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Post by Derrick on Apr 16, 2011 10:13:00 GMT -5
I liked AWAY WE GO a whole lot more than you did, Eddie. And it's mainly because of the chemistry between Maya Rudolph (the daughter of Minnie Ripperton) and John Krasinski (who plays the only character I find interesting in the otherwise depressing and disturbed "The Office")
They were just so sweet and endearing that when the movie was over I actually regretted it as I wanted to spend more time with these characters. And I thought that Maggie Gyllenhaal was the funniest thing in the whole movie.
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Post by Eddie Love on Apr 16, 2011 11:39:43 GMT -5
Yeah, I do feel ya, I liked the two leads and Maggie. And the brother at the end was a revelation as I had no idea that actor wasn't English after his great, Oscar-robbed performance in BRIGHT STAR.
Perhaps I was prejudiced knowing Mendes is English, but I felt the tone and the portrait of the characters was just off, not unlike the case with his smug, overrated AMERICAN BEAUTY, and it really rankled me.
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Post by Derrick on Apr 16, 2011 12:34:27 GMT -5
Yeah, I do feel ya, I liked the two leads and Maggie. And the brother at the end was a revelation as I had no idea that actor wasn't English after his great, Oscar-robbed performance in BRIGHT STAR. Perhaps I was prejudiced knowing Mendes is English, but I felt the tone and the portrait of the characters was just off, not unlike the case with his smug, overrated AMERICAN BEAUTY, and it really rankled me. Oh, goodness gracious, yes...AMERICAN BEAUTY is one of those movies that I heard so much about and looked so forward to seeing. And when I did all i could say was: "Is that it?"
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Post by smang12345 on Apr 17, 2011 17:43:16 GMT -5
THE TWILIGHT SAGA evidences the laws of diminishing returns in ECLIPSE which serves up more bland mythology-heavy teen vampire lore, now with more tacky CGI and far less atmosphere or the believably angsty high school drama that kicked off the series. Also, strangely, Kristen Stewart who’s a really good actor and who enlivened the earlier pictures with her mannered but serious dramatic turns, seems to have had her look distractingly glammed up here to better fit the CW starlet mold. In what movie has Kristen Stewart been a good actor? She mumbles most of her lines and the dour expression that is always on her face tells me that if the camera wasn't pointing at her that very instant she would find a gun and eat a bullet. I watched the first Twilight movie because my wife is a big fan but there will be divorce proceedings if she tries to force me to watch another one. I can't take the whole "Oh God, I am so young and beautiful (and/or handsome) but life sucks so much". The only thing worse than someone who is EMO are young, good-looking people who are EMO. The only thing that would make me watch the last Twilight movie is if Wesley Snipes was in it as Blade.
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Post by Eddie Love on Apr 25, 2011 18:57:43 GMT -5
In what movie has Kristen Stewart been a good actor? TWILIGHT PANIC ROOM INTO THE WILD THE RUNAWAYS ADVENTURELAND
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Post by smang12345 on Apr 25, 2011 19:27:59 GMT -5
In what movie has Kristen Stewart been a good actor? TWILIGHT PANIC ROOM INTO THE WILD THE RUNAWAYS ADVENTURELAND
Twilight? REALLY? I would have given you Zathura but she was barely in it and frozen for a large portion of the movie.
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Post by Eddie Love on Jun 12, 2011 10:04:55 GMT -5
Reese Witherspoon plays a softball Olympian in the midst of two improbable romances in HOW DO YOU KNOW? a terribly odd, discordant misfire from writer-director James L. Brooks. Like his similarly over-plotted AS GOOD AS IT GETS the rom-com goings-on here are served with an odd sense of portentousness, only here the actors just do not relate to each other with any natruralism at all --- it feels like you’re watching an Off-Broadway play reading in an oversized venue. Reese’s character is prickly and inscrutable one moment and a ray of sunshine the next. I kept thinking as I was watching this, that I bet there were alternate takes of most scenes that would have played better. Ultimately, I was worn down by Paul Rudd as one of Reese’s suitors into caring about what would happen, but seriously, this strange, off-puttingly languid picture didn’t make that easy. (And I hated the fact this is set in the D.C. and NoVA, areas that I know well, but for all intense and purposes always looked like Manhattan.)
Tyler Perry’s ambitious film version of Ntazake Shange’s dramatic poetry cycle FOR COLORED GIRLS…may not hold together entirely, but it has some great moments and certainly deserved proper, serious consideration that, if it ever got, I missed. Perry achieves his first ever genuine cinematic moments here and thankfully, he’s not shooting on those artificial studio sets of his, but on the streets of NYC. There’s also a superior musical score. The film is long and intense, it skirts PRECIOUS territory in that it’s grim and violent at times, and almost misanthropic – there’s maybe one male character that’s not a creep or a monster. But you cannot fault the acting here. Granted, there’s more than a few tear-stained monologues delivered in long close-ups, but whether it’s Whoopi or Janet Jackson not one actress errs. In fact, when it was noted that no black actors were nominated for Oscars this year, the overlooked party who should have been highlighted was Anika Noni Rose for her astonishing work here, sensational – and shitloads better than Helena Bonham Carter in THE KING’S SPEECH.
The first Hammer film in decades (now with a cool Marvel-style credits logo) is the straight to DVD sort of women’s horror picture THE RESDIENT starring the always strangely attractive Hilary Swank as a newly single ER resident who learns the spacious new Williamsburg apartment she’s moving into may not be as ideal as it seems, despite the handsome and attentive landlord (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). The less you know the better going into this picture. It’s not groundbreaking, but it’s assured and very well acted by the two leads, I’m not the biggest JDM fan but he’s completely perfect here. And Hilary has a scene where the nature of her victimization becomes clear to her that assures her multi-Oscared talents aren’t slumming. The picture looks great, even if it doesn’t have much real atmosphere, and feels like one of those decadent European shockers from the 70s, (or a certain much-remembered, freaky TV movie from the same period with a teenaged protagonist) until a rather formulaic climax. If this had actually been released I think it would have been an interesting if unsettling “date movie" as its dark heart sits at the intersection of women’s deepest fears and men’s foulest fantasies. Plus, Hammer legend Christopher Lee shows up briefly, he’s not in the best health it would seem – let’s get that honorary Oscar thing sorted ASAP, can we?
Another distaff horror shocker, and an even better one, was the Renee Zellweiger vehicle CASE 39, a well-acted very satisfying picture that curiously failed at the box office. Renee’s a social worker who assumes guardianship of a young girl whose parents tried to murder her and all manner of shit goes down soon after. I have to hand it to this movie in that the trailer I saw a few times never really gave away the central twist of the plot. That’s not to say that it comes wholly as a surprise, or that it’s an entirely original concept. But the big reveal comes in a sly, very well written scene with Bradley Cooper that creeps up on you and grabs hold. There is one especially overblown death scene, but otherwise this is really good, very well acted by the cast led by Renee.
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Dino
Full Member
Tai-Pan
Posts: 166
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Post by Dino on Jun 29, 2011 7:51:26 GMT -5
I haven't seen the Twilight films, but I imagine most of the problems with the acting comes from the source material. It's hard to act well when the characters you're portraying are so incredibly vapid and soulless.
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Post by Derrick on Jun 29, 2011 8:59:43 GMT -5
I haven't seen the Twilight films, but I imagine most of the problems with the acting comes from the source material. It's hard to act well when the characters you're portraying are so incredibly vapid and soulless. What I think a lot of people, especially adults are forgetting is that the TWILIGHT books were specifically written for and aimed at teenage girls. She's writing about that kind of unrealistic romantic love that teenage girls dream and fantasize about. What I find disturbing about the whole TWILIGHT phenomenon is that you have the mothers of these teenagers reading and falling in love with the books. I'm talk about women in their 30's/40's and 50's...the "Twilight Moms" who love the books more than their daughters. Patricia and I were in a Costco sometime last year and there was this mother frantically hunting for the latest TWILIGHT book. Her daughter was standing nearby with a couple of her friends and I overheard her tell her friends that the reason she stopped reading the TWILIGHT books is because her mother started to read them...LOL
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