Miscellaneous Movie Musings

[Gemini Cricket]

There's not a whole lot in the theatres that I want to see... Kind of a boring summer for movies...

[Ghoulish Delight]

Returning to ancient history...So we saw Castaway last night.

I'll give it "not bad", with some problems. Overall, I enjoyed it. I didn't find it to be cinematic brilliance, though it contained some small nuggets of brilliance. The plane going down was fantabulous. A lot of the island stuff was cool.

Spoiler:

But, I had a hard time forgiving the fact that he walked away from that crash completely unscathed. Not even a freaking limp?! Worse than that, they not only had him unhurt, they showed him willfully dodging flying debris in the cabin as the plane slammed into the water at 400 miles per hour. I mean, go ahead and have the boat inflate accidentally, coushoing him on impact, and having one of the shipping crates wedge in a way that protectd him from debris. But just kinda dodging out of the way? Totally out of the scale of believability of the rest of the film. And at least give him SOME injury. Sprained ankle, hurt wrist. Something.

And I know it's nitpicky, but I felt beaten over the head with the hanging thing. I mean, I got the picture when he dragged the log up and it had a noose tied. Instantly obvious what happened...there was zero need for the following expository conversation with Wilson. Anything that might have been unclear would have been resolved by the conversation at the end where he retells the hanging story to his friend. As a matter of fact, I felt the impact of that scene was completely lost as it was now the 3rd time we as an audience were being told the story (once visually, twice verbally).

Other than that, I enjoyed the time on the island, save a minor nit here and there. But I'm in the GC camp when it comes to the story wrapper. I did not buy their relationship at all. Don't know what it was, but it just had zero substance. No sense of what made their relationship tick.

And of course, I now have to weigh in on the FedEx thing. Eh, could have done without it. I can't say it affected me as much as it did GC, but I don't think the movie needed it...and the opening sequence was totally a FedEx commercial. It was filmed in the exact style of one of their commercials, following that path of delivery of a package. That bugged a little, but it faded for me as the movie went. But the fact that it was FedEx, vs. any other global shipping company added nothing for me.

[Gemini Cricket]

Spoiler:

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

I can't say it affected me as much as it did GC...

Spoiler:

I'm not a stark raving mad lunatic about product placement. I'm just passionate about movies that's all... I consider film to be an art and you wouldn't want to see the Mona Lisa holding a Diet Dr. Pepper can would you?

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

Spoiler:

I'm not a stark raving mad lunatic about product placement. I'm just passionate about movies that's all... I consider film to be an art and you wouldn't want to see the Mona Lisa holding a Diet Dr. Pepper can would you?

Spoiler:

No, not Dr. Pepper. But perhaps because of her junoesque figure, methinks a chocolate dipped Mickey ice cream would be more appropriate. See, I think the Da Vinci code missed, they should have done some hiding at Disneyland Paris! That I would have enjoyed!

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Snowflake

Spoiler:

No, not Dr. Pepper. But perhaps because of her junoesque figure, methinks a chocolate dipped Mickey ice cream would be more appropriate. See, I think the Da Vinci code missed, they should have done some hiding at Disneyland Paris! That I would have enjoyed!

DaVinci Code Spoiler

Spoiler:

It bugged me that they left out all the Disney references.

We saw The Lake House on Friday. It was interesting. Not terrible, not something I'll buy. Keanu is very nice to look at.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

Spoiler:

I'm not a stark raving mad lunatic about product placement. I'm just passionate about movies that's all... I consider film to be an art and you wouldn't want to see the Mona Lisa holding a Diet Dr. Pepper can would you?

Mona Lisa couldn't have had a Dr. Pepper, you stark raving mad lunatic.

I am glad they used Fed Ex instead of Brand X, but since they used it, they shouldn't have gone so heavy on the opening. Overkill. They should have let the name speak for itself. That intro stuff could have been a third the length and the point would have been gotten, not shoved down our throats.

The love story was good in the beginning. I did get their relationship and I found it real. But the ending was quite a let down. I know it'd be very hard to end this film at all, but this seemed especially poor.

The rest of it - incredible, amazing cinema, touching and thought-provoking and visceral.

Spoiler:

I found myself turning away due to the absolute harsh reality of many scenes. The plane crash and all the troubles he goes through were tough to watch - and that's a good thing. Like everyone else I've read and seen a million stranded-type stories, but this telling trumps them all in many ways. My empathy for this scenario was a 10 plus.

It's a real shame about the ending being so crappy - I'd love to watch this again. If I caught it on TV I'd totally watch it again, until he leaves the island.

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Mona Lisa couldn't have had a Dr. Pepper, you stark raving mad lunatic.

[Alex]

Didn't even have to make that one, it already existed on the interwebs.

I could live with that Mona Lisa, and it might have helped make The Da Vinci Code a more interesting movie.

This might be going too far though:

[Cadaverous Pallor]

DIET??? Now I'm offended.

[Snowflake]

You must spread some Diet Dr. Pepper around before giving it to Gemini Cricket again.

Too funny, GC