Tuesday
Mar242015
Open Thread
Tuesday, March 24, 2015 at 5:00PM 
Apologies but we're not doing so well at TFE headquarters today (after a particularly nasty bout of insomnia). Nathaniel is an inadvertent zombie and not the beautifully smoky-eyed high-functioning Nicolas Hoult kind.
Talk amongst yourselves. What's on your cinematic mind? Best Shot roundup late tonight -- have you watched Yesterday Today and Tomorrow yet on Netflix? -- and more goodies tomorrow
Reader Comments (24)
The X-Files!
1: Transferring up full data and 10 suggestions for a suggestion of a "video game cutscenes" week of Hit Me With Your Best Shot.
Bayonetta 2 (2h 28m of cutscenes, 10-13h game)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (3h 51m of cutscenes, 16h game)
Silent Hill 2 (2h 3m of cutscenes, 8h game)
Vanquish (1h 3m of cutscenes, 7.5h game)
Saints Row IV (1h 55m of cutscenes, 15h game)
Resident Evil Remake (53m of cutscenes, 9h game)
Hitman: Silent Assassin (38m of cutscenes, 5h game)
The Last of Us (3h 23m of cutscenes, 15-17.5h game)
God of War (23m of cutscenes, 7-10h game)
Killer7 (1h 30m of cutscenes, 13h game)
2: Wondering what JC Chandor is doing if he's not doing Deepwater Horizon.
Anyone else loving Carol Kane, Jane Krakowski, and Ellie Kemper on The Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt?
And already another Macbeth?
Oh, and as I said earlier, you can find most of those on Youtube. I goofed on Killer 7, so count that as an instant DQ until someone puts all the cutscenes of it in one video.
What a coincidence. It's my celebrity boy toy from the last thread!
I'm catching up on my '70s thrillers and just saw Marathon Man for the first time. I couldn't really pay attention to the Dustin Hoffman show after that incredibly bizarre opening where two old men get road rage that puts modern road rage to shame and end up killing each other, almost without bearing to the plot of the rest of MM. Anyone else all WTF about that?
Also: what delicious food will the Avengers chow down on at the end of the Ultron flick? Fingers crossed for dim sum!
RuPaul's Drag Race. Waiting for untucked to see what Pearl has to say for herself.
I want to have dessert with Nicole Kidman and have her dish about Scientology because she knows some shit.
Other than that, I smiled with Volvagia's video game HMWYBS. MGS3: Snake Eater and The Last of Us are so cinematic.
Sorry you're not feeling well today. Insomnia sucks. I was up all night too...but that was insomniac baby induced and not my personal insomnia.
Just watched 70's crime thriller The Outfit. Tight as a drum with testosterone to spare.
I really want Marvel to cast Elizabeth Moss as Captain Marvel & I can't explain why. I know upcoming superhero films is faux pas here but it is what's on my cinematic mind.
Derreck.: Thank you. I was trying to pick 10 that represented a decent cross section of the higher echelon of gaming in terms of ludic genre (2 stealth games, 3 survival horror games, 2 beat em ups (Bayonetta 2, God of War), an open world game, an FPS and Vanquish, which hasn't really been duplicated), traditional genre (2 out and out comedies (Bayonetta 2, Saints Row IV), 1 surrealist game (Killer 7), 1 serious fantasy (God of War), 1 sci-fi (Vanquish), 2 zombie games (Resident Evil Remake, The Last of Us), 1 psych horror game (Silent Hill 2), 1 Hitman game and 1 spy thriller) and level of reliance on cutscenes (lucked out on picking 4 that have less than 90 minutes, 3 that have between 90 minutes and close enough to 2 hours and 3 that are at least close enough to 2.5 hours or more).
Can we just talk about the new Mission Impossible trailer?
I LOVE Tom Cruise. He's my favorite movie star. He always will be. I feel like he's so misunderstood and underrated.
The internet applauds him for doing these brave stunts at 52, as they should.
Meanwhile, Madonna is told that she's too old to doing her thing. What the hell?
The double standards make me sad.
Travis--yes! But disappointed by the last 3 episodes.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is so freakin' boring. Bring back Agent Carter!
And boy, Robert Redford was very good looking in Three Days of the Condor, which I just watched again on Netflix.
It randomly just occured to me that there'd be no "Miranda Priestly" without "Catherine Parker" before her. And what an incredible antecedent that was!
Oops, I misspelled "occurred." And I misspelled "Katherine." Yikes!
P.S. @Pam, I just rewatched Three Days of the Condor on Netflix, too. Redford (and Dunaway) was indeed gorgeous (sideburns notwithstanding) but, my God, was their sex scene awkwardly scripted and choreographed or what?
@James, I watched The Marathon Man for the first time today, too. (It's part of my tier-two '70s thriller binge: The Panic in Needle Park, Serpico, Three Days of the Condor, Marathon Man, The Verdict. Next up: The Conversation.)
I typically love (early) Schlesinger -- Darling (1965) is one of my all-time favorites -- but that opening number was indeed flummoxing. Not sure what it was intended to establish other than "see, we're taking you into the heart of New York City's Jewish community" and/or "old people: they are a-crazy" but I didn't come away clued into that one of the drivers was the White Angel of Auschwitz's brother.
I also thought Hoffman and Olivier were straight-up, over-the-top bad in some parts, which is interesting given their lauded (at least at the time) performances.
@Mareko @Pam --
I ALSO just watched Three Days of the Condor, which I thought mostly held up. For me the awkward bit wasn't the sex scene but all of Dunaway's flip lines after that seemed to come out of the blue: "You can always depend on the ol' spy-fucker."
Re: Marathon Man -- I think that weird opener was supposed to imply how NYC was dangerous beyond belief? You can die in an inferno randomly here! BOO! Overall, I felt flimflammed by this movie: it just didn't make SENSE.
But hey, now I know to look up shirtless photos of Roy Scheider. I never knew!
Saw the first photo from The Martian shoot yesterday. Why is Ridley Scott so hit and miss? It doesn't make sense for the director of so many classics to give us back-to-back The Counselor and Exodus. Yet when I hear the synopsis for this film, he's one of the first directors that come to mind that I would trust with the material if I were financing. What a strange case.
Travis - yes! But Tituss Burgess is also pretty fantastic, too.
Ah, the 70s thriller is one of my favorite subgenres. Love both Three Days of the Condor and Marathon Man, with their terrific flair for conjuring paranoia. Pollack and Schlesinger were demonstrating some major versatility in taking on this material, and showed they could create suspense along with the best of them. Despite some lapses in logic, both these movies are terrific examples of gritty urban danger prevalent in 70s cinema. Max Von Sydow in 3 Days gave me nightmares as a kid.
Fun story about Olivier and Hoffman working together. Hoffman, ever the believer in Method, stayed up all night for extra jitteryness before shooting the foot chase scene on the highway. Next day, Olivier said: Dear boy, next time, try acting.
Yes! Titus is fantastic! I may have watched the Pinot Noir episode 3 times already - don't judge.
Looking cancellation is confirmed.