One summer as a young man, I worked with an new immigrant Iranian guy for a boss who swore like a trucker (but was a good boss). One particular time, on hearing a new idiom he hadn't yet encountered used by the boss to describe someone lazy, he turned to me and said, sotto voce, "so... this man, he actually... fuck dogs?"
There's a peculiar Australian slang phrase, where to "fuck spiders" means to dilly dally. So sometimes they'd say "i'm not here to fuck spiders" as a way to say "I'm not here to fuck around." And they have probably the best slang in the world, but I'm not sold on "fuck spiders" as a synonym for messing around. Too weird for me, man.
Overall i’d commend Ayer and Wimmer for not keeping a straighter Peter Berg, Chris Nolan-esque line regarding law enforcement/military figures but i agree it shouldve committed more to a kill-em-all everyones corrupt anarchy. Also, as a fan of Chappie i’d probably always stick a crazy South African in my action film too
"A peculiar fact about termite-tapeworm-fungus-moss art is that it goes always forward eating its own boundaries, and, likely as not, leaves nothing in its path other than the signs of eager, industrious, unkempt activity." For me that, and the concluding "buglike immersion" were the high points of Manny Farber's essay.
As for The Beekeeper it was a rollicking good ride on a Friday night for $3.99 (no popcorn). I'm so happy that Adam Clay (Jason Statham) was allowed to suit-up and swim away setting the scene for a sequel.
I've avoided the Point Break remake like the little eye floaty it is. This, on the other hand, sounds awesome. Yay for something I want to watch. Boo for IP driven mediocrity.
You're only hurting yourself. I'm sorry to be the bearer of this news but the Point Break remake is better than this, one of the best bad movies of all time.
But the original Point Break already has that co-title as best bad action movie alongside Roadhouse. I've seen snippets of the PB remake and it felt unauthentic. For context I can watch Michael Dudikoff films back-to-back-to-back.
Is this movie the action version of The Naked Gun? Statham as Frank Drebin. The two FBI agents as Ed and Nordberg. The South African guy is definitely a Papshmere and the plot even has a Queen at the end!
Holy shit, just watched this last night with my 87-year old Dad and we were cracking up the entire time.
I think my favorite part was when the first, clearly professional, team of mercs gets wasted and Jeremy Irons switches to Lazarus (a visual site gag in every frame he appeared). Lazarus's squad rolls up to
Not-Mar-a-Lago and pours out of black SUVs like a roided-up clown car while dressing and acting like a cross between GI Joe bad guys and Sven Ole Thorsen's character from "Hard Target." <chef's kiss>
It's like David Ayer won the coin toss to dress the first squad, so Kurt Wimmer got to dress the second squad. The creative push-and-pull between these two auteurs must have been tectonic in scope.
Also, I can not get enough of an over-the-top Afrikaner accent. Sometimes I find myself muttering, "BRUH! Let's go get some braai in Bloemfontein!" just to enjoy the mouthfeel.
Vince, I tried reading that piece about termite art, I really did, but got bogged down by the weight of 60+ year old cultural references I didn't know.
Is the basic idea that 'termite art' is art for its own sake, without regard for how it will be received, whereas white elephant art is art hobbled by overthinking about how it will be received?
Yeah, I kind of hate referencing it, because "termite art" is kind of a specific thing, but the essay itself is kind of shitty and impenetrable. Feel like there needs to be a new term for this but I don't know what it is. I think it's more like termite art is genre movies that deal with social issues in the process of being genre movies ("chewing through the subjects" or whatever he says), whereas White Elephant art is more like "THIS IS ART ABOUT A SOCIAL ISSUE".
As someone who has worked in medical billing on the provider side for 10 years and has been currently on hold for two hours (on both my cell phone and my work phone at the same time! True story: I saw a new primary care physician and he took my blood pressure and said, “hmm, your blood pressure is a little high.” I told him what I did and without missing a beat he said, “hmm, your blood pressure is a little low”. Good guy) I am calling bullshit on none of these evil call centers being in the Philippines.
I don’t believe that the evil scion of a Betsy DeVos type would pay Americans to scam people when he could pay someone in the Philippines slave wages to do it. Though that would mean he’s *less* evil than health insurance companies which… that tracks.
One summer as a young man, I worked with an new immigrant Iranian guy for a boss who swore like a trucker (but was a good boss). One particular time, on hearing a new idiom he hadn't yet encountered used by the boss to describe someone lazy, he turned to me and said, sotto voce, "so... this man, he actually... fuck dogs?"
There's a peculiar Australian slang phrase, where to "fuck spiders" means to dilly dally. So sometimes they'd say "i'm not here to fuck spiders" as a way to say "I'm not here to fuck around." And they have probably the best slang in the world, but I'm not sold on "fuck spiders" as a synonym for messing around. Too weird for me, man.
This reminds me of the old Frot when they played a clip of someone trying to understand “party pooper”.
Overall i’d commend Ayer and Wimmer for not keeping a straighter Peter Berg, Chris Nolan-esque line regarding law enforcement/military figures but i agree it shouldve committed more to a kill-em-all everyones corrupt anarchy. Also, as a fan of Chappie i’d probably always stick a crazy South African in my action film too
"A peculiar fact about termite-tapeworm-fungus-moss art is that it goes always forward eating its own boundaries, and, likely as not, leaves nothing in its path other than the signs of eager, industrious, unkempt activity." For me that, and the concluding "buglike immersion" were the high points of Manny Farber's essay.
As for The Beekeeper it was a rollicking good ride on a Friday night for $3.99 (no popcorn). I'm so happy that Adam Clay (Jason Statham) was allowed to suit-up and swim away setting the scene for a sequel.
I've avoided the Point Break remake like the little eye floaty it is. This, on the other hand, sounds awesome. Yay for something I want to watch. Boo for IP driven mediocrity.
You're only hurting yourself. I'm sorry to be the bearer of this news but the Point Break remake is better than this, one of the best bad movies of all time.
Was it not Johnny Utah who came down from the mountain to share the gnar-shredding secrets of the Utes?
But the original Point Break already has that co-title as best bad action movie alongside Roadhouse. I've seen snippets of the PB remake and it felt unauthentic. For context I can watch Michael Dudikoff films back-to-back-to-back.
Is this movie the action version of The Naked Gun? Statham as Frank Drebin. The two FBI agents as Ed and Nordberg. The South African guy is definitely a Papshmere and the plot even has a Queen at the end!
Update. This was great. Second update - watched "the bricklayer" last night. Aaron Eckhart is no Jason Statham.
Holy shit, just watched this last night with my 87-year old Dad and we were cracking up the entire time.
I think my favorite part was when the first, clearly professional, team of mercs gets wasted and Jeremy Irons switches to Lazarus (a visual site gag in every frame he appeared). Lazarus's squad rolls up to
Not-Mar-a-Lago and pours out of black SUVs like a roided-up clown car while dressing and acting like a cross between GI Joe bad guys and Sven Ole Thorsen's character from "Hard Target." <chef's kiss>
It's like David Ayer won the coin toss to dress the first squad, so Kurt Wimmer got to dress the second squad. The creative push-and-pull between these two auteurs must have been tectonic in scope.
Also, I can not get enough of an over-the-top Afrikaner accent. Sometimes I find myself muttering, "BRUH! Let's go get some braai in Bloemfontein!" just to enjoy the mouthfeel.
Did he pop an H on the bag for hornets, though?
Vince, I tried reading that piece about termite art, I really did, but got bogged down by the weight of 60+ year old cultural references I didn't know.
Is the basic idea that 'termite art' is art for its own sake, without regard for how it will be received, whereas white elephant art is art hobbled by overthinking about how it will be received?
Yeah, I kind of hate referencing it, because "termite art" is kind of a specific thing, but the essay itself is kind of shitty and impenetrable. Feel like there needs to be a new term for this but I don't know what it is. I think it's more like termite art is genre movies that deal with social issues in the process of being genre movies ("chewing through the subjects" or whatever he says), whereas White Elephant art is more like "THIS IS ART ABOUT A SOCIAL ISSUE".
Or maybe I've been using that reference completely wrong for like 10 years. Who can say.
As someone who has worked in medical billing on the provider side for 10 years and has been currently on hold for two hours (on both my cell phone and my work phone at the same time! True story: I saw a new primary care physician and he took my blood pressure and said, “hmm, your blood pressure is a little high.” I told him what I did and without missing a beat he said, “hmm, your blood pressure is a little low”. Good guy) I am calling bullshit on none of these evil call centers being in the Philippines.
I don’t believe that the evil scion of a Betsy DeVos type would pay Americans to scam people when he could pay someone in the Philippines slave wages to do it. Though that would mean he’s *less* evil than health insurance companies which… that tracks.
Vince, I don’t know if you listen to how did this get made but your Statham adoration is widespread:
https://youtu.be/1KkKxF_Fc_Y?si=maM8XFDbtEdpAxZd
My first sense that something wasn't quite right with the movie was that everyone kept saying he "burned down" that first call center.
It very clearly blew up! It could have been served from more dumb weird moments like that that don't quite add up.
Also it was oddly out of order. Why did the other Beekeeper show up so early??
The other Beekeeper showing up in the first 15 minutes and immediately getting merc'd was very strange.