Movie/film suggestions.

We’re The Millers. Had several belly laughs with Jason Sudekas, Jennifer Anniston and all others.... especially their ’son’. 

Watched my first Creed movie recently.....Creed II. I thought it was really well and thoughtfully done 

Rewatching "A Vigilante" with Olivia Wilde. I thought she was wonderful in this physical role.

Watched "Seberg" recently....thought Kristen Stewart was wonderful.

"Birdman" Wonderfully acted by all.... Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone. I loved the camera work along with the narration.

@immatthewj still on the Matt Dillon subject. You, me and Dupree. Not a big deal but he just did so fine. Unlike Owen Wilson, annoying in 4 out of 5 acts. Dillon is just cool, enjoyable, effortless in anything he does.

I was thinking of that series just a minute ago. If I remember correctly, I think one story that hit hard was of a seasoned vet who was in a trench with his unit and one of our jets came in low to drop some Napalm. He watched as the pods were released and immediately noticed they were spinning backwards, meaning it was heading to where he was so he grabbed the guy next to him and held him overhead as he crouched down. When it was all done and over, all he held was a charred torso. 

It was routine in jungle warfare for soldiers, upon wakening to clench their fists as tightly as they could to squeeze out the bluish fungus that filled the scratches and cuts in their hands so they could use them for the day. Being a Seabee in the Pacific Theater, my dad had jungle rot in his feet for the rest of his life. He had the VA use the strongest meds to some weak acids poured into the bottom of his feet to try to eradicate it. He had to stop the love of his life, bowling, from being unable to stand  and walk properly for longer periods of time. 

I love all those PBS series as well. From WWI to WWII, the Civil War, etc. One need to be reminded.

All the best,
Nonoise

PBS has aired an excellent 10 part documentary series titled The Vietnam War (2017-2018) narrated by Peter Coyote.  The total futility of our involvement, along with the casualty count on both sides and the civilians, is incredible and depressing.  I've watched all ten episodes twice, at different times, and both times I could not stop watching.

@immatthewj , @bdp24, I had a coworker back in the '70s who was a medic in Nam. He was a stoner back then and couldn't shake the habit (I don't blame him one bit). He said it was so f*cked up and hopeless that you had basically three groups to be in: the stoners, the drunks and the straights.

After a fierce firefight you could smell the opium that the Cong smoked along with the cordite as they waited for the Americans to come stumbling by. They were into war about the same as the Americans. All they'd find is spent ammo, pipes and paraphernalia along with tunnels no one wanted to go down into. 

They'd be high as a kite watching lead tanks hit land mines as rockets passed by overhead, enjoying the show as best they could. When his second tour came up he had the option of transferring to France so he hopped on that one and buggered out. The worst thing he saw in France was a young couple making love on a tombstone during a hot summer night who picked up Mustard Gas poisoning that was still there from WWI. They almost died from it. I had a grandfather who survived that but not in one piece. My mom remembers holding his outstretched hands only to have a complete layer of skin from his forearms down to his hands come off in her hands.

War sucks big time. You'd think we'd get that into our thick, stupid heads.

All the best,
Nonoise

My younger sister’s boyfriend wasn’t so lucky, and ended up in Nam. But not for long; he took a bullet to his forehead on his first trek into the jungle..

What a waste that was.  So much waste of life.  Blood and treasure and more blood.

I found the statement made by Francis Ford Coppola about his film Apocalypse Now extremely despicable: "My film is not about Vietnam. My film is Vietnam." Unbelievable! In addition to his statement being so offensive and ridiculous, his film is a bloated, pompous, pretentious pos. IMO Full Metal Jacket and The Deer Hunter are much better movies about the war.

I can respect your point of view, @bdp24 ; however, I remember being transfixed by it; the whole trippy and lawless atmosphere it conveyed sucked me in and put me on the boat with Sheen and his crew.  For many years it remained one of my all time favorites, up there with Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid.  I had a friend (about my age) who didn’t feel quite as strongly as you do about it, but he much preferred Platoon to Apocalypse Now (as the latter did nothing for him), and like you he really enjoyed Full Metal Jacket and The Deer Hunter. (I think what he really enjoyed about The Deer Hunter were the Russian Roulette scenes . . . he found that fascinating, and I will say no more about that aspect.) 

But then again, I remember I was in the AF when Apocalypse Now came out, and I worked with a vet in the hangar who loved it; he said it reminded him of what it was like to be in Southeast Asia at the time.  (It is worth pointing out that he was in the AF and stationed in Thailand working on fighters during that time as opposed to humping through the jungle with a M-16.)  There were scenes that I found to be intense, and I find the whole backstory behind the making of the film to be quite interesting, but looking at it objectively, where I think it may fail as a film, is it tells a story without giving the audience someone to really care about.  A movie that winds up moving me so much I cannot bring myself to watch it anymore, is Casualties Of War.  I find watching the rape and murder of innocence to depress me even more than I am in my normal state of mental malaise.

@immathewj and @nonoise: I’m just ahead of you guys, being born in 1950. By 1968 (when I started college, and therefore had a student deferment) everyone knew the Vietnam war was already lost, and skeptical (at best) about Nixon’s claim of having a secret plan to end the war (with "honor"). That was when my cynicism regarding politicians was fomented.

My Dad served in the Army Air Corps in World War 2, as a navigator on a bomber (the Air Force was created after WW2), and was a staunch Republican (my Mom a Democrat, a typical family voting situation in the USA). But even he knew Vietnam was a lost cause, and was not willing to sacrifice his only son for it.

In 1969 the military instituted the draft lottery---based on date of birth, and my number (249) was quite away from the highest number than year (around 210 iirc). After your first year in the lottery, your military obligation was fulfilled. My younger sister’s boyfriend wasn’t so lucky, and ended up in Nam. But not for long; he took a bullet to his forehead on his first trek into the jungle..

That sister joined the Navy in 1978, being deployed first in Hawaii then in Germany. Her military benefits have come in handy, as she suffers from a lot of health issues. When I take her to her doctor’s appointments at the local Vet facility I see lots of Vietnam Vets, and it’s not a pretty sight. My Dad refused to talk about WW2, typical of Vets who saw combat.

I found the statement made by Francis Ford Coppola about his film Apocalypse Now extremely despicable: "My film is not about Vietnam. My film is Vietnam." Unbelievable! In addition to his statement being so offensive and ridiculous, his film is a bloated, pompous, pretentious pos. IMO Full Metal Jacket and The Deer Hunter are much better movies about the war.

but the way things are going now, at least I got to live a good, normal American life. 

My sentiments exactly.  At least I got to live the best days of my life when things here were not perfect, but all in all, still pretty good in comparison.   

You were closer than I was, @nonoise .  I didn’t graduate HS until ’77 and by that time I actually had a pretty good part time job (36 hours a week for a high school kid!), and after I did graduate they gave me a raise (five and change an hour!) and put me on full time.  So when I did join the AF in ’78, it was more because I needed to get out of a certain small town in Montana and didn’t see higher education as something that would work for me, as opposed to it being my waning sense of nationalism.  A month or so before I was inducted I went to see The Boys In Company C (1978), and I remember thinking to myself that I was glad: 1) that Vietnam was over, and 2) that I did not join the Marine Corps.

@immatthewj  I'm in the same boat as you, or thereabouts. I was 6 months out from being drafted for Nam before the war ended. My older brother went in but he ended up in Germany as an MP. I, too, was gung-ho what with my dad being a Seabee in the Navy in WWII and my uncle was in intelligence. Raised as a good Republican in a Republican household and extended family until I first voted, and never looked back.

Born in '54 and I used to think it was too early but the way things are going now, at least I got to live a good, normal American life. 

All the best,
Nonoise

I just took a look, @nonoise , and it appears I can rent Warfare for 5.99.  I have got Elephant at the top of my "pay for list", but I will put Warfare as #2.  (You may be interested in Elephant yourself; the trailer makes me think that it is based on Columbine.)

 In the end, things look rather fruitless considering what they sacrificed but that is basically the cost of war. It should be required viewing for all the gung-ho wannabes out there.

That was me when I was growing up.  From reading some of your posts, I think I am about 5 years younger than you, meaning that I was growing up under the shadow of Vietnam and the draft, but in the end the US was out before I was old enough.  But I was like Tom Cruise’s (nationalistic in his youth) character in Born On The Fourth Of July--I thought it was my duty, and I guess I couldn't wait to be old enough to go somewhere and be a hero.  Many times since then I have given thanks that I was born in ’59 and not ’49 . . . talk about fruitless.

I just watched Warfare last night and highly recommend it for anyone that has romantic thoughts of combat. This is not a rah-rah portrait of war. It's written by the former SEAL who was there. He was concussed but kept on going and they relied on the memory of all the other SEAL team members to helped piece it together.

It's directed by the same guy who did Civil War and is actually pretty far removed from that in comparison. The military advisor on that was the same SEAL who wrote Warfare with the help of the director. There's no music soundtrack. In the end, things look rather fruitless considering what they sacrificed but that is basically the cost of war. It should be required viewing for all the gung-ho wannabes out there.

All the best,
Nonoise

yes what I like about him is his range, that you wouldn’t assume from his smug charm, from Something About Mary to Singles. 

@gano , Something About Mary is a great example in my opinion.  It did not affect me in any profound way, it had no deep meaning or underlying serious message that I could ascertain, but I certainly did not consider watching it a waste of time because I found it entertaining (sometimes hilarious) and I am sure that I laughed out loud frequently.  Ben Stiller was good (as he frequently is) but I maintain that there are other actors who probably could have done well with his part.  Matt Dillon brought something to his role of a devious/sleazy PI who was infatuated/obsessed with Mary that had a flavor to it that I am not sure who else would have done it as nicely.  

I remember this particular interaction so well that I found it on a site that quotes dialogue from films:

Matt Dillon:  Really, it’s only a side thing for my true passion.
Cameron Diaz:  And what’s that?
Dillon:  I work with retards.
Diaz:  Isn’t that a little politically incorrect?

Dillon:  Yeah, maybe, but hell, no one’s gonna tell me who I can and can’t work with.

And that is great dialogue, and anyone could have delivered it, but not everyone would have pulled it off as casually and easily while expressing how shallow his character is as Matt Dillon did. 

In American Dreamer, which is basically a lighthearted comedy with some warm fuzziness and redemption worked in as it progressed, there was a subtle interaction between Dinklage and Dillon that particularly stuck with me. Not a spoiler, but Dillon plays a somewhat flamboyant and successful real estate guy who is helping his not so successful and cynical (versus flamboyant) friend, who is played by Dinklage, check out what appears to be the deal of a lifetime on a property that would normally be way out of Dinklage’s league.   Part of the deal is that the current owner, Shirley Maclaine, gets to live in the main portion of the estate while Dinklage is relegated to a small room within the house until Maclaine’s death.  Over drinks in a bar, Dillon explains to Dinklage that Maclaine wants to die in her own home and not in a convalescent home.  I cannot find the direct quote, but he relates to Dinklage that convalescent homes are horrible; he briefly pauses and says that his mom is in one.  That loses a lot in translation, but basically this wealthy real estate guy just told his buddy, "Nursing homes are horrific--I know because I put my mom in one."  Then the film pans to another scene.  A tiny scene that said a lot to me as a viewer, and part of why it worked so well for me was the subtle inflection in his voice, not sad but impressed by how miserable the condition of the place he put his mom in, and the momentary expression on his face.

Subtle.

Anyway . . . ramble on . . . but what I was getting at was that with that quick scene Dillon successfully continued to paint more of the picture of who he was portraying, and he made me laugh at the same time.  Which is getting back to what I said about the little/subtle things that I think he frequently does as an actor that makes him so good, and I felt that Something About Mary had many of those Matt Dillon moments.
 

^ Woody Harrelson spreading his wings. He's similar to Hanks in that they are unlikely looking stars but are always able to pull off a wide variety of roles 

Watched "Transsiberian" yesterday. I was very impressed. Had some plot twists that were kind of unexpected. Emily Mortimer was excellent and Ben Kingsley usually is.

yes what I like about him is his range, that you wouldn't assume from his smug charm, from Something About Mary to Singles. Fitchner is cool, The Company You Keep was a great show. I suspected they wouldn't renew it, it was too good!

He can play the scumbag and the nice guy in one person like very few. 

I agree with you that he completely nailed that in Crash, @gano .  He always comes off to me as real--often as someone who I think it would be fun to know.  Or maybe it is that he comes off as someone who I think would be fun to know in real life because of the way he comes off in movies.  It’s the little things and scenes he does, things and scenes that can go almost unnoticed that are part of why I appreciate him to the extent I do.  For example, after the intense interaction/confrontation at the beginning of shift he had with his ex-rookie partner after they were split up, the jovial interaction that immediately followed with his new Hispanic partner he was going to be riding with that day.  He is a master at delivering his lines.

As a matter of fact, although I thought that some of the vignettes or sub-stories were stronger than others, I felt that the whole cast did a fine job. 

William Fichtner is another actor  who I have really come to appreciate after watching him over the years, and although his role wasn’t really that big, I thought that he also was one who nailed it when interacting with Don Cheadle.  I am also generally a fan of Sandra Bullock.  

The film was fraught with irony.   

and you have been discussing it and sharing your disagreements in a civil manner.  

+2, and thanks

 you have been discussing it and sharing your disagreements in a civil manner 

yes, he was. He can play the scumbag and the nice guy in one person like very few. 

Also: Wild Things. Something was off in that movie. It was a great script, great casting, enjoyable pace and suspense but I never loved it. I guess too many stars don’t work for me, in general

On the Crash subject. One of Them Days. Delightful. Predictable in a disturbing way. Funny and said and touching.

I know this is a touchy subject so I'll let this be the last I say on it.

@nonoise , @gano , and you have been discussing it and sharing your disagreements in a civil manner.  

I found Matt Dillon to be quite believable in his portrayal of a police officer.

@immathewj yes, I like the Crash. Saw it a few times. It's a bit different 20 years later, a bit simplistic and doesn't give me as much hope as it used to. We need more movies and discussion about the subject and progress maybe?

@gano , momentarily back to Matt Dillon, did you enjoy Crash (2004)?  That movie turned into another one of my Matt Dillon favorites. I thought that the casting was quite good, which included Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Tony Danza, Jennifer Esposito, William Fichtner (who is an actor I really like), Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Michael Pena, Ryan Phillippa. . . .

As we were discussing Phil Spector and Rebecca Pidgeon's roles several posts ago, here is something you may enjoy--her doing a live cover of Spanish Harlem:

Spanish Harlem

 I have no idea what I would have typed

doesn't matter, it's the name 

For its time: 'The Big Chill'. 

I remember thinking that it had a good soundtrack.

the game began @immatthewj , they are removing comments that mention removing comments and the painful and disruptive moderation. 

Wow, they got one of mine also, @gano .  I have no idea what I would have typed in that one that offended the dainty sensibilities of some thin skinned snowflake.

For its time: 'The Big Chill'. 

@voz those are stellar movies. 

I saw this on the plane, and it would be on my list of top 10 romantic comedies:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9328744/

Love the (off) topic post. I don't watch that many movies these days as I prefer to listen to music. I think Whipsaw's list is formidable, that is to say, I like your taste in cinema. I'm a big Jim Jarmusch fan and happy to see other's have enjoyed, "Only Lovers Left Alive," as much as I did. Let's not forget Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns and his protagonist, "the man with no name". Three films I highly recommend to those interested: "Incendies", directed by Denis Villeneuve, "Aguirre, the Wrath of God", (by the great filmmaker Werner Herzog), and "Mr. Jones".  Happy viewing. 

and for sure I acknowledge that people who grew up around guns feel differently, I don't know what they do

@nonoise right, I would just repeat myself. But I would like to point out you started a sentence with "All it took was "

I don't want to be on an airplane or in a movie set with guns ending in the tragedy where "All it took was ". It should take many many things to go wrong and massively unlikely events to happen all at once. Such as: gun can't go off, TWO people checking, etc. etc. 

@gano Same here re: agree to disagree. 

Guns have been in movies since the beginning of movies. That's why it's a well regulated industry. All it took was an amateur with experience gained from working with real professionals to slip through the cracks and slack off. She was a big fish in a small pond who wouldn't make it in a big budget Hollywood film.

Imagine if Baldwin was shooting a Viking movie and had to swing a battle axe at the camera for the script. Is he supposed to be an expert on battle axes and inspect it or does he rely on the expertise of the armorer? 

So he swings it for the camera and the head comes off striking and killing the camera operator. Is he at fault for that as well? Things can go wrong and will forever continue to do so despite the safety protocols we put in place. 

Baldwin was supposed to have been given an unloaded gun since it was to be pointed at the camera and that was with safety protocols. The armorer screwed up badly and was lucky she only got 18 months in prison considering she did the same thing a week earlier to another actor, was probably high and despite the dropped charge of tampering with the evidence to hide the live ammo and get it off the set.  

I know this is a touchy subject so I'll let this be the last I say on it. 

All the best,
Nonoise

@nonoise agree to disagree. I would not point a functioning gun at a person. Point a freaking ruler or water bottle. No one has died from that. Build non-functioning pistols, jam them, whatever it takes. 

To put it in context, how would you value eliminating all risks if it was the mother of your child? Wouldn't you want all precautions taken? When things CAN go wrong they WILL. Humans make mistakes. That's why we create safety protocols.

@gano Baldwin wasn't playing with the gun. He was holding it like he was supposed to according the script, aimed at the camera.

I know you hate guns but that's quite the leap of logic to say he "pulled" the trigger as if he knew it was loaded. How else does one hold the gun?

Actors aren't remotely supposed to be armorers. Only some know their way around a gun. That's why there's supposed to be safety on the set with the armorer in charge of the gun and the actor using it as a prop. 

Horrible as it was, it's not Baldwin's fault for trusting what's supposed to be a professional. At least two armorers are required to check it. A court of law saw it that way too.

All the best,
Nonoise

@nonoise Baldwin pulled the trigger. HE killed a person. The End. 

Everything else is how and how unfortunate. I have never in my life picked up a gun, pointed it at a person and pulled the trigger. 

Baldwin bears responsibility for taking a life 100%. He pulled the trigger. There was zero reason for him to play with a gun. He is not 5 years old. 

For the record, if I had done what he had, I would have plead guilty. My life would be hell anyway in or outside prison. 

Like @immatthewj, I’m a liberal progressive who was raised in a home with firearms. My dad made my brother and I take NRA firearm safety courses back when it was just that, safety courses and not a lobbying firm on the take for gun manufacturers. 

Having said that, I don’t believe Alec Baldwin was at fault, even if he was the producer. He can’t be everywhere at all times and besides, being a producer just means you helped secure funds to have a movie made or know someone who does. 

The job of armorer is very important and Reed was young, connected and incompetent. Actors act, amoreres maintain and arm guns, cameramen run cameras, etc. When an actor is handed a gun, the armorer and another person have to have inspected and/or loaded the gun. Live ammo is never allowed on set. "Cold gun" was announced when the gun was handed over. That meant no ammo in it. "Hot gun" means there’s blanks in it. Reed said she checked "most of the time"  Her testimony! It’s one of the cushiest jobs in film making you can get and she couldn’t even take it seriously enough to do it right.

Even if there were blanks, there’s no way for an actor to tell if a six gun is safely loaded with blanks unless they look down the front of the gun and rotate the cylnder chamber by chamber and I know of no one who would do that. You can only tell by looking at the buisness end of the bullet. You just can’t swing open the cylinder like on a modern gun and you can’t tell by looking at the primer end of the bullets even if you could swing it open.

Blanks are still deadly. I’ve seen 9mm blanks go halfway through a phonebook and a .45 punch threw a can at close range. That actor who put a gun loaded with blanks to his head and pulled the trigger thinking nothing would happen shoved a half dollar size of his skull halfway into his head. 

Reed gave a bag of cocaine to another crew member so it wouldn’t be found on her. Off set she did coke, pot and booze (that’s her business but it speaks to her character). She and/or her subordinate brought the live ammo on the set. As for pointing the gun at the camera, that’s what the scene called for (you see it all the time in movies). 

Cinematographer Hutchins was lining up her camera for the shot as Baldwin held the gun. It went off like it did about a week earlier with another actor prompting several crew members to say" f*ck it, I’m outta here". 

In the trial Hannah was found guilty of negligent manslaughter but charges of tampering with evidence was dropped after many people suddenly started handling the guns and ammo. That should tell you something. Hannah also faces charges of bringing one of her loaded guns into a bar as well. As for Baldwin, he was exonerated after finding the prosecution hid evidence that there was live ammo on the set. Prosecutorial misconduct as they call it. They had it in for him since he’s a liberal. Go figure.

Now watch this post get deleted. 

All the best,
Nonoise

the game began @immatthewj , they are removing comments that mention removing comments and the painful and disruptive moderation. 

 In other words, I think that the snowflakes report and the mods delete

I argued this 100s of times here. After I contact the mods about why my comment was deleted (at this point it's probably 30+ times) I receive a response that I violated A rule. I try to clarify that said rule is not listed anywhere and then the response is: someone was offended by it. And 29 out of 30 times, even though my comment couldn't offend a soul, it's still not restored. So, yes, the mods play a role in this too. 

@gano , first off, there are a couple of members I am trying not to interact on the threads that they are on, because when I do my posts seem to have about a 75% deletion rate.  I won’t mention any screen names, because that would probably be enough to get this post deleted, but the responses of mine that got deleted were no worse than the posts I was replying to.  Think skinned snowflakes.  Then there was texas-jerry, who seems to be back in another reincarnation, and I was trading caustic responses’ with him on a thread, and guess who’s got deleted.  The post you alluded to is actually back, and my curiosity is piqued as to what the two that are still gone were about.  Although this thread has meandered on & off topic, I felt it was one of the more civilized threads going on A’gon and the disagreements (if there were any) were stated reasonably.

Anyway:

I will watch the Elephant and the American Dreamer. I also should add Albino Alligator to the Matt Dillon list. Irresistible in my opinion.

Elephant is on my list for this week (thanks to @hce1 ) as the trailer looked mesmerizing.  As far as American Dreamer, if you like Matt Dillon, you are going to love this one.  As I previously typed, he has a supporting role as a real estate agent, but this is classic Matt Dillon.  If I had ever forgot why I like him so much, this film reminded me.  Man, but he is a great actor.  On edit: I just googled Albino Alligator, and I am pretty sure I have watched that one before.

Anyway, I hope you don’t bail; your perspective is well stated and interesting.  Regardless, I understand that you gotta do what you gotta do--there is a reason I will never click on audio asylum again, and that reason is quite similar to what you are stating.  And I will only say, fwiw, that the moderation is way better here than there.  But I wish you well and hope you reconsider.

3 of my comments were just removed. 

One of them was

I will watch the Elephant and the American Dreamer. I also should add Albino Alligator to the Matt Dillon list. Irresistible in my opinion.

WHY????????????? WHY WAS IT REMOVED????????????????????????

is someone so mentally sick and debilitated that having this removed make them feel less pain from their failed pathetic life?

The other two comments were equally on topic for the discussion, polite, and harmless. Perhaps too harmless.

I have had it with the moderation. (They/Tammy ignored my last 3 emails.)

This is the hill worth dying on as there are so many lowlife despicable acts here that ruin our civilized conversations. I don’t normally swear but I would for sure now.

I will watch the Elephant and the American Dreamer. I also should add Albino Alligator to the Matt Dillon list. Irresistible in my opinion.