Films I turned off this week...

[Johnnytheboy]

durbster said:

Comedy is at a real low point at the moment on TV and film. It feels like there are too many obstacles between the writing and production these days and it all gets neutered.

The worst thing is the lack of trust in an audience to get a joke. I noticed this in the 2016 Ghostbusters, where Hemsworth puts his hands over his eyes to shut out the noise. Quite a nice gag, immediately ruined because somebody else follows it up by spelling out what the joke was.

I've decided this is called the "wait-what", because that's so often the line they add to tell you something funny just happened and you're supposed to laugh.

Comedy works best when not every joke lands for every person but the ones that do land hard. When the gag is explained after you'e already got it, it ruins it.

Take the classic Airplane line:

Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious
Dr Rumak: I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.

That's it. They trust the audience to figure out the joke.

Today, this would be:
Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious
Dr Rumak: I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.
Ted Striker (confused face): Wait, what?

I've spotted that. My OH has an awful taste in the most lowbrow US sitcoms on daytime TV if left unattended.

I've noticed there will be:

• obvious build up to joke
• joke
• debrief on joke

It's quite bizarre.

[Flumpo]

SimonTheSailor said:

Ghost - a gritty thriller based around London about an ex-con. On Amazon Prime.

Maybe watched the first 15 minutes. Half a dozen characters spoke half a dozen words each in those 15 minutes. I was bored stupid by this point.

Who writes the reviews I will never know........

Amazon movies seems to be a collection of films that even those weird sky film channels up in the 330 plus numbers wouldn’t show.

For anyone who doesn’t have amazon, Here’s their homepage, not the hidden menus, not the dregs hidden at the back. Their home page of ‘recently added’ and ‘popular movies’.






As for the reviews, who can forget the brilliant 4 1/2 stars out of 5 Nicolas cage film Knowing.

[marcosgt]

Johnnytheboy said:

I've spotted that. My OH has an awful taste in the most lowbrow US sitcoms on daytime TV if left unattended.

I've noticed there will be:

• obvious build up to joke
• joke
• debrief on joke

It's quite bizarre.

Been on any training courses in the last 20 years?

M

[Flumpo]

Johnnytheboy said:

durbster said:

Comedy is at a real low point at the moment on TV and film. It feels like there are too many obstacles between the writing and production these days and it all gets neutered.

The worst thing is the lack of trust in an audience to get a joke. I noticed this in the 2016 Ghostbusters, where Hemsworth puts his hands over his eyes to shut out the noise. Quite a nice gag, immediately ruined because somebody else follows it up by spelling out what the joke was.

I've decided this is called the "wait-what", because that's so often the line they add to tell you something funny just happened and you're supposed to laugh.

Comedy works best when not every joke lands for every person but the ones that do land hard. When the gag is explained after you'e already got it, it ruins it.

Take the classic Airplane line:

Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious
Dr Rumak: I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.

That's it. They trust the audience to figure out the joke.

Today, this would be:
Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious
Dr Rumak: I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.
Ted Striker (confused face): Wait, what?

I've spotted that. My OH has an awful taste in the most lowbrow US sitcoms on daytime TV if left unattended.

I've noticed there will be:

• obvious build up to joke
• joke
• debrief on joke

It's quite bizarre.

What annoys me more is the improvised bits that all comedy films seem to insist on these days.

I wouldn’t mind if they were funny but they seem to go like this:

Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious
Dr Rumak: I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.
Ted striker: If I’m Shirley, you’re Francis the old lady who lives on her own.
Dr Ruman: no you’re an d lady who lives with cats and only eats corned beef hash.
Ted striker: no YOUR’E on hash more like.
Dr ruman: no you’re a big hash baby who just sits around drinking milk and eating cookies all day

Then at some point the two ‘comedians’ start laughing at their own hilarious jokes until the director yells cut.

See any Seth Rogan movie for details.

[droopsnoot]

Flumpo said:

As for the reviews, who can forget the brilliant 4 1/2 stars out of 5 Nicolas cage film Knowing.

I bought that on a car boot sale DVD because it sounded like it would be quite good. Turned out to be one of those things that I thought might have been an urban myth - the film recorded on a camcorder from the back of a cinema, complete with the camera being knocked part-way through, and people getting up at the end. (I mean my DVD copy, not the film in general). Not impressed enough to watch a "proper" copy of it on any of the many times it's been on the TV.

[rustfalia]

Star wars

Never seen them so thought I'd give the modern ones a go. Managed the first one okay but the 2nd got boring very quickly.
Pew pew pew. Zzzzzz

[ajprice]

I always try to see a film through and I haven't walked out of a cinema screening yet, including turkeys like Black Christmas and The Strangers : Prey at Night. Other than daytime horror channel sub b-movie silliness, the only film I can remember wanting to see and then turning over from as it was total dirge is the Johnny Depp/Armie Hammer Lone Ranger film.

[AshVX220]

rustfalia said:

Star wars

Never seen them so thought I'd give the modern ones a go. Managed the first one okay but the 2nd got boring very quickly.
Pew pew pew. Zzzzzz

It's best to watch them in release order and in fact I'd completely not bother with Ep 1-3 (although 3 is actually quite good, well I think so anyway). Also don't bother with the Disney trilogy.
Unfortunately, as you've watched Ep1 and 2 you've already seen the big reveal from 5, which is a shame if you have no idea of the films at all (and been in a cave for 40 years!).
After you've seen 4-6, then definitely watch Rogue One, it's the best of the franchise that Disney have done.

[Teddy Lop]

durbster said:

Comedy is at a real low point at the moment on TV and film. It feels like there are too many obstacles between the writing and production these days and it all gets neutered.

The worst thing is the lack of trust in an audience to get a joke. I noticed this in the 2016 Ghostbusters, where Hemsworth puts his hands over his eyes to shut out the noise. Quite a nice gag, immediately ruined because somebody else follows it up by spelling out what the joke was.

I've decided this is called the "wait-what", because that's so often the line they add to tell you something funny just happened and you're supposed to laugh.

Comedy works best when not every joke lands for every person but the ones that do land hard. When the gag is explained after you'e already got it, it ruins it.

Take the classic Airplane line:

Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious
Dr Rumak: I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.

That's it. They trust the audience to figure out the joke.

Today, this would be:
Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious
Dr Rumak: I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.
Ted Striker (confused face): Wait, what?

spoon feeding or pandering to the LCD is endemic though. Notice it a lot in what passes for documentaries today, there's just this assumption the audience knows absolutely nothing, has a 5 second attention span, and will switch off if you're not constantly teasing them with pseudo suspense.