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Eight

Member
Anybody else excited to see Ford v Ferrari?

Great story. I read the book by AJ Baime (Go Like Hell).

Kinda wish they had cast McConaughey as Carroll Shelby. Matt Damon as a tall, lanky former Texas chicken farmer turned auto racer seems a bit, uh, too Hollywood.

surprised on the choice for shelby as well and i really hope they don't hollywood up the story and timeline
 

Eight

Member
Ken Miles was a real character, but I’m afraid Christian Bale will take it too far.

The good news is that Caitriona Balfe is in the movie.

miles was a memorable person in a number of ways and i think bale will do a great job playing him.

agree on shelby and my fear is that hollywood tinkers with what is a great story by changing time lines and parties involved in the story
 

BrewingFrog

Was I supposed to type something here?
Hollywood always excels at taking a perfectly good story and ruining it with things they think would "improve" it.

It always frightens me to hear that a beloved book has been optioned to some Studio, for I know said beloved work will be utterly unrecognizable afterwards.
 

Eight

Member
Hollywood always excels at taking a perfectly good story and ruining it with things they think would "improve" it.

It always frightens me to hear that a beloved book has been optioned to some Studio, for I know said beloved work will be utterly unrecognizable afterwards.

can't wait to see the group of multi-racial, non-binary outcasts step in at the last minute and help the misogynistic white male petrol heads beat ferrari with their environmentally friendly solar powered car with the final scene being greta lecturing us all about climate change.

i think i have seen too many movies lately
 
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BrewingFrog

Was I supposed to type something here?
can't wait to see the group of multi-racial, non-binary outcasts step in at the last minute and help the misogynistic while male petrol heads beat ferrari with their environmentally friendly solar powered car with the final scene being greta lecturing us all about climate change.

i think i have seen too many movies lately
I am going to go see Midway later this afternoon. A friend who had seen it last weekend laughed to me that "I couldn't figure how they would multi-culti it up..."
 

PurpleBlood87

Active Member
One part of "Midway" I liked was this addition to the movie that wasn't in the 1976 version.

The Japanese were wargaming the upcoming battle and the young Japanese officers, who were playing U.S. side, sunk two carriers because they came from an unexpected direction.

Higher up officers disallowed the younger officers; tactics and play the game again with the US fleet coming from a direction the Japanese expected. The Japanese won that game, destroying the US carriers and capturing Midway.
 

BrewingFrog

Was I supposed to type something here?
I actually made it to the theatre yesterday afternoon to see Midway. The Studio Movie Grill on the south Beltway. Nice place. Squeaky seats. Reasonable beer selection. 15 solid minutes of exceedingly annoying advertising before they finally rolled previews to films I wouldn't watch at gunpoint. Finally, the film I had paid (too much) to see...

Now, one must understand that I am a massive geek when it comes to the Pacific War. I knew quite a few old veterans of that conflict, who did heroic things that they considered "just what we had to do." As a younger whelp, I was taken by an old CPO who was on board the Enterprise during the battle to see the 1976 film at the old Alabama theatre in Houston. Lots of old vets showed up. The '76 film was good in some respects, cheesy in others, but overall a decent film for what it was. The release of that film awoke a lot of stories from the guys I simply knew as crusty old goofballs who played golf with my Dad. Turns out that one old fellow was on the Batann Death March. Another flew P-38s. Yet another was a carrier-qualified Hellcat pilot who had 3 kills. Still others were vets of destroyers, cruisers and other support ships. From them, one got the tales of the everyday, the mundane. "From tedium to boredom, and back again." But also, those times of anxiety and terror when you couldn't know what was awaiting you in the big, empty ocean.

A goodly section of The Library of the Brewingfrog is made up of histories. Among the many books there is Eddie Layton's "...And I Was There" his memoirs of the war and specifically the story of the codebreaking that led to the victory at Midway. Other tomes include Prange's histories of the War, Walter Lord's magnificent "Incredible Victory: The Battle of Midway", Parshall's "Shattered Sword", the works of James Hornfischer, Martin Caidin, Barret Tillman's excellent "Dauntless" and "Hellcats", the Naval Institute bios of Nimitz, Halsey, Burke, etc. (We're trying to move at the moment, and moving always re-acquaints you with your book collection...) Thus, I have a small knowledge of the events, equipment, and the men.

Earlier in this thread, I had expressed the terrible misgivings I always suffer anytime Hollywood gets ahold of a book I like. They always ruin what they touch. When I learned that Roland Emmerich was making this film, I groaned. Producer/Director of big, huge "blockbuster" films featuring titanic upheavals and world-ending catastrophes, chock full of dopey dialogue and ridiculous action. I almost would have been happier if David Lynch had optioned it, but, alas...

So, sitting in the theatre seat, waiting through what must have been a dozen Chevy ads (with that little smarmy bearded twerp), I was hoping that Emmerich's talents would be turned towards the good for a change, instead of the ridiculous. Luckily, for once, they were!

Whoever wrote the script read a lot of the same books I have. Lots of little story elements popped up from seeming obscurity, but helped out the fast moving tapestry of the film. Emmerich chose a big canvas upon which to draw out his story, and told the story of the first six months of the Pacific War as minimally as possible while being effective from a situational standpoint. Covered was the pitiful state of the Fleet, and the superiority of the Japanese in all respects, something not generally covered. The battle sequences are, well, overdone, as only Emmerich could do them, but don't weigh things down terribly. Remember, this is the guy who blew up the White House with a giant flying saucer. What did you think he would do with the attack on Pearl Harbor?

Yet the film isn't all stuff "being blowed up real good!" although there's plenty of that. I was highly pleased with Woody Harrelson playing Nimitz. I honestly didn't know Woody had it in him. The actor playing Layton did a fine job, as did the fellows playing Best and McClusky. Another element was the CGI work done to bring the ships and aircraft of the time to life again. Some complained that "the CGI is too obvious!" Well, gee pal! It's not like you can find any Yorktown-class CVs laying around just waiting to be used in a period film. Or Wildcats. Or Dauntlesses. They had to make it all up, and they did a helluva job. Certainly they got some things goofily wrong (Ships all crowded together in a battle?), but it was more about what they got right that made it worthwhile. I was reminded of Master and Commander in that respect: Peter Weir captured the ethos of the subject matter, and the errors faded into the background. So it was with this production. Even an old, embittered and cynical fart like me quit worrying about the little details and allowed the story to run without mental interruption. Disbelief: Suspended.

Possibly my only real quibble was the music. The '76 film had a superb score by none other than John Williams, who would become a household name the next summer. This film really didn't have a moving score, choosing to go towards the Dunkirk route of moody noises. Not that anyone could hear music over all the things blowing up and gunfire, but it does tend to set a mood and punctuate emotional moments. They did have some fine music towards the end when they were showing the movie characters and then the pictures of the actual people. This was most moving, and there was a lot of dust in the room for some reason...

Verdict: Both beer mugs up. Go see this film.
 

PurpleBlood87

Active Member
Another thing about Midway I liked was the Japanese destroyer attacking the US sub as the rest of the fleet moved on.
That destroyer was the one, I believe that McCluskey followed to find the fleet.
 

RollToad

Baylor is Trash.
I actually made it to the theatre yesterday afternoon to see Midway. The Studio Movie Grill on the south Beltway. Nice place. Squeaky seats. Reasonable beer selection. 15 solid minutes of exceedingly annoying advertising before they finally rolled previews to films I wouldn't watch at gunpoint. Finally, the film I had paid (too much) to see...

Now, one must understand that I am a massive geek when it comes to the Pacific War. I knew quite a few old veterans of that conflict, who did heroic things that they considered "just what we had to do." As a younger whelp, I was taken by an old CPO who was on board the Enterprise during the battle to see the 1976 film at the old Alabama theatre in Houston. Lots of old vets showed up. The '76 film was good in some respects, cheesy in others, but overall a decent film for what it was. The release of that film awoke a lot of stories from the guys I simply knew as crusty old goofballs who played golf with my Dad. Turns out that one old fellow was on the Batann Death March. Another flew P-38s. Yet another was a carrier-qualified Hellcat pilot who had 3 kills. Still others were vets of destroyers, cruisers and other support ships. From them, one got the tales of the everyday, the mundane. "From tedium to boredom, and back again." But also, those times of anxiety and terror when you couldn't know what was awaiting you in the big, empty ocean.

A goodly section of The Library of the Brewingfrog is made up of histories. Among the many books there is Eddie Layton's "...And I Was There" his memoirs of the war and specifically the story of the codebreaking that led to the victory at Midway. Other tomes include Prange's histories of the War, Walter Lord's magnificent "Incredible Victory: The Battle of Midway", Parshall's "Shattered Sword", the works of James Hornfischer, Martin Caidin, Barret Tillman's excellent "Dauntless" and "Hellcats", the Naval Institute bios of Nimitz, Halsey, Burke, etc. (We're trying to move at the moment, and moving always re-acquaints you with your book collection...) Thus, I have a small knowledge of the events, equipment, and the men.

Earlier in this thread, I had expressed the terrible misgivings I always suffer anytime Hollywood gets ahold of a book I like. They always ruin what they touch. When I learned that Roland Emmerich was making this film, I groaned. Producer/Director of big, huge "blockbuster" films featuring titanic upheavals and world-ending catastrophes, chock full of dopey dialogue and ridiculous action. I almost would have been happier if David Lynch had optioned it, but, alas...

So, sitting in the theatre seat, waiting through what must have been a dozen Chevy ads (with that little smarmy bearded twerp), I was hoping that Emmerich's talents would be turned towards the good for a change, instead of the ridiculous. Luckily, for once, they were!

Whoever wrote the script read a lot of the same books I have. Lots of little story elements popped up from seeming obscurity, but helped out the fast moving tapestry of the film. Emmerich chose a big canvas upon which to draw out his story, and told the story of the first six months of the Pacific War as minimally as possible while being effective from a situational standpoint. Covered was the pitiful state of the Fleet, and the superiority of the Japanese in all respects, something not generally covered. The battle sequences are, well, overdone, as only Emmerich could do them, but don't weigh things down terribly. Remember, this is the guy who blew up the White House with a giant flying saucer. What did you think he would do with the attack on Pearl Harbor?

Yet the film isn't all stuff "being blowed up real good!" although there's plenty of that. I was highly pleased with Woody Harrelson playing Nimitz. I honestly didn't know Woody had it in him. The actor playing Layton did a fine job, as did the fellows playing Best and McClusky. Another element was the CGI work done to bring the ships and aircraft of the time to life again. Some complained that "the CGI is too obvious!" Well, gee pal! It's not like you can find any Yorktown-class CVs laying around just waiting to be used in a period film. Or Wildcats. Or Dauntlesses. They had to make it all up, and they did a helluva job. Certainly they got some things goofily wrong (Ships all crowded together in a battle?), but it was more about what they got right that made it worthwhile. I was reminded of Master and Commander in that respect: Peter Weir captured the ethos of the subject matter, and the errors faded into the background. So it was with this production. Even an old, embittered and cynical fart like me quit worrying about the little details and allowed the story to run without mental interruption. Disbelief: Suspended.

Possibly my only real quibble was the music. The '76 film had a superb score by none other than John Williams, who would become a household name the next summer. This film really didn't have a moving score, choosing to go towards the Dunkirk route of moody noises. Not that anyone could hear music over all the things blowing up and gunfire, but it does tend to set a mood and punctuate emotional moments. They did have some fine music towards the end when they were showing the movie characters and then the pictures of the actual people. This was most moving, and there was a lot of dust in the room for some reason...

Verdict: Both beer mugs up. Go see this film.
Could you elaborate?
 

Chongo94

Active Member
Watched The Mandalorian on Disney+. Kinda peeved they aren’t releasing all episodes at once but whatever.

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Has humor that adults will enjoy as will kids but it’s not stupid Jar Jar humor from those movies. Some cheese parts but that’s natural. A lot of familiar characters if you keep your eyes peeled...not as in specific ones, just familiar aliens and stuff.
 

Eight

Member
Watched The Mandalorian on Disney+. Kinda peeved they aren’t releasing all episodes at once but whatever.

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Has humor that adults will enjoy as will kids but it’s not stupid Jar Jar humor from those movies. Some cheese parts but that’s natural. A lot of familiar characters if you keep your eyes peeled...not as in specific ones, just familiar aliens and stuff.

kid growing up the weekly wait helped build the anticipation for the next episode, especially in the case of the rare two part episode that ended with the infamous "to be completed next week"

things change as my wife won't watch her shows for a few weeks and then hammers through 3-4 episodes in a sitting
 
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