Resurrecting the Movies thread...

[MaineWriter]

So I went and saw Deception. My review? I am not quite sure why the reviewers are being so savage.

It wasn't great but I have sat through movies that are much, much worse. Yes, it had corny dialog, and yes, I could figure things out pretty easily, but it was still entertaining for 108 minutes. The actors are certainly enjoyable to look at, the camera angles interesting, the music appropriate. It could have been much worse. And there was one big surprise I was totally unprepared for so I guess I didn't figure out every single plot twist.

Ewan McGregor did have one strange accent, I have to say. When he hit a US accent, he sounded like he was from Brooklyn (born and bred) but the rest of the time, he was mixing up three accents in one sentence. Weird. It seemed to get better as the movie went on, but maybe he wasn't talking so much, just frowning at the computer screen.

The pot smoking scene (near the beginning) was ridiculous. They share one joint for 35 minutes and inside of that 35 minutes they both (Hugh and Ewan) end up sitting cross-legged on the big, fancy conference room table, Ewan babbling on and on about the "perfect symmetry of numbers" or something equally inane. I thought, stoned out of their minds on one joint in 30 minutes? What is this, Reefer Madness or something?

While there is more sex with Ewan, we do have one shirtless scene with Hugh. I could have used more. I didn't like Hugh at the beginning, but I liked him better as the movie went on--and he was the bad guy! I guess he got more convincing as the bad guy. In fact, everyone got better as the movie went on. It was almost like they were acting at the beginning, then finally got comfortable in their roles. Unfortunately, it seems for alot of reviewers, they lost interest by that part, but I kept watching.

Oh, BTW, Charlotte Rampling as the semi-nude cougar was great.

[belbbmfan]

Thanks for that review Leslie. After reading all the very negative other reviews I was thinking this movie wasn't worth much. But I think I'll go see it anyway. Besides, there really isn't much interesting programmed in our local cinema at the moment. Summer has come early this year...

'Deception' will be released here next week.

[BelAir]

Yes, thanks for the review Leslie.  I will keep Deception on my mental list of one to watch.

Anyone heard anything about Speed Racer???  It comes out here in a few weeks and I like Emile Hirsch a lot but am not sure what sort of expectations to have for the film.

[serious crayons]

I rented Enchanted the other night. I don't know that it would be everybody's cup of tea, but I liked it a lot. It's so light it makes Little Miss Sunshine look like something by Ingmar Bergman. But it's light in a cute way! 

[oilgun]

I rented Enchanted the other night. I don't know that it would be everybody's cup of tea, but I liked it a lot. It's so light it makes Little Miss Sunshine look like something by Ingmar Bergman. But it's light in a cute way! 

Enchanted was great fun up until the silly(!) ending.  I mentioned earlier that James Marsden stole the movie as Prince Charming: "This little black box seems to control the magic mirror!".

I watched Bonnie & Clyde and was actually disappointed,  I didn't think it aged very well.  Maybe it was my mood, but it really felt like an OLD movie, which I suppose it is.  The acting seemed mannered and melodramatic and the direction lacked subtlety, everything seemed so obvious.  I remember loving that movie years ago and being so disturbed by the violent ending, lol!

Finally saw Breach with Chris Cooper and Ryan Phillippe.  I enjoyed it up until the melodramatic ending where Chris Cooper's  make-up made him look like an extra from Dawn of The Dead. A decent film.

And Takashi Miike's Visitor Q -  Holy lactating incestuous necrophiliac, Batman! 

[Meryl]

And Takashi Miike's Visitor Q -  Holy lactating incestuous necrophiliac, Batman! 

Oy, I don't think I want to know any more about that one....  

I went to see Enchanted with my sister-in-law, who has played ingenue characters in community theater all her life and didn't want to miss it.  I had a great time!  All the New York locations were familiar, which was fun, but to me the most hilarious part was when she was cleaning the apartment with the help of flies, pigeons and rats, singing cheerily ala Cinderella.      I thought the ending was a letdown, too, but for the most part it was a very clever take on the whole Disney thing. 

[oilgun]

Oy, I don't think I want to know any more about that one....  

[...]

And I didn't even mention the woman (the one lactating) who gets beaten on a daily basis by her substance-sniffing(?) teenage son and how she turns tricks to support her heroin addiction while her husband visits their prostitute daughter.  The theme of the film is the importance of family I think.   

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I recently ordered a DVD copy of LOVE IS THE DEVIL: A Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon,  I hadn't watched it since in came out back in '98 so I was eager to see if the movie was as good as I remembered or if my memory was distorted by the Daniel Craig full-frontal bathtub scene. (naked-hunk-tinted glasses?)  Well,  I'm happy to report that I enjoyed it even more this time around, the movie and the FF.

One thing I had forgotten (or didn't even know) is that Tilda Swinton is also in it as one of Bacon's drunken friends.  She's completely unrecognizable and wonderfully OTT.  I saw her name in the closing credits and that's how I found out she was in it.

[oilgun]

The Toronto InsideOut film Festival opens in a couple of weeks and it looks like it will be a good year.  I'd love to here what people think of some of the movies, what are the must-sees and the stinkers.  I already have tickets for Shelter and Love Songs  but any input would be greatly appreciated:

http://www.insideout.on.ca/18Annual/schedule.cfm

[oilgun]

I finally watched La Vie en Rose and if Marion Cotillard's twitchy OTT performance is what AMPAS is into, then I'm officially relieved that Heath did NOT win for BbM!  I thought she was just terrible and shame on the director for not reigning her in. She wasn't just chewing the scenery, she was swallowing it whole. She played Piaf's alcoholism like it was Parkinson's and made her to be such an unlikeable person it was a mystery that she had any friends at all. 

By the end of the film when she's (yet again) deliriously screaming her dead lover's name, I was thinking, "The guy's dead, just get over it!  Now it's your turn, die already!"  Sorry, it was all too much swelling melodrama for me.  Which is funny because the day before I watched an equally melodramatic & mainstream film, Jacquou le Croquant, and really enjoyed it.  I think the difference is that I cared about the characters in Jacquou, but in this one, Piaf is portrayed as such a repulsive drunk that it was impossible for me to empathise.

[MaineWriter]

I went and saw Made of Honor with my daughter last evening. We were having a girl's night out and it was her choice, so...

Completely predictable. It is one of those movies you start forgetting the minute you walk out of the theater. I thought Patrick Dempsey was too old for the part (he is supposed to be 32 and he looks very much his full 42 years). And, if you think about the movie for 3 minutes, you start to realize all these implausibilities.

Oh well, at least I enjoyed the evening with Hannah!