(btw Redacted isn't out til December)
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 10 September 2007 18:30 (sixteen years ago) link
Ebert gives Eastern Promises four of four stars
― Abbott, Friday, 14 September 2007 19:02 (sixteen years ago) link
What was pretentious about A History of Violence? I'm not arguing that it wasn't, just asking.
― jaymc, Friday, 14 September 2007 19:08 (sixteen years ago) link
It didn't even start with the mesopotamians. Some history.
― Abbott, Friday, 14 September 2007 19:09 (sixteen years ago) link
j, we had a whole thread on it! My problem: B movie as a Grand Statement.
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 14 September 2007 19:19 (sixteen years ago) link
At least this figures to be less pretentious than History of Violence. I hope.
It's less pretentious, but the stakes are also much lower. It's the slightest (formally, narratively and idea-wise) Cronenberg I've seen.
― C0L1N B..., Friday, 14 September 2007 19:20 (sixteen years ago) link
Haha have you seen Fast Company?
― Abbott, Friday, 14 September 2007 19:20 (sixteen years ago) link
I couldn't finish the Hoberman review, it seems like the more he praises Cronenberg (he again calls him the best North American filmmaker of his generation), the fewer ideas he has about him.
― C0L1N B..., Friday, 14 September 2007 19:23 (sixteen years ago) link
Haha, no. Nothing older than The Brood, so I guess that could explain my response.
x-post
― C0L1N B..., Friday, 14 September 2007 19:24 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, it was more interesting back in the day, the reviews, when his movies were cold and schlubby and no one liked them.
I want to get the Criterion Videodrome, are the extras good?
― Abbott, Friday, 14 September 2007 19:25 (sixteen years ago) link
"him the best North American filmmaker of his generation"
thats easy: no competition,except david lynch
― Zeno, Friday, 14 September 2007 19:28 (sixteen years ago) link
See, no one said that after SCANNERS, at which point I think he'd made a half-dozen movies.
― Abbott, Friday, 14 September 2007 19:30 (sixteen years ago) link
Lol @ Lynch and Cronenberg as only major North American directors of the 80s and 90s.
― C0L1N B..., Friday, 14 September 2007 19:32 (sixteen years ago) link
I guess it's to read the Death of Cinema thread.
― C0L1N B..., Friday, 14 September 2007 19:33 (sixteen years ago) link
^time
My problem: B movie as a Grand Statement.
otm... he tried to squeeze way too much out of a pretty thin premise.
― kenan, Friday, 14 September 2007 19:34 (sixteen years ago) link
I still haven't seen that one.
― Abbott, Friday, 14 September 2007 19:34 (sixteen years ago) link
not the only one, but waaaay above all others
― Zeno, Friday, 14 September 2007 19:38 (sixteen years ago) link
"... he tried to squeeze way too much out of a pretty thin premise"
depends how you look at it. you can also enjoy it flat, as lots of people did
― Zeno, Friday, 14 September 2007 19:39 (sixteen years ago) link
I thought the movie totally worked on the level of Viggo KICKING ASS.
He showed up on Colbert last night, fwiw. Not as a guest, just as an odd cameo, in a LOTR costume. He gave Colbert a very big sword. I don't even remember the premise.
― kenan, Friday, 14 September 2007 19:44 (sixteen years ago) link
AWESOME
― Abbott, Friday, 14 September 2007 19:46 (sixteen years ago) link
This is true. The steam room scene is great.
― C0L1N B..., Friday, 14 September 2007 19:47 (sixteen years ago) link
slight? it can't be boringer than spider, can it?
― remy bean, Saturday, 15 September 2007 02:53 (sixteen years ago) link
-- Abbott, Friday, September 14, 2007 7:25 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link
YES
good commentary and packaging too.
― latebloomer, Saturday, 15 September 2007 02:59 (sixteen years ago) link
so what kind of "big statement" was Cronenberg trying to make with AHOV?
the film touches on some themes beyond the gangster stuff, maybe. but i don't see that making the film pretentious.
― latebloomer, Saturday, 15 September 2007 03:12 (sixteen years ago) link
what's wrong with a b-movie as a grand statement anyway. ffs.
― latebloomer, Saturday, 15 September 2007 03:14 (sixteen years ago) link
I liked Eastern Promises (although a little less that AHOV--which it is much cleaner than thematically--and a lot less than Dirty Pretty Things--which it's just not as good as.) Watt, Mueller-Stahl, Cassell are all good (if at times not entirely believable in their respective Roles), but it's really all Mortensen's movie. The bathhouse fight scene is great.
― Alex in SF, Saturday, 15 September 2007 03:31 (sixteen years ago) link
i thought this thread will be more popular,now when the movie is out...does it mean i can wait for the dvd?
― Zeno, Tuesday, 18 September 2007 15:04 (sixteen years ago) link
^Spielberg, trendies
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 18 September 2007 15:10 (sixteen years ago) link
I saw it last night. Fabulous. See it now on the big screen—you'll be able to see the FOOD better.
― Beth Parker, Tuesday, 18 September 2007 23:11 (sixteen years ago) link
this was an awesome movie. Hitch would have been proud of it. cronenberg is proving he is currently the best director on playing with genres,injecting deep subtext about modern society and psychology. and it's very enjoyeble as well.
― Zeno, Saturday, 22 September 2007 00:12 (sixteen years ago) link
Saw Eastern Promises a few hours ago: much thinner than AHOV (this one more obviously betrays B-movie origins), and not as satisfying, although Mortensen is quite excellent in a performance that shows with what grace and power he can move.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 22 September 2007 02:11 (sixteen years ago) link
I found it totally satisfying and actually preferred it a tiny bit to AHOV. I liked AHOV a lot, I just wasn't all that interested in the guy's marriage/ family, blah blah.
― Beth Parker, Saturday, 22 September 2007 15:34 (sixteen years ago) link
an american friend who normally watches things like norbert just saw this and says it is freakin terrific
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 25 September 2007 13:36 (sixteen years ago) link
viggo, naomi and vincent cassell - cronenberg is such a perv
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 25 September 2007 13:45 (sixteen years ago) link
loved it. beth's right - this is like ahov with the fat removed.
i've read several capsule reviews that mention cassel being miscast and thus the weak link, but i didn't see it.
― lauren, Tuesday, 25 September 2007 13:49 (sixteen years ago) link
I just saw Eastern Promises - I thought it was fantastic.
― Hurting 2, Sunday, 30 September 2007 03:57 (sixteen years ago) link
Very much one of those films where you can spend the train ride home thinking of another and another detail whose significance didn't immediately occur to you. The bathhouse fight was incredibly gripping - although I could have done without the "Oh shit, fat dude is still alive!" moment.
― Hurting 2, Sunday, 30 September 2007 04:01 (sixteen years ago) link
I just got my copy of Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia Vol 2, the first volume of which, when delivered into Cronenberg's hands, provoked a rewrite of the original script of Eastern Promises. It's quite beautiful; I mailed Fuel today asking whether vol 1 would come back into print. (Volume 1 goes for several hundred $, as best I can tell.)
― libcrypt, Sunday, 30 September 2007 04:21 (sixteen years ago) link
although I could have done without the "Oh shit, fat dude is still alive!" moment
fat dudes die hard
― latebloomer, Sunday, 30 September 2007 07:17 (sixteen years ago) link
i liked this, but then i ran into a girl from kiev who hated it, and now i'm not so sure. it was cool and entertaining. and the bathhouse scene was pretty amazing and it brought back old(er) cronenberg for me (not just because of the blood, but because of the staging.) but it was a little too contrived at the same time, a couple of lines peeked through that built-up noir world.
― strgn, Sunday, 30 September 2007 08:13 (sixteen years ago) link
I think the Hitch comparison was a good one - it was more of a tightly written thriller than a realistic crime story.
― Hurting 2, Sunday, 30 September 2007 15:28 (sixteen years ago) link
Just saw a History of Violence. Holy shit it's intense and suspenseful and man, that guy's head sure gets shot open. Want to know what happens to his son.
― Abbott, Monday, 29 October 2007 19:52 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.hulu.com/watch/15520/naked-lunch
― and what, Friday, 30 May 2008 02:56 (fifteen years ago) link
two-disc edition of The Fly now at HMV for $4 (in toronto, at least). The second disc has a 2 1/2 documentary + the usual extras.
― negotiable, Sunday, 1 June 2008 22:12 (fifteen years ago) link
man ahov was great, finally saw it for the first time -- generic 'is dr. morbius wrong about everything' comment here -- i dont get why ppl think its 'pretentious' or whatever. it avoided camp i guess, in a way that made it seem really severe/stark. i also dont think it was at all about 'violence behind the scenes in small towns!', more about how the cost of peace is violence, and how violence exists in a lot of diff forms & whathaveyou throughout history ... nothing particularly pretentious about it tho, other than the discourse around it being 'ppl took this film seriously'
― choom gangsta (deej), Monday, 5 January 2009 09:09 (fifteen years ago) link
http://jaded4good.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/jameswoods.jpg http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/080408/Viggo-Mortenson_l.jpg http://images.starpulse.com/Photos/pv/Peter%20Weller-3.jpg
― bad-boy cartographer (Abbott), Monday, 27 July 2009 22:31 (fourteen years ago) link
Has anyone else noticed this?
― bad-boy cartographer (Abbott), Monday, 27 July 2009 22:33 (fourteen years ago) link
lol @ viggo's flag pin
― bad-boy cartographer (Abbott), Monday, 27 July 2009 22:35 (fourteen years ago) link
you left out Jeremy Irons
― girlish in the worst sense of that term (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 27 July 2009 22:41 (fourteen years ago) link