Jasmine Blue, an incredible well paced Woody Allen movie about a Park Avenue matron who hits rock bottom.
Jasmine Blue, an incredible well paced Woody Allen movie about a Park Avenue matron who hits rock bottom.
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Behind the Candelabra; a biopic about Liberace, the once famous pianist. I was surprised to learn it was for-TV in the US. Great performances by both M. Douglas and M. Damon (though I think I'll have to conclude he was misscast as the person he was playing was 17 at the beginning of the film I found out), good movie, though as I seem to have often with movies nowadays; it could have lost 10 minutes easily with the result probably better than the product I sat through.
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Aye I saw that in the cinema. Enjoyable, and great performances from Douglas and Damon.Originally Posted by Hazir
Didn't realise it was straight to TV in the US ...? I wonder why.
It was advertised quite a bit here on its release, billboards and tv adverts etc ...
I thought it was an HBO production, so not a straight to TV, but cable.
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And how is HBO not TV? I find it odd to act as if it's a different medium just because it's paid for by a different structure.
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totally different structure in funding, quality, and viewing audience. AFAIK. Game of Thrones for example is something that would have never been made for "TV", but is very much an HBO series. Just like the last season of arrested development is a Netflix series even though its a tv show I can watch on my tv.
To get HBO over here you have to pay for cable, then pay for HBO. "TV" is considered largely over the air and/or basic cable channels.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
Only in America then. What you watch on TV is considered TV in the rest of the world.
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Then I guess we have a better understanding that TVs are more than TV
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
Cable is mostly outside the purview of the FCC (thank Glod) otherwise this stuff would not get made.
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We don't have an FCC overhere either. Shows made by HBO e.g. True Blood are available on FTA overe here as well.
Back to movies; Elysium. Really such a shame. All the way through it you can't help but thinking 'this could have been such a great movie'. But as it is, it doesn't convince, at all. The dystopia doesn't convince, and neither do the motives of the pro- and antagonists.
Oh, and Jody's accent; that's a french woman speaking immaculate English but not being quite comfortable with it.
Last edited by Hazir; 08-09-2013 at 11:48 PM.
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Common tell the truth, you just got tricked by all those HBO commercials.
News flash, just because a commercial says something, it doesn't make it true.
We get the same programs over air as though cable. Over cable you just get more (simply though the fact that the bandwidth is higher).
"Wer Visionen hat, sollte zum Arzt gehen." - Helmut Schmidt
Wolverine, not very good not very bad, a bit too long and you really see the end coming from like 500km away. Which begs the question; how you ride 500km on a bike and still manage to arrive the same evening?
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I don't understand their fixation on wolverine. This is what...the 3rd movie that's been focused on him? Their are so many better xmen without daddy issues that would make for a kick ass story. Gambit for example. That gives you a fallible character, access to dark storylines, a bond level ladies man, Sinister, the Thieves Guild, Rogue, and more explosions than you can shake a staff at.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
I think it's quite simple; the actor playing the role of wolverine draws in millions all by himself.
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Have DiCaprio play Gambit.
Hope is the denial of reality
In stead of Taylor Kitsch ?
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I don't think he'd sell on name alone.
Hope is the denial of reality
Finally saw Cloud Atlas. Now that is a movie that engenders mixed feelings.
The bad:
Someone who didn't read the book is likely to be lost immediately and not regain much during the entire film. The rapid cuts between the different stories is very hard to follow if you don't know what's going to happen already. Also, it suffered from some of the same issues as the book - too much surface in each story, not enough substance. Some of the storylines were edited for brevity in a fairly reasonable manner, but others missed out on the whole point through the excessive editing - especially the Orison of Sonmi IMO. Also, the climax came too early. Finally, the music wasn't bad, but it should have been superlative given its importance to the storyline.
They also clobbered you over the head with the underlying theme of the novel instead of allowing the more subtle interplay of stories to tell you on its own.
The good:
Fantastic cast who pulled off a lot of different characters with a great deal of subtlety and sophistication. The makeup was generally good (though at times for the extreme age/race changes it got a bit obvious; yellowface was pretty poor, Sonmis weren't identical, etc.), and there were a few of the characters who I had to look up afterwards to see who actually played them! (Halle Berry's Jocasta Ayrs and Hugo Weaving's Nurse Noakes were particularly startling.) The number of cast in drag at various points was astonishing, and on occasion I didn't have an inkling - though I must admit that men do not make very attractive women most of the time.
The scene transitions were almost exclusively seamless and brilliant, shifting through centuries and in between tense plot points without missing a beat (in the case of the music, literally; a masterpiece of sound editing if I ever saw one). This is one of the few movies I've seen where the interleaved storylines are not a gimmick - or if it is, it's done with so much panache that I don't care. I had no idea how they could weave these stories together given the novel's unique structure, but they pulled it off. It's complex and long and unlikely to make sense unless you've read the novel... but if you know more or less what's going on, it's very clever.
The set design and visual style somehow managed to differentiate between each storyline while still giving a coherent gestalt. Cinematography was generally competent, though there were a few parts I thought could have been done a bit better.
Overall? I'd say read the novel, then watch the film. It's probably interesting to watch the film with someone who had no idea what they're getting into, but it's likely frustrating for the poor guinea pig. Films like this don't come around very often, and they're worth watching even if they are flawed at times.
He beats DiCaprio on shoulder hips ratio hands down.
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I don't agree, I saw this movie in a sneak preview which means that at the moment the movie started I had no idea what I was about to see. I also hadn't even heard of the novel. My experience that the movie pulls you in quite effectively. The hints about the interconnectedness of the stories are subtle enough but not too subtle to miss them. What I particularly liked about it, is that all sub-stories have their own distinct style without making the total a hotchpotch.
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subtle my ass. they beat you over the head with the whole interconnectedness concept. I mentioned that when wiggin posted about the book in the book thread. the movie is anything but subtle in its points. it can't afford to be subtle because of how it purposely flows from story to story in an attempt you keep you barely confused enough to sit through the full 3 hours.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
Yeah, Hazir the whole slavery/power theme was a bit heavy-handed, as was the connection nonsense. Subtle it was not; doesn't make it a bad film, though.
Damn.
I had been looking forward to elysium and i liked it. Most of the actors did a good job apart from a summat cartoonish jodie
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Saw Elysium (IMAX) with my sons. The vote was 2 to 1 against The Butler.
Watched Scarface for the nth time during "Mob Week". Even by today's standards it was quite bloody, gory, graphic, disturbing.
The thirties or eighties one?
Keep on keepin' the beat alive!
Saw Wreck-It Ralph the other day. I didn't really know what to expect, but I really enjoyed it. Lots of amusing video game references, the animators got to play with many different art styles because of the movie's premise, and a basic touching story at its heart. Some of the voice acting was fantastic - particularly Jane Lynch and Alan Tudyk - though I felt Silverman's signature rasp got a bit grating.
Saturday : Don Jon, I really liked this movie. They actually pulled off dealing with porn-addiction without getting preachy. 5-star acting
Sunday : Wolf, a Dutch movie, which most of you will see this, which is a shame. It's about the live of a second-generation Moroccan immigrant, hovering on the line between a straight life and crime. But for a single moment in which you get forcefed the 'Wolf' from the title this movie keeps you interested from beginning to end. Funny thing is that I was expecting a lot less than I got in the end. Forgot to mention it's in black-and-white, which could have turned out gimmicky, but really works here.
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