I just saw Sunshine and I didn't like it at all. The latter 20 or so minutes is absolutely disastrous. I'm not sure what the writer and director were thinking. Beau and I put on the commentary because we wanted some explanation and his commentary was so bad that we turned it off in disgust.

The director also chuckled at the extreme physical discomfort his actors experienced during certain scenes, and that didn't sit right with me. I'm hoping he intended his chuckles without malice, but I didn't like it.

It was very enlightening about Chris Evans, a nice glimpse of the mostly wasted Michelle Yeoh, and lovely face time with Cillian Murphy.

Yeoh was criminally wasted. I mean really. Why bother to cast her?

Hahaha! There is going to be a movie about Margaret Keane - or the painter of those big-eyed children.

There's already a movie about Thomas Kinkade coming out - - what other schlocky artist's life will be next?

Now I'm curious what it was that drove Matt TBF from the theater when he saw it.

I'm sure it factored in that I didn't feel good that day. But the prospect of listening to Cillian Murphy hyperventilate in a spacesuit for another 20 minutes was just too much for me to take, and I decided that I'd rather drive home and read for the rest of the afternoon.

The director also chuckled at the extreme physical discomfort his actors experienced during certain scenes, and that didn't sit right with me. I'm hoping he intended his chuckles without malice, but I didn't like it.

Directors giggling about putting actors through physical discomfort isn't anything unusual, and most everyone means and takes it in good fun (though there's certainly exceptions). You should hear Sam Raimi giggle about the joys of abusing Bruce Campbell some time.

That being said, nothing about it pinged me as being malicious at all, and in the web diaries you can watch Chris Evans talk about being abused for those scenes mostly fondly, so I don't think Boyle was being mean or abusive about it.

Serial:

But yes, the under use of Michelle Yeoh was criminal.

what other schlocky artist's life will be next?

Me, I'm hoping for the torments and nameless horrors that inspired the creator of Precious Moments.

Yes, that would be perfect.

Then - you could do a Schlock!Artist Trilogy event.

Directors giggling about putting actors through physical discomfort isn't anything unusual, and most everyone means and takes it in good fun (though there's certainly exceptions)

The exceptions include William Friedkin, who comes across as the biggest asshole on the planet, and one not overly concerned with the safety of his actors, either. I think he suffers, generally, from a lack of thinking things through, which looks on screen like spontaneity but is actually something more akin to the actors and crew saving him from his own foolishness. On To Live and Die in L.A. he nearly got William Petersen arrested, and the propmaster who made the fake money that was part of the plot did get arrested briefly, by the Treasury Department, because the fake money didn't look fake enough.