What Emmanuelle Movie Did You Just Watch?

[Abraham Smashington]

I'll report back with my findings.

[Matt]

I can't remember...did you like GODS OF EGYPT?

[Abraham Smashington]

I LOVED GODS OF EGYPT

[Captain Russ]

Sling Blade.

This remains the best thing Billy Bob has ever done. Fantastic casting choices and a simple, weirdly dark yet human story. It has the appropriate weight to the place, time and characters and yet has the quality of a timeless story about outcasts finding companionship and a resurrection of the spirit out of past turmoil.

And Gods of Egypt was corny yet fun and in the most obvious hindsight imaginable, had no real reason to be raked across the coals.

[Abraham Smashington]

Bad Santa disagrees mmmmhmmmm but Sling Blade is pretty great. Shit, it's been a long time since I've watched that.

[Matt]

I LOVED GODS OF EGYPT

OK, cool. I put THE THREE MUSKETEERS in the GODS OF EGYPT/THE MUMMY (1999) category of films. It's over the top but in all of the right ways, pulling back from the cliff when necessary but always embracing the insanity. The cast knows exactly what kind of movie they're in and leans into it with panache. I think it's a lot of fun.

[Captain Russ]

Bad Santa disagrees mmmmhmmmm but Sling Blade is pretty great. Shit, it's been a long time since I've watched that.

As much as I love Bad Santa, I think it’s the more evenhanded nature on display here that makes all the characters’ humanity shine through. That said, it’s missing Tony Cox.

[Matt]

S

And Gods of Egypt was corny yet fun and in the most obvious hindsight imaginable, had no real reason to be raked across the coals.

The thing that a lot of people didn't realize: all of the absurd elements of the story (gods being 12 feet tall and with molten gold for blood, Ra circling the sun in a boat, etc) come directly from mythology. The film is literally Egyptian mythology brought to life. I mean, sure...casting a Scot as Set was maybe not the best call, but casting the film with actual Egyptians would have been problematic as there simply aren't enough Egyptian stars with mainstream appeal. There's Rami Malek, that's really it. Regardless, if you watch the film and realize that this is what ancient Egyptians actually believed, it's pretty fucking cool. And I was thoroughly entertained by it.

[Abraham Smashington]

Yeah, that's why I loved Gods so much. All that weird shit is why I was so into Egyptian myths and shit as a kid. It was all soooo weird.

And Butler is hilariously bad/good in it. Now I want to rewatch Gods hahah

[Captain Russ]

I loved Rush’s Ra on his astral yacht having to fight the dark every goddamned time the sun rose. All of the mythic aspects were taken at face value and I appreciated its consistency in that regard.

I think the call for blood about the casting is still quite absurdly shortsighted and ignorant of everything we call reality and how business continues to conduct itself independent of some moral standard in commercial art. But it’s food for thought to see where something lands that is able to navigate the ever widening mine field of today.

[Abraham Smashington]

As much as I love Bad Santa, I think it’s the more evenhanded nature on display here that makes all the characters’ humanity shine through. That said, it’s missing Tony Cox.

Oh for sure. I mean objectively Sling is a much better movie than Bad Santa but I will always love Mini Ceej and Billy Bob's interactions more.

[Matt]

I loved Rush’s Ra on his astral yacht having to fight the dark every goddamned time the sun rose. All of the mythic aspects were taken at face value and I appreciated its consistency in that regard.

I think the call for blood about the casting is still quite absurdly shortsighted and ignorant of everything we call reality and how business continues to conduct itself independent of some moral standard in commercial art. But it’s food for thought to see where something lands that is able to navigate the ever widening mine field of today.

I think if the film had had a more varied, diverse cast, it would have done better. The fact that it was basically all white guys and Chadwick Boseman opened things up for the controversy in a major way. If there'd been more African Americans, some Asians, and any Arab Americans to really drive home the point that the film was being colorblind in terms of casting, there wouldn't have been much controversy, especially if any of the actual leads had been non-white.

[Captain Russ]

I think it’s mostly the absurdism of it all after the fact that makes it strange to me. Hell it seems a quaint blip in comparison to the fanaticism often displayed now with how the public engages with an IP that doesn’t follow the constantly in-flux rules.

[BillyG]

NOES 4 The Dream Master - So...I really didn't remember that there's ANY connection between films except for Langenkamp. The first 15 minutes was a lot of wait, is this the same group from 3...except Arquette didn't come back? This one was absurd but at least in a kind of funny way, particularly the dog pissing fire on Freddy to raise him from the dead. Renny Harlin is a fucking psychopath. Overall this one had some good kills, but pretty forgettable.

NOES 5 The Dream Child - This sucked shit. Hated basically everything except some of the practical FX. It uses every shitty 80s cliche, including being really bad handling women. Sarah was pretty much done for at the force feeding kill (one I remember being WAY more graphic as a kid, but looks like fucking dog shit in retrospect).

Looking forward to Freddy's Dead. I know it's bad, but it's fun as hell and was always my favorite as a kid. We've agreed we will also watch Freddy v Jason, NOES Remake, and the documentary. I only saw FvJ in theaters, and it was fun with a crowd. I am expecting it to be awful now.

[Captain Russ]

I still love Freddy’s Dead, warts and all.