MOVIES THREAD

Just rewatched Tropic Thunder. God I love that flick.

There are two lines in particular that made me lose it.

The first comes when Downey and company are trying to trek their way through the woods before settling down and taking camp. Skinny dude whose name I can't remember is going on and on about HD-DVD and Blu-Ray and talking about how video gamers and porn really decided which format won. Downey's character turns around and simply says: "You were talking to me this whole time?"

Good stuff.

The second one is which Tom Cruises' character, right after Speedman gets captured and the village locals are trying to ransom him, goes off on one of the hostage-takers and yells and screams and threatens him every way possible. After Cruise hangs up with him, he says to his assistant: "Find out who those was."

 

Downey to Black: "Hey, Flatch Adams"

 

It was OK. Stylish, visually breathtaking with some good dialogue but...a little pretentious maybe? Loved Owen Wilson though.

Really liked the prologue Hotel Chevalier before the film. Nat Portman's ass don't quit.

 

Loved the Darjeeling Limited.

 

Ok, haven't seen Darjeeling, but pretty much every Wes Anderson movie is quite pretentious. Zissou was bearable, largely because of Bill Murray, but, in general, all of his movies strike me as, "You should think this is quite edgy and if you don't think it's funny, it's only because you are not a sophisticated film viewer."

The fact that not a single person in any Wes Anderson movie has ever displayed an emotion of any kind does not make them sophisticated. It makes them muted and boring.

And I'm convinced Jason Schwartzman's name will never be known unless "Directed by Wes Anderson" is directly attached to whatever film he's in.

And Natalie Portman's ass does. Not. Quit.

 

I don't know about no emotion of any kind. There were some emotions displayed in the Royal Tenenbaums, especially at the end. Still, yeah, those movies are pretentious, but that's kind of the appeal of them to me. Something a little different.

As for Darjeeling, no I wouldn't put it at the top of my Wes Anderson list. But it had a little more heart than I expected, especially because Owen Wilson started off as such a bore and Adrien Brody as such a mute. It was kind of nice to see Brody develop as the movie went along.

If I had to rate Anderson's flicks, I'd probably go:
1. Rushmore
2. Royal Tenenbaums
3. Life Aquatic
4. Darjeeling Limited/Hotel Chevalier
5. Bottle Rocket

 

Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks Rushmore is his best work.

I liked Bottle Rocket, but it does seem a little overrated.

 

That's pretty much my take on Anderson films. There supposed to be funny, but not. And if you aren't laughing it's because you aren't edgy.

 

Benjamin Button was well worth the time. An excellent movie overall. Well told excellent script beautifully filmed.
Brad Pitt was very good. Cate Blanchett, wonderfully complex performance deserves an Oscar nomination as does Taraji P. Henson but Tilda Swinton deserves the win for Supporting Actress.

Eric Roth, who wrote the screenplay, deserves every writing and story award.

 

I liked it, but I did not love it. Everything just seemed so over the top.

Jack Black picking up the drug lord and bolting for the H made me laugh my ass off, though.

 

Watched 25th Hour on a friend's recommend. Pretty decent, other than Spike Lee trying to force a 9/11 storyline into a movie where it didn't fit. It's almost like Spike wanted to make a 9/11 movie, and he wanted to make a movie about a dude's last night before going to prison for seven years, and he tried to do both at the same time. Hmph. Have always had a thing for Anna Paquin, even if she's not "classically beautiful." And Rosario Dawson ... rrrow! I continue to like just about every movie Ed Norton is in. Oh, and Barry Pepper! And Phillip Seymour Hoffman!

 

25th hour surprised me. Thought it was going to be blah and it turned out to be pretty good. Hoffman's portrayal of his character though was downright creepy though.