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TIFF! Copernicus Points A Gun At Neil Jordan’s THE BRAVE ONE!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
It sounds like Toronto is in full-swing at this point, and I wish I were there. I'm seeing a lot of the major Toronto titles here in LA right now, but that's just part of the fun of being at a festival. I'm glad we've got Copernicus up there, though... I always look forward to this time of year knowing we'll hear plenty from him and from Anton Sirius.
I'm seeing this one on Monday. Am I excited? Well, after reading this review...
Attention studio executives. I recommend asking the question "Has Tarantino Already Done This?" before greenlighting a picture. Because if the answer is "yes," stay away -- you won't be able to beat him.
The latest example of this is Neil Jordan's chick revenge flick, THE BRAVE ONE. Read Anton Sirius' review for a synopsis, but the basic idea is that Jodie Foster is beaten and her husband is killed by some thugs, but she becomes revenge lady and starts kicking ass all over the city. Meanwhile Terrence Howard is trying to get into her pants, and holy coincidence Batman!, the resident of those pants just happens to be the perpetrator of all those crimes he's investigating.
I disagree with Anton Sirius' -- I think you can make a well-written so-called "B-movie." Take ALLIGATOR, for example. Sure it is a JAWS rip-off, but the script, co-written by John Sayles, may not be CITIZEN KANE, but it is very good -- much better than it has any right to be. What I mean is that you can have a serious side, real characters, symbolism, etc., in movies that are primarily about racking up a body count. Maybe the problem with THE BRAVE ONE is that Neil Jordan doesn't think he's making that kind of movie, but Anton wishes he were. At any rate, fundamentally a do agree with Anton that THE BRAVE ONE is a failure, because it alternates too jarringly between serious and absurd. It almost worked for me though.
Here are 4 examples of various reactions to the film at the screening I attended. One critic liked it, period. The rest of us only disagreed on the exact moment it jumped the shark. Anton thought it lost its way pretty early. Another reviewer from CHUD also told me he out and out hated it, and what really made him lose it was a scene where a pimp runs down a whore with a car. He actually laughed out loud, which I assure you was not the director's intention. (This is my point about Tarantino -- he would have reversed that scene, and had the whore run down the pimp, and totally played it for laughs). Anyway, I stayed with the film the longest, because it does have some really great things going for it. But in the end the ending, which seemed totally tacked on as the result of a test-screening reaction, made me re-evaluate.
And I am wondering -- was there a part in the script where it says: "insert over-the-top maudlin moment here?" And the director said, hmmm... Bette Midler and Celine Dion songs cost too much, how about Sara McLaughlin? Can we just have a complete moratorium on Sara McLaughlin songs in all media? I understand if you like the songs, but when paired with visuals, they always turn montages or reflective moments into a mawkish, syrupy mess.
There are good things, though. Nicky Katt is great as Terrence Howard's partner. Every time he opens his mouth he has a great one-liner. His scenes were written and his delivery just kills. It is almost worth subjecting yourself to the rest of the movie just to see him. And Neil Jordan does do plenty right as a director – he knows how to rachet up the tension, how to build a character, and how to shoot scenes well. He knows how to use symbolism, whether it is apple before the fall, or the semi-infinite number of scenes occurring in tunnels. And Jodie Foster does fine work, even if it is hard to see her as anyone other than Jodie Foster. And I am a sucker for Terrence Howard, even if his role is very one-dimensional here. So my recommendation: rent this on DVD, mainly to see Nicky Katt, plug your ears during the songs, and watch the alternate ending if there is one.
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yeah
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I'm here and so is my wife.
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Gotta say she does it well though.
I really liked Flight Plan. -
I don't trust the review of anyone who thinks Tarantino is good and/or original.
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i dont think so
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I don't trust the review of anyone who thinks Foster hasn't turned in a good performance since 'Silence of The Lambs'.
Both Elanor Arroway and Nell Kelty kick the living snot out of Clarice Starling. -
The studio can pump all the "academy award winning" crap all they want. Nothing in that trailer made me want to go see it.
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...mainly because this 'Copernicus' dude doesn't even review the fucking film and just yaps on about how Tarantino would've made it better ( i highly fucking doubt it, after seeing that piece of shit 'Death Proof') - Quentin may know how to write but he sure has lost the ability to judge an obvious case of script fat needing to be cut. Those boring-ass girl-talk scenes just go on and fucking on! I don't know if Quentin actually hangs out with women or just the hooker's he pays to fuck him - but if they genuinely converse like that, he must be high as a fucking kite on angel dust - those scenes were so turgid and wooden my soul almost left my body out of boredom....and that car chase? Stupid!!! Why didn't the girls just pull the Charger over and stop? Zoe Bell couldve just climbed off the hood and that would've been it. There was ZERO jeopardy in that sequence and Quentin has the audacity to go on Leno and talk about how if he couldn't do a car chase as great as 'The French Connection' - why bother? I've been a QT fan for a long time but I'm increasingly finding that with each film he's losing his disappearing up his own egocentric ass and losing his relevance. Still, I'm hoping he can pull something great out of his ass sometime soon and prove me wrong. Anyway, to my point: I saw 'The Brave One' a few weeks ago at a screening. It was pretty good. It ain't 'The Godfather' but it's OK. It attempts to show the psychological toll of exacting vigilante justice. It's murky cinematic territory, morally speaking, but i was into it and didn't find it too annoying or offensive. Jodie's kinda bad-ass actually.
I'd recommend it. -
This is going to go over about as well as that movie in which Kevin Bacon is The Punisher.
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Neil Jordan will never top The Butcher Boy. Finally got it on DVD, still amazing. Though Good Thief was good, but at the same time it was an art house version of Oceans #. Also why is that Jodi Foster is the only women in movies today that actually looks like she can beat your ass in movies? There was like two scenes in the awful Flight Plan where she horribly penised Peter Sarsgaard, but then again Peter Sarsgaard always seems like a bitch. SAAAAAARRRRRRSSSS gAAAAARRRRRD!!!!!!
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Motherfucker is magic, man.
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is magic in small independent movies? But lets face it, K-19, Skeleton Key, Flightplan, Jarhead were not "lets defend this guys work" worthy. Also ???? he is a pussy? He plays a very good pussy (Center of the World, case and point), I feel like I could take him, and I feel like it is very believable that Jodie 'I speak French and talk to my father' Foster could kick his ass, in a movie or in real life. Maybe you are a girl, who likes to pretend that they are a guy who would enjoy a good'ole SAAARRRRRs GAAAARRRRd raping???
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...the point I was trying to make was not that B-movies can't be well-written (I can think of plenty of well-written B-movies without dragging Sayles into it - Freeway, for example), it was that the Brave One wasn't well-written enough to be anything *but* a campy B-movie.
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How about spending your entire childhood on a sound stage? Look at her imdb, it's horrifying. It's almost abusive. So no wonder, as an adult, her characters lash out and struggle to regain control of their lives. -- "Brave One" is admittedly a little radical, a right wing or at least libertarian film. Seems to assert that an individual has the right to defend herself (avenge herself?) against those who would oppress her. Also seems to dismiss "root causes" of crime, like poverty and racism. Especially when those "victims" in turn victimize others, like women. Either way, it's fun to watch Foster shoot people who deserve to be shot.
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Genuinely enjoyed it. So shoot me. I'm not saying Iain Softley for President or anything, though. Foster? Sure, she tends to pick the same role over and over again, but she's good at it, even if some of the movies (face it, FLIGHTPLAN was dumb as a box of idiot rocks, relying entirely on the supposedly twist casting of Sean Bean as a not-baddie, plus having an aircraft big enough to fit EXECUTIVE DECISION into three times over). BRAVE ONE? Sure, I'll go see it. Jordan's at least got a good eye (and he can write - his fiction is amazing), and the cast is top-notch. So what if it's just DEATH WISH with mild pretension?
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Not "Sara McLaughlin". Talk about adding insult to injury. Sheesh. And "Possession" is still the best song ever inspired by a stalker, so there.
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Cillian Murphy is astounding in it (and based on a book by the same writer).
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there are about 50 movies exactly the same as his, only older and better directed, the hack.
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It's like paying money to go down on Liz Taylor... while Michael Jackson jerks off in the corner.I don't get it. His films are(barely) above average entertainment, with no depth whatsoever. Yet people think he can't be topped? Every filmmaker peer of his generation has surpassed him. Reservoir Dogs was a decent first film and he peaked with Jackie Brown. His best films have been directed by other people. Get off the short bus people...sheesh!
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