The Movie (and TV show) Watching Thread

[MarkD]

The only movie I've recently seen in theatres is Doctor Strange 2: In the Multiverse of Madness. I've seen it twice and I want to go watch it at least a third time before it leaves the theatres. But I don't have much to say about it, other than the fact that I can do without the Bruce Campbell cameo.

A more noteworthy movie I've been watching several times appears only on Netflix: the remake of The Boys in the Band. I can still remember that the first time I watched the original (made in 1970) was about 38 years ago. I also bought a book with a copy of the entire script for the play shortly after I watched the original movie. The play was so outstandingly well-written and the original cast for the 1970 movie were so excellent in performing their roles, that I'm very sure that it deserved the 3.5 stars that Leonard Maltin gave it in his book of movie reviews. This remake, however, is not as good as the original (isn't that always the way it is with remakes?), and so probably should get no more than 3 stars. Two of my major gripes with the remake is that: 1) most of the cast in this remake do not perform their roles as well as the original cast; and 2) they left out several lines of dialogue that were, IMO, crucial to the plot and to character development. In the new movie, the three most famous actors are Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, and Matt Bomer, but I don't think any of the three of them performed as well as the original cast members. Actor Tuc Watkins is much too old for the role of Hank (Watkins is about 20 years older, IRL, than Hank is supposed to be), and actor Charlie Carver is nowhere near as good-looking as the role calls for. The emotional climax of the story, when the character Michael has an anxiety attack near the end, has so many lines of dialogue that were omitted, and Parson's performance is so much more subdued than Kenneth Nelson's performance in the original, that the scene is simply not as effective of an ending as in the original play and in the original movie.