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| bartist |
 Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 12:27 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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billyweeds wrote: After all the talk about the auto-amputation scene in 127 Hours, I was surprised to find it graphic but basically undisturbing, being the culmination of a hopeless situation and therefore a cathartic freeing of the spirit of the central character.....
I was engaged by but not insanely in love with this movie, which IMO has been slightly overrated for its "money" scene. As I noted, this scene is fantastic in its way, but in no way made me feel faint or sick to my stomach, the way it's apparently affecting others. I was more shaken by Janet Leigh's death in Psycho, to cite just one example.
Makes sense -- people understand that the rugged Utah backcountry wants to kill you. We tend not to understand that our hosteler wants to kill us, as we are bathing.
I may WFV, because I already know the true-life story and was inspired by the guy's will to survive. So there's less tug, for me, to see a dramatization. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 3:01 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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I forgot to add that I saw When You're Strange: The Doors & The Book of Kells but neither impressed. Actually I was fairly disappointed with Kells, as I had heard a lot of good stuff, and I didn't care for the animation style nor the simplistic storyline. Even more disappointing than the film was an exhibit in the otherwise fairly good Irish pavilion which had a glass case labeled Book of Kells, but which was totally empty. Sort of a metaphor for the film.
Perhaps having seen 23 2010 releases at this point is relatively normal. The problem is that I didn't really like many, and nearly a third of them are actually foreign releases from 2009.
Not much of a quality year for movies, it seems. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 5:58 pm |
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Just saw You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger.
Very good. Hard to find a character that you can rout for. Maybe hard is the wrong word, more like impossible, but it's a treat watching them as they go on their self-involved, self-pitying adventures. Woody does something that I wish more directors would do, he doesn't belabour a scene.
The acting is very good all around.
Maybe I should have put this in the 10 second review forum? |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 6:20 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| I'd like to review a poster. Three serious-looking young people running through a sinister forest, with the wording "HP7 Part 1." Simple, clear, effective, and unmistakable. If you're so far out of the mainstream that you don't know what it's referring to, it's not your kind of film. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 7:15 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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carrobin wrote: I'd like to review a poster. Three serious-looking young people running through a sinister forest, with the wording "HP7 Part 1." Simple, clear, effective, and unmistakable. If you're so far out of the mainstream that you don't know what it's referring to, it's not your kind of film.
Even though I've never seen even one HP film (and have no desire to do so), even an acronymoramus like me knows it doesn't stand for "Higher Power." |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 8:31 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Syd wrote: Trish wrote: Good reviews be damned - I thought Morning Glory was BORING
I continue NOT to be charmed by Rachel McAdams. Harrison Ford couldn't have been worse or more unnatural in his performance (that awful voice... what the hell , who the hell was he trying to imitate - yikes) and I think I've seen Keaton play this character about a million times give or take a quirk or two.
I always like McAdams when she's a brunette but I'm indifferent when she's a blonde. This is one of her blonde movies. I'm going to give it a try anyway.
You called it on this one. McAdams is actually pretty annoying in this movie. She should have gone brunette, but then she would have been Anne Hathaway. I didn't believe this woman would have held her original position, much less the one she stumbles into.
I think Ford was trying to imitate Dan Rather with a bit of Mike Wallace, but it turned out to be more like Frank Langella's Richard Nixon on thorazine. |
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| Trish |
| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 9:41 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 2438
Location: Massachusetts
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Syd wrote: I think Ford was trying to imitate Dan Rather with a bit of Mike Wallace, but it turned out to be more like Frank Langella's Richard Nixon on thorazine.
LOL  that description is PERFECT |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 10:15 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Rachel McAdams skeptics like me can almost be convinced she's worthy of the attention by viewing Married Life, in which she more than holds her own with Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, and Pierce Brosnan in a very interesting thriller. Check it out, and then watch The Family Stone, in which she's also very creditable. THough I don't see her as the second coming of Julia Roberts or even Anne Hathaway, she's not bad at all. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 2:04 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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Missed ML when it came out -- thanx for reminding me; I'll have a look. She was okay in Wedding Crashers and Redeye, but not a big draw for me.
Excellent mole. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 2:11 pm |
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| I watched Billy and Dolores' video. Very touching and wonderfully realized by both of them. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 2:21 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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billyweeds wrote: Rachel McAdams skeptics like me can almost be convinced she's worthy of the attention by viewing Married Life, in which she more than holds her own with Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, and Pierce Brosnan in a very interesting thriller. Check it out, and then watch The Family Stone, in which she's also very creditable. THough I don't see her as the second coming of Julia Roberts or even Anne Hathaway, she's not bad at all.
Thank goodness she isn't. I found that her character in The Family Stone was her best realized one yet. However she wasn't playing a lovable lead - anything but. She was the female curmudgeon of the family and she was perfect. She just may be best at this kind of role. But I am going to rent Married Life and check it out. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 9:11 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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marantzo wrote: I watched Billy and Dolores' video. Very touching and wonderfully realized by both of them.
Thanks so much, Gary. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 10:46 pm |
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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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The Ghost Writer, a spy and political thriller that reflects on the Iraq War, has only just arrived in New Zealand. I believe it was released in America earlier this year, but I don’t remember hearing much about it. It was never going to be a film to pack out the multiplexes, but I think it warranted greater attention than it received. Perhaps like Green Zone it was out of kilter with the prevailing zeitgiest, one better represented by the likes of The Hurt Locker, a narrative that has retreated into the personal and emotional, one where Americans are bemused victims as much as perpetrators.
Unusually for a John Grisham thriller, most of the protagonists in The Ghost Writer are British. Without giving too much away, the film is built around the unpublished memoirs of the recently retired British Prime Minister and the insight they might provide into Britain’s fairly unequivocal support for America’s recent overseas adventures.
Roman Polanski (possibly directing whilst keeping a weather eye out for Interpol) has the confidence and experience to take his time with the material. He gives his excellent cast the time and space to act, and all of them oblige. In this respect, I can’t remember a single bum note. Ewan McGregor puts in a nicely understated, ‘everyman’ performance as the eponymous ghost writer, and Pierce Brosnan, who is creating something of a careworn niche for himself, is also very watchable as a charming, but strangely apolitical Prime Minister, Adam Lang. From the number of syllables in his Scottish name through his relaxed and relaxing manner to his Oxbridge history, this is a barely disguised portrayal of Tony Blair. Best of all though, is Olivia Williams as his highly intelligent, but acid wife, Ruth Lang (Cherie Blair). If the film had done better, I’d have suggested her performance was Oscar worthy.
For the most part, the film is set in a large, modern beach house in the North-east of America. As the winter starts to signal its approach, the protagonists are forced to seek shelter indoors, a move that nicely mirrors the increasing political isolation of the Langs (Blairs). The new administration in London has allowed the International Court in The Hague to investigate the ex-Prime Minister for war crimes and Adam Lang’s legacy and even freedom is under threat. It is in this fraught atmosphere that the ghost writer begins to uncover that more sinister forces may be at work.
Topical, intelligent and nicely rendered, the film has much to commend it, but unfortunately, the politics and intrigue are rendered somewhat one-dimensional by their need to service the needs of the overarching spy thriller, and one more than one occasion the protagonists make choices that are either irrational or foolish.
***1/2 |
Last edited by jeremy on Mon Nov 15, 2010 1:57 pm; edited 1 time in total
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I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 11:22 pm |
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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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| I watched The Ghost Writer at the Lido, which describes itself as Hamilton’s only ‘boutique’ cinema. It is certainly plush, and is more redolent of an upmarket wine bar or old fashioned gentlemen’s club than a multiplex. The ticket kiosk resembles a hotel bar and the staff are, to a woman, smart and knowledgable, They purvey charm, coffee and pastries, but not popcorn. I got to watch the film laying back on a generously upholstred reclining chair whilst sipping sparkling wine. The cinema only charges a small premium relative to its more populist rivals. Unfortunately, together with Patricia and myself, there were only eight people watching the eight o’clock screening on a Saturday night. I hope they stay in business. |
_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 11:33 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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| Excellent review, Jeremy. |
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