'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

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dda1996a
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2015 6:14 am

Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3776 Post by dda1996a » Tue Nov 06, 2018 4:54 pm

5 was really really bad. It's aiming too much for so bad it's good, that's somewhere in the middle between that and just completely awful

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Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3777 Post by Gregory » Tue Nov 06, 2018 5:04 pm

Cameron Swift wrote:
Tue Nov 06, 2018 3:49 pm
31 Days of Scary Movie is Complete! It’s actually more like 33 because I started on September 29th lol I also watched it more than once a couple days too. This brings me to 97 total viewings this year. We almost made it ma!
This Letterboxd reviewer watched Scary Movie every day for 30+ days in a row, and is aiming for 100 viewings this year.
Never thought I'd be okay with saying this but here goes: youth is wasted on the young.

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Monterey Jack
Joined: Fri Jan 12, 2018 1:27 am

Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3778 Post by Monterey Jack » Wed Nov 07, 2018 12:59 am

I can't think of ANY movie I could watch once-a-day for a month straight, even an absolutely brilliant one. That would just "kill" said movie, and I'd never want to watch it again.

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domino harvey
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3779 Post by domino harvey » Wed Nov 07, 2018 1:03 am

I watched To Catch a Thief twelve times over three days when I was prepping a conference paper. Still rules, would watch right now

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MichaelB
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3780 Post by MichaelB » Wed Nov 07, 2018 4:15 am

I typically watch every feature that I prep for Blu-ray about five or six times before I’m done, including a very very slow screening where I’m checking and tweaking the hard-of-hearing subtitles line by line.

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3781 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Nov 07, 2018 4:49 am

Cameron Swift wrote:
Tue Nov 06, 2018 3:49 pm
Having said that, I noticed that Netflix has added all 5 movies (I had no idea there was more than three) and I'm somewhat curious. Do the later ones have any redeeming qualities? I mean, if the first one was utterly juvenile rubbish, it doesn't bode well for the output after that, does it?
I don't like many of the Scary Movie series for the scatological, gay panic stuff, though there are a few moments that hit the (broad) mark, and I think once the Wayans stopped making the films and David Zucker and Jim Abrahams took over the directing and writing from part 3 that the series got a bit more tolerable (particularly since they inevitably bring in Leslie Nielsen for some of his last roles to play the deluded President), though never approaching the heights of Airplane!, or even Top Secret. In those later films I did like the strangely weird running together of films and blurring of actors that results in some weird moments such as the Signs parody with Charlie Sheen in the Mel Gibson role that forms the backbone plot of Part 3 segueing into Sheen's character being killed off at the beginning of Part 4 in the manner of Bill Pullman in The Grudge remake (albeit through the inevitable Viagra causing massive complications 'joke', though it was fun in the Naked Gun manner of somebody struggling with an unwieldy object around a room causing ever more chaos as they go!), with Pullman himself turning up later in the same film as a patriarch of a community based on The Village!

There was also that fun opening of Part V (I think) with the Ring parody. And the Exorcist opening of Part 2 with James Woods as the priest and Veronica Cartwright at the mother is inspired casting, but that just ends up with a lot of inevitable toilet humour! Though the priest rolling down an endless set of stairs was quite funny!

But yes even in those later films every time I laughed at one joke I cringed at the crassness of another, and just wanted to watch something like The Naked Gun again, where the naughtiness works perfectly!
Last edited by colinr0380 on Thu Nov 08, 2018 4:11 am, edited 2 times in total.

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tenia
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3782 Post by tenia » Wed Nov 07, 2018 5:39 am

Monterey Jack wrote:
Wed Nov 07, 2018 12:59 am
I can't think of ANY movie I could watch once-a-day for a month straight, even an absolutely brilliant one. That would just "kill" said movie, and I'd never want to watch it again.
I used to alternate Les tontons flingueurs and Les barbouzes during my studies for my Engineer school exams, but it "only" lasted for 2 weeks, so roughly 7 viewings each.

I watched, IIRC, the first 4 Scary Movie when they were released, and bought and re-watched the 3rd one on DVD (again at release time) and I can't even think I'd like one day to watch any again. I just recall them as being overly dumb and unfunny and crass in an insufferable way. I'm quite certain some of the jokes are still OK, but I can't imagine myself having to watch those entirely just for 3 funny minutes.

McCrutchy
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3783 Post by McCrutchy » Wed Nov 14, 2018 1:15 am

Not a film review, but I have been doing some research on Cantonese opera after learning there are a couple of HK Blu-rays available, one of which is a new release. Information on these operas in English seems to be extremely scarce online, where few sites agree on even the English-translated titles of some works. Therefore, Wikipedia is a necessary resource at least for links, but in the article on 74-year old Cantonese opera star Loong Kim Sang, I was puzzled to see this film reference, even moreso because of the seriousness that comes through in the broken English throughout the article:
SpoilerShow
Image

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Big Ben
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3784 Post by Big Ben » Fri Nov 16, 2018 11:24 am

If the title was "The QUEEN Berets" he would have offerred lustful homage and scathing applause in this otherswise recognizably intelligent adaptation of what is the precurser to todays UW specialists. Flab Reverb (Rob Ebert) can take a loooong walk off a short pier for his abscent minded, jaded, biased, lack of understanding of the men and women that do this everyday to garontee his ability and right to eat too much popcorn and drink too much, whatever he drinks. Love does NOT produce an emotion. The emotion produces love. Have at it, sharks.

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Skrmng Skll Th Thd
Joined: Sat Oct 20, 2018 12:32 pm

Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3785 Post by Skrmng Skll Th Thd » Fri Nov 23, 2018 11:57 pm

I was watching The original Wizard of Oz film (1939) last evening per holiday tradition, and realized that I've always found both Billie Burke (Glinda, the Good Witch of the North), and Margaret Hamilton (Wicked Witch of the West), attractive to my loins. Billie Burke was about 55 years old in 1939, and Margaret Hamilton was a (surprising) 37 years old. I guess I'm a weirdo, send me to purgatory. I like the point/counterpoint to the scenario.

In a 'many worlds' or 'multi-verse' scenario, I would've enjoyed their intimate company together. Livin' up to the title thread.

I'm sober at the moment, by the way.

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fiddlesticks
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3786 Post by fiddlesticks » Sat Nov 24, 2018 12:10 am

What about the members of the Lullaby League, buddy?

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Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3787 Post by Gregory » Mon Nov 26, 2018 6:14 pm

Here's a gem from the past. Bosley Crowther in the New York Times (July 12, 1940) is all disappointed that he didn't get to see Joan Crawford receive the harsh beating she "needed" from her husband in Cukor's Susan and God (his "duty as a husband and man").
If ever a woman needed a beating—but good—that woman is the Susan Trexel of Joan Crawford in "Susan and God,"...and the fact that she doesn't get it after almost two hours of steady meddling in the lives of other folk—plus the fact that her pitiful husband, a wan and submissive Fredric March, permits her to go on and on giving him the needle while she flings her own ego around—comprises the most disappointing letdown of a generally disappointing film. In this case it certainly seems that poetic justice should have managed a violent laying on of hands. Susan spoils for it. Once, we hopefully thought, her husband, Barrie, was going to give it to her right....Finally the moment came when it looked as though Barrie was set to do his painful duty as a husband and man. But he shied away from it...

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Boosmahn
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3788 Post by Boosmahn » Wed Nov 28, 2018 10:47 pm

You're right... bad acting. But this movie is not 'sexist against men' (whatever that means in a patriarchy).
Yeesh.

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bottled spider
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2009 2:59 am

Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3789 Post by bottled spider » Wed Nov 28, 2018 11:24 pm

Who names their kid Bosley anyway? That's a name for a dog. Or a ventriloquist's dummy.

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Big Ben
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3790 Post by Big Ben » Wed Nov 28, 2018 11:27 pm

Crowther reserved an unabashed hatred of Crawford especially. From his review of Johnny Guitar:
"...no more femininity comes from (Crawford) than from the rugged Mr. Heflin in Shane. For the lady, as usual, is as sexless as the lions on the public library steps and as sharp and romantically forbidding as a package of unwrapped razor blades".
I mean holy shit.

Vachel in Valdosta
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2018 9:30 pm

Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3791 Post by Vachel in Valdosta » Thu Nov 29, 2018 4:30 pm

Holy shit indeed! Never really read much Crowther so always thought he was reviled simply as an old fuddy-duddy, out of step with the times, a relic of the staid, old school of literary/theatrical criticism. And here he comes across a a sexist, misogynist predecessor of Uber-Critic John Simon!

Simon was similarly venomous with his personal attacks on actresses (once referring to Liza Minnelli as a dog!) and frequently going to ridiculous extremes to extol the virtues of gorgeous European beauties of questionable thespic ability. (Anyone remember Marthe Keller!)

Don't have any examples of the latter but here's a taste of the former from his review of SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE (1970):

"Miss (Angela) Lansbury looks like an aging female impersonator gone sloppy, who allows himself to be photographed in costume but without a wig _ a bisected androgyne, woman below, man on top ...and her mugging...and camping around merely make her into that most degraded thing an outre actress can decline into: a fag hag."

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domino harvey
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3792 Post by domino harvey » Thu Nov 29, 2018 4:41 pm

All of these excerpts are incredible

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dustybooks
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3793 Post by dustybooks » Thu Nov 29, 2018 5:08 pm

Yesterday I was just reading a John Simon quote about Kristin Chenoweth that struck me as slightly odd and is even funnier with the above in mind. He said of her performance as Sally in the Broadway revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown: "You do not have to be a parent, or even a man, to want to wrap her in tissue paper and take her home with you."

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Gregory
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3794 Post by Gregory » Thu Nov 29, 2018 5:16 pm

I often find myself reading Crowther just because his reviews are among the only ones easily available online from the time of a Hollywood film's release from the 1940s–60s, along with Variety. Whatever he lacked in judgment (a lot), his coverage was vast—he often wrote over two hundred reviews a year, I believe. He would attend a screening and rush back to his office to type out his immediate thoughts right before deadline.
It's an interesting window, reception-wise. His diction was often very pompous and his tone very preachy, and he gushed over films I find to be dross like Cleopatra and Ben-Hur, but he was also an early stateside defender of many of the Italian directors of the 1950s, Ingmar Bergman, etc. His opinions and values were progressive in some areas but I never doubt that he was horrible with respect to gender. His reaction to Johnny Guitar is a credit to Crawford and that film in general ("romantically forbidding as a package of unwrapped razor blades"—nice!).
Last edited by Gregory on Thu Nov 29, 2018 6:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Monterey Jack
Joined: Fri Jan 12, 2018 1:27 am

Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3795 Post by Monterey Jack » Thu Nov 29, 2018 6:28 pm

Gregory wrote:
Thu Nov 29, 2018 5:16 pm
I often find myself reading Crowther just because his reviews are among the only ones available online from the time of a Hollywood film's release from the 1940s–60s, along with Variety.
This is something that's always bothered me...how little of film criticism from the pre-internet era is archived anywhere online where movie fans can easily access it. It only adds a skewed perspective of what critics really thought back then of films that have been re-evaluated in the decades since. I'd love to read a lot of reviews of John Carpenter's The Thing from the summer of '82 when critics ran roughshod over it and called Carpenter "...a pornographer of violence", but little of it survives today, and it doesnt paint an accurate portrait of how it was perceived then compared to how critically beloved is is now.

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Matt
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm

Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3796 Post by Matt » Thu Nov 29, 2018 6:29 pm

Pauline Kael dragged Crowther every chance she got. Her review of Lolita includes the phrase, "Bosley Crowther, who can always be counted on to miss the point..."
Monterey Jack wrote:
Thu Nov 29, 2018 6:28 pm
I'd love to read a lot of reviews of John Carpenter's The Thing from the summer of '82 when critics ran roughshod over it and called Carpenter "...a pornographer of violence", but little of it survives today, and it doesnt paint an accurate portrait of how it was perceived then compared to how critically beloved is is now.
I have access via an academic library to thousands of historical newspapers and journals, and I can't find a single actual citation for this "pornographer of violence" quote other than Carpenter saying in an interview that he was called that by a critic.

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Gregory
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3797 Post by Gregory » Thu Nov 29, 2018 6:44 pm

Monterey Jack: for sure, and before reading your comment I'd just amended my post to say "easily available online" because of course there's so much else available via full-text databases, but 99 percent of the time I'm not going to go through that process unless I really have to.

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MichaelB
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3798 Post by MichaelB » Thu Nov 29, 2018 6:54 pm

I don't understand what you mean by "little of it survives" - surely pretty much all of it survives in the relevant newspaper archives?

Newspapers.com might be a good starting point for research.

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Skrmng Skll Th Thd
Joined: Sat Oct 20, 2018 12:32 pm

Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3799 Post by Skrmng Skll Th Thd » Thu Nov 29, 2018 9:37 pm

Matt wrote:
Thu Nov 29, 2018 6:29 pm
Pauline Kael dragged Crowther every chance she got. Her review of Lolita includes the phrase, "Bosley Crowther, who can always be counted on to miss the point..."
Pauline Kael, who can always be counted on to never watch a movie twice, to never change her mind, and to value film as a vicarious "experience" rather than the artifact is is...

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Altair
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Re: 'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

#3800 Post by Altair » Fri Nov 30, 2018 6:31 am

Skrmng Skll Th Thd wrote:
Thu Nov 29, 2018 9:37 pm
Matt wrote:
Thu Nov 29, 2018 6:29 pm
Pauline Kael dragged Crowther every chance she got. Her review of Lolita includes the phrase, "Bosley Crowther, who can always be counted on to miss the point..."
Pauline Kael, who can always be counted on to never watch a movie twice, to never change her mind, and to value film as a vicarious "experience" rather than the artifact is is...
And who can usually be counted on to a wonderfully literate, stimulating, and provocative writer. I value film criticism as first and foremost, a piece of writing, and Crowther's fundamental problem (apart from his rampant sexism), is that he writes in a dreadful mid-century 'journalese' speak that has not aged well. Kael's essays and reviews however, are still a pleasure to read.

And don't come at me saying she didn't finish watching all the films she wrote about, or that she played favourites, or that she got Kubrick wrong, and so on, and so forth. Would watching a film twice have made her a better writer? Probably not. And writing about cinema as an experiential art form is perfectly legitimate, because before videos, most people did not encounter the materiality of film, only its expression in flickering projected light.

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