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| Joe Vitus |
 Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 3:09 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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The Haunting doesn't do it for me, despite some nice, atmospheric moments. Each idea of Shirley Jackson's ideas are coarsened into a stereotypical ghost movie. No feminine, attractive, potentially lesbian Theodora. No, she just has to be an antagonistic butch dyke. No attractive, seductive Luke. Let's just cast Russ Tamblyn because he's getting all the juvenile roles. Julie Harris makes a career playing frustrated virgins, so we'll cast her in the lead. Get rid of the hilarious satiric characters of the doctor's wife and friend. Get rid of the friend entirely, and make the wife a lovely "I don't believe in this ghost business" victim. And of course don't select a house that looks probable in the New England countryside. No, go to England and film in a castle, because every horror movie needs a castle, no matter how inappropriate to the setting. In other words, throw out subtlety and originality. Stick to the generic.
Read Shirley Jackson's superb novel, The Haunting of Hill House, one of the best supernatural novels of the twentieth century, a bona fide classic. The movie doesn't even come close to realizing it. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 5:39 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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I agree with Joe, and not because I want to. The Haunting takes its place in the ranks of most overrated. Somehow critics got together and decided--probably because Robert Wise managed to snag both Julie Harris and Claire Bloom, serious actresses if there ever were two, to act in this very mediocre B movie. Joe's right; there is no subtlety--but worse, there are no chills and thrills.
The remake is totally awful and therefore worse, but that isn't saying much. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 7:58 am |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 8:18 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| When you have a great horror novel, it's hard to get it to screen. The Shining is another one that falls short of the novel, even with Kubrick at the helm. The best page-to-screen that comes to mind is John Carpenter's "The Thing," and that's from a short story by John W. Campbell, Jr. I don't want to generalize wildly, but....short stories tend to improve and novels tend to suffer. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 8:24 am |
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| Yes The Thing was very good and did follow Campbell's story pretty well. The original was also a very good, though pretty far from Campbell's short story. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 8:41 am |
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| Something that is quite surprising is that Campbell's Who Goes There was published in 1938. And if I remember correctly it even mentions atomic weaponry. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 9:01 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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Yep. Campbell wasn't a great writer, but was a big influence on other writers, esp. as an editor, and encouraged writers to get their science right.
The worst novel adaptation is of John Wyndham's "The Day of the Triffids," which was a prescient novel, written around 1950, that foresaw the dangers of genetic engineering and deflated some of hype around the promises of technology. They gutted all that, and turned it into a dumb monster movie. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 12:26 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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I'm watching Love and Other Drugs, which is a mix between industry satires like Thank You for Smoking with a taste of Kinsey, and a disease of the week movie, and works quite well. Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway are very good--in fact, these may be their best roles. The disease of the week is Parkinson's, which Hathaway's character has at the age of 27, which is unusually young. We get to see the later stages. If I was Gyllenhaal's character, I'd take my chances.
I give the movie at least a point for handling sexuality well, including nudity by the two leads. (Anne Hathaway nude is worth a point by itself; she's beautiful, head to toe, and handles the challenge with aplomb.) Gyllenhaal is a super-salesman who tends to lose jobs by screwing every pretty woman in sight, including his boss's girlfriend. He falls into a job as a pharmaceutical rep (which is how he comes in contact with Hathaway), so is the right person in the right place when Pfizer comes up with a blood pressure medicine that has an interesting side effect on male libido. The drug is christened Viagra.
So far, this may be my favorite movie of the year. |
Last edited by Syd on Sun Jun 26, 2011 1:14 am; edited 2 times in total
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 12:33 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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bartist wrote: Yep. Campbell wasn't a great writer, but was a big influence on other writers, esp. as an editor, and encouraged writers to get their science right.
The worst novel adaptation is of John Wyndham's "The Day of the Triffids," which was a prescient novel, written around 1950, that foresaw the dangers of genetic engineering and deflated some of hype around the promises of technology. They gutted all that, and turned it into a dumb monster movie.
Campbell was a pretty good writer considering that he wrote before the golden age of science fiction (i.e., the age Campbell created.) "Who Goes There" is still pretty good. Where he really excelled was as an editor and editorial writer for Astounding/Analog and Unknown. I have a collection of his letters; they're amazing reading. |
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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: Sun Jun 26, 2011 5:56 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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The Tillman Story is a documentary about the death of Pat Tillman, the professional football player who left the game behind to go to Afghanistan, only to be killed by friendly fire which officials tried to pass off as a hero's death in the face of the enemy. I expected the film to delve into the conspiracy theory that says he was murdered on purpose to hide his disenchantment with Bush's policies. But instead it sticks with the already very shoddy coverup that obviously existed, rather than theoretical, more potentially sensational material.
As such, it's an interesting doc, but falls short of being a great one. The rhythm is just a little slack, and there's too much detail from family and platoon mates. I found myself wishing it had been made by Michael Moore. But it's definitely worth checking out. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 2:32 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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| It's a bit disappointing that so many people love him or hate in on the basis of whether he ultimately stood for or against Bush's policies. He's a perfect example of someone sacrificed to political agenda, and that would have been true even if he lived, and no matter his ultimate political beliefs. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 7:49 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Upstate NY
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The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009) is one of the better documentaries I have seen this year. Although the events are still vivid in my mind, the motivations that come through in long interviews with Mr. Ellsberg, and the editing make it a very worthwhile experience. Quite a remarkable man!
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 10:02 pm |
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I still remember when I saw The Pentagon Papers. I was a cabbie at the time and I used to pick up a coffee, doughnut and NYT after I took my cab out and lined up at the Hilton hotel to have my coffee and doughnut and read the paper. This would be around 6AM. I think it was a Sunday. The front page gave me a jolt and I got right into it; interrupted by a fare who was going to JFK. On the way back I got in the lineup at the La Guardia airport Shuttle terminal and finished the articles about the Pentagon Papers there. A memorable day in my hacking career and it didn't include any memorable fares.  |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 11:55 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Upstate NY
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Gary, for a moment I thought you took Ellsberg to JFK!
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 2:33 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Love and Other Drugs falls victim to convention: You have to have Guy wins girl, guy loses girl, guy gets girl back. It doesn't work because I don't believe he ever lost her. The chemistry is too damned good.
So flawed film, but still very good, and Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway would give Blanche nominations if we could be bothered to do them. |
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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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