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Post by dex on Sept 4, 2019 15:06:05 GMT -5
With all that's happening outside of PC Sports these days, the hallways of the "OT - Division" have to be buzzing. That said, I have no doubt that your anticipated review of "The Irishman" will be well worth the wait! I am so glad you and Daddy-O mentioned the new movie that I never heard of....yet. Gives me an opportunity to tease you specimens. I have a brand new feature in the works that my research people at the beach (unemployed surfer boys and girls) have been working on for some months.This one is so secretive that not even the Publisher or Associate Editor of the OT Board knows about it. It will be a nice pleasant surprise that dovetails with that movie and with the "diversity" our Friar Brother O'Hurley kicked that chick in the butt with. COMING SOON I do Great work here, ha
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Post by dex on Sept 6, 2019 8:26:09 GMT -5
EVIEW ‘It Chapter Two’ keeps up the scares By Katie Walsh Tribune News Service
Bill Skarsgård returns as Pennywise in the horror thriller “It Chapter Two.”
[WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT]
Pulling off “It Chapter Two” is an almost impossibly tall order. Following up “It,” the first installment in the evil clown saga, director Andy Muschietti has to balance loyalty to Stephen King’s crazy, 1,138-page tome, as well as to the kooky 1990 made-for-TV miniseries starring Tim Curry. Now add the fan factor: the nostalgic original fans, and the rabid new generation of fans the circus-sized 2017 hit garnered. For Muschietti and writer Gary Dauberman, the way to solve the problem seems to be a “more is more” approach, especially when tackling the wild, woolly and just plain weird source material. There’s more spooks, spider-clowns and splattering fluids, and even 34 more minutes of terrifying adventures with Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
What “It Chapter Two” has going for it is a shockingly excellent cast of adult Losers that picks up the mantle where their younger selves left off 27 years ago. Bill Hader and James Ransone not only look eerily like their younger counterparts (Finn Wolfhard and Jack Dylan Grazer), but they perfectly capture the tics and mannerisms of Richie and Eddie too, proving to be the runaway breakout stars of the film.
James McAvoy takes on the role of Losers Club leader Bill, originally played by Jaeden Lieberher, while Jessica Chastain, reuniting with her “Mama” director Muschietti, embodies the essence of young Beverly (Sophia Lillis). Jay Ryan is the glowed-up Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor), and Isaiah Mustafa brings a reverent solemnity to the role of Mike (Chosen Jacobs), the keeper of the traumatic memories who summons his friends back to Derry after a brutal homophobic hate crime results in Pennywise’s return, invoking the blood oath they made as kids to kill the clown.
Muschietti fundamentally understands what makes Pennywise so scary and so funny, and he strikes a marvelous balance of tone, earning laugh-out-loud and terrifying moments in equal measure. His Pennywise, played with aplomb by Bill Skarsgård, doesn’t have Curry’s silly yet arch elegance. But Skarsgård is mesmerizing in his own way, delivering a remarkably unhinged performance, childlike and feral, drool dripping from his bloody, rabbity grin.
Muschietti and Dauberman are loyal to the source, but Muschietti has a tendency to overly hedge his bets, scare-wise. Once again, Muschietti buttresses up the spook factor with too many computer-generated monsters that inevitably become banal. Through it all, Hader cracks wise, Ransone worries, Chastain emotes, McAvoy broods and monsters jump, but we lose the most important thing of all: the Losers themselves.
★★½ “It Chapter Two”
Starring: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, James Ransone, Jay Ryan, Isaiah Mustafa, Bill Skarsgård
Rating: R for disturbing violent content and bloody images throughout, pervasive language, and some crude sexual material
Running time: 2:49
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Post by thumper on Sept 7, 2019 6:16:21 GMT -5
I'm even more of an O'Hurley fan after reading that. Thanks, Dex "...It underscores the fact that we aren’t receptive to a diversity of thought which is the exact opposite of what you feel the liberal way would be, and I find that obscene..." Does that mean that ProBoards is "receptive" to a diversity of thought? Yesterday, I received 18 hateful emails from "friends" targeting liberals (note: despite what dex thinks, I am "middle of the road" and receptive of all thought when fairly balanced and not vitriolic). 18! And not one anti-Washington email. Stuff from The Conservative Treehouse, Andrew Breitbart, Zero Hedge, The Drudge Report and The Gateway Pundit. I am sorely in need of impartial thought and agenda-less discussion. PIZZA, SODA, GRINDERS!!!
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friar82
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Post by friar82 on Sept 7, 2019 7:09:38 GMT -5
Of course, Thumper. The Framers of this great site had the wisdom to establish the "OT Board", for general discussion on inoffensive matters among fellow posters. The standards for posting etiquette provides direction that such posts shouldn't be inflammatory, personally abusive or offensive in language. Furthermore, "ad-hominem" attacks are not allowed. Beyond these guidelines, the "OT Board" was not established as a safe-space for folks who are intolerant of opposing views and opinions. On the contrary, it serves as a forum for discourse among individuals who bring divergent opinions. Unfortunately, the OT Board's - Code of Conduct must not be spilling over to impact personal emails. By way of this post, I'd ask Dex to consider the addition of a "Mr. Manners" string on this Board, believing that his unbiased counsel might restore civility and "Make eMails Great Again!" (MEGA) between you and your friends!
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Post by dex on Sept 7, 2019 8:33:27 GMT -5
NOT SO FAST
This ain't the movies...this is real life
What could have possibly caused 18 of God's children to blast you with critical emails?
Were they former basketball coaches? Players? Student refs? WALKists?
Need to know more before I buy into this Snowflake drama
And '82 I am surprised at you falling for this sob story
Be careful of those extending olive branches lest you get Caned with one on your backside even though we ain't in Malaysia anymore Dorothy
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Post by thumper on Sept 7, 2019 9:21:34 GMT -5
NOT SO FAST This ain't the movies...this is real life What could have possibly caused 18 of God's children to blast you with critical emails? Were they former basketball coaches? Players? Student refs? WALKists? Need to know more before I buy into this Snowflake drama And '82 I am surprised at you falling for this sob story Be careful of those extending olive branches lest you get Caned with one on your backside even though we ain't in Malaysia anymore Dorothy I seem to be emailed by people trying to make a point when no conversation has been initiated on my part. Like the Jehovah Witnesses knocking on your door. Not coaches, players, student refs (?) or friends of thewalk. Just guys from my golf club who feel it their mission to "spread the word". PIZZA, SODA, GRINDERS!!!
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friar82
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Post by friar82 on Sept 7, 2019 9:37:11 GMT -5
Ouch!
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pcdad
Friar Fanatic
Posts: 3,709
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Post by pcdad on Sept 7, 2019 15:11:03 GMT -5
"It" the novel is downright frightful. "It" thee 2017 movie is dreadful and hardly depicts the terror of the novel.
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Post by dex on Sept 7, 2019 15:48:53 GMT -5
Thump Said: "Like the Jehovah Witnesses knocking on your door."
Well meaning folks, but....
I can hear my Daddy now while sitting in his easy chair in the den near his lookout window as he caught a glimpse of a gaggle approaching
"Quick, hit the floor boys."
Heaven help my kid brother if he raised his head or if we laughed too loud.
Life seems to come full circle...I feel the same way about the damn incessant span phone calls...
the Farkin Bastages as Roman Moroni would say
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Post by dex on Sept 9, 2019 9:02:18 GMT -5
‘It: Chapter Two’ scares up $91M with debut By Lindsey Bahr The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — A robust audience turned out to catch “It: Chapter Two” in movie theaters this weekend, but not quite as big as the first.
Warner Bros. says Sunday that “It: Chapter Two,” the only major new release, earned an estimated $91 million from North American ticket sales in its first weekend from 4,570 screens.
Trailing only its predecessor that debuted to a record $123.4 million in September 2017, the launch of “It: Chapter Two” is the second highest opening for a horror film ever and the month of September, which before “It” was not a strong month for blockbusters. Both were directed by Argentine filmmaker Andy Muschietti.
Jeff Goldstein, who oversees domestic distribution for Warner Bros., called the debut “sensational” and isn’t concerned that “Chapter Two” didn’t hit the heights of the first.
“How many movies open to $91 million? That was lightning in a bottle,” Goldstein said. “You don’t get lightning in a bottle twice. You get close though.”
Based on Stephen King’s novel, “It: Chapter Two” brings the Losers Club back to Derry 27 years later to take on the demonic clown Pennywise, and stars James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain and Bill Hader as a few of the adult “losers.” The sequel cost around $79.5 million to make. Reviews were a little more mixed than for the first — 86% versus 64% on Rotten Tomatoes — but audiences were consistent. Both films got a B+ CinemaScore.
“Andy Muschietti does an incredible job of scaring the stuffing out of audiences,” Goldstein said. “I think our team, starting with New Line in making this and our marketing team in bringing it to audiences around the globe, have hit the mark right on. They nailed it.”
Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian noted that, unlike most horror films which tend drop off significantly after opening weekend, “It: Chapter Two,” like its predecessor and some of the recent high quality horror films could have “incredibly long playability.”
“It: Chapter Two” is also a big win for Warner Bros., which had a few disappointments this summer with “The Kitchen” and “Shaft,” but also have a few films that could really take off, including “Joker,” out Oct. 4, and another King adaptation, “Doctor Sleep,” out Nov. 8.
The rest of the top 10 was populated by holdovers: “Angel Has Fallen” took a distant second with $6 million and “Good Boys” placed third with $5.4 million. In limited release, the documentary “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice” performed well in its first weekend, grossing $115,500 from seven locations.
After a down summer for the industry as a whole and a year that is still running 6% down, “It: Chapter Two” is a promising start to the fall movie season, which runs from the day after Labor Day weekend
November
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Post by dex on Sept 13, 2019 8:58:32 GMT -5
REVIEW J-Lo makes a comeback in ‘Hustlers’ By Ann Hornaday The Washington Post
Ramona (Jennifer Lopez, right), a dancer at a Manhattan strip club, takes newbie Destiny (Constance Wu) under her protective wing in “Hustlers.”
In a year of spectacular comebacks — from Brad Pitt and Renée Zellweger to Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy — none is as purely, sensationally pleasurable as Jennifer Lopez’s commanding lead performance in “Hustlers,” a sexually charged caper flick that bumps, grinds and pays giddy homage to sisterhood and shameless venality with equally admiring brio.
Lopez plays Ramona, a dancer at a Manhattan strip club who takes a newbie named Destiny (Constance Wu) under her protective wing. “Climb in my fur,” Ramona beckons to her protegee, opening a luxurious coat, puffing a cigarette and propping up one knee on vertiginous platform heels. She’s a lioness and lethal weapon, as tough as she is tender, and in the course of Destiny’s decidedly unsentimental education, Ramona not only tutors her charge in how to perform a proper pole dance but, eventually, in how to fleece privileged white guys whose vanity make them as vulnerable as the most naive rubes from the sticks.
Adapted by writer-director Lorene Scafaria from a New York magazine article about a similar scam perpetrated by a group of dancers at the New York club Scores, “Hustlers” is a funny, naughty, enormously entertaining kick in the pants, leading viewers into a vicariously thrilling underworld ruled by money, drugs, seduction and a sliding moral scale dictated by ruthless realpolitik.
“The game is rigged, and it doesn’t reward people who play by the rules,” Ramona says flatly at one point, when the scam she and Destiny have been running — drugging wealthy men and running up their credit cards — threatens to become deadly serious. When the dollars start drying up in the crash of 2008, the women resort to extreme measures to make their rent and support their families (both have little girls at home). They’re not doing anything to their victims that the masters of the universe haven’t done to the country, Ramona insists — adding that not one Wall Street crook went to jail.
She isn’t wrong, of course, even if that justification allows “Hustlers” to have its cake and eat it, too: The film might not entirely approve of its heroines’ actions, but it clearly sympathizes with their needs and aspirations. Enlisting a terrific group of game supporting actresses — including the rappers Lizzo and Cardi B, making auspiciously amusing screen debuts — Scafaria stands proudly behind her protagonists, providing a thumbnail taxonomy of strip club regulars from boiler-room bros to C-suite sexual harassers. Even when the fall comes, which it inevitably does, she cushions it with the same genuine affection that has built up between women who have become sisters, mothers and mentors to one another in the absence of family they can count on.
★★★
“Hustlers”
Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu, Julia Stiles, Cardi B
Rating: R for pervasive sexual material, drugs, crude language and nudity
Running time: 1:47
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pcdad
Friar Fanatic
Posts: 3,709
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Post by pcdad on Sept 13, 2019 11:12:27 GMT -5
Hilda, a Jehovah witness and companion stopped by and asked me what I thought whether God cared about the plight of those caught in the path of Dorian.
Well meaning and sincere woman. I mentioned to her as so went on her way that most in this area would probably not be receptive to her solicitation. She was undeterred and said she is used to it.
She left me a paper: TO THINK ABOUT. "What will life be like under the rule of God's KinWowom?
I guess I'll be getting a return visit one day.
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Post by dex on Sept 17, 2019 8:03:55 GMT -5
Well it's not a movie but a play that opened at Trinity Playhouse in Providence about The Prince Of Providence Buddy Cianci
PROVIDENCE — Opening night for “The Prince of Providence,” the story of Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr., attained a Hollywood glamour as a cream-colored 1947 Rolls-Royce pulled up and parked in front of Trinity Repertory Company on Monday evening.
The auto seemed to attract men in tuxedos, who posed with it for photos as miniature searchlights danced across buildings on the other side of Washington Street and two Providence police Clydesdales displayed majesty alternating with impatience.
Monday night’s performance, the first after four previews, was to an audience of press, sponsors, invited guests, elected officials, Trinity staff, artists who worked on the show and students in the Brown-Trinity masters program.
The Rolls, owned and driven by actor Billy V. Vigeant, a friend of Erick Betancourt, who portrays a combined character in the play named Mickey Corrente, was supposed to pick up Betancourt’s mother, 70, and deliver her to the performance. She decided, however, she would rather see the play at a matinee.
Former Providence Journal reporter Mike Stanton, who wrote the book “The Prince of Providence,” said Monday afternoon that Trinity had to wait until the movie and stage rights he sold to filmmaker Michael Corrente expired. The film rights are still available, he said, but “the movie business, it’s a lot of talk. I just go about my life and don’t worry about it.”
Trinity gave Stanton’s book to George Brant, who is credited as playwright. Stanton said he stayed in his lane as a consultant, and to “watch and learn.”
The play “lets people wrestle with the good and bad,” he said, and considers “why do we like roguish politicians.”
Pat Cortellessa, who tried to run against Cianci for mayor but was prevented by some chicanery in certifying nomination signatures, said he and Tony Freitas, who recorded the bribe-taking and became the star witness of Operation Plunder Dome, saw the play together in its first preview on Thursday. Cortellessa, now head of security at TPG Hotels, said the play “basically shows a Greek tragedy of a person, Mayor Cianci’s life, that imploded when he had all the power in the world to do something special.”
Carol McCullough, 69, of Foster, who writes a column for a small magazine in her area, called the Cianci story “so quintessentially Rhode Island.”
“It could be historical and hysterical.” She also hoped to learn how Cianci could be “such a criminal” and still get elected.
“I know that Cianci hated the book,” talk radio personality John DePetro said before the performance, referring to Stanton’s reporting, which differed from the narrative in Cianci’s book, “Politics and Pasta: A Memoir.” He wondered how Cianci supporters who stayed true to the end would feel about the play.
WPRI-TV Channel 12’s Kim Kalunian, who had been Cianci’s anchor on WPRO radio, was with her husband, Ted Nesi, WPRI’s politics and business editor .
“I’m just excited to see how they bring Buddy’s personality to the stage,” Kalunian said. “He was one of a kind, so I’m interested to see how they tell his story.”
Nesi said that when he was brought in to talk politics with Cianci, the former mayor and ex-felon would tease him on air about when he was going to ask Kalunian to marry him. They did get married, but Cianci didn’t live to see it.
Nesi’s observation about the appeal of Cianci: “Buddy knew how to make his own myth.”
After the performance, McCullough said the play “told a fairly complex story in a short time.” She said she learned some things she didn’t know, and that she believed the story was accurate.
She also believes, now, that “Buddy Cianci really did want to do great things for Providence and had Providence’s best interests at heart.”
Her highest praise came for how Brant drew the story to a close. “No one could have predicted the ending.” Stephen Raleigh, husband of freelance writer Kathie Raleigh, gave his review in one word: “hilarious.”
Lila Hawryluk, 25, of Pawtucket, called the play “amazing” and said it was “just so raw to see his story with all that happened, his wife, his daughter, the journey. It was raw to the point of unnerving,” she said, “but phenomenal.”
Nate Watson, 47, the husband of Trinity artistic director Curt Columbus, said he didn’t live in Providence during the Cianci years, but as a Southwest Airlines employee, he caught glimpses of Providence over 20 years and saw Cianci’s hand and passion in the city’s transformation.
— dnaylor@ providencejournal.com
(401) 277-7411
On Twitter: @donita22
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Post by dex on Sept 17, 2019 16:59:21 GMT -5
...and the projo adds today
"Last night was Opening Night for "Prince of Providence," Trinity Rep's much-anticipated play about the life and times of Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci. Channing Gray says it's a story you love to hear, with a twist that will leave you stunned. And Executive Editor Alan Rosenberg -- who covered Buddy back in the early 1980s, during the days of the trash haulers' strike -- says the mayor himself would have loved it. Donita Naylor also attended Opening Night and said that it brought a touch of Hollywood glamour to a Monday night in Providence."
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Post by dex on Sept 20, 2019 8:32:01 GMT -5
DAMN
REVIEW Servants are revolting in ‘Downton Abbey’ By Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune
Jim Carter is Charles Carson, the butler, who comes out of retirement to help the staff prepare for a royal visit in “Downton Abbey .” [FOCUS FEATURES]
Into our disheveled modern world, the feature film version of “Downton Abbey” arrives just in time to tidy up. All brand names and franchises lean into the concept of fan service; this one leans so far, it falls forward onto a fainting couch. It’s not a movie, really. It’s a commemorative “Downton Abbey” throw pillow.
It’ll no doubt placate millions of fans of creator Julian Fellowes’ global TV smash, which ran for six seasons on PBS from 2011 to 2016. Screenwriter Fellowes keeps things in moderate-to-medium bustle, circling an extremely simple idea. King George V and Queen Mary are coming to Yorkshire (the time is 1927, just after the series’ narrative timeline). They’ve invited themselves, along with an invading army of butlers and cooks, to stay at the pleasantly expansive manse of the Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville, who gets weirdly little to do) and his Yankee wife, Cora Crawley, the Countess of Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern, same).
What else happens? There is a lot, yet it feels like a little. Downton’s retired butler Carson (Jim Carter) swings back into service, gratefully, while Barrow (Robert James-Collier), onetime footman promoted to butler, is introduced into Yorkshire’s gay underground.
Attempted political assassination shares the story with a half-hearted mystery (who’s stealing all the silver and jewelry?). A new character, Lady Maud (Imelda Staunton), matches wits with her estranged dowager cousin, Lady Violet (Maggie Smith). Meantime, the servants are revolting, discreetly. Sidelined by the insufferable royal crew charged with preparing and serving meals and waiting on the king and queen, the Downton staff wages a stealth rebellion. Anything so that Downton Abbey, and “Downton Abbey,” can have the satisfaction of a job done well.
Well enough, let’s say. The film lacks a gratifying middle. It’s all royalty preparation porn (close-ups of silverware, gleaming, while the camera swoops and glides) on the front end. On the back end, there’s entirely too much self-congratulation and farewells, plus curtain calls, and epilogues, and ballroom dancing exit dialogue and subplot wrap-up, plus additional epilogues.
Michelle Dockery, here blanded-down by her material but still one of the bright lights of the ensemble, takes top honors as both actress and clotheshorse. Director Engler has several “Downton Abbey” TV episodes to his credit. The cinematography by Ben Smithard looks oddly flat, and the compositions rarely take effective advantage of the wider canvas. The rhythms of the film are no different from the neatly diced segments of the hour-long TV episodes.
It’s fun, for a while, to see the gang back together in “Downton Abbey.” But I’m with Deborah Ross of The Spectator, who wrote of the film’s British premiere last week: “Fans will race to see it even though it is, in truth, extremely predictable as well as extremely dull.”
Or the Telegraph’s Tim Robey, who argued: “You couldn’t say this comfortably belongs in a cinema at any stage.”
And now, excuse me while I spend some time with a TV show that feels more like a real movie than the “Downton Abbey” movie does.
★★
“Downton Abbey”
Starring: Michelle Dockery, Matthew Goode, Tuppence Middleton
Rating: PG for thematic elements, some suggestive material and language
Running time: 2:03
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