...Amused to see people freak out for even nerdier reasons than I often do...

... face this, whitewashing that...

..."Ledger.... off-character..."

-Uh wait a minute what?

Anyway Scarlet Johansen, who does have an annoyingly cheesy name, was good in Under the Skin, so she can't be the worst actress to have. She can play alienated. It's not like they hired Jessica Alba for the part. 

I was referring more to this movie than to all of Hollywoods remakes. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Sounds like all they're doing is weakening an already perfect (if going by the cult following fans) film. Obviously it won't be perfect because that's a subjective thing, but if they Hollywood writers don't have the skills to improve it, as they often don't, then I'm happy for it to remain as is.

Also as it's a 22 year old animated Japanese film, based on a almost 30 year old Manga. The Americans that will be watching the live action probably never saw the old one. So does it need to have the story all changed up just because? 

more than just the same script though. That's what I was getting at.

Also I think much of what is lost in literal translation is cultural aspects, so even a scene for scene remake loses something from a foreign original. 

Kong Skull Island - soulless but intermittently entertaining, would also have benefited from being fully committed to either outright parodying Vietnam war films or simply referencing/homaging them rather than the bit of both it seems to have settled for.

5.5-6/10

Manchester by the Sea - well acted but otherwise I found this surprisingly amateurishly made and only surface level engaging. Possibly also has some of the most grating use of background score in recent times (at least in what is meant to be an honest realistic drama) in attempting to tell the audience what to feel.

6.5/10 

Pretty much what nitin said but I found the narrative interesting.

Jury's still out on whether Renton's ending is happy or bad though. 

And people go to her movies.

Lifetime Gross Total (38): $3,611,323,311
Average: $95,034,824
Opening Gross Average (23): $49,537,590 (Wide Releases Only)

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/people/chart/?id=scarlettjohansson.htm

"Lucy" made close to half a BILLION worldwide: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=lucy.htm

Pretty simple casting decision. 

I found the themes in the narrative interesting but the last 1/3 (particularly the Begbie part of the story) was what didn't work for me narratively.

Do you know how much how much of it is from Porno and how much is original? 

will just be happy to see more Begbie, because that extreme character is entertaining. Also the end of the first one did kind of imply some sort of eventually reckoning. Plus people do age but not die right away. So I'm looking forward to checking it out. 

Haven't read Porno, but from what I know, it's pretty loosely adapted, probably more loosely than the original Trainspotting book was in the first film.

Fun fact though is that the parking lot meeting scene is, at its core, essentially the ending of Porno, except totally reimagined. 

yeah that's what I had read too but I was hoping you had more specifics, for some reason I thought you had read Porno :)

Will have to look up what they did with the parking lot scene. 

Begbie spots Renton across the street and runs towards him, only to get run over by a van. The movie does a total 180, of course.

Tronyn, you'll be satisfied. 

In other news:

Legion is an outstanding series. It's apparently based on the X-Men comics but has zero relation to Marvel's Cinemacancer Universe. It shares two, maybe three characters from the comics and everything else is Noah Hawley (of the amazing Fargo series) going hog wild.

The camera work, the set designs, the choreography, the ensemble cast (!) and the acting thereof (!!!), the bizarre nature of it all, the blah blah, everything here is A+++. Spoiler-less example of all of this at once 

looking forward to it. 

I don't know, it's getting a bit too pretentious now. 6 episodes in I think people are going to start getting stick of the progression where about as much has happened in the last 5 episodes as it did in the pilot. I was only half watching the last episode so I got a bit lost with it, but it seems to be trying hard to be all Lynch bizzaro. I shouldn't be complaining about that though, maybe I should concentrate on it harder/give it my full attention.

I've started on Iron Fist as well. Anyone else watching that? 

That last episode of Legion was pretty good huh? I tried to pay more attention to it, the long musical sequence was good. I hadn't realised who the bad guy was but all the dreamlike stuff fits now. First time The SK has been used in live action right? 

#5879 yes, simple decision, expensive decision and what probably greatly lowered the risk to the financers of it - if the asset is made use of, and it is, it seems more about a series of setpieces for Jo to strut her shit than about GITS - aka typical ego-hollywood fare. 

As in the scenes are retake of Anime GITS scenes but adapted to show off more Jo first and foremost. 

 

You guys are really hating on GITS huh?

The differences seem inconsequential really. I'm not too fussed about the face flash, although it would be better without it it is hardly ruining the entire film. Hell, the cartoon has a bit of a cheesy line "awww, out of ammo?" so it's no surprise as to what is about to happen.

I will certainly miss the classical Japanese music/choir stuff from the anime though. That's the main draw for me.
Also the film version will have the opportunity to fix the ending from the anime. The anime has the typical "buy the rest of the books and/or series" that many have (I'm looking at you Akira, Berserk). 

stop making sensible posts. 

And it's killes, so....... 

I think I now understand the whole Daz/Dranz situation a little bit better. 

 

Toni Erdmann - 9/10

6 years in the making and apparently edited out of over 100 hours of shot footage, german filmmaker Maren Ade's third film is slow and languid, but if you are willing to give yourself over to it and go with the flow, it rewards you with some very acutely observed drama about many different themes, while also mixing in some completely surprising moments of absurdist humour.

One of the films of the decade for me.