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| inlareviewer |
 Posted: Thu May 05, 2011 3:56 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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bartist wrote: Bring Me the _____ of Osama bin Laden?
Dialysis Machine |
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"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Thu May 05, 2011 10:05 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Quote: Saw H20 for Pachyderms last night with someone who had actually read the novel. She said it was definitely better than the novel.
I agree. I had trouble with the book Water for Elephants because it focused alot on the Hal Holbrook character's time in the nursing home and the fact that his kids didn't visit him. I thought Reese was exquisite.....and I've never been a big fan of hers. Just her costume changes were enough to swoon over. Waltz is being typecast as a sadist.....I guess. I just can't criticize Pattinson in anything. I like to look at him. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu May 05, 2011 10:36 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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http://tinyurl.com/3sj2hab
Ebert's review of The Beaver sort of agrees with daffy's original comment while still raving about Gibson's performance and sympathizing with the reasons for his public meltdown. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Thu May 05, 2011 11:15 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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billyweeds wrote: May 16 and 17 at the Screen Actors Guild Film Society we will see The Beaver and Thor. Can't wait.
There's a joke in there, somewhere. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 1:49 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| Reading Roger Ebert's review of The Beaver I was reminded of why I've grown to really love the man: his humanity and empathy. Ebert has been through the mill in recent years and his writing reflects it. He has no time for wiseass insults or pettiness. He's the Ram Dass of film criticism. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 7:17 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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From Rolling Stone, with my interpolation:
"The internet darts being hurled at The Beaver by daffy and others are many and unvaried, all focused on the question of who in hell wants to see a Mel Gibson movie in which the star, vilified as "Hollywood's most vocal Jew-hater" and despised racist, homophobic, misogynistic, abusive, alcoholic, trigger-tempered paranoiac, pours out his heart to a beaver hand puppet?
"The answer is: You do. If you can get past your feelings for the troubled Gibson, you get to watch a high-wire performance of the highest caliber. It's your call. My call is that The Beaver, directed by Jodie Foster from a script by fearless first-timer Kyle Killen, is operating on a plane far above multiplex formula. This flawed but heartfelt movie has the power to sneak up and floor you." |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 7:20 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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From salon.com:
"The role Mel Gibson was born to play....The actor's performance in The Beaver is peculiar, disturbing -- and utterly brilliant.
"I can understand why its bizarre combination of ingredients sounded to many people (notably daffy) like a career-killing disaster: Gibson and Jodie Foster? They're not just colleagues but good friends? And they play a couple? And there's a mangy, demonic beaver puppet with a Michael Caine East End accent and a faint resemblance to Godzilla?
"Foster responds to the outrageous premise of The Beaver by dialing back the direction and delivering the story in unassuming, largely realistic fashion. She clears a calm, quiet space around Gibson, allowing him to deliver a brilliantly contradictory performance." |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 7:26 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Wouldn't it be outrageous if Mel Gibson wound up winning the Oscar for 2011? Hard to believe this would ever come to pass, but the reviews for his performance certainly make it seem an outside shot. In the annals of comeback, that would be one of the most amazing. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 8:55 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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My problem isn't with Gibson's performance (which I haven't seen and can't judge) but the concept of the Beaver. That it talks in voice-over throughout the movie, and somehow becomes a marketing phenomenon. Just sounds incredibly stupid.
Personally, I don't think any celebrity's reported (and fairly well documented) homophobia and anti-semitism would actually keep audiences away as long as he's charismatic. The basic moviegoing audience isn't that political. (I'd like to give them credit that they separate an artist's personal life from his work, but I don't think that's generally the case.) |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 10:07 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| From what I gather, the "beaver" does not talk in voice over. It's Gibson doing the talking "as" the beaver. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 10:19 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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| That's a quibble. Go back and look at Ebert's review. "The Beaver" Gibson's voice or no, opens the movie. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 11:17 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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I try to ignore reviews, but Ebert (for much the same reason as Marc said) I tend to listen to. Have to say, I'm intrigued enough by that very mixed review to maybe buy a ticket for something I normally would WFV. "And then wait some more...."
Befade -- yeah, Waltz is being typecast, not just as a sadist, but as a charming sadist. He is almost bipolar, in WFE. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Sat May 07, 2011 10:58 am |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
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Recently caught up with The Conspirator and Source Code. Agree that under-attention for the first one is unfortunate, given that it's....perfect. When you see the words "well crafted" this is what that looks like.
Source Code had a final twist that confused me in a good way...the weirdness of physics and how reality isn't so firmly nailed down at the subatomic level. A bit like Adjustment Bureau, in that our hero finds a loophole in the rules en route to romantic fulfillment. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat May 07, 2011 11:02 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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knox--You nailed something interesting, the points of similarity in The Adjustment Bureau and Source Code, both of which dare to enter metaphysical territory in the context of "action thriller." Could movies be regaining a slight degree of intelligence?
Of course I agree with you about the perfection of The Conspirator, one of the handful of truly great films of the 2000s. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 5:37 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| In limited release, The Beaver, starring Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster, flopped with an estimated $104,000 at 22 locations, though an expansion is still planned for May 20. |
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