The Film Thread

[sne]

The Running Man on the telly.

Perfect Sunday movie  

Edited December 2, 2018 by sne

[Mark Albrighton]

37 minutes ago, sne said:

The Running Man on the telly.

Perfect Sunday movie  

It’s a lot of fun, one of my favourite Arnie films, but having watched it recently I realised a huge amount of my enjoyment is pretty much down to Richard Dawson’s brilliant panto villain.

I’d be curious if they ever remade it and focussed more on the “how far will tv go?” aspect of it (which I guess the book might be?) rather than the let’s see Arnie team up with Mick Fleetwood side to it.

Edited December 2, 2018 by Shropshire Lad

[sne]

5 minutes ago, Shropshire Lad said:

It’s a lot of fun, one of my favourite Arnie films, but having watched it recently I realised a huge amount of my enjoyment is pretty much down to Richard Dawson’s brilliant panto villain.

I’d be curious if they ever remade it and focused more on the “how far will tv go?” aspect of it (which I guess the book might be?) rather than the let’s see Arnie team up with Mick Fleetwood side to it.

Actually listened to a podcast yesterday that touched on that subject (but from a Battle Royale / Hunger Games starting point)

It's interesting indeed.

Even thou the Russian show Game2: Winter was cancelled I still feel Russia is where it will start if something like that is coming anytime soon.

But I bet Trump and his ilk would just love produce a show with convicted prisoners battled for some reward.

Quite a few successful dystopian movies and tv series atm so a remake not that unlikely.

[AJ]

1 hour ago, sne said:

Actually listened to a podcast yesterday that touched on that subject (but from a Battle Royale / Hunger Games starting point)

It's interesting indeed.

Even thou the Russian show Game2: Winter was cancelled I still feel Russia is where it will start if something like that is coming anytime soon.

But I bet Trump and his ilk would just love produce a show with convicted prisoners battled for some reward.

Quite a few successful dystopian movies and tv series atm so a remake not that unlikely.

Whenever there is a classic 80s movie remake, an angel loses its wings and has a rectal prolapse.

[sne]

6 minutes ago, AJ said:

Whenever there is a classic 80s movie remake, an angel loses its wings and has a rectal prolapse.

Too true.

The list is countless.

Stephen King seem to be having a lot of his stuff remade nowadays btw

[AJ]

27 minutes ago, sne said:

Too true.

The list is countless.

Stephen King seem to be having a lot of his stuff remade nowadays btw

I have noticed this. It, and more recently Pet Semetary.

I just watched The Shining on TV. Like most of Kubrick's movies, they are timeless, It would be foolish let alone sacrilege to remake this, or A Clockwork Orange, or even to take a punt on a 2101 A Space Odyssey.

They can fill their boots with Eyes Wide Shut though.

[hogso]

9 hours ago, Shropshire Lad said:

I’d be curious if they ever remade it and focussed more on the “how far will tv go?” aspect of it (which I guess the book might be?) 

The novel does that, but probably focuses more on how far people will go. 

The film is also wildly different to the novel, notoriously so (although not as much as The Lawnmower Man, which King sued the production of, as the only similarity really was the name of the story). 

It's more like Hunted than something which takes place in a studio. The background of Richards, the 'assassins' being charactuer killers, and the ending are all way off the source material too. 

Here's a run down of the Running Man game concept in the novel;

Quote

The contestant is declared an enemy of the stateand released with a 12-hour head start before the Hunters, an elite team of Network-employed hitmen, are sent out to kill him. The contestant earns $100 per hour that he stays alive and avoids capture, an additional $100 for each law enforcement officer or Hunter he kills, and a grand prize of $1 billion if he survives for 30 days. Viewers can receive cash rewards for informing the Network of the runner's whereabouts. The runner is given $4,800 and a pocket video camera before he leaves the studio. He can travel anywhere in the world, and each day he must videotape two messages and mail them back to the studio for broadcasting. If he neglects to send the messages, he will be held in default of his Games contract and stop accumulating prize money, but will continue to be hunted indefinitely. 

From the wiki

You might think that makes a good basis for a film, although it would be completely different to the Arnie version. I'd agree. However, it ends with Richards flying a plane in to the tower where the tv execs are based, so a verbatim remake of the novel will almost certainly never happen. 

A big or small screen version of The Long Walk will be far better. In that (also a Bachman book) a group of 100 teenagers must walk, constantly, until only one is left standing, for the nations entertainment on TV. 

Darabont had the rights but they expired - a shame, as he is behind the best King adaptations for me. Newline are working on a film now. 

Edited December 3, 2018 by hogso

[AJ]

One story of King's that could probably do with a remake would be Salems Lot. The original was small screen ( and scared the crap out of me as a kid), but a director worth his chops could probably make this work as a movie.

[rjw63]

On 06/11/2018 at 10:57, Pelle said:

And so, the review that noone was asking or waiting for: Bohemian Rhapsody.

It's full of inaccurassies, like Fat bottomed girls, recorded in '78, being played on a tour in 1975. A tour that really took place in '76 or '77. And more. But of course I loved it anyway. The fact that I saw it for the second time yesterday and considers to watch it again pretty much says it all, I guess. I thought the acting was good, expecially from Malek and Lee. And Hollander. But Gwylim Lee looked and sounded like the real Brian May. So much that I sometimes forgot that it actually wasn't him but an actor. Thw only thing that bothered me a bit was Roger Taylor being made to look like a sulking little boy, which he isn't. He's a very intelligent, funny and fiery man. At least according to those who knew him.

All in all, biased as I am, 10/10. Of course it's not that good, but, you know, it's a film about Queen.

Watched it this weekend. I thought Malek was superb, and I didn't even recognise Mike Myers.

Even if you don't like the music it's a great story although I'm sure Freddie's parties were a tad more pervie.

What I will complain about is the service in the cinema, like being back at Villa Park. No one knows what a bottle of IPA is FFS? And it cost the same for a beer as the cost of the movie. It was the missus' fault, I'd have gone without for two hours, it ain't that difficult

[Mark Albrighton]

I watched “The Blob” for the first time in years last night.

Was there a clause in Steve McQueen’s contract to have the other actors say “Steve” at every available opportunity? To ensure that no one left the theatre in any doubt that this film had Steve McQueen in it?

“Steve, watch out!”

“Now what is this, Steve?”

”Wait a minute Steve.”

“Come on Steve, let’s go look.”

”Steve, tell me what happened.”

“Steve, I wonder where the little dog is.”

”Lieutenant, I want you to know that Steve is not in the habit of telling lies.”

”That’s not true, Steve.”

”Steve you made us waste our 80 cents.”

....and so on.

[snowychap]

10 hours ago, AJ said:

One story of King's that could probably do with a remake would be Salems Lot. The original was small screen ( and scared the crap out of me as a kid), but a director worth his chops could probably make this work as a movie.

I remember that. David Soul and James Mason.

[Designer1]

3 hours ago, snowychap said:

I remember that. David Soul and James Mason.

Yep, it's still pretty damn good now (I rewatch it every couple of years). The scenes with the floating child vampires at the windows were truly the stuff of nightmares and still pretty effective today. I've also always been fond of the sequence involving Geoffrey Lewis (Juliettes dad) and Barney McFadden as they deliver Barlowes coffin. Creepily good 

There's also a version starring Rob Lowe, but it's way inferior to Tobe Hoopers original.

[AJ]

29 minutes ago, Designer1 said:

Yep, it's still pretty damn good now (I rewatch it every couple of years). The scenes with the floating child vampires at the windows were truly the stuff of nightmares and still pretty effective today. I've also always been fond of the sequence involving Geoffrey Lewis (Juliettes dad) and Barney McFadden as they deliver Barlowes coffin. Creepily good 

There's also a version starring Rob Lowe, but it's way inferior to Tobe Hoopers original.

Scratch scratch scratch..

" Danny. Open the window, Danny".

That scene alone freaked me out. I didn't know that Tobe Hooper made it, no wonder it was so good. That guy knows how to scare people.

As for the remake, I had never heard of it, and maybe that is a good thing. I still believe that a talented and ambitious director can turn this story into a decent movie though.

[tonyh29]

Creed 2 tonight .. 

Being another rehash of a Rocky film it won’t hit you with a haymaker in the surprise stakes and  I think I can safely predict the story line for Creed 3 already ... but that said it’s a decent enough movie , little bit slow going at times until the inevitable training montage and climax fight scene ... preferred Creed 1 but 2 isn’t terrible 

 

[Stevo985]

Couple of long haul flights in the past week so got some films in. The selection wasn't great so ended up rewatching some classics (Good Will Hunting and The Martian for example)

The two newish ones I watched were

 

Ready Player One - what an absolute pile of garbage. I enjoyed the book, and the one thing I thought the whole way through was "This will make a brilliant movie". It didn't. I turned it off after about an hour. The book is hardly an intellectual read, but they managed to totally dumb down the movie. The storyline, from the bit I watched, bears only a slight resemblance to the book with a lot of the good stuff just rushed through to make room for more action scenes.
Hated it.

 

Hidden Figures - this was really good. The usual shocking segregation story of the southern US in the 50's and 60's but in a setting I'd never seen it before. Really interesting stuff, and I'd like to do a bit of reading to see how close to the truth it is.

Edited December 5, 2018 by Stevo985

[pooligan]

The Fourth Protocol (1987)

A pretty good spy film starring Michael Caine and Pierce Brosnan 

[Xela]

9 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

Ready Player One - what an absolute pile of garbage. I enjoyed the book, and the one thing I thought the whole way through was "This will make a brilliant movie". It didn't. I turned it off after about an hour. The book is hardly an intellectual read, but they managed to totally dumb down the movie. The storyline, from the bit I watched, bears only a slight resemblance to the book with a lot of the good stuff just rushed through to make room for more action scenes.
Hated it.

I liked it, but then again i've never read the book! 

Funny to see bits of the Jewellery Quarter in the film!

[VILLAMARV]

On 22/11/2018 at 15:47, Paddywhack said:

I think it's fascinating how westerns were so popular for a while and there's a generation of kids who grew up loving them and playing cowboys and indians. To me they were always just long, boring films that my grandparents would watch on a Sunday afternoon.

Seems like a dead genre, but with Westworld and Red Dead Redemption 2 coming out recently too, I want to sit and watch one. Any recommendations? I really don't think I've seen any.

Bit late to the party. Unforgiven and Shane already mentioned. Blazing Saddles too.

Can't recommend 'High Plains Drifter' enough. I love that film.

'Two mules for Sister Sarah' is also a bit of fun. And both often a bit overlooked in the Clint CV after the Leone 'Dollars Trilogy' and 'The Outlaw Josie Wales'

[Stevo985]

1 hour ago, Xela said:

I liked it, but then again i've never read the book! 

Funny to see bits of the Jewellery Quarter in the film!

Don't know if I got far enough in to see the Birmingham bits.

[VILLAMARV]

I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore.

Black Comedy. With a big dollop of what the hell have I just watched on the side.

I liked it. A lot. I suspect I'll be watching this a fair few times.

Directorial debut of Macon Blair, who was in 'Blue Ruin' which I think a fair few of you on here have had good things to say about in the past. I'll be searching it out.