Vic Sage

well i watch MOULIN ROUGE at least once a year. so i'm going to see this.

sharpie wrote: Based on EL Docotorow's "The Book of Daniel." Movie didn't make much of an impression on me, book was better. Actually, DANIEL, with Timothy Hutton, was based on that Doctorow book. Like RUNNING ON EMPTY, they're both about the children of radicals, and they were both directed by Sidney Lumet. But RUNNING ON EMPTY is based an original script by Naomi Foner (maggie & jake gyllenhal's mom).

Crowe's use of music in his films is consistently good --

The 3rd trailer makes me want to gather an elite team of nerds to perform a Seal Team 6-style operation on Warner Bros offices to steal a copy of this film. Who's in? say nothing. stay where you are. when you hear the phrase "thunderbirds are go", head for Hollywood. There's a guy there, putting together a team. Some of us will die, of course, but in Hollywood the black guy dies first, so i'm ok with the plan.

there is a rundown scene, and its very good. In fact, all the base-running scenes are realistic, believable and the best moments in the movie. Those ridiculous leads off 1st that he took, those running starts of 2b, those unheard of breaks for home -- they were all so clearly his way of saying "eat this, you honkey motherfuckers!" or the 40s equivalent thereof. And Bozeman does shine as an actor/athlete, totally convincing as both.

you wrote it better.

ok performances, well crafted, but its the kind of picture where people say "Jackie, you're going to change this country", and he looks off into the distance, awaiting a future just over the horizon. It's all so noble, and liberal-minded, and well-intentioned, it functions more as civics lesson than compelling storytelling. And its the most obvious of hagiographies, making Robinson a secular saint, and the intergration of baseball a legendary act right out of THE NATURAL. There's even a scene where some boys are chasing after his train, after he's done some heroic deed, and he tosses one of them a ball. As the train pulls away, he puts his head on the track and announces "I can still hear him!" I really missed the Randy Newman music there. By the way, the kid grows up to be Ed "the glider" Charles (Mets content). Chadwick Boseman is terrific as Robinson, and Nicole Beharie as his wife, but they are both so saintly and sanitized, its hard for them to be human beings. Harrison Ford's Branch Rickey is sort of gruff and over-the-top at first but he grew on me. Still, the complicated relationship between Rickey and Robinson, with Robinson in later years resentful and angry about the way Rickey exploited him for press and profits, is entirely absent. In fact, there are no complexities of any kind... just complexions. Just black and white. But the world wasn't any more like that then than it is now. One also has to wonder about this kind of myth-making when Larry Doby was playing in Cleveland that year, too, starting a few months later. Where's his halo? The baseball action is ok, but the movie cares more about what goes on in between the pitches than it does what goes on between the lines. The movie does come alive, however, whenever 42 gets on base and starts screwing with the heads of those racist pitchers. You get the sense that this was the only way he could fight back, so he was going to make the most of it. Ultimately, its the kind of movie your glad your kid will see, but better if your wife takes him.

wacca wacca! thank you, ladies and germs! I'll be here all week! Try the veal... and don't forget to tip your waitresses!

why can't the Mets ever draft one of these guys? it reminds me of when the Knicks purposely skipped over St. Johns' Ron Artest to take Fredric Weis. well maybe not, but you know, lets get a local school feeding our minor league system. There'd be alot of support if a kid like that made it to the show in Queens.

is that an offensive-type league?

Fair enough.. my intention was to identify him as the only prospect that could possibly make a major impact, but, as you point out, i didn't say that originally.

Edgy MD wrote: Well, there's Wuilmer Becerra. And Wilmer Flores if he lands there. Possibly den Dekker if he develops the stick to stick. Yes, they are all viable prospects. But Nimmo was a 1st round pick; if he fails to develop, it'll be more damaging for the Mets than if a 5th rounder like Den Dekker doesn't make it, or 2 young kids signed out of Venezuela. And Flores hasn't played an inning in the OF yet, as far as i know. He may end up there, but until he does, he's not an OF prospect. And the likelihood of den Dekker suddenly learning the difference between a ball and a strike at age 25 seems unlikely to me, though his glove and power may yet make him a useful major League bench player. Becerra is 18 so it's way too early to know what his ceiling is, but if he doesn't make it, then it's "oh, well, he was just a throw-in in the Dickey trade anyway". But, as i said, I think that Nimmo is the only OF prospect with the potential to make a major impact, and at the cost of a 1st rounder, they need him to. I'm certainly rooting for that.

Mets desperately need for this kid to turn out to be something. They have literally no other OF prospects that could have an impact at the major league level.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Violent hijinx await a young couple in the English countryside. Vic Sage calls this his favorite Dustin Hoffman film, but I wouldn't. Not that it sucks, it's just... wow. That's your review? "not that it sucks, it's just...wow"? ok. Look, it's a brutal film about our brutal nature. It's not easy sledding; i never suggested it was. ----------------------------------------------------------- SYNOPSIS (SPOILERS): A cowardly academic (David), with a nubile English wife (Amy) flees America to escape the anti-war fervor by moving to his wife's hometown in the English countryside. He seeks to avoid conflict and lives inside his head (he's a mathematician), but the locals, including his wife's ex-boyfriend (Charlie), who he's hired to repair their cottage (he can't repair things himself) smell his weakness and continue to torment him. They also take Amy's habit of staring at them, topless, from her window as they work as an indication she has no respect for David either. And she doesn't. He's not a "real man". So when Charlie rapes her in her home, she responds to him sexually, still desiring him, particularly in contrast to her milquetoast husband who is more interested in his blackboard than her sexual appetites. But when Charlie's buddy joins in uninvited, she is brutalized and there is no undercurrent of pleasure anymore. While she never tells David about it, she is haunted by memories... not of the brutality of the second rape, but of her guilt in enjoying the first. The couple accidentally runs over the over-sized town idiot (Henry) as they head home from a community event, and take him to their home to help him. But it seems the fellow had accidentally killed a sexually precocious teen at the party, and now the men in town (including Charlie) are drunk and out for blood. They arrive at the cottage, demanding Henry be given over to their vigilante justice, but David has been pushed too far. He will not turn Henry over, and if they try to enter his home he will kill them. The town sheriff arrives to try and calm things down but the men kill him. There is no going back now. David has calmly created booby traps and gathered weapons to defend his home. And he does, in a ballet of blood that ends with him slamming a bear trap down on Charlie's head. He leaves Amy in that abattoir and drives Henry back to town, through the thick fog. "I don't know my way home, " Henry says. "That's all right, neither do I," responds David. -------------------------------------------------------------- You can run from a war but you will find one anyway, Peckinpah says, because Man is a brutal creature that cannot escape from himself. And even as David changes from the intellectual to the physical, from pacifist to killer, from coward to man, he also loses himself in the process. He loses his notion of himself, he loses his wife, he even loses the concept of "home", which is the very definition of lost. He has more in common with an idiot now than he does with his prior self. There is nothing easy here. It's a dark tale, with a disturbing point of view, shot in greys and muted colors, with slow deliberate pacing exploding in bursts of grotesque violence and brutality. It is an oppressive psychological thriller without relief from its tension. It was highly controversial in its day, particularly the "misogyny" of Amy seeming to enjoy the first rape, and the "none shall pass" protection of his castle indulged in by David struck Pauline Kael as "fascistic". But Amy's reaction to the first rape needs to be understood in contrast to the 2nd one (so Peckinpah is clearly not saying that this woman (or any woman) likes to be raped... he's saying Amy had an unsatisfying marriage and still desired her ex-boyfriend on some level. So when Charlie forces himself on her, she was conflicted about it, and later guilty about the pleasure she took in it. As for the fascistic nature of the work, Peckinpah isn't celebrating or glamorizing violence, or the territorialism (nationalism) justifying it, he's simply saying its essential to our nature and we cannot run from it and pretend we are above such uncivilized notions. There are lines that even the most humane of us will not allow others to cross. And the price for that violence is our place in the world. So its not like the self-awareness comes cheap, or is easy to obtain, or ends happily. Is it Hoffman's best performance? Well, it seems to me the one with the highest degree of difficulty. It is an unsympathetic role, yet is the lead that carries the piece. He's flawed but, unlike many of his other roles, the character lacks the awareness of his flaws that would allow him to dismiss them with a bemused smirk and smart-ass remark. There is no accent, or physical disfigurement, or bigness of character to hide behind. He has to be as plausible ignoring a hot woman's sexuality as slamming a bear trap on a guy's head. He is walking the high wire without a net in this movie and i think he makes it across with distinction. Your mileage may vary.

you missed nothing

he's fighting storm troopers and the Rat Patrol?

In honor of the upcoming IRON MAN 3, I thought I'd "reboot" the old thread on this topic that we used to keep running endlessly. The following films have release dates: 2013 IRON MAN 3 (5/3) - hack action writer Shane Black directs the new chapter, featuring Ben Kingsley as one of Shellhead's earliest and best villains, The Mandarin. MAN OF STEEL (6/14) - Zac Snyder reboots Supe with a great cast: Henry Cavill (Kal-el), Amy Adams (Lois), Kevin Costner & Diane Lane (Jonathan & Martha kent), Russell Crowe (Jor-El), Lawrence Fishburne (perry white) and Michael Shannon (Gen. Zod). But where's Jimmy? My god, they've killed Jimmy! THE WOLVERINE (7/26) - They're adapting (loosely, i imagine) the Frank Miller mini-series about Wolverine in Japan vs Silver Samurai. SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR (10/4) - Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez are back, adapting Miller's sequel (actually a prequel, i guess) with the same cast (Willis, Rourke, Alba, etc.) THOR: DARK WORLD (11/8) - THOR 2 features Hemworth and Portman and the Warriors 3 against Chris Eccleston (Dr. Who) as a Dark Elf villain seeking revenge. 2014 CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER (4/4) Cap and SHIELD (Nick fury and Black Widow) try to stop a brainwashed Bucky Barnes, back as the Winter Soldier. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 (5/2) - Shailene Woodley joins the cast as Mary Jane Watson (she can't be worse than Kirstin Dunst), with Jamie Foxx as Electro, Paul Giamatti as Rhino and Chris Cooper as Norman Osborne. X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (7/18) - Bryan Singer is adapting the classic Chris Claremont time-travelling storyline of the early 80s, using both the new and the old casts. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (8/1) - still in development, Troma director James Gunn is set to do the star-spanning series, with Starlord, Drax and Thanos included (so its not the original Guardians i guess). 2015 FANTASTIC FOUR (3/6) - no specifics available AVENGERS 2 (5/1) - Joss Whedon set to return with original cast, plus Cap's sidekick, The Falcon. JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA (6/1) - no specifics ANT-MAN (11/6/15) - no specifics

good point.

Dude, what about it? I, who will watch just about anything remotely science-fictionish, couldn't get through a single episode, despite repeated attempts to do so. In fact, the show was so bad that even Scheider hated it, demanding to be released by the 3rd season.

what about him? I like Roy Scheider; very underrated actor and one of the best of the 1970s. surprisingly wide range... good guys, bad guys, leads, character roles, even a MUSICAL for crissakes. [u:pfeklf4n]selected films of the 1970s[/u:pfeklf4n]: Klute (1971) The French Connection (1971) (Academy Award nomination) The Seven-Ups (1973) Jaws (1975) Marathon Man (1976) Sorcerer (1977) Jaws 2 (1978) All That Jazz (1979)(Academy Award nomination) There wasn't much of interest in the subsequent decades (except for maybe 52-PICKUP (1986), a Frankenheimer action film), but he was one of the defining actors of that period.

college admission/application movies: ACCEPTED HISTORY BOYS PERFECT SCORE GETTING IN HOW I GOT INTO COLLEGE RISKY BUSINESS LEGALLY BLONDE HOW HIGH RUDY SPANGLISH REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES ORANGE COUNTY ANYWHERE BUT HERE EDUCATING RITA

Griffith invented the syntax of cinema, and created the feature length film with BIRTH OF A NATION, but he was a product of his time and geography. Born and raised in Kentucky, a few years after the civil war, a war in which his father served as a confederate colonel, the film's view of race, reconstruction and the KKK is hideous by contemporary standards. But it was a broadly accepted view of our recent history when it came out (though it did engender some protests in northern cities). its really an impossible film to rate, like TRIUMPH OF THE WILL.

for more Hoffman: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=19178

you've just described EVERY Judd Apatow movie.

first world hijinx... is that like "white people's problems"?