Red Mosquito

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.

tragabigzanda wrote:This was excellent. Not perfect, but excellent nonetheless.

Spoiler: show

I kind of want to judge each act separately.

The first act: Frank's rise from lowly truck driver, to mob errand boy, and finally to confidant of both Hoffa and Bufalino, was perfect. Felt on equal footing with Goodfellas and Casino.

The second act: Hoffa's time in prison, and the power struggle between himself and the mob-backed Provenzano, was where things sort of dragged for me. It was a little difficult for me to keep up with what was going on, and my wife and I sort of had to parse things out together. And it also felt a little slow here, like they couldn't lose 15-20 minutes or so.

The third act: Frank's hit on Hoffa, the unraveling of the extended family, the mobsters all meeting up all in prison again and falling apart, and Frank's final days as a lonely man whose children hate him, was awfully sad. And unlike the downward spiral parts of Goodfellas or Casino, this one didn't offer any sort of dark humor or shocking turns; just old age getting the best of men who had previously thought themselves on top of the world.

Not quite as good as Goodfellas, but I may actually like this better than Casino, which I've always found to be very mean-spirited and sort of scummy despite its undeniable thrills.

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.

tragabigzanda wrote:

verb_to_trust wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:This was excellent. Not perfect, but excellent nonetheless.

Spoiler: show

I kind of want to judge each act separately.

The first act: Frank's rise from lowly truck driver, to mob errand boy, and finally to confidant of both Hoffa and Bufalino, was perfect. Felt on equal footing with Goodfellas and Casino.

The second act: Hoffa's time in prison, and the power struggle between himself and the mob-backed Provenzano, was where things sort of dragged for me. It was a little difficult for me to keep up with what was going on, and my wife and I sort of had to parse things out together. And it also felt a little slow here, like they couldn't lose 15-20 minutes or so.

The third act: Frank's hit on Hoffa, the unraveling of the extended family, the mobsters all meeting up all in prison again and falling apart, and Frank's final days as a lonely man whose children hate him, was awfully sad. And unlike the downward spiral parts of Goodfellas or Casino, this one didn't offer any sort of dark humor or shocking turns; just old age getting the best of men who had previously thought themselves on top of the world.

Not quite as good as Goodfellas, but I may actually like this better than Casino, which I've always found to be very mean-spirited and sort of scummy despite its undeniable thrills.

That's interesting. Casino is a favorite of mine.

It's an awesome movie! It kind of makes me feel shitty though.

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.

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.

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.

tragabigzanda wrote:Though I will say that outside of one scene where they were eating ice cream and the chewing motions looked weird, the deageing otherwise didn’t bother me at all

digster wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:Though I will say that outside of one scene where they were eating ice cream and the chewing motions looked weird, the deageing otherwise didn’t bother me at all

Yeah, I found that the general word on the de-aging I'd be reading in interviews turned out to be correct; when it first shows up on the screen, you notice it a little bit, but it disappears almost immediately, and you really only ever notice it with Deniro, if at all (probably because he's in almost every scene).

Anyways, great movie with an astonishing final third (and it was a final third that likely wouldn't have hit the way it did without the long buildup that preceded it).

doug rr wrote:my wife and i really enjoyed it..we treated it like a mini series and watched 45 minutes or so at a time..took thursday and friday..still liked casino better