Red Letter Media

[Biker]

mike and jay will tell you they hate loud theatre goers, but will never mention the race of said loud patrons:

 

[RA-5C Vigilante]

mike and jay will tell you hate they hate loud theatre goers, but will never mention the race of said loud patrons:
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No one look up the demographics of Milwaukee, but the numbers have been getting lower. Pepperoni production also has raised quite a bit around there from what I've heard.

 

[LordofCringe7206 Vol. 2]

Claiming people only saw Gone With the Wind because so few movies came out back then -- that would be 1939, generally considered the single best year for Hollywood movies, seeing everything from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to Son of Frankenstein to The Wizard of Oz to ... the list goes on -- is one of those jaw-dropping blind spots these guys occasionally demonstrate.

This ties into a reason that they neglected to talk about in their video. 1939 was filled with films getting released, practically a new one for every week of the year. The reason you only remember Gone with the Wind or the other ones you mentioned was because they were the hits that stood the test of time. They became classics, they were critically well-received and or developed followings in later years that led people to reevaluate them.

I think there is a point to be made that part of the reason why people aren't going to movies anymore is because a lot of films are just going to be forgotten about overtime. Few will actually leave a mark or be looked at as classics in any form past their release. Seriously, think about how many movies have come out over the years. How many do you actually remember? How many of them get shown regularly on television? Go back even ten or fifteen years before Marvel really started taking over all of cinemas.

If I was to give you any given year, how many films from that year do you remember?

 

[Flexo]

And it would also meet their definition of 'adapted IP'. Unlike Jurassic Park, it was an incredibly popular book in the years just before the movie. Unlike '5%' having read JP, I'd bet it was more like 25% of the adult audience of GWTW.

(I wonder how he classified The Godfather, which was not that big but was big enough that getting the rights was a key highlight of Robert Evans' 'please don't fire me' reel)

Jaws too was adapted from a book.

Still although I doubt we could define it autistically enough for the robots on the board I think people could acknowledge the difference between adapting Godfather and adapting Twilight.

Just don't ask me.

Which I assume they completely avoid talking about because they don't want to look racist.

America will only get better when the nigger cattle issue is dealt with. Get cops to do their fucking jobs and crack some skulls. When the coons riot break their skulls too

It's not races, it's generations. Around here I've encountered plenty of older black and hispanic people who are very well behaved and good folks. While encountering an equal number of young white people who apparently have no idea they aren't the only person on Earth.

 

[Doctor of Autism]

I think what it really boils down to is how expensive ticket prices have gotten. The big theatre chains make it sort of easy with “value days” but they are on days of the week that most people wouldn’t go to a movie.

 

[Mola Ram]

Still although I doubt we could define it autistically enough for the robots on the board I think people could acknowledge the difference between adapting Godfather and adapting Twilight.

I don't know. I don't really see any meaningful difference. Godfather was not the cultural juggernaut Twilight was, but it was a pretty significant book in that it was one of the first things to really expose the Mafia in a noteworthy way: things like the structure of the Five Families, the concept of omerta, the very obvious Frank Sinatra knockoff of Johnny Fontaine. It also shares with Twilight the fact that it's a positively dreadful book -- when you see people naming movies that are better than the books they were based on, The Godfather is almost always mentioned, and for good reason.

Maybe you can differ things like Forrest Gump, where the book is both obscure and a completely different animal from the movie, but really movies have been bringing books to the screen for so long you might as well classify them as separate things from the IP monsters like comic book movies and franchises that have been going on for decades.

EDIT: To add to my point, there has been an Academy Award for screenplays adapted from previously existing material since the first ceremony in 1929. I think it's fair to categorize them as "original," as least as something distinct from Marvel Corporate Slops Chapter 38 or Indiana Jones and the Escape From Green Grove Retirement Community.

 

[Kit Marz]

They kept talking about the devaluation of movies, but for the most part, movies were always disposable. There were a ton of cheap, quick to produce movies that were released ever since the medium existed. Like those Blondie, Our Gang, Flash Gordon series. They're only viewing movies from the lens of Spielberg, Lucas, and Coppola, who changed the game and created consistent blockbusters. There were obviously spectical movies before then like Gone With the Wind, Wizard of Oz, Ben Hur, and such, but for the most part, it was these smaller movies that would be released.

Once we were able to get TV in our home, it didn't make a ton of sense to watch Our Gang in the theater anymore when you could get something similar in I Love Lucy at home for free. Mediums change all the time. More and more audiences are no longer wowed by spectical because everything feels the same now, so less feel a need to go or to see it at all even at home. It's fine to want to watch the new indie drama at home, it's going to be more comfortable and the big screen isn't going to add to the experience. The issue is that studios feel that every movie needs to be big and almost no one sees a point in watching those smaller in anything other than their home

 

[Drag-on Knight 91873]

Was not expecting Adam Jensens VA in a RLM video, but go figure.
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It did not take him an hour to come to this conclusion either.

 

[I'm a Silly]

No one look up the demographics of Milwaukee, but the numbers have been getting lower. Pepperoni production also has raised quite a bit around there from what I've heard.

If black numbers are down, it's a percentage being shifted by immigrants, and the only language I heard in the fight footage was Spanish
On the whole GWTW thing, chalk it up to RLM being retarded and movie fans but not cinéastes; they have no idea of film history, and I can't stress this enough: Jay never saw a Spaghetti Western until he was over 40.

 

[Mola Ram]

If black numbers are down, it's a percentage being shifted by immigrants, and the only language I heard in the fight footage was Spanish
On the whole GWTW thing, chalk it up to RLM being retarded and movie fans but not cinéastes; they have no idea of film history, and I can't stress this enough: Jay never saw a Spaghetti Western until he was over 40.

Their near-total ignorance of John Ford was the eye opener about this for me.

 

[Retink Retunk]

mike and jay will tell you hate they hate loud theatre goers, but will never mention the race of said loud patrons:
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[TheHarbinger]

I don't know. I don't really see any meaningful difference. Godfather was not the cultural juggernaut Twilight was, but it was a pretty significant book in that it was one of the first things to really expose the Mafia in a noteworthy way: things like the structure of the Five Families, the concept of omerta, the very obvious Frank Sinatra knockoff of Johnny Fontaine.

It didn't really expose the mafia. As the mafia were the ones producing it. They made sure that words like 'mafia' or 'cosa nostra' were not in the film. The mob made huge money off of the film and many high ranking mafia members got private screenings. It was pretty well known that a few mob bosses or top members were literally weeping at how amazing the film was and that it would be a legendary cultural moment for Italian Americans. They were proud of the film because it made them all look suave and sophisticated. Their subculture and gangs inspired the greatest film of all time.

Sinatra was angry that Fontaine was based off of him, and made him look like a crybaby, but then later begged Coppola to be in Godfather II and III. His chilren would end up being in The Sopranos. By the time Goodfellas or Sopranos came out guys in the mafia were trying to get into those films with cameos or credits as well. Henry Hill famously broke FBI witness protection when Goodfellas hit theaters and was appearing in public capitalizing on the success of the film (though technically he was not a member of the mafia, not being Italian).

It also shares with Twilight the fact that it's a positively dreadful book -- when you see people naming movies that are better than the books they were based on, The Godfather is almost always mentioned, and for good reason.

The mafia parts of the book are good. Everything else is impossible to read. Coppola gets a lot of credit. But the mafia guys he consulted with were the ones pushing for the emphasis on the mob story. And not things like the size of Sonny's huge penis which Puzo seemed obsessed with. Godfather is a weird book for sure. Much less serious in tone than the film.

 

[Peaches the Wonder Cat]

Their near-total ignorance of John Ford was the eye opener about this for me.

I haven't watched the video yet, but how do you make a YouTube channel about movies without having seen The Seachers or Stagecoach? When I decided I wanted to watch classic westerns, those two popped up. The Seachers is incredible.

Spoiler: Ending

 

[I'm a Silly]

Their near-total ignorance of John Ford was the eye opener about this for me.

I haven't watched the video yet, but how do you make a YouTube channel about movies without having seen The Seachers or Stagecoach? When I decided I wanted to watch classic westerns, those two popped up. The Seachers is incredible.

Spoiler: Ending

Honestly, I bet there's a huge list of these WTF forehead smackers -- have to call them Red Flag Media going forward.

 

[Peaches the Wonder Cat]

Honestly, I bet there's a huge list of these WTF forehead smackers -- have to call them Red Flag Media going forward.

"And people want to go to a concert to see The Foo Fighters" - Mike's dementia is setting in and he thinks it's 1994.

"It's prestige TV!" Mike's dementia continues and he thinks it's 2004.

 

[Tepes Thot]

And not things like the size of Sonny's huge penis which Puzo seemed obsessed with. Godfather is a weird book for sure. Much less serious in tone than the film.

I know this isn’t the thread for it, but when will I get to mention it here again damnit.

That book is trippy for sure, because if you come off the movie (plus years of later mob movies/tv), you won’t be ready for the part where the bridesmaid Sonny banged has a huge vagina, and it turns out it’s a medical condition. She was sleeping with Sonny, because he was the only one she could feel anything with. Puzo goes into great detail about her condition and the surgery she gets for it. She becomes a main character just for that, and I don’t know why.

All this to say…what was that man huffing/smoking/drinking at various points?

His Hollywood portrayal was accurate though.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I think what it really boils down to is how expensive ticket prices have gotten. The big theatre chains make it sort of easy with “value days” but they are on days of the week that most people wouldn’t go to a movie.

That's pretty much it. With a ticket now around 10 bucks without the snacks, merely going alone to a film alone costs more than a good chunk of fantastic Steam games or a nice steak meal. If you take a girlfriend/family out you waste a fuckton of money for a 3 hour deal that you'll forget a day later.

Add to it bad theater experience, lower quality films, and a population that is far lonelier and cynical, and that's the reason why film theaters are dying.

 

[Mola Ram]

It didn't really expose the mafia. As the mafia were the ones producing it. They made sure that words like 'mafia' or 'cosa nostra' were not in the film. The mob made huge money off of the film and many high ranking mafia members got private screenings. It was pretty well known that a few mob bosses or top members were literally weeping at how amazing the film was and that it would be a legendary cultural moment for Italian Americans. They were proud of the film because it made them all look suave and sophisticated. Their subculture and gangs inspired the greatest film of all time.

Yes, that's all true, but I was only referring to the book. The mob's pressure only came into play when the film was being produced, and while Puzo was mostly writing from memories of growing up in the vicinity of actual mobsters, he still portrayed the mafia with an Italian insider's view that really hadn't been done in fiction before. And while "la Cosa Nostra" famously does not appear in the movie, it certainly appears in the book, where Puzo goes so far as to suggest that Vito Corleone invented the phrase. (The Corleones really were a pack of Mary Sues in the book.)

 

[Bear Powers]

Honestly, I bet there's a huge list of these WTF forehead smackers -- have to call them Red Flag Media going forward.

I've been watching RLM since the first Plinkett reviews and still quite enjoy them, but they do seem to be a little stuck in their own world. I actually think it's quite forgivable on its face, if not completely normal, as all of us have our own bubbles, our own interests and tastes, and we mostly stick to them. The difference is that we're not paid to talk about them, and when they say something profoundly cinematically ignorant it's going to stick out and draw attention like crazy. They should really shut up on subjects they have even the slightest doubt on, because holy shit there is a loooot of other media out there and they end up looking fuckin pig ignorant.

The Re:View of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly pissed me off when Jay almost immediately went off on Eli Wallach being in "brownface", and I'm like for fucks sake, is this the only western you've seen? My god. Wallach even talked about it in (iirc) an Inside the Actors Studio interview. It's been quite a while since I saw it but I remember him being very frank and matter-of-fact about it, basically something along the lines of "Yeah there's a lot of us in the biz, we're believeable as far as looks goes for other races, it was much quicker and much easier to hire us, and it's just the way it was." Wish I could find the show or clip.

I was also genuinely amazed that Mike had never seen the original Conan the Barbarian (as of the HiTB review of the remake), you'd think that would be in the same or adjacent bubble of interest as all the other stuff they've tended to follow through their years.

 

[ShapelyMutton]

Mike needs to stop espousing opinions about video games and their derivative media. Any time Mike mentions the subject Rich's reaction and counter commentary should appear in the corner of the video.
Video games are best adapted as books, books are best adapted as film/video, and films are best adapted as video games. The modern series driven video game adaptations are trash and the fact that people talk about The Last of Us ( a movie game) as being a standard of adaptation really is a disservice to both genres and their mutability
The best video game film adaptation of all time is Papers Please

https://store.steampowered.com/app/804320/Papers_Please__The_Short_Film/

The decline of movie theaters should not be talked about without mentioning the decline of The Third Place in the American social calculus. People now go to the movies IF there's a film they want to see they don't go to the movies to see films. American social spaces used to be real and physical. You don't go to the saloon to drink you go to the saloon to hangout and by happenstance drink the same being said of Arcades, General Stores, Malls, The Church(remember potlucks or any number of other church festivals that now dwindle?). Mass communications and social media connected the interests of people across the country and weakened the real physical places where these interests were discussed and cosumed. The Forum was replaced by Forums.
Movie theaters can only "come back" through genuine interest in the films being shown but that's merely in terms of profitability and not as the social spaces they once were. Rereleases of old films (Evangelion, Alien, etc) and Live events(concert films, etc) still do well in theaters so targeted showings do work out but it has to be established and "niche"(not targeted modern mass appeal slop)

I am not aware enough of zoomers as a whole to construct opinions on their media consumption