I also went to see Public Enemies recently. This was OK; good performance from Johnny Depp, especially, looking somehow more square-jawed than as Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean (which is how I always think of him - his acting may have consisted of nothing more than swaggering about a bit and twitching a lot, but he twitched with such aplomb), but also from Christian Bale as a G-man manhunter. This made a pleasant change from Terminator: Salvation, which still sticks in my mind for being so horrendously bad; in Public Enemies, Bale plays a character with actual character, and does a good job of it. The grey-haired old Texan Ranger is also memorable: smart, experienced, has an intrinsic respect for those he hunts as men, so that he both predicts their actions and bends down to hear their last words - the kind of man one would like to be hunted and shot by, if ever one were a wanted outlaw.
I'm curious whether the fledgeling FBI was as willing to resort to torture and prisoner abuse to get information as shown in this film. The first time (which, from what Wikipedia says, was made up; the tip-off involved came from a relative of one of the lodge workers), I didn't understand why the prisoner didn't simply give false information, there wouldn't have been any immediate penalty; charming of him to be so honest. The second time, the prisoner was a little smarter.
Beyond that, I have little to add to Elberry's comments, which look at the film in terms of Michael Mann's larger oeuvre.
Also on matters film-related, I came across this parody trailer for the upcoming disaster film 2012. Not only is it funny in its own right, even if you've never heard of the subject before, but it makes me want to go and see the film more than the official trailer does.
Possibly I may go to see Up this weekend, as I have heard good things of it. (I really hope I don't have to see the Bruno trailer again.)
Friday, 17 July 2009
Films, cont.
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3 comments:
I was going back over some old posts, and caught that you're an amateur comic artist. I'm an amateur comic writer. You any good?
-Saint Superman
Sort of. Take a look at this for an idea - the site which hosted it is down, so it's a wayback-machine link (there are one or two guest artists, should be obvious which pages those are). (Don't expect to be able to understand the plot very much... the setting is basically an internet forum meme complex on steroids.)
If you've got any short (5-10 pages, ideally) scripts knocking around, I'd love to have a look at them... sadly I can't take on anything too long at the moment, though.
I'm a little late in commenting, but I ALSO saw Public Enemies and almost posted on it, but what I wanted to say sounded too smooshy coming from a girl. I'm glad you also noticed the admirable qualities of that stern-faced Texas lawman.
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