Jump to content

The Original Greaser Bob

Certifiably Surly
  • Posts

    1,951
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by The Original Greaser Bob

  1. 2 hours ago, hookemATL said:

    The Untouchables. Been ages since I’d seen it, and I enjoyed the rewatch. Could have done with more of DeNiro as Capone, and I fucking love the absurdity of Sean Connery as a Chitown beat cop that just punches people in the face. 

    You kids dig comic book movies.   Anyone whose actions are controlled, to some degree, by gravity, I find very credible.

  2. 34 minutes ago, PittsburghTiger said:

    I saw a bit of Metropolitan. I tried twice but, couldn't watch the whole thing. I thought it was dreadful. I think what I saw was worse that Last Days of Disco.

    Yep, if you don't buy into the stylized, "untrue" dialogue, it's all over for any of these movies.  I kinda liked the "real" and goofy motivations of the young characters, once you got past all the weird mannerisms, but I guess I had a high tolerance for suffering through the characters' words and actions.

    The last scene, credits of Last Days of Disco encapsulates all of this.  It is dreadful, but given all the shit you've just watched, and what disco means to some people, it's a perfect ending IF you've bought into the whole premise. (Very well could be an age thing too, because I've always thought disco was fucking awesome.)

     

    • Hook 'Em 1
  3. On 4/11/2018 at 10:22 AM, BigBenBamboozle said:

    The third act is just one inversion after another: bad guy gets away, wife gets killed, hero leaves wife out of greed, sheriff figure doesn't catch bad guy.

    Plus two instances of boot product placement. 

  4. Boy I really loved The Tender Bar, although deep down it was way too cute.

    Made me feel REALLY old.  Party because I grew up with all of that music, and partly because that was exactly my college era, with a three person dorm room and no computers unless you went to the computer center.

    There once was a time when coming of age movies were about planning.  Now they are about reminiscing, and avoiding regret.  Gather your damn rosebuds.

    Although that was the wrong college ride.

      8602.jpg

  5. 6 hours ago, The Original Greaser Bob said:

    In the VHS of Metropolitan that I first saw, it was released with a short film called something like "The Importance of Being Frank", which was really great.  Can't find it anywhere online.

    I guess I was more open minded in my youth.  This is still pretty good, and interesting that it is Greg Mattola's (Adventurland/Superbad) first short film.

     

  6. 1 hour ago, Kennythetiger said:

    Why?

    Shitty, depressing, deflating story that the acting and photography couldn't overcome (Re:  The Lighthouse).

    Sometimes when the photography is so good you can smell the land or the people or the food.  This was that good, but the smells were rotten fish, urine and halitosis.

    Kept wanting his twin brother to be dropped off by helicopter to save the day.

    dc14649af6f9bc2d8cb5914a2d9c4f5ec92e2841

    • Like 1
  7. 6 hours ago, PittsburghTiger said:

    I felt the same way watching this as I did when I read The Great Gatsby. I hated everyone. There was only one somewhat sympathetic character and that was the one played by the Chloe gal. Everyone else needed punched.

    Really bought into Metropolitan, Last Days of Disco and Barcelona - Whit Stillman's first three features.  I think the issue is more about the way the director portrays folks and the fact that they are over the top preppies.  I hated all these folks until I really liked all of them.  If memory serves, Last Days did have the least accessible characters.   My wife couldn't deal with the mannered dialogue of the flicks but I loved them.  The trio are pretty unique.  They remind me a bit of the first couple of Hal Hartley flicks with their mannered dialogue. 

    In the VHS of Metropolitan that I first saw, it was released with a short film called something like "The Importance of Being Frank", which was really great.  Can't find it anywhere online.

  8. Hey guys, any advice on Kindles and eye health/strain?  I'm on the laptop so much that I tend to like to get away from screens when reading outside of work, but I've got some more difficulty in finding the right light for comfortable reading as I get older -- I'm wondering if an ereader makes sense.  And if so, which are the kindest to your eyes.

  9.  A Hero (2021)  (Not to be confused with Summer Lovers.)

    I really like this guy's plodding movies, because I really have trouble keeping up with the Iranian characters motivations, which creates some interesting mystery and conflicts.  I had a bit more trouble with this than I have Farhadi's previous movies back to "A Separation", because the lead character was just a bit too inscrutable. 

    But quality if you can handle the pace..

    220117_r39714.jpg

    • Like 1
  10. The Man in the White Suit (1951)

    Another Ealing studio flick directed by Alexander Mackendrick and staring Alec Guinness, who looked old even when he was young.  Very odd slice of history, I liked it but so very British.

    the-man-in-the-white-suit.gif

    Following a common Ealing Studios theme of the "common man" against the Establishment, satirises interplay of innovator (our hero), against entrenched interests -- trade unions and wealthy mill owners. Fearing loss of income, via reduced need for their labour on the one hand, and resources on the other, that would predictably result from his revolutionary new (white) textile, they conspire his downfall.[3]

  11. On 1/30/2022 at 10:30 AM, Dewey said:

    Manchester,  I kept waiting for this moment of something good/great, but they just drag you into depression then roll credits.

    You mean something great like a time continuum portal or everyone moving to Kauai or Ben Affleck, his rich brother from Boston, showing up to save the day?

    If you want something lighter that's actually more terrific than Manchester you could go with You Can Count on Me.  Matthew Broderick has some laugh out loud moments that you would appreciate and it kinda ends well.

    Manchester by the Sea if fucking awesome, but I admit, I did see it on a double billing with Ted.

  12. 3 episodes so far.  Don't know  anything about autism.  

    The show has a vibe of a long Modern Romance episode, and that's got some drawbacks, but I've decided to just surrender to it and I'm really getting into it.  Pretty emotional stuff.

    Agree that the acting is just out of the park.  Sosie Bacon is a certain kind of archtype earnest co-ed.

    Caveat:  Reason I watched this was I was scanning this forum and I saw "How We See It (Prime Series About Austin".  Didn't quite figure out we were in CA until the second or third episode.  Thought to myself, "why have they imported so many palm trees to Austin..."

    • Hook 'Em 1
    • Like 1
  13. The Accommodation by Jim Shutze (originally published 1987).  

    Very good history of Dallas race relations in the 50s and 60s.  I would have liked less editorializing and more back story on the Dallas players, but it was pretty fascinating stuff.

    51VXQQnqkAL._SX340_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

    • Like 1
  14. 3 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

    What about our performance thus far gives you any basis for optimism?

    the performance -- not much.  The basis for optimism if that we've created effective vaccines, and the folks who were all about mandates and closing schools (covidians) hopefully will be able to look back and identify the mistakes they made so that they aren't repeated.  I don't really have any hope for the covidiots, but one out of two isn't bad. 

  15. 9 hours ago, Brisketexan said:


    He casually dismisses the two greatest flaws in his analysis (and in the process, states something that is observably false).

    1 - the fact that there is an impact on the rest of us by the unvaxxed in taking up and wearing down healthcare resources.

    2 - his false statement about very effective treatments.

    As to 1, he just resorts to the lazy “what about” fallacy of saying “fat people and smokers and such also take up healthcare resources.” He ignores two huge distinctions. First, they don’t take up resources in huge waves. All the smokers don’t get sick at once. If COVID patients were spread out over time (yeah, the old flatten the curve concept), they wouldn’t overwhelm our resources. That’s a huge difference between a transmissible illness and a chronic condition - their distribution curve over time. Second, if we could prevent smokers from ending up in the hospital with a path that included a) generally continue your normal behavior, but b) get a couple of quick, safe shots, we would surely do so. Shit, it would probably be a requirement before you could buy cigarettes - get the safe tobacco consumption shot.

    2 - it’s false to say that we have very effective therapies. 2,000+ people don’t die every day of an illness that has “very effective therapies.” Do we have therapies now that are more effective than at the beginning of the pandemic? Yes, absolutely. And maybe without those, we’d be seeing 3,000 dead per day. But we’re still seeing 2,000 dead per day. That’s a super shitty result.

    I remain torn, slightly, on vaccine mandates based on the current state of the virus. All of that said, I think that if we have a serious, deadly illness (COVID, lung cancer, heart disease, it doesn’t matter) that can be functionally eliminated as a serious illness by a low cost, low effort, low risk mechanism like a couple of shots, there is no excuse not to take that measure. And society shouldn’t bear the cost of your idiotic refusal. So, either get the shots, or stay the fuck out of our hospitals. Oh, and don’t expect society to pick up the extra cost of caring for the family you left behind without a breadwinner (I’m actually not serious about that one, as that would be counterproductive for all of us, so it’s not even a cost we can avoid).

    The article says he is pro vaccine, and you've indicated that you are torn on mandates, so I'm not seeing your reasoning for having a particular beef with this.

    The issue Attia seems to be pushing is that it is appearing that natural immunity is arguably more effective at protecting oneself and arguably others than the vaccine.  If that is the case, why are we pushing the vaccine on otherwise healthy folks who have had COVID19 especially if recently?  

    In addition, the question is whether we would have had as many people vaccinated or had even more vaccinated had we stayed away from even discussing mandates, rather, if we shifted the message of the importance of the vaccine away from government officials and towards simple public service announcements.

    Bottom line is that once we had vaccines, that changed everything, because at that point each person had control over whether they would protect themselves.  The best way to protect the vulnerable, might have been, and might well be in the future, more effective without discussions of government imposed mandates.

    • Hook 'Em 1
×
×
  • Create New...