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Michael_kelly (Michael_kelly)
Username: Michael_kelly
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 207.188.65.102
| | Posted on Thursday, May 01, 2008 - 03:23 pm: | |
This is cuffed from my blog:
The Savages --
Watched a film last night called The Savages. It stars Laura Linney and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I'd heard very good things about the film. Raves, in fact. Indeed, it is a good film. I won't rave about it, though. It isn't a masterwork. Just a very well done film about dementia and two middle-age people finally coming to age. It's a bit slow, in parts, but that's okay. It's funny and tender and well worth a rental. You can't go wrong with Linney and Hoffman, but Philip Bosco, who plays the father, steals the picture.
Halloween --
Last night, finally, we watched Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween. What the hell was he thinking? What, really, was the point? This was a straight slasher flick with very little suspense. He added a bit of back story at the beginning, but, really, nothing else. In fact, I felt it was gratuitous. Every teenage girl in the film, save the lead, went topless, and was killed. One was shown full frontal. I felt really uncomfortable. Proof these films aren't targeted to my demographic.
The great thing about the first Halloween was the terrific music. You all know it. Zombie employed the same music only 2 or 3 times throughout the film, and, I felt, at the wrong times. And all the teenagers in the film were so over-the-top annoying that it was grating. Even my own teenage son felt it was ridiculous. The first film had some sense of mounting tension and suspense. This one had none. The only parts I flinched at were the shamelessly gratuitous teenage nudity scenes.
Thumbs down on this mistake.
A Sound of Thunder --
Watched a film last night called A Sound of Thunder, starring Ben Kingsley and Edward Burns. It is based on the Ray Bradbury short story, and it is, by all accounts, laughably bad. Oh, Sir Ben Kingsley, what were you thinking? He wore this cheesy white wig throughout the film. And Edward Burns has about as much acting chops as Jan Michael Vincent. Yikes. What an abysmal mess this is. In many scenes it looks as if the CGI isn't even finished. The blends are horrible. You can tell they are working in front of green screens. There were these creatures in the films, apparently dinosaurs that evolved, and they looked like a strange hybrid of baboons, dinosaurs, and lizards. We called them "baboonasaurs." And the script, of course, leaves out the interesting stuff from the Bradbury short, like the fascist political climate. Unless you really want unintentional laughs, avoid this one. |
Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.251.78
| | Posted on Thursday, May 01, 2008 - 04:38 pm: | |
I liked THE SAVAGES, but comparing it to another recent indie, JUNO, it felt vaguely monotonal. Its life was muted, and its characters felt to be revealed only in mere facets, not completely. Laura Linney is a great comic actress (speaking of "Frasier"), and she does best in roles that swerve into comedy; here, she does, but, mm.... I will say, the ending/last shot, was very satisfying. Wow, a film from last year that didn't compell me to bang my armrest in disgust, imagine that!  |
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