Vic Sage

Edgy MD wrote: At the same time, Sheriff Bart was originally intended to be Richard Pryor. It ended up being Pryor who advocated for Cleavon Little, who was always a ham. In Start the Revolution Without Me, he and Donald Sutherland got to be part of two comic pairings, as both played two roles. i always heard that, but i didn't know why Pryor didn't get the role. Wasn't he big enough name at that point for the studio to accept in a lead?

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Vic Sage wrote: Jerome Silberman (June 11, 1933 – August 28, 2016), aka, Gene Wilder, was one of the great comic talents of his generation, spanning a 50-year career on stage, film, TV and books. I heard an interview on NPR's All Things Considered with Wilder's nephew on the day that Wilder died. It would seem that both Wilder and his nephew would be offended by your use of the adjective "comic". Apparently he considered himself an actor who did comedy, and not a "comic actor." I don't know that I agree with that. If I'm listing the great comic actors of that generation, I'd certainly include Wilder. (And Walter Matthau too, among others.) But if I was listing the great actors, without the adjective, then you're dealing with a considerably larger field, and Wilder is a lot less likely to stand out. yeah, i don't think he ever did a NON-comic role in a feature film. Even his small debut role in BONNIE & CLYDE was essentially a comic performance. So, while i can understand his own view of his career, it doesn't really hold up to scrutiny. You could make a list of the great actors of the 1960s-80s, and you'd have to go a long way before you reached Mr. Wilder. And i say that as a huge fan of his work.

THE PRODUCERS had a limited release in November 1967, before opening in NYC in March 1968, and opening wider around the country later that year. So i guess technically its a 1967 film, but the MPAA considered it a 1968 film for Oscar purposes, with Brooks receiving his screenplay Oscar at the 1969 Academy Awards.

Gene Wilder’s films, ranked in order: Films to see: top tier - 1. YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) / (Oscar nom., Screenplay) 2. THE PRODUCERS (1968) / (Oscar nom., Best Actor) 3. BLAZING SADDLES (1974) 4. WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971)/ (Golden Globe nom) 5. BONNIE & CLYDE (1967) – supporting role 6. SILVER STREAK (1976)/ (Golden Globe nom) 2nd tier- 7. EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX (1971) – supporting role 8. STIR CRAZY (1980) 9. THE FRISCO KID (1979) 10. ADVENTURE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES SMARTER BROTHER (1975)/ (writer/director) 11. START THE REVOLUTION WITHOUT ME (1970) 12. QUACKSER FORTUNE HAS A COUSIN IN THE BRONX (1970) 13. THE WOMAN IN RED (1984)/(writer/director) To avoid: 14. SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL (1988)/ (writer) 15. HANKY PANKY (1982) 16. THE WORLD’S GREATEST LOVER (1977) /(producer/writer/director) 17. HAUNTED HONEYMOON (1986)/ (writer/director) 18. ANOTHER YOU (1991)/ (writer) 19. FUNNY ABOUT LOVE (1990) 20. THE LITTLE PRINCE (1974) 21. RHINOCEROS (1974) 22. SUNDAY LOVERS (1980) /(co-writer/co-director) – 1 segment TV films (chronological order): 1. DEATH OF A SALESMAN (1966) 2. SCARECROW (1972) 3. ACTS OF LOVE AND OTHER COMEDIES (1973) 4. THURSDAY’S GAME (1974) 5. ELIGIBLE DENTIST (1993) 6. ALICE IN WONDERLAND (1999) – supporting role 7. THE LADY IN QUESTION (1999)/ (writer) – TV movie 8. MURDER IN A SMALL TOWN (1999)/ (writer) –TV movie

Jerome Silberman (June 11, 1933 – August 28, 2016), aka, Gene Wilder, was one of the great comic talents of his generation, spanning a 50-year career on stage, film, TV and books. Gene Wilder, an everyman with a Larry Fine haircut, offered unperturbable, thoughtful, poignant characters with a hint of madness behind their eyes, inevitably reacting to the chaos around him by exploding into paroxysms of uncontrolled hysteria. His impeccable comic timing served to put a clown nose on his absurdist sensibility and style. Though primarily noted for the uniqueness of his performances, his greatest work was often in partnership with a complimentary comic foil, from Mel Brooks, to Richard Pryor, to Gilda Radner. And though best remembered as an actor, his success as a writer and director is worth remembering, too. During a string of Broadway and off-Broadway successes in the early 60s, Wilder met comic genius Mel Brooks, who was working on a screenplay at the time called SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER. After an auspicious film debut as a supporting actor in the lauded BONNIE & CLYDE (1967), Wilder starred in Brooks’ film, eventually called THE PRODUCERS (1968). Though unsuccessful at the time, it earned Wilder an Oscar nomination for his performance and Brooks won an Oscar for the script, and is often ranked as one of the great screen comedies of all time (it's certainly on MY list). The story offered Wilder the opportunity to play off of the legendary Zero Mostel*, and the two had comedy chemistry as great as any ever put on film. It would also establish a pattern for Wilder, who was often best as part of a duo. * Note: Mostel and Wilder would later work together in the film adaptation of Ionesco's absurdist play, RHINOCEROS (1974), but the film is entirely unwatchable now; it probably was then, too. Over the next 5 years, Wilder starred in a range of equally unsuccessful films, including START THE REVOLUTION WITHOUT ME (1970) (a mediocre swashbuckling comedy about the French Revolution, with Donald Sutherland as his "twin" brother), QUACKSER FORTUNE HAS A COUSIN IN THE BRONX (1970) (a strange little Irish romantic comedy), WILLY WONKA (1971)(for which Wilder earned a Golden Globe nomination), and Woody Allen’s hit-and-miss EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX (1971) (where Wilder is brilliant as a man in love with a sheep, decades before Albee's play, SYLVIA). In 1974, he re-teamed with Brooks on their two biggest hits: BLAZING SADDLES and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. Brooks asked Wilder to fill in on SADDLES at the last minute when the original actor fell out*, and it’s now hard to imagine anybody else as the Waco Kid. FRANKENSTEIN, however, was Wilder’s project and his script, for which he would share an Oscar nomination with Brooks. The result was the quintessential movie genre parody, which worked as a film on its own terms (unlike the episodic gagfests that the “movie parody” sub-genre would later become) and ranks as one of the greatest screen comedies ever, as well as the biggest hit of both artists’ careers. * note: Wilder was in Europe at the time, filming scenes for a supporting role in an odd little musical, THE LITTLE PRINCE (1974), which is also unwatchable now. Those two movies, back to back, firmly established both Wilder and Brooks as bankable comedy stars, but Wilder had greater ambitions and wanted to write and direct his own films. The following year, he wrote, directed and starred in THE ADVENTURE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES' SMARTER BROTHER (1975), with actors from Brooks’ stock company (Marty Feldman, Madeleine Kahn, Dom DeLouise); it was an unsuccessful (and still underappreciated) directorial debut. He later made THE WORLD’S GREATEST LOVER (1977), an equally unsuccessful work, though in that case, its failure was entirely warranted. In between, Wilder shared the screen with the great comedian Richard Pryor in the comedy-action-romance, SILVER STREAK (1976), for which Wilder would get another Golden Globe nomination. Pryor had earlier been one of the writers on BLAZING SADDLES and had also appeared in EVERYTHING…SEX, so he had crossed paths with Wilder before. The intensity of their pairing in STREAK was palpable, making the movie a hit and the first of 4 films they would do together. But that would be later. At this point, Wilder teamed with Harrison Ford in a sweet western comedy, THE FRISCO KID (1979), another underrated work that didn’t find much of an audience. But Wilder’s role as a rabbi in the old west, aided in a cross-country journey by a train robber, Amish settlers, and native American tribes, allowed him to project the gentle pathos so evident underneath even his most outrageously over-the-top performances, from Wonka to Leo Bloom to Victor "Frahnkensteen" to the Waco Kid. Wilder’s next film re-teamed him with Pryor in one of his biggest hits, STIR CRAZY (1980), a buddy comedy with the two trying to escape unjust imprisonment in the American Southwest, directed by Sidney Poitier. What’s interesting about the Wilder/Pryor team is that, unlike most comedy duos, there isn’t a straight man and a comic foil. Instead, they each take turns at both roles within the same story, demonstrating the strong acting skills of both, and adding an element of unpredictability, which keeps a level of tension going within the comedy. Wilder would then meet Gilda Radner on the mediocre comedy HANKY PANKY (1982), and they would later marry and do 2 more films together, including the moderately successful WOMAN IN RED (1984) and the utterly awful HAUNTED HONEYMOON (1986) (both of which Wilder wrote and directed), before he did two more not-good Pryor films, SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL (1988)(for which he wrote the script) and ANOTHER YOU (1991). At that point, Radner died after a long battle with cancer, and her passing devastated Wilder. He did some TV work over the next decade (winning an Emmy for an episode of WILL & GRACE), and wrote his memoirs and a few novels, but he never did another feature. Throughout his film career, Wilder’s comic team-ups gave him the opportunity to display his greatest talent: reacting to the madness around him, often exploding in unpredictable ways, without ever losing the underlying poignancy of his performances. As a director, he was a pretty good writer; as a writer, he was a great actor; as an actor he was utterly unique… sui generis. Though his body of work is not huge, nor filled to the brim with commercial and critical hits, his impact on film comedy was significant. So long Gene, and thanks for all the fish.

now THAT'S funny!

Coobs, I think your granddaughter was right. From 101 DALMATIONS until LITTLE MERMAID, Disney films of the 1960s-80s used a cheaper xerox technology for their animation, and they completely lacked the artistry of the hand-drawn cel animation they employed earlier, from SNOW WHITE through SLEEPING BEAUTY. The later works were feature-length cartoons, while the earlier ones were films. That being said, they could still be entertaining. DALMATIONS has a wonderful Villain that carries it, and JUNGLE BOOK has Baloo and some great songs, but, in my view, ARISTOCATS is just meh. Its story is a mishmash of elements from LADY AND THE TRAMP and DALMATIONS, but with cats. And the whole French Cat thing had been done earlier and better in GAY PUR-EE, which was produced by Chuck Jones, with songs by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg that were sung by their OZ collaborator, Judy Garland. ARISTOCATS has a very weak villain (the put-upon butler who spends his time fighting with a horse and a dog, for no apparent reason). Also, the Chinese cat stuff is dated (some of the more stereotypical references have been cut out of the DVD in recent years). The score, too, is inconsistent. I do love the swingin' EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE A CAT number, but the rest of the songs are pretty bland. So, for me, the movie's derivative story, low-budget animation and lackluster score make ARISTOCATS one of the weaker Disney films, even among the xerox films of that period. But your mileage may vary, and apparently does. and now i have EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE A CAT stuck in my head. Thanks alot.

oh.

i liked it overall, particularly Affleck as Batman! which was a nice surprise. I still like Henry Cavill as Superman, and Wonder Woman was perfection. However, Jesse Eisenberg was just a terrible idea from the start and he buries the movie every time he's on screen. The movie also tries to do too much, telling parallel storylines, while also trying to set up the upcoming JUSTICE LEAGUE movie. DC tried to do in 1 movie what Marvel was able to do with all their movies leading up to AVENGERS, and it just doesn't work. The DOOMSDAY villain comes out of absolutely nowhere and makes even less sense than everything else. So this movie isn't exactly a masterclass in storytelling. But Snyder's got style (if nothing else) and a real feel for visually adapting comic book characters to the big screen and, unlike MAN OF STEEL, the fight scenes work well. Sure, it's got some wince-inducing moments, and i can see why the critics savaged it, but i like Snyder movies and i liked this one. Alot of other folks don't, and didn't.

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A0LEVjUW0ANXcb4AJAonnIlQ;_ylc=X1MDMTM1MTE5NTY4NwRfcgMyBGZyA3l0ZmYxLXR5Yy1zYwRncHJpZANIMUlIMWNZUVNqNko4dXBoMGxyT0FBBG5fcnNsdAMwBG5fc3VnZwMxBG9yaWdpbgNzZWFyY2gueWFob28uY29tBHBvcwMwBHBxc3RyAwRwcXN0cmwDBHFzdHJsAzM2BHF1ZXJ5A3BpcmhhbmEgYnJvdGhlcnMgbW9udHkgcHl0aG9uIHNrZXRjaAR0X3N0bXADMTQ1OTg2NzcwMA--?p=pirhana+brothers+monty+python+sketch&fr2=sb-top-search&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-006 and of course there is the Monty Python adaptation, the Pirhana Brothers.

Frayed Knot wrote: Mix up a little Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen and Jeff Daniels with a Danny Boyle direction from a Walter Isaacson book, and then give them all an Aaron Sorkin script to dance around for two hours and what’s there not to like? OK, so I suspect there are a sizable number of people who rated (or even decided to see) ‘Steve Jobs’ the movie based on whether or not they were fans of Steve Jobs the person or of APPLE the brand. Thankfully I’m not one of those who felt compelled to take a side in the great computer wars of the ‘80s & 90s; I had/have no rooting interest in the whole ‘Mac vs PC’ schism, nor do I have an opinion as to whether Jobs was a misunderstood genius or a complete asshole or even care how accurate this story and on-screen portrayals were. So devoid of any of those complications, I just happened to really like this movie. Done essentially in three acts, each one surrounding a Jobs-run public product launch several years apart (1984, 1988, & 1998 - with an occasional flashback to earlier days thrown in), it puts on display Jobs’ relationship to key employees, to co-founder Steve Wozniak, and mainly to the daughter he fathered out of wedlock but is reluctant to accept. ditto.

12am-1am, actually. But then TALKING DEAD until 2, yeah.

***1/2 I often find funny, profane, violent anti-heroes entertaining, and this one, as portrayed by Ryan Renolds, was no exception. And Morena Baccarin is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS a good idea. But all the meta/self-referential/4th-wall stuff is annoying after a while... a little goes a long way. I liked very much the b-list X-Men that were used. That was a perfect Colossus and his teen, goth-girl, explosive sidekick was on the nose. I didn't care much for the villains, or the story arc (ok, but not great), but the action kicked much ass. much, much ass. And, most importantly, this movie proved that you can do an R-rated comic book movie and make money. So watch out folks, Hollywood is about to take it up a notch. Wolverine, no holds barred!

i watched WD afterwards.

Glad to see MAX get 6 Oscars, and REVENANT 3. I didn't see SPOTLIGHT, so i don't have any view on that. Sorry BIG SHORT didn't do more, but it did get a well-deserved award for its screenplay. Happy the woman from EX-MACHINA won best supporting actress, but it was for the wrong movie (DANISH GIRL). Congrats to Leo DiCaprio and composer Ennio Morricone for finally winning theirs. And sorry, Sly... no lifetime achievement award for once again playing the only good character you've ever done over the last 40 years. As for the show itself, Chris Rock was funny as usual, particularly in calling out the subtle "sorority girl racism" of Hollywood, but also going after the protesters, too. "Jada Smith boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rhianna's panties -- i wasn't invited!" And why now, he asked? Over the 88 years of Oscars, there have certainly been many other years without black actor nominees (probably most of them). But, he noted, back in the 50s and 60s, Black people weren't protesting the Oscars; they were too busy protesting things that mattered! "When Grandma is swinging from a tree, you don't worry too much about who wins Best Cinematography!" Still, did every single monologue and film bit throughout the entire show have to be about race? I think the point was made and then the show could've moved on. But, instead, from the opening red carpet/backstage reporters (Michael Strahan and Robin Roberts) to Rock as host, as well as many presenters, and the opening pre-show interviews (Whoopie), and the black Academy President and her speech, the Academy tripped all over itself to be black this year. They even changed the order of the awards. Typically, the first awards are given to the supporting actor/actress categories. This year, they decided to start with the screenplay awards, where the only black-themed movie to get attention (STRAIGHT OUT OF COMPTON) "happened" to be nominated (voters were left to consider the question of whether it was better to honor a movie about black people written by white people, or to just ignore it entirely -- so they did both, by nominating the white writers but not giving them the award, and ignoring the movie otherwise). The acceptance speeches, too, leaned a little more on the politics than usual (from racism, to sexual abuse, to LGBT, to global warming). The best moments for me in any Oscar telecast are always the completely awkward, cringe-worthy ones: Chris Rock introducing Stacey Dash (the Black actress/FOX News pundit who has called for the end of black history month, the BET network, and attacked the protests over the Oscars) as the "director of our new minority outreach program," resulting in stunned silence as she took her bow. Also, Rock's taped interviews with moviegoers in Compton, who demonstrated many stereotypical behaviors (just short of eating fried chicken and watermelon) and new nothing about many of the big "white" movies that were nominated. Now THAT was a hoot, and made the audience squirm. Also, a taped bit where Angela Bassett did a PSA about Black History month that you think is about Will Smith, but ends up about Jack Black. Black! Get it? My favorite moment was probably Louis CK presenting the best short documentary award. It's his favorite award because, unlike everybody else getting Oscars that night, these folks don't make ANY money, so the Oscar actually means something to them. "This award is going home in a Honda Civic tonight!" Hilarious and true. I was impressed, too, by the unrestrained, over-the-top presentation of Gaga's sexual abuse song, TIL IT HAPPENS TO YOU, first introduced by VP Biden, then emoted by Gaga with melodramatic flair as she is silently encircled by rape survivors with messages of hope drawn on the arms with markers (Still, this didn't help it beat Sam Smith for Best Song; even his boring Bond ditty got more votes than Gaga's tune, which had about 10 actual lyrics in it). And another Holocaust move won for best Foreign Film! Emotional manipulation, thy name is Hollywood! Kudos! You just can't find this sort of self-indulgent self-importance anywhere else except an industry of rich, narcissistic white people creating audience-researched movies who gather in glorious frocks and bling (the aggregate cost of which could pay for food for hungry children in any country in the world) once a year to pat themselves on the back and declare what problems of the world they want to solve with their little songs and movies. Even at its worst, this show never disappoints me. Bravo once more!

i did like SKYFALL, but this was a turd. Not as big a turd as some others in the history of bond films, and made watchable by Mr. Craig's great version of Bond, but certainly the weakest of the current crop. For a complete ranking: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=18842&p=493400&hilit=bond#p493400

Top 20 newspaper movies: The Front Page (31, 74) It Happened One Night (34) His Girl Friday (40) Citizen Kane (41) Meet John Doe (41) Woman of the Year (42) Call Northside 777 (48) Ace in the Hole (51) Sweet Smell of Success (57) All the President's Men (76) Superman (78) Absence of Malice (81) Year of Living Dangerously (82) Killing Fields (83) The Paper (94) LA Confidential (97) Zodiac (07) Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (09) Spotlight (15)

Picking away at the story's logic (or lack thereof) misses the point, i think, insofar as it begs the underlying question: why tell the same story again at all (logical or not)? Many here are fine with the fact that they did so, some of us are not. And that's fine. What i find unconvincing, however, is the position that "no, they didn't tell the same story, there are just some similarities due to the nature of the universe they're in"... on which i call bullshit. It was just Disney's conservative, market-tested decision making that lead to this missed opportunity. Hopefully, the next 2 films will actually move things forward.

It's as if Jeremiah Johnson starred in Apocalypse Now, as directed by Terrence Malick. Gorgeous, moving, haunting, tragic and the best movie of the year. Leo is finally going to get his Oscar.

Sharpie, I heard SICARIO was good -- no?

of my top 10, I saw EX-MACHINA and KINGSMEN on cable. I now generally prefer watching at home, due to both the expense of going out as well as the behavior of the movie-going public. Also, the improvement of the technical quality of the home-viewing experience has made it less of a trade off.

Update: HATEFUL 8 Tarantino is carrying on the themes of America's history of racial conflict from DJANGO, this time implying a more hopeful (if ultimately futile) cooperation between the races by the end. And there is a certain Aristotilian unity of time and place, super-imposed on white, mountainous landscapes of snow and cold, with the crucified Christ looking down on the goings on. And there is some darkly funny and truly horrific stuff, with the last half-hour an orgy of blood and guts. And there is his typical use of great 70s-80s era actors (Bruce Dern, Kurt Russell, Lee Horsley) and members of his stock company (Sam Jackson, Michael Madson, Tim Roth), accompanied by another great Morricone score. But i didn't love it. Unlike DJANGO, there is absolutely nobody to root for here, and its slow pace doesn't build in intensity; it's just blah blah blah until... [spoilerS] everybody dies [END SPOILERS]. If the excessive violence had been spread out more, it could've built from 1 killing to the next, but this is like... well, have you ever been nauseated after a night of heavy drinking, and you're just sort of lingering like that for hours, and then you burp, but your burp picks up a hitchhiker and you end up projectile vomiting and shitting yourself all at once? It's sort of like that. And where the fuck did that Tarantino narration come from? It's never established as a storytelling device... it just shows up halfway through the movie, then disappears. wtf? If you want to see a great film in which a bunch of bad guys are stuck in a room before ultimately tearing themselves apart, see the infinitely superior RESERVOIR DOGS. I'm glad i saw H8, and middling Tarantino is better than alot of other stuff, but this one isn't even in Quentin's top 5. Here is my current ranking of all Tarantino-related films: KILL BILL [1 & 2] PULP FICTION RESERVOIR DOGS TRUE ROMANCE * DJANGO UNCHAINED INGLORIOUS BASTERDS HATEFUL 8 JACKIE BROWN FROM DUSK TIL DAWN * GRINDHOUSE (DEATH PROOF segment) ** NATURAL BORN KILLERS * FOUR ROOMS ** * = Story and/or screenplay only ** = Segment only

Clearly. I just don't understand why. You've got the originals available to you in every format conceivable. Doesn't the notion of a new story in that universe, that carries the adventure forward, excite you more than seeing it all again? If not, why not? Seriously, i don't understand. I'm not trying to pick a fight or be obnoxious, i'm just looking for insight.

305 films were eligible this year. Here's what i've seen so far and how i rank them: My top 10 [in order]: The Revenant Mad Max: Fury Road The Big Short Steve Jobs Ex Machina Mr. Holmes Inside Out Kingsman: The Secret Service Spy Trainwreck honorable mentions: Black Mass The Hateful Eight The Martian Star Wars:TFA these were just ok: American Ultra Ant-Man Avengers: Age Of Ultron The Circle The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 Jurassic World Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Sicario Spectre The Visit these were BAD: Fantastic Four Jupiter Ascending The Last Five Years Pitch Perfect 2 Movies i'd still like to see: Absolutely Anything Age of Adeline Anomalisa Bone Tomahawk Bridge Of Spies Creed Crimson Peak The Good Dinosaur Grandma In The Heart Of The Sea Irrational Man Joy Legend The Man from UNCLE Pawn Sacrifice Terminator Genisys Trumbo Victor Frankenstein Movies I'm supposed to pretend i want to see: Amy Beasts Of No Nation Brooklyn Carol The Danish Girl 45 Years Me and Earl and the Dying Girl Room Southpaw Spotlight Straight Outta Compton The Walk All eligible films this past year: Adult Beginners After Words The Age Of Adaline Alleluia Aloft Aloha Altered Minds Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Road Chip American Ultra Amy Anomalisa Ant-Man Ardor Avengers: Age Of Ultron Beasts Of No Nation Becoming Bulletproof Before We Go Best Of Enemies Beyond The Reach The Big Short Big Stone Gap Black Mass Blackbird Blackhat Bone Tomahawk A Borrowed Identity The Boy And The Beast Boy And The World The Boy Next Door Boychoir Brand: A Second Coming Bridge Of Spies A Brilliant Young Mind Brooklyn Buen Día, Ramón Burnt By The Sea Captive Capture The Flag Care Of Footpath 2 Carl(a) Carol Cartel Land Carter High Censored Voices Champs Chappie Chi-Raq Child 44 A Christmas Star Cinderella Clouds Of Sils Maria Coming Home Concussion Cop Car Creed Criminal Activities Crimson Peak The Cut The D Train Daddy’s Home The Danish Girl Danny Collins Delka: Stand-Up Tall Or Fall The Diary Of A Teenage Girl The Divergent Series: Insurgent Dixieland Dope The Duke Of Burgundy Dukhtar Eden Effie Gray The End Of The Tour Entourage Escobar: Paradise Lost Everest Every Thing Will Be Fine Ex Machina Experimenter Fantastic Four Far From The Madding Crowd Felt Fifty Shades Of Grey 5 Flights Up 5 To 7 Focus 45 Years Frame By Frame Freaks Of Nature Freedom Freeheld Furious Seven Futuro Beach The Gallows Gemma Bovery Get Hard The Gift Girlhood Gloria Godspeed: The Story Of Page Jones The Good Dinosaur Good Kill Goodnight Mommy Goosebumps Grandma Guidance Hamlet’s Ghost The Hateful Eight He Named Me Malala Heaven Knows What Hemalkasa Hitman: Agent 47 Home Hot Pursuit Hot Tub Time Machine 2 Hotel Transylvania 2 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 The Hunting Ground I Smile Back I’ll See You In My Dreams In The Heart Of The Sea Infinitely Polar Bear Ingrid Bergman - In Her Own Words Inside Out The Intern Irrational Man It Follows Jalam James White Jem And The Holograms Jenny’s Wedding Jimmy’s Hall Joy Jupiter Ascending Jurassic World Just Before I Go Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet Killing Them Safely Kingsman: The Secret Service Krampus Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck La Jaula De Oro Labyrinth Of Lies The Lady In The Van Lambert & Stamp The Last Five Years The Last Witch Hunter The Laws Of The Universe - Part 0 Learning To Drive Legend A LEGO Brickumentary The Letters Lila And Eve Little Accidents The Longest Ride The Look Of Silence Lost Birds Lost River Love & Mercy Love At First Fight Macbeth Mad Max: Fury Road Maggie Magic Mike XXL The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Manglehorn The Martian Match Max Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials McFarland, USA Me And Earl And The Dying Girl Meadowland Mediterranea Meru Minions Misery Loves Comedy Miss You Already Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation Mississippi Grind Mr. Holmes Mistress America Moomins On The Riviera Mortdecai Muhammad: The Messenger Of God Mustang My All American Nachom-Ia Kumpasar The Night Before 99 Homes No Escape The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared Our Brand Is Crisis Pan Paper Towns Paranoid Girls Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 Paulo Coelho’s Best Story Pawn Sacrifice The Peanuts Movie The Perfect Guy Pink & Blue: Colors Of Hereditary Cancer Pitch Perfect 2 Pixels Poached Pod Point Break Poltergeist Project Almanac Queen And Country Racing Extinction Rangitaranga Regular Show: The Movie Remember A Reunion The Revenant Ricki And The Flash Ride The Thunder - A Vietnam War Story Of Victory & Betrayal The Road Within Rock The Kasbah Room The Rumperbutts Run All Night Saint Laurent Salt Bridge The Salvation Samba San Andreas Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Secret In Their Eyes Serena Set Fire To The Stars Seventh Son ‘71 Seymour: An Introduction Sharkskin Shaun The Sheep Movie Shelter Sicario Sisters Sleeping With Other People Son Of Saul Southpaw Spectre The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water Spotlight Spy The Stanford Prison Experiment Star Wars: The Force Awakens Steve Jobs Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans Stonewall Straight Outta Compton Strange Magic Suffragette The Summer Of Sangaile Sweet Micky For President Taken 3 Tangerine Ted 2 10,000 Km Terminator Genisys Testament Of Youth These Final Hours The 33 Time Out Of Mind Tinker Bell And The Legend Of The Neverbeast Tom At The Farm Tomorrowland Trainwreck The Tribe True Story Trumbo Truth Twinsters Two Men In Town Uncle John Unfinished Business Unfriended Vacation Victor Frankenstein Victoria The Visit The Walk A Walk In The Woods War Room The Water Diviner We Are Your Friends The Wedding Ringer Welcome To Me When Marnie Was There Where To Invade Next While We’re Young White God The Widowmaker Wolf Totem The Wolfpack Woman In Gold Xenia You Carry Me Youth Z For Zachariah

...it has flaws, sure, and borrows a bit much from the original... borrows a bit much? Ya think? Quick, tell me which movie this is: 1. There’s a droid carrying valuable information who finds himself on a desolate desert planet. 2. There’s a Force-sensitive, masked, and darkly clothed antagonist who arrives on the scene shortly after the information is handed off, looking for the droid. 3. There’s a desert settlement that is wiped out by storm troopers. 4. There’s a hero who’s tortured by the bad guys to retrieve the information. 5. There’s a lonely, orphaned, Force-strong desert dweller who dreams of more and ends up adopting the droid and getting sucked up into an epic adventure. 6. There’s a worldly old warrior who has to explain the Force to the next generation. 7. There’s a cruel military officer (Nazi-like, with a British accent) who holds a comparable level of authority to his Force-sensitive, masked, and darkly clothed colleague. 8. There’s a mostly unseen supreme evil (depicted via hologram) that’s pulling the strings from the shadows. 9. There’s a criminal element that’s owed a debt by Han Solo and attempts to kill him after he screws up their arrangement (Hopefully, a long time from now, we won't have to wonder who shot first) 10. There’s a cantina filled with various alien creatures. 11. There’s a moment when one of the heroes abandons the fight as a self-preservation measure, but he eventually returns to help save the day. 12. There’s a massive spherical weapon that’s used to destroy a planet, 13. There’s a base belonging to the rebel forces on a forest-covered world. 14. There’s a surrogate father figure who is cut down by someone previously close to him, who has turned to the dark side. 15. The hero watches helplessly from afar as the surrogate father figure is slayed. 16. There’s a coordinated aerial attack on the massive spherical planet-killing weapon that’s monitored from a control room by Leia. 17. There’s a trench that X-wings flew through in order to fire on a vulnerability in the weapon and destroy it. 18. There’s a massive explosion that gives the rebels a major victory but likely allows the Force-sensitive, masked, and darkly clothed antagonist to survive to fight another day. 19. All presented with a bombastic John Williams score... ...and i'm not even warmed up yet. [note: this isn't my list... i cribbed it off the internet. There are lots of even more specific lists of mirrored plot points, if anyone cares enough to look.] It's not like the similarities are accidental, occasional or superficial. they are massive, significant and obviously intentional. Why? I guess because they think that's what we wanted. And the fact that the movie is already the biggest film ever supports that notion. But why? Why did we want to see the same movie again? You can recapture the magic and wonder of the original trilogy without regurgitating every-fucking-plot-point, like we're brain-damaged. They could have picked it up 35 years later, and gone from there, while still giving us some moments that echoed the original without just rebooting them. I want to see the adventure CONTINUE, not just REPEAT. i'm confused about why this is ok with so many folks.