movies

[JL21]

Finally watched "Shutter Island"

More good work by Scorcese. Can't say I "enjoyed" due to the dark theme, but was definitely glued to it and glad I watched. I agree with earlier posts about acknowleding the great use of background music. The setting and the capture of it was good too.

I can see why it got thrashed by critics.

[SHOW]

I guess they didn't like the complete turning of the story outside-in. Probably could have given more clues questioning his mental state rather than a complete lifting of the cloud so late in the flick. I had no clue. Kind of reminded me of "Beautiful Mind" with how it switched it up.

Heh... usually the criticism is the exact opposite- that folks felt it was too obvious and they could see it coming from a mile away.

[Freed Roger]

Finally watched "Shutter Island"

More good work by Scorcese. Can't say I "enjoyed" due to the dark theme, but was definitely glued to it and glad I watched. I agree with earlier posts about acknowleding the great use of background music. The setting and the capture of it was good too.

I can see why it got thrashed by critics.

[SHOW]

I guess they didn't like the complete turning of the story outside-in. Probably could have given more clues questioning his mental state rather than a complete lifting of the cloud so late in the flick. I had no clue. Kind of reminded me of "Beautiful Mind" with how it switched it up.

Heh... usually the criticism is the exact opposite- that folks felt it was too obvious and they could see it coming from a mile away.

I'm guilty as being naive. FWIW - I knew very little about it going in. I took it for face value -Scorcese having fun making a horror type, (withthe believability bending that goes along with that), rather than a psychological thriller.

In retrospect, yeah you could see it a mile a way.

[PujolJunkie]

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4152690201/

The first trailer for The Social Network.

I'm actually excited for this movie. Weird.

[go birds]

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4152690201/

The first trailer for The Social Network.

I'm actually excited for this movie. Weird.

I'm a huge fan of David Fincher and was kinda shocked to find out he took on a project like this. Just didn't seem like his style.

But i don't doubt he can pull it off. He hasn't screwed up anything yet, imo.

[Hudler]

There was a really neat 2 hour Jaws special on Biography a couple weeks back. Some interesting tidbits I didn't know.

Shaw was actually drunk during the Indianapolis scene. Got permission from Spielberg to have a couple drinks to "loosen up" and when he showed up to film he was plastered.

The budget and shooting time were tripled and the studio nearly canned it.

The script was never complete. They were writing a lot of scenes and dialogue the night before shoots.

Dreyfuss was interviewed before it's release and thought it was going to be terrible. Kept insisting that it wasn't Steven's fault and that he did a great job and the studio butchered it.

I think it was actually that Shaw got drunk for the Indianapolis scene and couldn't do it, came back the next day sober and apoligized then hit it out of the park.
If the mechanical shark had worked this movie never would've been the hit it was IMO.
I found it very interesting that Shaw was constantly trying to get into Dreyfuss' head between scenes.

[go birds]

Watched A River Runs Through It and was reminded that it's a great freakin movie.

Also made me realize how old i'm getting...

It came out in 1992. Wow, 18 years since i first saw it.

[Leroy]

I watched Ghost Ship on AMC this weekend. What a [expletive] burger.

[heyzeus]

Continuing my "movies i really should've seen by now but never did so now I'm gonna" series:

I watched Do The Right Thing last night. Really a quite lovely movie; there are times when the film itself pulses like a heat mirage, and every interior space perfectly captures the still, red air of a heatwave day. The screenplay is a lot like a stage play - it's episodic in nature, and characters speak in soliloquies.

A lot of it seems dated (especially the really long Rosie Perez "fly girl" dance intro. And I know Fight the Power is a great song, but we hear it approximately 30 times in the movie - Public Enemy had other fine songs too. And the brief early-90s malcolm x/african pride movement seems like an eternity ago now. But everything else in the movie is fresh, often hilarious, and true.

The question of the film is right there in the title, and it deals in questions of race and racism without ever beating you over the head with an answer. What would be doing the right thing? Almost every character has his good and his bad; even the idiots - namely John Turturo's angry, racist chracter - has a moment or two when he's a real person.

My only complaint is that Lee seems to go straight from building up the Sal character, and building up his role in the community for 25 years, right before the (spoiler time) riot that destroys his restaurant. The community's rage at Sal seemed hurried, forced by the pacing of the movie - it's been running a long time when the dramatic crux occurs. But again, a small complaint for a movie that deals so honestly and interestingly in an issue that most movies can't do without moralizing or heavy handedness

It gets 9 taguchimakers out of 10.

[JL21]

That's an AFI Top 100'er. omaha pointed this out to me recently re: "Do the Right Thing". If any of you are familiar with Gus Fring from Breaking Bad:



and have seen "Do the Right Thing":

[heyzeus]

That's an AFI Top 100'er. omaha pointed this out to me recently re: "Do the Right Thing". If any of you are familiar with Gus Fring from Breaking Bad:



and have seen "Do the Right Thing":

Also, the Wire's beleaguered police Commissioner Ervin Burrell appears as one of the old guys sitting on the corner in Do The Right Thing.

Also, a young Martin Lawrence, and of course a young Samuel L. Jackson as the smoove radio DJ.