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Fox you liked From paris With Love, gtfo.
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I also thought The Losers was done better than The Expendables. The Expendables was all hype with no reward.Comment
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I saw both, The Losers and The Expendables. I thought The Losers was horrible. Expendables was ten times better. IMO.I LOVE VSNComment
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On a tangent, one thing that confuses me about my uncle - who is in all ways awesome - is his movie selecting. On the one hand, he has a good collection of classic Shaw Brothers, some Chow Yun Fat, some Jet Li... He's a fan of QT, Guy Ritchie... Likes movies that make you think...
On the other hand, he genuinely liked The Expendables... But, then, he probably wasn't going into it looking to use his brain. :ionno: Fuck do I know, anyway?
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Prince of Persia:
The Sands of Time
Directed by Mike Newell.
2010. Rated PG-13, 116 minutes.
Cast:
Jake Gyllenhall
Gemma Arterton
Ben Kingsley
Alfred Molina
Steve Toussaint
Ronald Pickup
Richard Coyle
Toby Kebbell
In ancient Persia, class is everything and usually an unchanging fact of one’s life. Dastan (Gyllenhall) is lucky to be an exception. A parentless ruffian at about 10 years of age, his fortunes change for the better when the king of Persia happens to witness some of his mischief, takes a liking to the boy and adopts him.
King Sharaman (Pickup) already has two biological sons so Dastan can never be king, himself. Still, he fights proudly for his father and his brothers. Under his brother’s orders, while the king is away, Dastan helps invade the holy city of Alumet looking for weapons they are allegedly supplying to enemies of Persia. Naw, that doesn’t reference the War in Iraq, at all. The king is none too pleased, at first, but eventually convinced it was for a just cause. Why are you thinking about Cheney and Bush? Stop it.
A short while later, Dastan discovers he is possession of a very special knife. When the button on its handle is pushed, the person holding it travels back in time about 30 seconds. Of course, whoever framed our hero wants to get their ancient little paws on it.
PoP is simply swash-buckling, good fun. There are lots of chase scenes which include fighting and all sorts of acrobatics. There’s also lots of contentious dialogue, enough of which earns a giggle. Finally, there are some serious plotholes concerning the knife and its use, which I won’t get into, here. However, the positives outweigh the negatives enough for this to just be a fun, popcorn flick. Don’t go looking for great depth, you won’t find it. Though the parallels between the story and our reality are interesting but the opportunity to explore them is wasted. What you will find is a great deal of very nearly brainless entertainment that you can munch snacks to. It’s definitely a “movie night” type of flick to watch with a group.
The Opposite View: Richard Knight, Windy City Times
What the Internet Says: 6.8/10 on imdb.com (9/24/10), 37% on rottentomatoes.com, 50/100 on metacritic.com
MY SCORE: 6/10Comment
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Watched POP last night, it was decent but I probably wouldn't watch it again.
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Saw Wall Street on Friday. Nothing special. Douglas and Brolin were really good but that's about it.I LOVE VSNComment
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Just a heads up the Iron Man 2 link on the first page goes to your Iron Man 1 review. I just watched 2 and thought it was pretty good.Comment
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Man on Wire
Directed by James Marsh.
2008. Rated R, 94 minutes.
Cast:
Philippe Petit
Jean François Heckel
Jean-Louis Blondeau
Annie Allix
David Forman
Barry Greenhouse
Alan Welner
Mark Lewis
Philippe Petit is crazy. That’s it. No other explanation will reconcile my brain with what I saw, what he did. In my wildest dreams, my most imaginative moments, I’m the richest, most powerful, most famous man in the world capable of athletic feats and romantic endurance only the gods can rival. Even then, what he did is as far from my mind as a speck of dust falling harmlessly to the floor one million light years away. Insanity must be the only portal through which one not only arrives at the idea Philippe did, but to make it a reality.
Apparently, insanity is also contagious. If it isn’t, there is no possible way our here could’ve enlisted seemingly rational people to bring this particular dream to fruition, even if they were full of wreckless abandon and youthful exuberance. Yet, his dream became theirs. They willfully participated in what could easily have been his cause of death.
Oh, I haven’t told you what Philippe did that has given me such cause to pause. He has only done one of the most amazing things any human being can claim as gospel truth. Way back in 1974, long before the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center became the site of a national tragedy and effectively the genesis of a lengthy war, they were a brand spanking new symbol of America’s prosperity. Two buildings, about two hundred feet apart, each standing 110 stories, became one of the signature landmarks of the iconic New York skyline. This fool, for lack of a better description, and his friends miraculously managed to rig a tightrope from one roof to the other which Philippe, timidly at first, then brazenly, walked and danced back and forth across for about 45 minutes. This is a documentary of just how this event came to be.
I call him a fool because it was a foolish act. The fact is, the only way to describe his feat, and this movie, is to resort to a well-worn cliché: it is a triumph of the human spirit. No doubt, Philippe’s quirky, not quite all there personality and obvious zest for life makes the stories of planning and carrying out of his moment at the top of the world into compelling drama. Those same traits were instrumental in convincing people to go along with his cockamamie idea. There is also a love story and similarly flavored friendships that help ground the narration. They keep us from forgetting that this was nothing to be taken lightly, but something that could’ve turned out in a dreadfully different manner.
By the end, we feel as some of the eyewitness and participants feel. The magic of Philippe’s act overwhelms us. We can’t help but feel exhilarated. It is during this part of the film that contains the most poignant moment. We see footage from a local New York newscast the evening following the event. One of the police officers who arrested Philippe (you knew this was illegal, right?) is being interviewed. We can clearly see he’s a man torn between admonishing someone for breaking the law and admiring the same person for providing him with the most incredible sight of his or most anyone else’s life. We hear the tremble in his voice, see the tears welling up. How they don’t come tumbling down his cheeks is an act of willpower that might be worthy of its own film.
The big moment is tainted jus a little, but only very little. All through the movie there is plenty of old footage from Philippe’s home videos mixed with some dramatizations. However, of the walk itself, there are only still shots. They’re still unbelievably amazing, but I was hoping to catch a glance or two of our hero in motion during the apex of his existence.
In the end, it’s just a beautifully done documentary of something most of us couldn’t even fathom trying. It’s also a much more positive light through which we can remember the Twin Towers. Philippe, and the movie, are refreshingly free from politics, sad reminscings or even mentioning the fate of the great buildings. Instead, we watch a man, and the people who helped him, fondly remember the time when he played on the world’s largest jungle gym.
The Opposite View: Noel Murray, The Onion (A.V. Club)
What the Internet Says: 8.0/10 on imdb.com (9/29/10), 100% on rottentomatoes.com, 89/100 on metacritic.com
MY SCORE: 10/10Comment
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You should watch the movie Run for Your Life. Its a documentary about Fred Lebow, the man who started the New York marathon. It was cool to see how this man with a small dream started something so huge. I run a lot so it was something that got me interested but I think even people who don't run would be interested in it.Comment
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