Scorcese again under the impression that a film is better the longer it is. Sit back and enjoy 3 hours of talking, looking, subtle brooding and talking to fat men in suits through car windows as they take a drag. Featuring about 1000 characters, this film will make you wonder why there isn't more focus on the completely dysfunctional central relationship, where the woman tells Robert de Niro she has no feelings for him but marries him anyway, before cheating on him with a much less attractive, chubbier guy. Instead, we have hours of shooting, arguing about money, and random racial torturing of an Irish American- Seriously, they mashed that guys head in with a vice for seemingly no reason.
Moonrise Kingdom
Pretentious, Arrogant
Formal, clinical family engrossed in their own activities, including girl looking into the outside world with binoculars.
When Sam Shakusky "flees the coop" as the scout master puts it, the audience are immediatley interested in where he might be and his evidently rebellious character. Foster Father; "He can't come back, it's just not fair on the others. He's emotionally disturbed."
Kid with patch nick named Lazy Eye.
Girl with binoculars all silent observation.
Lack of interesting camera angles (most people/objects centre-camera), and clean, uniform costumes I find irritating as they are totally unnatural and boring.
The dialogue is always too direct and therefore nothing like the way people actually speak.
Anchorman
Arrogant, Macho, Cocky
I decided to watch this so called 'legendary' film to help make my mind up about seeing the second. I'm now not so convinced.
The story of how Ron Burgandy compromises his male-dominated career for love and letting the woman he is infatuated with, Veronica become his co-anchor appears at first to give the film a modern, feminist outlook. But in fact the core of the films humour, if it actually has any, aims to please an arrogant, masochistic view of the world: To begin with, the atmosphere of the News Room and Ron Burgandy's wealthy establishment in San Diego complements a conveniently middle/upper class atmosphere, where the highly stylised, idealised characters with a pathetic amount of depth live a very safe existence that simply wouldn't be the case for News Readers in real life. This lack of character depth relies therefore on random, slapstick gags that might appear mildly comic to a five year old, such as Weatherman Brick Tamland's pointless add-ons about how he 'loves the carpet and desk,' or field reporter and assistant Brian Fantana and Garth Holiday trying to distract Veronica during her first time on air by pulling faces. Ironically enough, the core of Anchorman's humour derives from seedy male sexual gags that could only ever appeal to masochistic capitalists harking back to a 'lost' age of boardy humour. Take the News Director's joke with his associates about watching porn, or Ron Burgandy's dream vision of returning home to Veronica as the naked housewife in an apron. No wonder the Rugby players at my old private school used to bang on about it so much...
As a matter of fact I actually enjoy Will Ferrell in most of his roles in Talladega Nights, Elf and Blades of Glory. The only moment I laughed in this film was when Ron was ushered on stage to perform his flute and he casually mentioned; "I'm not prepared for this..." as he slipped a flute out of his pocket. What I find amazing, however, is how Seth Rogan and Ben Stiller, two very funny actors, played two painfully minor characters. Meanwhile, the main characters of Brian Fontana and Garth Holiday were played by Chris Parnell and Paul Rudd, whose performances weren't funny in the least.
There were one or two mildly humorous moments, yes. You'd expect that from apparently one of the 'best films of all time.' But it seems to me that a group of wealthy people came together to create cheap humour that would create a fast buck on the big screen, and I wouldn't hazard a guess the sequel will try and do the same.
2012
Capitalist, Unbelievable, Boring
Don't Look Now
Times: "One of the best horror films of all time..."
Really? Well if it was then what made it so terrifying was how poorly produced it was. Nothing contributed to the story, which was mostly dialogue-led anyway. How are we supposed to sympathize with these rich ponces who go to Venice and see the ghost of their dead daughter there. Why didn't they see the ghost of their dead daughter back in England rather than these constant, random location changes back and forth?
It was adapted from a Daphne Du Maurier novel- if I were her, I wouldn't be pleased with what had been done to the story.
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