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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 5:18 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Surprises: No Javier Bardem, no Cate Blanchett or Tilda Swinton. But the NBR always votes against the mainstream. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 5:36 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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| Nothing for Atonement either, interesting |
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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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| jeremy |
| Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 5:57 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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Beowolf (the film) was always ridiculous; occassionally laughable; sometimes sexy; surprisingly well-acted (the actors treated the material the way it deserved); funny (witness how the animators went to great lengths to hide Beowolf’s manhood); often pathetic, but rarely bathetic; bawdy; and generally rollicking good fun. A splendid time was had by all…although I was on my own.
I particularly liked Grendel, who was as sad as he fearsome. And it was a nice touch to have him talk in Anglo-Saxon (I assume). The accents of the other characters were literally all over the place (including Welsh and assorted Nordic voices) but from my perspective this only added to the charm of the whole thing.
The film also made a key departure from the epic poem, which in many ways made the film; The Anglo-Saxons weren’t big on internal dialogue.
If you decide to go and see it, my only advice would be, make sure you see it in 3D, it enhances the cheesiness of the experience, and DON'T TAKE IT TOO SERIOUSLY.
I know it can hardly be described as an insight, but even in cartoon form, Angelina Jolie exudes sexuality like no other. And I mean no other. Marilyn Monroe is not in her league. |
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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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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 6:12 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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jeremy wrote: Nothing for Atonement either, interesting
Not exactly nothing.
Besides "No Country," here's NBR's top ten, in alphabetical order:
The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
Atonement
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Bucket List
Into The Wild
Juno
The Kite Runner
Lars And The Real Girl
Michael Clayton
Sweeney Todd
Well, it's really the top eleven. But no Zodiac, no Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Lame. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 6:14 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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| Apologies Billy, I didn't see the top ten list. But still no winners. |
_________________
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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| Befade |
| Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:18 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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uuuuuuugh.......The Bucket List. Really! The preview made it look like a very dumb vehicle to keep Jack Nicholson w/Morgan Freeman (though he's in every other film) in the public eye.
My favorites are: Lust/Caution
Into the Wild
Starting out in the Evening |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 11:44 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
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| Another actress who seems to have been forgotten for these awards is MARILLON COTIARD (sp?) a.k.a. Edith Piaf. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 12:06 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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mo_flixx wrote: Another actress who seems to have been forgotten for these awards is MARILLON COTIARD (sp?) a.k.a. Edith Piaf.
Don't fret. She's the odds-on favorite for the Oscar. |
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| bart |
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 12:48 pm |
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Joined: 05 Dec 2005
Posts: 2381
Location: Lincoln NE
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| Saw a trailer for The Bucket List and am grateful that the title conveniently provides a bucket suitable for catching the vomit. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 1:21 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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I'm mostly with jeremy on Beowulf; it's a pretty enjoyable experience. A couple of things. A lot of the motion capture is pointless; they might just as well have used live action. Angelina Jolie is an exception; if they hadn't done it that way, the movie would be R-rated rather than PG-13. Also if you're going to let Ray Winstone be Beowulf, you really need CGI.
I also thought the movie got better much about the time Grendel's mother appeared; I believe the movie veers a lot from the source material there and it was a wise decision to make.
The climactic battle against the dragon is a classic.
Anybody else come close to rooting for Grendel over Hrothgar? |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 2:31 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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bart wrote: Saw a trailer for The Bucket List and am grateful that the title conveniently provides a bucket suitable for catching the vomit.
Word. Should be retitled Grumpy Old Men Croaking. |
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| tirebiter |
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 3:39 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4011
Location: not far away
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| On the contrary! The trailer shows us that we can all face up to the limited time we have on earth by riding motorcycles on the Great Wall of China and skydiving and eating at really good restaurants and getting to know our estranged children. That's a lesson that can't be told too often. I'm ready to be inspired and to cry, maybe a lot, at the end of the film, when one of the lead characters dies. I don't know which one because it wasn't in the trailer, but I'll cry either way. |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 3:50 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:00 am |
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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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Syd wrote:
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Anybody else come close to rooting for Grendel over Hrothgar?
I have never even seen a copy of Beowulf in Anglo-Saxon and only read a few extracts in translation, nonetheless I think this has been enough to gauge that the epic text is heavy on heroics, but fairly light on self-doubt or seeing things from the point of view of monsters. Picking up on Syd’s observation, I think the film benefited from portraying Grendel as tormented and childlike. It helped the audience distance itself from all the ritual, heroic posturing of the Nordic menfolk.
Similarly, in a massive departure from the poem, the treatment of the encounter between Beowulf and Grendel’s mother, a far from maternal looking or monster-like Angelina Jolie, allowed the film to touch, albeit lightly, on themes, such as the nature of myth, the Faustian characteristics of fame. Not something, I suspect that would have overly troubled the Anglo-Saxon bards.
Awards season is upon us. I'd love to see Beowulf trimuph over the dull and overly self-satisfied Ratatouille and the smart, but dumb Bee Movie for the animation Oscar, but, for a number of reasons, I'd rate it's chances as somewhere around zero.
Though the critical reception has been predominantly positive, Atonement has picked up a fair number of poor reviews; enough perhaps to cast doubt on its credentials a an Oscar front-runner. However, of the negative I’ve read, most seem to fault the film for not being the book, which doesn't seem quite fair.
Atonement is certainly flawed - a soggy middle section is only rescued by the film's stunning coda - but I regard as a proper film trying to say grown-up things. I find it bemusing that people can seriously suggest that Juno, a sharp, but deluded and deluding piece of feel-good nonesense is a more worthy film.
Similarly, another 'proper film' David Croneneburg's Eastern Promises seems to have slipped from favour, partially, undoubtedly, because its unremitting and visceral coldness, but maybe also because of the timing of its release.
Can't wait for No Country For Old Men , which is beginning to look like a 'most likely' for Best Film. |
_________________
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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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:38 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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"The movie version feels like a stately, but watered down, episode of Masterpiece Theatre fused with The English Patient."
This quote from USA Today is enough all by itself to make me uninterested in Atonement. |
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