I just saw...
Anna -- Sunday, July 07, 2002 -- 08:22:44 PMA place to post about what we've seen recently, in the theatre or on video.
This thread is tagged: movies(All users will see what tags exist for a thread. Please tag carefully!)
As you may have read in TT, I am sick as a dog and spent last night watching movies. I saw The Mothman, which scared the bejeezus out of me for the first hour or so and then changed premises on me. The appeal for me is that it was filmed in Pittsburgh and co-stars Laura Linney, who I love.
Then I watched Serendipity, in which John Cusack plays John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale, who was so splendid in Cold Comfort Farm, should be ashamed of herself. It was light, which I needed, but there was no spark between Cusack and Beckinsale. Next Step Wonderland did this kind of story so much better.
Finally, Vanilla Sky. Interesting premise but Crowe should stick to the lighter stuff and not worry about Art. It was way too heavy handed, and although Tom Cruise's character was supposed to be shallow and vain, Tom Cruise himself is too shallow and vain to give any kind of depth or subtlety to the role. I have a feeling the original version is so much better.
Good thread concept!
Kate Beckinsale sucks. Always has.
Is Vanilla Sky the one based on Open Your Eyes or something like that? I didn't see Vanilla but I saw Open Your Eyes and it was pretty interesting, the consort, little guy and I had a lively debate over what it all meant at breakfast the next morning.
I loved Beckinsale in Cold Comfort Farm, but I've been disappointed in all subsequent performances.
The first thing I saw her in was Much Ado About Nothing.
Haven't seen that one.
We watched Fools Rush In last night. We expected it to suck, and it did.
I thought the whole Michael Keaton low comedy subplot was the worst thing about MAAN, but I agree that the "sweet young lovers" were dreary.
I loved the whole movie, but then I'm the world's least discriminating Shakespeare watcher. I'd probably go see Jim Nabors as Hamlet, and like it.
Recent rentals and my takes: Moulin Rouge (over-the-top, silly, loved it), Sexy Beast (good performances, but overlong and opaque in parts), The Matrix (fun but forgettable).
>She was the worst thing, next to Robert Sean Leonard, about Much Ado About Nothing. Really annoying, those two were.
I would call Keanu the worst thing, the poor guy. I have no idea what Ken and Emma were thinking in casting him.
We have Mumford to watch tonight.
The Tao of Steve, Free Enterprise, High Fidelity
(On your instigation, Cal, and DH loved Tao of Steve - and I have been pondering the differences in portrayed relationships. High Fidelity is annoying me even more now, even though I love John Cusack, and I love the whole musik geek stuff).
Pushing Tin (fun enough). Wonder Boys (a second time, I quite enjoy that), Young Fronkonsteenfrankenstein, because it just is still so funny.
Oceans Eleven (I did tell people this, didn't I), which was a fun caper. Zoolander which is fluff but alright if you want fluff.
Spinal Tap is on the DVD right now, and I will watch the out-takes, because I miss the "lead bass" and "rhythm bass" and all that which was in the original movie, and then edited out I think, and which I think is a brilliant and wonderful movie, because it is still so fucking true it is almost painful - heh.
I couldn't make it thru Training Day and Made (I didn't like Singles that much either, though hubster loved it).
I thought Keanu was fine - all he had to do was stomp around looking surly, and he did a more than adequate job of that. Mind you, those men's costumes - the leather pants and cute little waistcoats - were a bit, uh, absorbing, so it might just be that I missed some of the finer points of his delivery (g)
Oh my lord, I forgot about Keanu! And then the best part, where Denzel and Keanu are brothers. I kept thinking it was like that Muppet movie where Fozzie and Kermit were twins. "Which one are you again?" "The one with the hat." "Oh, that's right."
Keanu's voice is his curse. He's actually a good actor, has consistently made interesting choices.
Ase--what did you think about Free Enterprise?
Did you listen to the commentaries on O11? They were quite entertaining.
Oh, Wonder Boys - Stephanie, I keep meaning to tell you I finally saw the film version. The actual story, as we know, is kind of tiresome, but wow, does the film itself capture the essence of Pittsburgh.
It is a great Pittsburgh movie. My dad is from there, and I spent a lot of my childhood summers in the area.
I really enjoyed it, being a trekkie 'n all (though not to that degree). And I was glad he found himself a girl that he had things in common with and who finally had the good sense to come back to him (like, what's a little electricity outage between friends).
A little - caricatured, I guess in places (oh - um - of course). what I mean is things like the 30,000 engagement ring/50 pairs of shoes, vs very wonderful sound-equipment/lost of geek-toys (though I know lots of the lots of geek-toys types of both genders).
And, man, I love rap-caesar.
And the mock-Kirk monologue (man he was good).
And - are those guys really 30? They looked so damned young!
(Of course, I overheard a conversation yesterday that I eventually understood involved my younger good-looking aussie hub, but where he was refered to as "an older guy with glasses with a business down on 3rd". I guess to a 23 year old 38 is an older guy - heh).
Did not listen to the commentary. It was one of the expensive 1 day rentals from a local place. Really wished I had. I spent some time listening to the commentary to Tao of Steve (and zoolander, but don't tell anybody).
It's kind of striking how different relationships were portrayed in those three movies.
Cal, I didn't know you were familiar w/ Pittsburgh.
The best part was how it snowed, then rained, then snowed again, and no one shoveled the sidewalks or plowed the streets. Now that's authentic Pittsburgh.
Anna, it's been a long while since I was there, but it looks much the same. The particular sort of brick in the houses is my most vivid memory.
BTW, if you guys aren't reading What's Next and Admin, make sure you check those threads out; feedback on policy, etc, is good.
Ase--I think that's one of Shatner's best performances. It is not easy to self-parody; only Shatner, George Hamilton, and ack, the Batman guy, what's his name? do it well.
Hamilton and Adam west, is it? didn't make it across the gap, so though I know about them now, neither of them are entrenched in my mind the same way as Shatner is.
He's great in it. I liked him in the last Star Trek movie he was in also, which also had the self-parody kind of. (Is there a new one in the making?)