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Grex > Cinema > #62: Grex goes to the movies-- the Spring Movie Review item | |
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Message |
| 25 new of 278 responses total. |
furs
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response 134 of 278:
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May 21 15:42 UTC 2004 |
Has anyone seen Troy?
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twenex
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response 135 of 278:
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May 21 15:47 UTC 2004 |
I'm off to see it tonite.
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gull
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response 136 of 278:
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May 21 16:19 UTC 2004 |
I haven't. I did get a good chuckle out of one reviewer that commented
that Diane Kruger "has a face that could launch 250 ships, maybe 500 at
most."
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gull
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response 137 of 278:
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May 21 16:19 UTC 2004 |
I saw _Shrek 2_. Loved it. If you liked the first one, you'll like
this one too. It's more of the same, only better.
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mcnally
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response 138 of 278:
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May 21 17:02 UTC 2004 |
re #136: I thought that line was moderately amusing in the first
review in which I read it, but by the time I'd gotten to the fourth
or fifth review its charms had completely disappeared..
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twenex
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response 139 of 278:
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May 21 17:04 UTC 2004 |
Heh.
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twenex
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response 140 of 278:
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May 22 15:56 UTC 2004 |
Troy: Excellent.
Saddle my horse, the epic is back!
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md
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response 141 of 278:
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May 23 14:47 UTC 2004 |
Two recent rentals we missed in the theaters:
RUSSIAN ARK (A) - A Russian director's loving homage to Russian culture
and The Hermitage, the big museum in Leningrad (St. Petersburg to you
capitalist pigs). The camera travels from room to room -- 37 of them
in all -- following a European snob (Russian actor doing what I suppose
sounds to Russian ears like a French accent) and his invisible Russian
companion (the voice of the director, from whose POV the movie is
seen). There we see personages and incidents from 300 years of Russian
history. The movie is 90 minutes long, and although it took four years
to prepare, the actual shooting was done in one single 90-minute-long
take. I knew beforehand that that's how the movie had been shot, but I
didn't beieve it until I actually saw it. The final 15 minutes, in
which about a thousand actors dressed in period costumes dance the last
dance at a grand ball then make their way down the huge double-
staircase and off the stage of history forever, is one of the most
beautiful things I've ever seen in a movie. (This is one movie where
the interviews and "making of" documentary in the Special Features are
just as interestng as the movie itself.)
CALENDAR GIRLS (B) - A trying-not-to-look-exploitive movie about the
middle-aged English garden club ladies who made a nude calendar of
themselves to raise money for a good cause. Helen Mirren is excellent
as the ageing egotistical wild child whose idea the whole thing is.
Lots of false sentimentality and other commercial phoniness, but really
no worse than most other movies. Plus, the Brit's eye view of American
glitz is priceless.
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rcurl
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response 142 of 278:
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May 23 15:24 UTC 2004 |
Troy was pretty well done, especially if you like mass (and individual)
slauterings. Also, the book was better (having survived for a couple of
millenia-plus, which I doubt the movie will). But it was moderately
faithful to the book(s) - except for omitting Cassandra, who killed
Agamemnon *after* he took her back to Greece.
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twenex
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response 143 of 278:
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May 23 16:45 UTC 2004 |
In Troy's defence, the director does include the caveat at the beginnign of
the end (credits) that the story was *inspired* by The Iliad, a level of
honesty you don't find in 3rd-rate Tolkien-inspired fantasy.
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realugly
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response 144 of 278:
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May 23 17:02 UTC 2004 |
This response has been erased.
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remmers
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response 145 of 278:
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May 23 17:26 UTC 2004 |
Haven't seen "Troy", but as I understand it the movie has no supernatural
beings (a.k.a. gods). They were pretty important characters in The Iliad.
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twenex
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response 146 of 278:
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May 23 17:27 UTC 2004 |
There aren't any people in the film playing Gods, but it's hardly a secular
travesty of the book; several are mentioned quite often.
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realugly
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response 147 of 278:
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May 23 17:34 UTC 2004 |
This response has been erased.
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mcnally
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response 148 of 278:
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May 23 17:47 UTC 2004 |
re #142: Agamemnon was killed by Clytemnestra, with the help of her
lover Aegisthus.
Cassandra was pretty much a one-device character, though
it's a great device: always (accurately) foretelling
misfortune and never being believed..
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rcurl
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response 149 of 278:
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May 23 19:08 UTC 2004 |
The characters are doing all sorts of things because of and on behalf of
their gods, and statues of them abound. One would interpret from the movie
that much in their society was heavily influenced by their beliefs in gods.
Aha! I will speak to my resident expert on Greek myths, who told me
Cassandra slew Agememnon. However, she was close: Clymtemnestra slew
both Agemenon and Cassandra.
At least it was faithful to Achilles' heel, which everyone knows about
and therefore had to be kept (at least, everyone knows Achilles had a
heel....).
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twenex
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response 150 of 278:
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May 23 19:09 UTC 2004 |
Heh. One review my Dad read said they made no mention of the heel. D'Oh!
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realugly
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response 151 of 278:
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May 23 19:22 UTC 2004 |
This response has been erased.
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rcurl
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response 152 of 278:
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May 23 20:01 UTC 2004 |
They didn't *mention* the heel, but it was shown clearly that an arrow
shot by Paris penetrated Achilles' heel.
Did the actor portraying Achilles perform all those calesthetics in
battle, or were some done by stuntmen - or even computer generated?
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twenex
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response 153 of 278:
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May 23 20:02 UTC 2004 |
"The actor portraying Achilles"?! Are you telling us you never heard of Brad
Pitt?!
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realugly
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response 154 of 278:
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May 23 20:05 UTC 2004 |
This response has been erased.
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rcurl
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response 155 of 278:
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May 24 05:45 UTC 2004 |
Wasn't Pitt the actor portraying Achilles?
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twenex
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response 156 of 278:
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May 24 05:50 UTC 2004 |
I believe I just said that...
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realugly
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response 157 of 278:
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May 24 06:15 UTC 2004 |
This response has been erased.
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edina
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response 158 of 278:
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May 24 18:51 UTC 2004 |
Brad Pitt worked out to get in shape to play Achilles for a year previous to
filming.
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