Posted on 01/06/2013 6:17:27 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Who is that Transformer in the picture, behind the old geezer? Bumblebee? I thought he was yellow.
I enjoyed Twins, myself. But that was a long time ago.
He then got into politics with basically no platform
he fumbled there, but that's really one of the few fumbles he's made
i'm not going to call him a conservative by any means, but he is quite an intelligent guy
you forgot the Conan movies
No interest whatsoever. I thought “Total Recall” [original, not the lame remake] was one of the best sci fi movies ever.
My personal top Arnold movies are:
1. Terminator 2 ("He will live.")
2. Conan the Barbarian ("And if you do not listen, then to HELL with you!")
3. The Running Man ("Hey light bulb! Hey Christmas tree!")
4. Predator ("If it bleeds, we can kill it!")
5. Kindergarten Cop ("It's not a tumor!")
All, I saw several movies over the weekend, so here are some mini-reviews:
"Lincoln" was excellent. I was skeptical, not about Daniel Day-Lewis, who is among the top 2-3 actors of this generation if not the best. He was beyond superb, capturing Lincoln's homespun humor (yes, you laugh out loud a number of times at stories 100 years old) but also his righteous anger and frustration. His confrontation with Mary over Robert's enlistment ( and she thinks likely death) is revealing and moving. What made me skeptical was the time frame of 1865. I thought Spelberg was missing the best parts of Lincoln's political career. In fact, Tony Kushner's screenplay was exceptional, weaving in the Gettysburg Address (1863) as well as the 2nd Inaugural of 1864. The opening scene, in which a handful of soldiers quote BACK to Lincoln the Address was brilliant. Surprisingly, the weakest element was the John Williams' uninspiring musical score.
Most of all, the process---and it was a difficult process---whereby the 13th Amendment was passed, reveals the incredible compromises on all sides required to get it done. The "purest man who ever walked the earth" (as Thad Stevens calls Lincoln) in the end had to resort to bribery of Dem congressmen (not surprising) and of deception of fellow Republicans.
"Flight" with Denzel Washington is only slightly less impressive. When a functional drunken airline pilot saves his plane and the lives of 140 people through astounding flying, he's a hero. But slowly clues emerge pointing to his intoxication and his friends help him with a cover up. Eventually, his innocence means someone else will take the fall for his crime. What does this drunk do? While there is no literal " come to Jesus" moment, the Christian overtones are strong, despite Hollywood's expected language and nudity. You will never want to hear a pilot say " we have some chop" after watching "Flight"!
"Taken 2" was disappointing, perhaps because the first was so good. A CIA agent takes his family to Turkey, where he is the victim of a revenge kidnapping from his actions in the first movie. This time, the 20-ish daughter is the one doing the searching from directions given by the captured Liam Neeson via a hidden cell phone. The weakness is the premise, wherein Neeson---who made a great hunter---now has to play the role of the prey.
"The Master" with Philip Seymour Hoffman and River Phoenix is a mixed bag. Clearly meant as a metaphor for L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, the film never knows whether to ridicule the subject or treat it as a threat. The music and direction reflect this schizophrenia. Fantastic acting by Hoffman (and, I guess by Phoenix because you despise him so much) still don't save this from it's own inconsistencies.
Domestic BO is still 1/3 of the revenue, and a bunch of the other 2/3s is domestic cable and DVD sales. And nobody knows if he’s still a draw anywhere, this is his first actually starring role since Collateral Damage in 2002, and that lost money. 10 years is a long time to be doing nothing but cameo and ensembles.
Yes, in return for a substantive donation, you too can be a figurehead for a claque of fascist control freaks.
;’) Still, Arnold heading a think tank, something funny about that right away. :’)
Considering that Ahnold is of immoderately moderate intelligence, but also possesses ridiculous amounts of money, t'would be a source of constant amusement to him to have such fawning "luminaries" hanging upon his every word in all seriousness. After all, from Conan to Canute isn't really suc a big stretch.
Arnold's play in America does represent something of a medieval tragicomedy. He started out debasing himself for sicko faggot artiste Robert Mapplethorpe, but it did get his name "in pictures" in the right circles (so to speak). I can't imagine what he did to get his shot with the Hollywood tycoons. By all reports, although he was respected professionally among his bodybuilding peers, personally he was little more than endured as something of an a-hole. Once he'd made the big time, needless to say, there was motive for revenge against the powerful. Rubbing shoulders by marrying a Kennedy wasn't enough. So obtaining their deference by the power to grant political favors became the goal. THAT is why I think he wanted to be governor. We all know how that turned out when everybody had him for a patsy. So when he gets caught exercising the insatiable urge to boink a fat Mexican scullery maid, with his storybook life irreparably tarnished, being of modest intellect, obviously defective courage, and arguable integrity, no amount of money could buy him true respect. So now he'll settle for obsequious deference from the most craven smart people one could find.
What a pathetic life. I doubt it will end well.
Very funny.
River Phoenix?
I really like the original “Total Recall”, even though the three-page PK Dick story on which it was kinda-sorta based does a flamethrower job on the screenplay’s ass. :’) I didn’t see the remake. The reboot of “Star Trek” was fantastic looking in iMax, but otherwise basically pretty much sucked.
“Live Long and Suck it, Zachary Quinto!” — Dr. Sheldon Cooper
LOLOLOLOL... you always kill me!
I’ve enjoyed some of his movies, and while I don’t go to the theater more than once every 18 months or so, I see the recent stuff when it arrives on disk, generally at the warehouse clubs. I’d never heard of “The Expendables” but was tempted to get it because of the sheer size of the cast, and its sequels have to be better than the sequels of the remake of “Ocean’s 11”. ;’)
:’D “It’s not a tumor!” He should be cast in whatever script they eventually work out for “Ghostbusters III”, since he’s really much more consistently entertaining in comedies, probably due to his accent.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2975581/posts?page=36#36
I really, really disliked his “Conan” movies; I would have liked to see the books made into a movie franchise and at least an attempt made to incorporate the *actual* Hyborian Age essay details as a backstory and maybe the basis of an introductory narrated framework, and of course the short stories as vignettes (Conan’s encounter with the abominable snowmen, the big slug at Larsa, his fight with the prehuman ape-man, etc) to keep the action going in some overall Conan-based main story. Ah well.
“Conan Kills the Girly-Men”
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