Third Eye Film Society Forum Index
Author Message

<  Third Eye Film Forums  ~  Couch With A View

marantzo
Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 11:39 am Reply with quote
Guest
Billy, I think she is around 5 years younger than us. In other words, jail bait.
mo_flixx
Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 12:12 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533
marantzo wrote:
Billy, I think she is around 5 years younger than us. In other words, jail bait.


With the emphasis on "YOUNGER."
View user's profile Send private message
Mr. Brownstone
Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 3:57 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 2450
Billy:

"Agree that Wahlberg was the one and only bright spot in Huckabees. And that Hoffman and Tomlin were embarrassingly bad. (Not entirely their fault; the writing was horrible, but they seemed to buy into it somehow.)"

I couldn't be more supportive of Wahlberg's performance, which I thought was amongst the best of the year. But Billy... not to lecture you, bro, but maybe the reason Hoffman and Tomlin bought into the script is because they're pretty good actor.

"And Hillary Swank doesn't have a dick and they gave her an Oscar. That's what actors do, Eric, they pretend." - Ari, Entourage

_________________
"My name is Gunnery Sergeant Major Highway. And I have drunk more beer, pissed more blood, banged more quiff and knocked more skulls than all you numbnuts put together." - Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge
View user's profile Send private message
billyweeds
Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 4:20 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
Tim--Not to lecture you either, just to explain further a slightly subtle difference between what I mean and what you mean. There is a difference IMO between totally committing to the reality of the character you are playing and projecting a somewhat smug and complicit attitude with the material. Hoffman and Tomlin both transmitted to me the attitude that they really understood what Russell was getting at in a way that surpassed the audience's. You may disagree with me, but my complaint was not with their acting (I am a huge fan of both Dustin and Lily) but what I perceived as their intellectual snobbery.

Truth be told, however, I thought Lily was at the bottom of her game here, and Dustin was only intermittently successful. When Mark Wahlberg trumps Dustin Hoffman--and I'm a big Wahlberg fan too--something is wrong somewhere. And I lay the blame on Russell.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Joe Vitus
Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 4:35 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
billyweeds wrote:
Joe Vitus wrote:
There's no rationalizing taste in comedy. Either you find it funny or not. Having said that, I can't comprehend people finding this movie unfunny. It's maybe the most genuinely off-beat comedy since Beat the Devil . But maybe you didn't find that funny, either...


Now that you mention it, I have never quite understood the cult for Beat the Devil, which I find fitfully amusing but nowhere near the hoot it's said to be by those who adore it. (To give credit where credit is due, BTD includes the only Jennifer Jones performance that I can abide.)

However, just to confirm my own postmodern "camp" credentials, I will go to any wall you suggest for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.


Actually, I don't consider either Huckabees or Beat the Devil to be camp (of the intentional or unintentional variety; I know you meant the former). Huckabees in particular has the sort of bizarrity we associate with camp, but I still think they're different animals.

Totally agree with you about Jennifer Jones.

_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.

-Topher
View user's profile Send private message
Joe Vitus
Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 4:53 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
billyweeds wrote:
Tim--Not to lecture you either, just to explain further a slightly subtle difference between what I mean and what you mean. There is a difference IMO between totally committing to the reality of the character you are playing and projecting a somewhat smug and complicit attitude with the material. Hoffman and Tomlin both transmitted to me the attitude that they really understood what Russell was getting at in a way that surpassed the audience's. You may disagree with me, but my complaint was not with their acting (I am a huge fan of both Dustin and Lily) but what I perceived as their intellectual snobbery.

Truth be told, however, I thought Lily was at the bottom of her game here, and Dustin was only intermittently successful. When Mark Wahlberg trumps Dustin Hoffman--and I'm a big Wahlberg fan too--something is wrong somewhere. And I lay the blame on Russell.


I never got this at all, but I did get a sense of superiority for their characters. After all, a major thread of the movie is that they think they know everything, when in fact they only know some things. That's why they had the philosophical break with Isabelle Huppert, neither group could admit they didn't have all the answers. But you're explaining this helps a lot for me to get why you didn't like the movie. Or, more to the point, it reminds me how the non-verbal cues of a movie can make us for or against it depending on our take on them. And this is something that rarely comes up when we discuss a movie in terms of script, acting, dirction, cinematography. If something "sends a bad message" to you, that's basically it, nothing else is going to win you over.

I think I like the movie because of a non-verbal message. I have a thing for movies (or characters) tripped out on their own obsessions. Probably because I'm often in the same position. So just about any display of this kind of behavior is going to make me smile, and Huckabees took it very far indeed. And the more outrageous, ridiculous it was, the more I clicked with it. I could, on some very skewed level, totally related to Wahlberg riding a bike to fires because he wanted to protect the enviroment (and failing miserably as a firefighter as a result, of course), and Jason Schwartzman's ill-fated protest leader sticking to his guns, and even Lily Tomlin leaping into the back windows of cars. I understand that sort of controlling obsession, and seeing it on the screen, recognizing the impulse, had me laughing almost non-stop.

_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.

-Topher
View user's profile Send private message
lady wakasa
Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 8:11 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 5911 Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
I just found out that Amazon's having a Criterion sale with up to 45% off some titles (which definiely doesn't happen that often).

The 45% titles are listed on the home page of DVDBeaver.com. If you're interested in this, I'll just ask that you do it through DVD Beaver (which I check out for different DVD releases), since it doesn't cost any more and he needs the money to keep his movie reviews / comparisons website going.

I certainly don't know the guy, so I don't get anything from this. %^o

_________________
===================
http://www.wakasaworld.com
View user's profile Send private message
Mr. Brownstone
Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 11:56 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 2450
I getcha, billy. I don't know if I agree, but I getcha.

And billy & joe:

Wahlberg watering the grass with the firehose while the rest of his squad battles a housefire was one of the most indelible images of the year; hilariously sad.l

_________________
"My name is Gunnery Sergeant Major Highway. And I have drunk more beer, pissed more blood, banged more quiff and knocked more skulls than all you numbnuts put together." - Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge
View user's profile Send private message
Joe Vitus
Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 12:27 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
Mr. Brownstone wrote:
I getcha, billy. I don't know if I agree, but I getcha.

And billy & joe:

Wahlberg watering the grass with the firehose while the rest of his squad battles a housefire was one of the most indelible images of the year; hilariously sad.l


Agreed. But I get the feeling you were going to say more and had to rush off.

_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.

-Topher
View user's profile Send private message
Melody
Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 11:34 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 2242 Location: TX
I Heart Huckabees -- and I even wrote a review.

_________________
My heart told my head: This time, no.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Befade
Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 12:57 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 3784 Location: AZ
Lady wrote: "I just found out that Amazon's having a Criterion sale with up to 45% off some titles (which definiely doesn't happen that often). "

Uh Oh Rolling Eyes I'm sale-bait.

Speaking up for the anti Huckabee age group: I didn't like the film or the title.
View user's profile Send private message
Befade
Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 1:07 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 3784 Location: AZ
OH, Gosh Embarassed I just logged on to www.beaver.com by mistake.

I guess it was DVDBeaver.com...........
View user's profile Send private message
Mr. Brownstone
Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 5:09 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 2450
That's awesome! First link on the beaver website says, "Get Laid in Texas."

...Don't mind if I do.

_________________
"My name is Gunnery Sergeant Major Highway. And I have drunk more beer, pissed more blood, banged more quiff and knocked more skulls than all you numbnuts put together." - Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge
View user's profile Send private message
Joe Vitus
Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 5:58 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
Melody,

Not just a review, but a great review. Somehow I missed it first time around. Thanks for the link.

_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.

-Topher
View user's profile Send private message
mo_flixx
Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 6:17 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533
Befade wrote:
OH, Gosh Embarassed I just logged on to www.beaver.com by mistake.

I guess it was DVDBeaver.com...........


I made it to DVDBeaver but couldn't find much. I did sign up for the newsletter, however.

I guess what I'm really looking forward to at this point is the upcoming Criterion release of Rohmer's "Six Moral Tales." Can't wait to buy a remaindered box set.
View user's profile Send private message

Display posts from previous:  

All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 911 of 2427
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 910, 911, 912 ... 2425, 2426, 2427  Next
Post new topic

Jump to:  

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum