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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2006 11:42 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Finally saw Little Miss Sunshine. For the first third, it has a titanic case of the cutes; no real-life family has ever been this wall-to-wall eccentric. The teenage son is a world-class geek; the grandfather takes senior-citizen foulmouth disease to a new level; the mother serves KFC at the dinner table every night; the father is a loser whose motto (he gives self-help lectures) is "Refuse to Lose." They are just so offbeat that they're obnoxious--for a while.
But the acting is so lovely that you get to like these people, and as the plot kicks in it turns out to have some endearing twists. These assets are in the movie's favor. Of the leads, Steve Carell and Abigail Breslin are particularly taking. And my friend Paula Newsome is very funny as a hospital employee who was absent from school the day they taught grief counseling.
LMS is not a must-see, but it's definitely a happy-to-have-seen. |
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| Trish |
| Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:14 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 2438
Location: Massachusetts
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Nancy wrote: Edward Norton always seems like jailbait to me...
Even in American History X? |
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| McBain |
| Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 12:00 pm |
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Joined: 26 May 2004
Posts: 1987
Location: Boston
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billyweeds wrote: Finally saw Little Miss Sunshine. For the first third, it has a titanic case of the cutes; no real-life family has ever been this wall-to-wall eccentric. The teenage son is a world-class geek; the grandfather takes senior-citizen foulmouth disease to a new level; the mother serves KFC at the dinner table every night; the father is a loser whose motto (he gives self-help lectures) is "Refuse to Lose." They are just so offbeat that they're obnoxious--for a while.
But the acting is so lovely that you get to like these people, and as the plot kicks in it turns out to have some endearing twists. These assets are in the movie's favor. Of the leads, Steve Carell and Abigail Breslin are particularly taking. And my friend Paula Newsome is very funny as a hospital employee who was absent from school the day they taught grief counseling.
LMS is not a must-see, but it's definitely a happy-to-have-seen.
The movie should have been more about how Carell finds some sort of healing through his family... instead, he is ignored too often for cheap laughs. Ultimately the movie has no center and kind of lilts along to an unsatisfying conclusion. |
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A life, Jimmy. You know what that is? It's the shit that happens while you're waiting for moments that never come. |
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| Melody |
| Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 4:15 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 2242
Location: TX
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I had a great time this weekend getting mildly fucked up and seeing Snakes on a Plane. If you didn't see it this weekend with a rowdy crowd, then wait for a sold-out midnight showing down the road, and make sure you're toasted. Billy is totally correct! (for a change)  |
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My heart told my head: This time, no. |
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| Melody |
| Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 4:18 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 2242
Location: TX
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| smoot |
| Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 4:43 pm |
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Joined: 28 Jul 2006
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It seems like the SOAP people were counting on the "Hey, it's not 'Shakespeare On A Plane', so lighten up and enjoy it for what it is" sentiment to carry the day, and were disappointed in the resulting revenues. I'm sure I'll see SOAP, and I think I'll probably enjoy it, but I still disagree with the "if you don't like SOAP then you must be a wet blanket" sentiment contained in some reviews I've read.
Just because SOAP doesn't aspire to be Shakespeare doesn't mean it can't miss the mark to which it does aspire. SOAP either clicks for you or it doesn't; I suspect it will click for me, but you never know until you see it. If it doesn't, that doesn't mean I'm incapable of liking (or seeing the value in) a silly movie; it just means that of the silly movies I've seen, I've found that some have hit their mark and some haven't, and SOAP can be added to the latter group. I'm hoping that won't be the case.
I've found that, especially with a silly movie, it doesn't take much for me to find that it clicks. It can be something as simple as the music, or the performance of an actor playing a minor character, or just the look of the movie generally, that wins me over. Once that one element makes an impression, it usually doesn't take long before I start finding other elements to like along with it, and hence it clicks for me. Here's hoping SOAP does that, but if it doesn't, my faith in my ability to like a silly movie won't be shaken. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 4:57 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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| Yes, perhaps the most often used and most wounding insults in our culture is to be told that you don't have a sense of humour. |
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I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
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| ehle64 |
| Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 5:52 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
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smoot wrote: I've found that, especially with a silly movie, it doesn't take much for me to find that it clicks. It can be something as simple as the music, or the performance of an actor playing a minor character, or just the look of the movie generally, that wins me over. Once that one element makes an impression, it usually doesn't take long before I start finding other elements to like along with it, and hence it clicks for me.
This is exactly how I felt with Little Miss Sunshine. Sorry to hear it didn't grab the two other 3rd-Eyers that have commented so far. I still get a chuckle hearing that VW Minibus' faulty horn in my head. . . |
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It truly disappoints me when people do something for you via no prompt of your own and then use it as some kind of weapon against you at a later time and place. It is what it is. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 5:58 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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Smoot,
I'm feeling much the same way as you, with the addition that I'm a little surprised people have fallen for the hype. Actually, the studio didn't want to call it Snakes on a Plane. As with American Pie being titled Teen Sex Comedy as a screenplay, the title of this one was just shorthand for the moviemakers. But the internet furor arose when an actual title was decided on, and they realized they couldn't buy as much publicity as they already had. Somehow, this is translating in people's minds into "these moviemakers have a great sense of humor and know they're just making a silly, throwaway movie." Nope, they just got caught with their pants down early on and decided not to fight it. But they're milking it for all it's worth. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 5:59 pm |
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smoot, I don't think I made an appearance with the rest of your welcoming commitee. It's because it feels too much like an AA meeting when someone says, "My name is smoot", and everyone joins in unison, " Welcome smoot!"
But after reading your last post, welcome smoot. |
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| chillywilly |
| Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:14 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8251
Location: Salt Lake City
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Melody wrote: I had a great time this weekend getting mildly fucked up and seeing Snakes on a Plane. If you didn't see it this weekend with a rowdy crowd, then wait for a sold-out midnight showing down the road, and make sure you're toasted. Billy is totally correct! (for a change)
Sounds like I need to smuggle in my flask. I think tomorrow night is when we are going to see SOAP. |
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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:27 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Joe Vitus wrote: Smoot,
I'm feeling much the same way as you, with the addition that I'm a little surprised people have fallen for the hype. Actually, the studio didn't want to call it Snakes on a Plane. As with American Pie being titled Teen Sex Comedy as a screenplay, the title of this one was just shorthand for the moviemakers. But the internet furor arose when an actual title was decided on, and they realized they couldn't buy as much publicity as they already had. Somehow, this is translating in people's minds into "these moviemakers have a great sense of humor and know they're just making a silly, throwaway movie." Nope, they just got caught with their pants down early on and decided not to fight it. But they're milking it for all it's worth.
Joe, have you seen the movie? The moviemakers have a great sense of humor. They may have developed it in midstream, but it's definitely there. Believe me, I have not "fallen for the hype." I had a genuinely terrific time at this movie, and I did not expect to.
Smoot, it is not just a "silly movie." It's legitimately sophisticated. It is "camp," if you must, but not "campy" in the style I hate. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:55 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
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Saw SoaP this p.m., but with only 5 other people in the theater, it fell short of a midnight movie experience. I HAD read all the trivia on the imdb.com prior to the screening and was glad I did.
I thought it took Samuel L. Jackson waaay to long to utter the line (SPOILER) I been waiting for...and even thought I was seeing a cut version of the movie!
Parts I enjoyed the most were the mile high clubbers (good one!) and some of the earlier victims. I couldn't help but be amused by the Paris Hilton-type character - at least she knew how to use her cell phone! I was impressed by the heroism of the rapper body guard, too - he was a trip.
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As to "Little Miss Sunshine," I have a different take from the other people who saw it. I found it to be a very dark movie, verging on depressing. No terminal case of the cutes for me.
I noticed how strangely and darkly lit some of the scenes in the Hoover's home were. Shadows loom out of nowhere. The production design celebrated the ugliness of the Hoovers' (and Middle America's) surroundings - esp. in the house and motel.
Steve Carell and the teen son affected me very much. Alan Arkin (kind of a stretch as Waspy Greg Kinnear's father) was both funny and pathetic.
SPOILERS
I appreciated the way the whole family eventually really did embrace Steve Carell's gayness.
I doubt if anyone in my theater knew who Marcel Proust or what the McArthur grants were, but I really felt for Carell when he encounters his crush at the convenience store.
I loved the teen son's agony at discovering he was color blind and what it meant for his future.
Unfortunately Kinnear was rather tedious with character meant to be tedious.
The little girls' beauty pageant was especially creepy...[and this the very weekend after the apprehension of the alleged Jon Benet killer (or loony)]. The contestants looked positively other wordly what with their spray-on tans and huge hair. They looked like the fully-assembled dolls from BUBBLE.
"Little Miss Sunshine" may have a "feel good" ending, but I think the ultimate point of the film is far from uplifting. |
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| Nancy |
| Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 9:12 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4607
Location: Norman, OK
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Trish wrote: Nancy wrote: Edward Norton always seems like jailbait to me...
Even in American History X?
That's about the least jailbait he's been, but I'd still card him. |
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"All in all, it's just another feather in the fan."
Isaacism, 2009 |
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| Nancy |
| Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 9:16 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4607
Location: Norman, OK
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| I saw SOAP with a group of friends, and we enjoyed it. It had snakes, and they were on a plane. What more do you need? Sure, parts of it were predictable, but it was fun. This one was better than I thought it would be. Definitely worth the price of a cheap matinee. |
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"All in all, it's just another feather in the fan."
Isaacism, 2009 |
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