Better Dead Than Red, eh?
Yesterday I rented Good Night, And Good Luck and The Brothers Grimm.
Isabelle, who tends to fall asleep during movies, warned me that since she hadn't slept well the night before she was probably going to fall asleep during Good Night, And Good Luck. And yet, we were both incredibly riveted by the film. It was a truly marvelous picture. It should have won for Best Picture if they absolutely weren't going to choose Brokeback Mountain.
The Brothers Grimm on the other hand...
It's sad when an action-packed film puts my wife to sleep, while a rather "talky" film holds her interest all the way through. But that's what happened.
Being a fan of Monty Python, I love Terry Gilliam. His directing career I have fairly limited experience w/, however. I've only seen Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas and Time Bandits prior to seeing this film. The former is a mediocre film memorable only for a terrific performance by Johnny Depp and some well-staged hallucination scenes, while the latter is a wonderful fairy tale film w/ a rather confusing ending.
The Brothers Grimm is a disappointment. I had read that Terry Gilliam took time off from this film due to studio pressures in order to work on Tideland--which I hear is excellent--and it shows. The CGI effects in the film are ghastly, and if Mr. Gilliam had animated the effects himself in the 70s they would have been more convincing. Characters' motivations make no sense in some areas, and some scenes were clearly cut out that might have made sense of things. Jonathon Pryce is criminally wasted, and Monica Bellucci as the Evil Queen gets a grand total of maybe 3 scenes.
Still, Heath Ledger rather steals the show by essentially playing Michael Palin playing Jacob Grimm. There are also a few brilliantly dark comic bits, such as a cute kitten scaring a French soldier resulting in said kitten being accidentally kicked into huge spinning blades.
All in all, it's a bad film but I suppose it could have been worse.
Isabelle, who tends to fall asleep during movies, warned me that since she hadn't slept well the night before she was probably going to fall asleep during Good Night, And Good Luck. And yet, we were both incredibly riveted by the film. It was a truly marvelous picture. It should have won for Best Picture if they absolutely weren't going to choose Brokeback Mountain.
The Brothers Grimm on the other hand...
It's sad when an action-packed film puts my wife to sleep, while a rather "talky" film holds her interest all the way through. But that's what happened.
Being a fan of Monty Python, I love Terry Gilliam. His directing career I have fairly limited experience w/, however. I've only seen Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas and Time Bandits prior to seeing this film. The former is a mediocre film memorable only for a terrific performance by Johnny Depp and some well-staged hallucination scenes, while the latter is a wonderful fairy tale film w/ a rather confusing ending.
The Brothers Grimm is a disappointment. I had read that Terry Gilliam took time off from this film due to studio pressures in order to work on Tideland--which I hear is excellent--and it shows. The CGI effects in the film are ghastly, and if Mr. Gilliam had animated the effects himself in the 70s they would have been more convincing. Characters' motivations make no sense in some areas, and some scenes were clearly cut out that might have made sense of things. Jonathon Pryce is criminally wasted, and Monica Bellucci as the Evil Queen gets a grand total of maybe 3 scenes.
Still, Heath Ledger rather steals the show by essentially playing Michael Palin playing Jacob Grimm. There are also a few brilliantly dark comic bits, such as a cute kitten scaring a French soldier resulting in said kitten being accidentally kicked into huge spinning blades.
All in all, it's a bad film but I suppose it could have been worse.