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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 5:16 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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marantzo wrote: Do they have an Oscar for the best extra? Or do you have any lines Billy?
No Oscars for extras. No lines; that's what makes me an extra. Lines make you a "day player."
Still mighty psyched. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 5:30 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Saw The Great Gatsby at a SAG screening. And it surprised me. Not as much as it would have if I hadn't been reading the positive stuff around these parts, but still...I had been expecting a debacle and got a reasonably entertaining movie.
I didn't love this film by a long shot. But the fact that I liked so much of it (and liked it as much as I did) was a semi-shock. First of all, the sets and costumes are eye candy from beginning to end, and definitely award-worthy. The camerawork, the editing...aces. And the hip-hop music, which looked so ridiculous on paper, actually works very well in context. Not overbearing, mood-enhancing. Good work.
The acting also impressed me. The bone of contention around here seems to be the contribution of Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway. Sorry to be the silver lining in the cloudy sky, but I thought Maguire was superb in the role, carrying the movie effortlessly and playing naive yet intelligent, a tough combo. Leonardo DiCaprio was likewise uncannily right as Gatsby--perfectly cast, handsome in that baby-fat way, charismatic yet somewhat artificially so. Can't think of an actor who would have been as good. Carey Mulligan was terrific as Daisy and Joel Edgerton was brilliant as Tom. The DiCaprio/Mulligan/Edgerton climax in the hotel room was as well played an ensemble scene as I've seen in a long time; riveting and suspenseful and nerve-racking.
Also, this may be the best use of 3-D since 1953's House of Wax. The three dimensions enriched the story in ways that are almost indescribable but palpable to the viewer.
Negatives? Too much voice-over by Maguire, as if they were fulfilling some silly contractual obligation to include a lot of Fitzgerald's prose. Overlong in general. Verrrrrry slow to get going. But basically, a semi-must-see. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 8:37 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| Glad you changed your mind about seeing Gatsby in theater, Billyweed. Agree with your pros and cons, except I didn't mind the VO....Fitz's prose is delicious. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 12:10 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| Well clearly now I'm going to Gatsby. Will check if Earl's seen it yet... |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 1:18 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| So.....I guess I'm not alone any more. And....I'd like to see it again....on the BIG screen. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 3:11 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| Earl and I have made plans to see it this Saturday. Hopefully in 3-D. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 10:08 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Maybe it's just that I only watch basketball, but the new films being advertised look especially crappy. Mostly dumb comedies and action films geared towards idiot males.
After Earth; This Is The End; The Hangover III, The Internship
There might have been one or two more that looked equally awful.
Look like the type of films they need to promote heavily to get people to buy tickets to before bad word of mouth takes over. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 6:00 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Kyle Smith, the New York Post critic, is a politically right-wing asshole who frequently lets his politics dictate his film criticism. He's a Yalie, though, and very smart--and sometimes extremely funny. Today he lets fly with this, which made me LOL.
I beg of you, don’t ask me to choose between “Hangover” II and III. That would be like asking a mother to choose between her children, assuming she hated her children, never wanted to see them again and wished they’d never been born in the first place. Part II was like being No. 68 for takeoff at LaGuardia on a parked plane with the air conditioning off while an overcaffeinated psychotic in the seat next to you keeps repeating himself.
Part III is more like being a hundred feet from the punch bowl at your class reunion and trapped in the corner by the most insistently dull guy in your high school class as he regales you in pathetically vast detail about the habits of his extensive collection of pet ferrets. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 8:20 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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No one with an extensive collection of ferrets is dull.
Saw the new Star Trek and was also "meh" about the plot, which buried story, philosophy, and character development underneath wave upon wave of technical problems - so it's "science fiction" in an overly literal sense. The villain, who was so memorably played by Ricardo Montalban in the OS episode and in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Love Boat Captain, is here stripped of all the passion and vanity that made the original character so interesting, and turned into a cold crusher of heads.
That said, it's still adequate sustenance for a Trekkie, with pointless-but-fun digressions where New Spock confers with Old Spock on Khan-whuppin' tactics and such, Spock and Uhura have spats, and supportings like Simon Pegg keep breathing fresh life into the OS regulars. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 8:27 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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So thrilled that Bruce Dern, one of my favorite living film actors, is finally apparently getting a role worthy of his talent. (The last movie that truly utilized his very special gifts was the 1975 comedy-drama Smile.) Alexander Payne's new movie Nebraska, stars Dern and SNL comedian Will Forte (!) in a dramatic story that's garnering raves. It will be released in November and I am already so there it hurts.
Hope it's more Sideways than About Schmidt. Please. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 10:19 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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bartist wrote: No one with an extensive collection of ferrets is dull.
Saw the new Star Trek and was also "meh" about the plot, which buried story, philosophy, and character development underneath wave upon wave of technical problems - so it's "science fiction" in an overly literal sense. The villain, who was so memorably played by Ricardo Montalban in the OS episode and in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Love Boat Captain, is here stripped of all the passion and vanity that made the original character so interesting, and turned into a cold crusher of heads.
That said, it's still adequate sustenance for a Trekkie, with pointless-but-fun digressions where New Spock confers with Old Spock on Khan-whuppin' tactics and such, Spock and Uhura have spats, and supportings like Simon Pegg keep breathing fresh life into the OS regulars. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 11:13 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| I'm so glad I'm not the one who had to be pedantic about that. I was ready to be. But Whiskey saved me from it. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 11:53 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| Those weren't one show? Albeit that I didn't own a tv in those years, I'm pretty sure that you reached the fantasy island by means of a love boat, where you would be greeted by a suicidal midget. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 12:39 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| There was a kind of symbiosis, and in fact one guest star from The Love Boat ended up on Fantasy Island (Loni Anderson). They were both Aaron Spelling shows and thus used essentially the same roster of guest stars. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 2:48 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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bartist wrote: Those weren't one show? Albeit that I didn't own a tv in those years, I'm pretty sure that you reached the fantasy island by means of a love boat, where you would be greeted by a suicidal midget. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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