| Author |
Message |
|
| knox |
 Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 10:12 am |
 |
|
|
Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
|
Quote: Seth Rogan being the loud solipsistic friend (in a performance which I thought had echoes of Goodman in Lebowski).
3000 years of beautiful tradition, from Moses to Sandy Koufax. The problem with 50/50 was that JGL didn't echo the Dude....more "Donny" than Dude. Seriously, the film had some good moments (and how cool to see Max Headroom fighting the big C), but I was overall "meh," too. Agree w/ yr observation that actors acted separately more than they interacted.
With BWeed and Bart on Jeff Who...speaking of echoing the Dude, I think Jason Segel deserves membership in the Little Lebowski Urban Achievers. One scene, the mugging, didn't quite make sense to me - I mean, Segel plays bball with them and looks too poor to bother rolling. The cinematic "profiling" seemed unnecessary.
Sure, it serves to convey his naivete, but geez. |
|
|
| Back to top |
 
|
| Ghulam |
| Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 12:24 pm |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
|
| Didn't care much for the new 21 Jump Street. Did not make me laugh. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 4:49 pm |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
gromit wrote: 50/50 is a fairly good film, I just didn't like it that much. The early indie music cues kept annoying me, though the later classic rock didn't help much either. Just didn't care for the way music was applied in the film.
My other gripe was the way in which each character seemed to be locked into their own shtick. JGL smiling and smirking, or looking worried. Seth Rogan being the loud solipsistic friend (in a performance which I thought had echoes of Goodman in Lebowski). Anna Kendrick doing her nervous adult imitation. They didn't interact so much as act separately. And the girlfriend was pretty much a thankless write-off part.
I probably liked best the scenes with the two other cancer patients, though even those found a familiar path. I can see how people could like this film, and it tries to balance humor with some serious subject matter. But it wasn't very subtle and tended towards exaggeration. It's certainly watchable, just didn't do much for me.
My favorite scene is when Kendrick's therapist shows up at the hospital, and suddenly all the characters start trying to excuse their character traits to her. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 6:08 pm |
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
knox wrote: The problem with 50/50 was that JGL didn't echo the Dude....more "Donny" than Dude. Seriously, the film had some good moments (and how cool to see Max Headroom fighting the big C), but I was overall "meh," too. Agree w/ yr observation that actors acted separately more than they interacted.
Funny extension of my comparison.
I can also justify in the film why they would be acting separately. With fear of dying, JGL feels alienated from everyone and has yet to make a firm connection to the therapist, who is new in her role.
I thought it was silly how everyone acted based on such conventional notions. oh no, his therapist -- what bad things did he say about me? Cancer? let me get you some green tea to fight that. Dying? Let me get you a dog for companionship. I don't know maybe people do act dopey in a crisis and follow such mainstream thinking, but it struck me mostly as forced humor.
I didn't like the lack of subtlety. The rescue dog named Skeletor. Both the mother and the friend making efforts to deal with the issue on the sly.
I also didn't understand why if he shaves his head, then he wears a cap. I get that in the film it made him look sick/different, but a shaved head has been cool/acceptable since Michael Jordan.
You can tell they had trouble deciding how to market the film, as the Dvd cover I have shows JGL shaving his head with Rogan looking on puzzled.
It's hard to tell what's going on, and the pull quotes are about it being a laugh-out comedy.
|
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 7:30 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
| Well, the whole point was they were all trapped in their own heads, thinking "how does this effect me?" right? I didn't have a problem with the movie. Wasn't a classic. Wasn't terrible. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
| carrobin |
| Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:09 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
|
| Waiting for the subway this afternoon, I was studying the movie posters, and noticed that the upcoming "The Cabin in the Woods" is co-written and produced by Joss Whedon. I'm not a horror-movie buff, but that gives it a certain appeal. The cabin on the poster reminds me of the classic "Avengers" episode--I think it was titled "The House That Jack Built"--in which the rooms in a house changed confusingly as Steed and Mrs. Peel searched for each other. If it's half as good as that, I want to see it. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Marc |
| Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:41 pm |
|
|
Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
|
| The Cabin In The Woods is pretty damned good. Filled with all kinds of twists and turns and ends with a bang. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 5:04 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
| Earl loves the review you wrote for it on Dangerous Minds. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 12:32 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
|
Wonder if "Cube" fans would like it. Not a horror buff, per se, but like it when it's well done and the characters have some depth and/or there's an interesting concept beyond the usual homicidal boogeyman.
Wow, hadn't thought of that Avengers episode in nearly forever. [/quote] |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Befade |
| Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 11:40 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
|
| I'm not a horror movie fan either but Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 92% |
_________________
Lost in my own private I dunno. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 1:05 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
Watched Tyrannosaur (2011) written and directed by Paddy Considine, his first feature film.
Story of an aging hoodlum type with rage and alcohol issues. He winds up getting to know a church lady who does charity work and has a horrible marriage.
You know, Britain on the decline, rough crappy life in the council estates, damaged people struggling to get by. It's all a bit overdone, with everyone ready to go off at the drop of a hat for no reason. The outbursts of emotion and anger seemed more attuned to the theater and too heavy-handed for film, so some of it came off as clumsy writing. A downer, and not a very good one in my O. It's somewhat in the vain of Fish Tank or Andrea Arnold, which are also not my cuppa.
I did like one recurring image from later in the film where the aging tough guy sits on a battered sofa among the ruins of a shed he has smashed apart with a sledgehammer. It's a good metaphor for his life, and a mockery of the conventional comfortable life Brits are supposed to be living. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| carrobin |
| Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 9:30 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
|
gromit wrote: You know, Britain on the decline, rough crappy life in the council estates, damaged people struggling to get by. It's all a bit overdone, with everyone ready to go off at the drop of a hat for no reason. The outbursts of emotion and anger seemed more attuned to the theater and too heavy-handed for film, so some of it came off as clumsy writing. A downer, and not a very good one in my O.
Sounds interesting to me--like a rerun of the Kitchen Sink dramas of the British '50s (which of course gave Alan Bates his start, not to mention Osbourne and Pinter et al.). I'm intrigued by that aspect of middle- and lower-class English (and Irish and Scottish) life that Americans don't often see in the media--the 99%, I guess you might call it. Not intrigued enough to see the film, though, I think. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 9:48 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
|
"I'm not the England of doilies and cucumber sandwiches...I'm the England of football hooligans and Jack the Ripper.”
-- Eddie Izzard, as "James Thrush" on The Good Wife
I'll watch Tyrannosaur for sure if Considine is in it. If he's just behind the lens, then would have to flip a coin. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 10:03 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
I think the last 25 years Britain has churned out dreary decline films about coalminers and domestic violence and drunk wankers and whatnot. So much so that a counter-trend sprouted up with a few positive message/ light or comedy films were set amid the dreariness -- such as The Full Monty and Billy Elliot and Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels.
I'd have to engage my poor little brain to cite dreary decline films from the 90's and '00's, but The Last of England was one of the best of the recent crop. I didn't like them, but Fish Tank and Andrea Arnold's Red Road. certainly qualify as recent drab and depressing England on the slide films. Arnold's short film Wasp is great and I've touted it here before -- single Mom neglecting her kids while trying to have a little pub social life and hook up with a guy. Trainspotting is another one I liked, which presents the Scottish underclass.
I'm blanking on the earlier such films, but depressing British underclass films were sort of a stereotype for quite some time, in the Thatcherite wake, with some blaming the BBC (and BFI?) for funding so many such projects. |
Last edited by gromit on Tue Apr 10, 2012 5:34 am; edited 1 time in total
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Ghulam |
| Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 12:50 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
|
| Hunger Games, the ultimate game show, did keep me interested for the most part. Not bad. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
