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84.169.195.75
I did not intend to see that film in a movie house, but
1) A raving review in the " Der Spiegel "
2) Full ACHas some one over here already saw it? Splielberg seems to have follow the spirit of H.G. Wells.
En Allemand:
Follow Ups:
Patrick,Again: WARNING: Do not read the last three paragrphs or you'll learn the ending!
Tom Cruise plays Bob Dolby, 41, a man with a small trucking business in suburban Hopewell, New Jersey. He's a defrocked priest- thrown out of the Church because of his advanced views on Thetans invading your body and making you go all negative.
These teachings were just too radical for the local Episcopalians- plus, everyone began to notice that "Father Bob" was trying just that bit too hard showing off his heterosexual interest in female persons.
It isn't too long before the Rev's wife, "Fluffy LaCoin", remarkably well portrayed in a delightful drag cameo appearance by Kenneth Branaugh. The Reverend Bob met Fluffy while on a package deal 2 day and 37 night tour of famous Roamantic French organs - and the congregation discover the good Rev. is not staying after choir practice just to discuss the intonation of Gregorian Chant, but is, in fact, running an after-school programme of opium smoking for tenors and altos.
As the Story opens, The now ex-Reverend Bob arrives "home", a rather soggy Sears and Roebuck establishment near the big Wal Mart in downtown Hopewell, New Jersey. Bob is tired from loading boxes of scab remover and dent enhancer, and argues with his boss, Ben Smock, ably played by Nigel Hawthorne, and who we know right away will get his comeuppance when the nerds revolt later on at the slumber party.
As soon as Bob arrives home, and he sees his boss, "Ben Smock" (Uma Thurman) slipping out the back window, Bob's wife pulls a gun on him. The gun, Victor, was a really nice black nickel Beretta, and Fluffy (Branaugh) really knows what she's doing!
Just as Fluffy is about to waste Bob- and everyone in an American audience knows with a Bereatta she'll have to empty the clip on Cruise, the television programme "Tahitian Trauma Center" is interrrupted by a loud FLASH! WOW!> Special Report on Fox News, "Bill Clinton Invited Invaders from Mars!"
It seems the Earth has been encircled by hovering spaceraft and the Pentagon automatically assumes that anyone with superior technology will automatically use that power to dominate the inferior force.
However, it seems they have come for peaceful purposes. And amazingly, the person they want to talk to to is Reverend Bob- the aliens have read his book, "Five Ways to Make Peace through Pasta" and have landed near Hopewell.
They (claim) ghey have to be here because of WMDs but they are more interested really in introducing peace and democracy to the entire World, with unlimited cheap energy, good roads, schools, support of the arts, and free health care. There will be no need for the public to own weapons as peace and harmony in a World economy will make it nice for everyone!
But Bob knows better. He meets with the aliens and gives them a free personality test. The results are not pleasant, these aliens are loaded with T-negative Thetans, their E-meter with "Q" readings well below normal. Plus- no one in the whole alien "ORG" was wearing a naval uniform or even close to being Clear.
But, Bob is willing to give peace a chance and tells the US forces to stand down- for a whole three days. Behind the scenes though a huge counter-invasion force is attracting people form all over and huge number os Canadians with shotguns and barells of fertilizer are heading south. Bands of roving Mexican car upholsterers and Cuban carburettor makers converge on New Jersey with alien murder on their minds.
Meanwhile, Bob meets again with "Goddard", the head Alien or "Grand Exalted Poofdork" as the aliens call him/it. Everyone is too nervous to tell the aliens that there leader's name is difficult to pronounce. The head alien is well played., I was left with a palpable sense that I had actually seen a real alien for the first time ever in a movie. Micheal Jackson really shone in this part and I think this will be better rememebred than his other hot current role as Willie Wonka in the famous chocolate factory. Actually that is Johnny Depp on acid playing Michael Jackson playing an alien. Believe me- it works and the sequel will be great!
But, when shaking hands with Goddard, Bob, who- suddenly sneezes all over him/it. Yuo know , I belittle Cruise for his acting, simian mentality, and slimy personality, but he can really pull off a great big drippy sneeze when he needs to!
Anyway, the inevitable happens and Goddard , who has no defenses aginst the common cold, dies in thirty minutes.
The aliens take this as hostile action and for the next 2 hours they murder all 6 Billion people on Earth- except Cruise- who they plan to use as a sectret weapon and drop from a great height on their enemies back home.
I enjoyed the extensive product placement***, the special effects are really nice and loud and I hope to pick up and enjoy the "War of the World" home game- and soon. And actually, Scientology has a whole lot more going for it than I thought this morning! I can't get some of it out of my head- especially that unforgettable miltaristic Scientology anthem that is playing under the entire battle scenes. All the talk of the gay thing being a distraction are true- that theme doesn't really spoil the overall effect.
*** now everyone will want a blue 1999 Buick LeSabre with Pepsi Free cans on the dash board- just like Cruise drives.
Next week, I happened to have a draft of the sequel, "War of the World's II : Kevin's Magic Boat"
_________________
We;ll, that's how I saw it.
Cheers,
Bambi B
I am quite confident. In fact your scenario approach the emotional truth of Spielberd opus, in a different way some may have dream but you in a very delicate way you were able to fullfight with a few words his ( S ) own metaphysical " angst " and for that we shall be grateful to you.I hope that one of this glorious day your own novel will be published and adated accordingly to the silver screen.
Bravo, mon vieux!
v
Cheers,
John K
I've seen enough of TomKat lately to last a few lifetimes.....
if he has a decent movie in him. Scorscese, he, DePalma...this generation ain't aging well.
(nt)
politically, be such a dunderhead in his film taste? :---((((((
Neither brillant on both account.
;^)
nt
... so here's another, ...this one taken of the subjective opinions you guy's deposit before they reach the land-fill. ;^)
> > > "How can such a brilliant fellow, politically, be such a dunderhead in his film taste?" < < <Minority Report is full of inconsistencies and lapses of reason, but AI has a poignant and believeable preformance by Haley Joel Osment that IS genuinely brilliant, and that doesn't even get into how stylistically beautiful Spielberg managed to make this film. IMHO, AI: Artificial Intelligence is intelligent; it's a thinking man's SF movie through and through, with few, if any, plot-holes to grouse about.
My response to Bulkington (July 23, 2004) casting a critical eye on Minority Report (i.e., before it decomposed) should give you a good indication as to how much I feel that AI is the better film:
> > > "Unfortunately, Spielberg went for the cheap thrills & gross out effects and expected folks to leave their minds and any semblance of "logic" at the door (i.e., fast pacing can cover a multitude of sins that are painfully apparent in repeated viewings). For instance, there's no way one could do a retina scan on a decomposed eye, which is exactly what Cruise's eye would be after the passage of any time and in consideration of the manner in which it was handled. The eyeball rolling across the floor scene had an almost Keystone Kop quality to it; it was predictable & lame. The fact that the security was tight when tension was desired and lax when a resolution was needed was far too precious. The spider-bots were cool, but the whole scene and bathtub set-up didn't really work, and again way to precious in terms of a last minute resolution."
"IMHO, AI-Artificial Intelligence, the film that Steven Spielberg completed prior to Minority Report is FAR and away the better SF film. I do believe that Minority Report is a "return to form" for Spielberg, but that carries baggage as well as kudos. Few Directors are as good at creating and resolving tension, developing interesting characters and producing believeable effects as Mr. Spielberg, but by the same token few are as sloppy when it comes to recurring continuity gaffs, precious coincidences and obvious audience manipulation, too. There are many of his films I dearly love, but I'm often frustrated with his sloppiness as a filmmaker, especially since it's obvious how passionate he is about his craft." < < <
Cheers,
AuPh
sitting in the theater, for the first forty minutes or so, and thinking this is pretty durn good. After an hour or so, I thought it had degenerated. Another half an hour and my yawns were starting to pester those around me. I made it to the end but I think I'd dosed off for a significant part of the ending. Btw, I drink espresso before most movies not because I fall asleep particularly easily in the dark but 'cause there's a good store nearby.
This one just seemed like that Depp pirate fiasco: too damned long. It got lost. But...I'll give it another look-see, I think our local library got a copy.
:o(Pirates was loads better than I ever expected it to be; great gags and stunts! My wife & I thought that it was big-time fun; we both loved it and can hardly wait to see Keef portray Johnny Depp's old man in the first of two sequels! What a hoot!
So, how come you don't like POtC??? [Sorry, but I have to ask.]
Shaken but not stirred,
AuPh
.
Xenu will come down and infect us with BODY THETANS who are the disembodied spirits of aliens who were killed, placed into volcanoes and THEN blown up with nuclear bombs! Help us Tom Cruise, you are our only hope! (along with John Travolta and Issac Hayes.)
/*Music is subjective. Sound is not.*/
.
Well there is no more Orson and time has change a little in the meantime....
access readily around the world to our advantage and use it to communicate to the user’s emotional level it can be done. Look what happened to Coke in Belgium 1 can made a drinker sick causes half of Europe to ban coke from public consumption. It took coke months to clear the air before they were allowed for public consumption in those countries again. One can that is all it took and it causes coke to lose billions of dollars of revenues.
Oh yes I remember now this story! How old what that?
Well but I think it a very bad beverage anyway....
While entertaining, it is basically "Jurrasic Park" on the road, with alien tripods instead of dinosaurs. Cruise flees New Jersey in a stolen car with his two kids to try to get them back to their mother in Boston. Thrills and chills along the way but very predictable. I thought the saucers in the 1953 Geroge Pal movie were far scarier than these teipods, even though the original novel had tripods. And a scene in a farmhouse with a crazed Tim Robbins goes on far too long.
above 'Land of the Dead'. All three are movies which I will never see. I do hope WOTW underperforms as Tom Cruise plays himself in every film with limited range as an actor, but with an A game public relations team. Now that that PR team has started to slip, he has shown what kind of person he is behind that ridiculously guarded persona that he fronts.I personally believe that he is the reason that 'Eyes Wide Shut' is not the film Kubrick meant it to be. Cruise's performance sinks that film. I am fascinated by every scene that doesn't include his presence. Kidman's performance is far superior.
I don't agree that Cruise is an inferior actor. I think his performance in EWS is actually quite good; but I agree as well that Kidman stole the show. I think the role of the emotionally hidebound doctor trying to break out and walk on the wild side is one that was particularly hard to shine in, and that Cruise was an odd casting choice for the role. However, I thought he played it with great subtlety. I think it was important to Kubrick to have an actual husband and wife in the role, and the actual course of the Cruise/Kidman relationship provides an interesting commentary to their relationship in the film.I also thought Sidney Pollack was woefully miscast as the sexually obsessed tycoon (Harvey Kietel, who was supposed to play the role and who was PERFECT for it, I believe, walked out on Kubrick).
But Cruise's performance in War of the Worlds, I thought, was one of the film's strong points. I thought he was utterly convincing as a working class, emotionally inept but well-intentioned father. It's always hard to forget that Cruise is Cruise, the way it's hard to forget that Nicholson is Nicholson: but in WOTW, Cruise almost disappears under in the guise of this character. I would also point to Conversation with a Vampire as an excellent Cruise outing. All in all, I think he's underrated as an actor.
I think he gets flack because he wears his preeminent celebrity so akwardly, i.e., he often comes off as a jerk when you see him in "real life." But who knows, maybe there IS something to this scientology business (just kidding).
I saw Sin City recently.
I liked it, it was pretty surprising, image-wise.
I thought Mickey Rourkes performance as Marv (through his make-up) was great.
Cruise always strikes me as emotionally shallow on the screen - that's why I think he's best cast as callow, eager beaver, superficial types (e.g. The Firm.) He always appears to be trying too hard, to no great effect. No depth, no surprises, no subtext.People who disagree with us about Cruise's acting chops always point to Born On The Fourth of July - but I just say that film proves the point. I find Cruise's performance in BOT4OJ excruciatingly obvious...and...well, shallow. He's vaguely interesting in Collateral for awhile, but not really...compelling IMO. I kept thinking of actors I'd have cast instead.
My favorite critic's quote about Tom Cruise goes something like "Tom Cruise confuses the art of acting with the act of staring at something really intently."
Since I dislike the crackpot scam known as $cientology and its methods, I'm hardly sad TC is taking some lickings.
Yes and me too on this one. He is staring like a snake, but behind you feel trained emptiness.
The Washington Post had a positive review today, too.
Yes.
Thank you for the link.
.
XX
Music is Emotion
..only two stars...
Cetaele (aka Bob)
"War of the Worlds" is a big, clunky movie containing some sensational sights but lacking the zest and joyous energy we expect from Steven Spielberg.I.e., an uncharacteristically unsentimental Speilberg film? Sounds great!
Well reviewed at Slate:
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