:: Thursday, May 27, 2004 ::

I went to the theater for the first time in months last Saturday. I want to see the upcoming summer releases: "The Day After Tomorrow", "The Stepford Wives", "Spiderman II" and went this past weekend to see "Shrek 2" but the theaters were packed, mostly with kids, so I bought a ticket (Matinee prices at the AMC are now $8:00 a ticket, it's getting ridiculous to think I get the used DVD's a few months later for $9.99 at Hollywood Video.) for "Troy" a movie I didn't really care to see.
I was pleasantly surprised.
Even though the "gods" are not represented, they are mentioned. Wolfgang Petersen ("Das Boot" , "The Perfect Storm") directs. The cast is tremendous, and the dialogue does Homer proud. Brad Pitt plays Achilles. Sean Bean (from the first "Lord of the Rings" movie) plays Odysseus. Brian Cox (the "original" Hannibal Lecter) plays Agamemnon. Paris is played by Orlando Bloom (also "Lord of the Rings" and "Pirates of the Carribean") Saffron Burrows , Brendan Gleeson, are also in the cast. Hector is played by Eric Bana (last year's "Hulk") Helen is newcomer Diane Kruger.
At first I didn't think she was beautiful enough to "launch a thousand ships" but I warmed to her after a while.
The set design and production values are befitting for a 200 million dollar movie, and both the individual fight scenes and the battle scenes are beautifully photographed. Roger Pratt ("Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", "The Fisher King" and "Twelve Monkeys" for Terry Gilliam) lensed the film. Nigel Phelps, who did a similarly good job on "Pearl Harbor" did the production design.
I can't get over how much I love this movie.
It is long, but not boring. It plays as if it is historical drama, and the principals do mention the gods but they don't make an appearance. Petersen is not going for a Ray Harryhausen ancient Greece. Each bit of business is historically accurate, and the folks who made this movie are well versed in the mythology, and the history.
Brad Pitt, who hasn't starred in a movie since "Ocean's 11" which was an ensemble piece, is magnificent as Achilles, and some poeple in the audience were actually shocked when he dies in the end, and it is with an arrow through his ankle. All the nunaces of the epic poem "The Illiad" are touched upon, and people who know the mythology will not be disappointed, but people who don't will be able to follow the story.
9 of 10 on the Mikometer.
Only trouble with not personifying the Gods, is that the sequel has already been written, Homer's "Oddysey", and it is filled with beasts like the Cyclops and mermaids like the Sirens, so I don't see how they can turn that story into a historical drama.
The Trojan Horse makes a fantastic appearance, and the city of Troy and it's sacking are similarly fantastic.
I don't think I have been so pleasantly surprised by a film since I saw "The Fifth Element".
Next week": Roland Emmerich's "The Day After Tomorrow", the "global warming film". Previews are magnificent.
:: Michael Nyiri 9:37 PM Leave a Comment on this Post ::
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Whether to see "Van Helsing" hasn't been a big priority, but I do admire that director Stephen Somers (The "Mummy" remakes.)is a fan of the original Universal Horror films and has had a hand in the release of three really great box sets including a lot of the old B&W Frankenstein, Dracula, and Wolfman films. By the look of the previews for "Van Helsing" in which star Hugh Jackman looks like he's slumming in between XMen films, and Kate Beckinsale looks like she's making a career out of appearing in bad horror films. (she's not a vampire out to kill werewolves in this one, she's out to kill the vampires.) The set design and CGI is very "busy" and I didn't like the looks of the previews. I do like the set design and cinematography of the original Universal Horror films, however, and the transfers are for the most part well done in the DVD sets. The packaging is tremendous. I wanted to get the "gift set" but I needed to buy these films pronto and Universal made the mistake of not making enough of the gift sets (they include busts of the three principal "monsters" as well as the DVDs.) so I couldn't get the gift set from either DVD planet or Best Buy. Circuit City didn't even stock the sets.
I'm in the middle of the Frankenstein films, and even though it is relatively easy to laugh at Boris Karloff's big lug, especially after having been ruined by Mel Brook's "Young Frankenstien" in college, I still savor the camerawork and especially the moody sets, all filmed on the Universal backlot, and seen on the tram tour.
Each set comprises four films on two DVD's and Steven Somers had a lot to do with the fact that the films were released. I don't even have laserdiscs of these so having 12 or thirteen of these films in the DVD library is a welcome addition.
I still don't know about Van Helsing. Probably will finally see it in a theater, but can't believe it raked in 54 mil in it's opening weekend.



:: Michael Nyiri 1:23 PM Leave a Comment on this Post ::
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Where to begin?
I've been "offline" for quite a while owing to a nasty virus that settled in my puter, and even when active, I've been posting poems to ElectricPoetry and not concentrating on the movie blog. I have been watching films, albeit not too often in the theater. "Girl With a Pearl Earring" a DVD rental, was a very fine film, filled with period detail of Dutch life in the 15th Century. It was directed by Peter Webber, who has a credit directing a TV movie version of "Stepford Wives." (I'm anticipating the muppet, er, I mean, Frank Oz's retelling of the original movie this summer, love the idea of Christopher Walken as Diz.) I admit I only watched "Pearl Earring" for Scarlett Johannsen and Colin Firth. I'm in love with Scarlett and have been following her career since the excellent "Ghost World" and the Coen's "Man Who Wasn't There". Needless to say she became a major player with "Lost in Translation" last year. She is remarkable as the Girl, Griet, who is a servant for Johannes Vermeer, the Dutch Master painter, played with understatement by the gloriously gifted Colin Firth. Not only does dear Scarlett look like the girl in the painting, the various scenes are inspired by Dutch paintings of the period, much like the cinematography in Ridley Scott's first feature, "The Duellists" and Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" was inspired by paintings.
The plot is about how this waif/servant girl fits or more properly fails to fit in with the household, and the end result is the creation of the painting. A wonderful film, and an acting powerhouse.
Colin Firth is becoming one of my faves. I saw the DVD of "Love, Actually" for the first time the other day, and it has become one of my all time favorite romantic comedies. I was entrhalled with the section concerning Colin Firth's Englishman and his Portequese maid/lover. So much so that I rented another Firth starrer, with Heather Graham and Minnie Driver called Hope Springs which was directed by Mark Herman who directed "Brassed Off" and "Little Voice" both very well done films. "Hope Springs" is set in America, and not England and concerns the travails of Colin's character who is escaping his ex girlfriend in England (Driver) who follows him to the picturesque New England town of Hope Springs to get him back, but after he has already fallen in love with "caregiver" Mandy, played by Graham. I was delighted with the proceedings in this film as well.
I'd like to spend hours talking about "Love, Actually", which plays sort of like an English "Playing with Hearts". Bill Nighy, Hugh Grant, a lovely lass named Martine McCutcheon, Emma Thompson, the aforementioned Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Keira Knightley, I'm sure I've left some other wondrous performance out. The film is filled with many stories which take place around Christmas time, and the viewer doesn't get confused or bored. Each story line is interweaved beautifully, and director Richard Curtis, who wrote "Briget Jones' Diary" and "Notting Hill" introduces the deleted scenes which couldn't fit in the movie, but which enrich the story of Liam Neeson's recently widowed father.
This is a film worth watching more than once.

:: Michael Nyiri 1:00 PM Leave a Comment on this Post ::
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