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gromit
Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 3:08 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai
billyweeds wrote:
I have sort of suspected the movie was cheesy in the way you make it sound.

On the flip side, the music, the period cars, and Muddy Waters' mustaches were vintage.
Beyonce also looked the part of Etta James.


Quote:

... indicted into the R'n'R Hall of Fame...

That's funny.


You should have seen my Milk typo.
But it was in the first sentence so I noticed it and fixed it quickly.

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gromit
Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 3:15 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai
Yo, Syd! You might want to inch that SPOILER Alert up a few paragraphs. I had to go into serious skim mode and still learned more than I wanted to know.

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mo_flixx
Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 10:38 am Reply with quote
Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533
Syd wrote:
I suggest the screenwriter might want to avoid the pathetic fallacy. You do not need the wind blowing to suggest change. You do not need lightbulbs shorting out at convenient moments. You do not need torrential rain to add atmosphere to crucial conflicts. He does it five or six times during Doubt, and soon it becomes laughable.


It might _not_ have been the screenwriter's idea to do any of this. It _could_ have been the producer's or director's idea.
In any case, the producer (and director) are supposed to be the last word. If this is as bad as you make it sound, it was their responsibility not to shoot it this way.

Sometimes the artistic forces behind a film get stuck with choices that really aren't their own.

In my own experience, it's usually the producer (unfortunately) who comes up with heavy-handed touches like these.
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mo_flixx
Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 10:40 am Reply with quote
Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533
gromit wrote:
Yo, Syd! You might want to inch that SPOILER Alert up a few paragraphs. I had to go into serious skim mode and still learned more than I wanted to know.


I had the same problem...but I don't think it was Syd's fault.
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mo_flixx
Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 10:42 am Reply with quote
Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533
gromit wrote:
billyweeds wrote:
I have sort of suspected the movie was cheesy in the way you make it sound.

On the flip side, the music, the period cars, and Muddy Waters' mustaches were vintage....


True, but they were using the wrong model Cadillac in the wrong years. They should have been more careful with this.

BTW there are 2 choices of soundtrack albums for this movie. IMO go with the Chess originals. The recording quality isn't as good, but it's worth hearing the original artists.
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Syd
Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 11:53 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12921 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
mo_flixx wrote:
gromit wrote:
Yo, Syd! You might want to inch that SPOILER Alert up a few paragraphs. I had to go into serious skim mode and still learned more than I wanted to know.


I had the same problem...but I don't think it was Syd's fault.


I whited out a couple of paragraphs. It's a hard movie to discuss without giving something away.

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Earl
Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 12:08 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 09 Jun 2004 Posts: 2621 Location: Houston
mo_flixx wrote:
It might _not_ have been the screenwriter's idea to do any of this. It _could_ have been the producer's or director's idea.
In any case, the producer (and director) are supposed to be the last word. If this is as bad as you make it sound, it was their responsibility not to shoot it this way.



In the case of Doubt, the screenplay writer and the director are the same guy, John Patrick Shanley, who also wrote the play.

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mo_flixx
Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 12:18 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533
Earl wrote:
mo_flixx wrote:
It might _not_ have been the screenwriter's idea to do any of this. It _could_ have been the producer's or director's idea.
In any case, the producer (and director) are supposed to be the last word. If this is as bad as you make it sound, it was their responsibility not to shoot it this way.

In the case of Doubt, the screenplay writer and the director are the same guy, John Patrick Shanley, who also wrote the play.


Wonder how it's handled in the play?? OK, I guess it was Shanley's idea, not producer Scott Rudin's.

Here's a list of Scott Rudin productions:
http://www.imdb.com/company/co0093765/

There are so many films listed, Rudin doesn't seem to have any kind of personal stamp.
Shanley (director of "Joe and the Volcano") has a small list of credits, mostly scripts.
http://www.imdb.com/company/co0093765/
His influences seem to stem from lower class neighborhoods and a strict Catholic childhood.
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Syd
Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 1:38 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12921 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
I was surprised that Doubt doesn't come across as being stagy. The screenplay is very intelligent, as you'd expect from a play that won both a Tony and a Pulitzer Prize.

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marantzo
Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 2:25 pm Reply with quote
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I don't know. I was looking forward to Doubt, but SPOILER ALERT

I did know about non-resolution of Doubt before I read Syd's review and I was cooling on seeing it because of that. I hate films that have a conflict of did he or didn't he and then end without solving the puzzle. I think I'm going to pass.
billyweeds
Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 3:33 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
Gary--I understand your objection, but as someone who has seen and loved the play, I have to stress that the thing you're objecting to is precisely what makes the script memorable.
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Befade
Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 4:22 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 3784 Location: AZ
I really enjoyed Frost/Nixon.........so glad I chose it over The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (after Kenneth Turan's pan of it I may skip it altogether.)

The movie really transitioned from fun and laughs and Frost's continuous huge grin/Nixon's clever verbage to a battle of David vs. Goliath. I never liked Nixon.....but I love Frank Langella's Nixon......how many shades can he wear? Did Nixon really shine in the first 3 interviews? I can't remember. But how many guilty men of power ever admit to any wrongdoing? Can you see Cheney/Frost?

You have to credit the man for confessing. And Ron Howard. Well done!

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marantzo
Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 4:49 pm Reply with quote
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billyweeds wrote:
Gary--I understand your objection, but as someone who has seen and loved the play, I have to stress that the thing you're objecting to is precisely what makes the script memorable.


OK I'll see it, but the ending better not piss me off because that will ruin the whole movie for me and it will be too late to get my money back. Crying or Very sad
mo_flixx
Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 5:40 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533
Befade wrote:

...I never liked Nixon.....but I love Frank Langella's Nixon......how many shades can he wear? Did Nixon really shine in the first 3 interviews? I can't remember. But how many guilty men of power ever admit to any wrongdoing? Can you see Cheney/Frost?
...


No, but I'd like to see Ali G/Cheney!
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lady wakasa
Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 5:41 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 5911 Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
Just wondering if anyone's got any information on the Wachowski Bros's movie Ninja Assassin... mainly because it stars Korean pop star / actor Rain (aka Bi, aka the guy with the minor role in Speed Racer and the duel with Stephen Colbert). From what I've found so far, this might become the first successful crossover of a Korean actor into Hollywood films.

He's known for his dancing, so has the athleticism to deal with the martial arts. Most importantly: he's even doing passably well with speaking English in interviews and such, although he's only been speaking the language a few years (though people complain that his pitch goes up when he speaks English).

I've been looking around online, and have checked the usual suspects (imdb, criterionforum.org, twitchfilm.net, etc). Just wondering if anyone here had wandered across other info. The movie doesn't have a definite release date beyond "2009."

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