September 1, 2004
Movies
We saw Ju-on tonight. The first half was genuinely terrifying. Shimizu has a way of capturing creepy quiet fears and visualizing them in ways that kept sending chills up my spine-- empty houses in disarray, crazy old people, scary cats, evil children, etc. Ultimately the scares wear off as the movie starts to drag with the lack of a protagonist or strong narrative. But there are a couple of scenes that will stay will you in the dark of night.
A few nights ago we enjoyed Hero. Visually speaking it is a worthy successor to Crouching Tiger and it has the Zhang Yimou touch of greatness, but it didn't quite add up for me. I just didn't care enough. But in this case I just turned off the left brain and and enjoyed it as a right brain experience.
We finally got around to watching The Manchurian Candidate last week. I almost walked . The film was so bad I felt embarrassed to be watching (and to have once worked for the producer!). The remake seemed to suck any suspense out of the original (one of my favorite films). There is nothing so silly as pretentious self-important fluff packaged as serious commentary on our times.
to this site
09/01/04 01:01 PM
Anonymous said...
I'm right there with you. Ju-on started out so scary I had to watch with my hands over my eyes, but by the end, I was like oh whatever, evil is coming oooh boo hoo. Hero was beautiful but yawn. Manchurian Candidate (and Collateral) were Hollywood's idea of "deep". Both were bores. I wish Michael Mann and Mr. Demme could find better material. Both are good directors whose talents are squandered on fake serious movies a millimeter deep. I think the public agrees. In both films at least 15 people walked out. Only brain dead critics and studio types thought these films were anything important. You want to see some good movies with an ounce of wit and soul. Go see Maria Full of Grace and Garden State.
--Marie in Los Feliz
09/02/04 01:57 AM
Anonymous said...
God forbid someone call me a hipster (is that a bad word now?) but I agree with Marie, Collateral was a yawner. Stupid implausible characters doing dumb things that made no sense. I look at Collateral as one of those emperor's new clothes type of movies. ( "So Michael Mann is a genius, right? Therefore his movies must be genius, right?" Sorry. That dude is bare-ass naked. The movie blew.) The audience at the Westgate laughed the whole damn time. Especially in the club scene where Tom does his "I'm a bad ass" move he does in every movie with a fight scene. Collateral was pretty looking and well acted, but they were acting a shit script. We're smarter than that. Give us a break. I give it 2 stars out of 5 unless it counts as a comedy then it gets 3 stars.
I didn't see Minority Report. Knew it was a POS. Psyched for Ju-on if it ever gets here.
James @ UT
09/02/04 12:50 PM
Anonymous said...
Minority Report? Did you mean Manchurian? Why are we wasting breath about this. Let's talk about cool movies. I'm going to see the original Godzilla this week.
09/05/04 06:27 PM
raul said...
This post has been removed by the author.
09/05/04 06:34 PM
raul said...
What I meant to say before I accidentally deleted the post was thanks for the heads up on Godzilla.