Cool News
Capone says the dull AMELIA crashes and burns on the big screen!!!
Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
When it comes to biography films, the absolute worst thing you can be is pointless. But in so many ways, this look at the famous years of Amelia Earhart's life and career is exactly that. When a historical figure's accomplishments are so well documented and their demise so infamous, you don't need to spend as much time detailing the events that are in every history book. In fact, it's an excellent opportunity to get inside the head and heart of the subject. What's particularly frustrating about AMELIA is that I know so little about Earhart as a child and her upbringing--all of the things that brought her to such notoriety--yet the film decides to introduce us to her after she's already fairly famous and well on her way to becoming the most famous woman in America.
Two-time Oscar-winner Hilary Swank is actually the perfect choice to play Earhart. She has a ready smile, more personality than the screen can contain, and substantial acting chops to get the job done. Richard Gere plays her faithful manager/husband George Putnam, and he's selected a voice that is perhaps a little too similar to the one he used in Chicago. Apparently he thinks everyone in the 1930s spoke like a Movietone News announcer. But the portrayal of their love affair that turned into a marriage left me cold. What's worse is that her affair with fellow pilot Gene Vidal (father of Gore, who is shown here as a young boy) also comes across as a little blah, which is doubly surprising since he's played by Ewan McGregor, who has had some success playing romantic leads. The biggest problem with McGregor is that he's barely in the movie enough to make you enjoy his company. It feels like miles of scenes with him in them were cut, whether they actually were or not.
Director Mira Nair (MONSOON WEDDING, MISSISSIPPI MASALA, THE NAMESAKE) is a wonderful magician when it comes to creating movies, and Amelia is loaded with gorgeous sets, costume, scenery, and cinematography. So the problem with the film does not lie in her abilities. No, the reason AMELIA lies so flat and comes across as so dreadfully dull is the screenplay from Ron Bass and Anna Hamilton Phelan, which feels like a collection of headlines, speeches and quotable quotes strung together in the sloppiest possible way. Even the most intimate scenes feel like the dialogue was ripped out of a drug store romance novel, and it cheapens the life story of an extraordinary woman.
The film is not without its moments. A quick scene in which Earhart meets Eleanor Roosevelt is brought to life mainly through the casting of Cherry Jones as the First Lady. Probably the best sequence, however, is the final 20 minutes or so, which depict Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan (Christopher Eccleston) final moments in the sky. I'm assuming that what we see is based on fact, since their final broadcasts were heard by the Coast Guard stationed at what would have been their final refueling point before completing their journey in California. It's remarkably tense and well acted, and I wish the rest of the film had felt that intimate. Alas, most of what we get with AMELIA is surface-level television biography fare that didn't tell me a thing about Earhart or about what inspires someone to achieve the seemingly impossible. If Swank gets some sort of knee-jerk Oscar nomination for this role, I'll be surprised and hugely disappointed--coincidentally the exact two feelings I had about this movie.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com
Follow Me On Twitter
-
+ Expand All
-
So boring.
-
Oct 23, 2009 12:24:08 PM CDT
Anyway the studio cut the film down to just the highlight reel?
by juansanchez
-
the movie is dead already!
-
I love Mira's work but I never planned to see this because I saw these faults coming a mile away. But you know every moron is gonna be screaming Oscar for it.
-
its a biopic that ends in tragedy, its just waiting to be nominated for everything. whether or not it deserves to doesnt matter, this is the sorta shit they eat up.
-
enough of her...i read some interviews with her and she totally grosses me out.
-
There are many screen legend who never got an Oscar and yet she has 2???
-
gere. you will never hear from him again. giving an oscar to a bhuddist? hmmmm.
-
This reeked of pretentious Oscar bait from the get go. Ala The Last Samurai.
-
. . . never to be seen again.
-
The old lady Other on that show named Amelia. You know it's her dammit!
-
I have no desire to see this film. Amelia gets too much hype historically... and with this re-telling. She flew at the worst time of the year... there were better female pilots at the time... she was barely a decent pilot. Two great books...The Sound of Wings... and Finding Amelia: The True Story of the Earhart Disappearance.
-
Well I'll be damned!! Never would've guessed from the whole "female gym teacher" look she was sportin'.
-
...but I havent heard anyone actually mention this movie. Ever. Not on TV, radio, in person. Before this review I honestly thought the movie might come and go without a single human being actually seeing it.
-
Dude...spoilers!
-
it may sound mad here goes. privately, studio exec know that regarding big budget movies the game is up and its over. film studios are actively pushing films on the net. I have seen a number of trailers. one example is the oprah winfrey/tyler perry produced precious, another is the other side of paradise and there is paranormal activity. two of those three films have demand it stamped on them, go online and demand that studios push the movie or movies into theatres. standee and trailers are not enough to get people to see movies anymore. quietly the studio have buried this movie already. they will put it out then pull. i mean would you to see a film with SWANK and Gere. this has failure written all over it.
-
I guess that award goes to some shitty horror movie like Drag me to hell?
-
Charles Lindbergh: "you leave her to me.."
-
Well she got her first Oscar by being in an "issue" movie playing a character with a social stigma/some kind of disorder/abnormality, in this case a persecuted transgendered man/woman. Hollywood loves that shit, especially when women play "ugly" characters -see Charlize Theron from Monster. To quote Robert Downey Jr.'s character from Tropic Thunder, they went full on Retard. The second movie where she's the boxer is also a "political issue" movie. Both movies feature issues that the Hollywood left-loving elitists eat-up.
-
I still can't figure that one out.
-
. . . put Oscar winners all high up on some pedestal or something. Who give a shit??? I could care less about Swank but definitely like both of the movies she won the awards for. I still shutter to think that she was going to be in Greengrass's Watchmen though.
-
having one of her first roles being the Buffy movie, it was inevitable she'd eventually win. Kristy Swanson and Luke Perry are next, mark my words.
-
Figure THAT one out. :)
-
And got an emphatic WHINNY from MS Swank in return. And this little filly fillum gets a NAY from me as well.
-
Even MORE of a head scratcher...
-
Yep. I don't know about that one.
-
It would have been interesting to see how she got out of poverty.
-
and I wouldn't cry afterwards either (I'm looking at you Chad Lowe)
-
Bwaaa haa haa haa haa haa haa...I'd seminate that mare.
-
There have been many interesting people with the same first name, but who d'ya suppose everybody remembers when they hear it? Yup. That's right, the terminally lost aviatrix.
-
Oct 23, 2009 2:50:40 PM CDT
I do her, if a makeup artist did her up and there was soft light
by juansanchez
-
If it came out 20-30 years ago it would be one of those AMAZING bio movies. As of now just seems to soft.
-
Oct 23, 2009 2:59:45 PM CDT
HAHAHAHAH BUSTED OSCAR BAIT HAHAHAHAHHA
by supercowbell5thecowbellhasspoken
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
-
"DUDE, WHERE'S MY COMPASS?"
-
...I'm wondering why people who like movies ever come to the talkbacks. Because it seems that most of the people in here hate movies and everyone who has ever been in one, with the exception of The Dark Knight, which most of you seem to believe should have retroactively won every single Oscar given out since 1953.
-
oscar. mystery still surrounds that one. on the night in question. nicholson according to those who were there was drunk when he got up on stage. he read out the wrong name.nobody knows to this day who the real winner was. marisa tomei got the oscar by mistake.
-
The Dark Knight is the only movie we ever talk about being good.
-
.
I would do Swank, even if she is tucking in the candy (and as long as they stayed tucked in).
As for Swank being an Oscar Winner, one title for you: BOYS DON"T CRY. -
That is the important question.
-
you make a very good point and you make it well.
-
"Boys Don't Cry" was pretty astounding; Swank put her tiny roles and empty "Next Karate Kid" stuff behind her. "Million Dollar Baby" was manipulative, hackneyed and really quite dull. If the film had a different ending, Swank's performance would have been considered good, but nothing spectacular.
-
Or that girl from the Mission UK song "Amelia," who gets molested by her dad.
-
was a mediocre pilot who stupidly ditched a long-range radio antenna during her final flight. She wanted to fly further on the same amount of fuel, and the antenna was very heavy. If she'd been attentive, she probably would have lived. Oh, well.
This sounds no better than the Earhart TV movie from the '70s with Susan Clark(?). -
Which is the most blatant reach for a Best Actor Oscar ever. What the hell is the point in making a movie about a man who has thirty cameras on him when he buys a fucking sandwich.
-
The film "Million Dollar Baby" might have been manipulative (and it should be, it is a melodrama), but I thought Swank was the best thing in the movie (better than even Clint and Freeman). She was really able to project a sense of desperation and desire into her character - a feeling many people, not just women, could relate too.
One of the greatest performances ever? No. But a damn good one, and much more respectable Oscar win than Charlize Theron in "Monster", Julia Roberts in "Erin Brokovich" or Gwennyth Paltrow in "Shakespeare in Love". -
She might have lived.
-
A new Avatar trailer is suppose to be in front of Amelia. 3:30 long. Has anyone seen it yet?
-
was enough to tell me that this is a very special story of a very special love.
Or some such overblown stuff.
So was she shot down by Japanese? -
Yep. I don't know.
-
Some people say it's late for oscar purposes, but it's in october because it's a POS. I looked at the local showtimes and noticed the two main theaters in the area were not showing it. That said to me that the owners pre-screened it and must have decided it sucked too bad to show. Bummer, I had some hopes for this.
-
What can I tell you? It bored me. As I said, a good performance, but I wasn't terribly impressed by Eastwood, either. It all seemed to be by-the-numbers. I even laughed once or twice, and not at the mentally challenged boxer in pantyhose.
-
Is that a joke about the Japanese? If not - no one knows for certain, but it seems likely she got lost, ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean. Quite possibly because (as I said above) she ditched a locator antenna that she thought weighed down her plane too much. So it goes when the egotistical believe their own press.
-
what a crakpot
-
Biopics suck ass. That's why DEWIE COX was so intermittently funny (giraffe-based humor always kills it for me).
Biopics that end with the protagonist dead, executed or murdered are thus, a funding sinkhole. Joan Of Arc is one of the most fascinating historical characters of all time, but has yet to have a "blockbuster" made about her. BRAVEHEART only worked because nobody knew who the fuck William Wallace was...
The solution: start with the death, and work backwards. Free of charge, I just saved you motherfuckers tens of millions of dollars. Tragedy is easier with a built-in pillow.
Give me ten kilos of cocaine and a Vietnamese porn star (female) and we're even. Painless. -
Damn, how old are you? 12?
-
i believe the french silent movie is regarded as one of the greatest movies ever.
-
First off, it was Jack Palance - not NIcholson. Second...http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/tomei.asp
-
ever heard of a little movie called Patton?
-
how come Hilary Swank didn't win an Oscar for her brilliant performance in that great movie? was it because she didn't fall on a stool and have to be euthanized by Mr Miyagi?
-
I hope it tanks.
-
there is one thing the cannot halt. the revenge of the weinsteins. Harvey Said nine the musical will win alot of awards. ominous that. harvey scissors and bob the bully weinstien. will use the win, if they as a statement of thier return. was gonna say that the oscars are in deep trouble over the fact that so far there has been no real best pic contender emerging so far. harvey and bob will have a clear field.
-
if they do win.
-
despite all the regarding Mellissa leo. europe didnt get that film for a further 6 months after the movies release. idiots.
-
blah
-
...as Amy Adams' butt in A Night At The Museum 2?
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 -- 383 total posts 380 posts
- New JUDGE DREDD post production footage pops up -- 111 total posts 111 posts
- WTF HOLLYWOOD: SOLARBABIES -- 75 total posts 73 posts
- HANNA's Saoirse Ronan to boss around seven little people -- 71 total posts 68 posts
- Does ‘SNL’ Rhyme With ‘Deschanel’?? Learn Which SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Vet Hosts After Sexy Zooey!! -- 77 total posts 55 posts
- If the Behind the Scenes Pics of the Day drops her pen, pick it up, but don’t look at her legs or else it will be on your record. -- 54 total posts 48 posts
- There's a STAR TREK video game that is going to lead into JJ's STAR TREK 2 apparently... -- 165 total posts 41 posts
- Herc’s Seen Tonight’s Return Of THE WALKING DEAD!! Discuss Also DOWNTON ABBEY, FEAR FACTOR, PAN AM, ONCE, SIMPSONS, DYNAMITE, LUCK, SHAMELESS, BAIT CAR, THE GRAMMYS And More!! Sunday Is Sweeps Day 11!! -- 41 total posts 41 posts
- To Commemorate The 3D Release Of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas Wants You To Know...Greedo Shoots First!! -- 500 total posts 35 posts
- Avid Comic Reader Hercules Does Battle With Tedium During Kevin Smith’s COMIC BOOK MEN! -- 28 total posts 28 posts