Let's Talk Movies #36 - 2020 - Yep it is a new decade

[ilovepaydays]

This just in: Paramount is in talks with Jonathan Levine to direct the Days of Thunder sequel.

(Why is there not a NASCAR emoji? Just for F1! )

But I’m guessing that Nicole Kidman won’t be returning for this. And Robert Duvall has sadly passed away.

 

[Cachoo]

Oh Canada!! This will one be a treat:

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youtu.be

 

[Cachoo]

Here is the preview for "Misty Green." This woman is one of the stars of "Slow Horses." I don't know anything about her but she commands the screen in that show.

- YouTube

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youtu.be

 

[ilovepaydays]

For the film’s 10th anniversary, Lionsgate has fixed Ryan Gosling’s hand on the poster.

 

[ilovepaydays]

Meanwhile, here’s an update in Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

BB - That’s not a special grade from school. That’s the credit rating.

UPDATE!

Paramount has agreed to postpone the merger with Warner Bros. Discovery until the earlier of the antitrust trial or June 1, 2027.

 

[Vash01]

FWIW I liked it a lot. The two leads, Blunt and O’Connor, are terrific and my permanent crush Colin Firth is definitely relishing playing a bad guy these days. It’s actually a hopeful movie. Go see it.

I watched Disclosure Day today Very interesting. I have always had an interest in ET. The two main characters were really good. I almost didn’t recognize Colin Firth in that role (Noah Scranton). I had never heard of the actress who plays Jane.
The ending was surprising.

 

[Vash01]

Now I want to see Odysee in the next few days But I want to see it on the big screen, like IMax

 

[Cachoo]

Here is a preview (violence warning) of "By Any Means" starring Mark Wahlberg. Not a Wahlberg fan and not a fan of violence in general but I did hear about this chapter of the Civil Rights Movement. When Civil Rights supporters/workers started disappearing Hoover sent a known Mafia contract killer down to Mississippi to help find them when normal investigative channels failed: Ouch.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

youtu.be

 

[ilovepaydays]

So……Tom Holland’s next project has been announced as him playing Fred Astaire in a biopic.

His performance in Lip Sync Battle is everything.

 

[Aussie Willy]

So……Tom Holland’s next project has been announced as him playing Fred Astaire in a biopic.

His performance in Lip Sync Battle is everything.

Just made me realise why haven't they made a Fred Astaire biopic to date? Or have they?

Yeah that will be worth seeing.

 

[ilovepaydays]

At Comic Con in San Diego: Marvel is doing a Ghost Rider film……and this guy came to announce that he’s starring in it!

 

[Wyliefan]

Just made me realise why haven't they made a Fred Astaire biopic to date? Or have they?

For one thing, he didn't want one.

 

[Buzz]

And we have also have a new Black Panther!

‘Black Panther 3’: David Jonsson to Play T’Challa’s Son as December 2028 Release Date Set

'Black Panther 3' has been announced with Ryan Coogler and Letitia Wright returning. David Jonsson has been cast as T'Challa's son.

variety.com

 

[Allskate]

I have to admit I will probably wait to see it. I can't say I've ever been very impressed with with Christopher Nolan as script writer (except "The Dark Knight," which he only was partially responsible for scripting) as compared to his ability to bring amazing visuals to the screen.

IMO, the visuals and spectacle are really the main reason to see this movie, along with an appreciation for a whole lot of fight scenes. I thought the script was really weak.

I saw The Odyssey yesterday, not in 70 mm IMAX, but the visuals were still the best part IMO. I didn't love the score, but the script was weaker. I don't have any problem with American accented English vs British, but I just felt like the language was too colloquial and was jarringly dissonant with the epic narrative and visual scale. The performances therefore seemed like a lot of emoting without much weight.

I don't think it was just the colloquial language. The dialog in general was just weak. I usually think that Matt Damon is a pretty good actor, but I thought his performance was not very good. I didn't think any of them were very good, except for maybe Anne Hathaway. I think a lot of the reason for the unimpressive acting was because of the script.

You kind of needed Matt Damon to explain what happened to Calypso and sum up the moral of the story at the end, which really shouldn't be necessary in a movie this long. It was a bit of story added to a whole lot of visuals and fighting. Not great storytelling. But, I think that people who are seeing the movie for the visuals appreciate it. (I saw it with a group of people, and it was the ones who really just wanted an action adventure movie who liked it.)

The film has inspired me to read The Odyssey again, though, so that's a success.

Meh. It didn't even do that for me. I haven't read it since college, so I wasn't really even comparing the movie that much to the text, though what he did with the Trojan horse was odd and the role of the gods seemed kind of watered down.

 

[ilovepaydays]

Box Office Mojo - U.S. Domestic Box Office: Weekend 30

The Odyssey only dropped 29%! Also, the film has likely reached the break even point.

Notable opening next week - Spider-Man: Brand New Day!!!!

 

[ilovepaydays]

Michael is now the second film in 2026 to reach $1 billion. I think that Toy Story 5 will be the next film to do this.

$1B Films in 2026
1. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie - $1.009B
2. Michael - $1.001B

UPDATE: Toy Story 5 has now passed $1 billion.

I think that The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be next.

$1B Films in 2026
1. Toy Story 5 - $1.022B
2. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie - $1.011B
3. Michael - $1.010B

 

[allezfred]

Going to a cinema is a very different experience in Europe and Japan. I used to describe to people what it was like to go to the cinema in the US and how err involved people got at. every. single. thing.

I now have video to show what I was talking about.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2081391662291415340

 

[ilovepaydays]

And we have also have a new Black Panther!

‘Black Panther 3’: David Jonsson to Play T’Challa’s Son as December 2028 Release Date Set

'Black Panther 3' has been announced with Ryan Coogler and Letitia Wright returning. David Jonsson has been cast as T'Challa's son.

variety.com

Here is Ryan Coogler announcing Jonsson at San Diego Comic Con.

I think Jonsson has done mostly British television and he was in Alien: Romulus.

 

[Buzz]

Massimo (mirror) (@rainmaker1973-m.bsky.social)

The Italian Cinema Orchestra playing the soundtrack of Gladiator at the Colosseum at sunset. Original post

bsky.app

 

[clairecloutier]

My husband wants to see The Odyssey, so I guess we will go at some point, but I am not excited. I have watched several Nolan films now (Oppenheimer, The Prestige, Inception) and fail to see what the big deal is. There is a certain self-congratulatory, pompous white-male-on-a-mission aesthetic to his oeuvre (and the reaction to it) that I find annoying.

But, speaking of white-male-on-a-mission movies, we did watch Project Hail Mary, after seeing Mark Kelly recommend it as one of his favorite space movies. And I did enjoy it a lot! As with his Ken, Ryan Gosling was so willing here to make himself goofy and idiosyncratic onscreen that I couldn't help but like his character.

 

[PRlady]

My husband wants to see The Odyssey, so I guess we will go at some point, but I am not excited. I have watched several Nolan films now (Oppenheimer, The Prestige, Inception) and fail to see what the big deal is. There is a certain self-congratulatory, pompous white-male-on-a-mission aesthetic to his oeuvre (and the reaction to it) that I find annoying.

But, speaking of white-male-on-a-mission movies, we did watch Project Hail Mary, after seeing Mark Kelly recommend it as one of his favorite space movies. And I did enjoy it a lot! As with his Ken, Ryan Gosling was so willing here to make himself goofy and idiosyncratic onscreen that I couldn't help but like his character.

The best thing about Project Hail Mary was that the Gosling character didn’t want to be a hero and was basically shipped off against his will. There was humor and feeling in his scenes with Rocky (and how hard is it to play against a CGI rock??)

There is no humor in Nolan films, he takes himself Very Seriously. I think your WhiteMan on a Mission describes it perfectly. Even Interstellar, which I did like, was pompous in its own way.

 

[Jimena]

I loved The Odyssey. But I thought Damon lacked the malice and intelligence that Odysseus is supposed to have. Damon was too bland.

I liked the other performances. Especially Hathaway.

 

[Allskate]

But, speaking of white-male-on-a-mission movies, we did watch Project Hail Mary, after seeing Mark Kelly recommend it as one of his favorite space movies. And I did enjoy it a lot! As with his Ken, Ryan Gosling was so willing here to make himself goofy and idiosyncratic onscreen that I couldn't help but like his character.

Andy Weir, who wrote the book that the movie was based on, has a good sense of humor. (I highly recommend the book, including the audiobook.) I already had read the book when I heard that Gosling was cast for it, and I thought he would be great for the part.

Andy Weir also wrote the novel The Martian, though not the screenplay. I thought Matt Damon did a much better job in that movie than in The Odyssey. I don't know if the difference was the script, the directing, or the fact the Matt's own personality is better suited to the charact in The Martian.

 

[Jay42]

The best thing about Project Hail Mary was that the Gosling character didn’t want to be a hero and was basically shipped off against his will. There was humor and feeling in his scenes with Rocky (and how hard is it to play against a CGI rock??)

Fun fact, Rocky, and pretty much all the sets, including the ship, are all practical effects. Rocky is a puppet and the voice for Rocky is the puppeteer they hired for him because they liked his work so much. Lord & Miller didn't want to make a CGI fest so they built pretty much everything.

 

[ilovepaydays]

It seems that Mondays are when the critics see the upcoming films in special “press showings”.

Some critics are already posting spoiler free reviews of Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Spoiler: Spoiler free details

Apparently, it’s really good, looks stunning in Dolby, but felt a tad too long.

 

[Wyliefan]

Andy Weir, who wrote the book that the movie was based on, has a good sense of humor.

I'm surprised to hear that. My favorite podcast, 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back, had Weir's Artemis as one of their featured bad books a while back, and absolutely shredded it. I concede that I did not read along with them, so I can't offer any firsthand critique, but the excerpts and descriptions they gave sounded dreadful.

Nevertheless, I'll probably check out the Hail Mary film at some point just to see what all the fuss is about. I do like Ryan Gosling.

 

[Allskate]

I'm surprised to hear that. My favorite podcast, 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back, had Weir's Artemis as one of their featured bad books a while back, and absolutely shredded it. I concede that I did not read along with them, so I can't offer any firsthand critique, but the excerpts and descriptions they gave sounded dreadfu

I think Artemis is widely regarded as the weakest of Andy Weir's books, and I haven't read it. But, Project Hail Mary is an incredibly popular book among both critics and readers. It has a 4.7 rating on Amazon and a 4.9 rating on Audible. I like the movie, but like the book even more, and I'm not usually a sci-fi person. The Ryland Grace character absolutely is Weir's creation. The plot and the relationship between Grace and Rocky are more developed in the book. Weir puts a lot of science in his sci-fi, which may be one of the reasons former astronaut Mark Kelly likes it, but it's not dry IMO. The book is very entertaining.

Here's a talk Weir gave to people at Lawrence Livermore. You can see where the sense of humor comes from for his characters in both Project Hail Mary and The Martian:

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[sk8pics]

Hadestown was fantastic.

 

[jenny12]

I loved The Odyssey. But I thought Damon lacked the malice and intelligence that Odysseus is supposed to have. Damon was too bland.

I liked the other performances. Especially Hathaway.

Agreed. I liked The Odyssey but I thought it was missing the wit of the poem and that had a long to do with Damon’s performance. He felt more like a standard action hero to me than Odysseus. I agree that all the other performances were good. Hathaway and Leguizamo were standouts to me.

 

[orbitz]

For one thing, he didn't want one.

Biopic is usually made after the person is long gone. It doesn't matter that Astaire didn't want one on his life. If Hollywood sees a chance to make money from a Fred Astaire biopic then they will make one.