Synobun
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Live-action Monsters. Inc looks great.
Which Films have you seen lately? Number K'. Someone was spreading lies about Joseph 20
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At least it isn't in the Korean countryside - where most horror films are set. But this one left no room for viewing it as other than comedy.
Matt Damon said no to a huge film franchise that he thinks could have made him $250 million
Matt Damon turned down a major role years ago – except this role was one that could have made the Oscar-winner upwards of $250 million.
Appearing on Friday’s episode of CNN’s “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace,” Damon spoke with the host about how in 2009, he was offered not just the lead role in James Cameron’s “Avatar,” but a percentage of the film’s earnings.
“It’s something awful like that,” Damon joked when asked about his $250 million calculation, going on to say he’s “sure it’s the most money an actor ever turned down.” Damon said he was obligated to finish production on the “Bourne” series that he starred in between 2002 and 2016, and he didn’t want to “leave them in the lurch” to go do “Avatar.”
Cameron ended up casting Sam Worthington in the lead role, alongside Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Joel David Moore and Michelle Rodriguez in the franchise’s first installment. “Avatar,” of course, went on to become the highest grossing movie of all time, with a lifetime gross of nearly $3 billion since its 2009 release. The long-awaited sequel, “Avatar: The Way of the Water” came out last year, and is the third highest-grossing film ever, with a lifetime gross of $2.3 billion. “Water” sits behind “Avatar” and “Avengers: Endgame,” which has grossed nearly $2.8 billion since its release in 2019.
It’s a decision that may haunt him, but all signs seem to indicate that Damon did just fine without venturing around Cameron’s planet of Pandora. For now, Damon stars in director Christopher Nolan’s latest war-era epic “Oppenheimer,” which premieres in theaters on Friday.
As for Damon’s claim that his decision resulted in the most money an actor has declined ever, that’s debatable. Sean Connery was famously offered the role of the wizard Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s sweeping “Lord of the Rings” trilogy of films, but reportedly turned the role down because he “didn’t get it.” What’s more, he was allegedly offered $30 million dollars for each movie, plus 15 percent of the box office take, which in retrospect would have netted the “Bond” actor a sum in the vicinity of $450 million dollars.
Chukchi Husky
Lone Wolf
Sean Connery also turned down the role of John Hammond in Jurassic Park.
EgonSpengler
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A Walter Hill double-feature: The Warriors (1979) was maybe better than I remembered. I hadn't seen it in *coughcough* years, and there was a lot I didn't remember. I wanted to pair it with Streets of Fire (1984), but I couldn't find that one on any of the streaming services I already pay for, so I watched Dead For a Dollar (2022) instead, which was just okay. I liked the old-fashioned cinematography that made it look like one of the classic Westerns. The camera angles and framing seemed deliberately styled on the oldies. I wondered if they used old camera lenses or some kind of faux "Technicolor", but a quick Google search didn't turn up anything. The dialogue was weird, though. *blam* "You shot him!" "Yes I did." Hunh? 
BenitoChavez
Elderly Tortoise
Oppenheimer -This is one of those movies I like but I'm not sure I need to see again. A film about the the guy who made the first atomic bomb was treated with the appropriate gravity it deserved which is no small task. There's an allegory about mutually assured destruction which I thought was well done. The movies is long though at 3 hours and it definitely could have been a good 30-45 minutes shorter. During that entire 3 hours I found the music is jarring and intrusive, right at the edge of overtaking the dialogue which made me strain to hear the dialogue and made it less enjoyable to follow the movie. Throughout the entire duration there is a feeling of angst, most of the time it's appropriate, but I feel like Nolan could have mixed it up a bit. There doesn't need to be quippy jokes, but something less monotone would be nice. I also had issues with the sheer number of characters and the non-linear story telling which Nolan seems to be a big fan of but doesn't work for this movie.
That is so common nowadays. I hate it and wish I could lower the music and sound effects volume independent of the dialogue, like in games.
It's something the director often does. There are many complaints about the music making dialogue difficult to hear in (eg) Tenet.
BenitoChavez
Elderly Tortoise
I think a lot of it depends on the environment. Usually movies are made to be watched and heard in theaters. At home with smaller speakers, more background noise, and without acoustically ideal rooms it changes how the audio is perceived. Closed captions are an option at home but that means you're reading instead of watching whatever else is on screen. I saw Oppenheimer at a theater where I expect to be able to hear a movie without issues.
Yeah, in his earlier movies I don't remember the dialogue being hard to hear. But it happens so much in his most recent movies that it has to be an artistic choice, and a very odd choice since you would think that a director would want dialogue in his movies to be heard.
The Kothoga. Still one of the best movie monsters ever. Too bad the movie wasn't good other than that (and still imo is worth a watch).
I hard the actual book this is adapted from is far better.
Besides, this has 90s Penelope Ann Miller, what more do you want?
Even Sizemore is good in it.
EgonSpengler
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I couldn't decide what to watch, so I randomized my watchlist and it was dandy. Demons (1985) and Serpico (1973) were both excellent.
CaffeineJunkie
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Most recently, The Flash, and it was AWESOME. I came for Keaton's Batman, but Ezra Miller proved that it was still his movie, backed by a script from Christina Hodson once again at the top of her game after fumbling Birds of Prey.
Some of the CGI really was godawful though.
Some of the CGI really was godawful though.
EgonSpengler
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I still haven't seen that one. I've heard it's not bad. iirc, The Exorcist II: Heretic was on the shortlist for Worst Movie I've Ever Seen. I think there was a tv series a little while ago too, but I missed it and haven't gone back to look for it. There's a new one scheduled to be released in October. Trailer's okay, as trailers go. I can't decide if I'm going to see it.
I haven't bothered with most of the modern reboots of the classics, although The Exorcist is one of my favorites, which makes a reboot simultaneously more tantalizing and more fraught. I didn't see 2013's Evil Dead, but I've heard Evil Dead Rise isn't terrible, so I put that one on my watchlist. I heard the new Halloween wasn't good, so I skipped it. I haven't heard anything at all about the new Scream, and I skipped that one too. I finally got around to watching the 2017 remake of It and it didn't move me to watch the second part. Still, the horror genre actually has a decent history of remakes, some of which have become classic themselves. I'm kind of looking forward to the remake of Salem's Lot, although I think that might be on hold because of the strikes. Last Voyage of the Demeter looks like it could be fun, if we consider that a remake or a reboot. It looks like "What if we made a Dracula movie that's really a stealth remake of Alien?" Ok, you got me, I'm in.
(Note: These trailers are technically both SFW, but these films both appear to be straight horror, no chaser. There are no comedic beats leavening anything. The trailers aren't super-scary, but maybe keep the volume down and use the subtitles if you're at work or the kids are in the room.)
Iirc I found Exorcist III to be passable. The main actor is good. I think it doesn't have the tone of Exorcist I, and maybe not much of a metaphysical element (but I might be misremembering that).
By the way, this movie is so old that this is the extremely old guy from The Walking Dead:
By the way, this movie is so old that this is the extremely old guy from The Walking Dead:
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EgonSpengler
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Yeah, I like that guy.
Recently, I've spotted Mercedes Ruehl in The Warriors and Judd Hirsch in Serpico.
Incidentally, I've read that The Warriors is an adaptation of Homer's Odyssey. If so, Ruehl has to have been the Sirens. Her character was a cop. Get it? Sirens? (It's easy to think that The Lizzies were the Sirens and Ruehl was Scylla. But there was no Charybdis. I think The Lizzies could have been the Lotus Eaters and Ruehl was the Sirens. But if that's so, I don't know who Scylla and Charybdis would have been. Maybe they just weren't represented, or a scene got cut from the final edit.)
(Large images, not spoilers.)
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