Monday, August 29, 2016

Coming Soon, Movie-wise


A re-make of The Magnificent Seven (itself a re-make of Seven Samurai). The re-remake is set in a different environment:
As the town Rose Krick is put under the siege of industrialist Bartholomew Bogue, the residents enlist the help of seven outlaws, headed by bounty hunter Sam Chisolm, to protect them while they prepare for the anticipated violent confrontation. However, upon meeting the town's residents, the Seven find themselves fighting for much more than money.

The strange sounding Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Film based on book (often augurs well)- debut novel by American author Ransom Riggs. Tim Burton is involved - we should expect something very peculiar!
When his grandfather mysteriously dies, 16 year old Jacob "Jake" Portman travels and discovers "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" run by the mysterious Miss Peregrine. However, he is chosen to protect the Peculiar Children as an evil band of forces is intent on killing them, know as the "Wights" led by the mysterious Mr. Barron.

We're told that, movie-theatre-wise at least, things are about to improve. A summer of fodder aimed mainly at kids during their over-long summer break, or slightly older slash-bang addicts, made cinemas into no-go areas for many of us.
Your First Look At The 2017 Oscar Contenders:
Film Season Is Coming
.
Of interest from that bunch, for me (which doesn't necessarily mean Oscar-worthy):

Birth of a Nation
A 2016 American period drama film loosely based on the story of Nat Turner, the enslaved man who led a slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia in 1831.

The Founder
Chronicling the rise of McDonald's fast food empire, The Founder tells the true story of how Illinois salesman Ray Kroc met brothers Mac and Dick McDonald, operating a hamburger restaurant in southern California in the 1950s. Kroc subtly maneuvers himself into a position to take control of their company, which grows into one of the world's best-known brands after he buys the chain for $2.7 million in 1961.
I'm interested in this film mainly because I've blogged (twice) on this very topic in the past: HERE and HERE.

And, because I can never resist sci-fi:
Arrival
When multiple mysterious spacecraft touch down across the globe, an elite team is put together to investigate, including linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams), mathematician Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), and US Army Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker). Mankind teeters on the verge of global war as everyone scrambles for answers—and to find them, Banks, Donnelly, and Weber will take a chance that could threaten their lives, and, quite possibly, humanity.

It's Music Monday. Movies? Hmmm... Dr. Hook, a favourite old band of mine with a favourite track:


9 comments:

mike said...

The author of your sidebar, "The difference between life and the movies is that a script has to make sense, and life doesn't.", apparently hasn't seen some of the movies I've seen...LOL. Several movies have left me as bewildered as life, itself.

I've seen several advertisements for "Miss Peregrine's Home..." and it does sound like it should be good, particularly with Tim Burton at the helm. However, "Big Eyes" had as much promise, but was a flop. Burton typically explores the edges of weird in his films, but "Big Eyes" just wasn't in that genre...too plain. Tim just had a birthday, August 25th (1958).

The trailer for "Miss Peregrine's..." indicates that Burton got his swag back and this film will definitely be weird. Hope it's a good weird:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3dHB8ByxmM

And here's Florence + The Machines "Wish That You Were Here" soundtrack from the movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsWDUvuF0Xc

Hamburgers were my father's favorite late-night "snack". He would work late and arrive home about 11 PM and my mother would make burgers for him. We children were usually in bed on school nights, but the summer months had my mother making burgers for the entire brood. Ground beef back then was very inexpensive and was considered poor people's food. I remember when the first McDonald's opened in my city ("...the same from Topeka to NY City") in the later 1950s. Conformism from the McCarthy era hadn't receded, so McDonald's was on-spot. My mother's burgers were a work of art and very tasty, but there was an allure to McDonald's uniformity, skimp-of-condiments, squashed-down appearance, and blandness that couldn't be beat. It was foretelling of the American future.

mike (again) said...

Also...most think of McDonald's as the advent of chain food joints, but it was Holiday Inn and Howard Johnson's franchised, motel, restaurant chains that I remember arriving in Topeka way before McDonald's. McDonald's had it down with fast service and limited menu, though.

Twilight said...

mike ~ Re the sidebar quote - the writer was a successful movie man himself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_L._Mankiewicz. I suppose he hoped his own movies made sense...he had Sun in Aquarius though so... ;-)

I haven't truly enjoyed any Tim Burton film I've seen. Anyjazz is quite a fan of his though. If I'm going into fantasy land I prefer to take the sci-fi or speculative dystopian, or time travel routes. I do quite like the "Miss Peregrine..." movie's theme song.

I bet your mother's burgers were delish! My mum - or my dad - made their version of burgers, but we didn't call them burgers. I think we called them beef patties or some such name. They were just finely ground, good quality, beef, bound with egg, seasoned and with lots of marjoram added. I lurve marjoram. We always had a jar full of dried marjoram in the house, my grandma grew it, dried it by hanging bunches from the rafters of their little cottage kitchen. It's available to buy in the supermarket here, but it doesn't taste anything like the marjoram I remember...but then not much does taste as I remember it from my youth.

McDonald's weren't the first burger bars to hit the streets in Britain - as I recall Wimpy's beat them to it by several years. Wimpy's burgers were tasty - one had the option of with or without fried onions - that was about it for choice, originally. I think they added a cheese option later on.

mike (again) said...

White Castle was the first hamburger chain I recall, founded 1921, in Wichita, KS, but were not in Topeka for some reason. I'm not a fan of White Castle burgers...way to bland and small. Most credit Kroc-McDonald's as revolutionizing the business toward fast food, but White Castle's methods were copied by Kroc:

"Anderson is credited with invention of the hamburger bun as well as 'the kitchen as assembly line, and the cook as infinitely replaceable technician,' hence giving rise to the modern fast food phenomenon. Due to White Castle's innovation of having chain-wide standardized methods, customers could be sure that they would receive the same product and service in every White Castle restaurant. As Henry Ford did for car manufacturing, Anderson and Ingram did for the making of burgers."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Castle_(restaurant)

Wiki's page indicates White Castle is to fast food as Walmart is to retail shopping.

I'm indulgent with marjoram, too. Did you know that it's actually a sub-species of oregano, Oreganum majorana? In the USA, often oregano (Oreganum vulgare) is sold as marjoram and can be considered interchangeable. You should buy some seeds and grow your own. I've taken to Mexican oregano, a member of the verbena family (Lippia graveolens) as a decent substitute for marjoram, but it's not as sweet. My true love is fresh basil.

Twilight said...

mike (again) ~ White Castle - yes - whenever we're in Wichita or Salina KS (anyjazz's old hometown) he threatens that we must have some White Castle burgers so's I can experience the taste. So far I've managed to avoid this fate! :-)

Yes, I've realised that oregano is a relative of marjorum, since living in the USA. Similar, though not quite the same scent and taste. It'll do - as a substitute!
We can't seem to get into growing stuff here - not sure why. I loved to garden after I'd retired, back in Yorkshire. Not so now. Too many bugs, gofers, birds, lack of rain, etc etc. We allow the birds, squirrels, gofers, and whatever else visits during darkness to have their way with our bits of ground, without giving them added attractions of any minor crops we might try to grow. :-) That's our excuse!

OFF TOPIC - kind of but more relating to sidebar quote:
Anthony Weiner's current doings are fairly unbelievable, given he's had some chance to redeem himself politically. I did quite like his political style before his mis-steps came to light a while back. Now he's at it again - but look at his natal chart at Astrotheme. Lots of Virgo planets - isn't he in what are known by the NRA crowd as "cross-hairs" of current formations?

http://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Anthony_Weiner`

mike (again) said...

Goodness, Weiner needs an astrologer (but would he listen?)! Yes, he's definitely under the influence of transits. All those Virgo planets in T-square with Saturn-Mars-Neptune, plus solar eclipse soon to be right there, too. From the details I read, nothing too untoward occurred with his texts, at least not enough to call it sexting, and it seems the recipient wasn't the one to expose it. BUT, one would think he'd leave well enough alone after the first incident back in 2011; he resigned June, 2011. Interesting to note that June 1,2011, there was a solar eclipse occurring at 11* Gemini squaring those same planets in Virgo. The coming solar eclipse September 1, 2016, is at 9* Virgo.

I feel for his wife, Huma Abedin, but maybe they have a convenience marriage. They just separated today. I suppose this could be a roundabout sensationalist grab at Clinton's campaign.

Twilight said...

mike (again) ~ You'd think, with all that Virgo goin' on, the guy would be a tad more self-critical, self-policing! Unless astrology has led us astray with regard to that particular zodiac sign. ;-) Weiner seemingly has no reliable control mechanism.

I feel more for their child. Huma Abedin is Hillary's right-hand woman, it appears - bag-carrier between the different facets of Hillary's fabled life, for good or ill. She must have plenty of secrets of her own. It'd not be ever so surprising to me should Huma, at some point, find herself under that mythical bus.

mike (again) said...

Trump is on the bull horn using Weiner's latest against Hillary. I guess no one remembers that Melania is a former porn model in EU and USA, with a photo shoot in NYC a year before allegedly allowed entry on a no-work visa. There's supposedly evidence that she was once a high-priced call girl. Not to mention her fake university degree and plagiarism over the RNC speech she wrote herself, but didn't.

Trump has hired Peter Thiel's legal defense team to banish these attacks on Melania...poor girl. More surprising is that Daily Mail and Politco obliged by taking-down all derogatory articles.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/08/23/melania_trump_hires_lawyer_who_bankrupted_gawker.html

Weiner's most "lurid sexting" photo was shown on my local news, then the national news, with only his son's face blurred, nothing else was blurred, so how pornographic can it be if it can be shown on standard TV at dinner time?

I think there is far deeper, sexually-natured trouble with our potential First Lady than the juvenile texting from Weiner in his boxer shorts with a bulgie. And I think the latest accusation against Weiner is a lot to do about very little.

Twilight said...

mike (again) ~ It is proving to be a useful distraction... yet another one! Wonder from what it's supposed to be distracting our attention! ;-)