Big W!

Jimmy Durante - he had a million of 'em.
Well, 350,000 of 'em anyway...
🤣

Quote from: Unbeliever on August 08, 2023, 08:01:18 PMI just watched a mad mad mad mad madcap movie on YouTube called It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World!
I'd never seen it before, and I had loads of fun watching it!

🤣

Saw that movie in the early 60's on a (then) huge screen.  It was called cinerama I think and it was supposed to revolutionize movies.  That movie was okay--had a few laughs and the effect was sort of like old 3D without the glasses.  I really don't remember much about it. 

Yeah, that gas station scene was maybe the funniest in the whole movie! 🤣

The funniest scene for me was when Jim Backus wakes up in the dark thinking he's gone blind screaming, "I can't see!  I can't see!" Someone opens the blinds and he is overcome with agony by the blinding light.  Of course, it's a sight gag, so you had to be there.

Quote from: Unbeliever on August 09, 2023, 12:39:05 AMYeah, that gas station scene was maybe the funniest in the whole movie! 🤣

"This is a little girl's bike."

So I'm watching Rodan AKA 'Giant Monster of the Sky Radon' with subtitles. I'm 30 mins in and so far, no Rodan. Just a giant bug and miners who hate each other.

Quote from: the_antithesis on August 13, 2023, 08:36:43 PMSo I'm watching Rodan AKA 'Giant Monster of the Sky Radon' with subtitles. I'm 30 mins in and so far, no Rodan. Just a giant bug and miners who hate each other.

They were still working the whole kaiju thing.  Remember, it wasn't until they sent the scientist to Odo Island that we saw Gojira, and then only a head-and-shoulders shot.

It's different because Gojira was building up to Gojira. Gojira would wreck something or sink a boat or whatever. We didn't get to see him, but the mystery of what was doing this shit was all heading to Gojira.

Rodan, OTOH builds up to to these giant bugs and then when Rodan shows up is like, oh and also Rodan is here.

Weirdly, it kind of reminds me of the 2014 Godzilla movie that had these uninteresting monsters wrecking shit and then suddenly: and also Godzilla, I guess. I suppose that's interesting. I might have had a better time with G2014 if I had seen Rodan and made this connection.

I saw a Jack Black movie today called Nacho Libre. It was really funny and I had a good time watching it, though I care little about wrestling.

That's about Mexican wrestling, which is the real sport.

Yeah, I was once slightly interested in wrestling, a couple of decades ago. The luchadors were fun to watch because of their acrobatics.

Disney has been going through a rough patch lately:


Essentially, Disney has been trying to become the King of Streaming and this has required a TON of content generation.  But they own a ton of beloved franchises, so it's no biggie to pump out a couple new releases, right?  Sadly, they under-performed, which wouldn't be that bad, but they under-performed with huge budgets.

My mental picture of a Disney exec trying to explain the quarterly profit charts:


I'm exaggerating of course, it's not *that* bad.  In fact, Disney's still leading the pack, and of the top 20 grossing movies lately, the House of Mouse owns 5 of them.

I haven't crunched the numbers, but I feel like that's much less than previous.  *pause*  Okay, I've crunched the numbers.  The market share went down from a peak, but man, that was a high AF peak.  It really looked like Disney was going to conquer the planet in 2019.  I guess every sales blitz has its Endgame, so to speak.

But the Marvel franchise definitely hit a bit of a slump since 2019, and its latest slew of TV shows and movies hasn't quite captured audiences like it used to.  Personally, I liked quite a lot of it - Wandavision was great, Loki is basically Doctor Who but better imo (don't @ me), Wakanda Forever was amazing, I loved Moon Knight, I liked Multiverse of Madness, Black Widow was good, Quantumania was fascinating but somewhat disappointing - though I admit to not even watching quite a few of the releases.  Marvel definitely had a lot more missable content in phase 4.

Star Wars has been going completely nuts lately, with seemingly everyone and their clone getting their own TV show.  Personally, my tastes are the complete inverse of MatPat - I really liked Obi Wan and Book of Boba Fett and the Mandalorian and I thought Andor was a real snoozefest.  If you disagree, I dare you to watch the first three episodes of each series and while you're watching, write down on a sheet of paper what happens and how it made you feel.  Aint no way Andor tops Mando or Boba Fett.  Maybe Obi Wan, because that kinda hinges on how you feel about young Leia.  Personally, I think she was fine.  And I haven't even talked about Bad Dad Batch.  It's a crying shame animation isn't taken as seriously as live action, because that show has a lot of heart.  Not every episode is a masterpiece, but it is damn good overall.

Is Star Wars tanking?  I'm not sure.  I think it definitely hit a slump with Solo and the Sequel movies and the shows appear to be allowing it to crawl out of the hole it dug for itself.  Is it diluting its brand by putting out far too many shows too quickly?  Maybe.

Imho, MatPat is hitting on a good idea to sandwich the experimental, risky releases in between much less risky sure-bet releases.  You don't want a series of flops to stain your reputation.  Amirite, DC?

Quote from: Hydra009 on August 13, 2023, 09:45:54 PMDisney has been going through a rough patch lately:

Essentially, Disney has been trying to become the King of Streaming and this has required a TON of content generation.  But they own a ton of beloved franchises, so it's no biggie to pump out a couple new releases, right?  Sadly, they under-performed, which wouldn't be that bad, but they under-performed with huge budgets.

Netflix is the King of Streaming, but even at that, Netflix produces a lot of so-so content on it's own, with just a couple that were overwhelmingly good, so if Disney is to become King, it's going to need better something; storytellers, I think, and storytellers that specialize in their areas of expertise.  Disney was supreme in what it originally did. I'm not saying they should stick with that one thing, and maybe that original content is not as important as it once was. But I have an impression that they are too far out of their comfort zone and unable to find their footing.

Quote from: Hydra009 on August 13, 2023, 09:45:54 PMBut the Marvel franchise definitely hit a bit of a slump since 2019, and its latest slew of TV shows and movies hasn't quite captured audiences like it used to.  Personally, I liked quite a lot of it - Wandavision was great, Loki is basically Doctor Who but better imo (don't @ me), Wakanda Forever was amazing, I loved Moon Knight, I liked Multiverse of Madness, Black Widow was good, Quantumania was fascinating but somewhat disappointing - though I admit to not even watching quite a few of the releases.  Marvel definitely had a lot more missable content in phase 4.

I've been a big Marvel fan too. In my lifetime, I can't remember a franchise that's dominated the big screen and captured the hearts of movie goers to that extreme. But your post 2019 favorites have disappointed me in a big way. With the exception of Wanda Vision, which captured my attention with a fresh premise.

I still ponder whether Disney wrecked Marvel, or if Marvel had just run it's course. Phase I was still peaking at it's finish, even though it underutilized Captain Marvel, who was the most exciting character that came along since Iron Man.  She saved the day in the last 10 minutes of Endgame, and then she disappeared as if some producer decided she wasn't Marvel material.

But I did wonder in the late stages of Phase I if Marvel could keep up such a phenomenal run. Everything runs it' course after years, but doesn't flop so embarrassingly at the end.

Quote from: Hydra009 on August 13, 2023, 09:45:54 PMIs Star Wars tanking?  I'm not sure.

I can't say anything about Star Wars. I never found it interesting, except for the first movie.

We need to get through the writer's strike too. I'm not sure though.  Is there a bunch of unused creativity lurking there?

Finally watched dune.
Loved it.

It was fun to see in many ways how it kept to the original book, yet how different it was in my mind.