DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Will This Be "Just Another Movie?" Oppenheimer

My wife and I watch movies. I mean most people do, right? At one time we went to the theater more often but as time has gone by it seems the vast majority of the movies being released simply aren't worth making them "a special occasion" per say. And with streaming you can get newly released movies pretty quickly often times. I mean we all understand when we go to the movies we will get assaulted with high costs at the concession stand and if the movie it truly worth it, we don't mind that. But it just seems as if many of the movies in recent years haven't been worth it.

So that brings me to a movie coming out next week-end, 7/21. When looking at the cast and the story line, we believe this movie many be an exception to that rule. So we're going to risk it. It has been so highly anticipated that while most movies put out a trailer as does this one, this movie's promotion department took it one step further with what they call an "opening look" which is five minutes long. We most likely won't go to see it until Monday or Tuesday of next week but we certainly hope it lives up to its billing.

As a family, we go to the movies quite often and cannot wait for Oppenheimer! Anything directed by Christopher Nolan is pretty great. Nolan is one of the writers as well. He hates CGI and did not use any in this film. Apparently, he went to painstaking efforts to recreate the atomic bomb explosion without using CGI. The cast is outstanding as well.

I fully expect the movie to be up for Best Picture and Nolan to be nominated for Best Director.

It would be great to see this in true IMAX and not the digital IMAX some theaters try to pass off as IMAX.

Fun fact:
In order for the Black & White sections of the movie to be shot in the same quality as the rest of the film, Kodak developed the first ever B&W film stock for Imax.

Risk what?

That aside, I agree. We don't go to movies anymore...at least mostly. The last movie I saw in the theater was the latest Top Gun movie.

Before that...who knows, it had to have been 3-5 years prior, maybe more.

My wife still goes in the afternoons with some girlfriends 1-2 times a month. A movie really has to grip me. As you mentioned, with streaming and pay per view options, I can watch at home. For me it doesn't have to be when released. My screen may not be as big, and my surround system may not be as good, but then I am watching in a den sized room, so they are plenty good. Add in my own chair, the ability to pause on demand, and my own snacks not far away, it's an easy choice for me.

But to your question, this sounds like a movie I might consider doing in the theater. I do like dramas with at least a hint of historical value and accuracy.

I thought I had explained the "risk it" part but I'll go further. These days streaming services get access to movies not that long after they come out. Of course you have to pay a rental fee but it's usually about the cost of two matinee tickets at most. When I take my wife out for date night I want it to be something special. I don't mind paying the ridiculous concession stand prices if they movie is actually good and worth it. Often times these days this isn't the case. So while the risk is small, you do risk paying crazy prices at the concession stand for a mediocre movie you could watch at home in a few months for a fraction of the cost.

That same money could have went towards a much more special date night than that.

You did. To me, it is still a night or afternoon out. Even if the movie sucks, I don't consider that wasted money or time.

As I said, I don't go to movies, but if I do, it is a weekday afternoon matinee. Not being a big movie fan, but I know most theater chains offer a "cheap' matinee. Locally you can get a ticket for 8$ as a sr. That is pretty cheap. What else can you do for 2 hours at $8 per person other than go sit in a library or park bench?

I guess we just see it differently. I usually spend 30 to 40 bucks just at the concession stand. So all tolled I spend about 60 bucks. Not a lot of money but I would rather put that money towards something better than "seeing a movie that sucks".

I thought the Fat Man and Little Boy movie was pretty good,, but this one sounds even better.

I understand. Popcorn was 50% on the special day. Any candy, my wife sticks some in a zip lock.

No doubt it isn't like going to the matinee with my sister when I was a kid. Mom would give me $1. Fifty cents for the 2 of us to get in and a quarter each for goodiea. A quarter would buy a box of popcorn, candy bar, and a small coke.

I agree. I like historical dramas the best. Drama in general. It seems most movies are comic book crap. I don't like batman, Ironman stuff. I dislike fantasy sci-fi even more. I went to the 1st starwars movie, fell asleep early on and never saw another. My wife convinced me to see lord of the Rings....a long ass boring movie. Back in the day my son wanted to see Transformers one afternoon while we were shopping around. Man, that was like being locked in a closet with a 3 year old who was banging on kitchen pots and pans with a wooden spoon for 2 hours.

I couldn't even sleep in that one. As soon as I would nod off, something would transform.

I love the movies but its gotten so expensive. I can spend the same amount of money and go to an Atlanta United match at the stadium. Which I am doing today. Plus food is cheaper at the stadium. 2 buck hotdog, 2 buck popcorn and some beers and Im good.

I tend to agree with this. The $30M-$60M budget to make a drama is an endangered species. I was watching the movie 'The Ice Storm' a few weeks back and thought, "this movie would absolutely not get made today." It would bomb in the theater. People want to stay home and stream. Myself, I enjoy the theater experience.

The most recent movies we saw in the theater were, 'Asteroid City', 'Sisu' (loved this movie) and 'Air'. 'Air' in the theater was great. It reminded me of a time when 90% of the movies being released to theater were not a $250M budget super hero movie.

A24 is an independent studio that allows directors to create some great movies that larger studios would not touch.

I agree. I like a good western as well. Casablanca...best movie ever.

Christopher Nolan reacts to fans who assumed he detonated an atomic bomb on the set of 'Oppenheimer'

Director Christopher Nolan sort of cleared the air regarding speculation that he detonated an actual atomic bomb on the set of his new film "Oppenheimer."

"It's flattering that people would think I would be capable of something as extreme as that on the one hand, but it's also a little bit scary," Nolan told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published on Friday and conducted prior to the start of the actors' strike.

Nolan, who famously prefers practical effects and analog methods over CGI, didn't elaborate on how exactly the explosion imagery was created for the film. However, he confirmed to THR and Collider that there are no CGI shots in "Oppenheimer."

"CG inherently is quite comfortable to look at," Nolan told THR. "It's safe, anodyne. And what I said to [visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson] on 'Oppenheimer' is, 'This can't be safe. It can't be comfortable to look at it. It has to have bite. It's got to be beautiful and threatening in equal measure.'"

"Oppenheimer," directed and written by Nolan, is based on Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin's Pulitzer Prize-winning book "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer."

The star-studded movie centers on American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy), who oversaw the invention of the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project in the 1940s.

Nolan told THR that he became interested in making a film about the intersection of science and politics after Robert Pattinson, the star of his 2020 film "Tenet," gifted him a collection of Oppenheimer's speeches.

"I started to get very excited about, rather than using it as an analogy in a science fiction sense, telling the actual reality of the story, really trying to be there, to give people the experience of what it would have been like to be Oppenheimer in those moments," he said.

Nolan previously told Total Film that recreating the Trinity test, the world's first nuclear weapon detonation, sans CGI was "a huge challenge to take on."

The director said that he and Jackson started working together "early on" to figure out "how we could do a lot of the visual elements of the film practically, from representing quantum dynamics and quantum physics to the Trinity test itself, to recreating, with my team, Los Alamos up on a mesa in New Mexico in extraordinary weather."

In a behind-the-scenes featurette posted by Universal Pictures on Monday, Nolan said that the crew did "a lot of experimentation" and "came up with a lot of interesting analog methods of how to approach this, all of which was leading to the Trinity test, which had to feel nightmarish and terrifying in a way that computer graphics never really is."

"What we were able to get into the finished film, to me, is extraordinarily beautiful but also very frightening," he said.

"Oppenheimer" hits theaters Friday, July 21.

https://www.insider.com/oppenheimer...S1Hx7EasDBKWErLgGbodPD5HEDmK7_VgkXWsM9qk

I haven't seen a movie in a theater since before Covid, and I'm not sure when it will happen again. Too expensive and inconvenient. Plus, the Marvel/super hero trend is a snooze fest to me

I agree. I have been to one movie since that Covid debacle....the Top Gun movie.

I'll pick a movie every 5-6 years to see on the big screen.

If I was going to see a movie next week, it would probably be the Mission Impossible movie. It looks like it could be good, but it is another serial movie. I can wait. Sometimes a follow-up movie is good, but how many James Bond or Rocky movies does one need to see? At least paying a high price to see. It's like the old Gene Autry movies, you knew Gene was going to ride off, singing after saving the day. How could it end any other way? You couldn't make another, and you damn sure couldn't kill off Gene Autry.

In the "Cowboys", Bruce Dern killed John Wayne. It almost killed Derns career. Seriously, Dern received death threats.

I don't actually disagree. I have been to the theater a few times since Covid due to there being a movie my wife wanted to see. The only super hero movies we both like are the Deadpool movies. As a general rule we're not super hero fans.

But for me this movie has the potential to be a totally different animal. Something with some historical significance with what I consider to be a quality cast. Not just another superficial offering from Hollywood. But for anyone considering going to the theater to see it, it has a three hour run time.

Good topic.

My blushing bride (of almost 40 years) and I haven't been to a "drive in" and/or "movie theatre" in yeeeeears.

With all of the entertainment options today, etc, etc......

I agree with you guys about the type of movie I'm inclined to see. I'd much prefer to see a more historically based movie than anything else

I went to the movies and watched "The Sound of Freedom" What a great movie. Besides that, I have not been to the movies in years. I will probably wait until streaming for Oppenheimer. I just don't trust anything Hollywood puts out anymore.

I don't know if I would say trust, but they sure do get political. Take the Oscars. What a load of crap that has become. They give out their awards to fit the political agenda of the voters.

Top Gun Maverick should have won Best Picture. They don't care about people walking out of theaters saying "WOW". They just do their typical BS crap.

I didn't like Will Smith smacking Rock at the Oscars for a joke made, but would be happy if someone hired him to smack around some of the people who actually vote of some of the stuff.

The academy usually got it right, or close enough in the past, but now, it's a joke. Some years ago there was uprise because black actors didn't get awards. The next year, it was mainly black actors. Then it was Asians, then they got the awards. I don't have a problem, and may even agree with some of the awards, but it's funny how all that worked out.

Hollywood is on strike now. It wouldn't bother me is they just stayed on strike.

I know this will go against the grain but… Maverick was an awful movie. Predictable. Trope filled. It relied heavily on people’s affection for the first movie. It was well shot, I’ll give it that, but it really was a bad movie besides the cinematography.

What is it about a movie that you "have to trust"? It's only entertainment for Christ's sake. Does absolutely everything have to be political?

I have usually not understood which movies won the academy awards. It seems to revolve more around what is "artsy" than what people actually like. And then there's those damned Blacks and Asians. Am I right? j/k

I guess it depends on why you go to movies.

I go for entertainment.

If you go for a social message, then it isn't your kind of movie.

I agree. One could pretty much predict the story line.

You are right unless you are serious about the blacks and Asian comment.

My only point is many complained and then the next year it seemed to be a sweep. I don't begrudge the awards. I just see it as more than a simple coincidence.

No I wasn't serious. That's why I put the j/k (just kidding) after that part of my comment. I got what you were saying. You believe, and I agree with you, that the academy bows to social pressure in who gets the awards rather than who actually deserves the awards.


As I said, I get it and agree. For several years now not only did movies I felt that deserved the award not win, they weren't even nominated. And many of the winners weren't even movies I cared to see.

And sadly that's why I plan to go see it at the theater. As I stated before, once in a while there's a film my wife wants to go see and for the most part they're not so bad that I'm willing to tell her no. I try to say no to her as little as possible for obvious reasons to anyone who is or has ever been married. She's a wonderful woman and she is very reasonable. I would do anything within my power for her.

But as far as myself, this is the only movie I know of that has come out in a long time and for the foreseeable that I truly believe the theater experience would enhance on a level that should make it worth it.

My wife and I went to see it yesterday afternoon. We loved it. It told the story from different perspectives. How much the military approach to this verses the scientific approach was conflicted. How Oppenheimer himself was conflicted. Not only the story of the making of the bomb but events in Oppenheimer's life long after the bomb had been deployed. The story of the treachery Oppenheimer endured by someone he would have least expected it from. I haven't see a movie in years I would recommend people go to the theater to see but this is certainly one of them. It was well put together, well told, well written and well acted IMO.

I'm certainly not qualified to review movies but that was my personal opinion of it. Actually when it comes to movie reviews by professionals I tend to often times disagree with them. lol

I'm guessing I'm just not Hollywood enough to be interested and entertained by many of the things they are. Just a hunch though.

Thanks, and glad your investment worked out.

My wife went with a girlfriend a few days ago, and she said much the same as you. As for me, I can wait to see it here at the house.

And hey that's great. But I will say with the bomb explosion and some other things contained in the movie I felt it was worth going to the theater for. I have a very large TV with a decent sound system but still felt the difference was worth it. To each their own for sure.