TV/Movies Megathread

[Grey Fox]

They're here.

You guys get all the hott immigrants.  Fuckheads.

 

[Admiral Yi]

You get more latinas than us, if that's your thing

I like smaller butts. 

[garbon]

On you wouldn't complain if they were white... I do recall a few years a movie named Gods of Egypt attracted a fair bit of controversy for its cast of north European descent people.

You complained about that?

[Josquius]

You get more latinas than us, if that's your thing

I like smaller butts. 

... You're a straight man right?
No to Latinas?
Some people don't know how good they have it.

[Admiral Yi]

... You're a straight man right?
No to Latinas?
Some people don't know how good they have it.

The grass is always greener I guess.

[Admiral Yi]

On that note, RIP Latinx, you well intentioned absurdity.

[Savonarola]

Gladiator 2 is coming, with Denzel Washington starring in it, apparently.

Speaking of the devil, he'll play Hannibal in an Antoine Fuqua led movie.  A movie that was for a long while rumored to star Vin Diesel.  Vin Diesel might have looked the part better in hand to hand combat, fist fighting his opponents on the battlefield, but Denzel has the acting skills.  It's a toss up, really.

Link

I hope they cast Will Smith as Scipio; he could use the work and he's proven his hand to hand combat skills.

[Savonarola]

Do you feel that taking north African historical figures and race swapping them is culture appropriation or at least culturally incentive?

A corralary question to that, would you feel that it's wrong to race swap a black historical character for another race in colorblind casting? Would your answer change if it was a  common occurrence?

I think that if the movie is good enough to get you to suspend disbelief it doesn't matter.  I don't have any objection to Alec Guinness portraying Prince Feisal or Omar Sharif as Dr. Zhivago or Charlton Heston playing a Mexican District Attorney in "Touch of Evil".  Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto, though, I find problematic; I can't believe he's Japanese and, to me, this highlights the poor portrayal of Asian characters in Hollywood movies and the white-washing of positive Asian characters.

In this case I might be cautious about having a North African/Middle Easterner portray Hannibal.  Hannibal comes from a culture which practices infanticide and is filled with greedy merchants.  He's driven by a fanatical hatred for a European civilization.  In the end the Euros kick his butt and burn his city; that might be a little too on the nose in light of recent world events.  (Dune has a similar problem; it should be a great opportunity for Arab actors, but since the Fremen are cave dwelling religious fanatics the casting director was wise to go with a more multi-cultural Fremen.)

[viper37]

Gladiator is a "serious historic movie"?

It is not a comedy...

[viper37]

But North Africans being black is a common trope, coming in part from the ongoing culture war in America. It's a bit cultural appropriation and a bit Americans being bad at geography and history. So I give it less slack than tamas does. This movie is fictional and not a documentary so isn't as bad as the last cleopatra documentary where making her black was an actual purposeful part of the show. I wouldn't have cared if they made the gladiator character himself black for example, because again it's fictional, but making Hannibal black isn't colourblind casting its following a trope I feel is dumb.

I see things differently, knowing how Hollywood usually works.

See, I talked of Vin Diesel before.  For a time, he wanted to produce a movie about Hannibal and play the lead role.  I don't know his ethnicity, he doesn't know himself, because he never knew his real father.  He only described himself as "mixed ethnicity".

Now, Carthaginians were offshoots of Pheonicians.  I do not know how Hannibal really looked.  Maybe he looked Caanite, close to what a middle eastern person would like today?  So, how are middle eastern people represented in today's Hollywood movies?  Quite often by Latinx actors.

I'm with Shielbh here, my only real complaint is the age.  70 yo instead or 30.  Aren't there capable 30-40 yo Hollywood actors to play the role, no matter the skin color?

[viper37]

On you wouldn't complain if they were white... I do recall a few years a movie named Gods of Egypt attracted a fair bit of controversy for its cast of north European descent people.

That was dumb too. Everyone knows they should have had animal heads

Stargate did it right.

[crazy canuck]

Do you feel that taking north African historical figures and race swapping them is culture appropriation or at least culturally incentive?

A corralary question to that, would you feel that it's wrong to race swap a black historical character for another race in colorblind casting? Would your answer change if it was a  common occurrence?

I think that if the movie is good enough to get you to suspend disbelief it doesn't matter.  I don't have any objection to Alec Guinness portraying Prince Feisal or Omar Sharif as Dr. Zhivago or Charlton Heston playing a Mexican District Attorney in "Touch of Evil".  Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto, though, I find problematic; I can't believe he's Japanese and, to me, this highlights the poor portrayal of Asian characters in Hollywood movies and the white-washing of positive Asian characters.

In this case I might be cautious about having a North African/Middle Easterner portray Hannibal.  Hannibal comes from a culture which practices infanticide and is filled with greedy merchants.  He's driven by a fanatical hatred for a European civilization.  In the end the Euros kick his butt and burn his city; that might be a little too on the nose in light of recent world events.  (Dune has a similar problem; it should be a great opportunity for Arab actors, but since the Fremen are cave dwelling religious fanatics the casting director was wise to go with a more multi-cultural Fremen.)

Heston was terrible Gordon.

[HVC]

Do you feel that taking north African historical figures and race swapping them is culture appropriation or at least culturally incentive?

A corralary question to that, would you feel that it's wrong to race swap a black historical character for another race in colorblind casting? Would your answer change if it was a  common occurrence?

I think that if the movie is good enough to get you to suspend disbelief it doesn't matter.  I don't have any objection to Alec Guinness portraying Prince Feisal or Omar Sharif as Dr. Zhivago or Charlton Heston playing a Mexican District Attorney in "Touch of Evil".  Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto, though, I find problematic; I can't believe he's Japanese and, to me, this highlights the poor portrayal of Asian characters in Hollywood movies and the white-washing of positive Asian characters.

In this case I might be cautious about having a North African/Middle Easterner portray Hannibal.  Hannibal comes from a culture which practices infanticide and is filled with greedy merchants.  He's driven by a fanatical hatred for a European civilization.  In the end the Euros kick his butt and burn his city; that might be a little too on the nose in light of recent world events.  (Dune has a similar problem; it should be a great opportunity for Arab actors, but since the Fremen are cave dwelling religious fanatics the casting director was wise to go with a more multi-cultural Fremen.)

Given the historicity of the original movie, in this one Hannibal might turn heel, join the gladiator and sing kumbaya as they return to Rome and install a democracy

[Tonitrus]

Heston was terrible Gordon.

Ralph Richardson was a fantastic Gladstone though. 

[HVC]

Madame Web looks like it might be good. Or it could be another Marvels. Trailer at least looks good.