Not really back by popular demand, but back because there are a few movies that I should have talked about that have just recently hit my radar. Why weren't these films covered by MovieInsider.net? Seriously, I'm considering changing my source for next year's movie commentary because they haven't been loyal. So two movies have caught my attention, one a remake of a 1970's blaxploitation film & the other may or may not be a spinoff of a movie series that has been loved, including by yours truly. Along with that I will mention a few others first, but I won't spent too much time on those. So let's bring the sunken ship back to shore, then sink it again!
Uncle Drew: Did I just step into a time machine to 2005? This feels & looks like a movie from 2005. I say this because the first time I heard of this movie was when I was at home on sunday & decided to, rather than watch something that can stimulate my mind, I thought "Hey look, VH1 is airing 'Soul Plane'. Let's watch this piece of cinema verite." Maaaaan is that film dated. Yeah, I could of been watching the final episodes of the Twin Peaks revival, but I thought the movie with a purple airline jet with lowrider hydrolic rims, Snoop Dogg as the pilot, a dance club & Tom Arnold as an unhip white guy. Seriously, what were Hollywood executives smoking in 2005? Back to 'Uncle Drew' here, so the story is about some old person who is good at basketball....Seruiously! The 2000's (except for a few exceptions) was a creative void. This is just 'Like Mike', except instead of a young 11 year old it's some old person. "We're clever!" Another odd fact of this film, I just saw a commercial from 'The General Insurance' where they're promoting this film. You know who The General is, right? That CGI little Patton guy who always sings "The best insurance rates in town, call 1-800 General now!" Well as of recent he has teamed up with the best basket player of all time, SHAQ! Shaq & The General are promoting their insurance & this film.....it doesn't make sense! Johnny Cockrin would have a hard time making sense out of this partnership.
So for a few weeks, Uncle Drew made me think I was in 2005 for a few days.
The Old Man & The Gun: When in ever will you ever say this looks like a charming little movie about a bank robber? This one will be the first. Robert Redford plays one of thee most nicest, charming & quietest bank robbers & he spent a part of the trailer flirting with Sissy Spacek, the original Carrie! This movie is on my 'Must Watch' list of this year! It looks, feels & is set in the 70's without it being too forced. The trailer even felt 70's & reminded me of the downhome, restrained & honest trailer of 'One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'. In no way is this a Milos Forman movie, but it does feel like a movie he would of made between 'Cuckoo's Nest' and 'Deliverance'. I say it's honest because the film even admits it's mostly based on a true story. That's way more than I can say about these oscar bait movies that claim they are very much based on a true story, despite it being 80% made up for both brevity & trying to hide the fact the acutal story wasn't really as fast paced or action packed as it occured in real life.
You know, it's been a long ass while since we had older folks as protagionists in films. Too many young pretty people, let the old heads have a shot! I will be on the lookout for this fascinating film.
Suspiria: Maybe I'm of the uninformed since I have not seen the original Dario Argento classic, but I'm looking forward to this remake. It looks like a 70's French/Sweedish horror film by the way the actresses, the setting & the look of it fit so perfectly. I for one am not bitchy of the fact that this remake toned down the colors a little. The people bitching about the lack of color would of bitched regardless of whether it stayed true to Argento's color scheme.
"Egh! There's no color in this film. This movie sucks!"
"Egh! This film is copying Argento. What a poser!"
You can't win.
So until I can see the original, I'll hold off on this remake.
And on the same note of remakes
Superfly: It took me a long while to find out that this was a remake. I was aware of the original film (In due part to an episode of 'Everybody Hates Chris'), but I thought this was another one of those "We're making something completely different & using the same title of some 'ancient' movie nobody remembers anymore." So this is a remake, I can't tell you what the original was about, or if this movie is being 'faithful' to the original source material. I had a chance to watch the original Superfly back in the 2000's on TV, but didn't.....WHY? To those of you older or around my age will understand.
Fucking PAX TV.
I can already tell all of you younger kids are asking "You mean the video game convention?"
Even as a kid who didn't understand the difference between watching movies on network TV & watching movies either in the theater, cable TV or watching the home release of a movie, I avoided watching hard R movies on Pax. PAX TV is a sorta religious, but very much in the realm of airing programming that's safe for old people. The only time I watched that channel was to watch that Super Mario cartoon (Not the anime) & once I saw 'Runaway Train' & 'Oh God' on that channel just for the hell of it. It was a boring saturday night, I had nothing to do & there was this movie about two guys in a train. Oh!!!! I'm just remembering this, there was a reality show produced by PAXtv that was about people who were quitting smoking & are shoved into this house, It was called 'Cold Turkey' & that was some of thee most funniest shit you will ever see. Just imagine that bullshit 'Big Brother' but in a house full of people planning on giving up smoking. Even though I'm not a smoker, that was theee most corniest, stupidest, yet brilliant crap I have ever seen in my life.
Uncle Drew: Did I just step into a time machine to 2005? This feels & looks like a movie from 2005. I say this because the first time I heard of this movie was when I was at home on sunday & decided to, rather than watch something that can stimulate my mind, I thought "Hey look, VH1 is airing 'Soul Plane'. Let's watch this piece of cinema verite." Maaaaan is that film dated. Yeah, I could of been watching the final episodes of the Twin Peaks revival, but I thought the movie with a purple airline jet with lowrider hydrolic rims, Snoop Dogg as the pilot, a dance club & Tom Arnold as an unhip white guy. Seriously, what were Hollywood executives smoking in 2005? Back to 'Uncle Drew' here, so the story is about some old person who is good at basketball....Seruiously! The 2000's (except for a few exceptions) was a creative void. This is just 'Like Mike', except instead of a young 11 year old it's some old person. "We're clever!" Another odd fact of this film, I just saw a commercial from 'The General Insurance' where they're promoting this film. You know who The General is, right? That CGI little Patton guy who always sings "The best insurance rates in town, call 1-800 General now!" Well as of recent he has teamed up with the best basket player of all time, SHAQ! Shaq & The General are promoting their insurance & this film.....it doesn't make sense! Johnny Cockrin would have a hard time making sense out of this partnership.
So for a few weeks, Uncle Drew made me think I was in 2005 for a few days.
The Old Man & The Gun: When in ever will you ever say this looks like a charming little movie about a bank robber? This one will be the first. Robert Redford plays one of thee most nicest, charming & quietest bank robbers & he spent a part of the trailer flirting with Sissy Spacek, the original Carrie! This movie is on my 'Must Watch' list of this year! It looks, feels & is set in the 70's without it being too forced. The trailer even felt 70's & reminded me of the downhome, restrained & honest trailer of 'One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'. In no way is this a Milos Forman movie, but it does feel like a movie he would of made between 'Cuckoo's Nest' and 'Deliverance'. I say it's honest because the film even admits it's mostly based on a true story. That's way more than I can say about these oscar bait movies that claim they are very much based on a true story, despite it being 80% made up for both brevity & trying to hide the fact the acutal story wasn't really as fast paced or action packed as it occured in real life.
You know, it's been a long ass while since we had older folks as protagionists in films. Too many young pretty people, let the old heads have a shot! I will be on the lookout for this fascinating film.
Suspiria: Maybe I'm of the uninformed since I have not seen the original Dario Argento classic, but I'm looking forward to this remake. It looks like a 70's French/Sweedish horror film by the way the actresses, the setting & the look of it fit so perfectly. I for one am not bitchy of the fact that this remake toned down the colors a little. The people bitching about the lack of color would of bitched regardless of whether it stayed true to Argento's color scheme.
"Egh! There's no color in this film. This movie sucks!"
"Egh! This film is copying Argento. What a poser!"
You can't win.
So until I can see the original, I'll hold off on this remake.
And on the same note of remakes
Superfly: It took me a long while to find out that this was a remake. I was aware of the original film (In due part to an episode of 'Everybody Hates Chris'), but I thought this was another one of those "We're making something completely different & using the same title of some 'ancient' movie nobody remembers anymore." So this is a remake, I can't tell you what the original was about, or if this movie is being 'faithful' to the original source material. I had a chance to watch the original Superfly back in the 2000's on TV, but didn't.....WHY? To those of you older or around my age will understand.
Fucking PAX TV.
I can already tell all of you younger kids are asking "You mean the video game convention?"
Even as a kid who didn't understand the difference between watching movies on network TV & watching movies either in the theater, cable TV or watching the home release of a movie, I avoided watching hard R movies on Pax. PAX TV is a sorta religious, but very much in the realm of airing programming that's safe for old people. The only time I watched that channel was to watch that Super Mario cartoon (Not the anime) & once I saw 'Runaway Train' & 'Oh God' on that channel just for the hell of it. It was a boring saturday night, I had nothing to do & there was this movie about two guys in a train. Oh!!!! I'm just remembering this, there was a reality show produced by PAXtv that was about people who were quitting smoking & are shoved into this house, It was called 'Cold Turkey' & that was some of thee most funniest shit you will ever see. Just imagine that bullshit 'Big Brother' but in a house full of people planning on giving up smoking. Even though I'm not a smoker, that was theee most corniest, stupidest, yet brilliant crap I have ever seen in my life.
According to the trailer & TV spots I've seen, I can't tell you what this movie is about. I don't think I'm wrong by saying the marketing of this movie is like a 40 million dollar stunting vine. All I see from those spots are guys walking in slow motion wearing snazzy expensive suits, gold chains & driving expensive cars. Dudes in flashy fur coats, hoes on their side, then the occasional shot of some guy holding a modded assault rifle & a guy rapping on stage. This reminds me of that movie the rap community adores, 'Belly', which is all visual flare with no story at all. I even watched the trailer for the original movie & that also didn't tell me what the film is about! Something tells me this is going to be like a Transformers movie, the story is a not as fleshed out or written in the script beause everyone's busy looking at the flashy visuals.! I can say that alot about most of the trailers for movies today, despite it also being nothing but action. Marketing sucks today. Now let's get to the director of this fine art here, Director X. Ohhh goood gawwwd, ego much? According to IMDB, this guy has done nothing but music videos, explains the flashy visuals. It's funny because the promos push in big white letters 'From Acclaimed Filmmaker, DIRECTOR X'.
Filmmaker of what? This dude has done nothing but music videos. Face it guys, music videos aren't as hyped now as they used to be. Nothing good has come out of a music video director making a feature film........well, except for David Fincher & Michael Bay (for the most part), but Director X (Stupid ass name) is no Fincher. Then you also got Joel Silver appearing in a producing credit, well his name isn't displayed but once someone says 'From The Producer of The Matrix Trilogy', we all know who that is. Yes, the man behind producing all of our favorite action movies from the golden age (Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Demolition Man, The Matrix) is back to producing this film. I can already smell the cigar smoke from his name & I can already tell he's gonna pander to the audience in this film. I could not finish 'Romeo Must Die', that film is an insult to my intelligence. Hey, but at least it's not Harvey Weinstein, am I right? *Nudge nudge
I admit, I wanted to see this film on my birthday. Hey, if I was going to watch a movie on my birthday, it should be the one where I at least know it might suck. Sadly, the film is released on June 15th. I wanted to see this in the theater just to see the reaction of the audience of this film. I wanna see how white audiences react to this movie, not just any white audience but the audience of the theater in Rolling Hills here in South LA. Maybe the city has diversified since I had last been there, but last time I was there it was full of rich snobby white people. I'm talking the type that expect V.I.P parking at a McDonalds snobby. I wanna see how they react to this. "Oh my gawd, is anyone going to call the cops on this superfly fellow?"
I know what you're thinking, what about the reaction from its intended audience? The african american audience is mixed on this film. According to the comments section on their facebook ad I see some minor interest. One of thee most common comments I've seen is "I'd rather stick with Wakanda." That's telling with what the audience at this very moment wants & sometimes that may lead to two things. Nobody watches it & it fades into obscurity, or the film is such an amazing film that nobody watched & is later re-evaluated as this cult classic that nobody was ready for at the time. Then again, are we as a society ready to return to this type of Blaxploitation in a post Treyvon Martin world? So for this film, we'll just have to see it to believe it. I got no bias against this because like I said, I have not seen the original. Isn't the original about pimps or something? I see no pimps in this, all I see are flashy things & rap music. This film can go either way, it could either be thee worst thing ever made, or it could succeed in what it was trying to be, an exploitation film made in the modern age without it being this throwback to the 70's. I'm getting vibes of that 'Shaft' remake which I wasn't that big of a fan of. I'll have to catch it someway.
Filmmaker of what? This dude has done nothing but music videos. Face it guys, music videos aren't as hyped now as they used to be. Nothing good has come out of a music video director making a feature film........well, except for David Fincher & Michael Bay (for the most part), but Director X (Stupid ass name) is no Fincher. Then you also got Joel Silver appearing in a producing credit, well his name isn't displayed but once someone says 'From The Producer of The Matrix Trilogy', we all know who that is. Yes, the man behind producing all of our favorite action movies from the golden age (Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Demolition Man, The Matrix) is back to producing this film. I can already smell the cigar smoke from his name & I can already tell he's gonna pander to the audience in this film. I could not finish 'Romeo Must Die', that film is an insult to my intelligence. Hey, but at least it's not Harvey Weinstein, am I right? *Nudge nudge
I admit, I wanted to see this film on my birthday. Hey, if I was going to watch a movie on my birthday, it should be the one where I at least know it might suck. Sadly, the film is released on June 15th. I wanted to see this in the theater just to see the reaction of the audience of this film. I wanna see how white audiences react to this movie, not just any white audience but the audience of the theater in Rolling Hills here in South LA. Maybe the city has diversified since I had last been there, but last time I was there it was full of rich snobby white people. I'm talking the type that expect V.I.P parking at a McDonalds snobby. I wanna see how they react to this. "Oh my gawd, is anyone going to call the cops on this superfly fellow?"
I know what you're thinking, what about the reaction from its intended audience? The african american audience is mixed on this film. According to the comments section on their facebook ad I see some minor interest. One of thee most common comments I've seen is "I'd rather stick with Wakanda." That's telling with what the audience at this very moment wants & sometimes that may lead to two things. Nobody watches it & it fades into obscurity, or the film is such an amazing film that nobody watched & is later re-evaluated as this cult classic that nobody was ready for at the time. Then again, are we as a society ready to return to this type of Blaxploitation in a post Treyvon Martin world? So for this film, we'll just have to see it to believe it. I got no bias against this because like I said, I have not seen the original. Isn't the original about pimps or something? I see no pimps in this, all I see are flashy things & rap music. This film can go either way, it could either be thee worst thing ever made, or it could succeed in what it was trying to be, an exploitation film made in the modern age without it being this throwback to the 70's. I'm getting vibes of that 'Shaft' remake which I wasn't that big of a fan of. I'll have to catch it someway.
Now for the last of the leftovers...
-Hotel Artemis: Is this the same hotel from 'John Wick'? Wasn't there a hotel of criminals in the first John Wick film? Sadly, this is its own thing, the hotel in John Wick was called 'The Continental'. But hot damn does the theory that this film takes place in John Wick's world fit perfectly, despite the fact that this film is set in the future. Yeah, we're going Sci-fi all up in this joint! The trailers tell me nothing, it's all action & visuals, but it's a step up than Superfly's marketing. Seriously, American marketing for movies has gone down the gutter. If you watch the international trailers (Mainly the UK), they tell you a little more than just the action sequences. Nothing wrong with just action, many trailers back in he day showed just that to prove what their movie is worth. Here's the thing though, the few movies they did that to were for movies that were in the public consciousness. There are few movies where the action was enough to sell seats. The trailer for 'Batman' was nothing but action sequences & it got to a point where in 1989 people were buying tickets to other Warner Bros movies just to see the trailer, then leave when the feature started. Everyone knows what Batman is & his origin story, which is why we don't have to be reminded constantly (Ya hear me, Hollywood?), let alone told this story in a few seconds in a trailer. That's also why the posters are nothing but the logo. Hotel Artemis is it's own new little thing, I want to know more than just the hotel is made up of criminals, it's futuristic, there's a sexy assassin woman & there's uhhhhhhhhhhh uhhhhhh uhhhhhh Jeff Goldbum uhhhhhh. I know in past years I bitched about knowing too much about a movie, therefore killing any intrigue of a mystery, but what's the point of selling a movie if nobody knows what the story is about? I'm tired of going into a movie based on scenes of action, only to find out it's some completely trite BS story full of the same tropes we see again & again & again & again! I bet you that there has been a time when you saw a trailer that was nothing but moneyshots, then when you saw the film you were dissapointed because it told you nothing about what the plot is about (Sucker Punch). I don't know about you, but I like a good story accompanied by excellent action scenes & luckily I'm starting to see more character & story in otherwise mindless action films today. Not too long ago I just saw 'Atomic Blonde' & I went in with low expectations due to the not so great marketing. I came out of it happy because not only did it balance action & story, but it also didn't succumb to shaky camera action sequences which plagued so many action movies from the 2000's & early 2010's. We're not at the pinnacle of what the 80's & early 90's set for action movie genre, but we're better off than where we were in the mid 2000's to early 2010's.
So I am very much expecting to enjoy 'Hotel Artemis'. It may or may not be a sorta spin-off of 'John Wick', it's sci-fi (Explains the exosuited neon police) & it's very colorful. That's one thing that's been missing in action movies as well, we had this trend of action movies that looked piss stained. Jodie Foster is in this? Holy crap, I wanna see this! I'm all up in that Clarice Sterling.
That is officially it for the leftovers, assuming if Hollywood keeps on hiding movies from me!
Next Time on Blogbabble....I'm still thinking about it.
Goodnight!
Email: blacktime.epress@aol.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BlackTimeEPress/
Twitter: (It's now my own personal twitter joint) https://twitter.com/BlacktimeEPress
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/blacktime-e-press
Site: www.blacktimepress.weeby.com
So I am very much expecting to enjoy 'Hotel Artemis'. It may or may not be a sorta spin-off of 'John Wick', it's sci-fi (Explains the exosuited neon police) & it's very colorful. That's one thing that's been missing in action movies as well, we had this trend of action movies that looked piss stained. Jodie Foster is in this? Holy crap, I wanna see this! I'm all up in that Clarice Sterling.
That is officially it for the leftovers, assuming if Hollywood keeps on hiding movies from me!
Next Time on Blogbabble....I'm still thinking about it.
Goodnight!
Email: blacktime.epress@aol.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BlackTimeEPress/
Twitter: (It's now my own personal twitter joint) https://twitter.com/BlacktimeEPress
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/blacktime-e-press
Site: www.blacktimepress.weeby.com