Reviews of movies I've never seen.
28 Days Later is one film I've been meaning to see for years, because I hear it's fantastic, but which I've never managed to actually see because I have an aversion to zombies in general (read: recurring nightmares) and will generally try to get out of seeing zombie films on my own. I own the DVD, would you believe it. But every time I come close to clicking play on my laptop, I wimp out.
Zack Snyder's 300 is in a different category. A movie that I was quite interested in during pre-production and filming, because of its arresting visuals, but which I lost all desire to see by the time it was released. I know, I know. But Diana, Dae mock-implores, what about the man-flesh? Those hunkalicious ABS OF DEATH? I just...can't. If I had any reason to believe that 300 had even the slightest trace of irony or complexity or self-awareness, maybe I could get over that big, nauseating mountain of xenophobia, shallow fascism, fetishisation of violence and empty style. (I have a feeling I'd enjoy the movie parody better than film itself.) But everything I read about 300 only makes me more desperate to avoid it.
'There is a marvellous, seemingly contradictory moment in the novel, when Leonidas, apparently having some foreknowledge of Henry V’s stance at Agincourt (‘We will light a fire that will burn in the hearts of free men for all the centuries yet to be’) invites the faint-hearted - i.e. those not in favour of certain death - to leave him. They do leave, in their thousands, muttering things like ‘I’d be crazy not to,’ ‘I’ve got my family to think about’ and ‘Spartan maniacs’. But of course the three hundred Spartans stay, and one of them is even rash enough to express his enthusiasm. ‘We’re with you, sir, to the death,’ he says. Leonidas looks at the soldier grimly, and says: ‘I didn’t ask. Leave democracy to the Athenians.’ Just the sort of defender freedom needs. Of course, this line is not in the film.' -- Michael Wood
That does not bode well for the chances of my seeing Snyder's next film, the adaptation of Alan Moore's Watchmen, even if it does have one of my favourite actors, Billy Crudup, in it.
Zack Snyder's 300 is in a different category. A movie that I was quite interested in during pre-production and filming, because of its arresting visuals, but which I lost all desire to see by the time it was released. I know, I know. But Diana, Dae mock-implores, what about the man-flesh? Those hunkalicious ABS OF DEATH? I just...can't. If I had any reason to believe that 300 had even the slightest trace of irony or complexity or self-awareness, maybe I could get over that big, nauseating mountain of xenophobia, shallow fascism, fetishisation of violence and empty style. (I have a feeling I'd enjoy the movie parody better than film itself.) But everything I read about 300 only makes me more desperate to avoid it.
'There is a marvellous, seemingly contradictory moment in the novel, when Leonidas, apparently having some foreknowledge of Henry V’s stance at Agincourt (‘We will light a fire that will burn in the hearts of free men for all the centuries yet to be’) invites the faint-hearted - i.e. those not in favour of certain death - to leave him. They do leave, in their thousands, muttering things like ‘I’d be crazy not to,’ ‘I’ve got my family to think about’ and ‘Spartan maniacs’. But of course the three hundred Spartans stay, and one of them is even rash enough to express his enthusiasm. ‘We’re with you, sir, to the death,’ he says. Leonidas looks at the soldier grimly, and says: ‘I didn’t ask. Leave democracy to the Athenians.’ Just the sort of defender freedom needs. Of course, this line is not in the film.' -- Michael Wood
That does not bode well for the chances of my seeing Snyder's next film, the adaptation of Alan Moore's Watchmen, even if it does have one of my favourite actors, Billy Crudup, in it.