Documentary Thread #2

[Kfogg1991 198]

23 hours ago, Magnum Milano said:

 

Class Action Park (2020)

I would never have known about this if it wasn't for @Egg Shen's post looking for a copy.  The documentary traces the history of Action Park, based in Vernon, NC, which was the brainchild of Gene Mulvihill.  It was without question of its time, primarily a water park marketed on anything goes and a place where there are no rules, there is not a chance it would pass any of the health and safety measures if it was opening in 2020.  The rides were created out of Gene’s mind or by designers who had been turned away by the likes of Disney World.  And its safe to say every one of them was an accident waiting to happen.  Numerous people would get injured on a daily basis, and the injuries were seen almost as a badge of honour, and then there was a fatality.  It’s all a bit jokey until you here from Esther Larsson, the mother of Gary, the first person to die at the Park.  Mulvihill, who had some shady practices to say the least, even tried to cover that up by lying about the details.  Other deaths followed (two drownings and an electrocution) and as times changes, the “World’s Most Dangerous Water Park” shut up shop for good in 1996.  Comedian Chris Gethard, one of the talking heads, is especially annoying.

Johnny knoxville made a jackass stunt style film which was a biopic on action park. it was funny and knoxville walked out with some major serious injuries but the park was a nightmare/accident waiting to happen and often it did. I'm downloading this one to watch tonight i expect it to be fascinating 

[Magnum Milano 852]

Icarus (2017)

Amateur cyclist Bryan Fogel sets out to prove how inefficient the current system to test athletes for the use of performance enhancing drugs is.  A contact puts him in touch with the Director of the Russian National Anti-Doping Laboratory, Grigory Rodchenko, who agrees to help and advise him on how to basically beat the system.  Ultimately Fogel dopes for six months, although ends up doing worse in the race (the Haute Route) than when he was clean, however in the run up to the race a German documentary airs that talks about reports of Russian state sponsored doping.  Things escalate and due to his position, Rodchenko is implicated and fears for his life.  Fears that are compounded when, having already left for the U.S., Nikita Kamaev, the head of Russia’s Anti-Doping authority, suddenly dies of a ‘heart attack’.  Thinking it’s better to come clean, Rodchenko divulges everything to the New York Times and the IOC, explaining that there is state sponsored doping that goes all the way up to Putin and his evidence (including all sorts of documents) and WADA’s further investigation leads to Russia’s Olympic ban.  Russia continues to deny these reports while Rodchenko remains in U.S. protective custody, officials believing there is a credible threat to his life.

Of all the Government's, outside of North Korea, Russia is the other that would be top of my list to not want to cross!

 

[Magnum Milano 852]

Knuckleball! (2012)

The knuckleball is seen as a gimmick delivery, a fluke, a delivery where, due to the grip, you don’t know what it’s going to do from one pitch to the next.  It also doesn’t appear to be trusted by coaches and no-one goes in wanting to be a “knuckleballer”, it’s something you turn when it looks like your career is over to prolong it.  There haven’t been many knuckleballers and as a result there’s a close fraternity of those who made a career out of it, the previous generations happy to pass on tips to the next.  The documentary primarily concentrates on the careers of the only knuckleball pitchers currently in MLB, Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey, although we hear plenty from former practitioners like Phil Niekro (who pitched until the age of 48 - the slower knuckleball puts less stress on the shoulder) and Charlie Hough.  Wakefield is trying to reach the 200 wins career milestone, which he eventually does, but it was clearly a weight around his neck.  With his subsequent retirement at the end of the season it is left to Dickey to carry the baton on. 

I think they wrung every drop out of the knuckleball as possible.  I don't have an interest in Baseball but the 30 for 30 documentaries have shown even when it's sports I couldn't care about, more often than not I enjoy the stories that are being told.  That said this was probably thirty minutes too long as my attention did start to wain.

[Magnum Milano 852]

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Edited September 4, 2020 by Magnum Milano

[wordsfromlee 3,006]

Wouldn’t it have been better to actually write what you thought of the documentary rather than the entire plot of the show in quite some detail?

[Magnum Milano 852]

Just now, wordsfromlee said:

Wouldn’t it have been better to actually write what you thought of the documentary rather than the entire plot of the show in quite some detail?

Considering I read about the documentary in this very thread, where it has already been talked about plenty, I didn't think it would be that much of an issue.

I'll delete the post (which also contains my thoughts) just for you.

[wordsfromlee 3,006]

15 minutes ago, Magnum Milano said:

Considering I read about the documentary in this very thread, where it has already been talked about plenty, I didn't think it would be that much of an issue.

I'll delete the post (which also contains my thoughts) just for you.

That was kind of the point I was making. I’d much rather read your opinions and thoughts on it which was only one line at the end rather than the entire plot which I could do on Wikipedia or something. 
 

There was no need to delete it. I was just asking to hear more of your take on it rather than your plot synopsis. 

[SaitoRyo 431]

I watched Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau (2014) last night (available with Prime). 

It's not the most polished documentary out there but it's really interesting because they have some incredible behind-the-scenes footage and the story itself is just batshit insane. 

Most of the main (living) players are interviewed and it's a really easy 90 or so minutes to get through. I'd read about the production problems for years but had no idea just how far out of control things had gotten and there's some great insight as to why here. 

I felt quite bad for Stanley at the end, even though he wasn't entirely innocent and clearly in over his head with the size of the film and the egos attached. 

It made me want to re-watch Hardware and finally get watching Dust Devil, so hey ho. 

Has anyone seen his latest - Color Out of Space - by any chance? 

[Devon Malcolm 13,224]

8 minutes ago, SaitoRyo said:

Has anyone seen his latest - Color Out of Space - by any chance? 

It's really good until Stanley lets Cage do his usual schtick in the final third. I hated Dust Devil and Hardware though, so it was a huge improvement on those.

[SaitoRyo 431]

17 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

It's really good until Stanley lets Cage do his usual schtick in the final third. I hated Dust Devil and Hardware though, so it was a huge improvement on those.

I haven't seen Hardware for years and years. I remember being fascinated by it due to pictures I saw of it in Fear magazine when I was young. 

Shame about Color Out of Space, but you always run that risk when you employ the great Nic Cage, I suppose. 

[Devon Malcolm 13,224]

1 minute ago, SaitoRyo said:

Shame about Color Out of Space, but you always run that risk when you employ the great Nic Cage, I suppose. 

It's still worth seeing, the first two-thirds are great and the cast, including Cage, are really good until Stanley lets him off the lead.

[Cod Eye 862]

53 minutes ago, SaitoRyo said:

I watched Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau (2014) last night (available with Prime). 

It's not the most polished documentary out there but it's really interesting because they have some incredible behind-the-scenes footage and the story itself is just batshit insane. 

Most of the main (living) players are interviewed and it's a really easy 90 or so minutes to get through. I'd read about the production problems for years but had no idea just how far out of control things had gotten and there's some great insight as to why here. 

I felt quite bad for Stanley at the end, even though he wasn't entirely innocent and clearly in over his head with the size of the film and the egos attached. 

It made me want to re-watch Hardware and finally get watching Dust Devil, so hey ho. 

Has anyone seen his latest - Color Out of Space - by any chance? 

I met Richard Stanley at a little film fest I helped the owners with that had a 35mm print of Hardware showing and Stanley in attendance. He's the single strangest bloke I've ever met in my life. He signed a poster for me(that I had a hand in creating) and my first name is spelt "Kriss", so when he signed the dedication to me, he wrote the double S like the symbol for the "SS" and sat laughing to himself about it for about an hour afterwards...

[BomberPat 7,297]

9 minutes ago, Cod Eye said:

 my first name is spelt "Kriss", so when he signed the dedication to me, he wrote the double S like the symbol for the "SS" and sat laughing to himself about it for about an hour afterwards...

I'm going to guess that - hopefully - he meant this as a reference to KISS.

I love Lost Soul, though. It just piles madness on madness on madness, most of it from Stanley. Every "making of" documentary has its stories about how the weather or egos or some unforeseen circumstance made the movie so difficult to make and it almost didn't happen, but this is the only one that has, "I paid a sorcerer to magically protect the film, but then all his bones melted".

[Cod Eye 862]

11 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I'm going to guess that - hopefully - he meant this as a reference to KISS.

I love Lost Soul, though. It just piles madness on madness on madness, most of it from Stanley. Every "making of" documentary has its stories about how the weather or egos or some unforeseen circumstance made the movie so difficult to make and it almost didn't happen, but this is the only one that has, "I paid a sorcerer to magically protect the film, but then all his bones melted".

Nope, he meant the "SS" as in the Schutzstaffel. Did the "comedy" german accent while explaining it and everything! He did it because my mate and I have a bit of a joke where I have to spell my name out for everyone(obviously, as it's a fucking strange spelling!), and if he's there he will always say "don't forget the SS, he's very touchy if you miss the SS", and it tickled him that he wrote it like the "SS" logo.

[Devon Malcolm 13,224]

@Loki can you confirm that your mate Richard Stanley isn't a Nazi, thanks.