Movies Will Smith talks about turning down The Matrix

[LazyPiranha]

On 8/24/2021 at 9:14 PM, sblfilms said:

Just saw that tasty Matrix Resurrections trailer. Weird to see it 20 years after the first, but the action stuff looked killer.

Is that in general circulation yet?

[Guest]

1 hour ago, LazyPiranha said:

Is that in general circulation yet?

I don’t believe so, should be soon though.

[Reputator]

7 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

QT straddles the line of ironic racism.  Like you hit a point where it's like it doesn't matter how self aware you are, it's just kind of racist.

 

It's kind of like Robert Downey Jr.'s character in Tropic Thunder. Like yeah, the whole point of the character is that he's ridiculous and Hollywood gone too far, but at the end of the day.... still black face.

 

There is a conversation to be had there, about the threshold at which parody becomes reality. Like at what point does making a joke about how "it would  be totally racist if we did [thing]", and then to make the point you just... do the thing. Like you just gave yourself a blank slate to make a racist joke, and then said "I knew it was racist, so it's fine."

 

I'm not saying there's a right or wrong, it's just when you get into that territory you reeeeeallllyy have to thread a needle. I still think RDJ's character in Tropic Thunder lands, but only because they did it so well. That could easily have gone haywire. QT I'd say trends positive, but there are definitely points where you go "ehhhhh... that ain't it, chief."

 

The Tropic Thunder one is interesting to me. I didn't know there were people offended by it, as I thought it was understood that was the point, to have a character that's not self-aware enough to know what he's doing is wrong. At what point do we say we can't have the creative freedom to make comments on that because then the illustration itself is offensive?

 

I'm curious what the African Americans on this board think of that movie, because I'm probably way too white nerd to have any good frame of reference.

[Fizzzzle]

1 hour ago, Reputator said:

 

The Tropic Thunder one is interesting to me. I didn't know there were people offended by it, as I thought it was understood that was the point, to have a character that's not self-aware enough to know what he's doing is wrong. At what point do we say we can't have the creative freedom to make comments on that because then the illustration itself is offensive?

 

I'm curious what the African Americans on this board think of that movie, because I'm probably way too white nerd to have any good frame of reference.

I've never personally seen anyone have a problem with that specific character, as you said, the character being out of touch Hollywood is kind of the point. RDJ has said on a few occasions that that character would never fly today, though. Not to say it wouldn't land, but there's no studio exec that would green light that kind of thing these days.

 

@sblfilms as our resident person of high melanin content could provide a better perspective on that character. I, as a person with lower melanin, thought they threaded the needle really well with it. Then again, I haven't seen that movie in over a decade, and sometimes you watch a comedy that old and just go "...oof."

 

Like wedding crashers. I still think it's funny, but dear God there are a lot of things that make my 2021 brain say "...oof"

[Kamusha]

On 8/24/2021 at 9:14 PM, sblfilms said:

Just saw that tasty Matrix Resurrections trailer. Weird to see it 20 years after the first, but the action stuff looked killer.

 

I feel like I'm one of the few people who's really excited for this but I feel like this has major potential, especially with how far special effects have come since the original. At the very least I'm expecting some jaw-dropping action. Hopefully the rest can deliver as well.

[Kal-El814]

3 hours ago, Reputator said:

The Tropic Thunder one is interesting to me. I didn't know there were people offended by it, as I thought it was understood that was the point, to have a character that's not self-aware enough to know what he's doing is wrong. At what point do we say we can't have the creative freedom to make comments on that because then the illustration itself is offensive?

 

This gets sticky, I think.

 

As far as I can tell, Tropic Thunder was written, produced, and directed by white people. I dunno that a bunch of white people pointing out that blackface is ridiculous to engage in by engaging in it ridiculously is okay? I get that it feels weird to tell people “don’t make that joke” because of slippery slope concerns but at the same time do white people have anything interesting to say about blackface at all?

 

And are we really losing anything of value if white people stopped using blackface and things like it as a gag? Tina Fey has done this a bunch, and recently.

 

I dunno. I think the gulf between “don’t say stuff that could be offensive” and “don’t do shit like black/yellow/brown face” is pretty wide.

 

Then again I’m white so nobody’s saying shit to me, it’s easy for this to just be a thought exercise and not something that’s affects me.

[TwinIon]

1 hour ago, Komusha said:

I feel like I'm one of the few people who's really excited for this but I feel like this has major potential, especially with how far special effects have come since the original. At the very least I'm expecting some jaw-dropping action. Hopefully the rest can deliver as well.

I'm excited for it because I'm sure it'll be worth watching, I'm just not super confident that it'll be good.

 

Since the last Matrix film, Lana's work has been all over the place. Writing V for Vendetta (good), writing / directing Speed Racer (Nuts in a good way!), Cloud Atlas (overly ambitious but still great), Jupiter Ascending (some cool sequences but a huge mess), to Sense8 (bizarre and messy). None of those films are boring.

 

Also, this is the basically the first big thing that Lana is doing without Lilly, so who knows what effect that will have.

[Keyser_Soze]

10 hours ago, Reputator said:

I'm curious what the African Americans on this board think of that movie, because I'm probably way too white nerd to have any good frame of reference.

 

I liked the movie. There's not much to dive into.

[skillzdadirecta]

I have yet to meet ONE Black person who was offended by Tropic Thunder.

[Mercury33]

I feel like it’s only recently I’ve heard a very small group of people go “yikes” over the Tropic Thunder thing, and as far as I know they’ve all been white. I don’t ever remember any kind of outrage or offense over that character. I think because it was so well done and accurate. 
 

To me it’s in the same class as Mel Brooks films. Everyone agrees that Blazing Saddles probably couldn’t be made today. But at the same time I’ve never heard anyone trying to call out Brooks for being tasteless or racist. 

[SimpleG]

Folks are always saying films like Blazing Saddles or characters like Kirk Lazarus couldnt be made today and I think they are wrong. Brooks showed how the racist inhabitants of Rock Ridge were a bunch of morons, It was never glamorized only satirized. Look how far Its Always Sunny goes, they did a Lethal Weapon Remake with black face and when streaming pulled it years later people got upset because it was pulled, not the content. No one got "canceled" and the show goes on because of how its handled.

 

 

 

The show isnt using blackface to mock black folks its being used to mock the repugnant characters that do black face. If you even have passing knowledge of the show you know that stuff like "the implication" and "fetish shit" goes way beyond black face.

 

Also we just had a film with Adolph Hitter as funny imaginary friend win awards and accolades.

People who rabble on about this 

A. Dont understand that context matters

B. Want to use it as some kind ammo against "cancel culture" because they simply dont understand A.

[Kal-El814]

2 minutes ago, SimpleG said:

The show isnt using blackface to mock black folks its being used to mock the repugnant characters that do black face.

 

This isn't anywhere near as clever as the people who do it think it is, even if they don't think it's especially clever.

[SimpleG]

3 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

This isn't anywhere near as clever as the people who do it think it is, even if they don't think it's especially clever.

I agree, its trashy and low brow and it but it doesnt cross over the line.

[skillzdadirecta]

Where's my Soul Man remake???

[SimpleG]

33 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Where's my Soul Man remake???

Truly a film for the ages

Our Soul Man

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