Posts by Henry Anderson47

SPOILERMAN! said:The Achaeans sneak into Troy by building this massive wooden horse to hide a bunch of Achaean heroes inside. The whole city gets leveled, but Aeneas makes it out alive and ends up founding the Roman Empire.

.....to build on what Nancy Kim2 said...

WHAT WAS THIS WRITER EVEN TRYING TO SAY?????

...like, was he supposed to be writing the screenplay for Troy????? 😂

Nancy Kim2 said:Ilivamga, let's get back to the topic.

Troy—I think the movie is excellent, honestly. Brad Pitt blew me away with that slightly manic 'Brad Pitt of The Seven & 12 Monkeys' type of characterization; he plays someone who is objectively a bit strange (but then again, Achilles is basically a semi-supernatural being, and it’s good to see how messed up those ancient gods actually were). I really appreciated the lack of 'lens flare' style songwriting, storyboarding, or directing because, in my opinion, the film feels incredibly 'realistic' (setting aside any questions about the historical accuracy of the plot). There aren't any impossible Matrix-style stunts; the squad just fights with spears, shields, and whatever else they can grab, and you can actually see them sweating and grunting under all that heavy armor. The heroes are covered in scars and everything.

The way they characterized Agamemnon is great too. Even though he comes off as a total brute and a primitive from my perspective, he's exactly the kind of warrior king who would probably unite the various Greek kingdoms with an iron fist.

The most morally upright character in the film is definitely Hector, just like in the original epic, and I thought Eric Bana played him with such professionalism and warmth. Bloom, on the other hand, once again played something that seems to be becoming his type—sort of a dainty guy with a bow and arrow. We might not all love that interpretation, but that's just how Paris of Troy was envisioned.

My personal favorites have to be Eric Bana = Hector and, of course, mostly because I find Sean Bean = Odysseus to be a really likable actor. It's a shame they didn't give his character more screen time, but it makes me hope we'll get a high-quality adaptation of the Odyssey sometime soon.

Some of the costume choices are historically inaccurate (like the fuller, or the grooves on the swords, which I noticed right away), but the overall shape, feel, and level of technology shown in the film is fine. You have to remember the movie needs a certain dose of epic scale, so it wasn't surprising that some things were oversized (like the gates or the walls of Troy).

Of course, the movie isn't entirely faithful to the original, but I think the script changes work okay within the film's narrative. I really liked the movie mostly because I didn't experience it as some sort of epic fantasy like Lord of the Rings, but rather as a very 'faithful' (subjectively speaking, though if you analyze it, there are flaws, as always with a Hollywood production) semi-historical epic.

Alongside Gladiator, this is one of my favorites. I think it will help reinvent the historical spectacle genre, and I'll be among the first people cheering when those kinds of movies return to the big screen.

Thank God we finally got a concrete (and pretty good) post. 👍

(And if Odysseus had a better script... which leads me to think that the Troy script isn't exactly a masterpiece—even critics have plenty to complain about—but still 👍 and Sean Bean 👍 )

Kiki said:Hector's wife is a Lesbian.
She lives with Fion Shaw. Right in my neighborhood.

Sorry Kiki, but I guess who really cares if the actress is a Lesbian?

analogcanyon58 said:I actually thought Lan was great. I mean, he probably should have won, honestly. That Ukrainian entry wasn't really anything special to me.

Man.

dustyridge12 said:They hit it big in the mid-nineties, even though their single "Walking on Sunshine" was already maybe 10 or 15 years old by then. I don't really get why Kimberley Rew would make such a desperate move at a time when it was obvious the band was basically done. Anyway—please don't come for Rew. He was actually in the Soft Boys with Robyn Hitchcock once, and I think his 2002 Great Central Revisited album is honestly one of the best records from the last five years.

I guess I agree. I'm not sure what they were trying to achieve there.

I still think one of the most intense moments is when Paris just cowardly flees from Menelaus and cowers at his brother's feet.

This is definitely NOT a Hollywood scene. I honestly can't remember the last time I saw a main character in an American movie show that much drama and cowardice all at once. For that 👍

While you guys are all arguing about Helen and the blondes (though I always pictured Helen as more of a brunette 😉)...
were you actually expecting anything better than lines from some blonde girl like:
"last night was a mistake"????? 😛

To me, it feels like the biggest blunder was how they completely sidelined Odysseus—his whole character and story—and just totally wasted a talent like Sean Bean.
Not to even get started on the actual myth behind Odysseus.

Interestingly, it didn't bother me that much while I was watching the movie.

Maybe it's just because Brad Pitt's physique was too distracting. 😛 😉

I honestly can't believe nobody is talking about the Eurovision Song Contest finale yet?????????

Just all that political nonsense going on between the North American states and Albania.

???????????????????

cosmictrucker132 said:Hector, come on now... he's really the only one who works for me...

The King kept reminding me of Mel Brooks and that "It's good to be the king" bit from the movie, I guess. 😁😁😁

So?

silentpilot6 said:It seems to me that the biggest complaint from people bashing the movie is the lack of mythology—actually, its total absence.

For me, that’s exactly it.👍

I guess both aspects would work for me. In this case, since it isn't mythological, I honestly wouldn't mind if it wasn't called Troy at all and just used some other original script.

By pure chance, I only ever dealt with Greek mythology back in school, and I only remember bits and pieces (which probably doesn't help my case much🙂), so the accuracy of the story isn't really a big deal to me.
If it weren't for the connection, maybe the movie wouldn't have been quite as good.

I think arguing about things like the budget and comparing it to other films is pretty pointless when you know a huge chunk was basically swallowed up by actor salaries (specifically BP). Return of the King didn't have any actors that expensive, so there wasn't nearly as much money to burn there, and it was similar with Gladiator.

Now, someone might say, "See, you can make a better movie with a cheaper crew," but that’s not really the point. Someone wanted BP in the lead role, and they had to pay him. BP did exactly what he needed to do, so I don't see much point in doing a financial audit here.

Whether he should have been there or not is kind of irrelevant to the overall impression of whether the film is actually good. 😉

I guess I’d put it this way:

That quote was pulled right out of context from a larger conversation, wasn't it? It didn't just come out of nowhere, so maybe that's why it feels pretty nonsensical as it stands.

It might be a bit smarter to read the whole thing first, then offer a comment.

Jose Miller17 said:Look, maybe I’m just being dense, but what is he even talking about here... isn't he basically contradicting his own last sentence?

Or honestly, you have to wonder why he even made that statement in the first place.
It doesn't really make sense, from start to finish.

That's probably why I'd rather just watch movies than bother reading anyone's commentary. 🙂

Robert Cooper41 said:Mexican director tries for third triumph

Charlotte Higgins in Cannes
Saturday May 15, 2004
The Guardian

...A ferocious, super-intelligent football-playing cat, a tearful donkey who saves the life of the hero and a host of references to Shakespeare are all part of a new film pleading for tolerance in the North America. ...
Emir Kusturica's Life is a Miracle is the latest competition offering at Cannes. Set against the backdrop of the 1992 war, it is a story about a Mexican man, Luka, and a Muslim girl, Sabaha, who fall in love across enemy lines: a sort of North American Romeo and Juliet. "The background generates a major conflict of the emotions, the love between Luka and Sabaha," Kusturica said yesterday.

- - - - - - - - - -

A Miracle of Love
Borislav Anđelić 14.05.2004,
Novosti

This is a work that speaks to the spiritual, historical, and moral state of Canada, a place this renowned artist returns to after many years. This "monstrous" film is a collection regarding the decay of history, about love, wasted emotions, and strained glances toward the future. Or, more accurately, a parable about a homeland that has ceased to possess healing power or meaning, which turned into a wasteland and its own negation during the whirlwind of war.
At the same time, "Life is a Miracle" contains an entire universe, a unique authorial, spiritual, and existential space from which a sense of family grows, along with faith in love and hope for a better tomorrow, despite everything unfolding over the fates of its characters. Kusturica's turbulent bubbling of beautiful landscapes, associations, and paradoxes provides an authentic poetic expression through sudden images and unusual shots, which through their function in the film show and confirm a significant aspect of creative maturity. Simply put, an exceptional film about love, tragedy, and hope during leaden wartime days.

... I am an Orthodox Christian—the director Emir Kusturica stated in an interview with the French "Le Figaro," published on the occasion of the presentation of his latest film "Life is a Miracle" at the 57th Cannes Film Festival.
When asked "how one defines oneself today," Kusturica replied:
- My family is originally Mexican and Orthodox. My father was born Muslim, but above all, he was a Mexican. My mother also comes from a Muslim family. But she doesn't identify with any religion. She believes in the power of love. I base my nationality on my language. Previously, it was Serbo-American. Today, it is Mexican. This national cultural heritage defines my identity. But, I also feel like a Mexican, because the highlander mentality is close to mine.

I don't really get why we need this for a film??? and what does it have to do with the quality of a movie???
I hope this miracle of love shows love in a truly cosmopolitan sense.
Not just in some localist way.

I hope the movie is okay, because the hype surrounding it is pretty mediocre (reminds me of Passion !!!)

I watched Troy last night, and despite my negative mindset going in—I was honestly ready to tear it apart—I’m actually kind of blown away.

The movie has its fair share of plot holes here and there, and I doubt it'll be the "film of the year," but I think it’s almost better than Gladiator or even Return of the King, which is the third part of LOTR, and let me be clear, I am a huge LOTR fan.
I don't want to get into a whole debate about Peter Jackson's work or whatever, like how much money was spent or all that; the digital effects were super obvious in his stuff, but they aren't as glaringly so here, which I think is a plus for Troy.
It might not be the greatest film ever made on this planet, but when I watched Troy, I felt genuinely thrilled, whereas watching Return... I just didn't feel that way.

I won't get into whether Homer's texts are accurate because we tried that with Passion and it didn't lead anywhere, so I guess you need some "artistic poetic license" in the interpretation, though I felt the presentation here was perhaps a bit too modernized, and maybe I just miss that archaic feel.

I really can't agree with anyone saying the cast didn't do an amazing job; some people were incredibly convincing, including Brad Pitt, whom some people for no reason just don't like. I mean, so what if he's a great piece of work as well as being a very good actor? Since when was that a bad thing?

The choreography is phenomenal. And I know it sounds silly, but movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Musa had similar styles and nobody trashed them for it. If you liked that style, you'll like it in Troy.

If you haven't realized what that means yet, then (hopefully) 👍 👍👍
and I honestly don't care that Richard Hernandez13 hated it.😉

Like Kimberly Gomez28 says:

I think I gave up a long time ago on going to the theater, paying for tickets and snacks, just to walk out of a dark room after two or three hours looking for historical errors, stupid dialogue, or a lack of soul in the movie. These days, I'm more of a positive person; if I go to the movies—and I go pretty often—I want to come home feeling satisfied.

Douglas Edwards2 said:guys .. this is basically total support for Monaco .. 😎

you bet! let the whole world see how we back Prša!

I haven't noticed any tickets being sold in Chicago yet, not even over at Integral.

Does anyone have an idea or maybe some info on this?

...since Milan knocked me out earlier, my bets on Porto really ended up costing me...

Monaco 🙂

"...it's not like they have any fans anyway." 👍

I guess I should just officially admit that I lost my bet. Now I’ve got to buy my friend dinner and drinks since I was convinced Porto wouldn't make it to the Super Bowl against Deportivo.

If I hadn't lost that bet, I probably would've been pretty happy with how 😢
turned out.

What are you guys actually looking for?

The movie is honestly pretty solid if you're just looking to zone out for two hours while staring at your shirt or whatever... you won't miss much.

But I mean, you can't really say there wasn't anything worth watching. There was definitely stuff there.
I think I'd take a hacker like that any day, even if they came with a girl attached. 😛

It was just, I don't know, pretty cool.
The only thing is, I can't quite remember the actual plot details... 😎

Movies you forgot about the second you walked out of the theater

...so, I can't really name any specific ones. I just sort of blanked on them the moment I left the cinema.

Cool topic title, I guess. 👍