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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 7:48 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| For the record, and as a reminder, I thought Salt was terrific and Jolie was riveting, and I am far from an Angelina fan. I would not have wanted to see it on a plane, however. Part of its effect was being in a darkened theater with popcorn, etc. It's that kind of a movie, and as such, a huge hoot. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 9:57 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| I find it hard to critque comedies in the mode of Hangover or GHttG or Due Date....they are entertainment if you laugh, pain if you don't. Given that we are talking about a visual medium, it often comes down to your receptiveness to visual comedy. In DD, e.g., there's a recurrent theme of a car door being torn off. If you find something innately funny in that, you will roll with it....if you don't, then it's juvenile and dumb and you'll pull out of it. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 11:14 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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billyweeds wrote: For the record, and as a reminder, I thought Salt was terrific and Jolie was riveting, and I am far from an Angelina fan. I would not have wanted to see it on a plane, however. Part of its effect was being in a darkened theater with popcorn, etc. It's that kind of a movie, and as such, a huge hoot.
I should have added a caveat that I rarely watch dumb action flicks, because I have little interest in the genre. I haven't seen any of the Bourne films for instance. I can watch some Bruce Willis action movies at most.
Salt just seemed to have very poor plotting and clumsily inserted backstory, along with atrocious dialogue and ridiculous action/explosions.
I should further add that I'm well beyond tired and deep into annoyed with the lazy new cliche of taking a formulaic action film and making the lead shit-kicker a hot chick. This bores me more than the similar trend of taking a familiar formulaic idea but centering it around a gay romance. Just two dumb new ways to keep making the same films. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 12:16 pm |
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billyweeds wrote: For the record, and as a reminder, I thought Salt was terrific and Jolie was riveting, and I am far from an Angelina fan. I would not have wanted to see it on a plane, however. Part of its effect was being in a darkened theater with popcorn, etc. It's that kind of a movie, and as such, a huge hoot.
That was my reaction to the film also. Ridiculous but fun to watch. Knight and Day trumps it though. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 2:33 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: For the record, and as a reminder, I thought Salt was terrific and Jolie was riveting, and I am far from an Angelina fan. I would not have wanted to see it on a plane, however. Part of its effect was being in a darkened theater with popcorn, etc. It's that kind of a movie, and as such, a huge hoot.
That was my reaction to the film also. Ridiculous but fun to watch. Knight and Day trumps it though.
I agree completely, but Knight and Day has been compared unfavorably with Red, which IMO is a low-grade version of that kind of movie. Following gromit's premise, however, in that it's the same movie but made with--get this!--seniors!!!! HAHAHAHAHA. Nah. |
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| chillywilly |
| Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 3:45 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Salt Lake City
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Speaking of Red, has this been discussed here already? Anyone seen it? I have a friend who couldn't wait to see Eat Pray Love and has raved about Red. One of those feel good movies that plays to a specific type of movie goer?
FWIW, I never saw nor was I interested in seeing EPL. |
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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 4:40 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Eat Pray Love is the epitome of a movie I will not waste my time on. And I'm a Julia Roberts fan, but will stipulate instantly that she isn't good all the time. Duplicity, anyone? Yecch. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 5:41 pm |
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Billy wrote:
Quote: it's the same movie but made with--get this!--seniors!!!!
Doesn't that remind you of something? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 9:13 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Hereafter is the first Clint Eastwood movie I have loved--as opposed to (The Bridges of Madison County, A Perfect World) felt okay about or (Mystic River, Unforgiven) admired without particularly liking--since 1971's Play Misty for Me. Hereafter is by turns dramatic, lyrical, humorous, romantic, spectacular, and suspenseful. IMO it's the best movie of 2010 and Matt Damon is great in the leading role. I can't believe I'm saying this about a Clint Eastwood movie.
It also features one of the more haunting musical themes I've heard in a film in several years, on a par with the classic themes like Gone With the Wind or The Apartment. Someone should make a single of this. |
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| chillywilly |
| Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 11:05 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Salt Lake City
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billyweeds wrote: Eat Pray Love is the epitome of a movie I will not waste my time on. And I'm a Julia Roberts fan, but will stipulate instantly that she isn't good all the time. Duplicity, anyone? Yecch.
My thoughts exactly. |
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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 12:01 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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It is good to see that some American filmmakers are adopting a more adopt a more international, less American-centric outlook. Babel was remarkable in its sympathetic or at least non-judgemental in treatment of foreign characters in opposition to (distinctly non-ugly) Americans. They were allowed to be different and exotic, to be themsleves without being the Other.
Woody Allen has decamped to Europe. After hopelssly mangling the William Wallace story in Braveheart to make it fit in with modern sensibilities and his own world view, Mel Gibson has even dispensed with the English language in his drive for unpolluted authenticity. And after his Japanese language Letters From Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood has set much of his latest film in London and Paris with English and French protagonists respectively.
It would be possible to speculate on the reasons for this development: the belated realisation that America's reach is limited and that abroad matters; the need to recalibrate the American dream; globalisation; the fact that American tourists no longer feel comfortable proclaiming their nationality; mature filmmakers exhibiting a natural curiousity; the search for a fresh narrative...Whatever the underlying drivers, kudos to those bringing us these stories. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 1:53 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Upstate NY
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Stephane Brize's Mademoiselle Chambron is a simple story of an unlikely love affair, lovingly told, with extraordinary perfromances and direction. Definitely worthwhile.
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 7:40 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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The Social Network was overlong. I grew tired of the same legal questioning and Zuckerberg's contemptuous answers followed by flashbacks, which seemed to constitute the whole second half of the film. It also seemed that the writer and director had watched Good Will Hunting a few too many times while prepping for the film. I thought it was silly the way that Harvard was presented as harboring a race a of supergeniuses with some superphysical freaks and superrichie riches mixed in. The only part I really liked in the film was the twins meeting with then Harvard President Larry Summers, even if it further fed the super-elite myth.
At points I wondered why to care about the film. A few guys who dealt with Zuckerberg early on and were possibly/likely jobbed were trying to get a payout from the newly rich company. And the film portrays the friendship between Z-berg and Saverin as something important when they apparently randomly roomed together first year undergrad, started the company 2nd year and had a falling out the following summer. So they knew each other for two years before business and possibly millions of dollars crumbled their friendship. Nothing really epic there.
Lastly, I thought the legal discovery process was poorly portrayed. For starters, there are questions that a combative witness might refuse to answer, with or without lawyer's advice, which can later be ruled upon by the judge. This is a stalling, delaying tactic Z-berg would likely have employed, instead of his lawyer always telling him to answer the question. But that's probably nitpicky too most people.
Odder was the fact that Saverin and Zuckerberg were at the same deposition. This works for dramatic purposes, though they made limited use of it, but in real life would be possible but unlikely. I really doubt that Z-berg would waste his time at Saverin's deposition. And if for some hard-to-fathom reason he did, I would stretch it out for days to waste Z-berg's time if I were Saverin's lawyers.
But I thought it was silly that the 2nd year associate first says that her firm wanted her to sit in to get experience, but later asserts that she is an expert in voir dire (essentially jury selection) which is baffling. Law school doesn't offer much specialization, beyond law, though I suppose it is possible that she had researched and written a law review article on jury selection. In any case, if she was a super-lawyer neophyte, I doubt she would explain the process and her client's legal strategy to Zuckerberg.
Actually, I forget which side she was on, but I thought she represented the litigants against Z-berg.
If she was part of Zuckerberg's team, well he is not only an individual client but could steer millions of dollars of Facebook business to her law firm, so antagonizes him in any way could then jeopardize her job.
So a guy with an idea and drive and bad social skills hits it big in the internet age, dramatized by legal deposition and plenty of flashbacks and annoying music cues early on. I was also a little disappointed that we never learn how TheFacebook was different than Friendster or the other similar website mentioned early in the film. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 7:57 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Jeremy's comment above pertains particularly well to Eastwood's Hereafter, an absolutely magnificent film which gives a leading role to an actress I had no previous knowledge of. Cecile De France is her name, and with any justice she should soon be an international star. Her charisma, beauty, and skill are indisputable. She's the most enchanting newcomer I've encountered in several years, putting (for example) the highly touted but IMO overrated Carey Mulligan in the shade. I see that De France (despite her surname) is Belgian and 35 years old with quite a resume in Europe. Eastwood gets my most sincere reverence for "discovering" this talent.
More about Hereafter: this bids fair to being (notwithstanding several raves*) one of the most underappreciated films of the year. I almost didn't go to see it because of some of the underwhelmed and/or negative notices, which made it sound soppy, over-spiritual, sentimental, endless, and soporific. It's none of the above, instead being riveting for every single nanosecond of its two-hour length--fast as a whip when called for. contemplative when the pacing needs to slow down, possessed of the single best CGI scene I've ever seen in a movie, and marvelously acted from top to bottom, including the best-yet performance by the astonishing Matt Damon, who last year scored with a weird comic mindblower in The Informant! and now tears your heart out and mends it again as a reluctant psychic.
The above-mentioned De France is my current choice as Best Actress of 2010 (along with Damon as Best Actor), and there are also great supporting performances by Richard Kind, twin pre-teens Frankie and George McLaren, Steve Schirripa, and literally everybody else.
It's not really about death, either, though death is the trigger for the plot. It's about life, and--yes--it's "life-affirming," but not in the icky way I had feared.
The movie is superb in every way, and Eastwood has my very belated applause. I have outright loathed so many of his films in the past (True Crime, Absolute Power, Gran Torino, Changeling) and barely tolerated most of the rest that this is an amazing turn of events for me. And make no mistake, I'm happy about it.
* "It leaves you wondering, which may be the most fitting way of saying that it’s wonderful." - A.O. Scott, NYTimes |
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| lshap |
| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 8:36 am |
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gromit wrote: The only part I really liked in the film was the twins meeting with then Harvard President Larry Summers, even if it further fed the super-elite myth.
Interestingly, that was the scene that sounded most like an Aaron Sorkin West Wing episode. I also liked it. But I liked the overall film a lot more than you did. |
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