What are we watching now?

[State of Epicicity]

We watched the original Twister last night from 1996, the first time for me. I had never wanted to see it, thinking it was everything bad and pandering about movies, plus I hate every role I’ve seen Bill Paxton deliver, but my assumptions were all wrong; I loved everything about it.

First of all, the director was incredible in this. The performances of the actors were top notch. They really were great and perfect for the story. Helen Hunt was cool and real and warm, Bill Paxton was earnest and real and compelling, and Jamie Gertz was real and vulnerable and so perfectly moved forward the story. She really was the most important in getting the story to mean something here, and that was great.

On top of that, that pace of the director Jan de Bont was spot on. There was room for air and contemplation, to let you rest before the next onslaught. And the onslaughts felt real but viewed through the eyes of a thoughtful and careful observer.

The pace was driven by the editing by Michael Kahn, so the editing was outstanding, just perfect. And the score by Mark Mancina was buoyant and full of a sense of awe, wonder, and beauty.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I hate every role I’ve seen Bill Paxton deliver

You should check out Frailty sometime if you want to test your Paxton endurance on something dark.

 

[State of Epicicity]

On top of that, the sound was incredible. The dialog was not always intelligible, but you got the gist in those moments. To me the original Twister was truly great in the style Spielberg aspired to in the 80s, but Jan de Bont just did it way better.

 

[State of Epicicity]

You should check out Frailty sometime if you want to test your Paxton endurance on something dark.

Interesting. I can’t tell if you’re saying he’s good in that one or not! In most roles I’ve seen him in, like Aliens or True Lies, he plays the dumbest, most irritating character, and I got to the point where I just hate when I see his name in opening credits.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Interesting. I can’t tell if you’re saying he’s good in that one or not! In most roles I’ve seen him in, like Aliens or True Lies, he plays the dumbest, most irritating character, and I got to the point where I just hate when I see his name in opening credits.

It's an excellent film imo. He directed it to boot so you're kind of putting some faith in me if you do give it a go

I know what you mean about him but I've always loved that about his roles

 

[State of Epicicity]

It's an excellent film imo. He directed it to boot so you're kind of putting some faith in me if you do give it a go

I know what you mean about him but I've always loved that about his roles

I’ll give it a try then. I’d like to think he wasn’t insufferable in everything except Twister. Last night I just couldn’t believe that I was actually really drawn in by his performance; I thought it was cool and thoughtful.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I'm a big fan of Chet so there is that

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

Bill Paxton (RIP) is a National Treasure. Right up there with Nicholas Cage.

Used car salesman in True Lies (who tries to get Arnold's wife in the sack with him):

"I'm not a spy... I'm nothing! I'm navel lint! I have to lie to women to get laid! And.. and I don't score much! I got a little dick it's pathetic!"

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

And who can forget Pvt. Hudson?

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

In most roles I’ve seen him in, like Aliens or True Lies, he plays the dumbest, most irritating character

It's for comedic effect. There's a small segment of actors who are, essentially, hams. They cheese it up with such expertise.

The Masters of Cheese:

Bill Paxton
Nicholas Cage
Bruce Campbell

...At least these three come to mind.

Remember not to take them seriously, unless they're actually playing things straight in a movie ("Fraility" is one of them; "Titanic" etc).

 

[State of Epicicity]

It's for comedic effect. There's a small segment of actors who are, essentially, hams. They cheese it up with such expertise.

The Masters of Cheese:

Bill Paxton
Nicholas Cage
Bruce Campbell

...At least these three come to mind.

Remember not to take them seriously, unless they're actually playing things straight in a movie ("Fraility" is one of them; "Titanic" etc).

I know it’s for effect, but I just never find it funny in the Paxton stuff I’ve seen. There are other actors who I think can be genuinely funny in a hammy way.

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

Bruce Campbell is much better at it than Bill was.

 

[norminal]

I'm a big fan of Chet so there is that

His best role ever!

 

[JiveTurkey]

His best role ever!

Just an excellent 80s flick all around

 

[Los-D]

Never forget. RIP

 

[Byrdman]

The wifey and I have been watching The Bear and it's pretty damn good. I have been sneaking in House of Dragons too, but the wife doesn't get into stuff like that so I catch up when she goes to bed.

 

[State of Epicicity]

Last night I was in the mood to try something completely foreign to me, and it did not pay off. We tried two different directors who have collections on the Criterion Channel; we tried Alexandria...Why? by Youssef Chahine from 1979 and Floating Clouds by Mikio Maruse from 1955. I didn't know anything about these directors, but for each I went to IMDB and just picked the film that was listed as the one they're most known for. Interestingly, both centered on the fallout of WWII; Alexandria...Why? was smack dab in the middle of fighting in Egypt but seemed to center on civilians mostly, and Floating Clouds dealt with WWII and postwar in Indo-China and Japan, again centered on civilians.

I really did not like either film, and I'm not interested to check out more by Chahine or Maruse unless there's a damn good reason. I hung with each film as long as I could, but I had to bail on each for different reasons.

Alexandria...Why? had some very interesting and compelling editing, but the direction and acting felt hamfisted, to put it bluntly. There really wasn't acting, per se, just delivering lines and sometimes making a facial expression that the actor thought would vaguely or exaggeratedly convey the feel. The editing, although interesting and compelling when splicing actual WWII footage with the film itself, became a chaotic mess when it was just the story in front of you. There was nothing to pull you in to character's inner thoughts, nothing to make you care about their motion in the story; there were just too many walls put up of plain bad acting and clueless directing. Chahine made a ton of films, and I really can't believe that this was deep into his career, for as bad as it was. I had to bail after thirty minutes.

Floating Clouds was much much better, but still not good. The cinematography portended the feel of the rest of the film, just gray everywhere. Everything with a permeating and stifling gray that made it feel like you were analyzing an uninteresting sketch on poor quality paper found in an abandoned house, but without any of the magnetism a mystery in an actual abandoned house would inspire. The shots were at least well framed, and the editor let the story move in a competent way, but here the fundamentals fell short: boring acting, directing, and writing. It was like a soap opera, but less interesting. A love story in which you don't care about either character, and the director has never considered what's makes any human being interesting or not. He thinks that by looking cool you've already accomplished your mission. And that was about it. The dude looked cool and the girl was beautiful in this way where I could see her as the subject of a million paintings. But the directing and writing were so bland as to be utterly repellant. So again, we bailed after thirty minutes.

My wife was trooper. Normally we set a loose fifteen minute role, where if it's clear that the film has no redeeming value, we bail within fifteen minutes, but because I don't know any postwar Japanese film outside Kurosawa, and I don't know any Egyptian film at all, I wanted to ride it out to see if Chahine and Maruse were going anywhere. But they weren't going anywhere I cared to follow. She picks the next film, thank God.

 

[Orvillain]

 

[State of Epicicity]

I watched Raw so many times when I was a kid. Man, he was great.

 

[State of Epicicity]

I'm trying to think about who my favorite comedians have been over time, but there's a huge gap. When I was very very young I would play the Bill Cosby Himself record over and over again; it never got old, and I thought it was genius. Then I saw Raw, and I still love that one. Then for a long time, I didn't pay any attention to stand up comedy. Finally I discovered Mitch Hedberg, and I got to see him live twice. He's still the king, in my book. But since then, I've loved Tom Segura (saw him three times), Mike Birbiglia (saw him once), Louis CK before it was discovered how terrible of a person he was (saw him once), John Mulaney (saw him once), and Gary Gulman (saw him once).

I think there is a genius to good comedy, like there is plain spoken fact in front of you that you never noticed, and this person with a microphone is just pointing it out. I realize I've seen way more people I admire in comedy than in music! But I got to meet and talk at length with Craig Locicero, so my life is complete.