar, because it's happened before, actress Olivia Wilde, currently 32, says in a new interview that she was told she was “too old” to play the wife of fellow good-looking person Leonardo DiCaprio, currently 41.
This is why we need more women making decisions regarding age and casting. This is effing ridiculous.

I saw that article on yahoo and was thinking of posting it, but you beat me to it. Crazy for somebody ten years younger than DiCaprio to be considered too old for him. The old guard in Hollywood needs to die off sooner rather than later!!

 

[Spareoom]

I get the feeling that in Hollywood, there's roles for either women in their early-late twenties and women 40+, but the in-between is sort of no-man's-land of middle-aged women. You're either young or you're "old".

 

[PeterG]

Lots of movies coming out this weekend and a lot of good stuff! The biggest surprise for me is the Japanese drama Little Bean, which looks like a movie I am going to fall deeply in love with. A movie for foodies, perhaps in the vein of something like Chocolat, but not a romance (but maybe a love story). Don't know when I'll get to see this, but can't wait! And two movies that are on the bubble for me are going on my To See list, which is interesting in that usually "bubble" movies I let go of. But Glassland has some of my favourite actors in it (mainly Toni Collette), so tough to say no to. And The Bronze looks to have a very sharp script and a fierce performance by Melissa Rauch, so I couldn't say no to this one either. One big disappointment was the trailer for the Clive Owen comedy The Confirmation. It looks like possibly the least funny movie ever made...

March 18th - The Divergent Series: Allegiant – Action adventure with Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ansel Elgort, Naomi Watts, Jeff Daniels and Bill Skarsgard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE8LEPSTK6A

March 18th - Midnight Special - Sci-fi with Michael Shannon, Kirsten Dunst, Adam Driver, Joel Edgerton and Sam Shepard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zuQTmVCEn4

March 18th - Miracles from Heaven – Biblical drama with Jennifer Garner, Martin Henderson and Queen Latifah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CldGTG6iVrU

March 18th - The Bronze (Limited) – Comedy drama with Melissa Rauch [The Big Bang Theory], Gary Cole, Sebastian Stan and Craig Kilborn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_1D9wSeVsI

March 18th - Glassland (Limited) – Drama with Will Poulter and Toni Collette
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrQgJCmEuJo

March 18th - Pee-Wee's Big Holiday (Netflix) – Comedy with Paul Reubens, David Arquette and Joe Manganiello
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Quo-Oen1wkY

March 18th - The Program (Limited) – Sports drama with Ben Foster, Chris O'Dowd, Lee Pace and Dustin Hoffman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4MiqwYE-5k

March 18th - The Little Prince (Limited) – Animated fantasy with Jeff Bridges, Rachel McAdams, Paul Rudd, Marion Cotillard, James Franco, Ricky Gervais, Benicio Del Toro, Bud Cort, Albert Brooks and Paul Giamatti
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEPqgSNLfK8

March 18th - Sweet Bean – Japanese drama (Limited) – From imdb.com: “The "manager" of a pancake stall finds himself confronted with an odd but sympathetic elderly lady looking for work. A taste of her home-made bean jelly convinces him, starting a relationship that is about much more than just street food.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcwKPRfTMa4

March 18th - The Preppie Connection (Limited) – Crime drama with Lucy Fry and Thomas Mann
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1YAuhmOmtk

March 18th - The Brainwashing of My Dad (Limited) – Documentary narrated by Matthew Modine. From imdb.com: “Jen Senko, a documentary filmmaker, looks at the rise of right-wing media through the lens of her WWII vet father who changed from a life-long, nonpolitical Democrat to an angry, right-wing fanatic after his discovery of talk radio on a lengthened commute to work.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=813V_GId5N8

March 18th - Too Late (Limited) – Drama with John Hawkes, Robert Forster, Joanna Cassidy and Jeff Fahey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaVSY0VVRxY

March 18th - Ktown Cowboys (New York / Los Angeles) – Comedy with new cast and Ken Jeong, Eric Roberts and Daniel Dae Kim
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd166n9ORd4

March 18th - Burning Bodhi (Limited) – Drama with Kaley Cuoco and Virginia Madsen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va17FzfuEjo

March 18th - Krisha (Limited) – Comedy drama, new cast. From imdb.com: “Krisha returns for Thanksgiving dinner after ten years away from her family, but past demons threaten to ruin the festivities.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnX_lLuENfI

March 18th - The Confirmation (Limited) – Comedy with Clive Owen, Maria Bello, Patton Oswalt, Matthew Modine and Robert Forster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUyl6fQdEtU

 

[olympic]

I rented 'Freeheld' thru Netflix starring Julianne Moore and Ellen Page. Julianne Moore plays a lesbian police officer who fights the system to have her pension pass to her partner, Ellen Page. A tearjerker and beautiful story of the couple in NJ who helped set the movement for gay marriage in motion.

 

[made_in_canada]

I finally got around to watching Room last night. There are very few movies I think do justice to the books they are based on but this one completely lived up to the book. I'm very impressed with Jacob Tremblay too. That's a big meaty role that had to be done right for the movie to work and he pulled it off brilliantly.

 

[agalisgv]

Saw Allegiant. I'd give it a 6. Maybe if I hadn't read the book I would have enjoyed it more. To me it departed so much from the storyline, it didn't make much sense anymore. I think the whole Divergent series just didn't translate well to the big screen (though I think it could have). But Divergent and the Maze Runner have changed the storylines so much that you are really watching very different stories at that point. They also seem to focus too much on action and not enough on character development. What I thought was so good in the first episode of Hunger Games was the characters were well developed so that you got into the story better. But that just didn't happen here.

 

[watchthis!!]

Frozen 2 Starts Production Soon; Kristen Bell Praises the Story
http://screenrant.com/frozen-2-filming-kristen-bell-story/

Interesting info about troubles the first movie experienced that I had never heard about before. No info about who's returning...so I'm assuming everybody!

 

[Johnny_Fever]

This Trailer's got me intrigued. Roald Dahl is my idol.

Disney's The BFG