I think I was too young for The Hunt for Red October when I first saw it, because I have always been under the impression that it's just okay. I just watched the new 4K Blu-ray and that movie is absolutely fucking beautiful. John McTiernan's direction, Jan de Bont's cinematography, Basil Pouledoris's score ( ), and every performance from the FANTASTIC cast...goddamn, the movie is a titan. Visceral, gorgeous, moving, intense. I loved every second.
Predator > Die Hard > Red October is an absolutely fucking absurd run of movies from one director. Please come back, McTiernan!
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Sun January 11, 2026 6:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Sun January 11, 2026 6:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Sun January 11, 2026 6:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
LoathedVermin72 wrote:I think I was too young for The Hunt for Red October when I first saw it, because I have always been under the impression that it's just okay. I just watched the new 4K Blu-ray and that movie is absolutely fucking beautiful. John McTiernan's direction, Jan de Bont's cinematography, Basil Pouledoris's score ( ), and every performance from the FANTASTIC cast...goddamn, the movie is a titan. Visceral, gorgeous, moving, intense. I loved every second.
Predator > Die Hard > Red October is an absolutely fucking absurd run of movies from one director. Please come back, McTiernan!
There are a few movies released around this time period that history and better technology have been extremely kind to.
Was it a drama? A comedy? A murder mystery? A morality tale? It veered into those lanes at times but never committed to one fully.
This is McDonagh in a nutshell. When it works really well (The Pillowman, In Bruges) it's phenomenal, but it doesn't always work really well.
Yeah i loved In Bruges. Seven Psychopaths was good enough when I watched it, but entirely forgettable in that I could barely remember what happened even a few days later. Never even heard of The Pillowman.
The Pillowman is his most famous play, I mentioned it cause it's a great example of "WTF genre is this."
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Sun January 11, 2026 6:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
Was it a drama? A comedy? A murder mystery? A morality tale? It veered into those lanes at times but never committed to one fully.
This is McDonagh in a nutshell. When it works really well (The Pillowman, In Bruges) it's phenomenal, but it doesn't always work really well.
Yeah i loved In Bruges. Seven Psychopaths was good enough when I watched it, but entirely forgettable in that I could barely remember what happened even a few days later. Never even heard of The Pillowman.
The Pillowman is his most famous play, I mentioned it cause it's a great example of "WTF genre is this."
oh cool, I'll check it out. I really like reading plays when I'm traveling.
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Sun January 11, 2026 6:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
Was it a drama? A comedy? A murder mystery? A morality tale? It veered into those lanes at times but never committed to one fully.
This is McDonagh in a nutshell. When it works really well (The Pillowman, In Bruges) it's phenomenal, but it doesn't always work really well.
Yep. Exactly. Also, it's a quality I adore. I'm all about breaking down weird labels and sub-genres and whatnot.
I'm totally with you when it's executed well. Olive Kitteridge is a great example. But I just didn't find this one to be easy to connect with. One minute Frances McD is rescuing a beetle that has gotten stuck on its backside, an on-the-nose but ultimately effective display of empathy; the next minute she's kicking a 15-year old kid in the balls. I get that people are complex, but this was sort of ridiculous.
It's a flawed film, for sure. Though, I don't think I took issues with that specific aspect personally. I totally get where you're coming from.
Watching it for the first time with my other half.
Who cries first?
Every shot in this film could be a painting. But how did he get those performances out of those kids?
I love you Spielberg. Who hosted the john Williams 40th anniversary concert at the Hollywood bowl last night. With john Williams conducting. So of course Spielberg is making the next Star Wars stand-alone movie
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Sun January 11, 2026 6:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
I liked it. Not a great movie or classic, but i like it. I like the violence, the unexpected moments.
i dislike it even more now that i've slept on it. some great performances from the cast, and some really good framing of shots, but overall a disaster of a movie. Was it a drama? A comedy? A murder mystery? A morality tale? It veered into those lanes at times but never committed to one fully. And the dialogue was mostly the sort of salty, unrealistic monologues that people never deliver in real life.
McDormand and Rockwell both get As, and Woody gets a B (he could perform this role with his eyes closed). McDonough gets a big fat F.
Yeah, this was a strange one. I didn't like it all.
[...]But how did he get those performances out of those kids?
The Spielberg doc that HBO did had some really great footage of him directing the ET kids on set. I think it just came down to great casting + Spielberg's ability to make the kids feel at ease and that it was ok to be super animated/emotive.
Yeah there’s more on the making of doco too. He really knows how to communicate with them on their level. Must watch that HBO thing again.
So this happened. He was really cool. Knows his stuff. They’d be throwing Oscars at Black 47 if the right people got to see it. Really excellent film. Heavy though.
Finally got around to MI3 and yeah, it was much better than 2. About the only thing I didn't like in the movie was how under-used Keri Russell was, and how quickly the fight at the end was over. It was a total trope of bad-guy hits good-guy for awhile, good-guy gets second wind, bad-guy gets second wind, etc but then they roll into the road and bam it's over. Physics alone says that wouldn't have happened, because dude had ahold of Tom Cruise and then gets whacked but lets go? I know, it's a dumb point to get hung up on. But it stands that it was still a good movie, and was great compared to the previous one.
), and every performance from the FANTASTIC cast...goddamn, the movie is a titan. Visceral, gorgeous, moving, intense. I loved every second.
