![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Flicks
Suspect Zero
Film that works somewhere on the to catch a thief principle. Agent Mackelway is on the trail of a serial killer, and trying to redeem an earlier mistake, natch. The latest victim is a serial killer - and the case seems rather too close to home. Certain clues point him towards someone who may or may not be an FBI agent, and a secret programme.
Aaron Eckhart is always watchable as Mackelway, but indie fodder has suited him better over the years - he pulls off Chad in in the company of men which much greater aplomb. Carrie-Anne Moss is meanwhile stuck in a thankless not quite eye candy, not quite mismatched partner role and is wasted. And Sir Ben Kingsley does his psycho schtick.
Clearly pretensions to Se7en, but instantly forgettable.
Good Night, and Good Luck
George Clooney - almost but not quite the Cary Grant of our generation - directs in glorious black and white the story of Edward R Murrow, a news journalist who dared to go after Senator McCarthy in 1950s. There's a lot here about bullying governments, the with us or against us nonsense, and clearly there are contemporary resonances.
David Strathairn gives another solid performance - and I'm reminded to some extent of the work of John Sayles whom he's worked for in the past. Maybe Clooney could work with him too.
Hollywood Homicide
So Josh Hartnett gets the roles Keanu got a decade ago, but I suspect he will be more interesting in the longer run. Here's he's the rookie cop who's not sure he's cut out for the job, but his father was on the force and died in the course of etc so there's ghosts to exorcise. Harrison Ford is the grizzled veteran and father figure, who is balancing a second job as real estate agent. This they juggle with the mass shooting of a rap boyband, which gives Ford a market for some property and allow Hartnett to nail the man who shot daddy.
Did I give away the ending?
No, you'll see it coming.
Disposable, but a fun film - I'm surprisd it's nearly two hours as it does fly by.
Finding Neverland
Based on a true story of how J.M. Barrie is searching around for a new play after a flop and finds and befriends the four Llewelyn Davies boys whose father has died. He takes them on picnics, he gets them to fly kites, he gives them a cottage for the summer, and inspires even the most realist of them to dream again. Meanwhile, their mother remains just a friend, albeit one who is dying of TB. Barrie is inspired to write Peter Pan and adopts the children after their mother's death.
A fantastic performance from Johnny Depp as Barrie, Kate Winslet is remarkable as Mrs Llewelyn Davies (the best thing she's done since Heavenly Creatures) and Freddie Highmore is heartbreaking as Peter. This is heart warming and tragic and beautiful all at the same time. Have tissues to hand.
But. They don't tell you that George Llewelyn Davies died in Flanders in 1915. Or that Michael drowned in 1921, possibly as a suicide. Or that Peter killed himself in 1959.
George, their father, was still alive when Barrie met the boys. In fact he was alive when Peter Pan was premiered. In other words, the emotional heart of the film is a lie, or at least built upon a false premise. I don't demand slavish attention to history - it would screw up swathes of Shakespeare - but this is a little bit ridiculous.
Watch for the performances, not the insights.
Cabin Fever
Eli Roth's film before Hostel and played so straight that it fels post-ironic. American students piss off red necks on their way to a cabin in the woods, nasty disease is given to them by redneck in the woods, one by one they are plucked off. There's even the seventies downbeat ending, if not played strictly down beat. Pleasantly yuck, but never genuinely scary.
Film that works somewhere on the to catch a thief principle. Agent Mackelway is on the trail of a serial killer, and trying to redeem an earlier mistake, natch. The latest victim is a serial killer - and the case seems rather too close to home. Certain clues point him towards someone who may or may not be an FBI agent, and a secret programme.
Aaron Eckhart is always watchable as Mackelway, but indie fodder has suited him better over the years - he pulls off Chad in in the company of men which much greater aplomb. Carrie-Anne Moss is meanwhile stuck in a thankless not quite eye candy, not quite mismatched partner role and is wasted. And Sir Ben Kingsley does his psycho schtick.
Clearly pretensions to Se7en, but instantly forgettable.
Good Night, and Good Luck
George Clooney - almost but not quite the Cary Grant of our generation - directs in glorious black and white the story of Edward R Murrow, a news journalist who dared to go after Senator McCarthy in 1950s. There's a lot here about bullying governments, the with us or against us nonsense, and clearly there are contemporary resonances.
David Strathairn gives another solid performance - and I'm reminded to some extent of the work of John Sayles whom he's worked for in the past. Maybe Clooney could work with him too.
Hollywood Homicide
So Josh Hartnett gets the roles Keanu got a decade ago, but I suspect he will be more interesting in the longer run. Here's he's the rookie cop who's not sure he's cut out for the job, but his father was on the force and died in the course of etc so there's ghosts to exorcise. Harrison Ford is the grizzled veteran and father figure, who is balancing a second job as real estate agent. This they juggle with the mass shooting of a rap boyband, which gives Ford a market for some property and allow Hartnett to nail the man who shot daddy.
Did I give away the ending?
No, you'll see it coming.
Disposable, but a fun film - I'm surprisd it's nearly two hours as it does fly by.
Finding Neverland
Based on a true story of how J.M. Barrie is searching around for a new play after a flop and finds and befriends the four Llewelyn Davies boys whose father has died. He takes them on picnics, he gets them to fly kites, he gives them a cottage for the summer, and inspires even the most realist of them to dream again. Meanwhile, their mother remains just a friend, albeit one who is dying of TB. Barrie is inspired to write Peter Pan and adopts the children after their mother's death.
A fantastic performance from Johnny Depp as Barrie, Kate Winslet is remarkable as Mrs Llewelyn Davies (the best thing she's done since Heavenly Creatures) and Freddie Highmore is heartbreaking as Peter. This is heart warming and tragic and beautiful all at the same time. Have tissues to hand.
But. They don't tell you that George Llewelyn Davies died in Flanders in 1915. Or that Michael drowned in 1921, possibly as a suicide. Or that Peter killed himself in 1959.
George, their father, was still alive when Barrie met the boys. In fact he was alive when Peter Pan was premiered. In other words, the emotional heart of the film is a lie, or at least built upon a false premise. I don't demand slavish attention to history - it would screw up swathes of Shakespeare - but this is a little bit ridiculous.
Watch for the performances, not the insights.
Cabin Fever
Eli Roth's film before Hostel and played so straight that it fels post-ironic. American students piss off red necks on their way to a cabin in the woods, nasty disease is given to them by redneck in the woods, one by one they are plucked off. There's even the seventies downbeat ending, if not played strictly down beat. Pleasantly yuck, but never genuinely scary.
no subject
no subject
When I write about The Sting, mind, that will be from TV.
I don't do Sky.