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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 4:04 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Leaving Las Vegas holds up. Oh, yeah, does it ever! Revisited it for the umpteenth time, and--despite years and years of bad Cage performances--he still proves he deserved all the prizes he won for this searing, darkly humorous, original, fiercely intelligent characterization of an alcoholic determined to drink himself to death. Elisabeth Shue matches him at every turn, and Mike Figgis's pacing is amazingly sinuous and soulful. The cherry on the top is the singing of Sting, who has never been better or even as good. The movie is tough to take but oh, so worth the effort.
Also saw The Perfect Host, an occasionally amusing but very unsuccessful attempt at black comedy starring the excellent David Hyde Pierce and a fine young actor named Clayne Crawford. Worth checking out only if you want to see a fitfully interesting failure. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 5:05 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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The other night, I saw that thing, “Hemmingway & Gellhorn” about Ernest Hemmingway and his lover, the war correspondent, Martha Gellhorn. Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman played the eponymous leads. It’s easy to see why Clive Owen was considered perfect to play Hemmingway - he has presence to give away - but I have always felt him to be somewhat limited as actor. In this film, he rode right off the range and kept on going. In contrast, I found Kidman to be both fine and fetching. Unfortunately, the quality of the acting was as about as relevant to the success of this film as the font size is to a Dan Brown novel.
The screenplay no doubt read as a sweeping love story, but on screen, it was neither epic nor intimate, and the tone was more variable than Owen’s American accent. At times, I think director Philip Kauffman may have been going for a somewhat mock-heroic feel redolent of the newsreels of the time, but what he achieved seemed more like a Woody Allen parody. It was just one of many missteps that painted Hemmingway and Gellhorn as Zeilg-like passengers on a bus tour of history’s low-points: “If you look out now on your left-hand side of the bus you can know see a mound of bodies in a concentration camp, a typical feature of the late war period.” It wasn’t for the attempted failed attempts at humour, this film would have had half a chance of being half-redeemed by qualifying as, "So bad, it was funny." |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 5:07 pm |
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| I have the same opinion of Leaving Las Vegas and the stars. I'm sure you know about the author, (departed). |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:46 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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As I've said before, I think LEAVING LAS VEGAS is REEFER MADNESS for alcoholics.
Absurd, unbelievable and unintentionally hilarious. Cage drinks enough booze to kill half a dozen elephants but suffers little more than the occasional blackout and hangover.
But since Billy loves it so, I'll watch it again and maybe I'll have a different take. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 8:05 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| The book is really poignant, and really sad. It's a horrendous reality to be in. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 8:28 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| I've never watched A Place in the Sun because I've never read An American Tragedy. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 9:23 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| Read the book sometime, but see the movie soon. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 9:50 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Marc wrote: As I've said before, I think LEAVING LAS VEGAS is REEFER MADNESS for alcoholics.
Absurd, unbelievable and unintentionally hilarious. Cage drinks enough booze to kill half a dozen elephants but suffers little more than the occasional blackout and hangover.
But since Billy loves it so, I'll watch it again and maybe I'll have a different take.
The movie is undeniably over the top but that's the style. It doesn't really pretend to be a realistic picture. It's a love story with a dark and original twist, and a Rocky movie of a very perverse sort. Must remind you that Cage has (in addition to blackouts and hangovers) a gigantic meltdown in the middle of a casino, plus other embarrassing and destructive public displays of drunkenness, not to mention a semi-operatic death scene. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 9:52 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Jeremy--"Hemmingway" is spelled with one M, and "Kauffman" with one F. You are seeing double (consonants) today. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 12:46 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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| I really hated almost every aspect of LLV. The story, the characters, the camerawork, the acting, and tone. Don't recall Sting, but that sounds like a blessing. Cage drinking from a quart bottle underwater in the hotel pool made me laugh, but it's stupid and absurd, to go along with the rest of the film. That film really rubbed me the wrong way -- don't think I'll re-watch it for quite some time, if ever. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 4:46 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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I have met very few people who are indifferent to Leaving Las Vegas. It seems you either love it or hate it, or have views like Marc's which are somewhere in the middle but infused with passionate regard or disregard for certain of its choices. It's an iconic and classic film no matter what your feelings about its quality.
Nicolas Cage in LLV v. Sean Penn in Dead Man Walking is a genuine litmus test for movie fans. I'm for Cage 100 percent, but you can start a bar fight on this subject. On the other hand, should 1995's Best Actress have been winner Susan Sarandon or Elisabeth Shue? I say neither. Sharon Stone in Casino wuz robbed!!! |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 8:50 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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| Cage in LLV doesn't hold a candle to Cage in Windtalkers or Capt. Corelli's Mandolin. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 9:40 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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bartist wrote: Cage in LLV doesn't hold a candle to Cage in Windtalkers or Capt. Corelli's Mandolin.
Disagree. The strongest competition Cage gives himself in LLV is in The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans and Vampire's Kiss. He's also aces in Valley Girl and Guarding Tess.
OTOH, he gives the worst film performance I've ever seen in Deadfall, as directed by his brother Christopher Coppola. There seems to be a sibling rivalry which is being worked out on screen as Chris gets back at Nic. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 10:26 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Glad you disagree, given that I was joking. I should have included Wicker Man, to make that clearer.
Agree about Bad Lieut. POCNO. Interesting theory about sib Chris punching back in Deadfall - haven't seen it. Also like Nic in Red Rock West, Guarding Tess, LLV, Bring Out Your Dead. |
Last edited by bartist on Fri Aug 23, 2013 10:31 am; edited 1 time in total
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 10:29 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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There is no way on God's green earth that any sentient being could "like" Cage in Deadfall. However, his performance is so horrific that it is hysterically funny and therefore worth seeing.
Forgot to mention The Weather Man, The Rock, and Adaptation as other terrific Cage perfs. He is awful in Peggy Sue Got Married and pretty bad in Moonstruck, though some would disagree about that one.
Interesting sidelight on Cage: though he's generally suspected of being a major league asshole, he apparently was handily out-assholed by David Caruso on the set of Kiss of Death. At that time Caruso was riding high and constantly tried to sabotage second-billed Cage's performance. Well, we know who got the last laugh there. |
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