McMillions on HBO

[Batutta]

Loved the first two episodes of this docu-series on HBO about the McDonald's Monopoly game being rigged for 12 years. The filmmakers hit the jackpot on this, as the major players involved are all caricatures straight out of central casting. FBI agent Doug Matthews is like a Coen Brothers character. Then there's the gangsters, and their wives, and the 'winners' and all the details of their scam. Fully engrossing and well produced. Even if you don't normally watch documentaries, I highly recommend it. It's that entertaining.

 

[puredrifting]

Wish I wasn't so cheap, I would have HBO. Have had it over the years on and off and every time I pay for it, I turn it off after a month or two because it's just the same stuff over and over again, so repetitive.

 

[markfpv]

Thanks for the recommendation. It's on my list - and hope to get to it tonight. As for the comment of HBO being repetitive .... well, have to disagree a bit. TV, in general, is very repetitive and often derivative. But I find myself watching HBO now more than Netflix & Amazon - and even the back catalogue is great to dive into. I'm cheap as well - but for what I feel is some pretty darn good content - $14.99 a month is worth it.

 

[Paul F]

Wish I wasn't so cheap, I would have HBO. Have had it over the years on and off and every time I pay for it, I turn it off after a month or two because it's just the same stuff over and over again, so repetitive.

It's that retirement strategy of yours that is working. I watched everyone around me have their boats, huge RVs, HBO subscription, and every other trinket. They are all are deep in debt and still working (one having bought their house 35 years ago and still owes $450,000 even though they bought it for under $100,000). I'm comfortably living the good life with no stress whatsoever. Keep at it Drift.

 

[Guest]

Talk about a rigged system

 

[Guest]

Loved the first two episodes of this docu-series on HBO about the McDonald's Monopoly game being rigged for 12 years. The filmmakers hit the jackpot on this, as the major players involved are all caricatures straight out of central casting. FBI agent Doug Matthews is like a Coen Brothers character. Then there's the gangsters, and their wives, and the 'winners' and all the details of their scam. Fully engrossing and well produced. Even if you don't normally watch documentaries, I highly recommend it. It's that entertaining.

Did you see King of Kong and fistful of quarters, or whatever it was called?

There is also this fantastic fantastic doc, short doc, that is about the paper work on guns in the USA. The characters are amazing. Brilliant film making!

 

[Paul F]

Talk about a rigged system

It's called greed. They could have so easily retired in their 40s, but greed guided their thoughts and now they struggle to deal with the mortgage. It's a classic story of greed overriding common sense. It's so easy to get caught up in it.

 

[Guest]

It's called greed. They could have so easily retired in their 40s, but greed guided their thoughts and now they struggle to deal with the mortgage. It's a classic story of greed overriding common sense. It's so easy to get caught up in it.

I hear that.

 

[Mitch Gross]

For those interested in the McMillions doc, the latest episode of the Cinematography Podcast has an extended interview with the filmmakers. They used Cooke glass for the interviews and Vantage anamorphics for the reenactments.

 

[Batutta]

Did you see King of Kong and fistful of quarters, or whatever it was called?

There is also this fantastic fantastic doc, short doc, that is about the paper work on guns in the USA. The characters are amazing. Brilliant film making!

Yeah, I saw King of Kong, great doc with similarly quirky characters. For quirky characters though, nothing beats Errol Morris's Vernon, Florida. It's about absolutely nothing, just a bunch of hicks in rural Florida pontificating on life and telling stories, but a truly amazing collection of personalities.

 

[Guest]

Oooo, love the sound of that. I’ll search for it.

Also, i’ll try to find that short doc.

EDIT:
Found Errol’s Florida doc! It is absolutely absolutely amazing!

 

[Run&Gun]

Watched the two current episodes last night. We’ve gotten spoiled by Netflix, because I wanted to watch all of it and would have binged the whole thing. Now I have to wait for the other four episodes to trickle out. I should have just waited another month or so for all of them to be out.

For the life of me, I can’t remember where I heard/read/saw the story about this, within the last few years... Maybe a podcast?

The young FBI agent cracks me up. Reminds me a lot of a friend of mine that’s a fireman, both in the way he looks and acts. The re-enactments of the “video crew” also crack me up, but then again, I think we will always hone in on those type of details. But I did like how they were shooting the re-enactment and would have the actual footage playing in a monitor or VF sometimes.

 

[puredrifting]

It's that retirement strategy of yours that is working. I watched everyone around me have their boats, huge RVs, HBO subscription, and every other trinket. They are all are deep in debt and still working (one having bought their house 35 years ago and still owes $450,000 even though they bought it for under $100,000). I'm comfortably living the good life with no stress whatsoever. Keep at it Drift.

Ha, ha, thanks Paul F! I am trying to cut down waste in general in my life, not buying an endless stream of new expensive gear, HBO, new cars all of the time, eating out at restaurants when I am pretty good chef, I am getting snobby enough where I would rather eat my own food than pay a ton for medicore slop that most restaurants serve.
It's not just retirement strategy, it's also just wanting to not waste. Look back at your life and think about all of the things we have wasted money, time, effort on. Stop doing that and focus on what's important in life. People, family, relationships, friendships, doing things that help your community, building others up. In the end, that's the
only stuff that matters. Things don't matter.

 

[Paul F]

Indeed, the more stuff I had over the years, the more of a pain it was because of more maintenance and the more things broke. Growing up, we were somewhat poor. We kids had no idea and we were perfectly happy.

 

[Batutta]

Watched the two current episodes last night. We’ve gotten spoiled by Netflix, because I wanted to watch all of it and would have binged the whole thing. Now I have to wait for the other four episodes to trickle out. I should have just waited another month or so for all of them to be out.

For the life of me, I can’t remember where I heard/read/saw the story about this, within the last few years... Maybe a podcast?

The filmmakers are running a podcast going concurrently with the show, which supplies filming details and extra info, deleted scenes.

https://www.hbo.com/mcmillions/the-official-mcmillions-podcast

 

[markfpv]

I watched the first episode last night. And have to agree that it is quite entertaining... if perhaps a little over the top - mostly because I agree that "major players involved are all caricatures". I'm sure I will stick with it to learn more though. Call me an old-fashioned curmudgeon - but I'm not a huge fan of "re-enactments" & re-staging for dramatic purposes in "docs". Feels like more manipulation than necessary for the story. Don't get me wrong - the filmmakers did a great job in trying to build up the suspense / intrigue ...and I realize because of that they needed the many staged conference room shots, etc. that are in the first episode. But I felt some of that could have been shortened.

 

[Batutta]

I'm not a huge fan of "re-enactments" & re-staging for dramatic purposes in "docs".

I'm fine with it when they're recreating things of which the facts are clearly known. For the most part, they blurred things, kept things in shadow or over people's shoulders in clever ways so it wasn't full scenes being acted out by stand-ins. I found it tasteful and gave the doc just the right amount of energy. Perhaps for more serious subject matter it wouldn't have worked as well.