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| jeremy |
 Posted: Tue May 27, 2014 7:39 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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I confess that Con Air is a guilty pleasure. I view it a a glorious parody, though I'm not sure anyone told Nic Cage, who was going full tilt to be an action hero at the time.
Given the amount of children's programming it produces, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Disney is the source of some talented, film-ready actors. Though the contrast between their Disney work and film roles can be disconcerting. |
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I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed May 28, 2014 12:45 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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| Not my type of film, but I can see the appeal of the over-the-top Con Air. It seems especially fine as something to catch a 10 or 15 minute chunk of on cable or in a Dvd store -- which is maybe ll I've done. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed May 28, 2014 11:31 am |
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| "I confess that Con Air is a guilty pleasure..." For me, it was also a pleasure but I didn't feel guilty. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed May 28, 2014 6:30 pm |
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I watched San Francisco on TCM today. I had seen it a couple of times and always liked it. I liked it again, but Spencer Tracy's Priest was so obnoxious with his religiosity that he tries to make everyone completely religious especially Jeanette MacDonald's character and intervenes when he hates what she is wearing for a performance and says things like it is disgusting and should not be worn, in his religiousness. I wanted to puke. Clark Gable slugged him. She ends up going with the priest instead of doing her performance. I'd liked to have seen him slug him again.  In today's world the activity of priest Father Mullin would be very disliked by non-fanatic religious people. Enjoyed the movie anyway. Clark Gable was very good! |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Wed May 28, 2014 10:50 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Nothing much was on TV at 8, so I ended up watching "Love and Other Drugs" just because Jake Gyllenhaal is so nice to look at. I expected it to be a pleasant little sexcom, but it turned out to be a rather thoughtful story with a glaze of humor over the romance of a playboy Pfizer agent and a woman with early-onset Parkinson's. The structure and the ending were your basic romcom cliches, but Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway were excellent, and I enjoyed it, even though I was busy packing for my trip to South Carolina tomorrow. (This time I'm remembering to take my iPhone plug-in.) |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Fri May 30, 2014 7:54 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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La Havre is a wonderful feel good flick. An old man, down by the harbor doing nothing, runs into a 14-yr old African kid who is trying to smuggle himself to London where his mother is. The man's loving wife is dying in the hospital, but without a thought, he commits himself to helping the boy.
There is a nasty police inspector - a look-alike for famed food critic Anton Ego - and when he and a dozen gendarmes raid a bar, six of the most local-looking patrons all give the cops the exact same blank stares - one of those small to be savored moments of film.
The old man and his wife of fifty years are devoted to each other. But I've never seen such a lifelong bond played quite this way, and that's all I'll say. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri May 30, 2014 8:34 pm |
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| I'll be watching for that movie, yam. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat May 31, 2014 1:41 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| I always thought La Harve was a about an invisible French rabbit. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Sat May 31, 2014 2:19 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| In the old days I would have invited you behind the curtain for that. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat May 31, 2014 4:23 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| I'm sorry. It was just meant as a silly joke. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat May 31, 2014 7:20 pm |
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| The port isn't La Havre, the port is Le Havre. When I went from England to France Le Havre was the port I got off on. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Sat May 31, 2014 10:42 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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Joe Vitus wrote: I'm sorry. It was just meant as a silly joke. |
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That was great for you. How was it for me? |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2014 10:43 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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I’d always enjoyed “Payback” (1999) but felt it best to keep that information to myself. I guess that’s almost the definition of a guilty pleasure. I caught the film again recently on television and – watching it through a forgiving period haze - found it cooler and funnier than I remembered. I think the “Payback” came in for some flack at the time because it was considered to be markedly inferior to John Boorman’s “Point Blank”, which was based on the same source material, and because people were becoming a little tired of Mel Gibson’s predilection for suffering and were beginning to wonder whether he had some sort of Messiah complex. Funny that. I’m not a Mel Gibson hater, but I think the small guy may have been slightly miscast as the grizzled noir hero of the piece.
“Payback” reminded me a lot of “Sin City” (2005) which is perhaps not surprising given that they both aim for a comic(book) noir feel. “Payback” could almost have been a prototype. Coincidentally, “Sin City” was also on television later that same night, so I got a chance compare the two up close and personal, punk. Although it must stand as one of the best realisations or reifications of a comic book or graphic novel, I would suggest that the vivid and pulpy “Sin City” is the weaker film due to its almost total reliance on an ironic viscerallity, if that’s not an oxymoron. But then, I’m not an avid consumer of comic books.
Interestingly (for some) in what has become something of a Hollywood cliché, both films weave a dominatrice into their story. I think filmmakers are comfortable with the concept of female sexual dominance. In its reified form, the outfits provide instant frisson and are the shiniest since the Nazis goose-stepped their way across our screens, the sex is safe and it doesn’t involve violence against women, whilst still catering for the male gaze. That it can be viewed as ridiculous is a useful misdirection and it’s an easy way of signalling transgression. I found Pearl (Lucy Liu) in “Payback” much more convincing than her assertive counterpart Gail (Rosario Dawson) in “Sin City”. Dawson seemed ill at ease in her skin (tight get up), as though the set was too cold. Lui on the other hand threw herself into her part with a warming gusto. And after all, aren’t acting and S&M both about role play.
Not sure why I opted for dominatrice over the more usual dominatrix, possibly because I find the plural of dominatrix – dominatrixes – somewhat clumsy. |
_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2014 10:49 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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| I might insert something here to hide my double post. |
Last edited by jeremy on Sun Jun 01, 2014 11:07 pm; edited 1 time in total
_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2014 11:06 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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yambu wrote: Joe Vitus wrote: I'm sorry. It was just meant as a silly joke. I'm sorry back. It WAS a silly joke. If Harvey doesn't like it, let him lump it.
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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