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So I'm green_queen on Dreamwidth as well, if that mass exodus happens.
Also I'm on Letterboxd, which is purely a movie rating & reviewing site, so I'm on it like white on rice.
Trailer for 'Prometheus'.
JOEY RICHTER HAS A GUEST SPOT ON A TV SHOW!
Great SPACE Tour photos from the first New York show.
Today I was very productive on the movie-watching and beer-drinking fronts.
ETA: I was actually pretty determined not to acknowledge Christmas at all in this post, but this Hobbit production video made my heart grow three sizes.
Drive
It's so nice when you have expectations of a movie and then you see the movie and it doesn't disappoint. Drive is a thousand kinds of crazy cool - the sharp, bright colours, the awesome driving scenes, that epic throwback soundtrack. In my experience, Ryan Gosling does cool much better than he does romantic, and he broods like a pro all the way through this, making it all the more powerful when he shoots someone a half-smile or carries a kid down a hallway. Carey Mulligan is cute and does what she can with what she's given, but this is a) Ryan Gosling's movie and b) essentially a pure testosterone movie, so what she's given isn't much (and that inherent sexism is what brings the rating down by that half-star).
Love to see my girl Christina in a different kind of role to her usual. There's some brilliant, visceral violence in Drive; seriously, Tarantino-level, don't see this if you're squeamish-level stuff. Also, the film is comfortable with quiet and silence; with such a reticent anti-hero at its centre, it'd be hard not to be, but Gosling lets his actions speak for him. Easily one of the best movies of 2011.
4.5 out of 5
Columbiana
Remember what I said about movies not delivering up to expectation? Man, I really thought Columbiana had it in the bag. It's got Zoe Saldana as a fierce, kick-ass action heroine who is interesting and multi-faceted and genuinely tough. It's just...everything else in the movie that isn't as good. I have never understood the appeal of Michael Vartan, who always looks like he'd rather be watching paint dry than, you know, acting. I love Cliff Curtis and he was good but I felt like the majority of the peripheral characters were underused or underdeveloped. There were some very cool death scenes - I particularly liked the sharks - but there's just something lacking in this standard revenge-flick fare. It never really looks better than average, either; it has these visuals that could be quite amazing, but wind up sort of muddled (I never got over the fact that the flower she draws on her victims looks like a penis). I love Zoe, though, so bonus half-star for her being awesome.
3 out of 5
Let Me In
There are exactly two reasons why this average remake stands on its own at all, and their names are Kodi Smit-McPhee and, of course, Chloe Moretz, who is the best child actor of the current generation and who should get all the roles and possibly a statue in her honour. The kids in the original are great, but in all my bias I really think these two are better; they have a lock on the tension that needs to be generated between them, but I also found them both to provide a vulnerability that the original never managed for me. I was more concerned for them. Other than them, the stuff that works in this is just what worked for the original, and it has a lot more parts that don't work; the much-maligned frenzied vampire effects are dreadful and completely break you out of the mood of the piece, the period doesn't work as well, the setting is less effective, it's a lot more heavy-handed. The cycle of violence message is less subtle, as well.
Also, I remember there being less talking and more intense staring in the original. Is that accurate, or is it only because I didn't understand the talking in the original?
3 out of 5
Green Queen
Also I'm on Letterboxd, which is purely a movie rating & reviewing site, so I'm on it like white on rice.
Trailer for 'Prometheus'.
JOEY RICHTER HAS A GUEST SPOT ON A TV SHOW!
Great SPACE Tour photos from the first New York show.
Today I was very productive on the movie-watching and beer-drinking fronts.
ETA: I was actually pretty determined not to acknowledge Christmas at all in this post, but this Hobbit production video made my heart grow three sizes.
Drive
It's so nice when you have expectations of a movie and then you see the movie and it doesn't disappoint. Drive is a thousand kinds of crazy cool - the sharp, bright colours, the awesome driving scenes, that epic throwback soundtrack. In my experience, Ryan Gosling does cool much better than he does romantic, and he broods like a pro all the way through this, making it all the more powerful when he shoots someone a half-smile or carries a kid down a hallway. Carey Mulligan is cute and does what she can with what she's given, but this is a) Ryan Gosling's movie and b) essentially a pure testosterone movie, so what she's given isn't much (and that inherent sexism is what brings the rating down by that half-star).
Love to see my girl Christina in a different kind of role to her usual. There's some brilliant, visceral violence in Drive; seriously, Tarantino-level, don't see this if you're squeamish-level stuff. Also, the film is comfortable with quiet and silence; with such a reticent anti-hero at its centre, it'd be hard not to be, but Gosling lets his actions speak for him. Easily one of the best movies of 2011.
4.5 out of 5
Columbiana
Remember what I said about movies not delivering up to expectation? Man, I really thought Columbiana had it in the bag. It's got Zoe Saldana as a fierce, kick-ass action heroine who is interesting and multi-faceted and genuinely tough. It's just...everything else in the movie that isn't as good. I have never understood the appeal of Michael Vartan, who always looks like he'd rather be watching paint dry than, you know, acting. I love Cliff Curtis and he was good but I felt like the majority of the peripheral characters were underused or underdeveloped. There were some very cool death scenes - I particularly liked the sharks - but there's just something lacking in this standard revenge-flick fare. It never really looks better than average, either; it has these visuals that could be quite amazing, but wind up sort of muddled (I never got over the fact that the flower she draws on her victims looks like a penis). I love Zoe, though, so bonus half-star for her being awesome.
3 out of 5
Let Me In
There are exactly two reasons why this average remake stands on its own at all, and their names are Kodi Smit-McPhee and, of course, Chloe Moretz, who is the best child actor of the current generation and who should get all the roles and possibly a statue in her honour. The kids in the original are great, but in all my bias I really think these two are better; they have a lock on the tension that needs to be generated between them, but I also found them both to provide a vulnerability that the original never managed for me. I was more concerned for them. Other than them, the stuff that works in this is just what worked for the original, and it has a lot more parts that don't work; the much-maligned frenzied vampire effects are dreadful and completely break you out of the mood of the piece, the period doesn't work as well, the setting is less effective, it's a lot more heavy-handed. The cycle of violence message is less subtle, as well.
Also, I remember there being less talking and more intense staring in the original. Is that accurate, or is it only because I didn't understand the talking in the original?
3 out of 5
Green Queen