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| Syd |
 Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 9:35 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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The title's actually mentioned on IMDb with no details. I'd rather they did something with characters. Like Pac Man.
Speaking of Asteroids, it looks like Roland Emmerich's going to do a more thorough job of destroying the Earth in 2012, including meteors, collapsing skyscrapers and the Capitol Dome rolling around. With John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet and Thandie Newton. Michael Bay must be eating his heart out.
I didn't realize Emmerich had made a movie of The High Crusade by Poul Anderson.
EDIT: I forgot to mention 2012 has the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy crushing the White House. I'm tempted to see this one. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 11:24 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Quote: So did anyone besides Gromit & El Syd see Coraline?
I plan to see it and Public Enemies. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| Earl |
| Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 9:56 pm |
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Joined: 09 Jun 2004
Posts: 2621
Location: Houston
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| Had the day off yesterday and caught an afternoon showing of Public Enemies. (So now, Marc, you can stop bugging me to see it.) Strange, I came out of the theater liking it a lot, but as I've thought about the movie since then there are things about it that I find unsettling. I'm too tired to analyze it much now and I'll try to write more on it tomorrow night. I think I'd like to see it again this weekend, though, to find out if the things that are bugging me are really all that significant. If nothing else, I'll get to savor those lucious visuals again. Mann does have a wonderful gift for those. |
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"I have a suspicion that you are all mad," said Dr. Renard, smiling sociably; "but God forbid that madness should in any way interrupt friendship." |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 10:18 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Saw Public Enemies and, yes, I disagree with Marc. I say "yes" because he predicted people on the forum might not love this movie. It's beautifully photographed and the music is terrific. My favorite scene in the movie involves a really memorable use of "Bye Bye Blackbird," perhaps the best use of this song in any movie (and the song is a particular favorite of mine).
Quite admired Marion Cotillard's performance as Dillinger's girlfriend Billie Frechette. Cotillard has a wonderfully expressive face and she seems unable to overact.
However, otherwise I found PE something of a snoozer. It's a gangster movie that wants to be an art film. The only film that has succeeded for me is Bonnie and Clyde, which I saw recently for the first time in decades. It holds up. Public Enemies is overlong and flaccid, with shootouts that are hard to follow. I frequently couldn't figure out who was on what side. This is partly because the shots are very dark and arty.
The dramatic arc is likewise hard to follow. since Michael Mann seems determined to avoid the dreaded word "melodrama." Therefore the story is told in decidedly non-linear fashion, which is okay on the face of it but renders the story less than riveting. It's episodic and has little build. Depp is good, nothing more. Bale is less good. Billy Crudup is a remarkably good J. Edgar Hoover, and Marc is on the money about the excellence of the casting of character roles.
I wouldn't steer people away from this movie, but I would caution low expectations. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 10:46 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 10:54 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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I should have made clear I meant Bonnie and Clyde was the only gangster/art film I think works. The Road to Perdition is another boring one.
P.S. Forgot to mention The Untouchables, one of De Palma's very best films, which is also head and shoulders above Public Enemies. Bonnie and Clyde, however, remains the creme de la creme of "revisionist" gangster movies. |
Last edited by billyweeds on Thu Jul 09, 2009 7:46 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 11:50 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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billy,
you're entitled to your opinion no matter how wrong.
Actually, another good friend of mine found the movie overlong and at times boring. I didn't. PUBLIC ENEMIES is definitely one of those films that you either get swept up in or don't. I did. I agree with Village Voice critic that PUBLIC ENEMIES "exists in a state of perpetual forward motion". It hits the ground running and doesn't stop. I don't understand how anyone could find it "flaccid".
I do agree that some of the shootouts are confusing, not because the scenes are dark, but because the secondary characters are not clearly defined. That's a flaw in the film that did bother me. It took a second viewing to figure out who everyone was. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 6:58 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Copied from Television:
I love watching movies on TCM, not only because it's still commercial-free but also because of the intelligent commentaries before and after many of the features. Sometimes they come across with info that I don't know, which is a rarity.
For instance, they showed Manhattan Melodrama, the movie Dillinger attended the night he was killed, on the day that Public Enemies opened. Clever enough that, but they also told us that the reason Dillinger wanted to see that movie in particular was because of Myrna Loy being in the cast. She was apparently his favorite star.
I watched Manhattan Melodrama that night, btw, and it's really exciting and fun and a movie I strongly recommend. Didn't expect to like it--thought the only reason anyone ever thought about it was the Dillinger connection--but the chemistry between Gable and William Powell, and between Loy and both men, is electric. And the plot is interesting and sometimes very surprising.
Strangely, Michael Mann has seen fit to downplay Loy in the movie. She appears on the opening credits, for instance, in the "real" MM, but in PE that credit doesn't exist. (Though we do see a shot of her later.)
Quite incidentally, she's quite a wonderful screen actress. Her scenes with Powell--and with Gable--crackle with humor and sexual pop, something she exploited to fantastic success in the Thin Man series. And later, in The Best Years of Our Lives, she transcended the cliche of "faithful wife" to become truly iconic of the 1940s. Someday I'd like to see one of her silents, in which she invariably played an Asian siren, of all things. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 7:41 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Roger Ebert gives The Hurt Locker four stars. This may help the perceived "slide" in box office. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 8:13 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| It was very considerate of the FBI to let Dillinger see a good movie before he died, rather than shoot him before the movie. Would have spoiled the movie for everyone else, too. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 9:28 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
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| We were lucky enough to have Myrna Loy at our film class once. She was a charmer. She talked about her early years in film and her near-typecasting as an Asian villainess, which she never understood. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 4:15 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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billyweeds wrote: Copied from Television:
It fits in the Pre-Code Forum, too. It was one of the last Pre-Codes. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 9:03 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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:ominous music:
Asteroids wasn't the end...
Dreamworks has bought the rights to... wait for it... Viewmaster. I think it's the screenwriters from Transformers 2 who are going to handle this one.
Am I... MISSING SOMETHING HERE??? BECAUSE I DEFINITELY DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON. |
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http://www.wakasaworld.com |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 9:29 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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I bet that people will be teleporting through the viewer into the little pictures.
Anne's only published novel, The Panorama Egg, uses a similar device where people looking through the peephole in a panorama egg are transported into the landscape inside it. I think Piers Anthony had gourds in Xanth where you could do that, too.
I look forward to the movie version of tiddlywinks. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 5:01 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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