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Steven Spielberg's West Side Story - In theaters 12/10/21


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2 hours ago, heydude93 said:

I'll always be nostalgic for his earlier work but he hasn't made many films i care about in quite some time. This doesn't seem like a combo-breaker, but might watch when it hits streaming.  

 

Yeah, I agree. His last truly great film was, what? Lincoln in 2012 I'd say. Before that, Munich in 2005. I did think Bridge of Spies and The Post were both pretty entertaining (but nothing super special) but The BFG and Ready Player One were forgettable at best. Not sure how much I care about West Side Story though. 

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5 hours ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

Yeah, I agree. His last truly great film was, what? Lincoln in 2012 I'd say. Before that, Munich in 2005. I did think Bridge of Spies and The Post were both pretty entertaining (but nothing super special) but The BFG and Ready Player One were forgettable at best. Not sure how much I care about West Side Story though. 

 

How was Tintin?

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The big set pieces in Ready Player One were a lot of fun and a real thrill to see on the big screen, even if the rest of the movie was just okay. Spielberg hasn’t fully lost it yet, but his heart hasn’t been in it for the latter years of his career. However, West Side Story is a passion project of his and something he’s been trying to get made for years. So I’m hoping his enthusiasm translates on screen and maybe we can get something special from him in a way we haven’t in quite some time. If not, then maybe it’s a lost cause to wish for another classic from him.

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  • 7 months later...

I saw this without ever seeing the original. It was an interesting experience. It's really good, and you could probably trace back anything I didn't like about it to the source material. Like for some reason, I just can't deal with these fucking gang members doing synchronized balletic leaps through the street on their way to do some hate crimes. I know there's a general suspension of disbelief involved in musical theater, but I couldn't get on board for some of that. 

 

There are great performances, and it looks incredible. Even as I was having a hard time digesting some of the material, I was transfixed. 

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3 minutes ago, TheLeon said:

I saw this without ever seeing the original. It was an interesting experience. It's really good, and you could probably trace back anything I didn't like about it to the source material. Like for some reason, I just can't deal with these fucking gang members doing synchronized balletic leaps through the street on their way to do some hate crimes. I know there's a general suspension of disbelief involved in musical theater, but I couldn't get on board for some of that. 

 

There are great performances, and it looks incredible. Even as I was having a hard time digesting some of the material, I was transfixed. 

how much spanish is there in the movie that isn’t subtitled? do you feel like you were missing out on anything? 

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5 minutes ago, johnny said:

how much spanish is there in the movie that isn’t subtitled? do you feel like you were missing out on anything? 

There was quite a bit of Spanish, and nothing is subtitled. My high school Spanish is extremely rusty (and was never good to begin with), but most of it you can follow easily enough through context clues. There might be some jokes and smaller things in there that I missed, but you'll never lose the plot. 

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15 minutes ago, TheLeon said:

There was quite a bit of Spanish, and nothing is subtitled. My high school Spanish is extremely rusty (and was never good to begin with), but most of it you can follow easily enough through context clues. There might be some jokes and smaller things in there that I missed, but you'll never lose the plot. 

 

Why isn't there Spanish subtitles? That seems like a big omission.

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5 hours ago, Komusha said:

Speilberg directed the fuck out of this movie.

 

Pure. Cinematic. Magic.

 

It’s so reassuring to know that he still had another classic left in him. If he retires after this I would still be very satisfied that he left on a high note.

True, it would be a good note to end on, but he’s already got another movie on track for next year, the semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans. Just imagine making a movie about your childhood and getting Michelle Williams and Paul Dano to play your parents. King shit. 

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14 hours ago, Komusha said:

It’s a shame it’s bombing. This is obviously more appealing to an older audience and older audiences are more likely to stay home these days.


I don’t know if it’s entirely that, what’s the last movie musical that really did well?  It feels like their time came and went half a decade ago.

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1 hour ago, TheLeon said:

True, it would be a good note to end on, but he’s already got another movie on track for next year, the semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans. Just imagine making a movie about your childhood and getting Michelle Williams and Paul Dano to play your parents. King shit. 


I was still coming off of a cinematic high last night when I posted that and it clearly shows. But I should be clear that I don’t want him to retire, it’s just that retiring after making the movie he wanted to make for years and absolutely KILLING IT would be very poetic and fitting.

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33 minutes ago, LazyPiranha said:


I don’t know if it’s entirely that, what’s the last movie musical that really did well?  It feels like their time came and went half a decade ago.


The Greatest Showman was the last musical to be a hit. It also didn’t have a huge opening but ended up having legs. Les Mis, Into the Woods, and La La Land also did well, just from the top of my head. Hamilton would have probably done decently at least if it was released in theaters.
 

This is the sort of movie that everyone who wants to see it and does will absolutely love it. I saw it with a small audience but we all clapped afterwards. I could see this having some legs.

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23 minutes ago, Komusha said:


I was still coming off of a cinematic high last night when I posted that and it clearly shows. But I should be clear that I don’t want him to retire, it’s just that retiring after making the movie he wanted to make for years and absolutely KILLING IT would be very poetic and fitting.

I got you. He’s getting up there in age, and any movie could be his last. I was just saying that we don’t even have to consider it about WSS. 

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I think it's crazy that all of the directors that we grew up with who basically ushered in "New Hollywood" (however you want to define that) and then defined modern filmmaking - Steven Spielberg (75), Francis Ford Coppola (82), Martin Scorsese (79), Wolfgang Petersen (80), Ridley Scott (84), Clint Eastwood (91), and Brian De Palma (81), among a few others, are all getting to the "retirement or death" ages.

 

You can definitely see a huge shift in the way movies were produced, written, and edited starting in the late 60's, but really getting into full swing by the mid-70's, when all of those directors were starting to get big projects. My favorite example is to watch "A Bridge Too Far," which came out in 1977. It was directed by Richard Attenborough, and when you watch it, it feels old. It feels like the product of another time. The way shots are composed, the way people talk, the way they move. All of it kind of feels "off." Then you watch The Deer Hunter, which came out only a year later, and it feels like that movie could have came out last Tuesday.

 

Anyway, I'm sure I'll see this eventually.

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2 hours ago, Komusha said:


The Greatest Showman was the last musical to be a hit. It also didn’t have a huge opening but ended up having legs. Les Mis, Into the Woods, and La La Land also did well, just from the top of my head. Hamilton would have probably done decently at least if it was released in theaters.
 

This is the sort of movie that everyone who wants to see it and does will absolutely love it. I saw it with a small audience but we all clapped afterwards. I could see this having some legs.

 

The Greatest Showman was 2017.  Les Miserable was 2012 which mentally seems impossible.  It's been a while since one of these hit and hit big, I think COVID is part of the problem but also missing the train by half a decade.

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28 minutes ago, LazyPiranha said:

 

The Greatest Showman was 2017.  Les Miserable was 2012 which mentally seems impossible.  It's been a while since one of these hit and hit big, I think COVID is part of the problem but also missing the train by half a decade.

 

But it's not like Hollywood is pumping out 4 to 6 of them a year like they are with superhero movies. There has been a handful of high profile musicals released in the past decade and most of them do well. There is a dedicated audience who turns out for these things, but sadly I think COVID is keeping a lot of them at bay.

 

I also think the skepticism of remaking a classic movie hurt it as well. Hopefully word of mouth gets people to reconsider.

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6 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

I think it's crazy that all of the directors that we grew up with who basically ushered in "New Hollywood" (however you want to define that) and then defined modern filmmaking - Steven Spielberg (75), Francis Ford Coppola (82), Martin Scorsese (79), Wolfgang Petersen (80), Ridley Scott (84), Clint Eastwood (91), and Brian De Palma (81), among a few others, are all getting to the "retirement or death" ages.

 

You can definitely see a huge shift in the way movies were produced, written, and edited starting in the late 60's, but really getting into full swing by the mid-70's, when all of those directors were starting to get big projects. My favorite example is to watch "A Bridge Too Far," which came out in 1977. It was directed by Richard Attenborough, and when you watch it, it feels old. It feels like the product of another time. The way shots are composed, the way people talk, the way they move. All of it kind of feels "off." Then you watch The Deer Hunter, which came out only a year later, and it feels like that movie could have came out last Tuesday.

 

Anyway, I'm sure I'll see this eventually.

 

We are so damn blessed to have both Spielberg and Scorsese still working and still as proficient as ever. Sure, it's not like their recent stuff has all been perfect, but they also haven't had a noticeable drop off like Carpenter did. It will be really sad when these guys are no longer working, and audiences should really be more appreciative while they are still around. Spielberg just dropped a new classic on us not enough people care.

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