Remade with Dudley Moore, IIRC.
Look, you got a little stabbed the other day. That's bound to make anyone a mite ornery.
Mal ,'Ariel'
Buffista Movies 4: Straight to Video
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.
Jim - Sep 26, 2005 6:51:07 am PDT #7614 of 10002
Ficht nicht mit Der Raketemensch!
Hayden - Sep 26, 2005 6:57:49 am PDT #7615 of 10002
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
Well, I bet that wasn't nearly as funny.
Jim - Sep 26, 2005 7:10:53 am PDT #7616 of 10002
Ficht nicht mit Der Raketemensch!
I suspect not, but I bet his conducting was better.
Sean K - Sep 26, 2005 7:17:04 am PDT #7617 of 10002
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty
Well, I bet that wasn't nearly as funny.
It wasn't. And I say that having never seen the Preston Sturges version.
Hayden - Sep 26, 2005 7:46:48 am PDT #7618 of 10002
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
I suspect not, but I bet his conducting was better.
I dunno. Rex really loses himself in his conducting.
And I say that having never seen the Preston Sturges version.
As I've said before, I think the Coens took all of their screwballity directly from Sturges. If you like their comedies (or even their dramas), you'd probably love Sturges's movies.
DavidS - Sep 26, 2005 8:11:32 am PDT #7619 of 10002
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
As I've said before, I think the Coens took all of their screwballity directly from Sturges.
Some of their fast talking characters - like Tony Shaloub in The Man Who Wasn't There, and Barton Fink - seem more Hawksian to me. I also think they have a big dose of Nathaniel West in their work.
I saw a big chunk of Stardust Memories this morning before work. It made me miss Jessica Harper. She's probably one of my favorite actresses of the 70s. Plus, of course, Charlotte Rampling, which is always good.
Hayden - Sep 26, 2005 8:13:11 am PDT #7620 of 10002
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
There's a lot of fast-talkin' in the Sturges, too. I don't know how much of it he got from Hawks.
Frankenbuddha - Sep 27, 2005 5:06:28 am PDT #7621 of 10002
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
Jessica, I just read fonebone's review of the new Cronenberg. I was looking forward to it before, and I'm really looking forward to it now.
Volans - Sep 27, 2005 9:29:30 pm PDT #7622 of 10002
move out and draw fire
In Raq's A Year Later Movie Reviews, we watched Lemony Snicket last night.
The good: Art Direction. Sunny. Liam Aiken, who played Klaus. The end credits. Sunny. Using three books to get enough story for a movie.
The bad: Jim Carrey. The music (except for the theme for "The Littlest Elf" which was perfect). Jude Law. The pacing. Jim Carrey. Using three books to get enough story for a movie.
I have to say that I didn't enjoy the books. I tried, a couple times, as I thought they were exactly something I should like. But they were too contrived, with nothing genuine in them. All artifice, no honesty. For me, they failed as books, but I thought they might make an okay movie. Not quite. The movie reminded me of the Myst computer game series: beautifully rendered environments, where you have little micro-adventures in one and move on to the next, with little or no honest human interaction.
The boy who played Klaus went a long way toward reversing that - he played his role well and with honesty and authenticity. His scenes were almost like a real movie.
Sunny was great, much better in a movie format than in a book format.
The whole thing might have been salvaged if they hadn't cast Jim Carrey, or hadn't had him be all zany, all the time. But I doubt it, as the other adult characters were also played as contrived charicatures.
The end credits were really pretty though, and almost as long as the movie themselves.
Kate P. - Sep 28, 2005 4:09:52 am PDT #7623 of 10002
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love
I watched half the movie on an international flight, then fell asleep. But I do have to say, as someone read the first book and wasn't captivated by it, that listening to them on tape (read by Tim Curry! with music by the Gothic Archies!) was a really fun experience. Also, the plot picks up quite a bit around book 5 or 6, and becomes more of a conspiracy/mystery story instead of an extended Edward Gorey ripoff homage.