Wasted movie weekend.

[Quasqueton]

I’m 0 for 2 in picking out movies this past weekend. My wife and I don’t get time to watch many movies, but this weekend we decided to rent two and watch them Sat and Sun nights.

Saturday night was The Producers – Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Uma Thurman (spellings?). We watched the first ~20 minutes of it and just was so unimpressed that we decided to stop the DVD and go to bed. It wasn’t funny. It was silly, but not even in a funny way. (I usually love silly funny – like Airplane or The Naked Gun.)

Sunday night was The New World – Colin Farrel (spelling?). We watched the first ~45 minutes of it and was lost we again just went to bed. The “background” music was so loud and annoying that we couldn’t hear what the characters were saying. When there wasn’t music, the characters mumbled so badly that we couldn’t understand what they were saying.

Damn. It took me 20 minutes to pick these movies off the wall in Blockbuster – there just isn’t anything good out (new on DVD) currently.

Quasqueton

 

[Henry]

For The Producers, there's a difficulty - the movie doesn't start getting funny, I found, until AFTER the first 20 minutes, I hate to say. For me, it doesn't pick up until Broderick's character (Bloom) quits his job, and throws in with Lane's character (Bialystock). One thing struck me immediately, though - this works MUCH better on a stage than on screen. You could see where the on-stage humor would have been, and how some things just don't work well in translation. I would LOVE to have seen him and Lane doing it live, though, when it originally ran.

 

[Umbran]

Hm. I found The Producers to be wonderful. Probably the best thing Mel Brooks has done since Blazing Saddles.

Much of The Producers is loving spoof of musical theatre, it's cliches and tropes. If you aren't a real fan of musicals, much of the humor may not come across. That, and one of the best songs from the stage production got cut from the film version, which is quite a shame.

 

[buzzard]

Hm. I found The Producers to be wonderful. Probably the best thing Mel Brooks has done since Blazing Saddles.

Much of The Producers is loving spoof of musical theatre, it's cliches and tropes. If you aren't a real fan of musicals, much of the humor may not come across. That, and one of the best songs from the stage production got cut from the film version, which is quite a shame.

He's talking about the remake, which Mel Brooks didn't actually make. I've only seen the original 1968 version myself, which is quite a good movie. Blazing Saddles (1974) came out after The Producers.

Of course I could merely be misunderstanding you (Mel Brooks did contribute to the screenplay of the 2005 remake).

buzzard

 

[barsoomcore]

And The New World is Terrence Malick, and either Malick works for you or he doesn't, but he definitely doesn't make films like anyone else. If you didn't like The New World, you probably won't like The Thin Red Line, but for my money they're both works of genius.

Malick is like Wong Kar-Wai for me: I don't know exactly WHAT he's doing, but I do know he's doing something that fascinates and moves me.

 

[Bront]

He's talking about the remake, which Mel Brooks didn't actually make. I've only seen the original 1968 version myself, which is quite a good movie. Blazing Saddles (1974) came out after The Producers.

Of course I could merely be misunderstanding you (Mel Brooks did contribute to the screenplay of the 2005 remake).

buzzard

In fact, the Producers was Mel's first "Mel Brooks" style movie.

The producers(2005) is slow at the begining, and gets much better after Leo quits his job. I found it quite entertaining and one of the better films I've seen. Also, yes, this is the broadway adaptation, which is probably better on broadway.

 

[hafrogman]

Yeah, I recommend that you write somebody and ask for 25 minutes of your life back from the New World, and use it to watch a little bit more of the Producers. If you still don't like it then, then you can stop without another word from me.

 

[Fast Learner]

The whole of idea of stopping a film after 20 minutes utterly boggles my mind, especially films that were positively received. Maybe after 45 minutes or so, when the film has had plenty of time to establish itself, but not at 20 minutes. Maybe I just love movies too much to not give them a better chance.

 

[Quasqueton]

Sad. I love Mel Brooks movies, including Blazing Saddles. I didn't know Brooks had anything to do with this movie. Had I known that, I would have rented it long ago.

But, it just wasn't funny. Just nothing about it elicited even a slight guffaw. It was just dead.

And The New World is Terrence Malick, and either Malick works for you or he doesn't, but he definitely doesn't make films like anyone else. If you didn't like The New World, you probably won't like The Thin Red Line, but for my money they're both works of genius.

I saw The Thin Red Line, and I think I liked it, at least OK. This movie may have been genius, I don't know. Like I said, I just couldn't hear or understand the dialogue. Either the background music was drowning it out, or they actors were mumbling. We were both just lost -- had no idea what was being said.

The whole of idea of stopping a film after 20 minutes utterly boggles my mind, especially films that were positively received. Maybe after 45 minutes or so, when the film has had plenty of time to establish itself, but not at 20 minutes. Maybe I just love movies too much to not give them a better chance.

I just love my time too much to give a boring/bad movie so much of it. I won't continue watching a boring/bad movie just on the hopes that it will get good -- plenty of movies get my interest in the first 20 minutes (or the first 20 seconds), so it's not like my expectations are too high.

Quasqueton

 

[Felon]

Nathan Lane. Gotta love a character actor whose character is always effeite, annoying, and completely charmless.