Australia (2008)
8/10
Oh, i loved it!
Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
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Mister Tee
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No -- it was her earlier book about the Fitzgeralds and Kennedys. There were also some murmurs about her FDR book.Okri wrote:Was it in her Lincoln book? Because I bought it a while ago but a couple attempts at reading it came for nought.Mister Tee wrote:Don't the filmmakers realize when you don't credit material the audience assumes it's yours? Doris Kearns Goodwin caught hell for much the same thing.
I find Kearns Goodwin wildly overrated. I fairly enjoyed her Lyndon Johnson book, which at least had the advantage of first-hand knowledge (she'd worked for him in the waning days of '67/'68). But her insights are generally of the most banal sort imaginable. Her book about rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers reads like a children's book
All of this, of course, makes her a natural for the Sunday morning pundit shows.
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anonymous1980
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kaytodd wrote:Seeing this again makes me optimistic about The Lovely Bones. Probably the most memorable parts of Heavenly Creatures were how, at just the right times, the audience is taken inside the complex fantasy world the girls had created. It is done repeatedly and seamlessly and it looks great despite the low budget. The Lovely Bones combines the realistic portrayal of a tragedy and how it affects a family with the supernatural.
The Lovely Bones is such a relentlessly sentimental novel that I'm not expecting another Heavenly Creatures at all - I'm kind of dreading this film, to be honest. I just know the Oscars are going to lap it up.
Edited By rudeboy on 1246780869
Marley and Me (Frankel) - 7
Maybe the greatest Hallmark film of all time. Did not expect to enjoy this movie. It is as paint-by-numbers as you can get but features a strongly-driven narrative, a very good performance by Owen Wilson, and my dog is the hospital.
Strange Days (Bigelow) - 6.5/10
Difficult to gauge. The first act is dynamite. And 45 minutes long. It features an enjoyably batshit protag (Fiennes) and largely squanders him. Buddy movies and future noirs are innately incompatible, so that hurts a lot of it, but it's vision of 90's apocalypse is engrossing. It's a great time capsule riff. A big missed opportunity but strong in parts.
Maybe the greatest Hallmark film of all time. Did not expect to enjoy this movie. It is as paint-by-numbers as you can get but features a strongly-driven narrative, a very good performance by Owen Wilson, and my dog is the hospital.
Strange Days (Bigelow) - 6.5/10
Difficult to gauge. The first act is dynamite. And 45 minutes long. It features an enjoyably batshit protag (Fiennes) and largely squanders him. Buddy movies and future noirs are innately incompatible, so that hurts a lot of it, but it's vision of 90's apocalypse is engrossing. It's a great time capsule riff. A big missed opportunity but strong in parts.
"How's the despair?"
Was it in her Lincoln book? Because I bought it a while ago but a couple attempts at reading it came for nought.Mister Tee wrote:Don't the filmmakers realize when you don't credit material the audience assumes it's yours? Doris Kearns Goodwin caught hell for much the same thing.
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Fallen Angels
I think I liked this one a little less then Ashes of Time Redux. I great sense of humour keeps it afloat (I was giggling throughout the Kaneshiro storyline), Kar-Wai's typically beautiful direction gets a workout (I don't think it's his best though) and it's awesome to see a film where you genuinely have no idea where it's heading.
Heavenly Creatures 7/10 (dir. Peter Jackson)
Saw it last night for the first time since its initial video release in 1995. Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet are perfect. The way their characters changed when they were in each other's presence is striking. Winslet is introduced as a poised and the perfect young lady but when she is in Lynskey's presence she becomes a giddy girl taken to flights of extreme fantasy. Her character's natural creativity and imaginaton start off as something positive but this changes as she becomes closer to Lynskey.
I was even more impressed with Lynskey's performance. Away from Winslet she is a severe, scowling, awkward and unacctractive girl. In Winslet's presence, without any apparent change in her makeup or hair, she becomes a lovely young woman. The change that Winslet brings to Lynskey's character comes from inside Lynskey and I think she does very good work.
We do not spend a lot of time with the parents but the actors do a good job of showing helplessness and dread as they see their daughters change and they either show anguish or choose to look the other way and assume they are in a phase they will pass through. Like most parents of teenagers, they know something must be done but do not know what to do or, in the case of Winslet's mother (a well-known psychologist) is too wrapped up in her own needs to pay close attention.
Seeing this again makes me optimistic about The Lovely Bones. Probably the most memorable parts of Heavenly Creatures were how, at just the right times, the audience is taken inside the complex fantasy world the girls had created. It is done repeatedly and seamlessly and it looks great despite the low budget. The Lovely Bones combines the realistic portrayal of a tragedy and how it affects a family with the supernatural.
Saw it last night for the first time since its initial video release in 1995. Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet are perfect. The way their characters changed when they were in each other's presence is striking. Winslet is introduced as a poised and the perfect young lady but when she is in Lynskey's presence she becomes a giddy girl taken to flights of extreme fantasy. Her character's natural creativity and imaginaton start off as something positive but this changes as she becomes closer to Lynskey.
I was even more impressed with Lynskey's performance. Away from Winslet she is a severe, scowling, awkward and unacctractive girl. In Winslet's presence, without any apparent change in her makeup or hair, she becomes a lovely young woman. The change that Winslet brings to Lynskey's character comes from inside Lynskey and I think she does very good work.
We do not spend a lot of time with the parents but the actors do a good job of showing helplessness and dread as they see their daughters change and they either show anguish or choose to look the other way and assume they are in a phase they will pass through. Like most parents of teenagers, they know something must be done but do not know what to do or, in the case of Winslet's mother (a well-known psychologist) is too wrapped up in her own needs to pay close attention.
Seeing this again makes me optimistic about The Lovely Bones. Probably the most memorable parts of Heavenly Creatures were how, at just the right times, the audience is taken inside the complex fantasy world the girls had created. It is done repeatedly and seamlessly and it looks great despite the low budget. The Lovely Bones combines the realistic portrayal of a tragedy and how it affects a family with the supernatural.
The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving. It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living. Oliver Wendell Holmes
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Mister Tee
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There's not much to say about The International. It starts off in full stride, doesn't really slow down much, and has some decent action staging. But plot developments (esp. an assassination) are way too predictable, and there's nothing resembling a satisfying finish.
In fact, the only really noteworthy element is the most egregious example of plagiarism I've seen in many a year. Armin Mueller-Stahl has a small speech -- beginning "None of us can help the things life has done to us.." -- that is a direct lift from Long Day's Journey Into Night. (I've had the passage committed to memory for years, because I love it so much) He quotes it at such length that I assumed, at the end, he'd credit Eugene O'Neill, but no dice. Don't the filmmakers realize when you don't credit material the audience assumes it's yours? Doris Kearns Goodwin caught hell for much the same thing.
In fact, the only really noteworthy element is the most egregious example of plagiarism I've seen in many a year. Armin Mueller-Stahl has a small speech -- beginning "None of us can help the things life has done to us.." -- that is a direct lift from Long Day's Journey Into Night. (I've had the passage committed to memory for years, because I love it so much) He quotes it at such length that I assumed, at the end, he'd credit Eugene O'Neill, but no dice. Don't the filmmakers realize when you don't credit material the audience assumes it's yours? Doris Kearns Goodwin caught hell for much the same thing.
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Precious Doll
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The Proposal (2009) Anne Fletcher 5/10
The Gay Deception (1935) William Wyler 6/10
The Fox and the Child (2007) Luc Jacaquet 6/10
The Children (2008) Tom Shankland 1/10
Thin Ice (1937) Sidney Lanfield 2/10
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) Michael Bay 1/10
After 90 minutes of this complete mess of a film and got up and left. The first time I have resorted to this in about 10 years.
The Gay Deception (1935) William Wyler 6/10
The Fox and the Child (2007) Luc Jacaquet 6/10
The Children (2008) Tom Shankland 1/10
Thin Ice (1937) Sidney Lanfield 2/10
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) Michael Bay 1/10
After 90 minutes of this complete mess of a film and got up and left. The first time I have resorted to this in about 10 years.
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)