For the record, and to have something to start off with, my film reviews will be appearing at www.darkhorizons.com and www.stageandcinema.com as well as my own blog. Thank you very much for the applause. Please enjoy the veal.
nicely done, ghost. i enjoyed your cate blanchett thoughts from last week, btw. i still laugh at myself each time i see the title of the old thread and now this.
I saw "It Started in Naples" for the first time in years. It's still a funny movie. I paid attention to Vittorio De Sica's performance in it. The scenes with Sophia Loren and him are pretty good. Vitale (DE SICA): "I am a lawyer." Curcio (LOREN): "You are a pig!" Vitale (DE SICA): "A man can be a pig and a lawyer at the same time." My fave scene involves Clark Gable and a waiter. Hamilton (GABLE): "It's 1:00 in the morning! How are people meant to sleep on this island?!" Waiter: "Together!"
saw it, loved it. i am a huge joy division fan, so in a way i expected to be dissappointed. but it worked really well for me.
I'm guessing they'll have my name on them. Check out my blog, in the signature, and you'll find it there. And you guys can work on my Oscar prediction anagram post while you're there. Hang, by the way, thank you for the kind PM the other day. I meant to write you back, but just never got around to it. Hopefully, I get around to blogging more.
Post!! I've read some interesting reviews about it so far. I'll definitely be seeing it but most of what I've read is that it's technically pretty great but by the end the feeling you're left with is just, eh.
It looks to me like the reviews were initially very positive, but the last couple hoity-toity reviews that I read were less so. So .... with potential mild spoilers .... As a big swoony romance, it's enjoyable. As a post-modern story about multiple perspectives, the way limited experience shapes the perception of reality reality, etc., it works pretty well. As a visual experience, intoxicatingly gorgeous, but maybe too much so, IMO. As an ending, terrible. I have a very negative reaction to the 13-year-old girl, and when it asks for sympathy for her, it just ain't there. As convincing police work as an instrument of story propulsion .... please. I'm getting sick of all the pathetic cop work that's going on in movies right now. That's the one redeeming thing about American Gangster. At least Russell Crowe knows what he's doing. As lovemaking scenes with Keira Knightley ... A+.
The problem the film is facing is that it's being looked at as Oscar bait. The unfortunate thing is that the film is seriously being described (even by people who have seen it!) as "feel good" Hollywood fare! If the movie even retains an ounce of the story's pessimism, it's far from that. I hope to see this soon, and I'm willing to pay, and I never pay to new movies anymore.
BUt then you're comparing the book to the movie, not judging the movie. Admittedly, it's hard not to. It's not a "feel good," exactly. But I suspect it plays up the romantic element.
But that's also fair. A film ought to be judged by how it deals with its source material. That doesn't mean it needs to be faithful, or anything along those lines, but that it simply engage in the material in an interesting way.
A friend of mine's text message after seeing an advanced screening of There Will Be Blood. "One of the best movies ive seen in years, Daniel Day Lewis should win Best Actor, and Paul Dano is a douche. I asked if he could give me a cig, and he counted how many he had in the box before he gave me one. cheap bastard."
It's a fine line, and one that I'm dealing with with another release upcoming. I'm trying to walk the line between judging it based on a comparison based on the book, and using the strengths of the book to point out the weaknesses of the film.
Jackson and New Line have kissed and made up. But what else are you going to do when there are millions of fools out there ready to part with their money? The most distressing thing is that they're going to actually milk two movies out of this thing... Master of ‘Rings’ to Tackle ‘Hobbit’ - New York Times