Polter-Cow, I am so very sorry, but you are now DEAD TO ME.
It just struck me as yet another corrupt cop story, and I like my corrupt cop stories with more meat in them (take, for instance,
L.A. Confidential
). In its defense, I've been regularly falling asleep during everything for the last week or so, and the library DVD is scratched, causing it to skip terribly at points. It failed to draw me in. For classic noir, give me
Sunset Boulevard.
It has a
monkey.
That best-ever-in-the-history-of-anything long, long opening shot!
Okay, so it was kind of cool, in a "Wow, how did he manage to pull this off way back then?" kind of way, but the actual
content
of the shot was disappointingly mundane. I think the opening shot of
Halloween
is fair competition.
I just saw
Cube,
which finally broke my streak of meh. A bunch of people wake up trapped in this grid of cube-shaped rooms, and they try to get out. Except there are booby traps everywhere. So they begin to search for patterns in the chaos, all the while trying to understand why they're there in the first place.
It's a great little idea for a movie because not only does it come with a built-in metaphor for human existence, but you get to use the same set over and over!
The first half especially handles the metaphor well, often very subtly, and in the second half, it pretty much shifts to full-out thriller mode. Oh, and it's mathy!
The acting is subpar at times, and the characterizations are a bit wonky (I wasn't quite sure who I was supposed to find likable, because they were all unlikable at times, but then again, that's people for you), but it's definitely worth checking out. (There's a sequel starring Kari Matchett (Beth from
Wonderfalls
), but it looks to be a sequel in the "Let's remake the movie with totally different characters!" sense...and there appears to be a third one coming out soon. But this movie doesn't need a sequel.)
Just got back from Ju-on (The Grudge). I thought it was totally silly. It had suspense and some creepy images but overall, silliness. And I scare easily. The entire audience was laughing at certain parts that I'm sure weren't supposed to be humorous. I'll still see the SMG remake cause I want SMG to keep getting roles but now I'm not really looking forward to it.
I'm with you on Touch of Evil, JZ. I think Orson Welles is brilliant.
That best-ever-in-the-history-of-anything long, long opening shot!
You mean the shot that goes accross the border into Tiajuana? Wasn't that shot in Venice, or does it just look like it?
Just got back from Ju-on (The Grudge). I thought it was totally silly. It had suspense and some creepy images but overall, silliness.
Oh, GC. I loved it. I thought the movie was very effective for its microscopic budget, and creepy as all fuck. We'll have to compare notes when we see each other next, and you can tell me what you like in your horror movies.
Wasn't that shot in Venice, or does it just look like it?
Yep, although the sequence of the shot is it comes from Tiajuana into Venice.
I don't understand people who liked
Cube.
It seemed to me like a pretty typical gory horror movie. Also, don't watch the second one.
Your hotness update: Orlando Bloom: hot. Christian Bale: hot.
I'm probably the last Buffista in the free world to see Spiderman 2 and I know the conversation has moved on, but saw it, loved it. I will now forever hear the Spiderman song as sung by the plucky violin woman. And I don't find JF hot, but I did find TM hot in this movie which is a little disturbing because he's always creeped me out a bit in the past. The astronaut patsy that KD was going to marry. . . now he was hot.
So what's supposed to be so damn good about The Triplets of Belleville? I just watched it and I'm pretty meh about it. Also meh on Touch of Evil
I just saw Cube, which finally broke my streak of meh.
It's like he's speaking English, and yet I can't seem to make out the meaning.
DH and I saw Vanity Fair last night. I haven't read the book, so I can't comment on it as an adaptation. As a movie, it's a very well-made bit of fluff, but I wanted more substance. (It also felt very rushed in places, almost as if they were trying to cram 900+ pages of text into 2 hours and 20 minutes of film. Oh, wait...)
It just struck me as yet another corrupt cop story
This is so. The appeal of the movie, if you're to find any, is in the baroque grossness of the world -- outraged Charlton Heston, bloated Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich being old and cynical, Mercedes McCambridge as a baby dyke. I tend to prefer my noir lean and understated, so
Touch of Evil
isn't especially high on my list. On balance, I'll almost always choose something from the beginning of the noir cycle over something from the end of it.
That best-ever-in-the-history-of-anything long, long opening shot!
I'll also agree with P-C that the opening shot suffers from Forrest Gump-itis, which is a shot more interesting for its technical ability than for its content. While I can appreciate form, it's the content that matters to me. (Also, I think it was an invitation to generations of film students who thereafter never met a trick shot they couldn't indulge.)
It also may help to look at Touch of Evil as a B movie-- it's often said it was the best B movie ever made. It's pretty campy in parts.
