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November Movies (pg. 2)
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| Highmay |
| quote: | Originally posted by Shamez214
The only one of those listed that tickles my fancy is Jarhead. |
now why is that?? |
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| fr0st |
| "Memoirs of a Geisha" anyone? |
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| Highmay |
| quote: | Originally posted by fr0st
"Memoirs of a Geisha" anyone? |
december |
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| Stasis |
I'm really looking forward to Jarhead, The Ice Harvest and Syriana (which I'm hoping doesn't go "too far" and open itself up to the impending conservative backlash I'm guessing it'll recieve).
Jarhead looks really intriguing just based on the cast and director, Ice Harvest from Ramis should prove interesting and Syriana's coming at a pretty good time, I'd say.
I still have to see The Weather Man too. :gsmile: |
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| Stasis |
Oh yah, don't forget "Pride and Prejudice" either.
That's right. I said it. |
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| Highmay |
| quote: | Originally posted by Stasis
Oh yah, don't forget "Pride and Prejudice" either.
That's right. I said it. |
wow...sad.... |
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| Highmay |
Jarhead review from the Onion:
http://avclub.com/content/node/42283
Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Jamie Foxx
Rated: R
122 minutes
Reviewed by Scott Tobias
November 2nd, 2005
The title of Anthony Swofford's vivid memoir Jarhead refers to the traditional "high-and-tight" haircuts of the Marines, but it's also a synonym for "dupe" or "sucker," someone who got roped into a raw deal. In his book about his Gulf War I experience, Swofford and his military comrades wait fretfully for combat that never materializes, while baking in the desert sun and steaming about their wives and girlfriends cheating on them back home. And yet for a book of inaction, Jarhead resonates with propulsive urgency, dark wit, and passages that stand alongside the most harrowing of war literature. The film adaptation of Swofford's book faced two serious challenges: giving shape to the loose, episodic narrative without sparing the author's ferocious prose, and filling those endless dull stretches with anticipatory tension. Screenwriter William Broyles, Jr., a former Vietnam pilot and Newsweek editor, connects reasonably well with the material, but American Beauty director Sam Mendes has a tendency to smooth out the rough edges, and the film goes flat as month-old soda.
Though the book harbors some hostility toward the Marine Corps—at least as a choice for Swofford—it's also notably apolitical, which stays true to the "kill-or-be-killed" mentality that soldiers must take into battle. In this regard, Jarhead isn't a pro-war or anti-war movie, it's a peek inside the sausage factory, aligning itself to the grunts like Swofford who do all the dirty work. Jake Gyllenhaal plays the author as what he was—a tough, dutiful soldier who fulfilled his part of the bargain, no matter his misgivings—and only the voiceover reveals a more tumultuous inner life. After suffering the brutality of basic training, during which a drill sergeant smashes his head through a chalkboard, Gyllenhaal gets assigned as a scout-sniper for a Surveillance Target/Acquisition unit, which carries out delicate "one-shot/one-kill" missions. But since Operation Desert Storm was more a bulldozer than a scalpel, Gyllenhaal and his team, led by fierce Corps devotee Jamie Foxx, are never given much to do.
Nothing much happens in Jarhead: There are no major battle sequences, and the enemy is limited to a mere cameo in Gyllenhaal's sights, so the war becomes a nervous sort of stalemate: all tension, no release. The fear of the unknown drives soldiers crazy when they aren't going mad from boredom, yet Mendes misses that anxiety completely, relying on voiceover and ironic song selections to do all the heavy lifting. In the right hands, Jarhead might have been a tense, Federico Fellini-esque carnival of horrors, or maybe an irreverent political comedy along the lines of Three Kings, but the film never comes to life. It just languishes in the desert, waiting. |
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| Shamez214 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Highmay
now why is that?? |
I dunno. While I consider myself well versed in movies and I think I have a pretty eccentric and well rounded taste, none of those movies besides Jarhead are movies I am dying to see. I can wait till DVD release for all of them. |
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| Highmay |
| quote: | Originally posted by Shamez214
I dunno. While I consider myself well versed in movies and I think I have a pretty eccentric and well rounded taste, none of those movies besides Jarhead are movies I am dying to see. I can wait till DVD release for all of them. |
you consider yourself to have a well rounded taste and yet you "dunno" why you dont want to see them??
I personally can't wait for The Libertine, Syriana, and Bee Season. I've been waiting over a year to see Johnny Depp in this. |
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| Shamez214 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Highmay
you consider yourself to have a well rounded taste and yet you "dunno" why you dont want to see them??
I personally can't wait for The Libertine, Syriana, and Bee Season. I've been waiting over a year to see Johnny Depp in this. |
I don't want to see them because I don't. When I see the trailers or read about them, I don't say "Wow! Can't wait to see that!!!" |
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| Highmay |
| quote: | Originally posted by Shamez214
I don't want to see them because I don't. When I see the trailers or read about them, I don't say "Wow! Can't wait to see that!!!" |
fair enough, even though i dont think a film should be based totally on the looks of a trailer...all i hear is that this is johnny depp's best role ever...EVER...i dont mind spending 11 bucks and watching a performance like that on a big cinematic screen... |
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