ZeroAX wrote:You have no idea how stupid his moves seem if you are not American
No, we know exactly how stupid his movies are. I refuse to watch anything with his name attached nowadays unless I have to.
And as for 300, visually it's stunning, but it does feel pretty hackneyed after a viewing or two. I remember seeing it in theaters and finding it awesome and then seeing it a year later and realizing just how underwhelming it was once the special effects wore off. I haven't had that happen with Sin City yet, but then Sin City is nearly a straight panel-to-film conversion of the comic book, so any place where it bogs down(and there are a couple where I cringe), I blame it on the source material.
Anyway, on to what I watched this weekend:
The Night of the Hunter
This movie is genuinely nightmarish, and I thought it was mostly wonderful as a result. There are some absolutely beautiful shots, and some excellent use of light and darkness, with wonderful performances from both Robert Mitchum and his child co-stars. At times there's a dreamlike quality, and Mitchum's Reverend Powell has a disturbing and sly ease that is riveting to watch. He's a true psychopath, manipulative, murderous, and devoid of empathy while carrying a personal relationship with a void in his head, "God." And he has quirks which further give away his mental illness, such as his compulsion to tell the story of his tattoos when they are noticed(and Mitchum definitely plays it as a compulsion, such as how he drops everything to tell the story the couple of times people look at his hands). And while a lot of what happens in this film won't phase the horror aficionados too much, the part where Mitchum vanishes in the light of the candle made my girlfriend scream.
If there's a weak point to this movie, it's in the beginning and ending, both of which feel rushed. The ending in particular feels tacked on, but neither section felt particularly good. It's obvious that the director wanted the film's focus to be the two children tangling with a psychopath, because both the lead up and the ending once he's been brought down just don't do the rest justice.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
I admit, I didn't find the first Hobbit movie nearly as riveting as the Lord of the Rings trilogy. For one, I didn't think the film should be turned into a trilogy, and for two, the focus felt different. The first Hobbit film, with its songs, humor, and heavy-handed CG, felt like a much more child-friendly adventure, and I left with the impression that the film had been meant for younger audiences and just wasn't for me. The second in the trilogy still bugs me for having a lot of extraneous exposition not in the book, but it definitely felt like a more mature film overall, and I found myself liking it more than the first even if I groan every time Legolas pops up and constantly compare everything to the 1970s animated version. I'm looking forward to the ending of the trilogy to see how things are wrapped up.
. I never watched another TF film again till I was forced to (at least it was pirated, so no money for bay), but I will admit I am guilty of that with the Harry Potter films.
