Controversial Opinions (For Everything Other Than DC Comics)

[TheRay]

All of Grown Ups was unnecessary crap.

I—concede the point.

Yah. If you do a minute count of Golden Age Hollywood's epics against today's films (even ignoring credit scrolls), the old guys did a lot more with a lot less.

I have one example that definitely supports this and then I’ll have to check out more old movies. 12 Angry Men was done so well and shreds anyone’s “favorite movie” of the last 10 years.

[godisawesome]

Yah. If you do a minute count of Golden Age Hollywood's epics against today's films (even ignoring credit scrolls), the old guys did a lot more with a lot less.

Epic against epic might favor that argument… but people often forget that low-budget and formulaic dreck has existed throughout Hollywood’s history. I’d struggle to call “Singing Cowboy” movies anything but the era-equivalent counterpart to something like the modern Resident Evil movies - a comparatively cheap usage of a few genuine assets from a studio that feels no need to adjust or improve.

Now, I *would* say that the lack of television as competition for a few decades means there’s quite a few competent if not amazing B-Movies that would be a TV show today. The Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies would be something like NCIS today.

[DrNewGod]

Epic against epic might favor that argument… but people often forget that low-budget and formulaic dreck has existed throughout Hollywood’s history. I’d struggle to call “Singing Cowboy” movies anything but the era-equivalent counterpart to something like the modern Resident Evil movies - a comparatively cheap usage of a few genuine assets from a studio that feels no need to adjust or improve.

Now, I *would* say that the lack of television as competition for a few decades means there’s quite a few competent if not amazing B-Movies that would be a TV show today. The Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies would be something like NCIS today.

A fair qualification.

[TheRay]

Being dialogue heavy doesn't make a film automatically bad.

[Kirby101]

Being dialogue heavy doesn't make a film automatically bad.

True that.

[Kirby101]

duplicate post

[Adam Allen]

True that.

Yup, also agreed with that. It's dialogue that is tedious and uninspired that's bad. But interesting ideas communicated by characters who seem real and nuanced, rather than just vehicles for the writer to monologue at the audience, have made for some of my favorite films.

I have not seen in it years, but I loved Mindwalk, and that's pretty much all talking. Waking Life is pretty much all talking as well, though I suppose animating the actors lends something -- anyway, own it and love it.

Vanya on 42nd Street is also pretty much all talking, and short of Infinity War/Endgame, honestly might be my favorite movie of all time.

[Kirby101]

Any movie based on a stage play will be all talk. But Death of a Salesman, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe and The Iceman Cometh are all pretty good.

[DrNewGod]

Any movie based on a stage play will be all talk. But Death of a Salesman, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe and The Iceman Cometh are all pretty good.

Add A Soldier's Story to that list.

[Zauriel]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sohn_Kee-chung

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athlet...n%27s_marathon


At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, there was a Korean athlete who represented Japan, that occupied his home country from 1910 to 1945. His name was Sohn Kee-chung, but he was forced to compete in the games under the Japanese name Kitei Son. Sohn was the first Korean athlete to win an Olympic gold medal, though the medal remains credited as Japan's first victory in the Olympic marathon.
He refused to acknowledge the Japanese anthem at the victory ceremony. How is it different from Gwen Berry's turning away from the flag when Star Spangled Banner began playing?

[godisawesome]

Any movie based on a stage play will be all talk. But Death of a Salesman, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe and The Iceman Cometh are all pretty good.

This is strictly a personal experience as both a student and a teacher, but no one should try and drag high schoolers through Death Of A Salesman.

It’s already a somewhat more niche story for full grown adults who have enough personal experience to empathize with its themes, while it’s totally outside the demographic of high schoolers. I was bored out of my gourd when I had to read it in high school; I understood the themes in a mental manner, but I couldn’t bring myself to give a damn about a single character, and the result was me just chalking it up to “pretentious story for sad adults.”

And I was one of the few students who actually *read* it; even other kids who had no problem doing required reading wound up just looking up the story online.

In contrast, The Crucible is an Arthur Miller story that’s almost guaranteed to keep high schoolers interested.

[PwrdOn]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sohn_Kee-chung

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athlet...n%27s_marathon


At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, there was a Korean athlete who represented Japan, that occupied his home country from 1910 to 1945. His name was Sohn Kee-chung, but he was forced to compete in the games under the Japanese name Kitei Son. Sohn was the first Korean athlete to win an Olympic gold medal, though the medal remains credited as Japan's first victory in the Olympic marathon.
He refused to acknowledge the Japanese anthem at the victory ceremony. How is it different from Gwen Berry's turning away from the flag when Star Spangled Banner began playing?

Well it's a pretty difficult subject to broach because obviously America takes a lot of pride in our status as this great sporting nation, but of course we owe most of that to the accomplishments of black athletes. And while it's impossible to generalize about their political beliefs, it's probably safe to say that a sizable proportion of them, if not a majority, don't feel especially patriotic or loyal toward the USA but rather see it as an oppressor that is keeping their people down while simultaneously leeching off of their achievements to aggrandize its own image. Most of them probably don't dare to speak out openly on this, because their endorsements and livelihood depend on presenting an acceptable face to white America, but it's fairly obvious that this sentiment is shared by more than the handful of athletes who have dared to protest on the podium.

And this topic is a lot more complex and deeply woven into our socioeconomic fabric than we might think. Many black athletes only turn to sports because they are denied most other opportunities to get ahead in life, and for every Olympic champion there are thousands of athletes nobody has ever heard of that dedicated their entire lives to a sport but just weren't good enough or didn't manage to catch enough lucky breaks to make it. If black people had equal chances to succeed in other avenues, there would be far fewer kids who would opt for that one in a million shot at making it as a professional athlete instead of a more guaranteed path to financial stability, and that would mean fewer Olympic success stories too.

[skyvolt2000]

Any movie based on a stage play will be all talk. But Death of a Salesman, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe and The Iceman Cometh are all pretty good.

Tyler Perry wants a word.

While not a movie-the 80s sitcom 227 was originally a stage play.

[TheRay]

I think adults you disagree with are the way they are because they reacted differently, perhaps negatively or wrongly, to something you both experienced at some point. I mean we all grew up in a similar way, so how else did we turn out so differently?

[achilles]

True that.https://community.cbr.com/newreply.p...eply&p=5665836

I preferred "My Dinner With Andre The Giant"...