What movies are you watching?

[Malloy]

I might watch it.

Malloy, do you think I’d like it?

you might, but you should still first watch all of nathan for you and the rehearsal since nathan fielder owes you a check

[Ello Sailor]

I'm just so into all things Miles Teller it's sickening.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

I might watch it.

Malloy, do you think I’d like it?

you might, but you should still first watch all of nathan for you and the rehearsal since nathan fielder owes you a check

Those aren’t real things.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

Oh I forgot Miles Teller is in it. F*ck that guy

[The Argonaut]

Here are some things I appreciate about Maverick. I won't try to organize these into a coherent whole, so just take these as stray thoughts:

I believe the words I used in my first post about the movie is that it is "phenomenally enjoyable". Whatever that means, it just works.

For such a big movie, it's quite spare and focused. Every piece builds to the next piece, every line of dialogue adds to the next element. It feel precise and purposeful, in a clean, pleasing way.

Tom Cruise is a movie star, and this is the man at his Cruise-iest. It takes the personality of his youthful 80s/90s characters and puts that guy in a Mission Impossible movie. There's a podcast in the A24 podcast stream where PT Anderson and the Safdie brothers have a conversation. It's a good listen, check it out. They spend a good bit of time talking about Adam Sandler, someone they've all worked with. They call Adam Sandler a "movie star" and talk about this concept of a "movie star" almost as a bit of magic that people are born with. Before there were movies, there were people who would've been movie stars
Some people are magic, like them or not, and Tom Cruise is one of that small class of people.

I care nothing for the callbacks. The original means nothing to me, I don't even like it. But the callbacks don't feel onerous. Maybe a line or two stolen from the original hits the ear strangely (one pilot telling another to "do some of that pilot shit" doesn't work as well as when the radar guy said it to a pilot in the original, for example). But the elements from the original are mostly well integrated and serve to tell the simple story they're telling here.

The supporting cast holds their weight. There are no duds. I even think the movie plays around a little with the awkwardness of having such a large supporting cast. They need to come up with some degree of personality and characterization for a lot of people. They do it quickly and cleanly, mostly in that first bar scene. The joke being that Bob doesn't have a personality, or even a name. I don't know, there's something.

It's not an intellectual pleasure, it's visceral

[lennytheweedwhacker]

I will read that tomorrow.

[Anders]

Step Brothers

[Jorge]

I give it a 7/10. Too many callbacks and a dull first half for me, but its still pretty good.

i imagine those call backs will be central to jorge's argument that it's great.

I only watched the original for the first time after having watched and loved Maverick, so no

It's just an incredibly well put together thrill ride that's completely unapologetic about what it is, even when it's being excessively syrupy. Great action scenes. One of the few big budget Hollywood movies in recent memlry that actually looks like a big budget Hollywood movie. Very cinematic. There's not much else to it. I just love it. Everything lands beautifully

[Malloy]

well i showed a bit of my ass here. need to keep in check my predisposition to complicate what can be uncomplicated pleasures. glad i got to read both of your responses.

asher -- ive listened to that a24 episode and agree with pta and safdies, and definitely agree re cruise's fantastic charisma.

mi stuffed into a top gun movie is a good way to describe maverick.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

Pussy

[Rob]

As batshit crazy as Tom Cruise is, I’ve always been a fan of most of his movies. I realized a couple weeks ago I’d never seen the first Top Gun all the way though at once, so I watched it. It fucking sucks. I kept thinking “Days of Thunder is way better.” So anyway, haven’t seen the new one. People keep telling me to, but I dunno. I never watched any of the Mission Impossible movies either, except for the first one. Just not interested. But anything else Cruise, I’m usually in.

[Jorge]

As batshit crazy as Tom Cruise is, I’ve always been a fan of most of his movies. I realized a couple weeks ago I’d never seen the first Top Gun all the way though at once, so I watched it. It fucking sucks. I kept thinking “Days of Thunder is way better.” So anyway, haven’t seen the new one. People keep telling me to, but I dunno. I never watched any of the Mission Impossible movies either, except for the first one. Just not interested. But anything else Cruise, I’m usually in.

Thanks for chiming in

[lennytheweedwhacker]

As batshit crazy as Tom Cruise is, I’ve always been a fan of most of his movies. I realized a couple weeks ago I’d never seen the first Top Gun all the way though at once, so I watched it. It fucking sucks. I kept thinking “Days of Thunder is way better.” So anyway, haven’t seen the new one. People keep telling me to, but I dunno. I never watched any of the Mission Impossible movies either, except for the first one. Just not interested. But anything else Cruise, I’m usually in.

I too generally really dig him and thought Top Gun sucked. Haven’t seen Days of Thunder.

[tragabigzanda]

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.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

I enjoy every Mission Impossible, other than #2.

[tragabigzanda]

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.

[BurtReynolds]

They all suck except 3.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

They all suck except 3.

You suck 3 (dicks).

[Anders]

The last three, are better than the first three.

[Jorge]

3 is my least favorite of the "good ones" but it's still very enjoyable. Fallout is my favorite. Christopher McQuarry did great things for that franchise