Opening in Dallas, Weekend of 02/16
by Brian
Breach (trailer): Looks interesting, and if the reviews so far are any indication, it’s actually good! Imagine that - from a major studio! And right here in the middle of February!
God Grew Tired of Us (trailer): I don’t want to be a jerk, but why does this look so insufferable? Am I supposed to laugh when the guy says that he expects using electricity to be very hard? That doesn’t seem funny. In fact, it seems downright condescending to laugh at that. What kind of a world do we live in where grown men have never used electricity? But yet, it gets a laugh every time I see it. Ha, ha, those charmingly goofy Africans with their backwards, non-electricity using ways! Maybe I’m the one that’s insufferable. Yep, that’s probably it.
The Italian (trailer): Talk about insufferable. Might go see it anyway.
Ghost Rider (trailer): Might get dragged along to this, in which case I anticipate 100 minutes or so of Nic Cage amusing himself more than anyone else in the theater. As usual. (Sorry, that last part was mean.)
Music and Lyrics (trailer): Might get dragged along to this, too, but whatever. It’s February, so these things happen.
Opal Dream (trailer): Indy kids movie by Peter Cattaneo, who did The Full Monty, which as far as I can recall wasn’t bad. Only playing daytime shows at one theater.
Bridge to Terabithia (trailer): Not much to say. Don’t have kids. Didn’t like Narnia enough to see every movie about kids in a fantasy world.
Daddy’s Little Girls (trailer): Man, lots of kids in movies this week.
God Grew Tired of Us (trailer): I don’t want to be a jerk, but why does this look so insufferable? Am I supposed to laugh when the guy says that he expects using electricity to be very hard? That doesn’t seem funny. In fact, it seems downright condescending to laugh at that. What kind of a world do we live in where grown men have never used electricity? But yet, it gets a laugh every time I see it. Ha, ha, those charmingly goofy Africans with their backwards, non-electricity using ways! Maybe I’m the one that’s insufferable. Yep, that’s probably it.
The Italian (trailer): Talk about insufferable. Might go see it anyway.
Ghost Rider (trailer): Might get dragged along to this, in which case I anticipate 100 minutes or so of Nic Cage amusing himself more than anyone else in the theater. As usual. (Sorry, that last part was mean.)
Music and Lyrics (trailer): Might get dragged along to this, too, but whatever. It’s February, so these things happen.
Opal Dream (trailer): Indy kids movie by Peter Cattaneo, who did The Full Monty, which as far as I can recall wasn’t bad. Only playing daytime shows at one theater.
Bridge to Terabithia (trailer): Not much to say. Don’t have kids. Didn’t like Narnia enough to see every movie about kids in a fantasy world.
Daddy’s Little Girls (trailer): Man, lots of kids in movies this week.
Labels: Openings
|Link|4:20 PM
12 Comments:
Usually, I'd look forward to something like Ghost Rider, but reading that Nic Cage chose to give the character a fondness for jellybeans made me apprehensive.
Breach was just okay. It's hard not to compare it to Shattered Glass, Billy Ray's other film about someone living a lie. Chris Cooper is great, but where Shattered Glass had Peter Sarsgaard giving a very nuanced performance as the investigator, Ryan Phillipe gives one of his patented dull performances.
As much as liked Ghost Rider comics, I may have to skip it, or try to see it for free. It looks really stupid.
Didn't get a chance to go to the movies this weekend. Which kinda sucks on one hand, but on the other it means the Ghost Rider threat has passed. So on the whole it's a wash.
Did watch Ikiru on DVD, though. That was fun.
the guy says that he expects using electricity to be very hard? That doesn’t seem funny. In fact, it seems downright condescending to laugh at that.
Why? Doesn't have to be. If one is laughing at the guy because one think he's an idiot then, yeah, you're being condescending. But if one is laughing at him because he seems to have misunderstood, and you feel sympathy for him, then no.
Hell, if we stopped laughing at cultural and social differences there wouldn't be a whole lot to laugh about.
The Full Monty, which as far as I can recall wasn’t bad.
Wasn't good, either.
Did watch Ikiru on DVD, though. That was fun.
You seen it before?
And wait.. "fun"?!
But if one is laughing at him because he seems to have misunderstood, and you feel sympathy for him, then no.
Well, I'm unconvinced. This seems to play into common stereotypes against Africans, no? An imperialist impulse to educate the savages? Seems that way to me.
You seen it before?
No, actually. Just watched Throne of Blood for the first time last week, too.
And, yes, "fun". It's always fun to watch a good DVD of a great film. Not nearly as much fun as seeing a great film in an actual movie theater, but fun nonetheless.
I saw all the publicity about God Grew Tired of Us from last year's Sundance Festival (interviews with the filmmakers and their subjects on the Sundance Channel's "Festival Dailies" show) long before I saw the trailer, and it looked like a good documentary to me, not at all insufferable. The clip in the trailer may get a laugh from some, but from my context I did not even think of laughing. Perhaps another example of a trailer doing a film a disservice?
Well, I'm unconvinced. This seems to play into common stereotypes against Africans, no? An imperialist impulse to educate the savages? Seems that way to me.
Like I said, it's a matter of how it plays with the viewer.
There are plenty of things you can dislike about the trailer. Mr Save-the-World Bono wailing Walk On in this context is clammy to say the least. The fact that all the footage of the guys in America is of them smiling, as if the USA was heaven for these dudes. Whole thing screams 'hope for the human race!'/'liberating/liberal guilt trip'.
But that scene with the electricity is probably genuine. There are probably millions of people living without electricity. I'm betting quite a few of them have fine lives none the less. That's not a stereotype. Nor does the trailer as far as I can see propose all Africans live like he has.
But if the people laughing at the scene believe so, from watching the trailer or not, then they are the victims of stereotype, and probably themselves the imperialist savages in need of education.
And, yes, "fun". It's always fun to watch a good DVD of a great film.
Sorry, you being you I thought it might be sarcasm. Guy dying of cancer not being most peoples idea of fun :) Glad you liked it, anyway.
Mr Save-the-World Bono wailing Walk On in this context is clammy to say the least.
Quite so. I even like that song and I still winced when it came on.
I think it's not even the song. The image of "Mr. Save-the-World Bono" has been pushed so relentlessly that just the sound of his voice in a socially weighty context has become tiresome. I even think that he's a reasonably smart guy when it comes to saving the world, but at this point, when I hear a U2 song in this kind of context it feels more like marketing social conscience than actual social conscience.
There are probably millions of people living without electricity. I'm betting quite a few of them have fine lives none the less.
Probably so, but I'm guessing that that's not the case here. Dude probably wasn't living without electricity because, oh, people live differently in different cultures and I just need to understand that the Western way isn't the best way.
No, he was probably living without electricity because huge swaths of the Sudan are desperately poor, struggle every day for basic things like clean water, and then he was focibly drafted as a child soldier.
So, I'm guessing that he didn't have a fine life in his pre-electricity days, even adjusting for the standards of different lifestyles. And I guess I just don't think there's really anything humorous about it.
...probably living without electricity because huge swaths of the Sudan are desperately poor, struggle every day for basic things like clean water, and then he was focibly drafted as a child soldier...
See? Context. I wasn't thinking about it that way at all. Don't know enough about him to make that kind of judgment. You're probably correct, but to me it was just a funny cultural/social clash.
Mayhap that clash is in the end grounded in tragedy, not that I was thinking of it that way, but then what good comedy is not ultimately grounded in tragedy? Me banging my finger flat on a hammer is tragedy to me, but might be comedy to you. Guy doing an improvised bungy jump from a bridge but using way too much cord is tragedy to his family members, but the Darwin Awards to the rest of us.
Shit, as if I wasn't already sounding over-earnest enough. But I've never been a fan of the Darwin Awards. People doing stupid stuff is funny, but even the rankest stupidity doesn't warrant a death sentence.
And even still, I'm not sure those are the best examples to make your point. It's always easier to laugh at someone doing something to themselves than it is to laugh at something terrible happening to someone that's not in their control.
And on that note, if you want to post video of you maiming yourself with a hammer, I'd probably get a chuckle or two out of it.
I'm not sure those are the best examples to make your point.
Yeah, I sort of realized that afterwards. I was thinking of using Borat, but those are fabricated cultural differences and everyone knows they're mean-spirited.
It's always easier to laugh at someone doing something to themselves than it is to laugh at something terrible happening to someone that's not in their control.
Don't agree. I'll probably laugh more at the latter kind of situation, a prank, say like this one
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tCrDgm_H678
Than the former like this one
And on that note, if you want to post video of you maiming yourself with a hammer, I'd probably get a chuckle or two out of it.
(although that might be cause it's me being the hurting)
Would only be funny if it was spontaneous. It's why I have a hard time laughing at Jackass.
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