Filmography
Jul. 16th, 2007 02:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_lady_lilyKronk's New Groove
Yes, mock me now for my lack of taste in seeing, of my own volition, a Disney straight-to-DVD cartoon sequel. I'd be more susceptible to the mocking were this not the follow-up to the simply excellent Emperor's New Groove, which I adore. However, as suspected, the sequel isn't as good as the original; not that there's anything wrong with it, it's a perfectly servicable Disney cartoon, but it hasn't got the great dialogue and sustained plot structure of the original. I wouldn't bother seeing it unless you have a small person who absolutely loved the first one; that's the market that it's aimed at, and while there's nothing wrong with that, I feel sharing that information with the world is my good deed to all fellow adult Emperor's New Groove-ites out there who might otherwise be misled. Three stars.
The Cat's Meow
I think I only decided to watch this because it has Kristen Dunst and Eddie Izzard in it, expecting it to be something of a light romantic comedy thingie. How wrong I was. This is the version of a mysterious murder tale that took place in November 1924 on a yacht owned by publisher William Randolph Hearst. It's all a bit odd and no-one ever seems to have got to the bottom of the incident, so this is as good an explanation as any. The basic plot involves Charlie Chaplin (Izzard) going after Marion Davies (Bunst), who is the long-time mistress of Hearst (Edward Herrmann), while a large party is on a yacht celebrating Thomas H. Ince (Cary Elwes)'s birthday. Hearst, obviously fiercely jealous, goes a bit frenzied when he discovers proof positive of Marion's infidelity, but accidently shoots Ince instead of Chaplin. Obviously there's a large cast of supporting actors to this basic plot, including the superbly cast Joanna Lumley as Elinor Glyn, best selling novelist, and Louella Parsons (Jennifer Tilly), a film critic on one of Hearst's newspapers, who ends up being bribed with a lifetime contract for her silence.
It's a very nicely crafted film, visually beautiful, with a tight script and a clever premise. I will admit it's a bit odd to see Eddie Izzard doing 'straight' acting, but he does it so very well. The gradual build-up of tension as Chaplin continually fails to see the lines he's crossing, his weird charisma, Elinor's best attempts at keeping things at simmer and generally being far more awake than she gives the impression of being, the debauchery, Hearst's mounting frustration and inability - all very nicely done. Louella Parson is grating, some of the women are a bit air-headed, and Hearst appears capable of brushing over the whole 'whoops, I committed manslaughter' issue far too easily; but this was 1920s Hollywood. I enjoyed this a great deal; four stars.
Maxed Out
This is a scary film. It is all about the debt problem in the United States - in terms of how people are getting into debt, the sort of problems that get them there, people driven to suicide by debt, the debt collecting industry, the tricks credit card companies pull in order to get customers who only want to pay the monthly minimum, the scary interest rates, the fact that these people are blatantly out to make profit, how even the government is in ridiculous debt... frightening. Really, really scary. Not 100% sure how it would apply to the UK, but the general outlines are there - certainly all the university societies fairs have the credit card companies there, giving you a frisbee or a cool bag for signing on a dotted line, and incidentally, a credit card as well. Sobering stuff, and done very effectively without voiceover, just old-fashioned intertitles. The producers let the interviewees talk and don't feel the need to add a Michael-Moore-style guiding thread. We don't need one. It's quite frightening enough as it is. Four stars.
The Call of Cthulhu
This is a little gem of a piece, and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone with 47 minutes to spare. It's a real labour of love in transposing H. P. Lovecraft's classic novella The Call of Cthulhu to the big screen; previous attempts have apparently flopped, but this was perfect. It is filmed in the style of a silent movie, including intertitles, OTT black/white make-up a bit reminiscent of Metropolis and wiggly bits on the film; the only slight problem is that the frame rate is a bit too fast, meaning the images are a bit smoother than they should be for authenticity, but that's a quibble. It's clearly been produced by real fans of the genre, and they've done a lovely job; yes, their Cthulhu is made out of clay, but it's that scary animatronic sort of clay found in Clash of the Titans that had us all hiding behind the sofas. Also reminds me a lot of Quatermass, which happened to my father before Dr. Who. Does a fantastic job of rendering Lovecraft's lurid prose in a surprisingly pared down and elegant visual style. Thoroughly recommended - five stars.
Yes, mock me now for my lack of taste in seeing, of my own volition, a Disney straight-to-DVD cartoon sequel. I'd be more susceptible to the mocking were this not the follow-up to the simply excellent Emperor's New Groove, which I adore. However, as suspected, the sequel isn't as good as the original; not that there's anything wrong with it, it's a perfectly servicable Disney cartoon, but it hasn't got the great dialogue and sustained plot structure of the original. I wouldn't bother seeing it unless you have a small person who absolutely loved the first one; that's the market that it's aimed at, and while there's nothing wrong with that, I feel sharing that information with the world is my good deed to all fellow adult Emperor's New Groove-ites out there who might otherwise be misled. Three stars.
The Cat's Meow
I think I only decided to watch this because it has Kristen Dunst and Eddie Izzard in it, expecting it to be something of a light romantic comedy thingie. How wrong I was. This is the version of a mysterious murder tale that took place in November 1924 on a yacht owned by publisher William Randolph Hearst. It's all a bit odd and no-one ever seems to have got to the bottom of the incident, so this is as good an explanation as any. The basic plot involves Charlie Chaplin (Izzard) going after Marion Davies (Bunst), who is the long-time mistress of Hearst (Edward Herrmann), while a large party is on a yacht celebrating Thomas H. Ince (Cary Elwes)'s birthday. Hearst, obviously fiercely jealous, goes a bit frenzied when he discovers proof positive of Marion's infidelity, but accidently shoots Ince instead of Chaplin. Obviously there's a large cast of supporting actors to this basic plot, including the superbly cast Joanna Lumley as Elinor Glyn, best selling novelist, and Louella Parsons (Jennifer Tilly), a film critic on one of Hearst's newspapers, who ends up being bribed with a lifetime contract for her silence.
It's a very nicely crafted film, visually beautiful, with a tight script and a clever premise. I will admit it's a bit odd to see Eddie Izzard doing 'straight' acting, but he does it so very well. The gradual build-up of tension as Chaplin continually fails to see the lines he's crossing, his weird charisma, Elinor's best attempts at keeping things at simmer and generally being far more awake than she gives the impression of being, the debauchery, Hearst's mounting frustration and inability - all very nicely done. Louella Parson is grating, some of the women are a bit air-headed, and Hearst appears capable of brushing over the whole 'whoops, I committed manslaughter' issue far too easily; but this was 1920s Hollywood. I enjoyed this a great deal; four stars.
Maxed Out
This is a scary film. It is all about the debt problem in the United States - in terms of how people are getting into debt, the sort of problems that get them there, people driven to suicide by debt, the debt collecting industry, the tricks credit card companies pull in order to get customers who only want to pay the monthly minimum, the scary interest rates, the fact that these people are blatantly out to make profit, how even the government is in ridiculous debt... frightening. Really, really scary. Not 100% sure how it would apply to the UK, but the general outlines are there - certainly all the university societies fairs have the credit card companies there, giving you a frisbee or a cool bag for signing on a dotted line, and incidentally, a credit card as well. Sobering stuff, and done very effectively without voiceover, just old-fashioned intertitles. The producers let the interviewees talk and don't feel the need to add a Michael-Moore-style guiding thread. We don't need one. It's quite frightening enough as it is. Four stars.
The Call of Cthulhu
This is a little gem of a piece, and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone with 47 minutes to spare. It's a real labour of love in transposing H. P. Lovecraft's classic novella The Call of Cthulhu to the big screen; previous attempts have apparently flopped, but this was perfect. It is filmed in the style of a silent movie, including intertitles, OTT black/white make-up a bit reminiscent of Metropolis and wiggly bits on the film; the only slight problem is that the frame rate is a bit too fast, meaning the images are a bit smoother than they should be for authenticity, but that's a quibble. It's clearly been produced by real fans of the genre, and they've done a lovely job; yes, their Cthulhu is made out of clay, but it's that scary animatronic sort of clay found in Clash of the Titans that had us all hiding behind the sofas. Also reminds me a lot of Quatermass, which happened to my father before Dr. Who. Does a fantastic job of rendering Lovecraft's lurid prose in a surprisingly pared down and elegant visual style. Thoroughly recommended - five stars.
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Date: 2007-07-16 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-16 06:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-16 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-16 07:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-16 08:38 pm (UTC)Bah, I too wanted Kronk to be good.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-16 09:42 pm (UTC)Kronk isn't actively bad - it's just that it really has a great deal to live up to, and understandably Disney didn't give it the resources it needed to fulfil that.