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Posted: |
Nov 23, 2013 - 2:57 PM
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By: |
Michael24
(Member)
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42 (2013) - 4/5
I typically don't watch many movies about sports or sports figures, because they generally all follow the same pattern and have all the same kind of scenes. 42 handles things a bit differently, chucking a lot of stuff you expect out the window. For example, there is no laborious first act spent following Jackie Robinson through his childhood and seeing how he first got into baseball. Instead, the film starts with him already as an adult and playing professionally. I liked that it basically just presented us with a very straight-forward view of how he made it into the major league, without bogging us down with repeated scenes of emotional discord, "I don't know if I can do this" moments, etc. The one scene that does bring the pent-up emotions to the forefront, though, is powerfully effective because we haven't been beaten over the head with similar scenes a dozen times prior. All of the lead performers do a good job, and Harrison Ford deserves a Best Supporting Actor nomination. He was fantastic and totally disappeared into his role.
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Posted: |
Nov 25, 2013 - 1:59 PM
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By: |
mastadge
(Member)
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If anyone was able to finish this one, did you enjoy it?
It's an ambitious failure that falls short of being either a success or even really an enjoyable mess, but I at least admired its ambition. Both leads are good enough that I was carried along. Also, and more importantly, it so very nearly worked for me similarly to how some other plot- and/or narrative-troubled movies do. For instance, Ridley Scott's movies (and Guillermo del Toro's, for that matter, among others) often don't quite work for me in terms of smart plotting and pacing, but (often) hold together for me thanks to their visual intelligence -- they're filmmakers far more focused on visual storytelling than on traditional storytelling, and they have the chops to make that work. Here, Jordan so very nearly succeeds in letting his capable actresses and his themes dealing with family and misogyny carry the whole movie despite its extremely troubled plot. But not quite. It's an interesting but only sporadically absorbing misfire. I do wish I'd rewatched Jordan's other supernatural flicks (Company of Wolves, Interview w/ Vampire, Ondine) again before watching this.
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Posted: |
Nov 25, 2013 - 2:32 PM
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By: |
Ado
(Member)
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Ron P:
Re: "Overall, a really good film." YIKES! I simply could NOT get into that movie, and found James Franco, an actor I normally like, soooooooooooooo unlikeable that it derailed the film for me, which was very disappointing, because I honestly wanted to like it.
Scary how much we agree much of the time Ron Hardcastle.
I really disliked James Franco in that picture, he carries himself too much with this thing that makes me feel like he is winking at the camera, saying under his breath 'hey look I am acting'. Of course the picture itself is poorly constructed, and way too much CGI work. Some other miscast roles, and I really did not care in the end about anything that happened. I am amazed this picture was successful.
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Posted: |
Nov 25, 2013 - 8:12 PM
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By: |
Sirusjr
(Member)
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If anyone was able to finish this one, did you enjoy it?
It's an ambitious failure that falls short of being either a success or even really an enjoyable mess, but I at least admired its ambition. Both leads are good enough that I was carried along. Also, and more importantly, it so very nearly worked for me similarly to how some other plot- and/or narrative-troubled movies do. For instance, Ridley Scott's movies (and Guillermo del Toro's, for that matter, among others) often don't quite work for me in terms of smart plotting and pacing, but (often) hold together for me thanks to their visual intelligence -- they're filmmakers far more focused on visual storytelling than on traditional storytelling, and they have the chops to make that work. Here, Jordan so very nearly succeeds in letting his capable actresses and his themes dealing with family and misogyny carry the whole movie despite its extremely troubled plot. But not quite. It's an interesting but only sporadically absorbing misfire. I do wish I'd rewatched Jordan's other supernatural flicks (Company of Wolves, Interview w/ Vampire, Ondine) again before watching this.
That's funny because I really like a lot of Ridley Scott's films. But it all depends on how well you are absorbed into the characters. I didn't feel like there was much going for Byzantium besides Saoirse Ronan. I was more interested in her character but it seemed to be all about her family so it didn't grab me.
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Sirusjr: Re: I can't write this for my blog because I didn't finish the movie but I wanted to see what others thought about this one.
Byzantium (2012) - No rating, didn't finish
I made it an hour into this film before finally giving up. Doesn't happen very often but it completely lost my interest even though I was enjoying it on my dad's larger TV. The first few scenes were quite intriguing then I got into the back story of the characters and I lost interest.
Well, before I get into what I was going to write, I must say that I wish that when they blank out a chunk because of a spoiler that it wouldn't hit us in the face when we try to Reply to it. Good to know -- in future I'll just paste what I want from what we can see rather than choose the Reply option! Plus it's interesting to know that if we don't mind a spoiler we can bypass the block to see what we missed.
Here's what I wanted to write about "Byzabntium." It happens to be at the very top of my Netflix queue, because I recently saw its trailer when I watched another film and also because it has Jonny Lee Miller, an actor I've followed since the very start of his career. But the above comments will probably lower my expectations. Now if I can just forget what I read when I opened it about xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx … Just kidding -- added that bogus spoiler myself!
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As for the last movie I watched part deux, yesterday, with a couple of hours to kill before I left to have Thanksgiving dinner with a few very close friends, I decided to watch my Blu-ray of Kevin Reynold's delightful "The Count of Monte Cristo," and turned up the volume to enjoy Edward Shearmur's music in surround. And even though, between the DVD and Blu-ray, I had already seen that movie several times, I still enjoyed it a lot this latest time. Sure, it's a fantasy with a satisfying ending, but it stands up quite nicely after several years.
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Posted: |
Nov 29, 2013 - 1:31 PM
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By: |
mastadge
(Member)
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Watched a lot since my last update. I think this is most of them:
I watched Monsters, Inc. and then watched Monsters University. To my surprise I think the prequel is the stronger of the two, though neither of them is top-tier Pixar.
I watched The Wicker Man in its new "Final Cut" (I'd never seen it in any cut) and was surprised by how effective it was -- I'd put off watching it for so long because I strongly suspected it wouldn't be my cup of tea. Also watched The Wicker Tree, which was awful on every level.
Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down. Of the two, WHD is way goofier -- but OHF takes itself almost comically seriously, with huge patriotic anthems blaring every time a character so much as walks down a hallway. Butler comes off as a much more credible action hero than Tatum, but has almost no charisma. The action in OHF packs more of a punch than in WHD. They're two very different flavors, each preposterous in its own way, and I think it comes down more or less to a draw. My own tastes might give a very slight edge to OHF.
Watched Soderbergh's Side Effects, of which the first half was much better than the last; Fish Story, an almost excellent offbeat flick that I'd recommend; and Crying Freeman, which I watched because I like Christophe Gans, and which turned out to be awful. Watch Black Gold (or Day of the Falcon depending where you are) just to hear Horner's score in context; it was less awful than I feared it would be but very forgettable.
Thor: The Dark World was a sporadically entertaining disappointment. So far Marvel's entire Phase 2 has been a big letdown.
Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel is a very very funny movie about, well, you know. Byzantium has been discussed above. A number of my friends ran the Philly marathon recently, so I was inspired to revisit Run, Fatboy, Run, which was less funny than I remembered, though I still like Pegg and find him very funny. R.I.P.D. was less bad than the critical and popular reception would lead you to believe but not good either. Finally took the new BD release as an excuse to watch Peter Weir's Fearless, which was quite good. And finally saw last year's Grabbers, the Irish Tremors, which succeeds in paying homage to its influences while being itself and ends up being very amusing. (And why have we gotten releases of so many of Christian Henson's middling scores while the lovely, playful Grabbers remains unreleased? I might import the BD just for the isolated score!)
As for TV, I watched the first set of Foyle's War, which was very good, the first season of Once Upon a Time, which was often not very good but had just enough going for it to keep me watching, and am currently watching Falcón, which like Foyle is one of those series that's really just a set of 90-minute TV movies. Oh, and in October the first series of American Horror Story, which I started off not liking, and then came to like, and then came stopped liking when the house became a little too haunted, and then returned to liking very much. It doesn't quite come together as well as it should but it's still probably the best long-form horror programming I've seen.
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This afternoon I received 4 boxes, 1 from SAE, 2 from Amazon, and 1 from somewhere else. Included were 2 CDs ("Those Calloways" and John Riley's "Film Music"); the final 3 seasons of "Dexter" on Blu-ray, completing my collection of all 8 seasons; the elaborate "BOND 50" Blu-ray set; and the Blu-ray of the Merchant Ivory "The Remains of the Day," a favorite movie for me, so, not surprisingly, it was the one I put on first.
I'm a Merchant Ivory fan, with "Maurice" my favorite and "The Remains of the Day" second, and watching it on Blu-ray was revelatory. It's crystal clear and those British vistas are gorgeous. And while it's too slow for many, I've never had a problem with it. Frankly, I only intended to watch a little of it to see how it looked in HD, but couldn't stop watching until it was over. Loved it all over again, and was reminded why it has my second favorite Richard Robbins soundtrack (after "Maurice"). One nit to pick: At the end of the closing credits, it cuts off the last note of the closing credits music, but I want to try that segment on other players to see if it's a glitch in the Sony Blu-ray or if my player jumped the gun a bit early. Incidentally, while I didn't play the commentary track today, I've heard it before, and Emma Thompson is such a delight as she giggles her way through it.
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(revisit)
X-Men: First Class (2011) -- 9/10
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Posted: |
Dec 4, 2013 - 2:54 PM
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By: |
Solium
(Member)
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The Book Thief 7-10
A decent film that never really feels more ambitious than a Hallmark movie of the week. Well cast, the performances were adequate but a bit reserved. The film moves along at a leisurely pace yet almost every scene felt rushed and underdeveloped. The cinematography was fine but rather straight forward and plain. I expect more visually from a motion picture film. John William's score worked well, yet remained understated. It's frightening how many reviews called his score over the top or syrupy. It's most certainly neither.
I liked a lot of the ideas in the film and each one would have made for an interesting film by themselves. But the problem arises that there are too many ideas. It feels like five stories in one, and the film suffers over all because of this.
I don't blame the film for being to sterile however, this isn't about the horrors of war, it's a small personal story about the life of a young girl during war time. There is a difference. This is why it was a mistake to toss in every conceivable trappings of Nazi Germany into this film. It should have been a much longer epic if that was the intent.
The inclusion of "Death" as our narrator (while apparently important in the book) is never poignant here, and a huge distraction. Yeah we're all gonna die, ha, ha Death always win in the end! What's the point? Worse yet "Death" ruins the climax of the story by telling us the "shocking" resolution right before it happens. (I suppose this was done to soften the blow for the younger audience. But I can't imagine this film would attract a young audience to begin with.)
The most annoying inclusion though admittedly a minor split second scene was an in your face product placement shot for an Apple computer! In a film that takes place 99.9% percent of the time in the 1940's!!!
I didn't really go into detail what I liked about the film because I feel Sirusjr did a good job in that respect and I generally agree with his positive assessments. This is why I gave the film a generally high rating in spite of my own review.
One last note, I really don't understand why this got a PG-13 rating. At best it's a PG film.
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