Miscellaneous Movie Musings

Alex · 12-29-2006, 11:38 PM

It's a current movie but it's been out a couple weekends I think and nobody has discussed yet so I assume there won't be much of one.

Anyway, saw The Good Shepherd tonight. It performed the trick of being very interesting without being particularly compelling. Of being almost three hours long, feeling like it is that long, and yet not being bored.

One spooky thing, however, is that in one of Robert De Niro's short scenes in looks like the love child of Henry Kissinger and Buddy Hackett.

It is a solid effort in the director's chair by De Niro, but a little too in love with the quiet pause. The score is pretty heavy handed too.

innerSpaceman · 12-30-2006, 11:56 AM

Babel could hardly have been more unpleasant if all the subtitles were omitted and I was left to suffer understanding only the worst Brad Pitt and lamest Cate Blanchett performances ever captured on film. Three stories of unrelenting and purposeless woe, feebly connected at the film's end by the most tenuous of explanations and unfathomably connected in theme to this sorry viewer.

I can't believe there is Oscar buzz about this work of total crap.

Oddly, the only thing that interested me was hearing the musical score sequeway into a piece very familiar from the TV series Deadwood - from four years ago. The score is by Gustavo Santaolalla (who also did Brokeback Mountain), and it's credited to have been composed for Babel. But it's not simply a matter of a John Williams or James Horner having scores which are rip-offs of earlier works ... this particular cue was the precise cue from Deadwood - so iconic to that series it's used as the background for the DVD menus. (The episodes themselves, however, feature no music credits).

Not that this score would ever garner an Oscar nomination, but I hope discerning members realize it's ineligible for having not been composed for the film in which it appears. And I hope discerning Academy members ignore the buzz and recognize this film for the disjointed piece of crap it truly is.

12-29-2006, 11:38 PM	#1
Alex . Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 13,354	It's a current movie but it's been out a couple weekends I think and nobody has discussed yet so I assume there won't be much of one. Anyway, saw The Good Shepherd tonight. It performed the trick of being very interesting without being particularly compelling. Of being almost three hours long, feeling like it is that long, and yet not being bored. One spooky thing, however, is that in one of Robert De Niro's short scenes in looks like the love child of Henry Kissinger and Buddy Hackett. It is a solid effort in the director's chair by De Niro, but a little too in love with the quiet pause. The score is pretty heavy handed too.
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12-30-2006, 11:56 AM	#2
innerSpaceman Kink of Swank Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Inner Space Posts: 13,075	Babel could hardly have been more unpleasant if all the subtitles were omitted and I was left to suffer understanding only the worst Brad Pitt and lamest Cate Blanchett performances ever captured on film. Three stories of unrelenting and purposeless woe, feebly connected at the film's end by the most tenuous of explanations and unfathomably connected in theme to this sorry viewer. I can't believe there is Oscar buzz about this work of total crap. Oddly, the only thing that interested me was hearing the musical score sequeway into a piece very familiar from the TV series Deadwood - from four years ago. The score is by Gustavo Santaolalla (who also did Brokeback Mountain), and it's credited to have been composed for Babel. But it's not simply a matter of a John Williams or James Horner having scores which are rip-offs of earlier works ... this particular cue was the precise cue from Deadwood - so iconic to that series it's used as the background for the DVD menus. (The episodes themselves, however, feature no music credits). Not that this score would ever garner an Oscar nomination, but I hope discerning members realize it's ineligible for having not been composed for the film in which it appears. And I hope discerning Academy members ignore the buzz and recognize this film for the disjointed piece of crap it truly is.
	Submit to Quotes