fannishliss (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fannishliss) wrote2015-02-09 10:30 pm
fannishliss) wrote2015-02-09 10:30 pm
Entry tags:
Movies: "London" and "The Tempest" , more
The Tempest (2010) directed and adapted by Julie Taymor, starring Helen Mirren, Felicity Jones, Djimon Hounsou, and Ben Whishaw.
London (2006) wr and dir Hunter Richards. Starring Chris Evans, Jason Statham, Jessica Biel, Joy Bryant.
The Doctor Strange movie from 1978!
Skyfall (2012)
The Tempest
I wrote a very literate and astute review of the Tempest but failed to save it properly. So this is my second try. Plus,
I've been thinging and thinking about London, which seems like a much worse movie than, in my opinion, it is. :) And then, we also watched Skyfall and then the Doctor Strange movie. So here are some reviews.
My husband is a stage actor, and we really care about Shakespeare, so I was very excited to see this Tempest. Julie Taymor is considered a daring director, and she took a lot of interesting chances with her Tempest movie (she also took chanced with the Spider Man musical she directed on Broadway, which was riddled with accidents... so actors these days have mixed feelings toward her).
Helen Mirren is fabulous as Prospera, and she has a lovely Miranda in Felicity Jones. The script was slightly adapted to make sense of a female Prospera, so it was not gender blind casting, but an adaptation. In my opinion it worked very well. The boy who played Miranda's love interest Ferdinand apparently also was in Spiderman Into the Dark at some point... he is a great singer but not a riveting actor (perhaps the weakest link in the movie).
Ben Whishaw played a compelling Ariel, androgynous but not extremely uncanny. One of Taymor's choices was to make Ariel leave tracers whenever the spirit flew here and there. The scenes where Ariel speaks to Prospera from underwater are very beautiful.
To see Djimon Hounsou as Caliban was one of my driving factors in wanting to see the movie. He was so good in the role. I had an issue with his makeup -- I feel that instead of being white and crusty in places, it would have been more effective to simply make him out as the handsome African man that he is. The post-colonial critique, that Prospera has enslaved him and stolen the island that should rightfully have been his, is foremost in this adaptation and very powerfully presented by Hounsou. Ariel too is very compelling in the plight of being Prospera's slave. Ariel is trusted and eventually freed by Prospera, while Caliban is mistrusted and eventually abandoned.
The antagonists of the play -- the King of Naples, Prospera's brother Antonio, and the King's brother Sebastian, are all great. But I don't know why their costumes were so heavily made of zippers. Certain aspects of costuming, makeup and stage craft seemed more distracting than helpful. For example, here and there loud rock music would play -- which might be very effective on stage but seemed jarring in the movie. Or the problem that Ferdinand was dressed in Jeans and a tank top. ??? Alan Cumming was perhaps underutilized as Sebastian.
Russell Brand and Alfred Molina as Trinculo and Stefano did a good job interacting with Caliban, in the sense that they were suitably risible yet also very disappointing representatives of the human race for the island native to get to know.
Overall, Taymor's Tempest is a success, and I would recommend it to someone who wants to watch a movie adaptation of the play. She makes choices that not every Shakespeare buff would agree with, but some of her visions are very sound -- for example, the setting of the island on the lava and black sands of Hawaii, and most of the casting. Probably Mirren and Hounsou are worth the price of admission, and there are many more good points to the production.
London
This is a rambling independent film by a guy that never made anything else. I've been watching a lot of Chris Evans movies, and this one has not been not super well received. But I for one really like it. I'll try to explain why.
Chris plays Syd who has lost his girlfriend London (Jessica Biel) and his life is falling apart. So he hears that she is moving to LA and he crashes the going away party -- with this guy Bateman (Jason Statham) who has hooked him up with a large quantity of cocaine for the evening. Most of the movie is spent with Syd in the bathroom at the party, doing way too much coke, arguing, and trying to build up his nerve to confront London.
Strangely enough, a big part of the movie is Syd haranguing people to tell him why they believe in God. Syd's relationship with London is revealed in flashbacks, and one of the biggest fights they have is about her belief in God. He makes people try to convince him with proofs -- so they try -- but then he just argues and harangues them until everyone is furious.
Syd comes across as a character who is extremely insecure -- he needs to engage with people at a very intense level, which he can't seem to get to ordinarily except by picking fights. He doesn't believe that London ever intended to be loyal to him. And he is plagued by anxiety and panic.
Statham, as always, is riveting as he begins to respond to Syd's needling. Biel is okay, but two other women Syd knows are more interesting in their conversations.
A strong comparison could be made between this movie and Clerks. Both feature the same type of profane rambling, and the existential questions of lost young people. Clerks focuses on a more likeable guy in Dante. But Syd is not wholely unsympathetic. He feels everything so strongly that you feel with him, even though he is so abrasive and very much self-centered and aggressive. Having watched it twice already, I would watch it again.
They attempt to make Chris Evans look as loserly and unkempt as possible in this film. You still want to look at him. :)
Doctor Strange 1978.
I can't recommend this movie. I thought it was okay at first, but then it dragged on and on and I fell asleep. There was no point to it. There was one crazy surprise though! Doctor Strange meets a young woman who is possessed and with whom he somehow develops a "psychic bond" -- the woman is named Clea, but is by no means the Clea from the comic book. Anyway, Clea is played by Eddie (short for Edmonda, she is Canadian) Benton, whom I recognized as Dory Doreau from the 80s spoof cop show Sledge Hammer starring David Rasche. Eddie Benton by that point had changed her name to Anne-Marie Martin. And who is she really? MICHAEL CRICHTON'S EX-WIFE. She was married to Michael Crichton and got a $31 million divorce settlement!!! Whoa.
Anyway, the Doctor Strange movie is as bad as it is reputed to be. Sigh.
Skyfall.
What to say. Daniel Craig has very blue eyes? Ben Whishaw is better as Ariel? Ralph Fiennes makes me suspicious? Judy Dench is who I might look like at that age? Javier Bardem is the nastier Jeffrey Dean Morgan, especially with that horrible wig??? Naomie Harris -- is awesome. That is all.
London (2006) wr and dir Hunter Richards. Starring Chris Evans, Jason Statham, Jessica Biel, Joy Bryant.
The Doctor Strange movie from 1978!
Skyfall (2012)
The Tempest
I wrote a very literate and astute review of the Tempest but failed to save it properly. So this is my second try. Plus,
I've been thinging and thinking about London, which seems like a much worse movie than, in my opinion, it is. :) And then, we also watched Skyfall and then the Doctor Strange movie. So here are some reviews.
My husband is a stage actor, and we really care about Shakespeare, so I was very excited to see this Tempest. Julie Taymor is considered a daring director, and she took a lot of interesting chances with her Tempest movie (she also took chanced with the Spider Man musical she directed on Broadway, which was riddled with accidents... so actors these days have mixed feelings toward her).
Helen Mirren is fabulous as Prospera, and she has a lovely Miranda in Felicity Jones. The script was slightly adapted to make sense of a female Prospera, so it was not gender blind casting, but an adaptation. In my opinion it worked very well. The boy who played Miranda's love interest Ferdinand apparently also was in Spiderman Into the Dark at some point... he is a great singer but not a riveting actor (perhaps the weakest link in the movie).
Ben Whishaw played a compelling Ariel, androgynous but not extremely uncanny. One of Taymor's choices was to make Ariel leave tracers whenever the spirit flew here and there. The scenes where Ariel speaks to Prospera from underwater are very beautiful.
To see Djimon Hounsou as Caliban was one of my driving factors in wanting to see the movie. He was so good in the role. I had an issue with his makeup -- I feel that instead of being white and crusty in places, it would have been more effective to simply make him out as the handsome African man that he is. The post-colonial critique, that Prospera has enslaved him and stolen the island that should rightfully have been his, is foremost in this adaptation and very powerfully presented by Hounsou. Ariel too is very compelling in the plight of being Prospera's slave. Ariel is trusted and eventually freed by Prospera, while Caliban is mistrusted and eventually abandoned.
The antagonists of the play -- the King of Naples, Prospera's brother Antonio, and the King's brother Sebastian, are all great. But I don't know why their costumes were so heavily made of zippers. Certain aspects of costuming, makeup and stage craft seemed more distracting than helpful. For example, here and there loud rock music would play -- which might be very effective on stage but seemed jarring in the movie. Or the problem that Ferdinand was dressed in Jeans and a tank top. ??? Alan Cumming was perhaps underutilized as Sebastian.
Russell Brand and Alfred Molina as Trinculo and Stefano did a good job interacting with Caliban, in the sense that they were suitably risible yet also very disappointing representatives of the human race for the island native to get to know.
Overall, Taymor's Tempest is a success, and I would recommend it to someone who wants to watch a movie adaptation of the play. She makes choices that not every Shakespeare buff would agree with, but some of her visions are very sound -- for example, the setting of the island on the lava and black sands of Hawaii, and most of the casting. Probably Mirren and Hounsou are worth the price of admission, and there are many more good points to the production.
London
This is a rambling independent film by a guy that never made anything else. I've been watching a lot of Chris Evans movies, and this one has not been not super well received. But I for one really like it. I'll try to explain why.
Chris plays Syd who has lost his girlfriend London (Jessica Biel) and his life is falling apart. So he hears that she is moving to LA and he crashes the going away party -- with this guy Bateman (Jason Statham) who has hooked him up with a large quantity of cocaine for the evening. Most of the movie is spent with Syd in the bathroom at the party, doing way too much coke, arguing, and trying to build up his nerve to confront London.
Strangely enough, a big part of the movie is Syd haranguing people to tell him why they believe in God. Syd's relationship with London is revealed in flashbacks, and one of the biggest fights they have is about her belief in God. He makes people try to convince him with proofs -- so they try -- but then he just argues and harangues them until everyone is furious.
Syd comes across as a character who is extremely insecure -- he needs to engage with people at a very intense level, which he can't seem to get to ordinarily except by picking fights. He doesn't believe that London ever intended to be loyal to him. And he is plagued by anxiety and panic.
Statham, as always, is riveting as he begins to respond to Syd's needling. Biel is okay, but two other women Syd knows are more interesting in their conversations.
A strong comparison could be made between this movie and Clerks. Both feature the same type of profane rambling, and the existential questions of lost young people. Clerks focuses on a more likeable guy in Dante. But Syd is not wholely unsympathetic. He feels everything so strongly that you feel with him, even though he is so abrasive and very much self-centered and aggressive. Having watched it twice already, I would watch it again.
They attempt to make Chris Evans look as loserly and unkempt as possible in this film. You still want to look at him. :)
Doctor Strange 1978.
I can't recommend this movie. I thought it was okay at first, but then it dragged on and on and I fell asleep. There was no point to it. There was one crazy surprise though! Doctor Strange meets a young woman who is possessed and with whom he somehow develops a "psychic bond" -- the woman is named Clea, but is by no means the Clea from the comic book. Anyway, Clea is played by Eddie (short for Edmonda, she is Canadian) Benton, whom I recognized as Dory Doreau from the 80s spoof cop show Sledge Hammer starring David Rasche. Eddie Benton by that point had changed her name to Anne-Marie Martin. And who is she really? MICHAEL CRICHTON'S EX-WIFE. She was married to Michael Crichton and got a $31 million divorce settlement!!! Whoa.
Anyway, the Doctor Strange movie is as bad as it is reputed to be. Sigh.
Skyfall.
What to say. Daniel Craig has very blue eyes? Ben Whishaw is better as Ariel? Ralph Fiennes makes me suspicious? Judy Dench is who I might look like at that age? Javier Bardem is the nastier Jeffrey Dean Morgan, especially with that horrible wig??? Naomie Harris -- is awesome. That is all.