I've been watching a lot of movies lately. Within the past 3 weeks I've seen Gran Torino, Coraline, Breach, and Watchmen. Some good movies there. Actually, Breach was pretty bad, but the others were good. Ok, Coraline was good. Very well made and beautiful to watch. But, like the book I read by Neil Gaiman (Neverwhere), it didn't wow me. There were no surprises, no thrills. And I don't mean there weren't any car chases or explosions (there weren't), I mean there were no moments when I said "Oh!" Gran Torino and Watchmen were awesome. I recommend Gran Torino to anyone, and Watchmen to anyone who has read the book (and liked it). Right now I would say Watchmen is my favorite comic book/superhero movie. Actually, it's one of the few comic book/superhero movies I've seen that I really liked. (For the record, I haven't seen Iron Man or the new Batman movie. I also haven't seen Ghost Rider, but I'm sure that sucks.)
Anyhow, the movie that is better than of all of these is Eastern Promises. I'd never heard of it before the other night when I was flipping around the Directv guide and saw this movie with Viggo Mortensen in it. Viggo Mortensen + organized crime = press the record button. Little did I know that it was directed David Cronenberg and told a tale revolving around Russian organized crime. The best part is, it was awesome. The best crime movie I've seen since The Departed, and right now I'd rate it higher than The Departed.
6 comments:
I thought Grand Torino was ok. The acting besides Clint Eastwood was horrible, it really brought the whole movie down for me. The ending was ok, it was unexpected.
I heard great things about Eastern Promises, I'll have to check it out now.
If you dig survival horror, I can't recommend The Mist enough. It's one of my favorite movies of teh past few years.
You know, one performance in Gran Torino that's kindof under the radar but very good in my opinion was the one black guy who does most of the talking in the street corner sequence. I think he did a good job with the way he starts to lose his bravado as he realizes that Clint Eastwood isn't afraid of him.
I wouldn't say I thought the acting was particularly horrible, but parts of the movie are kinda silly. Case in point the end when the will is being read and the mom looks at the daughter and smiles in anticipation of the car being left to her but of course it goes to the neighbor.
I don't think it was so much bad acting as it was many of the characters were really two dimensional.
Thank you Siskel and Ebert for spoiling the whole damn movie for me.
The scene you are talking about on the street corner was one of the most memorable scenes in the whole movie for me.
I have to disagree though, the acting was really bad. They probably felt that they wanted to have actual Hmoung actors, but man it was killing me.
Sorry Marshall, but I didn't think you would see it after I said I thought Million Dollar Baby was better.
I thought Million Dollar Baby kinda drug on. It was kinda stupid, I wouldn't sit through it again.
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