Merv Griffin, invoking the Zbornak Rule: “No parting gifts!” https://youtu.be/BPlBYUaxcyM
> On Mar 26, 2022, at 12:11, Jim Ellwanger <[email protected]> wrote: > > Better hope the vengeful ghost of Alex Trebek doesn't take note of a former > "Jeopardy!" champion calling "How Green Was My Valley" lousy. (I have no > opinion about it, because I haven't seen it... in fact, all I really know > about it is that Alex always said it was his favorite film.) > > >> On Mar 26, 2022, at 2:35 AM, 'Dave Sikula' via TVorNotTV >> <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> "Don't Look Up" is indeed terrible, but there have been lousy nominees >> aplenty over the years. I actually kind of like "Greatest Show;" it's not >> great, but once one gets a sense of DeMille's directing style (it's >> especially apparent in "The Ten Commandments," in that he never stopped >> directing silent pictures; he just added sound), it's tolerable. I've seen a >> lot of worse pictures that were supposed to be "important." >> >> There are plenty of dogs that actually won. "Cimmaron" is generally ranked >> among the worst, but it's just dull, not bad. For sheer lousiness, though, >> it's hard to beat either "Cavalcade" or "How Green Was My Valley," though >> I'll stipulate that I don't like that one because I can't stand John Ford >> (especially "The Quiet Man"). >> >> As for McKay, the more films he does (and I liked "The Big Short"), the more >> obvious and smaller his bag of tricks becomes. I'm thinking particularly of >> "Don't Look Up," with its overripe "aren't we outrageous to tell truth to >> power this way?" vibe, but also the atrocious "Winning Time," about the >> Lakers. Too much talking to the camera, outright lies about people and >> events, and ramping everything up to eleven. Farrell (who would have been >> awful as Jerry Buss) should consider himself lucky that he got edged out. >> >> --Dave Sikula >> >>> On Friday, March 25, 2022 at 8:41:16 PM UTC-7 PGage wrote: >>> This is a much more difficult call than naming the best film ever nominated >>> for Best Picture (obviously, The Godfather). I did a quick Google search >>> and saw a lot of different nominees, some of which I thought were >>> ridiculous (I really liked JoJo Rabbit). It’s hard to go back in time to >>> judge just how bad old films were. I have seen “Greatest Show on Earth”, >>> and it’s not good, but I’ve seen Ivanhoe too and it’s not clear to me it is >>> that much better. Dr. Dolittle has been my go to worst Best Film nominee (I >>> hated it even as a kid in the demo when it came out). More recent films in >>> contention for me are Prince of Tides and Extremely Loud and Incredibly >>> Close. >>> >>> But I finally got around to watching “Don’t Look Up” this evening and, wow, >>> is it bad. It is basically a mediocre 4 min SNL sketch stretched to 2 hrs >>> and 20 minutes. I don’t often agree with Sikula, but in this case he has >>> been understated in his criticism. I write this as a huge fan of Vice and, >>> especially “The Big Short”, which is one of my favorite films of the last >>> 25 years. DLU may not be the worst film ever nominated for Best Picture, >>> but if it’s not it is in the top three. >>> >>> I’m not that surprised the film stank; they took a big swing and whiffed. >>> It happens. I think it would have been a lot better had they played it >>> straight, as in Big Short, but it’s easy to say that after the fact. But I >>> am shocked it got nominated. Why did that happen? Who thinks this is a >>> great movie? Even if you thought it was sporadically amusing, like >>> Anchorman II, you can’t really think it is good. I laughed at one joke, >>> which paid off during the credits, and that might just have been relief >>> that it was finally over. >>> >>> It strikes me that the thinking behind nominating this film is the same as >>> that behind nominating other stinkers like Green Book, Blind Side and The >>> Help. Lazy arm chair liberals mark it as somehow making a socially >>> significant point, and they want to pat themselves on the back for getting >>> behind it. >>> >>> >>> On Sun, 26 Dec 2021 at 11:03 PM [email protected] >>>> Let me just say that, after enduring the grisly "Don't Look Up" tonight, I >>>> owe Mr. Sorkin an apology. McKay's effort (emphasis on the "effort") is so >>>> inept as to make Sorkins' look like a 30's Paramount comedy. >>>> >>>> --Dave Sikula >>> -- >>> Sent from Gmail Mobile >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TVorNotTV" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/dcf3492d-05ac-4a37-966c-35695282c579n%40googlegroups.com. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/2A0D5C48-6D84-46A7-9451-C38DB4DD0A75%40ellwanger.tv. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/A622E2AF-EB49-4003-93F9-2ED5E3707D6F%40suddenlink.net.
