i got to see not one but two movies this weekend. saw hidalgo with the boys yesterday and went with "the professor previously known as the fraggle*" today to see the mel gibson flick fiasco.
i will give you the all important reviews in the extended entry. i will try not to give anything away, although with the second one...not much chance of that.
but happiness is sunday night hbo. sopranos! and catching up on my six feet under.
*i need a new name for the fraggle as he is becoming de-fraggletized and it no longer seems appropriate...
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ok, hidalgo. i wanted to like this one. i love viggo. and don't get me wrong. the sight of that man scruffy and thoughtful, staring into the desert is almost worth the price of admission. in fact, there was more than one moment where you just had to sigh and say "oofah." but i have never been a "i want a poney" kind of gal. even when i was little. and so, while i appreciate the gorgeous horses used in this film...it wasn't quite enough.
good points...like i said. viggo. viggo. viggo. ride 'em cowboy! and the cinematography was beautifully handled. special effects weren't over the top. it just seemed as we were trotting and cantering through cliches and that the movie was in some way representative of the length of the very very long race. i am glad that there were some cliches they managed to avoid. and i was surprised. it wasn't an awful movie. wasn't a favorite.
ok, on to passi0n 0f the christ. you know i was skeptical of this one going in. i tried to avoid reading too much criticism of this film so all i really knew (besides the story) was that it was violently brutal and graphic.
first complaint. enough with the slow motion. this film was really only 20 friggin minutes long. but the run time is 2:06. the filming is terrible. the crowd scenes are a bit biblical braveheart. i didn't realize that the part of jesus was going to be played by the count of monte cristo and i waited throughout most of the first 7 hours for jacopo to show up and help him get his revenge. i think it was the same make up.
as far as the violence. it was violent, but it was handled in such an overdone, theatrical, music overlay, cut-away kind of way, that even that, which was supposed to be the thing that everyone came away talking about, was just poorly done.
it was overdone, over the top, filled with glaring problems. barabbas as a comic sidekick? tongue wagging? maniacally laughing guards? and yes, we get it. they spit.
and the "rising" scene (and i hope i am not giving the ending away here)...echoed bad vampire movies from the 50s. the special effects were ones comparable to those that came with the lego studios movie making kit.
i know a lot of people were moved by the subject matter. the people who were moved to tears by this movie (for reasons other than mine) possibly were reacting to something besides the movie. i will give them that. but the film itself was just not well done at all. i am not willling to overlook that because mel showed his version of "true suffering" and how brutal things were, or his "passion" for the subject. sorry mel.
i did however, have a great time picking it apart with someone as cynical as i am. it was, all in all, a fun day where making fun of a bad movie can be just as entertaining as gushing over a good one.
so if you have to pick one...and i suggest that there may be better choices...go for a ride with viggo. at least the scenery is better.
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