Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Films what I have seen.......
The Thomas Crown Affair (new version).
Really quite good. Peirce Brosnan is fantastic as the lead with good supporting cast from Rene Russo and Dennis Leary. The film moves along at a fair pace except for the obligatory romantic interludes, and maintained my interest throughout. Brosnan is funny and suave and just the perfect gentleman thief.
The story revolves around a picture which has been stolen from a famous art gallery. The police (Dennis Leary) have no real leads until the insurance investigator shows up (Rene Russo). She begins to get close to Crown, even thinking she’s found his copy of the stolen picture, only to be fooled again.
The story goes round and round but the final gallery scene is very good, especially as It is supported by a fabulous soundtrack, as is the whole film.
6/10.
Training Day.
Not really heard a lot about this film, knew who was in it but not anything about the plot etc. It turns out to be a very interesting film about risk/reward, trust/betrayal and shooting people.
Ethan Hawke (still a gay name) is policeman Jake Hollis who is going to do a “training day” with a narcotics detective. He is eager to move into narcotics and figures this is the way to do it. Denzel Washington is astounding as Alonzo Harris, the detective in question. It is a major departure for him and he handles it extremely well. The action sequences are very well shot, and the tense scenes had me really squirming. Of course, there’s a fairly typical ending, good guys win etc etc, but who are the good guys? I’ll leave that for you to see in the film.
Quote:
Hollis: “Could you bring our car round please? It’s the black Monte Carlo with the rear window shot out. Thank you”.
7/10
Mulholland drive.
Wow. More consummate weirdness from the Lynch-meister.
Betty has won a jitterbug contest and has flown out to LA to audition for films. She is staying at her aunt’s house while *she* is away filming, ironically in the very place Betty has come from, Ontario. Meanwhile, a young lady has been in a car accident, incidentally saving her from a shooting, and has lost her memory. She stumbles down the hillside and ends up inside Betty’s aunt’s house. Betty arrives and assumes it’s one of her aunt’s friends. The girl claims her name is Rita and eventually we find out she has a blue key and lots of cash in her purse. OK, at this point it starts to get really weird, but I’ll leave that for you. There are many claims out there that this film means nothing and is just an excuse for Lynch to make a weird movie. Well, it is weird, but it is also a whodunit murder-mystery, and a pretty good one at that. The problem is that unlike a lot of other scriptwriters and directors, Lynch refuses to make it easy for you. There is no obvious narrative explaining why things have happened, you have to work them out. I’ll admit that I didn’t really get what was going on until I read some of the comments on the IMDB message board, but once someone had hinted at what was going on it became a lot more clear. Even without the excellent and refreshingly difficult plot, the film is very good. It looks fabulous, he has managed to cast 2 very good actresses in the leads and the soundtrack is stunning. Especially the scene featuring Rebekah Del Rio in Club Silencio when she sings “Llorando” (or does she? Remember, this is all a recording).
If you are trying to figure out what’s going on, the single biggest clue is at the start of the film, even before the credits…..
I will be watching this again soon, it’s that good, oh, and the comedy hitman scene is pretty good too. Read up on this film, enjoy it for what it is, not high-art, but a murder-mystery which a slice of comedy and a massive twist, not at the end though, about 2/3 of the way through.
Oh, and the girls lez up.
Quote:
Cowboy: “Now, you will see me one more time if you do good. You'll see me two more times if you do bad. Goodnight”.
9/10. Maybe even 9.5.
The Thomas Crown Affair (new version).
Really quite good. Peirce Brosnan is fantastic as the lead with good supporting cast from Rene Russo and Dennis Leary. The film moves along at a fair pace except for the obligatory romantic interludes, and maintained my interest throughout. Brosnan is funny and suave and just the perfect gentleman thief.
The story revolves around a picture which has been stolen from a famous art gallery. The police (Dennis Leary) have no real leads until the insurance investigator shows up (Rene Russo). She begins to get close to Crown, even thinking she’s found his copy of the stolen picture, only to be fooled again.
The story goes round and round but the final gallery scene is very good, especially as It is supported by a fabulous soundtrack, as is the whole film.
6/10.
Training Day.
Not really heard a lot about this film, knew who was in it but not anything about the plot etc. It turns out to be a very interesting film about risk/reward, trust/betrayal and shooting people.
Ethan Hawke (still a gay name) is policeman Jake Hollis who is going to do a “training day” with a narcotics detective. He is eager to move into narcotics and figures this is the way to do it. Denzel Washington is astounding as Alonzo Harris, the detective in question. It is a major departure for him and he handles it extremely well. The action sequences are very well shot, and the tense scenes had me really squirming. Of course, there’s a fairly typical ending, good guys win etc etc, but who are the good guys? I’ll leave that for you to see in the film.
Quote:
Hollis: “Could you bring our car round please? It’s the black Monte Carlo with the rear window shot out. Thank you”.
7/10
Mulholland drive.
Wow. More consummate weirdness from the Lynch-meister.
Betty has won a jitterbug contest and has flown out to LA to audition for films. She is staying at her aunt’s house while *she* is away filming, ironically in the very place Betty has come from, Ontario. Meanwhile, a young lady has been in a car accident, incidentally saving her from a shooting, and has lost her memory. She stumbles down the hillside and ends up inside Betty’s aunt’s house. Betty arrives and assumes it’s one of her aunt’s friends. The girl claims her name is Rita and eventually we find out she has a blue key and lots of cash in her purse. OK, at this point it starts to get really weird, but I’ll leave that for you. There are many claims out there that this film means nothing and is just an excuse for Lynch to make a weird movie. Well, it is weird, but it is also a whodunit murder-mystery, and a pretty good one at that. The problem is that unlike a lot of other scriptwriters and directors, Lynch refuses to make it easy for you. There is no obvious narrative explaining why things have happened, you have to work them out. I’ll admit that I didn’t really get what was going on until I read some of the comments on the IMDB message board, but once someone had hinted at what was going on it became a lot more clear. Even without the excellent and refreshingly difficult plot, the film is very good. It looks fabulous, he has managed to cast 2 very good actresses in the leads and the soundtrack is stunning. Especially the scene featuring Rebekah Del Rio in Club Silencio when she sings “Llorando” (or does she? Remember, this is all a recording).
If you are trying to figure out what’s going on, the single biggest clue is at the start of the film, even before the credits…..
I will be watching this again soon, it’s that good, oh, and the comedy hitman scene is pretty good too. Read up on this film, enjoy it for what it is, not high-art, but a murder-mystery which a slice of comedy and a massive twist, not at the end though, about 2/3 of the way through.
Oh, and the girls lez up.
Quote:
Cowboy: “Now, you will see me one more time if you do good. You'll see me two more times if you do bad. Goodnight”.
9/10. Maybe even 9.5.
