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| carrobin |
 Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2013 9:24 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| "Prisoners" got an excellent review in the NY Daily News. And I like Jake almost as much as my friend David does, so I'm interested. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2013 10:30 am |
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Good description, Bart.
Prisoners had very good reviews from the ones I have read. Still won't be seeing it.
(Did I already say this?)  |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 6:38 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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I haven't really liked a Ron Howard movie since the ones starring Michael Keaton (Night Shift and Gung Ho) back in the dark ages. Splash was fun and The Paper had moments (mostly provided by Keaton), but all the rest (including the critically lauded Apollo 13 and the Oscarwinning A Beautiful Mind) have left me colder than cold, and sometimes hostile. They've all been sloppy, sappy, cheesy, and--frequently--egregiously overrated.
It's therefore a huge surprise to report how exciting, moving, and unsentimental Rush turns out to be. The true story of James Hunt and Niki Lauda and their Formula One racing-car rivalry in the 1970s is acted, directed, written, photographed, and edited with such enormous skill that it left me slack-jawed. I never would have suspected that Ron Howard had the depth of talent he reveals here.
Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl play the (respectively) devilishly handsome rake Hunt and the obsessive, disciplined Lauda with charm and insight precision that never begs for symoathy. Both Hunt and Lauda are immensely flawed in different ways, yet Hemsworth and Bruhl make them both enormously winning. You really care about their respective fates.
There's also a big dose of eye candy in the appearance of Olivia Wilde as the wife (and then ex-wife) of James Hunt. Wilde is a fine actress and (chauvinist break here) scrumptious to boot. As Lauda's wife, Alexandra Maria Lara gives Wilde serious competition in the beauty plus talent department.
Peter Morgan (The Last King of Scotland, Frost/Nixon, Hereafter) has crafted a terrific script and the film editing by Daniel P. Hanley is the kind that wins Oscars, or should. But it's Howard who pulls it all together, and he's made one of the best movies of the year. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 8:27 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Having no interest whatsoever in car racing, I had pretty much ignored "Rush," but the avalanche of praise it's been receiving makes me think it might be one of those movies that's great in spite of being about sports. (Looks like a very promising holiday season for the film industry, starting early.) |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 8:44 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
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There were thunderous noises out of TIFF about this fall being a stellar season. I'm also "meh" or as Billy put it "colder than cold" about most of Howard's work, my exceptions being EdTV and maybe Night Shift.
I agree with everything aforementioned about Olivia (sigh) Wilde. Even liked her in "Deadfall," an otherwise lackluster attempt at North Woods Noir. And, of course, as "Thirteen" on "House, M.D." |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 10:43 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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I remember the name Niki Lauda, not the other.
I used to watch car racing with my father when I was a kid. He grew up in the 50's when cars were cool, and in his job worked with Penske's company. Though mostly we watched stock cars, not those effete F1 races.
For some reason we'd often eat raw carrots during the races, but rarely have them otherwise. I'm not even going to wonder what that was all about.
I was working in Denver when they had an F1 race right downtown, with grandstands on the Capitol lawn and the track circling the state Supreme Court building where I needed to do research. When you watch, the cars just whiz right by you in a high pitch whine. And it's hard to have any idea who just blew by you or what's in fact happening. Kind of a dumb wasteful "sport" if you ask me. I just read somewhere the other day that the F1 speed is just about the limit of what the human eye can process, so you can't really go faster without some kind of drugs or surgery or something to alter human perception. This was form an article which said that many small animals have such a rapid visual processing that compared to us they see the world in essentially slow motion.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24078179 |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 11:34 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Quote: F1 speed is just about the limit of what the human eye can process, so you can't really go faster without some kind of drugs or surgery or something to alter human perception. This was form an article which said that many small animals have such a rapid visual processing that compared to us they see the world in essentially slow motion.
So Formula One can go faster, once they train hamsters to drive? Maybe the marketers of the Kia Soul are onto something.
I assume the raw carrot snacks were intended to help improve your vision, while watching. They say that Ted Williams could read all the writing on an old 78 record while it was turning, so maybe his visual processing was faster than most. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 11:45 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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I never heard that about The Splendid Splinter and 78 records. And those platters are fast.
But yeah, they say he could see the seams on a pitched baseball coming his way. Many of the best hitters have very good eyesight. And slightly faster visual processing would certainly be an advantage.
I added a link to the article in the post above. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 11:59 am |
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| I don't care about car racing at all, but for some reason back in the 50's we used to get the Indy 500 on the radio. Everybody that I knew used to listen to it, including myself. In 1955 I read an article in one of the sports mags that wrote about why Billy Vukovich would win the Indy 500. He had won the '53 and '54 Indy 500. Tragically, he was killed in the 1955 Indy 500. I was shocked. I don't think I ever listened to the Indy 500 again. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 12:36 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| I vaguely remember being taken to stock car races when I was a kid. Then one night on the way home my dad asked how I liked it, and I said it was boring. Why? Because there weren't any crashes. That was the last time I went. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 2:40 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| I remember going to that or a dirt bike race in the Astrodome. As you said, boring due to lack of catastrophe. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 6:03 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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I have no interest in race car driving at all but was riveted by Rush.
On the other hand, I love whodunits but found Prisoners to be very much on the silly side. It's suspenseful but preposterous, and well acted without being in the slightest believable. Very overrated movie. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 6:06 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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The limiting factor for F1 is not speed but the g-forces on the drivers. As technology improves, Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) is constantly having to change the rules - outlawing turbo-charging, reducing engine sizes and so son - to slow the cars down.
I'm not a great fan of the sport, it' horirifically wasteful and once the race has settled down, it often becomes something of a procession. However, there's no doubting its a great, high-tech, sexy, cosmopolitan, travelling circus. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 6:13 pm |
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| Billy, I plan to see Rush when it comes here. I have nothing against race car movies, as long as they are interesting. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 3:02 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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| GRAVITY is overwhelming. It literally took my breath away. I couldn't talk after the screening. This is a film making of such extraordinary depth and vision that it can and will actually alter your consciousness. Want to take a drug-free acid trip? Buy a ticket to GRAVITY. It is art of the highest order. |
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