Avatar : fire and ash (but mostly a lot of water again)
this was going great for the first two hours, as expected dialogue/plot oscillating between annoyingly stupid (way too much of the white dreadlock kid) and stupidly fun (everything with the evil reincarnated colonel and the evil Na’vi tribe), but movies are made for the visuals and it’s great at that, with some cool new additions to what we’ve already seen in the first two.
however when it’s time for the last act, they decide to just do a big battle on water again, playing out more or less the same as in the last one ? what a waste
when the title was announced it was hard (for me, not for all you non-believers) not to get excited, after the forest and the ocean we would get to see the volcano side of Pandora, but this turned out to be a lie. It’s just more space whales and mostly the same boring protagonists again. The last minutes go very high in terms of kitschy/ridiculousness but I’d stopped caring by then. (I’ll still be there in 29 for the next one of course).
Rehashing like Cameron apparently does with the Avatar movies. I boycotted Titanic because of its irresponsible budget and potential to damage the industry. Everything about the making of that movie sent the wrong message to the industry. I’ve said it a lot but the amount of movies capable of returning a profit on a $200 million budget domestically in movie theaters is astonishingly low. As of today, only 53 movies have hit this mark with only 31 over $450 million. But most movies are targeted to an international audience first these days and the worldwide grosses give far higher justification for the enormous budgets.
Only 4 movies in the top 50 worldwide unadjusted weren’t made in the last 20 years to show much the target has moved. Only 9 of the top 50 domestically unadjusted weren’t made in the last 20 years. All of the top 50 worldwide have made at least 1 billion. AI says between 100-110 movies have made more than $400 million worldwide as of late 2025. That’s bad.
It was rumored at the time that Titanic cost $300 million (official figure lol was $200 million) when big budget movies averaged around $80 million. No movies at that time would even dream to make $600 million domestically (prior to Titanic $300 million was a nearly impossible ask for all but 5 movies unadjusted) and that would just be to break even if that budget number was true. He would have been absolutely dead and buried in the industry had the movie not had the miracle it had. He changed absolutely nothing about the way he spends money since, but audiences keep following. So I guess he’s got that going for him.
If it hadn’t been for the monstrous success of DVD, he would have potentially destroyed the industry with the message Titanic sent to studios which is best described as the ‘maybe it will work for us’ meme when it came to large budgets. It never had before Titanic and I’m sure we can’t count how many high budget failures there are vs. successes even though the charts are looking better for them these days. Good thing China and ctr love movies.
nunnehi watches of Titanic: 0
nunnehi’s sound assistant at the time watches of Titanic in the theater: At least 7
I was negligent in my cinephilic duties by not watching this already. Great movie. Maddening to read that Charles Laughton took this one shot at directing, failed commercially, and the industry basically just went straight to “GTFO, back to acting with you.” And then died before it was reclaimed as a great movie.
Basic synopsis is that Robert Mitchum plays an evil would-be preacher (albeit without any church affiliation and thus doesn’t seem to particularly work as one) who hears his cellmate’s confession about hidden money before the cellmate gets executed by the state, and then he gets released and goes to move in on the guy’s family and hidden fortune.
90 minutes long or so, perpetually available on Tubi and Prime.
4/5, and if anything I’d sooner go up than down with this rating. Really compelling.
Robert Mitchum of the 40s and 50s just absolutely leapt off the screen. He had a very rare combination of charisma, menace, unconventional good looks, a general kind of feeling of drunkenness, and aloofness on screen. It was also hilarious how he would always suck his enormous gut in to make us think he was a bodybuilder. He may have been one of the rare self conscious actors. They always say until you act as if cameras aren’t there you’re not truly an actor.
He had a long career where his looks faded dramatically as well as the drunkenness feeling increasing that I think doesn’t let some audiences appreciate him as much as they should have. They don’t make them like him anymore. I can’t think of a single modern comparison to his style or looks.
His performance in Cape Fear in 1962 was wow. I think Gregory Peck is the only actor I can think of as similar to Mitchum in looks. Mitchum was the hard living version and Peck was the easy living version.
I can’t remember, did you see Out of the Past or is it on your list?
Saw it, wasn’t blown away by it, thought it was fine. Kirk Douglas felt like more the standout than Mitchum even though Mitchum got a lot more screentime.
That’s too bad as wikipedia says this: Out of the Past is considered one of the greatest of all films noir (Roger Ebert quote).
Here’s another great quote from Ebert: There were guns in Out of the Past, but the real hostility came when Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas smoked at each other.
The ever ‘loving’ Pauline Kael probably agreed more closely with you: It’s empty trash, but you do keep watching it.
If it’s the movie I’m thinking of, Douglas was extremely scary in that movie. It’s quite arguable he stole the movie out from under Mitchum in only his third part.
