Adult-onset attention defecit disorder
There's this movie that came out about 10 years ago about these five liberals who dine regularly together and talk about what's wrong with the world. Then they decide to start inviting ultra-conservatives over and poisoning their wine. It's called "The Last Supper," and it's been playing over and over again on FX over the last few days. Not a great movie. The gist is basically "judge not," but what I like about it is the assault on everything that everyone hates about liberals. I'm one of those self-loathing leftists, and the best way I can think to describe it is that if you oppose dogma heavily enough, you become a dogmatist, as a columnist I used to work with said. The downfall of liberalism, is that when taken far enough, it boils down to 'I know what's best for everyone, and they're too stupid to realise it.' I know there are some serious West Wing fans around here, but watch five minutes of that show and it's blatantly obvious why Democrats leave a bad taste in Americans' mouths. The politics and philosophy are sound, but the delivery is nauseating.
But what's really important here, is whatever happened to the Cameron Diaz from 1995? She was about the most beautiful creature around from head to toe when she appeared in this movie and The Mask around the same time. Now she's anorexic, leathery, ghetto trashy, and on the brink of marrying that creepy Michael Jackson impersonator. Oh Cameron plus 15 pounds, how we miss you so.
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The new Beck album is taking some abuse for being a rehash of his previous work. This is kind of unfair. In his six (?) previous albums, he lifted from just about every genre our generation is exposed to and made instant classics that completely redefined the sound. He's a veteran innovator, and having one album that doesn't completely rewrite the rules is hardly a failure. Guero is solid and fun, and if Beck wants to recycle some of his own sounds, I can look the other way.
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I had some serious preoccupations about Sin City's approach of making a big screen carbon copy of the comic. The trailers were interesting, but clips of dialogue made me cringe. But if you can sit through some akward spots the movie as a whole is an amazing feat to watch.
The bad stuff: Miller's text doesn't do well coming out of actual human mouths. You may be able to write something like, "I done killed em real good for you Goldie," but you just can't say it. Many of the performances are akward, because it takes a creative actor to be able to say some of this stuff.
The good news: Many of the actors do it amazingly well. Mickey Rourke is genius. So are Benicio del Toro, Clive Owen, and even that Gilmour Girl. They make you forget about Jessica Alba and Brittany Murphy.
Also, the visuals are so good, that after the initial shock of the green screen technique (horrible in Sky Captain), you forget the separation between the real objects and the CGI background. The action is amazing, and takes on its own life separate from the comics. Miller's two-tone stills are stunning and Rodriguez's grey recreations are different, but as impressive.
It can be argued that 100 percent fidelity to the source material was overboard (the prosthetics are unsettling and Dick Tracy-like). But Sin City is true to the nasty spirit of crime comics and the innovative storytelling of the graphic novel; more than a shot-by-shot emulation. It pulls no punches and is shocking and upsetting in the way that comics fans know and love. Some people will walk out (my mom did), but they are a fair trade for a movie that makes no compromises. You don't get those anymore (anybody unfortunate enough to see the PG13 Alien vs. Predator knows what I'm talking about). It's full of bizarre and jarring visuals, graphic violence, cursing, sex and nudity (oh, the nudity! oh Carla Gugino!) and still managed to rule the box office. For that alone, I call Sin City a masterpiece.
3 Comments:
I went to see Sin City with my older bro. I thought it was really neat. That's all I can say, but it seemed everyone else liked it. Which is good. But I felt like a Hitchcock fan watching Gus Van Sant's Psycho.
That's all it really was. I hadn't read these stories in forever, but I still knew, "okay Marv jumps through the window of the car. Okay now Dwight talks to the body. Okay now hartigan gets out of jail."
There was no twist I didn't see coming, No ending I didn't know. It was just the exact books I already read. Panel for panel, scene for scene.
I've talked to people who don't read comics and am trying to get them to buy the trade of A DAME TO KILL FOR, since that story wasn't even touched and if one person buys that trade, it'll be worth it.
But I could have stayed home and finished my home work. There was nothing new at the theatre that day.
Except Jessica Alba was super hot.
I never read the Big Fat Kill, so that was new for me. But even though the others were mostly the same, it was still super fun to watch. And it's not like someone was doing a pale imitation, like Psycho, since it was actually Frank Miller and Rodriguez trying out a totally new landscape. Even though it was a shot by shot translation, I felt it was different enough to appreciate as a stand alone piece of work. And it's the very first time that comic book storytelling has been used in movies. That's why I think it was more than a mere remake.
A Dame to Kill For is pretty much accepted as the best Sin City story, but too long for the vignette approach. I'd be on the lookout for a movie version by 2007.
By the way, I saw your brother the other day.
Comic book story telling has been used in movies. Look at Dark City or at least the first half. There's no movement in the camera. It's just straight shots, much like panels of a comic book.
Which brother did you see, probably Andy at the comic shop?
He's turning thirty this week.
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