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Long week...finally at an end. Celebrated it's closure by going out to dinner and a movie with Wales. Dinner was at the local Japanese restaurant, Osaka, in Brooklyn. Has a lovely outdoor garden, with ornamental tin walls, trees, and little tin tables. Then off to the movies. We considered seeing something a little more thought provoking, but both felt far too brain dead and craved comedy - so by-passed the art cinema, for the 12 theater multi-plex - ten blocks north of the restaurant. And used our refunded tickets from Sunday, to see Bewitched. I wanted to see Mr. & Mrs. Smith - which got so rudely interrupted on Sunday, but it wasn't showing until 9pm and Wales pointed out that it made more sense to wait until it showed up on DVD, as opposed to wasting a free ticket on it.
Very disappointing. Made me miss the original series actually. Wales and I saw it for free more or less, so we didn't mind. And we did laugh at sections of it. And saw a wonderful trailer for Rent. Wales and I saw Rent way back in 1999 or 1998, with most of the original cast on Broadway. I also own the CD. I have an odd affection for it - maybe because I lived in New York during the period it encompasses and have seen the period it fears. What interests me about the movie being filmed - is it is a tale about all types of love at a time when people wish to put a boundary around love and confine it. Art always finds a way to force people to face their own prejudices. The other trailers were pretty lame - although I got a laugh out of the Jim Carry/Tea Leoni remake of Fun with Dick & Jane. This was the first adult movie I'd seen. I must have been 8 years old at the time. We snuck out to it, when our parents thought we were seeing a Disney movie. When my mother found out about it - she grounded me for a week. The hilarous bit - is on Sunday, a woman brought a toddler to Mr. & Mrs. Smith and most TV shows, video games, and cartoons are far more graphic than anything that was in Dick and Jane.
Now I've seen all the versions of Bewitched, starting with the 1940's or 30's movie in which it was based - entitled I Married A Witch starring Douglas Fairbanks and I think Lana Turner or someone similar. The series pilot borrows about 80% of it's plot from the original film. Yet, unlike the film, Samantha is portrayed as bright and savvy, with a bit of a dry wit. Montgomery did not play her as a bubble-head, which was the strength of the series. Even though Samantha was the stereotypical home-maker with the successful husband, the irony was that she was clearly the brains behind the outfit. In this version, the female lead, as played by Nicol Kidman, is a complete ditz. She has none of Sam's quick one-liners or subtle touches. She comes across as crafty but not clever.
In the series - Darrin's pratfalls - usually the result of Sam saving him from either himself or one of her relatives, were under-played. Not so here. Will Ferrell's Jack not only falls over himself he does a dance on the way down, and oh just in case you missed the fall? They do a retake. Except this time from another angle. I miss the subtle physical comedy routins of the 1950s and 60's, when Dick Van Dyke would trip over a wire and careen into the punch bowl. Or John Ritter so cleverly fell backwards down the steps. It happened quickly, inevitably, yet at the same time catches you by surprise, so you can't help but burst out in laughter - because you identify, because you've done it to and god it feels good to laugh. We don't see the tricks involved. And if we missed it? Too bad.
Nowadays - physical comedy seems to be taken to the extreme, overdone. Almost as if the filmmaker is afraid we won't get the joke, so feels the need to rub it in our face repeatedly, until I want to shake them and say "I GOT THE JOKE TEN MINUTES AGO! CAN WE MOVE ON NOW?" Or worse, they think the joke is so hilarous they feel that they just have to keep replaying it. See? See How funny that is? Oh let me show you again? Oh and you just have to hear this? The problem with comedy is it is a fragile thing. You can't overplay it. Or add too many touches. Do too much...and it becomes silly and embarrassing.
But those two problems are largely subjective ones. My main issue with the film was sections of it just did not track or make sense. At one point in the film - Jack hooks up with Uncle Arthur from the series. Not Isabel's Uncle, but Samantha's - played by an actor mimicing the original actor who played the role. Uncle Arthur explains to Jack that he is a fictional character from Jack's imagination - because Jack has hooked up with a witch, these things can happen now. Huh? We also have a budding romance developing between Isabel's father Nigel and the actress who plays Endora, Iris. This is actually one of the more interesting sub-plots, but it is pushed to the way-side. We rarely see them.
On the way home, Wales and I came up with better stories than what was in the movie. I came up with something for Iris and Nigel, while Wales came up with
a whole plot point about the actress playing Sam being replaceable as opposed to Darrin - which is subtly hinted at, but never actually played out.
My biggest beef with the film - is once again a female character is reduced to male eye-candy and this time by a female writer (Nora Ephron). Pretty and bubble-headed. Say what you will about the original, but Elizabeth Montgomery never played Sam as eye-candy, nor was she written that way. She was *smart* and *sexy*. Nicole Kidman's Isabel never seems very smart, and comes across like a weak somewhat ditsy Marilyn Monroe.
It's odd, but the strongest female figure I've seen on film in the last six months was in a documentary. In real life women are doctors, freedom fighters, human rights activists, mothers, teachers, lovers, and speak their minds without looking silly. Not just into how pretty they look and what guy they can marry. Why can't it be the same in the fantasies we create about them?
Very disappointing. Made me miss the original series actually. Wales and I saw it for free more or less, so we didn't mind. And we did laugh at sections of it. And saw a wonderful trailer for Rent. Wales and I saw Rent way back in 1999 or 1998, with most of the original cast on Broadway. I also own the CD. I have an odd affection for it - maybe because I lived in New York during the period it encompasses and have seen the period it fears. What interests me about the movie being filmed - is it is a tale about all types of love at a time when people wish to put a boundary around love and confine it. Art always finds a way to force people to face their own prejudices. The other trailers were pretty lame - although I got a laugh out of the Jim Carry/Tea Leoni remake of Fun with Dick & Jane. This was the first adult movie I'd seen. I must have been 8 years old at the time. We snuck out to it, when our parents thought we were seeing a Disney movie. When my mother found out about it - she grounded me for a week. The hilarous bit - is on Sunday, a woman brought a toddler to Mr. & Mrs. Smith and most TV shows, video games, and cartoons are far more graphic than anything that was in Dick and Jane.
Now I've seen all the versions of Bewitched, starting with the 1940's or 30's movie in which it was based - entitled I Married A Witch starring Douglas Fairbanks and I think Lana Turner or someone similar. The series pilot borrows about 80% of it's plot from the original film. Yet, unlike the film, Samantha is portrayed as bright and savvy, with a bit of a dry wit. Montgomery did not play her as a bubble-head, which was the strength of the series. Even though Samantha was the stereotypical home-maker with the successful husband, the irony was that she was clearly the brains behind the outfit. In this version, the female lead, as played by Nicol Kidman, is a complete ditz. She has none of Sam's quick one-liners or subtle touches. She comes across as crafty but not clever.
In the series - Darrin's pratfalls - usually the result of Sam saving him from either himself or one of her relatives, were under-played. Not so here. Will Ferrell's Jack not only falls over himself he does a dance on the way down, and oh just in case you missed the fall? They do a retake. Except this time from another angle. I miss the subtle physical comedy routins of the 1950s and 60's, when Dick Van Dyke would trip over a wire and careen into the punch bowl. Or John Ritter so cleverly fell backwards down the steps. It happened quickly, inevitably, yet at the same time catches you by surprise, so you can't help but burst out in laughter - because you identify, because you've done it to and god it feels good to laugh. We don't see the tricks involved. And if we missed it? Too bad.
Nowadays - physical comedy seems to be taken to the extreme, overdone. Almost as if the filmmaker is afraid we won't get the joke, so feels the need to rub it in our face repeatedly, until I want to shake them and say "I GOT THE JOKE TEN MINUTES AGO! CAN WE MOVE ON NOW?" Or worse, they think the joke is so hilarous they feel that they just have to keep replaying it. See? See How funny that is? Oh let me show you again? Oh and you just have to hear this? The problem with comedy is it is a fragile thing. You can't overplay it. Or add too many touches. Do too much...and it becomes silly and embarrassing.
But those two problems are largely subjective ones. My main issue with the film was sections of it just did not track or make sense. At one point in the film - Jack hooks up with Uncle Arthur from the series. Not Isabel's Uncle, but Samantha's - played by an actor mimicing the original actor who played the role. Uncle Arthur explains to Jack that he is a fictional character from Jack's imagination - because Jack has hooked up with a witch, these things can happen now. Huh? We also have a budding romance developing between Isabel's father Nigel and the actress who plays Endora, Iris. This is actually one of the more interesting sub-plots, but it is pushed to the way-side. We rarely see them.
On the way home, Wales and I came up with better stories than what was in the movie. I came up with something for Iris and Nigel, while Wales came up with
a whole plot point about the actress playing Sam being replaceable as opposed to Darrin - which is subtly hinted at, but never actually played out.
My biggest beef with the film - is once again a female character is reduced to male eye-candy and this time by a female writer (Nora Ephron). Pretty and bubble-headed. Say what you will about the original, but Elizabeth Montgomery never played Sam as eye-candy, nor was she written that way. She was *smart* and *sexy*. Nicole Kidman's Isabel never seems very smart, and comes across like a weak somewhat ditsy Marilyn Monroe.
It's odd, but the strongest female figure I've seen on film in the last six months was in a documentary. In real life women are doctors, freedom fighters, human rights activists, mothers, teachers, lovers, and speak their minds without looking silly. Not just into how pretty they look and what guy they can marry. Why can't it be the same in the fantasies we create about them?
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