Bohemian Rhapsody was excellent. The lead actor was amazing…. but the script was following the stock music bio pic formula….
Band gets together, montage of them on tour with the names of the cities they’re touring in flies across the screen..
I wonder if it wasn’t just ONE concert they filmed but had the actors say ” we love you pittsburgh!” ” We love you Chicago!” ” We love you Boston!”
Mercifully they DIDNT do the montage of their record going up the billboard charts… or the map of the cities they go to….
I had heard BORAT wanted to play Freddie Mercury, but Rami Malek is excellent.
I’d seen Remi in THE PACIFIC…. and thought he looked enough like Freddie….
He had clearly studied the crap out of Freddie Mercury. He had the voice and flamboyant body patterns DOWN. I hope he gets an Oscar nomination. I am assuming he was wearing some kind of dental prosthetic, which helped him talk more like Freddie Mercury.
Gwilym Lee looked so much like Brian May I thought it WAS HIM.
Theres a WAYNES WORLD joke hidden in this that I wonder if most on the audience would catch. A record exec says that “Bohemian Rhapsody” is not the kind of song that young men would sing along to in their cars.
That record exec was played by MIKE MEYERS, ( under a lot of clever make up) who of course played Wayne in WAYNES WORLD, which has a scene of Wayne and Garth singing along to “Bohemian Rhapsody” in their car.
The Shots of Queen playing Wembley for LIVE AID were great, but the reverse angle, as if the camera was on the back of the stage, looked SO green screened in it was distracting.
When I first saw the movie Saving Private Ryan ( by Steven Spielberg) I had a heard a rumor on this new thing called “the internet” that actor Kevin Costner had a minor role and or cameo in the film.
Was Kevin Costner in Saving Private Ryan?
Where was he? There was a scene of a German sniper who kills the character “Caparzo” (played by then unknown actor Vin Diesel) and then gets shot by Private Daniel Jackson (Barry Pepper) :
That German sniper looks like it MIGHT be Kevin Costner.
But imdb says that sniper was played by stuntman Leos Strasky.
Matthew Kordelski is great at Photoshop, among many things. He is efficient, takes direction well and is pleasant to be around. I highly recommend reaching out to him to see if he can help you with your needs.
Like everything Spike Lee does, its passionate, gripping, perhaps too over the top and I don’t agree with everything he does or says…. but its a great watch.
The klansmen seem like unrealistic buffoons.
I’ve seen other much better depictions of the KKK in film.
Mississippi Burning.
Undercover with the KKK (1979)
Topher Grace looks and sounds so much like David Duke its amazing. He should get an Oscar nomination.
It didnt make any sense how the Ron Stallworth became a uniformed cop with a big afro right after his job interview. Don’t new cops have to under a “basic training” style police academy? And aren’t there hair regulations for uniformed police?
The film is set in Colorado Springs but… it being a Spike Lee joint…. I suspect it was made in upstate New York.
Just as Ron was shown to get to be a cop too quickly and easily, I also didn’t quite get how easily he was accepted into the KKK. The most realistic character was where the second in command of KKK wanted the white cop to undergo a lie detector test. THAT I can see. Why would they ( the Klan) trust some guy they just met with secrets that could send them to jail. Surely they knew of Police / FBI infiltrations.
Spike Lee juxtaposes the Klan with the Black Power movement of the 60s and 70s. Its a realistic and believable look at the Black Power movement…… but not so much a convincing look at what might drive someone to join the KKK.
As I did years of research on my racism documentary “The Least of my Brothers” I did a lot of reading on the klan, neo nazis and other far right groups.
Only the second in command of the local Klan chapter felt real. The leader wasn’t so bad… but the fat guy who was ALWAYS drunk seemed too much like a cartoon caricature.
I couldn’t figure out the Colorado Springs Police chief. Was he racist or not? And why?
The film is at its best when Ron listens to a Black Power speech, and although he’s there to spy… you can tell the words are resounding in his mind.
And Belafontes story is intercut with the Klans reacting riotously as they watch “Birth of a Nation.”
KKK Grand Dragon Charles Lee told me the Klan regularly showed “Birth of a Nation.”
That film exagerated the original Klan and so glamourized it, that it leads to real life revival of the KKK.
The ending felt too contrived, and when I did same basic internet research, it was all made up. No bomb plot….. the ” I gotcha” phone call to David Duke never happened. The entrapment of the racist cop never happened, and even as a movie scene felt like a sitcom happy ending.
BUT! Spike Lee added in the footage of the alt-righters in Virginia and the car crash attacks on the liberal protestors. That happened so recently but I had pretty much forgottten about it. David Duke and Trumps comments on the issue were so incendiary. http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/blackkklansman/
I read the original book last night. And I am mad at Spike Lee.
Every movie “based on a true story” condenses events and rearranges things for dramatic effect. We all know that. But theres something else going on here.
If the book is true history, and I have no reason to believe it isn’t, then the movies first third is accurate, the middle third if iff-ey, but the final third is complete fiction. Not exaggeration, not dramatic license but an absolute lie.
Its bad enough that the screenwriters invented a wholly fictitious bomb plot against a non existent Black power group. And Rons black power girlfriend didn’t exist.
But what really ticks me off is the speaker scene. In the film, a character named Jerome Turner ( beautifully played by Harry Belafonte) meets with a Black student group and tells the true story of Jesse Washington, a young African American man lynched and burned in Waco Texas in May 1916.
The scene is cross cut with the Klansmen getting all riled up watching “Birth of a Nation”. I think Spike Lee was trying to make the point that the KKK operates out of unfounded paranoia and fear, while most “Black Power” groups are simply a reaction to the Klan, and don’t mean any harm to those who aren’t trying to harm them. And that the KKK aren’t under threat from anyone but Black people ARE under threat.
Belafontes deliver is soft and understated but VERY effective.
My problem is that there is no such scene in the book. There is a very similar scene that happened several years after the David Duke visit. Similar in that it was a famous Black man giving a speech.
According to Ron Stallworth, the legendary NAACP leader, Ralph Abernathy ( second in command just under Martin Luther King) came to Colorado to help out in the protests of an “innocent” Black youth who was allegedly “railroaded” in a murder case.
Stallworth said he was assigned to protect Abernathy, and when alone he told him that the young man was clearly guilty of a thrill killing. He wasn’t railroaded. The local Black community was rallying behind a guilty person.
Most Black fears are justified, most protests against injustice are justified. But if Stallworth was right, the Black community was attempting to exonerate a guilty man just because he was Black. That’s just as bad as white racists attempting to convict an innocent man just because he was Black.
ps: Wikipedia says that:
“The Unification Church hired Ralph Abernathy as a spokesperson to protest the media’s use of the term “Moonies”, which they compared with the word “nigger“.
Poe taking on the dreadnoughts all by himself- awesome- classstar wars…. Poe toying with General Hux on the radio- how very Han Solo
The asian resistance girl grabbing the remote and releasing the bombs on the dreadnought- very well directed and edited.
All these complaints about it being too much “SJW” (social justice warrior)…. I don’t mind that AT ALL.
Why have all the small parts played by women and racial minorities? WHY NOT have as many women and different races wherever you can? WHY keep it just white males as both the good guys and the bad guys?With anyone else who isn’t a white male being just some kind of bug or animal?
In the modern military you’ve got an extreme mix of races and genders working together. This would br doubly so in a rag tag resistance.
Luke tossing aside the light saber?
The new Lucasfilm tossing aside that we’ve come to expect from the old Star Wars?
Luke milking the beasts teat for all that he can?Disney milking Star Wars teat?
Shooting on a real Irish island with lots of natural exotic beauty instead of the green screen cgi eye candy old George would surely have given us? Brilliant idea ( of JJ Abrams).God is always the best lighting director and he’s also the best production designer.His work is always so…. organic and natural.
Kylo’s conflicted resistance to shooting his mother? excellent dramatic conflict. Leia being sucked into space? I thought “ Ok, Carrie Fisher just died… I guess this is how they’re going to deal with that. This is how Leia dies”It sure seemed like CGI as she was sucked into the vacuum of space.
But no- she wakes up in space…. her body somehow DOESNT implode in the vacuum, and she flies back to her ship. Hello? No jedi, not Luke, not the Emperor, not even Yoda and the old Knights could do anything like that.And Leia, who is apparently “force sensitive” but never did any Jedi training, could do this nonsensical thing?
What kind of an admiral wears a ball gown and purple hair?
Maz Kanata is literal “phoning” her role in.
Reys training… Luke is being a dick.The cross cut editing… I’ve never seen this is a Star Wars movie before.Lucas would NOT do that. But… I liked it.
Canto Bright, duplicates that infamous silent move shot- the camera impossibly trucks through the crowd, if it were dolly track wouldn’t the camera bump into people?
It feels more like a Terry Gilliam film than Star Wars.Those bull / racehorse things….very prequel CGI looking.Freeing the slave animals, very SJW…and neither the animals nor the actors riding them felt real. This could have been a scene from the Phantom Menace.
I want to scream at the screen. If these two could get away why not take Leia and or the Admiral with them? And many of the resistance… wouldn’t Kylo and Snoke “sense” that Leia was no longer aboard and give up the chase? And take off after HER….?
Luke tried to murder his nephew in his sleep? Luke who saw the good in his father, NAY in someone he and HEARD was his father but wasnl;t sure, he’d been lied to about his father by his aunt, his uncle, by his mentor Ben…. he couldn’t be sure about Darth Vader, no he could be sure that Vader WAS the second most evil person in the galaxy. he tried to turn HIM but not his sweet young nephew?
He was probably there at his nephews birth. Cuddled him and played with him as he grew up.
Whatever it was he saw Kylo do that was so … evil so … dark side, wouldn’the think to try and guide him back?
Then again, maybe Luke DID try before he decided it was hopeless and he needed to off him.
Rey seeing herself in funhouse mirrors, felt more Harry Potter than Star Wars.
The battle in Snokes throne room?Am I watching a 70s kung fu movie?
That Darth Vaderey droid- love it!Boy the Empire sure LOVES illogical and dangerous chasms on their ships don’t they?
I just readan article in MOVIE MAKER magazine that has my head spinning.
Theres an interview with Steve Bellamy, President of Kodak Film.Bellamy gave a bunch of reasons as to why independent filmmakers should be shooting on film, not digital.
Well, I don’t know any “filmmaker” today who wouldn’t WANT to be shooting on true film. But its too expensive.
Bellamy said “ No one ever said ‘lets make this film look more like digital’“
Well thats true, I do EVERYTHING I can to make my digital footage look “cinematic” Filters, de saturation…..I’ve gotten pretty good at making color digital look like high contrast Black and White, but Im not satisfied with making digital look like color film.
Bellamy said “Film is LESS expensive than digital, no ifs ands or buts”
Well I could give him dozens, if not hundreds of no ifs ands or buts…
He said “camera packages are cheaper with film. Your shooting ratios are lower, your performances are better. People prepare better and storyboard with film— in video they don’t.Film doesn’t have a video village”
He is SO wrongon that.I prep as if it were film. I storyboard. I don’t have a “video village” anyway, my DSLR is used just like a film camera.
He said “When you edit digital, you have four times as much footage to soft through than if you shot film”
He may be right about that, but if I’m editing something I shot myself, I can sift through the footage really fast. In fact some “bad” footage” might capture something I didn’t notice at first.
But of course, his business is selling film.. so of course he’s biased.
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