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Jon Hamm revives 'Fletch'


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4 hours ago, Deej said:

This movie isn't for us. It's for the young morons who don't know of anything but what has been released in the past 10 years. We have a bunch of 21 year olds at the office. None of them knew who the Beastie Boys were. 

Nah, it’s for us. 21 year olds won’t give two shits about some investigator movie with a 50 year old lead. They wanna see avengers part 12. 

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I know that the knee-jerk reaction is to not like "re-makes" but has anyone read the Fletch books?

I haven't; and, from what I understand the original films were *very* loosely based on the books, because the books were really more straight-forward detective stories instead of the more farcical versions that the movies where because it was mostly just Chevy Chase being Chevy Chase... which is fine... I celebrate 1980s Chevy Chase as much as anyone...

But I do think it's not a terrible idea if they want to do something more faithful to the books, which is what I understand they are trying to do... but yeah the trailer seems like they are just trying to re-create the originals or at least sell the film that way, which is probably a very bad idea if it's a different animal than the originals.

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1 minute ago, oSuJeff97 said:

I know that the knee-jerk reaction is to not like "re-makes" but has anyone read the Fletch books?

I haven't; and, from what I understand the original films were *very* loosely based on the books, because the books were really more straight-forward detective stories instead of the more farcical versions that the movies where because it was mostly just Chevy Chase being Chevy Chase... which is fine... I celebrate 1980s Chevy Chase as much as anyone...

But I do think it's not a terrible idea if they want to do something more faithful to the books, which is what I understand they are trying to do... but yeah the trailer seems like they are just trying to re-create the originals or at least sell the film that way, which is probably a very bad idea if it's a different animal than the originals.

I'll give an outside chance that the movie is trying to be more like the books but that the marketing department that made the trailer is just trying to redo the Chevy Chase movie.

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2 minutes ago, Viper said:

I'll give an outside chance that the movie is trying to be more like the books but that the marketing department that made the trailer is just trying to redo the Chevy Chase movie.

Yes exactly. 

And if so, that's a terrible, awful, horrible idea. 

 

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1 hour ago, oSuJeff97 said:

I know that the knee-jerk reaction is to not like "re-makes" but has anyone read the Fletch books?

I haven't; and, from what I understand the original films were *very* loosely based on the books, because the books were really more straight-forward detective stories instead of the more farcical versions that the movies where because it was mostly just Chevy Chase being Chevy Chase... which is fine... I celebrate 1980s Chevy Chase as much as anyone...

But I do think it's not a terrible idea if they want to do something more faithful to the books, which is what I understand they are trying to do... but yeah the trailer seems like they are just trying to re-create the originals or at least sell the film that way, which is probably a very bad idea if it's a different animal than the originals.

I, without a doubt, will catch this on Netflix, Prime, or whatever, and probably will thoroughly enjoy it.  The Vacation reboot sounded like a terrible idea too, but I eventually gave it a chance, and not only is it perfectly fine existing along side the Chevy Chase perfection that are the original Vacation movies, it's funny as hell.

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2 hours ago, Viper said:

I'll give an outside chance that the movie is trying to be more like the books but that the marketing department that made the trailer is just trying to redo the Chevy Chase movie.

every now and again an actual novel idea for a movie will come out and be cool and people won't know how to sell it in ads, so they'll try to make it look like whatever came before it or they'll try to add spice that look cool in 30 seconds even though it isn't representative of 2 hours.  no country for old men, which captured the slow west texas aesthetic, had these action packed die hard previews.  big lebowski had all these great lines, but they are only great because of the overall feel of the movie that they exist in, or the knowledge of the character that is saying it, so a trailer for something like that does nothing.

if this movie is any good, it is because there is some background  genius at play that cannot be captured in a two minute bit designed to maximize ticket sales.  i give it 10-1 odds against.

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3 hours ago, dcbc said:

I, without a doubt, will catch this on Netflix, Prime, or whatever, and probably will thoroughly enjoy it.  The Vacation reboot sounded like a terrible idea too, but I eventually gave it a chance, and not only is it perfectly fine existing along side the Chevy Chase perfection that are the original Vacation movies, it's funny as hell.

Yeah but that's a little bit different in that Vacation didn't really have any source material like the Fletch books. They were purely made as a Chevy Chase vehicle.

The Fletch movies were also that, in that they (apparently) more or less disregarded the source material other than the name and a very rough outline.

That's why I was kind of intrigued by the Jon Hamm version... was curious if it would be something different... more akin to like an Elmore Leonard vibe or something. I don't get that vibe from the trailer at all though... like we've said they are basically selling it like the original Fletch but with Jon Hamm instead of Chevy.

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1 hour ago, BehoId, The Underminer! said:

every now and again an actual novel idea for a movie will come out and be cool and people won't know how to sell it in ads, so they'll try to make it look like whatever came before it or they'll try to add spice that look cool in 30 seconds even though it isn't representative of 2 hours.  no country for old men, which captured the slow west texas aesthetic, had these action packed die hard previews.  big lebowski had all these great lines, but they are only great because of the overall feel of the movie that they exist in, or the knowledge of the character that is saying it, so a trailer for something like that does nothing.

if this movie is any good, it is because there is some background  genius at play that cannot be captured in a two minute bit designed to maximize ticket sales.  i give it 10-1 odds against.

Yeah Office Space is the classic example.

They basically had no idea how to sell that movie in a way that captured the vibe of the film so they tried to sell it as a "sitcom-y" "Work sucks!" kind of a thing with not a hint of the actual satire in the film, and thus nobody saw it in the theater and it only got popular via word of mouth once it hit video.

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On 8/28/2022 at 4:09 PM, Deej said:

This movie isn't for us. It's for the young morons who don't know of anything but what has been released in the past 10 years. We have a bunch of 21 year olds at the office. None of them knew who the Beastie Boys were. 

They're not morons*. They just don't care for your stories about dinosaur music and Turner Classic movies, Grandpa. And no one is laughing when you leave the room. They swear.

 

*actual moronic level not measured

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On 8/29/2022 at 2:29 PM, oSuJeff97 said:

Yeah but that's a little bit different in that Vacation didn't really have any source material like the Fletch books. They were purely made as a Chevy Chase vehicle.

Not  entirely accurate

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/read-john-hughes-original-national-811591/

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

The script in the original Fletch was top notch; I think many people attribute the quips to Chevy, but when I read the screenplay, about 80-90% of the famous lines that everyone quotes were already in there for him. He did have some great ad libs that weren't in there (e.g., moon river, John Coctosan), but the script was key to that movie. I could tell from the trailer the script for the new one was shit.  

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I liked it. Hamm was excellent. He didn't have all the pratfalls Chase added and frankly I liked it better that way. 5 stars.

Really enjoyed it as well, especially Hamm’s performance. I thought the overall movie could have been better but if we’re honest so could have the original save for Chevy Chase. Hope there’s future iterations with Hamm.
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The reviews make it seem like it would be worth seeing because it is something different.  They talk about a slow paced, lose stakes mystery, so that sounds a little different than most of what we are exposed to.  I like that someone is trying something different. I'll see it . . .

 

. . . But that 85% rotten tomatoes score seems like it is rounding up.  The following are all reviews that are counted as positive:

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Hamm is charming as hell, which helps overcome some of the film’s more clumsy bits.

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It's an objectively middling movie, but one that seems born to be a pleasant low-key weekend streaming binge

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Genial and unbothered, Confess, Fletch never climbs higher than mere adequacy.

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Confess, Fletch is a film that has all of the pieces it needs to be great, but its short run time and a few baffling creative choices make it feel like it is juggling too many plot threads, too many characters, and too much ambition.

 

Basically, a bunch of people saying 'it's fine' results in this really high score.

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17 minutes ago, BehoId, The Underminer! said:

The reviews make it seem like it would be worth seeing because it is something different.  They talk about a slow paced, lose stakes mystery, so that sounds a little different than most of what we are exposed to.  I like that someone is trying something different. I'll see it . . .

 

. . . But that 85% rotten tomatoes score seems like it is rounding up.  The following are all reviews that are counted as positive:

 

Basically, a bunch of people saying 'it's fine' results in this really high score.

Yep, those reviews are spot on. It's not terrible, but it's not great or all that funny.

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The script is complex. There's a lot of moving pieces and they're hard to track or even figure out. But it's part of the big picture that eventually comes back later when the pieces start fitting together. Oh yeah, remember this thing that made no sense, just kinda disappeared from the story earlier and you forgot about? Here's the payoff. It's a smart film that happens to have humor.

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  • 6 months later...

It can be a bit of a mixed bag but I ultimately really liked it. When it was on its Showtime run, I found myself tuning into large chunks of it. Any scenes with Roy Wood Jr, Slattery or Marcia Gay Harden were great. Not as quick witted as the original but still a very likable movie.

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