cloud_loud's recent activity

  1. Comment on Bad Boys: Ride or Die | Official trailer in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    Bad Boys 2, Pain and Gain, and Ambulance are all of Bay’s masterpieces

    Bad Boys 2, Pain and Gain, and Ambulance are all of Bay’s masterpieces

    2 votes
  2. Comment on TV shows or movies like 1883 or The Last of Us? in ~tv

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    The Revenant for the western aspect of this post.

    The Revenant for the western aspect of this post.

    3 votes
  3. Comment on Bad Boys: Ride or Die | Official trailer in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    Anyone watch Bad Boys For Life? That was one of the last movies I saw in theaters before COVID hit. I liked it, it was fun. This looks good too.

    Anyone watch Bad Boys For Life? That was one of the last movies I saw in theaters before COVID hit. I liked it, it was fun. This looks good too.

    2 votes
  4. Comment on Movie of the Week #22 - Saving Private Ryan in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    This might be a long post. I vividly remember seeing this for the first time. I was 13 years old, I was barely getting into movies for the first time. This was playing on cable, which we had at...

    This might be a long post.

    I vividly remember seeing this for the first time. I was 13 years old, I was barely getting into movies for the first time. This was playing on cable, which we had at the time, and I loved it. So many parts of this movie stuck with me. The opening D-Day sequence, of course, Vin Diesel's death, when they first meet Matt Damon, and Tom Hanks's death scene. I've re-watched parts of it since that first viewing but this was the first time I rewatched the whole thing. Bryan Cranston, Ted Danson, and Nathan Fillion all threw me off, I had no idea they were in this.

    I've always loved the texture of this film. The desaturated colors, the grittiness of how it looks, all the handheld. It's one of my favorite Spielberg films, and it's wild that this started off as a less serious film that was more of an action adventure than a Drama, that is now considered what of the most realistic war films ever made.

    Going right into awards. This was the front-runner to win Best Picture, as I understood it, it basically swept all the precursors, with the exception of SAG Ensemble which went to Shakespeare in Love. Pretty sure this was before AFTRA when the guild was only composed of actors as I imagine the current organization would award Saving Private Ryan these days.

    This was an influential year for the Oscar's. Harvey Weinstein was obsessed with them and would aggressively campaign his films. He realized the monetary value of these awards, as well as recognizing that more talent would want to work with him if he kept his awards track up. The campaign budgets for both Saving Private Ryan and Shakespeare in Love were really big, and ballooned throughout the season as there was a sort of arms race to see who can win Best Picture, these large campaign budgets would become the norm thereafter. Weinstein even started a whisper campaign that the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan was the only part of the film that had any value. Obviously, Weinstein's tactics ended up working and Shakespeare in Love went home with Best Picture. This year gave birth to the modern day Oscar campaign.

    What makes this interesting to me is that this is not a Crash/Green Book/CODA situation. Where a crowd-pleaser beats out a more artsy film that was appreciated for it's directorial prowess rather than people having passion for the film. This was a comedic crowd-pleaser beating out a dramatic crowd-pleaser, which was also a blockbuster that grossed over 400M worldwide. Like there was no reason why people should have voted for Shakespeare in Love instead, other than all the campaign tactics that Weinstein utilized.

    I know Shakespeare in Love is considered one of the worst Best Picture winners. In this WatchMojo video it ranks second. That video overall is weird because How Green Was My Valley, Chicago, and Dances with Wolves all placed despite being great films outright. But that reputation has stuck and unlike say, Chicago, Shakespeare in Love has not had a reappraisal to give the film any credit.

    I like Shakespeare in Love and I think it gets way too much hate simply because it won Best Picture over Saving Private Ryan. But if you separate that, it's a good prestige studio romcom. This hate also extends onto Gwyneth Paltrow's win for Lead Actress, that also has something to do with Platrow's own Goop personality, but there seems to be no breathing room allowed for this film to be good. It's better than a lot of Best Picture winners.

    I also saw Elizabeth and The Thin Red Line for the first time specifically for this. Elizabeth sucks so hard. It is boring, meandering, and lifeless. People saying Blanchett should have won for this over Platrow, again, I think are more anti-Paltrow than pro-Elizabeth. I was not prepared for how much of a bore this film was.

    The Thin Red Line was excellent. I was under the impression that the film was about Vietnam, but it's actually about WW2, meaning there are three Best Picture nominees this year set during WW2. Here's a good video from an old Hollywood Reporter Roundtable where Christopher Plummer and George Clooney talk about working with Terrence Malick. In it they bring up that Adrian Brody was originally the lead of The Thin Red Line. Which you don't get the impression of, his final cut role in the film was a glorified extra. I know this was the artsy choice to win Best Picture, like if you thought Saving Private Ryan was too commercial for you you were stanning this.

    If I had to rank the nominees:

    1. Saving Private Ryan
    2. The Thin Red Line
    3. Shakespeare in Love
    4. Life is Beautiful
    5. Elizabeth

    Also, if there were ten nominees this year: The Truman Show, Gods and Monsters, Out of Sight, Primary Colors, A Simple Plan.

    Edit: I wanted to add that I think this years Oscar campaign could make a pretty decent movie itself. With Katzenberg and Weinstein as the leads.

    5 votes
  5. Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    I saw Layer Cake right after watching Argylle, just to see a movie where Matthew Vaughn was trying. It was pretty good. I like Anchorman. I’m a McKay bro but I’m not as crazy about Anchorman as...

    I saw Layer Cake right after watching Argylle, just to see a movie where Matthew Vaughn was trying. It was pretty good.

    I like Anchorman. I’m a McKay bro but I’m not as crazy about Anchorman as everyone else is. I think The Other Guys and Talladega Nights are better. Though McKay made the Anchorman sequel in 2013 so that he could get The Big Short made.

    2 votes
  6. Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    Ruimy made a blog post about his favorites of 2004. Which is a coincidence cause I was attempting this a few weeks ago. I was 4/5 at the time and wasn't really watching movies but from what I've...

    Ruimy made a blog post about his favorites of 2004. Which is a coincidence cause I was attempting this a few weeks ago. I was 4/5 at the time and wasn't really watching movies but from what I've seen from the year retroactively this is what I would pick:

    Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
    Million Dollar Baby
    The Village
    The Aviator
    Sideways
    Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
    Before Sunset
    Shaun of the Dead
    Collateral
    13 Going on 30

    A lot of great movies from that year I haven't seen including: My Summer of Love, Vera Drake, Birth, Manchurian Candidate, and Motrocycle Diaries. Unsurprisingly most of the movies I have seen from this year are children's films.

    3 votes
  7. Comment on Movie of the Week #21 - High Noon in ~movies

  8. Comment on Movie of the Week #21 - High Noon in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    I didn't like this! I thought it was kind of dull. I thought the performances lacked charisma. I wasn't aware of the film before this, if I'm being honest, and I was definitely not aware that it's...

    I didn't like this!

    I thought it was kind of dull. I thought the performances lacked charisma. I wasn't aware of the film before this, if I'm being honest, and I was definitely not aware that it's considered one of the best westerns ever made. I feel like I'm going crazy with how much this film is praised.

    I think a lot of the technical aspects of the film (with the exception of the music) feels like a b-movie from the time. It reminded me a lot of the TV show Leonardo DiCaprio's character in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood starred in. Nothing about it screams great Western to me the way when I first watched The Searchers or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance for the first time.

    I was trying to find something, anything, from critics that didn't like it. I learned that Roger Ebert didn't like it. However, I could only find one line about it from one of his blog posts: "I recently screened "High Noon" (No. 33) as a candidate for my Great Movies series, and rejected it as, frankly, just not a very good film."

    I think it gets praised highly because of the Hollywood Blacklist analogy. With the writer of the film having been blacklisted himself, and John Wayne calling the film unamerican. Even then I don't think there's anything special about this, though as I understand it it was a very influential western.

    In terms of the other contenders. I've seen The Quiet Man, which I loved as it's from John Ford and is one of the best looking films from this era of Hollywood IMO. Ford rightfully won Director for that film. And I've seen the Best Picture winner from that year The Greatest Show on Earth which I found to be incredibly boring. Greatest Show has a reputation of being one of the worst Best Picture winners but it has it's fans (namely Spielberg who showed how influential it was for him in The Fabelmans).

    2 votes
  9. Comment on Alien: Romulus | Official teaser trailer in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    I liked Prometheus but I found Covenant to be a slog. This isn't connected to those though and takes place in between Alien and Aliens.

    I liked Prometheus but I found Covenant to be a slog. This isn't connected to those though and takes place in between Alien and Aliens.

    9 votes
  10. Comment on Nominate for "Movie of the Week" in April - Female Leads in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    It gets those comparisons cause David Leitch was co-Director on the first John Wick. Anyways I like Leitch a lot. He’s a vulgar auteur like Michael Bay. I like Deadpool 2 and Bullet Train a lot...

    It gets those comparisons cause David Leitch was co-Director on the first John Wick.

    Anyways I like Leitch a lot. He’s a vulgar auteur like Michael Bay. I like Deadpool 2 and Bullet Train a lot and I’m reallly looking forward to The Fall Guy.

    2 votes
  11. Comment on Nominate for "Movie of the Week" in April - Female Leads in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    I’ll go with Moonstruck where Cher is the lead character. I considered this my favorite movie throughout college and it’s really funny and really entertaining. It also stars a 23 year old Nicolas...

    I’ll go with Moonstruck where Cher is the lead character. I considered this my favorite movie throughout college and it’s really funny and really entertaining. It also stars a 23 year old Nicolas Cage as Cher’s love interest.

    3 votes
  12. Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies

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    So instead of making a post that gets zero comments, I'll just do it here. Here's an early spitball of the 2025 Oscar's: Picture We Live in Time A Real Pain Blitz Dune: Part Two Joker Foliex a...

    So instead of making a post that gets zero comments, I'll just do it here. Here's an early spitball of the 2025 Oscar's:

    Picture

    1. We Live in Time
    2. A Real Pain
    3. Blitz
    4. Dune: Part Two
    5. Joker Foliex a Deux
    6. Concalve
    7. Hit Man
    8. Juror No. 2
    9. Emanuelle
    10. Sing Sing

    Also: I'm dog earring Twisters and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as potential surprise populist contenders ala Top Gun: Maverick.

    Director

    1. Steven McQueen - Blitz
    2. Denis Villenueve - Dune: Part Two
    3. Todd Phillips - Joker Foliex a Deux
    4. John Crowley - We Live in Time
    5. Audrey Diwan - Emanuelle

    Original Screenplay

    1. We Live in Time
    2. A Real Pain
    3. Blitz
    4. Juror No. 2
    5. Anora

    Adapted Screenplay

    1. Hit Man
    2. Emanuelle
    3. Joker Foliex a Duex
    4. Dune: Part Two
    5. Sing Sing

    Lead Actor

    1. Andrew Garfield - We Live in Time
    2. Joaquin Phoenix - Joker Foliex a Deux
    3. Ralph Finnes - Conclave
    4. Nicolas Hoult - Juror No. 2
    5. Glenn Powell - Hit Man

    Lead Actress

    1. Florence Pugh - We Live in Time
    2. Saoirse Ronan - Blitz
    3. Lady Gaga - Joker Foliex a Deux
    4. Noémie Merlant - Emanuelle
    5. Angelina Jolie - Maria

    Supporting Actor

    1. Kiernan Culkin - A Real Pain
    2. Stephen Graham - Blitz
    3. John Lithgow - Conclave
    4. Paul Raci - Sing Sing
    5. Samuel L. Jackon - The Piano Lesson

    Supporting Actress

    1. Toni Colette - Juror No. 2
    2. Isabella Rossellini - Conclave
    3. Naomi Watts - Emanuelle
    4. Jennifer Grey - A Real Pain
    5. Marama Corlett - We Live in Time

    Film Editing

    1. Dune: Part Two
    2. Blitz
    3. Joker Foliex a Deux
    4. Hit Man
    5. We Live in Time
    4 votes