I have finesse! I have finesse coming out of my bottom!

Anya ,'Showtime'


Buffista Movies 3: Panned and Scanned  

A place to talk about movies--Old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.


Gris - Feb 06, 2005 11:40:02 am PST #8902 of 10001
Hey. New board.

I am very much with ita on the Closer response. Enjoy is NOT the correct word, but it is worth seeing.

I also found the adaptation pretty un-stagey in many ways. I mean, the dialogue felt like a play, but it wasn't a Wait Until Dark straight-up stage-to-screen movement, either. There were lots of sets.

I don't think that Alice is guaranteed to have died. In fact, until I found out she died in the play, I didn't even see it as a possibility. Sure, she's walking out into traffic, but it's exactly the same thing she did in the first scene of the movie. The vibe I got was that Alice was basically unchanged by the events of the movie, a catalyst for the changes of the others. Really, her situation is exactly like it was at the beginning of the film: she's hot, she's walking down a street and guys are staring, she's ignoring the world around her enough to put herself into idiotic danger. She ran to a new city to get away from a guy she once loved and no longer loved. For her, everything was exactly the same. That's all the last scene drove into my head. That, and, "Yes, we the filmmakers are aware that Natalie Portman is incredibly fucking hot."


Sue - Feb 06, 2005 1:24:12 pm PST #8903 of 10001
hip deep in pie

I did not like Julia Roberts' character -- don't know if it was her or the role, but even as I couldn't respect Dan, I could get what drew women to him. Anna? A million times not.

Yeah, I didn't have any sense of an inner life in her that attracted these men to her. And she and Jude had no chemistry, so their hookup baffled me a little.


§ ita § - Feb 06, 2005 1:46:07 pm PST #8904 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Nova, the guys weren't staring at her in the beginning of the movie -- just Dan.


Matt the Bruins fan - Feb 06, 2005 1:47:31 pm PST #8905 of 10001
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand

I thought that was kind of the point - that she was cold and flat and yet the men were still attracted to her because of surface. (Admittedly this might have been better carried off had Julia been her 15 year-younger self rather than the current haggard version...). The actress I saw in that role on stage played it so reminiscent of 4th Season Cordelia that I was almost pushed out of the moment.


§ ita § - Feb 06, 2005 1:48:18 pm PST #8906 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

See, if we're talking surface -- NATALIE PORTMAN SURFACE. If you're talking only surface, then, sure Anna wins. But -- ick.


bon bon - Feb 06, 2005 2:15:30 pm PST #8907 of 10001
It's five thousand for kissing, ten thousand for snuggling... End of list.

I saw & enjoyed. Well enjoyed except I'm waiting for the inevitable adultery by Bob. I'm not sure we're necssarily supposed to get what draws men to Anna-- their motivations don't seem that pure at all.


§ ita § - Feb 06, 2005 3:00:10 pm PST #8908 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

I don't need to sympathise with what drew them to Anna. Just get the impression that anything did. She's a placeholder for an actual person. A MacGuffin walking.

Trailers: Okay, see, the problem with Guess Who is Ashton Kutcher. Also, the fact that it's titled Guess Who. Bernie Mac still looks funny, though. The problem with Monster In Law is J-Lo. Also the fact that the trailer aired right after Guess Who, and the idea of Jane Fonda rejecting this Hispanic interloper now seems both inevitable and really not funny. The trailer for Beauty Shop made the movie look lots more fun than I'd have thought. But the trailer for The Pacifier looked actually funny. I'm worried. The problem with Cinderella Man is that it doesn't seem Renee Zelleweger is going to be punched repeatedly in the face during the film. If she is, I might watch.


Jessica - Feb 06, 2005 3:02:21 pm PST #8909 of 10001
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

The problem with Cinderella Man is that it doesn't seem Renee Zelleweger is going to be punched repeatedly in the face during the film.

Ha! DH (who'd seen this trailer already) was cracking up watching my face light up at Russell Crowe and Paul Giamatti, and then crumble at Renee. It's just mean to put her in the trailer so late.


Thomash - Feb 06, 2005 7:20:34 pm PST #8910 of 10001
I have a plan.

So, if anybody else was watching the Superbowl tonight, did you catch the previews for 'War of the Worlds' and 'Batman'?

Very exciting and very pretty!


Polter-Cow - Feb 06, 2005 7:23:23 pm PST #8911 of 10001
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!

Yes! The new Batmobile looks sweet, and War of the Worlds has lots of destruction.