Month: March 2017

Broadsides and Ballyhoos – Kong: Skull Island edition

*spoilers

Broadsides (AKA stuff I didn’t like):

  • Nothing really happens.
  • It would be great to see a movie with strong female characters that actually believed female characters could be strong…
  • … Underlining, highlighting, and putting exclamation points on every instance doesn’t read as very sincere.
  • Are any of these people the least bit interesting other than John C. Reilly?
  • Waste of John Goodman.
  • I think I already forgot most of it.

Ballyhoos (AKA stuff I liked):

  • John C. Reilly. He steals the show from the title character and adds some much-needed heart.
  • That super campy prelude.
  • The backstory. Brief and just interesting enough. Didn’t overwhelm everything else, either.
  • Didn’t take itself too seriously.
  • I did end up caring about Kong.

– David

Broadsides and Ballyhoos – Logan edition

 

*spoilers

Broadsides (AKA stuff I didn’t like)

  • Another movie with a miracle cure…
  • …that only half-works because plot.
  • She had to talk and it had to be exposition.
  • More boring villains with none (or dumb) motivation.
  • Wolverine clone that shows up too early.
  • Run away, get caught, escape. Run away, get caught, escape. Reminds me of a Jack Torrance novel.

Ballyhoos (AKA stuff I did like)

  • Senile Professor X.
  • Dafne Keen — the actress playing Laura.
  • The first hour or so before she talks.
  • Casting Richard Grant from Withnail and I.
  • That moment with the cross.
  • Logan dying from adamantium poisoning.
  • Laura’s sunglasses.

 

– David

In Memory of Robert Osborne

The closest I came to meeting Robert Osborne was when I sat within a hundred feet from him as he regaled the crowd before a screening at the TCM Film Festival one year. That’s how I knew the man. The owner of the soothing voice that related so many backstage stories priming you for a first-rate film. Actually, not all of the films were first-rate but his stories made them feel that way. He had a knack for sharing anecdotes that were at once informative and amusing. Like the one about John Wayne’s allergic reaction to makeup on the set of The Quiet Man. The Duke wearing makeup… and suffering for it! You have to laugh at the thought. Except the point of the story was really the budget constraints director John Ford and company were working within. In order to shoot on location in Ireland, sacrifices were made. Wayne sharing O’Hara’s makeup artist, who wasn’t familiar with his skin allergies, was just one of them. Only that’s still not the point. The point is how much care went into making the film — a labor of love for the people involved. And Osborne always knew it. He knew how much hard work and passion went into producing the movies he introduced and he made sure the audience knew it too. A man as timeless as the films he spoke of. He made the movies better.

Bye, Bob.