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chillywilly

Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 3:17 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 8251 Location: Salt Lake City

I saw Inglorious Basterds on the big screen opening weekend. I've since seen it twice on Blu-ray and it holds up great, but now I'm wanting to see it on a screen larger than our 37" HDTV. The whole thing really does work better on the big screen.

As for overrated, I think parts of it are, but overall, it's Shoshana and Hans that are the key actors in this movie. Brad Pitt's role as Aldo was great, but the supporting cast takes this movie into the next level. If you compare this movie to others that will be contenders for best picture (with the exception of Avatar), the overrated label may apply. But on it's own, IG really does work as a whole.

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"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend"

Syd

Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 7:50 pm

Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12921 Location: Norman, Oklahoma

Had a laid-off Brits night last night. If I had The Full Monty, I could have had a triple feature.

I've reviewed Kinky Boots before, but it's time for a reprise. It's a reasonably good entry in the genre. Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton) is the heir to a shoe factory, and he has been brought up in the gospel of shoes. He soon discovers the factory is failing, and there is a huge order of shoes in the warehouse which can't be shipped because the destination company canceled the contract. Joel has a fiance who wants him to sell out, but he has to go through the firing of people who have worked for and trusted in the company for decades, so when his latest victim, Lauren (Sarah-Jane Potts) suggests that he seek out a niche market, he remembers his encounter with a transvestite performer named Lola (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his complaint that women's stiletto heels can't bear the the weight of a man. So Joel chooses the niche market of crossdressers.

The main reason to see it is Chiwetel Ejiofor, who has the most developed character in the film. I felt sympathy for the rejected fiancee, because Joel was making major financial decisions without even consulting her. Still a decent movie, but more on the level of Mrs. Henderson Presents than The Full Monty or Brassed Off!

Speaking of which, Brassed Off! (the exclamation point is optional) takes place in the Yorkshire coal mining town of Grimley, a fictionalized version of Grimethorpe. It's the early nineties, and the Thatcher administration is anxious to convert to nuclear power, so is closing the coal mines by offering the miners a sizable lump sum in compensation. If they don't accept the stipend, they face the possibility of losing their jobs without compensation. Several mining towns have already accepted the offer, and it looks like Grimley may be next.

Grimley is the home of the Grimley Colliery Band, led by Danny (Pete Postlethwaite), who lives and breathes for the band, and doesn't see why that the end of the colliery should mean the end of the band. Gloria Mullins (Tara Fitzgerald) return to town and wants to join the band. She is the granddaughter of Arthur Mullins, a legendary flugelhorn player for the band, and has inherited both the flugelhorn and Arthur's talent. She also is gorgeous, and one of the band's members is Andy (Ewan McGregor), who had a thing for her in high school, and still does. Gloria's been off to school, became gorgeous, and is now a surveyor. What she doesn't explain is that she is surveying Grimley in an attempt to save the mine. Things are getting ugly between the miner's union and management, and Andy is a miner and Gloria is working for management.

Meanwhile, Danny wants to realize the crowning moment for the century-old Colliery Band, which is playing in the national competition at Albert Hall. However, the band members are impoverished, soon to be laid off, and it doesn't look like the band will last long enough to make the competition.

Although this movie is sometimes funny, it's also very angry and sad. Although I love Tara Fitzgerald, the heart and soul of the movie is Pete Postlethwaite, who is outstanding. The anger that is more disguised in The Full Monty is explicit here, both from Danny and from Phil (Stephen Tompkinson), Danny's son, who is working two jobs to support his family and still can't make ends meet. The Full Monty is funnier, but this is a lot more passionate and has a lot better music.

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Ghulam

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 1:25 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4742 Location: Upstate NY

Atom Egoyan's Adoration is a wordy treatment of terrorism, family divisions, truth and lies. The story is unbelievable and the dialogue is pretentious. Like his Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter, it promises something poignant but does not deliver.

.

Marc

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 3:42 am

Joined: 19 May 2004 Posts: 8424

When I first saw it in theaters 8 or 9 years ago I wasn't knocked out, but a second viewing of 25th Hour tonight blew me away. It is a great film. Martin Scorsese's influence is all over Spike's film. And that's a good thing.

Joe Vitus

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 4:10 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston

chillywilly wrote:

Thanks, Chilly.

I'm not sure I understand the definition of "overrated." I guess I think a movie has to have an established rep of some standing period of time (say, The Godfather; not that I think it's overrated, just picking an example at random) that is percieved by most people and that I disagree with before I think of a movie as "overrated." Until that happens, all you have is various reactions, not a set-in-stone perspective.

Thus, I don't consider Batman Begins or The Dark Knight overrated, even though I don't like them. If ten years from now they are considered established classics, then I will call them overrated.

(I know I'm overthinking this.)

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ehle64

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 5:25 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 7149 Location: NYC; US&A

Ghulam wrote:

While I have yet to see Adoration, if you didn't get the poignancy of The Sweet Hereafter, or it didn't deliver it to you, I have a feeling I might like it.

25th Hour was in my top ten of whatever year it came out, time for a repeat viewing myself.

billyweeds

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 7:10 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

Saw 10 Rillington Place for the first time, a 1970 true-crime chiller with Richard Attenborough as John Reginald Christie, the famous serial killer of late 40s-early 50s London. His story is one of Britain's most famous crime tales, but not too well known by the general public. The movie is very well directed by Richard Fleischer, who also did the marvelous Leopold-Loeb retelling Compulsion, so he's good on this genre. Attenborough is terrific as the terminally creepy villan, and John Hurt shines as his low-intelligence patsy. It's streamable on Netflix and well worth the viewing.

marantzo

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 7:32 am

Guest

Finally saw Best In Show. What a comic gem it is. I knew it would be good, but it was even better than I thought it would be. Every character involved was deliciously screwball. I could watch Fred Willard reading a cook book and laugh out loud. Cathrine O'Hara and Eugene Levy should have had Oscar nominations.

If you're feeling down and everything seems to be going badly (like me after the Vikings/Saints game) just pop Best in Show into the DVD player and sit back and enjoy life again.

billyweeds

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 8:17 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

Gary--Wow. You liked it even better than I did. Fred Willard and the Jane Lynch-Jennifer Coolidge teaming were the high points for me; Parker Posey's meltdown in the pet store was another. I thought in general the movie was better in parts than as a whole; I prefer Waiting for Guffman, which is still Guest's masterpiece IMO.

marantzo

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 10:48 am

Guest

They didn't have a bumble bee pet toy. You would have had a melt down also. Hilarious!

I loved when O'Hara and Levy keep running into men that she barely remembers until they tell her about the time they screwed. Apparently she was the town punch board. Laughing

yambu

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 10:52 am

Joined: 23 May 2004 Posts: 6441 Location: SF Bay Area

marantzo wrote:

Finally saw Best In Show. What a comic gem it is.... I could watch Fred Willard reading a cook book and laugh out loud......

He's always shamelessly stupid, full of himself, and atrociously funny. "Am I crazy, or does that dog have two left feet?"

A Mighty Wind has to be my favorite, though, for all those hootenannies I attended back then.

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marantzo

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 11:12 am

Guest

Yeah, in order of release, Waiting For Guffman, Best In Show and A Mighty Wind are definitely the top three.

marantzo

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 11:23 am

Guest

Just looked up Guest and he also wrote (with others) Spinal Tap, which I haven't seen. So I guess that, with the others are his four feature comedies. Didn't direct Spinal Tap, though so I guess that doesn`t count.

Soooooo.... the three I mentioned are definitely his top comedies and his only ones. Smile

The guy has great taste. He's married to Jamie Lee Curtis.

Ghulam

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 12:41 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4742 Location: Upstate NY

For me Best in Show was the best, followed by Waiting for Guffman. Have seen each at least five times.

billyweeds

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 1:37 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

marantzo wrote:

Nope. He also did For Your Consideration, a takeoff on Oscar madness. It's not nearly as good a movie as the other three, but Catherine O'Hara gives a simply stunning performance in it as a "serious" actress who becomes delusional when she gives a performance which gets Oscar buzz. Possibly the only seriously award-worthy performance in any Guest film.

Further research reveals that Guest directed The Big Picture, which contains an unbilled Martin Short performance that may be Short's career peak. He plays the quintessential Hollywood agent in a performance that somehow incorporates all the usual cliches about agents but doesn't appear in the slightest cliched. The movie as a whole is just okay, but it's worth seeing for Short's amazing turn. Didn't realize Guest directed it. (It was made before all the others, but after Spinal Tap.)

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