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| Joe Vitus |
 Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2012 4:48 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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Marj wrote: I'm going to have to research Moonrise Kingdom. This is the first I've heard of it. But I'm so glad that Marigold Hotel is doing so well. It says a lot for the influence of the baby boomers.
Also looking forward to seeing Hysteria and Mahler on the Couch, although I think I'm going to have to see the latter in DVD. They put it back into the theater for one week, and we didn't get there fast enough.
Btw, I ought to add, these are films I'm interested in, not films I've read reviews about, something I try to avoid.
I just saw the preview when I went to Marigold Hotel. First I'd heard of it. Funny about critics, I'm starting to do the same thing. I used to want to be "part of the discussion" and be up on what everyone was saying about the new releases. But between not finding a critic I particuarly care for, and not in general finding anything intersting to see, I've just stopped. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2012 7:39 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Snow White and the Huntsman is very different than Mirror, Mirror. It's interesting two director/writer sets can start off with the same source and come up with two movies that don't resemble each other that much.
In any case, Huntsman takes its material seriously and gets very dark. It's visually striking in a different way, with the Dark Forest a place full of dark enchantments where you don't ever want to spend the night. There's lots of grime and lots of death; Snow White's path to victory is pretty bloody. There's a melancholy feel to the climax and ending.
Charlize Theron is generally well-cast and scary as the evil queen and it is totally believable that she is the fairest in all the land and determined to stay that way. The queen's power partly depends on this; she vampirizes life force to stay young. When she slips a bit, Kristen Stewart is there waiting. I thought the mirror was a bit premature to hand the title to Snow, although by the end, yeah. The Queen does get awfully shrill when she's angry.
I found the two treatment about equal in success. Huntsman is a more successful movie for what it wants to be, but is hampered by its need to fit in a magic mirror and dwarfs, while Mirror, Mirror is messy but fun to watch. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2012 9:15 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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| So the lesson is, if you are a man you can rule as long as you want (at least until your wife murders you), but no matter how conscientious an evil queen is, the moment she has a few wrinkles, and a pretty face comes along, bam, she's out. I hope Snow White remembers this during her reign of terror. |
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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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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 12:34 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Quote: I found the two treatment about equal in success. Huntsman is a more successful movie for what it wants to be, but is hampered by its need to fit in a magic mirror and dwarfs, while Mirror, Mirror is messy but fun to watch.
You wouldn't think dwarfs would be hard to fit in.
Seriously, the casting of dwarfs with chaps like Bob Hoskins and Ray Winstone, was 50% of my motivation to see this (which I will, very soon). The other 50% was Charlize Theron dipping naked into that giant vat of Oil of Olay or bouillabaise or whatever it is (in the trailer). |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 3:46 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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I watched Snow White last night because the guy I'm seeing wanted to and he was paying besides--unfortunately. It's very long, very boring and very unoriginal IMO.
You take Snow White. Add Hunger Games. Add triangle from either Hunger Games or Twilight. Add Joan of Arc, but minus the religion (though the producers must have worried with all the magic and mythical beings it would come across as too pagan for the Narnia crowd, so she says the Lord's Prayer while in captivity, though nowhere else are we give to believe this movie takes place in our universe, let alone the actual Middle Ages). You add the scene of an enchanted forest from every fantasy film since the 80's. You add a coronation scene kinda like the one in Star Wars (with the dwarfs serving as comic-cutaway stand-ins for R2D2 and C-3P0). Add a magic white horse from every girl's fantasy.
There are lots more liftings, but I'm not going to be a completest and name them all. It might make a good drinking game--every time they stole a plot point or image, you've got to take a shot (will the girls who play along get wasted and used by the boys or will they all have benefited from the Women's Studies ideology this movie is soaked with and not take or be taken advantage of--I hope the latter).
Of course, they don't actually cast little people as the seven, since they can just CGI the hell out of Bob Hoskins, among others.
Theron was a dud to me (though my date liked her). Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest minus what made her amusing--the woman screams constantly.
Kristen Stewart isn't bad as Snow White. She manages not to seem self-absorbed and narcissistic although the whole movie centers around her healing powers and everyone describing her as a savior in just about every scene. She's believably tough, too, though where a girl locked up in a tiny cell from childhood--a princess at that--manages to have the mad survival skills she does to escape killer men, killer tress, killer spells and a war she somehow leads is beyond me. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 4:12 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Joe Vitus wrote:
Kristen Stewart isn't bad as Snow White. She manages not to seem self-absorbed and narcissistic although the whole movie centers around her healing powers and everyone describing her as a savior in just about every scene. She's believably tough, too, though where a girl locked up in a tiny cell from childhood--a princess at that--manages to have the mad survival skills she does to escape killer men, killer tress, killer spells and a war she somehow leads is beyond me.
No sunscreen either. She must have done a lot of exercising while imprisoned. I was wondering what kind of queen she'll be after all that time imprisoned, with the queen as her model for how to rule. |
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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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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 4:25 pm |
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I wasn't planning to see it, Joe, but thanks to your very interesting and stingingly comic review I don't even have to consider it.
The Lord's Prayer in Snow White? That's a walk-out signal for me.  |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 10:37 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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Syd wrote: Joe Vitus wrote:
Kristen Stewart isn't bad as Snow White. She manages not to seem self-absorbed and narcissistic although the whole movie centers around her healing powers and everyone describing her as a savior in just about every scene. She's believably tough, too, though where a girl locked up in a tiny cell from childhood--a princess at that--manages to have the mad survival skills she does to escape killer men, killer tress, killer spells and a war she somehow leads is beyond me.
No sunscreen either. She must have done a lot of exercising while imprisoned. I was wondering what kind of queen she'll be after all that time imprisoned, with the queen as her model for how to rule.
LOL |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 10:43 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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marantzo wrote: I wasn't planning to see it, Joe, but thanks to your very interesting and stingingly comic review I don't even have to consider it.
The Lord's Prayer in Snow White? That's a walk-out signal for me.
It was really kinda weird.
But I'll admit I'm 100% not the audience for this movie. I have no love for fairy tales, Narnia stories, Lord of the Rings cycles, sword and sorcery Dungeons and Dragons, sword and sorcery or anything of the kind. Lots of people do, and a number of them have been friends. I don't even have the love of fantasy gene that seems to have been encoded in the gay men of my generation and succeeding ones. Could never get into Wicked or any of that. In rare instances, I like an Arthurian tale (I liked Boorman's Excalibur), but that's about it. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 1:44 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Joe Vitus wrote:
But I'll admit I'm 100% not the audience for this movie. I have no love for fairy tales, Narnia stories, Lord of the Rings cycles, sword and sorcery Dungeons and Dragons, sword and sorcery or anything of the kind.
Yep.
Not me either.
I'll hopefully skip it.
I like fairy tales though.
Some very interesting literature there. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:38 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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| They just don't have the resonance with me, they don't keep calling me back, the way they obviously do others. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 8:15 am |
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"...(I liked Boorman's Excalibur), but that's about it."
I have no problem with fantasies and such. Funny that Excralibur was one you liked. I didn't like it at all. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 8:22 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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| Magical realism or urban fantasy are ok. Fairy tales, the old folkloric ones, are interesting, a dip into the archetypal realm. Have never seen a Narnia flick, Ring of the Lords flick, Twilight flick, or anything since that one with Sean Connery as a talking dragon. He was okay. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 9:12 am |
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" Have never seen a Narnia flick, Ring of the Lords flick, Twilight flick..."
Same here, except I saw the first LotR and that was more than enough for me. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 9:41 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: NYC
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It's too bad about "Snow White and the Huntsman"--I thought the ads looked very interesting. There was even a segment on "CBS Sunday Morning" about it and the new animated "Brave," on the subject of how women in movies are no longer helpless damsels in distress and are taking up weapons to defend themselves and others. (It's about time--I remember, as a kid, being puzzled and a bit irritated by ladies who stood aside while their men took on the villains.)
I liked the "Rings" movies and I tend to enjoy films with swordfights and dragons. (Including that one with Sean Connery's voice.) But I don't seek them out, unless there's something else that intrigues me. |
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