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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   3840 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 19, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Will read ramayana and likely watch the latest fast and furious movie titled fast x. It is low brow and I did not like the last two at all so hope this one is not another vin diesel fest.

Short rant - Vin Diesel looks old, the dude is not what you would want in an action hero, not because of the bad acting but he also does not look the part at all. The movies themselves have gone from being about stealing dvds and him being a normal man to some sort of brainless avengers ripoff where literally everything revolves around vin. Keanu is another old guy who is not a good actor but at least the John Wick movies are nice, they have good set pieces and are not dumbed down to appeal to 3rd graders.

I also tried out chilli oil ramen, it is an alright thing, just needs a decent packet of ramen without much sugar or coloring or you may risk burning it or making it taste rancid. My sabbatical begins next week so I will spend my last weekend free just reading the glorious ramayana and contemplating on life. Life is good, also cookies and cream is a great ice cream flavor I just found out about.

Think that's just a general Hollywood problem. We want our actors to look youthful, but also be famous and well established. By the time they reach that point in their careers, they're pushing the limits of what their natural genetics plus plastic surgery plus vfx can hold. I cannot confirm or deny that Vin Diesel gets certain parts of his face edited in post.

We want our actors to look youthful,

But do we? I mean, John Wick is a retired hitman, how youthful can you be when you've already retired? I imagine hitman retirement program starts early that standard Social Security retirement age, but still. He's also "the one you send to kill a Boogieman" - you can't get this kind of reputation when you're in your 20s, and you can't get a collection of friends (most of them in high places and respective ages) unless you led a long life establishing these relationships. Youthful Joh Wick would not make absolutely any sense. As an action hero, we want him to be agile, powerful, unstoppable - but I don't think youthful fits the mold.

In general, the trope of "flawed hero" that is being used in action movies a lot, pretty much precludes the action hero from being too youthful. He must have some well-developed flaws, that make him relatable - all-powerful flawless young Greek god is just not going to get sympathy. He must have some established position to show how good he is - but then he'd lose this position in the middle of the movie due to the actions of his enemy, and to make it a true loss, it has to be something better than a night shift manager in McDonalds. He should have some friends and resources that he would rely on to come back and prepare to the ultimate showdown. He should have some developed relationships, romantic and platonic. He should have some strongly held principles, which are going to be tested. And so on, and so forth.

(And, of course, as you correctly mentioned, you want the actor's face to be recognized by everyone when you put it on the poster)

I mean, this is not the only action movie formula that's in use, and obviously the young adult movies would have to use a different one usually, but it is a very frequently used one. So I think saying we always want the actors to look youthful is not exactly correct. We want them to not explicitly old (unless the role demands it), but I don't think it's the same thing.

Nobody breaks the mold here a bit by making you think "who is this schlub?" before the plot really kicks off. And I think it's better for it — you then find that he has the friends in high places, and the strongly-held principles, etc.

I liked that one. Of course, given that they had Odenkirk, it was expected. Again, Odenkirk being almost 60 (and to be honest, he didn't look that "youthful" way before that either) does not detract from the fun.

This is a common practise though. Allegedly Tom Cruise uses some cg help to make himself look younger.

Like most things in life, the worst offenders here inclides some of my countrymen, a famous Hindi actor Salman Khan literally had CGI abs in a movie lol.

I always defend the Fast and Furious movies. To me they're big dumb movies but not bad ones. Well, okay: not not-entertaining ones.

Yes, all of the set pieces are dumb. But they're well-crafted. It seems like a low-bar but in the age of CGI dreck I can actually follow along with the ludicrous things they're doing

You're right about Diesel though; success has ossified him. It's not just his now-bloated, older look, which I can get past, but the character he plays has nothing to him besides being a taciturn hero yet he's supposed to anchor the films.

Not sure why he's degenerated below even speaking in complete sentences (Keanu has a similar thing with John Wick, but he was always laconic). He's actually not a bad actor and he must have a ton of creative control at this point (given how he ran off The Rock who used his star power to run wild in DC)

Up until the Covid Years, I'd gone my whole life without seeing a Fast and Furious movie. Then I caught Covid, and while I was lying on the couch helpless and incapacitated, my wife subjected me to the entire series in sequence, all... however many movies there were, ending with the Rock spinoff.

Much of the experience is mercifully vague, a mishmash of family and fiery explosions and contemplations on how many variations on the title are linguistically possible, but I do recall ranting that these people really, really need to understand that some problems are car problems, and some problems are gun problems, and they really, really should stop trying to solve the latter with the former...

For me F&F always was "how could you use the cars in the most ridiculous way", and if you look for anything to make sense there, you took a wrong turn way, way earlier.

To be honest a lot of the earlier fast and the furious movies had a decent cultural significance to it (at least during the time) it helps to remind ourselves that the timelines collided with MTVs pimp my ride and other shows where they did atrocious modifications to the cars.

The bitter taste is left from the question that when the hell did robbing bank vaults and jumping cars across buildings become any part of a cultural significance? I’m not saying that movies have to be relevant to the culture, and in the movie world the natural transition and exponential growth of the action could only be set up by such exaggerated plots. But the appeal of Fast and the Furious was that it could be semi realistic to have car meet up’s or chases (ignoring the potential of causing a mini genocide trying that in Tokyo)

I’d say an interesting thought experiment would’ve been to try to think of a plot alternative which still had cultural significance. One on the top of my head would be the crew stealing car shipments trying to find some special car plotted with some family/crime drama.

Diesel can actually act, Keanu has always been a very laconic guy with not a lot of acting chops but at least the movies he appears in are good, he is not fat or out of shape and has a better screen presence than vin.

Right, it’s not like an older guy can’t make an action movie work. Look at Looper. They just have to lean into it more

I think Nobody is a good example. Odenkirk is what, 60?

they cannot after a point, taken is a good example of that. The amount of jump cuts and stuff just looks fake after a while.

The jump cuts are covering bad writing, good writing wouldn't involve an old person jumping a fence. The Death Wish series for example.

For those that haven't seen it: Liam Neeson jumping a fence.

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