Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

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Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 07-26-2019, 07:08 PM:

CINEMA: B&B Ankeny 12 & B-Roll Bowling, Ankeny, IA
AUDITORIUM: 7
PRESENTATION: B&B Recline-o-Vision with butt warmers and Mystery Meat Digital
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: None [Cool]

RATING: Two and one half stars (out of four)

THE PLOT: Don't cry in front of the Mexicans. Wackiness ensues.

Rick Dalton's (Leonardo DiCaprio) career is sinking like the Titanic. He drinks to cope and hangs out with his stunt double Cliff (Brad Pitt) who also acts as a personal assistant and driver to Dalton. We watch his career wind down shooting a couple of guest roles and spaghetti westerns before the side plot of the Manson family comes to its bloody climax (Dalton lives next door to Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate) in a way that only Tarantino could get away with. It's the best scene in the movie.

The problem here is this...There are great movies you can watch over and over again. There are great albums you can listen to again and again. Absolute classics. But hanging around watching them be created would for most people be like watching paint dry, and a lot of this movie feels like you're watching the creative process instead of the actual movie.

It's interesting at points, it has lots of very pretty women and things to look at, and a lot of interesting characters. But none of the supporting characters really get a chance to be showcased, and the whole thing just isn't as clever as you'd expect from Tarantino.

Posted by Terry Monohan (Member # 8285) on 07-29-2019, 03:25 PM:

We enjoyed Tarantino's new movie very much. A little long in places but so much to see around Hollywood in 1969.

We are lucky in San Francisco as 'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood' is being shown in 70mm, 35mm film along with DCP formats. I plan on seeing the movie in all 3 formats even 35mm mono at the 4-Star Theatre. Many if not most of the 70mm screenings at the Drafthouse New Mission Theatre are sold out.

Like many of Tarantino's past movies he always has a wide scope screen fake logo at the top. This movie needed a big fanfare for TechniScope®, ShawScope® or something else but It did not happen after the Columbia lady came on. The main title came on at the end I think.

To bad more outtakes were not shown on the credits, just one commercial B&W type. Maybe on the Blu Ray release they will have some blooper edits not shown on the main feature.

I enjoyed all the old 1969 KHJ radio commercials and TV shows they had all during the movie. Someone did their research from that time of Hollywood radio & TV spots.

After filming in 35mm film for 4 nights in Hollywood with all the re done set up theatre neon marquess they only showed a few seconds of drive by footage on the final movie. Even the famous Cinerama® Dome & Vogue Theatres got short changed and they are even on the great one sheet poster.

If you are into Hollywood go check out this movie, you will like It. The SF newspapers gave It a rave review.

I always think of ways I'd re do a movie or add a segment like to showcase more of the short lived old Hollywood movie cinemas.
Have Brad Pitt go up to the boxoffice with the neon marquee flashing of the Pussy Cat Theatre and check out the posters of the girls and someone sees him about to go inside and then he leaves or when he is on the roof with the TV antenna have 'Sharon Tate' come over from next door and have more of a speaking part and offer him some beer under the LA heat!

The ending was very different and very exciting, everyone at the New Mission in SF stayed fixed on the screen!

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 07-29-2019, 04:34 PM:

12:50 matinee at Cinemark 17 in Springfield.

tt’s nearly sold out. The only desirable unsold seats are H1 and H7. I asked for H1 but got a ticket for H7. Fine, whatever.

Trailers are running, theater is dark. Apparently multiple people are not in their assigned seats. My ticket says H7 but there's a woman sitting in H7 and she insists it’s her seat. I take H6. Someone claims it. I know H1 was unsold when I bought my ticket but someone is sitting in H1.

I move down to basement Row C. Someone claims it.

I’m not sitting in Row A. I’m done. Got a refund.

What good is assigned seating if everyone ignores it? No wonder movie attendance is in decline.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 07-29-2019, 05:46 PM:

Assigned seating or Reserved Seat policy is a big joke and I have always disliked it ever since I was made to sit on the side when there were many unsold seats in the centre of a theatre. I moved and got a better seat after the movie started but all of the hassle of reserved seating was unnessary if there was a first come first served seating policy like it always was every since I have being going to movie theatres.

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 07-30-2019, 07:33 PM:

Selling assigned seat tickets is only the first half of this process. The second half is the more expensive and confrontational part as the theatre needs to place an usher in the room to "SEAT BY TICKET" the audience as they arrive.

This also includes removing self seated patrons that have erroneously taken another's seat but refuse to move.

What sounds like a great idea is also a real pain when done right.

Open seating for movies and reserved seating for everything else.
Movies require 3 ushers max while reserved seating requires 10 minimum. The house seats 1,750.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 08-01-2019, 05:06 PM:

quote: David Stambaugh
What good is assigned seating if everyone ignores it? No wonder movie attendance is in decline.

It happened to me before, that there were some people unwilling to move in the seats which I clearly had reserved. Until now I've been able to successfully resolve the case by calling someone from the floor. It's not like I like to make a scene, but I don't want to be the guy playing musical chairs because someone else claimed my seats as theirs.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 08-02-2019, 11:25 AM:

I always arrive at the movie theater early, at least 20-30 minutes before the show time. I do that regardless if I bought reserved seat tickets or tickets with a show with open, first come first serve seating.

I do not trust reserved seating systems to actually reserve the seat. Theater staff is minimal in a lot of theaters, even during peak times in some cases. If I procrastinate and enter the theater immediately before showtime or while the pre-show is already running odds are high my seats will be taken by others. And then a confrontation is going to take place.

If I pay between $15-$20 per ticket to watch a movie in something like a Dolby Cinema house I expect to watch the show in the seats I reserved. I will not accept moving to seats way off to the freaking outer edges of the auditorium. I'm very particular about seating choices. If I find people sitting in the seats I reserved I will ask them to move to the seat numbers printed on their tickets. If they refuse I'll get management involved. If management refuses to deal with it and suggests I sit somewhere else I'll demand a full refund on the tickets as well as any drinks or snacks purchased in the lobby. I'm not going to consume an overpriced drink and bag of popcorn in the theater lobby or the parking lot.

But I don't want to go through all that crap. The best way to avoid that situation is get to the theater early. There's lots of times Cynthia and I will be the first ones there. We just relax and enjoy each other's company in a quiet, air conditioned auditorium until the show starts.

So many people like dragging their feet, arriving to theaters "fashionably late." I believe 100% that reserved seating encourages this behavior. There's nothing fashionable about stumbling over other people while trying to find a theater seat in a dark auditorium after the movie has started. Still see it all the time though.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 08-14-2019, 08:44 PM:

back to the movie itself, it took me awhile to get used to the patchwork narrative, but once it got into it's stride I thought Tarantino's scriptwriting and characters started to breathe. I think the MPAA must have fallen asleep during the last fifteen minutes, that violence was explicit and ultra-nasty.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 08-29-2019, 12:43 PM:

This is a movie that Tarantino made for himself since he's so into old Hollywood.

It's interesting to see and anyone who lives in or is familiar with Los Angeles will probably get more out of it than someone like me.

It's not a great movie but I wasn't bored even though it was so long so I guess that's a good sign. There's interesting stuff to see in the backgrounds even when there's nothing in particular going on action-wise.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-29-2019, 03:16 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
So many people like dragging their feet, arriving to theaters "fashionably late." I believe 100% that reserved seating encourages this behavior. There's nothing fashionable about stumbling over other people while trying to find a theater seat in a dark auditorium after the movie has started.

Yeah, and then griping about what a pain in the ass it is to go to movies, when most of the "pain" is of their own making.

I doubt we'll play this movie, in fact I don't think we've ever played a Tarantino film here... they just don't go over in small towns.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 08-29-2019, 04:11 PM:

Really? Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained both did a really big business when I played them here.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 09-05-2019, 01:47 AM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
I doubt we'll play this movie, in fact I don't think we've ever played a Tarantino film here... they just don't go over in small towns.

I'm obviously not running the show at your place, but I somehow think you should at least play it for a week if you can get that arranged and if you haven't done already.

I remember H8 only drawing only mediocre crowds, but this one has been a sell-out around here for a few weeks. In my hometown, it was shown in the big multiplex on 3 screens AND on two screens in the art-house across the street. It doesn't happen very often they share programming, but also the art house had sell-out crowds for about a week and had to turn people down.

I don't know why this movie draws bigger crowds than H8 or Django, but I guess people were put off a little by the Wild West theme. It seems to play to some kind of nostalgic feelings of the Hollywood of yesteryear, which goes beyond the standard die-hard Tarantino crowd. Maybe people that usually are scared off by violence, think this movie has none, since there is very little in the trailer... well, they're in for a treat..

The movie itself may not be Tarantino's best work, but is still pretty enjoyable, despite its length.

The narrative really needs some time to build and you miss a bit of the otherwise witty Tarantino dialog to get you through it.

The ending gave me some double feelings. Both hilarious and a high dose of melancholy...

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 09-05-2019, 02:04 AM:

It's nothing close to selling out here but it's in the higher end of the average attendance that I get here for most non-blockbuster type movies.

Everyone who comes to see it says what a great movie it is on their way out, too.

I have been going into the auditorium when the credits start every night and announcing that the movie isn't over yet so everyone doesn't get up and leave and miss the cigarette commercial. I've had several people express their appreciation for having done that, too.

Posted by Terry Monohan (Member # 8285) on 09-13-2019, 07:59 AM:

Frank glad you are doing the announcement on the credits. Of all things they needed to start the extra commercial early at the start not way in when people have left.

They also needed to have a few out takes also on the ending credits. For such a long movie the credits did not last that long.

Maybe the Blu Ray/ DVD version coming soon will have more fun out takes that the credits in the cinema did not show and most people missed.

I have seen this movie 6 times in the last month in all formats in the SF Bay Area 35mm, 70mm & DCP. I find things I missed each time I watch It and know the best time to hit the bathroom. Love to go with movie friends that are watching It for the first time!

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 09-13-2019, 08:07 PM:

I saw the film 4 times. I obviously enjoyed it a lot. BUT, even though I know it is a Once Upon a Time story, there were some inconsistencies when t came to accurately capturing what Hollywood looked like. In the February sequence, we see a Hollywood Pussycat Theatre on the Hollywood Blvd. But Pacific's View (New View) would not become one for another few years. The Vine Theatre WAS showing Romeo and Juliet, though. The shots of the Vogue went by to quickly to see, however. In Westwood, though, the Bruin was showing The Wrecking Crew. At that time in history, the Bruin was a prestige first-run exclusive house, and The Wrecking Crew was dumped in a very wide city release. It didn't play Westwood at all. The Bruin was actually playing The Magus at the time. Across the street, the Village is showing The Pendulum. Actually it was playing the last week's exclusive engagement of The Stalking Moon, to be replaced by Joanna, a small billboard we do see in the parking lot that Tate parks in near the theatre.

Later, in the August section, Romeo and Juliet is still playing at the Vine theatre in its 8th month. It was still playing there, but in its 10th month, since it had opened in October 1968. Toys in the Attic was shown on the Pantages marquee, where the film had played its exclusive run, BUT in February, not in August (and a tv commercial for it was shown in the February segment during a Mannix program, but it must have been a local cut-in. AIP would not have been making national TV ad placements at the time. And The Night They Raided Minsky's was shown on the Vogue's marquee. Again, the Vogue HAD run this film, but it had ended the exclusive engagement in February, not in August. THen there is a billboard at the restaurant for the movie Candy. Maybe, but billboards are expensive there, and Candy had opened the previous December for an exclusive run, then went through the selected theatre run, and then the citywide run before probably showing up as a second feature here and there. Doubtful the billboard would still be up at that point. At least they got the Cinerama Dome correct. they were indeed playing Krakatoa East of Java. 2001: a Space Odyssey was still playing at the Warner Cinerama (Hollywood Pacific), but of course the Dome is more interesting in its cinematic look.

Also, in an interview with a friend of Tate's, she said Tate would have never gone to a party at the Playboy mansion. This is something that is provable. The mansion wasn't bought by Hefner/Playboy Enterprises until 1971.

This is all just for fun, Im not ripping the movie because of this.