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| mo_flixx |
 Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 4:06 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
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Trish wrote: jeremy wrote: As you have probably gathered, I tend to have a distinct bias towards the films, actors and other produucts of my home country. Therefore, it pains me to say that despite his undoubted screen presence, I am not convinced that Clive Owen is in the top draw of acting talent.
I think its too early to tell - just been a couple years or so that he's really gotten offered big roles in the hollywood system.
But he's no flash in the pan and he is top draw among his generation of actors. He's not second string
I heard somewhere that he WAS offered the James Bond role and turned it down. I think he's someone who's been very careful about what parts he's taken.
And he's made some miscalculations, too. But I don't get the impression that Clive Owens WANTS to be a big HOLLYWOOD star. |
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| ehle64 |
| Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:14 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
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| He's doing fine by me, FWIW. |
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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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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:20 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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ehle64 wrote: He's doing fine by me, FWIW.
Me too, but I'm sure he (along with the rest of cast and crew) probably thought "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" was going to be a _much_ better movie. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 7:17 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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Apparently Ken Loach's "It's a Free World" has just opened in NYC. I saw it the other day.
This is a movie about a working class single mother who trying to make it big with an agency for for foreign laborers in the U.K. It is a solid, engrossing drama with a gritty documentary feel.
"Angie" is played by non-pro Kierston Wareing who wouldn't surprise me at all by getting an award for her full bore portrayal. I haven't seen a demonstration of this kind of raw energy on the screen in a long time. Kierston is only 30 but looks older and rather haggard. She exudes a cheap sex appeal, makes it work for her, and pulls off a professional office demeanor at the same time. This is one gutsy woman.
Unfortunately Angie has a lot of personal problems as well as poor judgment. You get the feeling that she is never going to attain her dreams. We see her capable of great tenderness at times, but mostly she's one hard chick.
Her accent is hard to understand. Perhaps jeremy can fill me in on it and what kind of place she comes from (Essex).
I predict big things for her if she's cast correctly.
I didn't expect much but was pleasantly surprised by Loach's keen analysis of the foreign worker problem in Britain. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 9:24 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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Kierston Wareing is indeed an Esex girl. Essex is home to a number of accents - the older more rural accents of the older communities and the London type or Estuary English of the bigger towns, especially those in the south of the county bordered by the Thames. I'm sure Ms Wareing is putting on or exagerrating her accent, but it is certainly one she would have been familiar with.
Hundred's of thousands, perhpas millions of immigrants have come to the UK in the last decade - too many to quickly for local services to provide for and to protect. There have been many cases of rithless exploitation of these new comers and it has become a fertile field for English dramatists. See The Last Resort, Dirty Pretty Things, Eastern Promises and the Morecombe Bay thing (when a dozen or so Chinese cockle pickers drowned) by the Battle For Haditha director.
I'm not sure I trust anything Ken Loach with his instant indigantion and ready-made political ax-grinding will bring much to the subject or can be considered a reliable purveyor of all things British. He really is a sixties dinosaur. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 10:28 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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Will wonders never cease? Zacharek and James Berardinelli both liked Leatherheads!  |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 1:22 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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The Bank Job is a sharp, suspenseful, occasionally funny, only minimally violent thriller with a crisp and sexy lead performance by Jason Statham, who's sort of like a Brit Bruce Willis with less attitudinizing. The fun also includes the chance to gawk at not one but two lovely ladies, the Boston Legal regular and Deep Blue Sea star Saffron Burrows and the newcomer soon-to-be-Lara-Croft Keeley Hawes. The mostly male ensemble is superbly cast and the guys work well together.
Roger Donaldson directs with verve and style, and for a change the English accents never become unintelligible. It's a blast. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 10:02 am |
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billyweeds wrote: The Bank Job is a sharp, suspenseful, occasionally funny, only minimally violent thriller with a crisp and sexy lead performance by Jason Statham, who's sort of like a Brit Bruce Willis with less attitudinizing. The fun also includes the chance to gawk at not one but two lovely ladies, the Boston Legal regular and Deep Blue Sea star Saffron Burrows and the newcomer soon-to-be-Lara-Croft Keeley Hawes. The mostly male ensemble is superbly cast and the guys work well together.
Roger Donaldson directs with verve and style, and for a change the English accents never become unintelligible. It's a blast.
I told you that you would like it Billy. Your take and mine are the same in accessing this movie. I had a great time watching it. I'm glad you saw it in the theatre. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 1:16 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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marantzo wrote: billyweeds wrote: The Bank Job is a sharp, suspenseful, occasionally funny, only minimally violent thriller with a crisp and sexy lead performance by Jason Statham, who's sort of like a Brit Bruce Willis with less attitudinizing. The fun also includes the chance to gawk at not one but two lovely ladies, the Boston Legal regular and Deep Blue Sea star Saffron Burrows and the newcomer soon-to-be-Lara-Croft Keeley Hawes. The mostly male ensemble is superbly cast and the guys work well together.
Roger Donaldson directs with verve and style, and for a change the English accents never become unintelligible. It's a blast.
I told you that you would like it Billy. Your take and mine are the same in accessing this movie. I had a great time watching it. I'm glad you saw it in the theatre.
Gary--It was your opinion that swayed me to see it. We were deciding between it and Vantage Point--Forest Whitaker!!!--and went with The BJ.  |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 5:29 pm |
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| Vantage Point is fun to watch but has some major flaws. Bank Job is a much better choice. And Whitaker's role in VP is somewhat annoyingly dumb. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 9:59 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Quote: The Bank Job is a sharp, suspenseful, occasionally funny, only minimally violent thriller with a crisp and sexy lead performance by Jason Statham, who's sort of like a Brit Bruce Willis with less attitudinizing.
Well.......that's a coincidence.......I saw Bank Job today and the Bruce Willis similarity came to me. I liked Jason Statham better......that dark 5 0'clock shadow. Two women friends took me.......I wouldn't have chosen a British/heist movie. But I liked it........particularly the aspect that it was based on real events in the 70's (which at the time I had no inkling of).
Still and all.......Sexy Beast is my all time fav heist fillm. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 7:38 am |
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Quote: .....particularly the aspect that it was based on real events in the 70's (which at the time I had no inkling of).
Neither did I and there is a good reason, the authorities
POSSIBLE SPOILER for THE BANK JOB
buried it, and since you saw the movie, you know why. I read this in one of the reviews after I had seen the movie. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 1:06 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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| It was a hoot how many people turned out to have "secret" and damaging contents in their safety deposit boxes at that particular bank. When you think of the complexities of the situation......the movie did a great job of pulling all the strands together, grabbing your attention......and making it understandable at the same time. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 4:31 pm |
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| I was going to say that exact thing. So many movies with complicated connections and plot turns are almost impossible to follow. I had no trouble following the connections in TBJ and that is quite an accomplishment for the film makers to lead the audience through all of it. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:50 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| In Bruges, the black (or is it blue?) comedy about two British baddies hiding out in a quaint little Belgian town, turned out to be more interesting than I had expected. Colin Farrell is excellent, and so is Ralph Fiennes in a small role. Flawed but enjoyable. |
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