anonguest Posted June 16, 2018 Share Posted June 16, 2018 Oceans 8. Another movie remake or spinoff with, as far as I can tell, all female lead characters? Recently had a Ghostbusters female remake (notably with a role reversal as a previously less than super intelligent female character played by a male). Please let no one misunderstand me. I have not seen the plot, trailers, etc. It could well turn out to be, on its own, a perfectly enjoyable movie with good plot, lines, etc. Even allowing for Hollywoods penchant for milking movie themes/franchises to death (how many Rocky, Death Wish, etc sequels were there in the end?!) is this re-casting of characters in remakes/spinoffs really being done for purely good taste or to supposedly improve on a previous winning 'formula'? Does anyone doubt that a good spinoff/sequel could be made with a mix of male/female characters? What do I mean by this? Am I alone in noticing how todays movie character line ups and role assignments have become increasingly PC? and increasingly predictably and obviously so. Consider, as a random example, the remake some years ago of the classic B&W movie "The Flight of The Phoenix". An all male cast of characters. Even allowing for the era there wasn't even a hint of differing sexual orientation issues/considerations. Differences in character personalities for sure. Even the odd mentally unstable one. All adding to the melting pot of the film plot. Compare with the remake some years ago (with Dennis Quaid replacing James Stewart?) as an example of one the first of these types of PC remakes. Today, the lead role will as likely be female, with a supporting male role or a 'past it' male lead with a younger ambitious supposedly much more capable female support just waiting to take over. Then there will be at least one gay character who, invariably, will be contantly 'abused' by one or more other Neanderthal types. There will of course be at least two black characters, one of which will play up as 'black victim (unlike the gay who will suffer in silence). And very lately of course we will likely see an Asian or two, possibly in some techie/scientist role. OK. So the above is just a bit of a parody....but seriously, cast line ups are becoming too predictable and the PC education too 'in your face'. What next? Will they do a remake of, say, 'Sleuth' with two female characters? Who will take Lawrence Oliviers role? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pooch Posted June 16, 2018 Share Posted June 16, 2018 It’s not just the films themselves. In movie news promotional descriptions these days, they often emphasise that it’s a movie with a black or female or gay character (+ various combinations), and then go on to briefly mention the important bit like what it’s actually about! I’d be far more impressed if they didn’t feel the need to shout from the rooftops about how many politically correct tickboxes are being ticked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord D'arcy Pew Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 Quote "Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sledgehead Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 When it comes to entertainment I'm less worried about character plurality than I am about genre plurality. Worse stll is un-signposted genre plurality. Take for instance 10 Cloverfield Lane. What are we to make of the trailer? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guGBUaxtwxE Or the description: Quote A young woman wakes up after a terrible accident to find that she's locked in a cellar with a doomsday prepper, who insists that he saved her life and that the world outside is uninhabitable following an apocalyptic catastrophe. Uncertain what to believe, the woman soon determines that she must escape at any cost. So we sit through 88 minutes of a psychological thriller. Sure we are thrown by the odd Coenesque moment of black-comedic humour. And then there are the moments of horror. did I mention the fact that we don't know the truth of the situation, making this also a mystery? Confused enough? Wait till you get a load of the last two minutes! If you hate sci-fi, tough sh!t: you are just about to realise that's what you've wasted 90 mins over. Or how's about the series "Outlander". Come in at the right time and you'll think you are watching some kids show about the romance of days gone (18th Century). It's all rather twee and wholesome: think Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. You leave the kids watching this, pretty sure you know what the deal is. Come back in and some guy is torturing / buggering another in a dungeon. Or a female character is there, tits oot, gratuitously expressing milk.Yikes you think, this ain't kids stuff at all. Convinced it is an adult period drama (think Versailles), you go back to watching it after the kids have gone to bed. That's when you have to suffer the lead characters worrying about collecting tithes, after casually discussing the fact that one of them comes from the future. And still the critics insist on calling it a period drama?@!? Then there are all those films that invoke the paranormal. Critics no longer seem to think this important to mention. Really? And then, just when you're wise to all this genre-jumbling, you come across a straight-genre movie, described as genre plural. Think Sing Street: it's just a coming of age movie, yet critics call it a 'musical'. Somebody needs to tell them that a film about music doth not a musical make. I enjoy movies like the Commitments. What I have trouble with are movies where characters break into song and dance when speaking and walking are clearly the only appropriate behaviours: ie musicals. Do people just no longer care about what genre they are watching? Are they in a mood for anything, all the time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldbug9999 Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 8 hours ago, Sledgehead said: When it comes to entertainment I'm less worried about character plurality than I am about genre plurality. Worse stll is un-signposted genre plurality. Youve heard of IMDB right ?, I mean youd have to be living under a rock to not realise that Outlander was a time travel thing, and as for that film - cloverfield in the title wasnt enough of a clue as to the genre, did you think they picked that name of all the possible road names by accident ?. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sledgehead Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 23 hours ago, goldbug9999 said: Youve heard of IMDB right ?, I mean youd have to be living under a rock to not realise that Outlander was a time travel thing, and as for that film - cloverfield in the title wasnt enough of a clue as to the genre, did you think they picked that name of all the possible road names by accident ?. Well, I stumbled upon Outlander . As for 10 CL, you assert that the name had to have meaning. Perhaps you'd mind telling me what the original film was named after? I don't recall many fields of clover in it. Is Hummingbird about hummingbirds? Moreover, the cast of 10 CL were Coen Bros vets, so one could be excused for assuming almost anything: is Fargo really always about a singular crime syndicate? No. Moreover, Fargo has even featured alien abduction. "Fargo" seems now largely to mean "black comedy". Why then assume Cloverfield means anything? Besides, I said I primarily objected to genre jumbling. Do you dispute that both Outlander and 10CL are examples of this? Or are you defending the concept? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sledgehead Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 On 17/06/2018 at 23:12, goldbug9999 said: Youve heard of IMDB right ?, Can you please help a mere mortal out. Please tell me whether "Green Room" 2015 has any supernatural elements in it. I don't want to read the plot, cos often you have to get right to the end before such elements manifest themselves, and then I'll already know how it finishes. IMDB classify this as "Horror", which, as wiki tells us, often includes the paranormal. Personally I find the term "Horror" totally ambiguous, but doubtless you'll be able to determine whether any of the characters are "evil", or just ordinary psychos. I'd watch the trailer, but that never helped with 10 CL, so why bother with this? I should point out that as a natural atheist, I simply can't abide silly paranormal movies, so it's really important for me to know that such themes don't feature. I'm asking you as you clearly know how to determine these things. Cheers. EDIT : started watching it. Seems simple far-right extremists so far. But like I said above, genrre mixing has become popular, so who knows? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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