You could not find a better way to market a movie to me than getting men's rights activists to boycott it http://t.co/0pbUZr6VCF
— Caitlin Kelly (@atotalmonet) May 15, 2015
Yeah, I cannot think of anything more likely to get me to pay for a ticket to the not-exactly-in-my-wheelhouse Mad Max reboot than the tears of “men’s rights advocates” man-babies. From the THR article:
…[Blogger] Aaron Clarey admits he has not seen the film yet, but his self-proclaimed “spidey sense” noticed that Charlize Theron “talked a lot during the trailers” for the film, and he said Tom Hardy only seemed to have cameo appearances. “Charlize Theron’s character barked orders to Mad Max,” writes Clarey on Return of Kings. “Nobody barks orders to Mad Max.”
Clarey did not like reading reviews commending Theron for many of her action scenes, nor did he appreciate the news that the movie’s director, George Miller, asked Vagina Monologues author Eve Ensler to consult with the five actresses who play sex slaves in the film. (Theron’s character plays a road warrior fighting to lead the child-bearing women to safety.)
Clarey writes that he is concerned “men in America and around the world are going to be duped by explosions, fire tornadoes, and desert raiders into seeing what is guaranteed to be nothing more than feminist propaganda, while at the same time being insulted AND tricked into viewing a piece of American culture ruined and rewritten right in front of their very eyes.”…
Never mind Auntie Entity, Tina Turner could probably beat any of these snivelers into submission, even if she is old enough to be their mothers (who are probably ashamed of their worthless kids)…
***********
Apart from summer entertainment options, what’s on the agenda as we wrap up the week?
pluky
“American culture”??? I thought Mad Max was set in the Outback, not the Mojave. Not to mention the accents.
SFAW
Fixed, because why not?
ETA: Perhaps we can also get Leonard Pinth-Garnell to weigh in on the film.
SFAW
Attempted agenda: sharpen mower blades, so that the millions nascent trees in the yard — a/k/a grass that’s really f’ing tall — can be made to look more like a lawn.
Oh, and rush right out to buy a copy of Charles Murray’s latest epic.
Schlemazel
CRAP. There wa no way I would waste good money on this movie but now I might feel I have to be there on opening weekend just to fluff the box office numbers.
SFAW
I think the only way to top this would be to float the rumor that Mel Gibson appears in drag in the movie. Wingnut heads be a-splodin’ then!
Anne Laurie
@Schlemazel: I’m not that worried; want to take a bet on how many of the MRAs will be waiting in line for the midnight opener, some of them wearing not-meant-to-be-risible “disguises“?
ThresherK
@Schlemazel: I am tired of reboots. I know my Hollywood history, but back when I was your age* a movie was out, and then on TV in three years, and that was it.
A story like “A Star is Born” could be made three times in twenty-two years (“What Price Hollywood”, 1932, 1937, 1954) and it would work.
(*I have no idea of your age, and I’m a little scared that I’ve fallen into using this phrase when discussing movies and culture with my college-age relatives. And it will soon be out of date, as everyone of some means under 40 will never have lived in a world without VHS tapes.)
Warren Terra
@pluky: Yeah, this. At the very least it will be Australian culture supposedly being ruined by homogametic propaganda.
Also: since when have action movie audiences been upset by strong women? What about the Alien franchise? Heck, what about Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, in which Tina Turner’s is easily the most macho character around, at least for the first half of the film?
Heck, in all three of his Mad Max films Mel Gibson’s character spends his time getting beat up and pushed around. Sure, he perseveres and does all the action hero stuff – but not as the sort of invulnerable strutting peacock this moron thinks must portray manhood in action films. Mel Gibson is an abusive anti-semitic fnckwit, but back before people realize that, back when he had a career, the quality he brought to his roles to make his films successful was appearance of empathy and a trace of vulnerability. This Clarey character is just a moron.
Schlemazel
@ThresherK:
Truman was President the day I was born so I remember an era when a movie came out and then was not seen again. That pre-dates them appearing on TV three years later.
It’s early yet so I am not in full motion but at the moment I can’t think of any remake I have seen that made me think “Well, I am glad they remade that because this was much better.” Maybe there have been a couple but even if there are there are not enough to make any remake a must see on my list. The fact that I didn’t really think much of the original makes this a no-go twice.
OzarkHillbilly
What do you call a man so weak and insignificant that he feels threatened by a strong woman?
PaulW
There are GUYS boycotting a Mad Max movie?
There are GUYS boycotting a movie with car chases and explosions and more car chases?!?! All because the movie has women talking and driving like badasses?
These are not GUYS. They are idiots.
This is why Hollywood is terrified of making a Wonder Woman movie.
/headdesk
Keith G
It’s been noted here that notorious pus sack Erick Erickson tweeted, “Amtrak’s killed more people than fracking. Guess which one the left wants to subsidize.”
Mike Pesca, in the last segment of his daily podcast (which y’all should listen to everyday), pulls out a ball peen hammer and goes after Erickson. Ultimately, Pesca shows that besides being a vulgar idiot, Erikson is just wrong on the simple numbers.
Gravenstone
@pluky: Yeah, nice bit of cultural appropriation our boy does, innit? Can’t you just feel the self righteous fury a he stamps his little feet, balls his fists up and threatens to hold his breath until he turns blue?
Baud
As a straight dude, more Charlize Theron sounds awesome.
Baud
@Keith G:
So he looked up Erick’s party registration?
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Erick Erickson? A Fox “pundit”? Mittens? (But only if he feels threatened by binders of strong women) A typical Rethug?
C’mon, I need a little help here.
SFAW
@Baud:
Especially if she goes all Aileen-Wuornos-y on Rethugs’ asses.
dmsilev
@Schlemazel:
It predates your timeframe, but speaking generally, how about The Maltese Falcon? The Bogart version was the third go at filming that story.
Another Holocene Human
Women talking, women expressing themselves, women asserting themselves, women having preferences … it all makes their weenies shrivel up and their amygdalas fire on overdrive. S-s-s-so s-s-sc-sc-scared.
Another Holocene Human
@dmsilev: This same nut will be standing in line to see JJ Abrams’ Star Wars.
Another Holocene Human
@SFAW: Unfair to Mittens, Mittens flips out if ANYONE challenges him!
ps: damn, I told myself I wouldn’t post on this thread this morning
BobS
@ThresherK: @Schlemazel: Fury Road isn’t a remake — it’s the fourth chapter of the Mad Max franchise.
A few years ago, my son emailed us a photo of him in the desert with his arm around some big dude in leather and a mask. My wife and I weren’t sure what to make of it – until some additional photos from Wasteland Weekend clarified it (the guy in the photo was the Humungus).
Another Holocene Human
@PaulW: They have to be very young because apparently they forgot about TANK GIRL.
I don’t remember the drum circle set coming out of the woods to complain about that movie. I do remember comics fans dying inside and the movie kind of petering out because it sucked. This was before texting, so it took more than one day for a movie to, ahem, tank.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: I asked “What do you call them” not “we”, and I already know what I call them so I don’t need any help with that.
ThresherK
@Schlemazel: Yeah, I did sorta condense the history of movie in theater –> movie on TV timeline. And I totally left out how HBO’s selling point was how certain movies would be on it a year or so before they drifted down to us peons with basic cable.
(JK with the “when I was your age” bit, I hope you figured out. I am coming to grips with the weird feeling of growing older when I tell my nephews and niece about how I–and half the country–tuned in to “Gone With The Wind” on over-the-air TV back in the 1970s, because I couldn’t stream it or pull out my Blu-Ray, or even dust off an old videotape of it.)
Larv
There are very few groups I hold in such abject contempt as the MRA types. They need to stop giving us men a bad name and just change the name of their “movement” to Misogynists R Awesome or something else which more accurately describes their views.
Mustang Bobby
@Schlemazel: We’re of the same era (Truman had four months left in office when I was downloaded) and I feel the same way about remakes: just let them try and remake Casablanca or Bullitt.
That said, I hear the remake of Far From the Madding Crowd is better than the 1967 film, but other than Julie Christie, it was a snoozer anyway.
Another Holocene Human
@SFAW: Wait wait wait–you’re telling me that French is out and Irish is in?!
When the fuck did this happen?
(And French has always been out in New England, because the English knew they were Catholics, end of story. It was different in the Midwest, higher Catholic population and I suppose you have to take Huguenot migration into account as well. Many French in NE were very, very poor Canadians who immigrated without speaking hardly any English, making them the Mexicans of Maine for a couple of generations. LePage v Michaud race proved a French name is no longer a liability there.)
My good Irish Catholic Democrat family will be surprised to discover that Irish means macho, macho men. Note: a lot, and I mean a LOT of strong women in that clan.
Another Holocene Human
SFAW, I wonder if Kim Du Toit just changed his name to try to set fire to his internet past. The most famous Kim on the internet is also in major legal trouble (Kim Dotcom). So I wonder if munging his search history isn’t a bigger motivation.
(Aaron, as every teacher and parent of an elementary school age child knows, is not more “masculine” because in the US it’s a homophone for Erin, a name mostly given to girls. Also gotta wonder about the derivation, as Aaron in the Bible is a natural leader … who makes dumb decisions because he’s more worried about being popular than right. Hmmmm.)
Another Holocene Human
@Larv: Misogynist Rage Atavists
ThresherK
@Mustang Bobby: Casablanca? In 1955 and 1983 it was on TV.
I take it you haven’t heard. Fortunately I only know of these, and I can’t imagine getting the complete series, available on DVD, to hatewatch them.
OzarkHillbilly
You can’t make this shit up:
Video reveals Baltimore cops were looting during Freddie Gray protests
Take it away FOX News…. FOX News? Hey, FOX… Anybody there???
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: I love this part:
Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Stephen T. Moyer said ….
“We will not allow the vast majority of our employees who are honest and hardworking to be tainted by the actions of a few,” he said.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA …… Gasp……wheeze….. Damn, this guy is better than Letterman.
Larv
@Another Holocene Human:
Misogynist Revanchist Assholes?
BruceFromOhio
I haven’t met Aaron Clarey yet, but my ‘spidey sense’ tells me he’s an asshole.
Charlize Theron is awesome. Can’t wait to see the film. May even go all out and see Fury Road back to back with Age of Ultron. Wacka wacka wacka!
@PaulW: This. And from what I gather from my Marvel agents, the Wonder Woman backstory is proving difficult to storyboard in a way that can be translated to film, not due to the Amazonian concepts, but from the twisty nuances in the story without which the story is hard to follow. I could be totally out of school on this, as I am not a comics guy. Sounds to me like it’s only a matter of time before WW is on the big screen.
PurpleGirl
NY1s Neil Rosen gave Mad Max Fury Road half a wormy apple. (His maximum award is 4 apples.) He said there is very little dialogue, it’s constant action sequences, and no back-story is really given.
I guess we are supposed to remember about the nuclear war and devastation in the original movie and so to me it’s more a sequel than a reboot.
I saw the first Mad Max movie on a date, actually on a disk player at the date’s house. Thunderdome I saw in a theater and never saw the third. I doubt I’ll see this one. From the clip it seems you will need ear plugs if you want to keep your hearing.
celticdragonchick
@Schlemazel:
Michael Mann’s remake of “Last of the Mohicans” was far better than the original movie. Still the best 18th century American colonial period movie out there right now.
Others I can think of:
Ben Hur
Mutiney on the Bounty (Marlon Brando version)
True Grit (possibly)
John Carpenter’s “The Thing”
brent
@Schlemazel: Mad Max: Fury Road is not a remake. Its a sequel with new casting. It may not be your cup of tea anyway but if you object to seeing it, it shouldn’t be on that basis.
On the issue of remakes generally, its always been my opinion that stories have been told and retold since the birth of human language. A story well told has its own character whether or not its ever been told before. Often retold stories are told quite badly but that really has nothing to do with the fact that its been retold. It has to do with the quality of the latter storyteller.
OzarkHillbilly
@Another Holocene Human: Kim Dotcom is more famous than Kim Jong-un? Dotcom better watch his ass, Jong-un has an anti-aircraft gun and a twitchy finger.
brent
@celticdragonchick: True Grit for sure. The original is horrible. Almost unwatchable.
Marmot
Wait, wait. You weren’t going to see Fury Road??? And now you might because idiots are angry at it?
That’s all messed up. Fury Road is gonna be awesome1111!
Fred
Tough guy rescuing damsels in distress is such a womens’ lib theme. Uh huh. Listening to dweebs like this spread the stuff from their rears around is an embarrassment to my gender.
dmsilev
@celticdragonchick: Does the recent version of _Ca$ino Royale_ count as a remake? It was certainly a vastly superior film compared to the weird farce from the late sixties.
Dan
NY1s Neil Rosen’s review runs counter to the reviews of about 200 critics on RottenTomatoes.com.
Baud
ABC reporting Great White sharks off Florida coast. Take care, beachgoers.
Maybe Raven will catch one in his fishing trip.
Marmot
@PurpleGirl:
He’s the only one. Its reviews are stellar across the board.
And the Mad Max movie you saw on a date probably wasn’t the first one. Most likely it was the Road Warrior (aka Mad Max II). Thunderdome WAS the third. Sheesh.
danielx
Aaron Clarey is Kim Du Toit? Author of the Pussification of the Western Male? Aye, the very same!
Why am I not surprised? These guys require at least one dose of outrage a day, preferably more. This is one of the reasons Faux News exists.
Lee
Have not read all the comments so someone might have mentioned this but in the original Mel Gibson had all of 16 lines.
That is how the character is supposed to be…. Dumbasses
OzarkHillbilly
@brent: That’s funny I feel exactly the same about the 2nd one. The Coen’s added absolutely nothing to it. Sure, John Wayne was a caricature in the original, Wayne was always a caricature and True Grit was a script made for that caricature. Jeff Bridges (who I love in almost everything he does) was just a tired old man reciting lines with nothing behind them. I don’t know why they thought that would be…. Worth watching.
ThresherK
@celticdragonchick: Are you comparing the Bens Hur (or is it Ben Hurs) of 1926 and 1959? I go back and forth on them, and wasn’t very interested in the older version until I read that the famous chariot race from the Heston version is basically a shot-for-shot remaking of the old one.
[Also, the 1926 is a great example of how not to make a movie on time and within budget: Two years of work on location, including recasting major roles and a change of directors. For the chariot race there were 37 miles of film shot.
Total to make the movie, in 1926 dollars: $4 million. A silent movie. Wow. Just, wow.]
PS If one believes the Wiki, another remake is coming in 2016. If it happens, I just shudder at the idea of it being CGIed to hell.
brent
@PurpleGirl: Neil Rosen’s description is about right (although there was no nuclear war in the original) and in fact, it is a sequel. It never pretends to be anything other than that. However, I disagree with his assessment (and agree with pretty much every other critic) that these are points against the film. What is actually amazing about it is that the action itself manages to tell the story and its an epic story. There is very little dialogue and it absolutely doesn’t need any backstory. You understand these characters, all of these characters, and their motivations very well through their actions. I can’t think of when I have ever seen that pulled off so well. I actually think its groundbreaking and very much worth seeing but of course, YMMV.
ThresherK
@Baud: Anyone for a betting pool on whether Raven makes the “bigger boat” joke here?
Iowa Old Lady
As my rather unsympathetic mother used to say, that should be the worst thing that ever happens to you, MRA.
Germy Shoemangler
Orson Welles last film “The Other Side Of The Wind” was unfinished at his death. I believe the filming was complete, but he was deep in editing. I read somewhere it will be released soon.
EDIT: Okay, I found a story about it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/movies/hollywood-ending-near-for-orson-welles-last-film.html?_r=0
NorthLeft12
@pluky:
.
This a million times!!!
When I was much younger I recall that there used to be a lot of jokes running around about how the Soviet Union claimed they invented/created everything. Over the last twenty years or so the US has rushed in to claim that role.
Michael Ventura
ThresherK
@Germy Shoemangler: A man’s gotta have a dream, and mine is that someone, somewhere finds the original (director’s) cut of “The Magnificent Ambersons”.
Hey, it took 30+ years for us to see “Touch of Evil” the way it was intended.
ETA: From your link it sounds like the creating, losing, and restoring of this movie would make a helluva movie.
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady:
Some MRA dude is probably the worst thing to happen to someone.
BobS
@celticdragonchick: Definitely True Grit and The Thing. Also Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Scarface, Cape Fear, The Fly, & The Magnificent Seven.
Germy Shoemangler
@ThresherK: I wish they had left him the hell alone and let him make his films. I wish there had been some deep-pocketed producer back in the day to protect him from the studios.
The reason we have been left so many good and some half-decent W.C. Fields films is because there was a producer who played interference against the studio heads. Unheard of that any comedian anywhere would be allowed to created surreal stuff like “Never Give A Sucker An Even Break” or “The Bank Dick” without being cut to pieces or having the scripts shredded.
And even then he had to fight tooth and nail for every gag.
SFAW
@Another Holocene Human:
You’re kinda over-thinking this.
The only male Kim I know/knew was (and perhaps still is) one of the top people on nanotechnology science. But even he used the “K” instead of “Kim.”
And given Kim Du Toit’s oeuvre, changing his name to cover his tracks might be a smart thing, irrespective of his fem-o-phobia.
But the Aaron/Erin thing? Come on.
NorthLeft12
@Another Holocene Human: I think everyone, especially those who were part of making and marketing it, and the even smaller group who have seen it, want to forget Tank Girl.
Germy Shoemangler
@ThresherK: I was read some old (1930s) theater reviews, and Orson did a shakespeare play with characters wearing nazi and fascist uniforms.
SFAW
@BobS:
Not sure that counts. If it did, why not add The Departed? And a host of other remakes-of-foreign-originals.
Another Holocene Human
@ThresherK: That restored Joan of Arc movie was something else. And it seems like somebody found a print of Maedchen in Uniform. There was one out there, but damaged. Amazing that anything would survive that long given the myriad ways celluloid can be destroyed. And anything with “teh ghey” was marked for destruction during 1930s-50s period in the West (which includes the east, that is, USSR).
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: It was in Santa Barbara last year.
SFAW
@ThresherK:
Moi aussi.
Germy Shoemangler
They re-did “Poltergeist” and the new one looks all action and over-the-top special effects.
The old one, the scene where the kitchen furniture is suddenly rearranged, is spookier than any modern explosion or cgi wizardry.
Another Holocene Human
@SFAW: Three Men and a Baby
I say it counts, the original creative people were involved in the US version, although overridden by the director because hello, stuff the French find endearing is hella offputting to Americans.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: BOBBY! Say it ain’t so! I am un unlettered schmuck but Far From The Madding Crowd is one of my favorites!
Another Holocene Human
@Germy Shoemangler: That’s been done more recently so it’s really interesting to see Welles did it first, and when it was a lot edgier and risky to do so.
BobS
@SFAW: Okay. The Ring, A Fistful of Dollars, Insomnia.
SFAW
@danielx:
You do know I was kidding, don’t you?
Another Holocene Human
@SFAW: Showing my age, but when I was in school Erin and Aaron were both very popular (Irish and Jews, doncha know) and disambiguating was vital.
Of course, I was also in classes with multiple Hannah’s, multiple Jonathan’s … hell, in college we had no less than 14 David Cohen’s at one time.
@SFAW:
Damn, we done been rolled. No way in hell I was going to search the internets to find out with my morning coffee so, yeah, I took your word for it.
ThresherK
@Germy Shoemangler: W.C. Fields had a guy to run interference?
Here’s something that should warm your heart, then.
(We now return you to your regularly scheduled “Won’t somebody think of the children?”)
PS Can’t talk about surreal without “Million Dollar Legs”, the most Marx Brothers movie they never made.
SFAW
@raven:
Or, as one of the line-readers on the local NPR station said, “the Maddening Crowd.”
Although what that film has to do with a football-based video game, I don’t know.
SFAW
@ThresherK:
Yeah, I think his name was Mahatma Kane Jeeves.
NorthLeft12
A lot of confusion on here regarding the difference between remakes and sequels.
Personally, I can understand remaking/rebooting a classic movie…..isn’t that what they do at Stratford [Ontario and England] every year with Shakespeare?
Funny story I was told buying tickets for “Much ado about Nothing” at Stratford, England. My wife and I mentioned to the seller that we were from Canada and have been to Stratford, Ontario numerous times so we were pretty excited to be in the original Stratford. She told us about a family who showed up with tickets to see a play that was not currently in production. The date and time was right but the venue was actually Stratford, Ontario. The family had bought the tickets on line not realizing they were ordering from the “wrong” Stratford. OUCH!
SFAW
@NorthLeft12:
Prolly Connecticut too
NorthLeft12
@Germy Shoemangler: I saw the original Poltergeist when it first came out. The effects were considered state of the art and over the top at the time. Not sure how the new one can be more “action” than the original.
Still one of the best times I have ever had at a movie theatre. The crowd was laughing, screaming, and having a great time.
BobS
@NorthLeft12: Ashland, Oregon is top-notch, and Jackson, Michigan is surprisingly good.
Kay
The Peterson Institute is the think tank they’re all relying on for the “benefits of trade deal analysis”.
So this is awkward from one of their economists:
Also, the TPP “isn’t about American jobs”. But they all knew that.
Now that Ezra Klein has blessed these concerns about “getting around local regulations” as legitimate, maybe Congress could actually debate them, instead of rubber stamping this thing.
OzarkHillbilly
@BobS:
No way. Robert Mitchum is magnificent, with his looming, silent, terrifying presence, always where you least expect him and when he speaks…. Fear is only the beginning.
Germy Shoemangler
@ThresherK: Chaplin beat Fields to it, as far as kicking children.
“Million Dollar Legs” reminds me of “Duck Soup” – there was a time in the 1930s when some truly mad, surreal stuff was released. The studios kept their hands off, and crazy new york writers ruled the day. It didn’t last long. Pretty soon the studio heads thought they knew best. Look what they did to Buster Keaton.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: The remake was great too. So was True Grit!
Frankensteinbeck
This story is real? Criminy buckets.
Women can’t even have speaking roles now? Criminy BUCKETS.
Pretty sure I recall Tina Turner doing no shortage of that.
If they so much as exist, this is not feminist propaganda. Actually, MRA philosophy semi-overtly declares that sex slaves are the correct role for women, so maybe portraying this as a bad thing is what upsets them.
@PaulW:
I wish you were right. I so wish you were right. Unfortunately, Hollywood doesn’t want to make a Wonder Woman because they lean towards agreeing with these assholes. The top level producers who run the studios have said time and again that they don’t believe there’s a market for strong roles for women, and definitely not female leads, in action movies. Whenever someone bucks this trend and a female-oriented action movie (or comic, or TV show…) succeeds, they pretend this is a fluke. The pushback against a Wonder Woman movie, or female leads in Marvel movies, is because of the bigotry of the men in charge and nothing else.
ThresherK
@Another Holocene Human: Now we’re falling into my belief that almost anything made in French suffers in translation to (American) English. That may be the exception which proves the rule.
The song “My Way”? The French original’s title translates to “As Usual”, and it’s a rueful number about an impending breakup. I have no idea what made Paul Anka choose the lyric theme he did, but it’s always been one of my least favorite Sinatra signatures.
BobS
@OzarkHillbilly: Mitchum is one of my favorite — maybe my most favorite — actors, and he’s fantastic in the original, but Scorcese and De Niro (as well as Juliette Lewis) nail it in the remake.
Germy Shoemangler
@ThresherK:
Susan Fleming is in “Million Dollar Legs.” She later married Harpo Marx, and they adopted a bunch of children.
Somebody asked Harpo why he had so many kids. Harpo replied “When I leave the house in the morning, I want to see a child in every window waving goodbye”
ThresherK
@Germy Shoemangler: No fair! That was The Little Tramp having to pretend as a man of the cloth.
Besides, there is a lovability to The Little Tramp which would let him get away with things unthinkable to movie characters today. Like being a vagrant without money, filching food, sleeping in flophouses, and spending stints in jail as a normal thing to happen to poor white people whom policemen just don’t like.
BobS
@BobS: By the way, running a strong third is the “Cape Feare” episode from one of the early seasons of The Simpsons.
SFAW
@ThresherK:
No shit. Today, he’d get shot in the back, movie over, end of story.
Oh, wait, he was white.
Never mind.
Woodrowfan
to paraphrase I comment I saw elsewhere. “I’d call him a p***y, but he lacks the warmth and depth.”
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: The remake of Cape Fear was worthwhile and good in it’s own way, just not in any way, shape, or form, better. DeNiro brought his own inimitable style to the role, but still… Robert Mitchum. True Grit on the other hand was a waste of the immense talents that were brought together for it. I had never looked forward to a movie more and was never so disappointed. The girl (forget her name) was good and a vast improvement over Kim Darby, but everyone else was just flat. As far as I was concerned, a big swing and a bigger miss. So very rare with the Coen brothers.
Germy Shoemangler
@NorthLeft12: I saw the original Poltergeist when it first arrived in theaters (1981? I think?) I liked it a lot.
I recently saw the trailer for the remake, and it just seemed they were out to top the special effects of the old one. Maybe it’s just the trailer. They usually use the most dramatic parts.
WereBear
@BobS: Nope. The original Cape Fear is The One.
And, to me, it was one script tweak that ruined it.
In the original, Gregory Peck’s lawyer (of course!) had done a good job and put a monster away. The monster was pissed about it.
In the remake, Nick Nolte’s lawyer had done something unethical. (And kept doing it.) The monster had a legitimate grievance. It becomes a different movie.
Which is why the original lives in its own special place. It digs down into the deepest part of the brain where we can’t even articulate how scary something is.
The remake was about lots of other things; the influence of corrupt thinking, the way lives go downhill, and so forth. And it was good, don’t get me wrong.
But it really was a different movie.
OzarkHillbilly
@BobS: Oh dog…. We could talk Mitchum movies for hours.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: All of that said, it is just about time to re-watch the 2nd TG, and 2nd CF. When people of such immense talents don’t make it work on my first watching, they deserve a 2nd chance. Which I am quite sure they are all waiting for with bated breath.
Germy Shoemangler
@Another Holocene Human:
Weren’t they holding rallies at Madison Square Garden back in the ’30s?
Orson had guts.
JGabriel
@Schlemazel:
Lord of the Rings. The Peter Jackson version was infinitely better than the animated versions put out by Ralph Bakshi and Hanna-Barbera in, respectively, 1978 and 1980.
lou
@PurpleGirl: Apparently Neil Rosen hadn’t seen the first three movies. Road Warrior, I think, had maybe 14 lines, and only two of them uttered by Mel Gibson. And this movie, like the others, was done by George Miller. He distrusts dialogue.
And I love the MRA thing about American culture. Um, the original Mad Max was so Australian, they actually *dubbed* it because the accents were too thick for American ears. Only one American actor has shown up in a Mad Max movie – the great Tina Turner.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
I protest! The Coen Brothers’ version left John Wayne in the dust! And the music was far, far better.
PurpleGirl
@Marmot: Why sheesh? That is what I remember. My date was the one who had the Mad Max disk and he wanted to play it. He liked action movies.
And about the Neil Rosen review: Isn’t he entitled to his view of things? Does he have to follow Rotten Tomatoes. That’s what he thought of the movie. I’m just reporting womething that I heard as I was starting to read the thread.
WereBear
@PurpleGirl: I’m a woman who likes action movies. Let them writhe because such as me exists!
PurpleGirl
@NorthLeft12: The Soviet Union or Russia claiming to have discovered or invented everything was a running joke on the original Star Trek with Chekov usually adding that to discussions.
JGabriel
@JGabriel: … Hanna-Barbera …
Oops. That should be Rankin/Bass.
SFAW
@PurpleGirl:
Or, regarding the Bard:
BobS
@OzarkHillbilly: One of my earliest memories of movies — drive-in with my parents, maybe? — is Heaven Knows, Mr.Allison (my grandma and my dad used to sing me Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree — it was only years later I realized it was a popular song long before that movie)[email protected]OzarkHillbilly: I’m needing to watch originals and remakes of quite a few of the films mentioned.
PurpleGirl
@WereBear: I have liked some action movies. But the point of that comment was that we were at my date’s home and he picked the movie from the disks he had.
WereBear
I remember thinking assless chaps were a poor choice in such a rowdy environment.
FlipYrWhig
I can’t believe this remake would damage such a fundamental piece of American cinematic culture as Mad Max. Who’s the next American icon on the bonfire, James Bond? Hello Kitty? When will the madness stop?
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: To a straight woman, Theron talking a lot and acting tough sounds great. She’s a great actress.
SFAW
@Another Holocene Human:
Sorry, not my intent. It hadn’t occurred to me that it was too inside-baseball-y. Plus, I thought everyone here was aware of all Internet traditions. Also, too?
SFAW
@FlipYrWhig:
You forgot
PolandMr. HulotDr. Gregory House!boatboy_srq
@pluky: I have visions here of the rumours that Jane Fonda was pushing a US version of Mujeres al Bord de un Ataque De Nervios back in the early 90s. And I remember what a trainwreck the remake of The Women was, even though Ryan, Pinkett-Smith and Cruz just rocked in their roles. Hollywood just canNOT manage to imagine something happening outside the continental 48 for some reason – and then I remember the scriptwriting scene from SoapDish and I realize that making video (film, TV, whatever) in the US is an exercise performed by
monkeysproducers.J
@Mustang Bobby: Schlemazal and MB. I’m a little younger (Eisenhower was on the way out when I was born), and I’m mostly with you, but if I’ve got the story right, the best Prisoner of Zenda, the one with Ronald Coleman, is a remake (though Hollywood did it again, much less well, even though with James Mason), and the great A Star is born, with Judy Garland and James Mason, is at least the second, though Hollywood did it again with Kris Kristofferson and Barbra Streisand. So maybe the lesson is not never to remake a film, but to know when to stop. (Many people like Leo McCarey’s remake of of his own film, Love Affair, with Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne, as An affair to remember, with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, but I think the earlier film is by far the better one.
boatboy_srq
@Patricia Kayden: I’m neither of those, and it still sounds great.
NorthLeft12
@PurpleGirl: I think you are a little confused about the Mad Max movies. From your comment I believe you have actually only seen the second [The Road Warrior] and third [Beyond Thunderdome] movies and missed the initial Mad Max movie released in 1979.
The first Mad Max movie was very low budget, but still exciting. It described the onset of chaos, [there still seemed to be a functioning central government and justice system in this film] which is full blown in the next two movies. It is worth a watch if only just to define Max’s motivation/mind set.
NorthLeft12
BTW, I just watched the Road Warrior last night…..for about the fiftieth time. Still an exciting and interesting flick.
I assume the airwaves are being flooded with old Mad Max movies in concert with the release of Fury Road, right?
I’ll keep an eye out for Beyond Thunderdome as I have only seen that a couple of times. I’m sure it will be cycled through too.
Does anyone know if the studios that produce sequels, control, encourage, or pay the TV networks to show the previous chapters? Or is that just smart programming by the networks?
BobS
@NorthLeft12: I did too, on Spike, which chopped the movie into about 10 minute segments followed by about 10 minutes of commercials — I wouldn’t have been able to watch it without the DVR (I think Mad Max 2 is far and away the best of the franchise). At the same time, one of the Encore channels was showing Mad Max.
J
@JGabriel: I’m in a tiny minority, but I think the Bakshi was better! I mention this not to convince anyone, but to show that even about the Lord of the Rings there can be disagreement and to make a distinction between two kinds of remakes, one of which is defensible, the other even worse then those mentioned above.
When sound came, Hollywood remade a lot of films, and the sound versions were often very good. I’ve never seen Lon Chaney as the silent Hunchback of Notre Dame (no doubt great), but I was taken when young to see the Charles Laughton version, which made a deep and lasting impression.
Hollywood bizarrely remakes small distinctive and–in a modest way–successful films from abroad. Surely everything that made the Vanishing and the Wicker Man (though I didn’t see the Hollywood remakes) was lost in the transition?
dan
@PurpleGirl: Neil Rosen is entitled to his view of things. As are you. But since that review is so contradictory to the vast majority of movie critics, it is essentially irrelevant. Like climate deniers.
BobS
@J: Regarding those remakes: The Vanishing was watchable. Wicker Man was horrible.
Germy Shoemangler
Message from the Toecutter:
“Don’t talk and turn off your f***ing cellphone!”
Steeplejack
@OzarkHillbilly:
Out of the Past. Best film noir ever.
brent
@dan: LOL. Well I wouldn’t go so far as to say its irrelevant. Rosen’s opinion is perfectly relevant, after all, to those who share his sensibilities around what makes a good movie. An opinion is always relevant to those who hold it and those who agree with it after all (I know that you know this and that I am stating the obvious. I blame boredom,).
Germy Shoemangler
Upcoming Simpsons couch gag (for the final show of the season) has them destroyed and then badly reconstituted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ecYoSvGO60
Steeplejack
@J:
The Hollywood remake of The Vanishing was exponentially worse because it had the same director—George Sluizer! The mind boggles to think what combination of seductive Hollywooden lies and sacks of money induced him to go along with the dreadful remake.
The original Dutch movie (1988) is creepy great, by the way, for anyone who hasn’t seen it.
Steeplejack
Speaking of remakes, at 2:00 a.m. EDT tonight TCM will be showing Throne of Blood (1957), Akira Kurosawa’s samurai reworking of Macbeth. Excellent! And it’s followed at 4:00 by Yojimbo (1961), another Kurosawa samurai movie that was the basis for A Fistful of Dollars.
J
@Steeplejack: I’d forgotten, if I ever knew, that. Remakes by a director of his own films is a special category, Hitchcock’s second version of the Man who knew too much, for instance, adorned, if that’s the right word, with Doris Day singing Que sera sera. Agree with you about original Vanishing–terrific.
SFAW
@Steeplejack:
And which itself was based on Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett.
ETA: I still think the best line from Yojimbo is “It’ll hurt.”
MaryRC
@Warren Terra: Has this guy never seen Mad Max: Road Warrior? The lead gunner for the good guys is a woman, known simply as the Warrior Woman. And you’re right, Max is a passive figure in the 2nd and 3rd movies, who gets beaten up by the bad guys and made a pawn of by the good guys. In the first one he was more of a vigilante figure motivated by revenge but in the latter ones, he was just trying to survive.
I don’t know — Pitch Perfect 2 is still my first movie choice this weekend but maybe we’ll take a look at this one too.
MaryRC
@ThresherK: Apparently it’s not a remake of the first Mad Max film … like the second and third films, it’s a continuation of Max’s adventures, so it’s an original storyline. At least, as original as you can get when it’s mostly explosions (I’m not saying that’s a bad thing).
Ajabu
I’m just grateful that nobody has attempted a remake of Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro).
One of the greatest films of all time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Orpheus
Interesting trivia: Both stars, Breno Mello and Marpessa Dawn, died 42 days apart in 2008.
Also, Marpessa Dawn (who was an American born in Pittburgh) was Quincy Jones’ girlfriend when she went to Brazil to make the film.
I first saw the film (as a youngster) in 1960 and was blown away. For the next 8 years I took every date I cared about to see that film. It was playing continually at art houses.
Most importantly (to me), the music from that movie profoundly influenced my career and I still play most of it to this day.
Mayur
Fury Road looked awesome to me back when it was just leaked details about the production. A movie described by its director as “basically one extended car chase” and with the economy of script and cinematographic style promised seemed like it would be worth watching, if nothing else. It is amusing to see how the art-house critics are rushing to heap accolades on it now.
Re Wonder Woman: while I’m sure that Hollywood in general (like Wall Street, Silicon Valley, the Federal Government, etc) trends sexist, to me the critical problem is DC’s approach to its properties, which can only be described as “bad.” Im sure Marvel will be greenlighting a solo female superhero film pretty soon, for instance.
CONGRATULATIONS!
stop stop stop
AMERICAN CULTURE?
just stop right there. Not one goddamn thing in that film is American.
BobS
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Elvis Presley’s granddaughter is.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Warren Terra: I really miss that version of Mel. He was really as good as his hype for quite some time. I don’t normally get that affected by scenes in movies, but the scene in Lethal Weapon where he’s at home alone and jams a revolver in his mouth and is about to shoot himself makes me stop breathing until it’s over. So well done.
Then something went to shit. I think it does for most people at some point in their lives, but his was very public and not at all nice. I don’t think his money helped matters any.
opiejeanne
@OzarkHillbilly: Have you read the book, True Grit? The Coen brothers nailed it.
Origuy
I saw the remake of Carrie, because I was with a friend who likes scary movies. Don’t. Just don’t.
J
@CONGRATULATIONS!: I miss that one too. Shock of discovering what the real MG was like almost equal to that of discovering what the real Bill Cosby was like (and I speak as a child of the sixties and seventies who knew Cosby through the LPs, reruns of I spy, the first Bill Cosby show in which he’s a basketball coach–the idea that that Bill Cosby would turn out to be a supreme cad and bounder would have been inconceivable, but alas…
BobS
@J: Really, “cad and bounder”? Jesus, he didn’t use their credit cards to buy jewelry for other women, he’s a fucking serial rapist.
Visceral
@Fred:
In MRA world, no rational and self-respecting man would risk life and limb for the sake of a woman. Stick with your buddies, work hard to develop your own masculinity, and if you want a hole that badly, there are plenty more to pick from. It will be easy if you’re a manly man belonging to a strong pack of manly men, very hard if you’re a lonely “nice guy” (that women secretly don’t respect at all, but instead only use), and impossible if you’re ruined socially or financially … or dead.
JustRuss
@WereBear:
But that’s what makes the movie. The ethical thing for Nolte’s character would have been to attack the rape victim to allow her rapist to get off scott-free. He couldn’t bring himself to do it. That conflict between ethics and morals still haunts me, what would I do if I were in Nolte’s shoes?
I confess I haven’t seen the original, and probably would enjoy the movie without that moral conflict. But I don’t think the script-tweak ruined it, it just made it a very different, and in some ways more interesting movie. I prefer remakes that don’t slavishly follow the original, otherwise why bother?
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Keith G: He’s also wrong in that we subsidize oil and gas extraction to the tune of about $7 billion per year. Amtrak gets about $1 billion per year.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@pluky: @NorthLeft12: Yes, it’s wholly a product of Australian culture. The first one was basically an Australian independent film shot on a shoestring. When that was a hit they may have gotten some major American studio backing but they were still Australian films. Fury Road was apparently filmed in Namibia, South Africa, and Australia – written and directed by an Australian, so not American.
tones
@Ajabu: the Samba is so good in that one and the carnival scenes are just wonderful.
I have it on VHS, DVD, Bluray…
Jebediah, RBG
@WereBear:
They’re just chaps. If they weren’t assless, they would just be trousers.
Sorry – it’s about the only nit I can’t stop myself from picking.
terben
@lou: And Mel Gibson.