Whose your daddy now?
Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there; and since not a whole lot of people that are fathers actually read my livejournal, all those of you that do read my livejournal and also happen to have fathers and weren't brought into the world by way of being immaculately conceived like Jesus Christ or Anakin Skywalker should convey my happy father's day sentiments to all of your esteemed deadbeat or not-so-deadbeat dads.
That being said, IT IS REALLY FUCKING NICE TO BE OFF OF WORK!!!!!!!
That's right. It's a celebration, bitches.
Nothing feels more summer to me than driving to the Stonybrook Cinemas and checking out
a sweetly eventful yet ultimately shallow summer action movie that doesn't really work but is fun to look at. Good, heady, dialogue driven character dramas are my bag, baby, but it's good to indulge in some mindless, meaningless, directionless entertainment.
That's right sportsfans, or moviefans, or boobfans or whatever type of fan you are: I'm talking about Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a.k.a Mr. and Mrs. we're-two-assasins-that-happen-to-be-married-and-people-only-want-to-go-watch-us-because-the-two-people-playing-us-are-probably-getting-it-on-in-real-life-but-not-really.
If this movie came out at any other time, people would call it a piece of shit, but the fact that it comes out in the summer makes everything okay.
It's funny how accepting we are mindless, energy-driven action movies when the weather is nice as opposed to when it isn't and we will rip apart everything we see. Thank God, for Doug Liman's sake, that this movie had a good opening.
Politics aside and speaking on the movie's quality or lack therof, it really didn't work. First of all, Bragenlia just weren't on their game. I've developed a better opinion of Pitt throughout the years and I've always been on the fence about Jolie's acting ability, but here it doesn't feel like either of them really showed up. I didn't buy them as husband and wife. I understand that this movie wasn't an adult drama about people trying to stay together but a mindless summer action film where most of the appeal is just in looking at the stars, but there was more to be had in their relationship. You had to want them to stay together and you had to buy that they would fight to stay together. This isn't a Mike Nichols movie. You don't have to be that nuanced. But we have to feel that there is something at stake in whether or not their marriage stays together. It didn't work. The movie comes to the point where they are trying to avert all the heat that is on them and all I kept saying was, "you two didn't like each other at all or seem to exhibit any signs of a connection during the first hour of this movie, so now what's all this 'lets stay together' shit?"
Some of it has to be blamed on the writing. We see the two of them hook up for the first time in the first five minutes of the movie, and during that encounter that leads to marriage, they exhibit no signs of a connection past a physical one. Maybe if the writers had made their initial relationship more natural and reallized and showed more of the everyday occurances that make a couple a couple in the first fifteen minutes of the movie, then you would have felt like there was more at stake and you would have bought why they wanted to stay together.
I also had a problem accepting that these two people would have reached a sexually stagnant stage in their marriage. That really is the catch22 you get yourself into when you cast two people that are that attractive. I couldn't see them being anything but all over each other. I don't know. Maybe I'll feel differently when I'm married. I won't be as good looking as either of those two people, but whatever.
Vince Vaughn really was wasted in this movie. It really didn't deserve him. They squandered so many opportunities to make the film so much funnier. His relationship with Pitt really didn't work. Mainly because Pitt played the character with a colossal stick up his ass and didn't seem interested in making his relationship with Vaughn playful or fun or a breather for the audience at all. All of their scenes together felt very forced and like these were the last two people in the world that would be friends. It wasn't Vaughn's fault. I blame it mainly on Pitt, the writing, and the direction.
Which brings me to Doug Liman. Clearly, he's amazingly talented and a rising star. Swingers and Go both speak to that. I haven't seen Bourne Identity, but it was definitely the kind of movie he needed to direct to show that he could extend beyond just being an action comedy director.
On this movie, he felt like a hired gun. He was about sixth in line for this job. The studio courted John Woo, Michael Mann, David Fincher and other A-listers before finally settling on him: the Bourne Identity guy.
Liman really was the geek sitting at the cool kids table on this one. I read an interview with him in Entertainment Weekly where he discusses how tough it was to direct with that much paparazzi around and with two stars who knew he wasn't the most qualified for the job. It really shows in his direction. It felt like he didn't have as much control as he should have. Swingers and Go both existed with an energy that had the viewer going turbo-charged with the actors. This film felt so morose at times that it didn't feel like anyone cared. It felt like, "it doesn't matter what we do, the only reason people are gonna go see this is because of Brad and Angelina." Liman directed very by-the-numbers. I'm not saying it didn't look great. It just felt like he was directing a summer action movie and nothing more. He used digital when people expected digital and went to close up when people would expect him to go to closeup. There wasn't anything very interesting going on. I know he's got it in him to do something better than this. I'm glad it opened well though. We'll see him on a big comic book adaptation very soon.
I'm sorry all my posts are about movies these days, but it's summer, and all I really do in the summer is go to the movies and read and listen to music. It's good to have a place to say what you really think though. I enjoy it.
Anways, peace out bitches.
That being said, IT IS REALLY FUCKING NICE TO BE OFF OF WORK!!!!!!!
That's right. It's a celebration, bitches.
Nothing feels more summer to me than driving to the Stonybrook Cinemas and checking out
a sweetly eventful yet ultimately shallow summer action movie that doesn't really work but is fun to look at. Good, heady, dialogue driven character dramas are my bag, baby, but it's good to indulge in some mindless, meaningless, directionless entertainment.
That's right sportsfans, or moviefans, or boobfans or whatever type of fan you are: I'm talking about Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a.k.a Mr. and Mrs. we're-two-assasins-that-happen-to-be-married-and-people-only-want-to-go-watch-us-because-the-two-people-playing-us-are-probably-getting-it-on-in-real-life-but-not-really.
If this movie came out at any other time, people would call it a piece of shit, but the fact that it comes out in the summer makes everything okay.
It's funny how accepting we are mindless, energy-driven action movies when the weather is nice as opposed to when it isn't and we will rip apart everything we see. Thank God, for Doug Liman's sake, that this movie had a good opening.
Politics aside and speaking on the movie's quality or lack therof, it really didn't work. First of all, Bragenlia just weren't on their game. I've developed a better opinion of Pitt throughout the years and I've always been on the fence about Jolie's acting ability, but here it doesn't feel like either of them really showed up. I didn't buy them as husband and wife. I understand that this movie wasn't an adult drama about people trying to stay together but a mindless summer action film where most of the appeal is just in looking at the stars, but there was more to be had in their relationship. You had to want them to stay together and you had to buy that they would fight to stay together. This isn't a Mike Nichols movie. You don't have to be that nuanced. But we have to feel that there is something at stake in whether or not their marriage stays together. It didn't work. The movie comes to the point where they are trying to avert all the heat that is on them and all I kept saying was, "you two didn't like each other at all or seem to exhibit any signs of a connection during the first hour of this movie, so now what's all this 'lets stay together' shit?"
Some of it has to be blamed on the writing. We see the two of them hook up for the first time in the first five minutes of the movie, and during that encounter that leads to marriage, they exhibit no signs of a connection past a physical one. Maybe if the writers had made their initial relationship more natural and reallized and showed more of the everyday occurances that make a couple a couple in the first fifteen minutes of the movie, then you would have felt like there was more at stake and you would have bought why they wanted to stay together.
I also had a problem accepting that these two people would have reached a sexually stagnant stage in their marriage. That really is the catch22 you get yourself into when you cast two people that are that attractive. I couldn't see them being anything but all over each other. I don't know. Maybe I'll feel differently when I'm married. I won't be as good looking as either of those two people, but whatever.
Vince Vaughn really was wasted in this movie. It really didn't deserve him. They squandered so many opportunities to make the film so much funnier. His relationship with Pitt really didn't work. Mainly because Pitt played the character with a colossal stick up his ass and didn't seem interested in making his relationship with Vaughn playful or fun or a breather for the audience at all. All of their scenes together felt very forced and like these were the last two people in the world that would be friends. It wasn't Vaughn's fault. I blame it mainly on Pitt, the writing, and the direction.
Which brings me to Doug Liman. Clearly, he's amazingly talented and a rising star. Swingers and Go both speak to that. I haven't seen Bourne Identity, but it was definitely the kind of movie he needed to direct to show that he could extend beyond just being an action comedy director.
On this movie, he felt like a hired gun. He was about sixth in line for this job. The studio courted John Woo, Michael Mann, David Fincher and other A-listers before finally settling on him: the Bourne Identity guy.
Liman really was the geek sitting at the cool kids table on this one. I read an interview with him in Entertainment Weekly where he discusses how tough it was to direct with that much paparazzi around and with two stars who knew he wasn't the most qualified for the job. It really shows in his direction. It felt like he didn't have as much control as he should have. Swingers and Go both existed with an energy that had the viewer going turbo-charged with the actors. This film felt so morose at times that it didn't feel like anyone cared. It felt like, "it doesn't matter what we do, the only reason people are gonna go see this is because of Brad and Angelina." Liman directed very by-the-numbers. I'm not saying it didn't look great. It just felt like he was directing a summer action movie and nothing more. He used digital when people expected digital and went to close up when people would expect him to go to closeup. There wasn't anything very interesting going on. I know he's got it in him to do something better than this. I'm glad it opened well though. We'll see him on a big comic book adaptation very soon.
I'm sorry all my posts are about movies these days, but it's summer, and all I really do in the summer is go to the movies and read and listen to music. It's good to have a place to say what you really think though. I enjoy it.
Anways, peace out bitches.