Monday, October 22, 2007

A Good One and A Bad One

Let's start with the bad. Spider-man 3. I have some ideas for Sam Raimi, the director, after making two strong superhero films, building up interesting characters and cool villians with decent storylines, on how to trash it all in one film amazingly filled with bad ideas and writing: First, turn the hero into an utter goon in order to have a character arc. Next, Rewrite the story line from the first film by changing who killed Uncle Ben (this will also help make the new villian more interesting since your writers couldn't come up with anything good). Third, fill your movie with other characters and don't develop them AT ALL, especially characters cherished and beloved in Spider-man fandom. Fourth, stuff the dialogue full of cliches and borophyll, a paraphrase for example: "Harry, I've never told you for the last several years while you've been self-destructing in agony over your father's death that he killed himself and not Spider-man."
"Thank you , Butler," Harry replies, "now I can go be a good guy."
Last, ruin the series so that anyone who knows quality film making will never want to see one of your films.... ever again, and please, if there is a film god, DO NOT let this man anywhere near The Hobbit.
If I were to swear in our blog, this sentence would be ideal: Who on earth let this script be made into a movie? If you thought this film was good, you may want to NOT consider yourself a potential screenwriter, even during the strike. I should be in film business....


Now onto the good. Everything is Illuminated. A Warner Brothers Independent film which is why you may not have heard of it. Solid acting, very moving storyline, hilarious sequences (I laughed for almost the entire first 15 minutes), and some things that will make you wonder if some people can even be called human. Don't watch this while you are doing something else, the WELL-WRITTEN dialogue will require your attention. Much of this film, I believe, was shot in Ukraine, and I have to wonder if some of the actors were people straight from the streets of Odessa. The performances were so natural that it left me feeling as though a part of Ukraine had stayed with me. I imagine this will be found in the comedy section of your local movie rental, but it isn't. The film touches on disturbing stories of the Holocaust and there is a suicide. Leave the younger children out of this one. This is Liev Schrieber's first film, and wow, let's hope he does more. Maybe Spider-man 4. I HIGHLY recommend this film.

2 comments:

Rosalee said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rosalee said...

Interesting commentary. I like spiderman 2 the best of the 3.