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Sundance '08: Quint and Rav tag-team reviews of RAMBO and UNTRACEABLE!
SPOILER ALERT !!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with the most awesome double feature at Sundance 2008 that any single fest goer saw.
RAMBO and UNTRACEABLE.
Because Rav had such a hard-on for UNTRACEABLE I figured we’d tag-team this double feature, with his review of that movie and my review of RAMBO.
It was a sunny warmish day when we hit the Red Stone cinema. Originally we were going to try to waitlist some movies since the press screening stopped the Friday before, but then we looked at the schedule. We had tickets for the evening’s screening of HENRY POOLE IS HERE, starring Luke Wilson, but a quick look online showed us that there were movies not in the Sundance schedule playing before it.
I am shocked that Sundance ran unannounced screenings of RAMBO and UNTRACEABLE considering they already had Colin Hanks in town for THE GREAT BUCK HOWARD and the Garth Jennings movie SON OF RAMBOW was such a hit last year. Maybe they were too mainstream or too close to release...
Anyway, with my badge around my neck I tried to get into the Rambo screening and was told I had to “purchase a ticket” which my badge said I didn’t have to do if I waitlisted. But I didn’t feel like standing in line or arguing with the theater employee, so I got the ticket for around $6, which is great considering these Sundance tickets are usually about $16 each.
Incredible. The audience was a little lite for Sundance, with (surprisingly) a lot of families with small children. RAMBO is a family movie, granted, but for Sundance it’s a strange sight.
Once the movie started it was easy to see why it was a Sundance movie. Sylvester Stallone’s style is very cinema verite, loose and documentary-like at times. There’s also the strong political subplot, shedding light on the Darfur-like extermination of a people that is going on in Burma. All that is placed underneath a bloody, visceral action movie, like a pill in a spoonful of sugar.
What I didn’t expect from the trailers was the sense of team-work as Rambo works with a team of Mercs trying to free the missionaries. I especially loved Rambo’s sniper buddy, but I’m a sucker for snipers. I love playing them in war games (Dragunov in COD4 ftw!), I love them in movies (ENEMY AT THE GATES rocks)... I just plain love snipers.
I hope that in Rambo II First Blood Part 5 that they keep that dynamic… with the sniper covering for Rambo as he uses his brawn and close-range skills while the long range sniper blows off dude’s heads with his huge fuckin’ sniper rifle.
The acting in the movie was solid, although I didn’t really like Julie Benz as the missionary Rambo has a crush on. She has the innocence locked down pat, but her line delivery wasn’t all that spectacular… or maybe I was just expecting more solid performances from a Sundance film.
I think that’s about it from me on that bit. Here’s Rav with his look at UNTRACEABLE!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
Untraceable – Directed by Gregory Hoblit *Spoilers*
I was so happy to finally see this official selection of the festival at the redstone cinemas on Saturday afternoon. I don’t know why, but from the talk-backs on our festival preview some people didn’t think this film was actually playing the Sundance film festival. I know quint has some sort of photographic proof that this was indeed a secret festival selection.
Although it was a weird festival viewing experience, instead of a long filmmaker introduction by Geoffrey Gilmore there were Utah Chevy ads, in place of the usual Sundance logo there was a 14 minute long preview for Vantage Point.
I was eagerly looking forward to this movie, as I really love a good retarded movie that knows it’s a really stupid movie and how can a movie about a movie about a serial killer blogging online not know that it’s a stupid f’ing movie. It starts off really good, Colin Hanks and Diane Lane spouting off network techno-speak back and forth that you know good and well either doesn’t make sense in real life or that they barely understand more than pronunciation can entail, except instead of the USS enterprise its just an office in modern day.
The film opens with Colin and Diane tag-teaming to catch a person abusing someone’s ebay account or something retarded like that, Diane immediately shows off her elite skillz when she uses her detectives intuition to prove that the son of the culprit was also in on it all along. Colin shows her up by reading off several internet acronyms he knows like “Rolling on the Floor Laughing” and “Laugh out Loud.” Then they kill a cat, have that hilarious “You are the killer” press conference from the trailer, show you blatantly who the killer is so there is no mystery or point to watch the movie further, kill off colin hanks early, and then I fell asleep. Intermittently I would wake up watch the film then get lulled back to sleep by the bland Ashley Judd (played wonderfully by Diane Lane) serial killer movie.
Gregory Hoblit can make some really kinda good movies, I love Fallen and Frequency, the actors performances in both Primal Fear and Fallen make otherwise bland thrillers good. Unfortunately he’s also capable of shit like Hart’s War. Untraceable is more of that. Err I’m glad the sundance jury picked wisely and gave the grand jury prize to another movie. Diane Lane please go back to making good movies, and Universal when the hell are you going to release a dvd of “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains”?
Well that’s it for the Sundance film festival, I’ve still got like four or five reviews to tap out and send in this week as time allows, but for once I’m back in a world without snow and movies-all-day so things should be much easier. I want a chance to thank all the volunteers that made this years festival so much fun, specifically David at the yarrow for keeping me consistently entertained, Alex at the HQ bus stop for being the man behind blood car and for keeping his cool while quint and I pegged him for Anna Chlumsky gossip, Cailtin from the holiday village for her run-down of what we had learned while watching Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, and Mary-Ann from the press office for processing 70% of my ticket requests that kept me watching movies instead of writing the past 10 days. All the other volunteers were awesome too, I’m just a dick and can’t remember anyone else’s names. It was a fun week, back to work now.
Ravvy
ravkill@msn.com
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hahahah gotcha!
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The town kicks so much ass you wouldn't know it from movies like this and The Hunted. The beer flows heavy, the girls are hot and easy, the green is almost legal...but every movie filmed here sucks ass. Oh well, maybe it will keep people from moving here.
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...carnage in the USA?
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Wow. I remember back in the day I couldn't get into Coming to America because the douche at the counter said I was too young.
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They were all accompanied by parents, I think. And they loved it. They were all excited afterwards, one even saying they hope it wins the Oscar for best movie this year (not understanding that A) that'll happen when pigs fly and B) the Oscars this year will be for last years movies). Lots of running around and pretending to shoot each other after the movie. "That was the best thing I've ever seen!" was from one of the kids afterwards, too... definitely something fun to exit the movie with.
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It overtook MEET THE CRAPFEST on Sunday and has been #1 ever since.
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complaining about any review that comes when a movie is already out in theaters" as if people didn't come to this site for years because we know the reviewers and want to hear their takes.but leobloom beat me to the idiot punch. hate on, sister!
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complaining about any review that comes when a movie is already out in theaters" as if people didn't come to this site for years because we know the reviewers and want to hear their takes.but leobloom beat me to the idiot punch. hate on, sister!
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I did the other one, but not that one...AICN is weird today...
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And here you are being sly.
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Feb 01, 2008 9:09:01 PM CST
i bet i can guess from the trailer who dies in untraceable.
by bmacsmith
they gave it away i bet.
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WTH is Paramount gonna release 'The Keep' on dvd?... much less an hd format of some kind...
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At the premiere in France, Stallone said something to the effect that his idea for "Rambo V" will be more suspenseful and he'll have it set in the woods, bringing it back home "First Blood" style.
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That would be great.
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back in the jungle.
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Nobody wins.
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This film is rated 'R' "for strong graphic bloody violence, sexual assaults, grisly images and language" -- what kind of sick parents are taking young kids to see this?
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Feb 02, 2008 1:50:43 AM CST
Enough of Rambo in the Jungle/Woods already
by guy who got a headache and accidentally
Let's see him in a big city this next time
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Give me some sugar baby.
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What. Are. You. Doing. Rambo?
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There were at least 5 little kids at my screening of Rambo and afew more at SAW 4.Just goes to show how screwed up our society is.
AND QUINT IM GLAD YOU HAD TO PAY $6 LIKE THE REST OF US TO SEE A MOVIE,YOU AICN PEOPLE ARE SPOILED AS IT IS. -
taking kids to Rambo is the work that went into the film is completely lost on the little blighters and their mercury addled brains. They don't understand the plot or any of the themes/messages of the film. All it is to them is light and sound moving quickly. You could take them to laser show and get the same effect.
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When I went to see Hostel 2 last summer I saw a couple of kids (including some who we're no older than maybe four or five) sitting in the row ahead of me. Wonderful parenting I must say, just wonderful. -
You know, some of my most cherished and formative memories are of "unlawfully" watching R-rated movies at a young and impressionable age. This was during the dawn of the video age so most films were usually obtained through someone's older sibling or by sneaking up at night to watch them at ungodly hours on TV. Half of the enjoyment was the thrill of watching something my parents wouldn't approve of.
Do the parents or adults who take underage kids to see R-rated films in a theater really think they're doing these kids a favor?
Where's the mystery for these kids? The sense of discovery? The rite of passage?
You are NOT doing these kids any favors. -
who watch scary or R rated movies? I saw Jaws and Alien when I was barely born, after that all the Friday the 13th and Freddie movies...I saw Raiders in the theater and I have a phobia of snakes. Besides the women in my freezer, I'm fairly well adjusted. No, seriously, scary or violent movies should be the least of a parent's worries.
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As his sidekick. That'd kick 31 kinds of ass. Especially if Little Superstar did some poppin' and lockin' after he killed someone with a gun bigger than he is.
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Both sucked, but Untraceable sucked less.
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glad its #1 this week. fuk mts
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You're missing the point. It's not the damage the films might cause (although I don't condone a seven-year-old seeing Hostel under any circumstances), but robbing the kids of the joy of discovery and what I call "safe transgression".
I asked my dad a few years ago if he knew I had seen those films many years ago. When he said yes, I asked him why he then bothered forbidding me from seeing them at the time. His reasoning was that if he presented me (and my sister) with a series of "safe" taboos that he knew I'd probably break, I'd be less inclined to break much more severe ones. And guess what? It worked. As lame and nerdy as it sounds today, I thought I was a badass after having 1) broken a rule, and 2) seen a movie I was told I wasn't old enough to see.
Kids want clear limits set for them so that they know what's expected of them, and just how far across the line they're stepping when the urge to misbehave presents itself.
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You're a day late and a dollar short on this review. By the way, the movie was awesome.
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Watched as a kid of about 8/9 was taken out by his pop about 3/4 of the way through Cloverfield, obviously traumatized with a 1000 yard stare and white as a sheet.
Laughed 'till I shat. -
at ten and freaking out when the heads exploded.
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brutal violence at its finest
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when I was about 8. Good times.
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...we went to Raiders on my birthday when I was 10, with about 6 mates including one who had odd victorian parents and they didn't have a TV to get desensitized with. He ran screaming at the end scenes and my mum had to aplologise for freaking him out to his parents.
Thanks - I'd forgotten about that until now... -
You never lived in England at the time, did you?! Is that you Aidan?!
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I'm so sick of pretty boy models dancing on wires and taking down thugs with fierce blows from their well-manicured hands. Rambo was a hardcore and unflinching return to true action with a protagonist who looks like he can fuck people up. The film was lean, compelling and excessively violent meaning that it was everything it should have been. Stallone is having an awesome comeback and I hope it continues.
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He didn't really mean it was a family movie. That was sarcasm, dumbass.
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How can you say that you liked the team dynamic in Rambo? It would have been so much better if those stupid mercs got wiped out when they first entered the combat zone and Rambo had to go in alone. That last action scene was disappointing with Rambo operating a turret the whole time while the sniper and the rest of the mercs got the sweeter kills. It was also way too short. I wouldn't be suprised if the screenplay was ten pages long.
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Oh, nevermind, both movies are already out.
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the puffed lips, round slender chin, 80s perm pornstar hair... i dunno.
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I don't think I would have a problem with my nine year old seeing any of the older Rambo movies. They were action movies after all, mostly cartoon violence, a lot of people falling over dead but not a lot of blood and guts. But after hearing about the level of graphic violence in this new movie there not a chance in hell my kid will see this one.
I am being a hypocrite of course, seeing how I routinely saw R rated movies as a kid. My parents didn't care what movie I was going to see as long as I was out of their hair for a few hours. It also helped to live in a small town with a tiny little theater. It was run by a older couple who would call my house and ask my parent if it was ok for me and my friends to get into the R rated flicks. After a awhile they got to know me and wouldn't bother to call, they would just let me in.
I would like to see a kid try to do that today in their local megaplex theater. -
That was one of the best movies I've seen in a while. Do it, Stallone! Go for 5!
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I can't say I've ever understood the American rating system! Kids at Rambo? I've only seen the gory trailer, and that was pretty grim! God, when we went to see Beowulf at the IMAX, the sound show before the movie even started got all the little brats wailing. It's a real luxury going to the cinema in the UK to watch an 18 cert movie with other adults...Although a lot of adults behave like a bunch of kids too, sadly.
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Just for your info - Jaws was rated PG, so using it in an argument about R rated movies just doesn't fly.
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Let's see what the kids learned from watching Rambo....'Lots of running around and pretending to shoot each other after the movie.'
Yeah because they're clearly going to be inspired to revolt agains the oppression of civil liberties in Burma aren't they Quint. You jackass.
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