'Shindig'
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.
The fight scenes in The Matrix were among the weakest parts of it for me. They might have held the shots, but there's only so much you can ask of people who've only been training a few months, no matter how intensely.
By weak I don't mean very weak--I really enjoyed the movie. But I'd definitely grade the actor accomplishments in TPB much higher. Dude. Ambidextrous. Cool.
I went trawling for data on how long they trained for The Princess Bride vs. The Matrix. Didn't find it, but I found this sweet bit of trivia:
During the filming of some scenes, the weather became markedly cold for Robin Wright Penn. André the Giant helped her by placing one of his hands over her head; his hands were so large that one would entirely cover the top of her head, keeping her warm.
They talk about the training on one of the commentary tracks, but I'd bollix something for sure if I tried to regurgitate it.
I think it's easier to train two people for one fight scene than it is a number of people for a number of scenes, but then again--ambidextrous. Cool.
Awww, Andre's so cute.
This one's for Sean, Chow Yun Fat's awesome Full Contact in a vid set to White Zombie.
Sweeet.
ETA: Works really well as a vid.
I mist up over Andre whenever he is mentioned. What a precious spirit in such an incongruous package.
The Special Edition DVD of Princess Bride had that tidbit about Andre keeping her head warm. The doc on the disc has lots of good stuff like that--my favorite was Chris Sarandon telling about how his little boys came to visit the set, and the youngest was really into the idea of meeting Andre. "Do you really work with a giant, Daddy? Is he a real giant? How tall is he, Daddy? Can he pick you up?" And then, when they came around the corner of Andre's trailer and the little boy saw him stand up to greet them, he shrieked and went hiding behind his dad's legs. He did warm up to him quickly, though.
Cool Andre factoid--when he was a little boy, he couldn't ride in the school bus due to his size, so he got a ride from the man in town with the biggest car. The man's name was Samuel Beckett (yes, that Beckett!).
Samuel Beckett had an interesting life. (He was a fighter in the French resistance movement among other things.)
ETA: Works really well as a vid.
It does. Everybody should see Full Contact. It's probably my favorite Chow Yun Fat movie. Plus it's extremely slashy.
What a precious spirit in such an incongruous package.
Huh.
I'd never thought of it that way. But I didn't know he was a wrestler until some time after his death.
eta:
Now I'm earwormed with Fezzik saying "It's no my fault being the biggest and the strongest."
Cool Andre factoid--when he was a little boy, he couldn't ride in the school bus due to his size, so he got a ride from the man in town with the biggest car. The man's name was Samuel Beckett (yes, that Beckett!).
I heard this story recently in a tv documentary on Beckett. The man was awe-inspiring.