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| Syd |
 Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 10:17 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12933
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Everest is the story of the disastrous Everest expedition of May 1996 in which eight people died in a storm, including several experienced mountain climbers. Although I knew of the disaster, I didn't know the details, which is good for suspense since I didn't know who lived or died.
The movie suffers somewhat from having too many characters to keep track of, which means most are undeveloped. I would like to know more about the Japanese woman, Yasuko Namba, who was the second Japanese woman to complete the Seven Summits quest, finishing on this expedition.* Since the cast includes such notables as Jake Gyllenhaal, Keira Knightley, Emily Watson, Robin Wright, Josh Brolin** and John Hawkes, it's surprising how little they're used.
Still, the movie works as a stark, almost documentary, film with Mother Nature as the enemy, and some criticism of the commercialization of what is a very dangerous sport. The script does a good job of helping you understand what went so wrong. I was absorbed throughout even if I kept getting the male characters confused. (I had to go by beard styles.) It's also a cinch for a cinematography nomination at the Oscars and will likely win.
Apparently there's a 1998 documentary with the same title that is even better, and a lot of memoirs on the expedition if you're interested. It might make a good companion film to Deep Water, the film about Donald Crowhurst and the round-the-world yacht race.
*Actually, I'd like to know more about Junko Tabei, who was not only the first Japanese woman to complete the Seven Summits, but was the first woman to do it period, as well as the first woman to climb Everest.
**The story of Buck Weathers is almost beyond belief, and is a distillation of this whole expedition. Check it out on Wikipedia, preferably after seeing the movie. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 11:34 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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| Just yesterday a Japanese climber with one remaining finger made it to the top of Everest. His other digits were lost to frostbite on other climbs. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 12:04 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12933
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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gromit wrote: Just yesterday a Japanese climber with one remaining finger made it to the top of Everest. His other digits were lost to frostbite on other climbs.
I believe that puts him one finger up on Beck Weathers. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2015 11:56 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6963
Location: Black Hills
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I want to see Everest, and then do some digital research on Buck Weathers.
I have some admiration for people who lose several fingers and keep at the sport of climbing. For me, losing just one would "send a strong message" that perhaps I could direct my passion for adventure elsewhere. But the heart wants what the heart wants, right?
Everest seems to be at the googolplex here, in both 2D and 3D. 3D might help in distinguishing the beard shapes, maybe. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2015 1:31 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12933
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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bartist wrote: I want to see Everest, and then do some digital research on Buck Weathers.
I have some admiration for people who lose several fingers and keep at the sport of climbing. For me, losing just one would "send a strong message" that perhaps I could direct my passion for adventure elsewhere. But the heart wants what the heart wants, right?
Everest seems to be at the googolplex here, in both 2D and 3D. 3D might help in distinguishing the beard shapes, maybe.
It probably would have been a good idea to see it at the IMAX. It's a movie that benefits from being on a bigger screen. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2015 2:00 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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I think there's an Imax in the new luxury mall a block away from my home. If so, I really should keep track of the schedule and see something there. Everest would be perfect if it appears here.
Edit: Indeed there is.
Foolishly named Shanghai Broadway Cinema IMAX |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 12:32 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Well, I stopped by tonight and checked out the IMAX which is a 5 minute walk away. This is probably the most pricey mall in all of Shanghai. It's also the only late-night mall in SH. Shops and mall usually close at 10:PM, and most buses and the subways shut down at 10:50 or so. I liked that the mall is full of two story elevators (going from floors 1-3 & 3-1, 2-4 & 4-2).
The IMAX was showing Lost in Hong Kong, some Chinese dramedy. They have the new Pixar film upcoming next week. I was struck by the prices. For what seems to be a regular screen, a ticket costs $17. And the IMAX price was around $25.
What was most interesting is that there is a The Little Prince animated film out now, and coming there the end of October.
I'm kind of excited about that. Even if it seems to patch another main story that interacts with The Little Prince story. I watched a trailer for it in the Lobby and it looked pretty good. The main story has computer-animated nearly creepy animated people and the Little Prince parts looked like stop-claymation. The voice cast for the English dub is pretty impressive: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1754656/ |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 12:38 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| That's new to me, but the IMDb item doesn't look promising. There was a "Little Prince" movie a few decades ago--all I remember is that Gene Wilder was the Fox, because I never saw it. It didn't do very well, as I recall. I'm not sure I'd want to see any film of the book, since it wasn't so much a story as an airman's dream, and pretty much perfect on the page. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 12:22 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Went like a whirlwind through the Woodstock Film Festival yesterday, seeing three feature films, two of which were aces, the other not. But two out of three ain't bad. The documentary She's the Best Thing In It, directed by Ron (Philadelphia, Ray Donovan) Nyswaner, is a fascinating appreciation of the character actress Mary Louise Wilson, whose career I have been following ever since she sang the first of my songs ever to be professionally performed. Nyswaner shows Wilson, at the age of 78, teaching her very first acting class and going through the growing pains of exploring a new "career." Got to chat with both of them afterwards. She's now 86 and ready to take on the world. What a woman! And Nyswaner's work, to its credit, honors but doesn't deify her.
Lamb, which won the "best indie film at the Woodstock Film Festival" award, is a disturbing, borderline shocking, yet strangely tender cross between Lolita, The Collector, and Paper Moon, as a middle-aged, disillusioned man forms a bond with an emotionally abused 11-year-old girl, kidnapping her with love. Ross Partridge directed and stars with child actress Oona Laurence. It's a pretty amazing movie.
Meanwhile, however, there is The Grace of Jake, which needed the resurrection of James Dean to make it work, as a drifter ex-con gets stuck in a Southern town and shakes things up with his charisma, singing chops, and sexiness. James Dean was not available, and the producer-star is a black hole on screen. Over and out. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 12:15 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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Sicario is a taut violent action thriller with an intriguing plot set at the U.S.-Mexican border. It tells of several U.S. agencies involved in the drug war, some using methods that are questionable from the legal or ethical point of view. Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro are excellent. Outstanding direction by Denis Villeneuve. I liked his two earlier movies too, "Incendies" and "Prisoners". A name to watch!
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 3:39 pm |
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Joined: 30 Oct 2014
Posts: 278
Location: Winnipeg: It's a dry cold.
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| Thanks Ghulam, I planned to see that movie this afternoon but got tied up with things. Probably see it next Tuesday afternoon. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2015 2:15 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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I've been hearing good things about Sicario + Fish and Cat.
I haven't seen many 2015 films at all, but what I've seen has been fairly good and interesting and rather eclectic:
1. Hard to Be a God -- fairly impressive set design and staging and costumes. a medieval drama with lots of muck and blood and random violence. almost perverse the way the impressive cinematography captures such ugly doings. I think the story and characters gets subsumed by the setting and camerawork.
2. Love & Mercy -- well, actually my replacement disc was worse than the first one, and for some reason I haven't returned it. So I've watched the first half twice, both times with falling asleep some and some periodic freezing. Hard to evaluate it really due to the disrupted viewings.
3. Rocks in My Pocket -- Latvian animation, concerning family suicidal tendencies of the feminine persuasion. Maybe a little uglier than it needed to be. Some nice imaginative scenes.
4. Theeb (Wolf) -- Jordanian desert trek amid WWI intrigue, growing up, and the need for revenge. A young boy tags along on a 3 man camel journey to get an English soldier somewhere or other. Things go wrong and then you do what you have to do. Great desert scenery. I would have liked more focus on the camels -- odd, ornery creatures. I rode one once in Inner Mongolia. I guess they are less intriguing to the main Arab audience for the film. Though it has played at a heap of int'l film festivals. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2015 7:32 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| I think you would get a closer look at camels in the film Tracks. A teenage girl walks 1700 miles across Australia, accompanied by four camels. She has to break them in, etc, etc. The girl is wonderful, and it's just a great yarn. I didn't even know the Aussies had camels, and I've drunk a lot of beer with them. The Aussies, not the camels. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2015 8:00 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6963
Location: Black Hills
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yambu wrote: I think you would get a closer look at camels in the film Tracks. A teenage girl walks 1700 miles across Australia, accompanied by four camels. She has to break them in, etc, etc. The girl is wonderful, and it's just a great yarn. I didn't even know the Aussies had camels, and I've drunk a lot of beer with them. The Aussies, not the camels.
Haha! I loved Tracks, and I adore Mia Wasichowska. Even if I cant spell her. :] |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 6:35 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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yambu wrote: I think you would get a closer look at camels in the film Tracks. A teenage girl walks 1700 miles across Australia, accompanied by four camels. She has to break them in, etc, etc. The girl is wonderful, and it's just a great yarn. I didn't even know the Aussies had camels, and I've drunk a lot of beer with them. The Aussies, not the camels.
Sounds good. |
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