Wednesday, July 15, 2020

FTM 547: THE OLD GUARD

Patrick and Rosalie Lewis are gonna live forever.



Download this episode here. (33.3 MB)

Listen to F This Movie! on Spotify and on Stitcher.

Also discussed this episode: Cyborg (1989), Innerspace (1987), Blow the Man Down (2020), Selah and the Spades (2020), The Assistant (2020), Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020), The Big Chill (1983), The Mosquito Coast (1986), Deja Vu (2006), D.C. Cab (1983), Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020), The Tall Men (1955), Palm Springs (2020)

15 comments:

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  2. i'm sorry Rosalie, while i agree with you that Film Noir are the best, but i'm with Patrick. i really wanted to like it, but i don't think Greg Rucka was able to translate his comic book to the screen. and the director to convert that script to a good movie.

    Rucka is one of my favorite comic writer, but non of his stuff have translated well to the screen. Whiteout was like a punch to my gut it was so bad. Stumptown is okay, but nowhere near what the comic is.

    i also recomment you to read Queen And Country. my favorite comic of his. but then again, i'm partial to spy stories (real spies, not james bond type spies)

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    1. I welcome differing opinions, so don't apologize for yours. :)

      Several people now have recommended Queen and Country to me, so I'm going to track that down and let you know what I think. I'm not hardcore into comics & graphic novels, but I am a casual appreciator of certain artists/authors/series. I really love Locke & Key, for example; I read a lot of Y: The Last Man and liked it; Fun Home is great; and I have Box Office Poison on my shelf right now waiting to be enjoyed.

      What do you think is a good example of a comic brought to the big screen, where it translated well and didn't lose the impact?

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    2. Marvel and DC movies don't count because they don't straight up adapt comics, they borrow elements from a number of stories.

      Scott Pilgrim is the best example i can think of.

      i liked 30 Days Of Nights, but it has flaws.

      American Splendor is something to be seen, but that's not an adaption in the pure sense of the word, so it's 'disqualified' ;)

      Art School Confidential and Ghost World did a good job of expanding what was a few pages comic to a full lenght feature. both directed by the same guy.

      Dredd is in the same boat as Marvel and DC, as it's not adapting a specific story.

      Kick-Ass is fantastic

      that's all, but i could go on and on. straight adaptation like Old Guard are kinda rare, but they exist. can't wait to hear your thoughts if you ever watch any of these

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    3. I've seen all of these except Dredd! My ranking from a purely "is it a good movie" perspective would be:

      1. Ghost World
      2. Art School Confidential
      3. Scott Pilgrim
      4. American Splendor
      5. Kick-Ass (I only saw the first one)
      6. 30 Days of Night

      What did you think of something like Sin City or Watchmen? I really loved Sin City, Watchmen I liked overall but felt like the soundtrack being so full of songs we've heard a million times was to its detriment.

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    4. You can almost do a read-along with the the Sin City comic book. They barely changed a comma. I like it a lot. For some reason, Sin City 2 is not as good.

      I love Watchmen. One of the rare Snyder movie i like. He changed what needed to change, but could've done more. Like with the music, it's there because it was in the comic book, but maybe it didn't translate that well to the movie, partly because they became so cliché in the 2000s

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  3. Great one, y'all! Agreed with points you both made. And the more stuff covered in "have you seen anything good lately" the better!!

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    1. Thanks for listening, Ben! And now a question for you... have YOU seen anything good lately? :) I'd love to know!

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  4. I haven't seen the movie, but I've got to respectfully disagree with the notion that studying immortals for possible medical advancements is a novel angle. I think it's become a pretty standard trope for modern vampire fiction, not to mention other superhero and fantasy genres.

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  5. I had been so frequently disappointed by anything “produced by Netflix” I often avoided them. They burned me with “Cloverfield Paradox” (trash), “Bird Box (why?) and “Between Two Ferns:The Movie” (holy shit, why?). These films felt like duds the studios knew would bomb and were happy to sell to the streaming platform with more money that taste. I only started to warm up to the brand when they gave us the amazing Coen brothers film “Ballad of Buster Scruggs.” I then loved “Triple Frontier” which is a subtle reworking of “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” and they deserve complete credit for “The Irishman”, which might be (and I hope isn’t) Martin Scorsese’s swan song.
    I watched “The Old Guard” expecting failure. Although I enjoyed the opening thirty minutes, I was ready for inevitable ennui . The bottom would fall out. It always does. Yet, it never did. Charlize Theron is a treasure. Obviously she is a beautiful woman, I doubt that is a hot take. But, name any other actor, male or female, who can carry a comedy, a drama or an action film with equal aplomb. She nails drama in “Tully”. She nails comedy in “Long Shot”. “The Old Guard” is a great action film and she is a great action hero. This should be her “John Wick”. Make another dozen of these films Netflix, I will watch them

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    1. I for one think their Brad Pitt-starring Afghanistan War satire War Machine is seriously underrated...

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    2. John, I agree with you 100% on Charlize! She's great in basically every genre. Way more people need to see Tully and Long Shot. I will also watch a dozen of these movies!!!

      I haven't seen Triple Frontier but you have piqued my interest. I'm adding that to my watchlist!

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  6. All the issues Patrick points out in Old Guard are script issues we can pin on Ruka. This should have been a multipart miniseries and it feels like it. It feels condensed, as if it is the abridged version of a much longer story. It would have been much much better, if another writer had made a pass at the script or if indeed it was done in 3 parts with some more character development. I WANT to see the back stories of the characters more fleshed out so they have some depth to them. Telegraphing a potential sequel is just cruel unless it is already contractually obligated to be produced as with the MCU.

    I agree with all of Rosalie's points, although it did come off as a little fangirl adoration (not a bad thing in my book, that's how we GET more media produced) with overlooking the script failures. But that blindspot is a result of spending our entire lives being satisfied with finding mere moments inside other films that appeal to our fan girl inside. Chiwetel's casting felt like a phone call from Charlize, saying 'we need another big name to get the green light, will you do a couple of weeks with me?' Which I'm all for, he makes films better, but he should have a string of his own projects in production.

    Kudo's to Netflix for even making some female led productions in their original empire...Noomi Rapace has made a couple for them - 2019's Close directed by Vicky Jewson, is extremely similar to Extraction - just as forgettable but not a bad way to spend 90 minutes.

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  7. I'm somewhere between Patrick and Rosalie, when it comes to The Old Guard. I'm a fan of many of Rucka's comics (his Wonder Woman is fantastic), but it did feel a bit too much like a huge story crammed into a couple of hours and lost something in the translation. That said, I thought the performances and action were great, and I did really love the relationship between Joe and Nick. At the same time, it felt (in execution) like a pretty standard action film with the fantastic elements grafted on to the surface. Hopefully the sequel goes further into the history and effects of immortality.

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  8. Watched this just the other day so saved the podcast for audio dessert and I am 100% team Rosalie on this film, because Netflix can be very hit and miss I lowered my expectations and by the end credits I was loving it... and... the most romantic moment of the year in a place that I'd have never expected it! #Swoon

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