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Yesterday I finally saw "12 Years A Slave," and while it's quite a good movie, it's hard to sit through a lot of it -- much like trying to watch a movie that realistically portrays the nightmare of the Nazi concentration camps. I thought that Chiwetel Ejiofor, the principal actor (as well as most of the acting by everyone else) was fine -- but what a difference from his role in "Kinky Boots"!!! I don't plan to ever see it again -- but it's just not a movie some of us would care to watch again and again for pleasure.
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Posted: |
Apr 13, 2014 - 5:05 PM
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By: |
Ralph
(Member)
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As drug-addict, chain-smoker, mouth cancer victim and matriarch in “August: Osage County,” Meryl is showboating, which has a slight amusement early on until we recognize it’s a cover for the fear of being defeated by having to smoke to excess. She can’t do it convincingly, and nothing matters more in this kind of role than getting the habit right. That disgusting cig is the physical crux of the character; we must see and feel her addiction to the incessant drags, we must feel repulsed and lung-clogged by the exhales of smoke. She can’t even hold the coffin nails right. (Don Draper’s daughter handles one with more expertise.) Implicit that there are allowances for on-set health considerations, just as we’re expected to provide them for Oprah in “The Butler,” yet how can we grant leeway to our country’s most accomplished performer when she so amateurishly bungles that crutch? A misjudgment to take a plum role she’s unsuited for in order to rob someone else the opportunity to strut more suitably. (Melissa Leo at long last might have been right for a role.) Julia is the movie’s only real amazement. When the family sits down for an afternoon meal — in 108 degree Oklahoma heat; did anyone spot an air conditioner? — and the spewing emotional volcano erupts big time, Julia takes over. Great to see her revved up, in command, and Meryl at this point concedes, partly out of generosity, partly due to the shift in Letts’ script, a hodgepodge of second rate Albee bitches trying to Hellmanize a Williams get-together during which a few “Come Back to the 5 & Dime” absurdities are unleashed. Listening to Meryl swear up a storm, I flashed once again on the role she’s destined for: Kael. Opposite Helen Mirren’s Gilliatt. “Pauline and Penelope: Lives in the Dark.” A movie lover’s dream.
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Posted: |
Apr 15, 2014 - 10:13 AM
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By: |
Solium
(Member)
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Monty Python and the Holy Grail 5-5
I didn't like this film when it originally came out. I thought it was a bit too violent and some of the jokes were in bad tasted. Example: Flogging a rug with a cat. Using farm animals as live projectiles. The graphic (and shocking) murder of a historian.
But revisiting the film, the humor is massively witty, and down right hilarious and it never gives up. There's been nothing like this in decades. Seen with adult eyes the bloody violence is pretty cartoonish, (other than the historians murder) And I realize it was always a black comedy, and MP have never been known to be PC to begin with.
The stand up acts, interaction between the cast, and endless lines of silly banter are not only priceless, but effortlessly fluid and funny.
As MP cranked out films they became cruder, less funny, over produced, and felt less spontaneous. This is certainly their crowning achievement.
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Today I watched the new Romeo And Juliet and posted the following Netflix review:
I just watched this new version of “Romeo And Juliet,” and was quite disappointed. I felt that the line readings, particularly those by Romeo and, to a slightly lesser degree, Juliet, were flat and quite inappropriate. They seemed to fast forward over the music in Shakespeare’s text and I kept groaning at the way that Douglas Booth read Romeo’s lines, almost as if this were the very first time he had ever read them. The lack of sensitivity was very troubling, and I was happy to see that most of the reviews here reflected my opinion — someone even wrote that he had fallen asleep during the balcony scene, which startled me, because I too had fallen asleep during that important scene! I woke up and quickly went back to watch what I had missed, and, for my efforts, was treated to some of Douglas Booth’s most uninspired line readings. The director, Carlo Cartei, seems to be Italian (I saw him in some of the behind the scenes extras), and I suspect that he was unaware of the effect that those flat readings would have on audiences. Several of the reviewers cited the 1969 Franco Zeffirelli version as the class act that it is, from uniformly perfect acting to Nino Rota’s delicious soundtrack, and I’ve always adored that movie AND its music, although, unlike some, I happen to like Abel Korzeniowski’s fine music for this one, which worked for me and made me glad that months ago I bought the soundtrack CD (I’ve been a fan of Korzeniowski since “A Single Man”). I counted 19 — NINETEEN! — producers given credit at the end of the film, and I would think that one of those producers could have seen during the making of the film how lifeless it was going to be and stepped in and gotten the actors to infuse their line readings with a modicum of emphasis and even sensitivity to bring out the magic of the text. But it is a handsome production with beautiful male and female actors, and perhaps a director who understood the need for nuance could have made it work. But what a disappointment!
Incidentally, yesterday I watched my Blu-ray of Faster with Dwayne Johnson and Billy Bob Thornton, which looks and sounds great in HD. I'm not much of an action fan, but like this one, and happen to like Oliver Jackson-Cohen (from Lark Rise To Candleford, the first season of Mr. Selfridge, and the recent NBC Dracula) as this young rich guy who freelances as a contract killer. Most viewers grow to care about both Johnson AND Jackson-Cohen, and in the extras there's a surprising original ending where the young killer himself is killed, and I must say that I much prefer the revised ending. In fact, had it had the original ending, I doubt I would have even bought it.
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Today (Friday) I watched "The Book Thief," and while i liked it and had the obligatory tears at the very end, I got a little impatient with it and felt that it was presented at a too leisurely pace. I liked John Williams' piano-centered score, probably not enough to buy the soundtrack. And while I liked the mellifluous-voiced Death, it sometimes seemed a bit creepy to me. Could only give it 3 out of 5 stars. Kudos to Roger Allam who was the voice of Death -- was sure it was Ben Kingsley, but was wrong.
Addition: Then on Saturday I found myself unable to turn "42" off of HD cable and am seriously considering buying it on Blu-ray. Just love it.
And then on Sunday I pulled out my Blu-ray of Joseph Kosinsky's "Oblivion," which I've made no secret here that I have grown from liking a lot to loving. I watched all the special features (which are terrific), including the deleted scenes, and then watched it with the audio commentary from director/writer Kosinsky and star Cruise, and then decided to try the isolated music score and was so knocked out by it that I watched it again. The score was composed by Anthony Gonzalez and Joseph Trapanese and I've never heard an isolated score that had the music turned up so loud that I felt like I was watching, say, the IMAX "Chronos" with Michael Stearns' thrilling soundtrack. It was so good that I shocked myself by sitting through the entire movie again with the isolated score thundering from my surround array of Klipsch towers. Verrrrrrrrrry highly recommended!
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Saw "Philomena" today and liked it.
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Grecchus: Re your: Saw Blue Jasmine yesterday and found it sobering. Like being stunned by a hard blow to the face. Interesting use of juxtaposition for past and present sequences presented neck to neck. It worked pretty well considering playing with fire in that way can burn holes. All in all I found it to be a timely reminder of the bottomless pit that awaits after the wrong sort of turn.
As I probably wrote elsewhere on this thread after I saw it, I simply hated "Blue Jasmine," and while I was happy for Cate Blanchett's Oscar win, I couldn't stand the character she played. I'm shuddering just thinking about that movie, and have been amazed at how many people actually liked it. Different strokes....
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