Big Blue Huddle

Quote from: ozzie on July 20, 2021, 01:31:08 PM
Not sure I agree Lenn.
Now I'm not pounding the drum to get Pitt an Oscar or anything, but I think he does have a more diverse career than people realize. If you're looking for more "serious / diverse" roles, he's also been in:
A River Runs Through it
Se7en
Meet Joe Black
Spy Game
Moneyball
Benjamin Button
He's done drama, action, comedy, sci fi, and most everything else in between. I just think he flies under the radar when discussing the "greats". Although, a lot of times people in all walks of life aren't appreciated for how good they do something until they're not doing it anymore.

I think Brad Pitt has been a very good actor of the past 30 years. Definitely a big box office, A-list, Hollywood mega-star of his day. I don't think he is any sort of all-timer though. I would say he is definitely good, but not truly great. I would probably say the same about Cruise. Good but not great. Nothing wrong with being good. There are plenty of actors of lesser ability than either of these two men who have still had very good Hollywood careers. These two are not truly great though. Nicholson is great. DeNiro is great. Hackman is great. I don't put either Cruise or Pitt in the same tier as those actors. They're a step or two down from those types of names.

Quote from: MightyGiants on July 17, 2021, 08:10:01 AM
I have been binge-watching Apple's Ted Lasso (Apple TV is dirt cheap).  It's a feel-good comedy that is really enjoyable.  I highly recommend it.

Agreed. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Very good show. Sudeikis is hysterical.

Quote from: Ed Vette on July 16, 2021, 10:05:22 AM
Any take on the Yankees who were vaccinated and now have Covid? One game PPD.

No question you can still catch covid if you are vaccinated. Rich Eisen is another example besides the one you mentioned.

The good news of course is that you are extremely unlikely to get dangerously ill if you have received the vaccine, even with the new variant. The data is very encouraging on this point:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/delta-variant-hospitalizations-covid-coronavirus-vaccine-immunity-11626374706?mod=hp_opin_pos_1

The idea that anyone would watch TV as a way of getting "information" with which to make the critical decision about getting vaxed or not, rather than simply listening to their own trusted doctor (or any number of other doctors), all of whom are infinitely more knowledgeable on this subject than any journalist, politician, or other medical layperson, and virtually all of whom are motivated by public health and not by politics, is what perplexes me the most. Why do people think they know more than MD doctors on this subject? Do they actually think every doctor out there is now complicit with the "deep state" and is deliberately spewing out harmful advice that is not in their patients' best interests? I find that both troubling and bizarre, to say the least.

However, what people choose to legally do or not do with their own bodies is their decision. Yes, they put others at risk by not vaccinating, but the overwhelming majority of others they are putting at material risk are other like-minded individuals who have, for whatever reason, made this same choice. That does not make their lives less valuable in my opinion, but they did make a conscious choice and therefore have indicated that they are prepared to live (or die) with the consequences.

Quote from: LennG on July 12, 2021, 05:00:21 PM
Once you mentioned it, I agree about Freeman. Great guy, good actor, but most of his parts are about the same and what range does he have? Not one of the 30 best ever?

Even Gary Oldman, a few excellent parts, Oscar-winning role, but is that a career?

And, like you, not to be shot, or anything, but James Dean?. While he was excellent in his 3 movie roles, that is all he ever did THREE movies. To be in the top 15 or so, actors of all time from 3 movies--WOW.

AND, Bogey is my favorite all time actor and he has made some memorable pix and was truly a great actor, but best of all time, #1, well............

Maybe if I had to name one it would be Sir Lawrence Olivier as truly the best actor of all time, even if I didn't like many of his pix.

You mentioned Clint Eastwood, another of my favs, but was he really a great actor in Dirty harry movies, Spaghetti Westerns? Most enjoyable movies but if you say that, where would you put someone like Errol Flynn?

Anyway, a good topic for discussion, as Jim, alluded to, depending on your age.

Lenn,

Yeah come to think of it, I agree about Clint. He has had a tremendous overall career, but I don't think he is actually a top 30 actor of all time. I'd say he's a top 30 American film legend of all time when you look at everything he has done including all the directing, but probably not an actual top 30 actor.

I stand by Hackman though... I think he has been tremendous and has displayed all kinds of range.

DeNiro has amazing range when you look at the roles he has played. He doesn't just play gangsters.

I agree on Dean. He was iconic but probably shouldn't be on this list.

Interesting list.

I agree that Williams, Bardem, and probably Bale can be left off. They're good but haven't had long enough careers or made enough movies to be considered great.

I think Seymour-Hoffman, Penn, and Denzel deserve to be higher up than they are.

I would probably move Hoffman down a bit. He is no doubt very good, but better than DeNiro and Pacino? I don't think so.

Where are Gene Hackman and Clint? How could someone put Robin Williams and Javier Bardem in but not Hackman??

I'm going to make a statement that I'm sure nobody will agree with, but I'll say it anyway: I actually think Morgan Freeman is a bit overrated as an actor. Now to be clear, I really like the guy, and I think he has made some outstanding movies. And I'm certainly not saying he's a bad actor. But the reality is that he is practically the same in every movie. He's very likeable, but is there much range there? I think he is successful because he is popular and because he has been in excellent movies, but I'm not sure he is some brililant actor.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but it wouldn't let me get past the first page, which asks you to agree to some sort of cookie situation. So I actually couldn't see any content.

Quote from: LennG on July 11, 2021, 12:42:57 PM
Count me in also, huge, huge fan. I never had HBO so IU watched the series when it came out on Tape or DVD. I rewatched it when it was on broadcast TV, but that ended very quickly as they cut out all the violence, nudity, and cussing. How can you watch the Sopranos without all of that?
I remember watching the final episode on a VCR tape and thought, WOW, something was cut out as I made it my business not to know what happened until I was able to watch. Silly me until I really understood the ending (or did anyone really understand the ending).

I would love to discuss it, but if you discuss the details, my memory lags. I remember most of the series but some things are blurs, but I loved every episode of every year. Funny, I used to listen to Mike and the Mad Dog every day while I was working and they LOVED the Sopranos and always discussed every episode as it was aired, so I knew a lot of what was going to happen.

As far as the trailer, Gandolfini's son does look a lot like him. Is he playing the part of Tony? And my choice for most underrated person on that entire series was Edie Falco. yes, she was a main character but many times she got lost in relation to Tony. She was a joy to watch.

As for best series ever, it is in my top 5. For me, I still go with Breaking Bad as my BEST series ever, followed by Game of Thrones, and anytime you or anyone wants to discuss any of them, let me know. There is no one here who has ever discussed GOT, and I can't believe no one else hadn't watched it.

With that clip, it has peaked my interest and I will be looking forward to the prequel.

My wife and most of my friends absolutely swear by GOT. I started watching it and somehow fizzled out. I know it's a good show and I have no doubt about that, but I just don't think it's my type of genre. What I'm not going to do is force myself to watch something I'm not into just because other people like it. Life is too short for that. Having said that I suspect I'd like it if I gave it more of a chance. But as I said before it's not really my genre.

Breaking Bad I liked a lot. Definitely a top five series for me, but I didn't like it as much as Sopranos. The Sopranos just really spoke to me for some reason. And no I cannot imagine watching it without violence and harsh language. That would be like going to a great steakhouse like Peter Lugers and just ordering nothing but a salad.

For those who don't know, "The Many Saints of Newark" is a movie coming out in October that is the prequel to the hit show "The Sopranos." David Chase, the creator of "The Sopranos" is one of the writers of the show, so it does seem potentially promising. Interestingly, they went with the late James Gandolfini's son with the role of Tony back from his teenage years.

It remains to be seen how good this movie will be, but it certainly seems promising. Here is the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHa95iy2lF0

I am not sure if the Sopranos has been discussed here already, but I am a huge, huge fan of the show. For me it is easily my favorite show of all time, and by a huge margin. I am probably a little biased because I have always loved the mafia genre, but The Sopranos in my opinion succeeded in being much more than just a good mafia show. There is a lot more to it than that. I hope with this movie they managed to achieve something good. I guess we'll find out in a few months.

Are there any other big Sopranos fans here?

Quote from: LennG on July 09, 2021, 01:47:48 PM
It's really hard to pick one over the other. Sure some were superb, while others were just good, but compared to so many other movies, even the so-so ones were just a joy to watch.

My wife's favorite is Vertigo and we have watched that so many times, I also love it.
While in my heart Psycho will always have a very soft spot, I think either Dial M For Murder or Rear Window are my favorites.

After Rope, I'd probably go with Rear Window. That was definitely up there.

For some reason, I never liked North by Northwest as much as everyone else. Not sure why, but it just was never my favorite, even though I know it was for a lot of people.

Vertigo, The Birds, and Psycho were all great.

I haven't seen Dial M for Murder in ages but I know that was also a good one.

I'm a huge fan of Hitchcock's work. I think a strong case can be made that he is the greatest director ever. Sadly, he was far from the greatest person ever, however I don't think that should necessarily impugn the actual work he put out.

If I had to pick my favorite Hitchcock movie, I would probably go with "Rope." Stewart was awesome in that, as were both of the main actors. I loved how there was not a single cut in the whole movie. The tension and suspense in that movie was downright gripping, and the acting and dialogue are both superb. Just an all-around great movie.

Good ones.

Men are fortunate in that, on average, they seem to age better than women from a purely physical perspective. In the cases of these actors, it probably doesn't hurt that most if not all of them are very rich.

Quote from: MightyGiants on July 08, 2021, 01:06:55 PM
They finally officially changed operations from rescue to recovery.   In my opinion, they should have made this switch a bit sooner.   I think they were giving the relatives of the victims false hope.  Plus, in rescue you might take risks that you simply wouldn't take with recovery

I agree and have thought this myself. Without water you're looking at maybe a three day window, and I bet it's less that that in the South Florida heat. I suspect it dragged on for as long as it did due to the immense pressure from above to be seen to be doing absolutely everything possible to rescue any possible survivors, including running the effort much longer than they otherwise might with less spotlight on them.

That's not a good reason of course, but I suspect it was the reason.

Maybe they tacitly conduted operations in a way that didn't put the responders at quite as much personal risk as they would be if it were a true all-out effort.

Quote from: uconnjack8 on July 06, 2021, 09:00:32 AM
I believe the measurement is from when vaccinations were deployed.

That's more interesting then. Needless to say I knew it was a high number. 99.5% is higher than I would have guessed though.

Quote from: uconnjack8 on July 06, 2021, 07:41:54 AM
Trying to find where I heard this, but I thought it was relevant to the conversation:

99.5% of Covid related deaths right now are in unvaccinated people.

That percentage is likely to decrease over time, since a huge number of the total deaths occurred when there were no vaccinations available and also before people were taking lots of precautions and before doctors/hospitals fully understood the disease.

No doubt though that if you're fully vaccinated your chances of dying from this are very low. They're not zero, but they're low enough that you should be able to feel a lot more comfortable in day to day life then prior to receiving the vaccine.