Friday, July 06, 2007

Now Playing: Robots, Robin, Rescues

L I M I T E D

Dynamite Warrior Another gonzo actioner from Thailand. This one does not star Tony Jaa. What's he up to, anyway?
Introducing the Dwights A comedy starring Brenda Blethyn as an overbearing mother. What imaginative casting! No, I kid. Brenda will always be a 'sweeeeeethaaaart'. At Sundance this was called Clubland
Joshua Looks like an Omen / Bad Seed ripoff but the cast is impressive: Vera Farmiga, Sam Rockwell, and Celia Weston? That's a whole lotta character acting there. Maybe I should go
The Method (El Método) new Argentinian thriller. Twitch says it's quite good. Speak up in the comments if you've seen it

Rescue Dawn -I love Christian Bale I do. But sometimes all I can think about when confronting whatever his new film may be is: what has he done to his body this time? I know I should be thinking about the auteur Werner Herzog (awesome) but I just stare at the photos and wonder how much a body can take. Consider the yoyoing of American Psycho / Machinist / Batman Begins / Rescue Dawn / The Dark Knight and be horrified. His poor body. I go all Sally Field on Julia Roberts

"There are limits to what your body can do Shelby Christian!"

Um, where were we? Yes... this movie is about POW soldiers in Vietnam and it also stars Steve Zahn and it's getting Oscar level buzz. I will see it this weekend

W I D E

License to Wed -Socializing with other cinephiles and/or general moviegoers whilst living in a film rich market like NYC can make you forget basic American truths like: Sandra Bullock is rilllllly famous or in this case: Robin Williams is popular. In some ways Robin is like those numerous sitcoms on TV that nobody ever talks about but which people obviously watch because they get or got renewed each year. He's According to Jim, Wings, 8 Simple Rules, Yes Dear, King of Queens etcetera unto infinity. I mean: who do you know that actually saw RV? It made $71 million. This time Robin is counselling engaged cuties John Krasinki and Mandy Moore before their nuptials
Transformers Review proof so it needn't worry about that 59% on RT especially with a rosy 'consensus' line despite the rotten rating (huh? where do they get those consensus lines) ... but we try anyway --mine if you missed it.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, don't diss Robin Williams. ;) Whenever he picks a part in a slightly more ambitious movie, he always delivers (even if said movie doesn't, cf. Night Listener). I can't forgive him the amount of turkeys he signs up for these days (presumably out of pure greed), but talent-wise he remains the same awesome actor I fell in love with in the 1990s.

Good call on the RT's "consensus line" nonsense. I am as confused about it as you are.

Anonymous said...

I tend to agree about Bale, especially in the case of The Machinist, which really wasn't good enough to justify the commitment he gave to the part. He, as always, was stellar, but in a "take me out of the film" kind of way.

Anonymous said...

I tend to agree about Bale, especially in the case of The Machinist, which really wasn't good enough to justify the commitment he gave to the part. He, as always, was stellar, but in a "take me out of the film" kind of way.

Emma said...

Christian... :)

Agustin said...

El Metodo is an argentinian/spanish coproduction. It is set in Spain and there are mostly spanish actors. It's not that great. Wait for DVD.

Regina George said...

God, I love me some Brenda Blethyn. I just want someone to harnass her in, or let her totally loose, and make her run for that Oscar. "Secrets and Lies" is unlike any other performance on film. Truly magic.

Boyd said...

I must agree with Agustin. I'm not sure why some people are raving about this so much. I saw it but never reviewed it; it feels slight and never really overcomes the typical stage-to-film problems: too many people in the scene without much to do and all the action consists of talking, all in one space. There is not much of visual excitement in the film, though the actors are certainly good and the script is pretty clever.

Glenn Dunks said...

I thought The Machinest was good enough to justify the weight thing. I thought it was really really good, actually.

Rescue Dawn, however, doesn't particularly interest me. Oscar buzz or not.

Anonymous said...

I'm gonna have to pass on whatever new Robin Williams vehicle gets thrown out there. Not even Krasinski could get me there.

Anonymous said...

When I was in Thailand, they showed a truck commercial with Tony Jaa at every screening. Jaa also has a funny appearance in Bodyguard 2 which was or is playing that the NY Asia Film Fest.