Day: April 18, 2018

“Too Many Paycheck Flicks,” posted on 12.4.17: “Surely Chris Pratt understands that he can’t continue to star in light-hearted, mock-ironic fantasy jizz films indefinitely, one after another after another. The man keeps inhaling helium — The Lego Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, Jurassic World, The Magnificent Seven, Passengers, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Avengers: Infinity War, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Avengers: Infinity War.

I don’t believe that any actor, no matter how engaging or popular he may be on talk shows, can continue to make empty movies indefinitely and still keep the popularity thing going. I realize that Dwayne Johnson refuses to make quality and he’s still filling seats, but sooner or later the dogs will stop eating the dog food. You have to man up and make something good.

HE believes that every fourth or fifth film that a marquee-brand actor makes has to at least aspire to something real and soulful. Within the next two or three years Pratt has to deliver an honest, well-honed performance in a movie about real life, real people, etc. The last intelligent, human-scaled film Pratt made was Her, and that wasn’t even his.

Last night I read a few pages of a 2017 draft of Adam McKay‘s Backseat, the Dick Cheney movie. (The script was called Cheney when McKay typed the title page.) Wikipedia describes the film, which Annapurna will release on 12.14.18, as a “biographical drama.” Okay, but it reads like a dark comedy to me. Chuckly, winky. It’s probably safe to say it’ll be a leading contender in the Golden Globe Comedy or Musical category. A friend who’s read the same draft calls Backseat “a mixture of McKay, Deadpool and Armando Iannucci.”

Backseat apparently tested not long ago. A friend got wind of reactions and shares the following: (a) Amy Adams‘ performance as Lynne Cheney could win Best Supporting Actress. She may need an additional strong scene to clinch it, but she’ll definitely be in the mix; (b) Christian Bale, who plays Cheney, gives a committed, full-blooded performance; and (c) Sam Rockwell‘s George Bush only makes a few appearances but each time it’s a scene-stealer — apparently more of an impression than a performance, but it made a huge impact.

Amy Adams as a somewhat older version of Lynne Cheney in Adam McKay’s Backseat.

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All my adult life I’ve been bothered by a garbled lyric in the chorus of “I’d Really Love To See You Tonight”, a loathsome soft-rock tune by England Dan & John Ford Coley. The printed lyrics: “I’m not talking ’bout movin’ in / And I don’t want to change your life / But there’s a warm wind blowing the stars around / And I’d really love to see you tonight.” The problem is that the singer doesn’t sing “movin’ in” — he sings “duhlivian.” If you don’t believe me, listen to this and then this. Listen to this a second time — there’s no question he’s not saying “movin’ in.” All my life I’ve been saying ‘what does ‘duhlivian’ mean?’ So in my head I changed it to “deliverance” because at least that made some kind of sense, but not really if you think about it. I just wanted to clear that up. It’s been bothering me since the mid ’70s.

That’s it — Amy Schumer‘s I Feel Pretty (STX, 4.20) has gotten pasted on Rotten Tomatoes (30%) and Metacritic (44%), and that’s probably all she wrote. Comedy-wise this is Schumer’s second dud since 2015’s Trainwreck. Her last effort was Snatched with Goldie Hawn. Making a good, character-rich comedy is really hard. Hell, making a good movie period. Judd Apatow obviously did pretty well with Trainwreck, but I Feel Pretty‘s co-directors, Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein…who knows what went wrong? Sorry.

A 4.18 review by The Stranger‘s Elinor Jones is kinda hilarious:

“I Feel Pretty is about a woman who suffers from a lack of confidence due to, you know, existing. After hitting her head in a spin class, she starts to believe she’s beautiful, which leads first to a positive attitude and then to successes in love and her career in selling makeup. (UGH.) It’s supposed to be funny, because everyone can plainly see that Schumer is disgustingly average! LOL, right?! A silly lady over 30 who weighs more than 120 pounds thinks she’s pretty! HA HA HA! HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAA! I laughed until I cried, because I am also over 30 and weigh more than 120 pounds, and my body could serve as a punch line too.”

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To go by image captures provided by DVD Beaver‘s Gary W. Tooze, Criterion has once again re-colored a classic American film — John Schlesinger‘s Midnight Cowboy (’69). Bowing to a bizarre revisionist preference requested by dp Adam Holender, Criterion’s forthcoming Midnight Cowboy Bluray (streeting on 5.29) has a greenish-teal tint that is definitely mondo bizarro.

“Everybody’s talkin’ at me…I can’t see their green faces…only the shadows of their eyes.”

Criterion’s Cowboy, a “4K digital restoration approved by cinematographer Adam Holender,” is described by Tooze as “significantly sharper” than MGM’s 2012 Bluray but “colors shift to be very green/blue. I found the teal-leaning very noticeable initially but I got used to it, and the improved detail is such a dramatic improvement over the older 1080P transfer. I have never seen it look this good.”

Are you telling me that Criterion’s greenish Cowboy capture [below] is the more natural-looking of the two? God’s blue sky is greenish turquoise in the Criterion. Has anyone ever seen a sky that looked this putrid?

Are you reading what Tooze is saying? He found the color-tint desecration of Midnight Cowboy to be somewhat off-putting and what-the-fucky, but then he “got used to it.” He decided to succumb to the greenish teal re-imagining because Criterion served it up and they know best, right?

Look at the main title image comparisons above — the browner, dustier, desert-tan version from the 2012 MGM Bluray is obviously more natural than the greenish Criterion version beneath it…c’mon! Look at the color of Jon Voight‘s shirt below this — blue in the older shot, blue-green in the Criterion. Look at the kitchen dishwasher — more or less natural looking in the MGM Bluray version, soaked in muddy green in the Criterion.

A little more than three years ago Criterion screwed up in a similar way when they horizontally compressed Brian De Palma’s Dressed To Kill while adding a greenish-yellow tint to the color. A public outcry led to a correction. Will fans of this legendary Best Picture winner go along with Criterion’s greenish-teal re-do, or will they grab their pitchforks and torches and march down to Criterion’s Manhattan headquarters?

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