Collateral ....
Dec. 19th, 2004 01:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatFinished my DVD fest this morning. Gray, cold, gloomy morning and day in NYC.
The movies were: I Robot, Shrek 2 (I wanted to see the features), This So-Called Disaster, and Collateral. Of the four, the best and most interesting was Collateral. This So Called Disaster is a movie about the rehearsal of the Sam Shepard play the Late Henry Moss in 2000. I fell asleep during it. Scean Penn, Shepard, Nolte, and Harrleson basically mumble all the way through. It is interesting if you are a huge fan of San Shepard and his plays. Also the bits on theater and the acting process were captivating. Nolte appears to be method oriented, I'm not sure what Penn does - he apparently got into acting for the boots.
Collateral - I rented because of a review I'd read in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
londonkds journal some time ago. He'd recommended it as a welldone noire film. And it is, well done. Michael Mann the director is precise in his direction, casting, preparation and camera-work. The script is also precise. He cuts one scene in the movie and explains why succinctly. It drug the movie out and hurt the tension. I agree with him. The commentary is "behind the scenes footage" and
"rehearsal" footage that is actually fascinating. Mann did a lot of research into these characters before he did this film. Something that apparently impressed the actors, since most directors don't fill in the entire backgrounds of their characters before filming. Mann did. He knew everything there was to know about Vincent and Max and Annie and Fanny, before filming.
Even the stuff that never made it to screen, that might just be referred in a line of dialogue. And he coached and rhearsed and trained his actors for each role prior to filming. Cruise got training on a shooting range and with special forces. Jamie Fox interviewed cab drivers and explored that life-style.
The film itself is a fascinating character study of these two men and what makes them tick. Highly recommend. Completely agree with everything in londonkds review.
I Robot? Skippable. Has some nice action sequences. And I liked Will Smith in the role. But the character bits got overshadowed by the action and special effects. Suffers from the same sins as Bem Affleck's Paycheck did. Two potentially good/thought-provoking movies destroyed by a director/producer's desire to turn them into overblown action pictures.
The movies were: I Robot, Shrek 2 (I wanted to see the features), This So-Called Disaster, and Collateral. Of the four, the best and most interesting was Collateral. This So Called Disaster is a movie about the rehearsal of the Sam Shepard play the Late Henry Moss in 2000. I fell asleep during it. Scean Penn, Shepard, Nolte, and Harrleson basically mumble all the way through. It is interesting if you are a huge fan of San Shepard and his plays. Also the bits on theater and the acting process were captivating. Nolte appears to be method oriented, I'm not sure what Penn does - he apparently got into acting for the boots.
Collateral - I rented because of a review I'd read in
londonkds journal some time ago. He'd recommended it as a welldone noire film. And it is, well done. Michael Mann the director is precise in his direction, casting, preparation and camera-work. The script is also precise. He cuts one scene in the movie and explains why succinctly. It drug the movie out and hurt the tension. I agree with him. The commentary is "behind the scenes footage" and"rehearsal" footage that is actually fascinating. Mann did a lot of research into these characters before he did this film. Something that apparently impressed the actors, since most directors don't fill in the entire backgrounds of their characters before filming. Mann did. He knew everything there was to know about Vincent and Max and Annie and Fanny, before filming.
Even the stuff that never made it to screen, that might just be referred in a line of dialogue. And he coached and rhearsed and trained his actors for each role prior to filming. Cruise got training on a shooting range and with special forces. Jamie Fox interviewed cab drivers and explored that life-style.
The film itself is a fascinating character study of these two men and what makes them tick. Highly recommend. Completely agree with everything in londonkds review.
I Robot? Skippable. Has some nice action sequences. And I liked Will Smith in the role. But the character bits got overshadowed by the action and special effects. Suffers from the same sins as Bem Affleck's Paycheck did. Two potentially good/thought-provoking movies destroyed by a director/producer's desire to turn them into overblown action pictures.