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Fielding Melish looks at AMERICAN BEAUTY, FOR LOVE OF THE GAME and THREE KINGS
Hey folks, Harry here. Just to let you know, the reviews have been flooding in from various AMERICAN BEAUTY screenings around the country and I am getting about 90% raves and about 10% negatives... and this is the harshest review and it isn't that bad... it's just a mix. But As always I try to give y'all both sides to the coin. I disagree and could go point for point for why I love each of these... but I'm gonna just let him go. His opinion is every bit as valid as mine. Beware of spoilers below...
I've wanted to add my two cents to your page for some time, but the right
movie never seemed to come along. But I had to write something about
American Beauty, which has been getting rave reviews on this site and in the
press for some time now, so I wanted to write in with a more mixed take on
this ambitious but flawed film, which I hope will inspire some debate.
There is no question that this is a tour de force for Kevin Spacey. After
playing second fiddle for much of his career, he is finally given a leading
role and steals every single scene he is in. He is so good, that it's easy
to overlook some of the more problematic aspects of the film, beginning,
first and foremost, with his co-star Annette Bening, whose performance and
character all too often borders on caricature. I understand that the film
is trying to make the point that Carolyn has been forced to wear a mask for
so long, that she no longer knows how to express her emotions honestly. The
problem is, Bening is constantly overplaying the character. Even in her
supposed "emotional" moments, when she berates herself after not selling the
house or having to break up with her lover, I didn't believe her for a
second. I think the fault also lies in the script, which never really gives
the character a chance to be anything but one-dimensional. I think Bening
is going to be the main topic of disagreement over this film, particularly
with female critics. Several women in the audience at the screening I
attended were royally pissed at the character and I can understand why.
Working women are rarely given a lot of respect in American films. Remember
the horrendous Mrs. Doubtfire, where Sally Field's character was basically
labeled a bad mother because she wanted a career? The problem repeats
itself here. Where Spacey is prized for casting off the shackles of
adulthood and becoming juvenile again (only in the movies can escaping
responsibility make you a hero) Bening is the villain of the piece because
*gasp* she actually has ambition! I'm sorry, but there are plenty of
working mothers out there who don't become zombies because they juggle
career and family. This is a very male-centric view of working women, and,
if I'm not mistaken, the screenwriter wrote this film after a messy divorce
so I think that accounts for its decidedly less-than-enlightened depiction.
The other problem is the finale, which is effective, but illogical in the
way Mendes has structured the movie. In a nod to Sunset Boulevard, the
entire movie has been narrated by Spacey after his death. That's fine and
it serves to parallel Spacey's character with his daughter's boyfriend Ricky
(Wes Bentley), who is constantly recording life around him on his digital
camcorder. So, what I think Mendes is doing, is having Spacey watch his
life from beyond, just as Rickey does. I find that extremely sentimental
and as an aetheist, don't believe it for a second, but let I it go. What I
can't let go is that if Spacey is indeed watching his life from beyond, he
would not be able to see, as the finale depicts, what each character is
doing when he is shot. He would only know what he was doing, which was
sitting in the kitchen looking at a picutre of his family. This seems like
an extremely nitpicky detail, but I think its sloppy storytelling. In their
eagerness for a grand, wrenching finale, Mendes violates the framing device
he set up in the beginning of the film.
Having said all this, I still hope people go and see American Beauty,
simply because it is a fairly good movie and will inspire discussion.
Spacey is brilliant, as is Chris Cooper and the teen performers. Mendes is
definitely a director to keep an eye on, but I think ultimately this film is
not the revelation into suburban life everyone has been anticipating.
Thanks for letting me air my thoughts. Sign me Fielding Melish.
Ol Moriarty has hyped the hell out of me for this one, so I just hope it really delivers. The trailers have a strange sort of non-clicking feel to them... but... Hey... We've had a good history of bad trailers for good movies. No judging of books by the cover here.
Fielding Melish again. I meant to include these reviews in my previous
message, but I got so into the American Beauty review, that I needed a break
to re-arrange my thoughts. So without further ado:
THREE KINGS
Unlike American Beauty, this is a film where all the positive advanced
buzz is completely true. I'm a rabid fan of David O. Russell and its great
that he's finally been given a chance to take his twisted, darkly comic view
of the world to the masses via a mainstream studio. Three Kings is easily
as funny as his previous films, but what makes it great is that Russell goes
beyond comedy and proves himself adept at handling drama and action with
similar ease. There's a scene between Mark Wahlberg and an Arab captor that
contains some of the finest writing and acting I've seen all this year.
Russell pulls few punches in his treatment of the Gulf War as well. I
remember watching the CNN newscasts and network specials all of which
treated what was a joke of a war like the greatest drama to hit television
screens since the Loude family. Even today, not many people have taken on
that so-called war and revealed it as the hyped-up media event that it was.
That's why Three Kings is such a timely film, and hopefully it will attract
some controversey. It's a movie people should definitely see. Plus, if its
a hit, Russell will be given even more freedom and money on his next film.
That's the best part about Three Kings, Russell has moved to the mainstream
but not lost any of his style or originality.
And here's the man's FOR LOVE OF THE GAME review. I'm really curious to see this one for myself, since some of the early word on A SIMPLE PLAN was negative coming from Raimi fans that have a hard time letting go of Sam's earlier career choices in terms of genre to work in. I talked to one of Sam's old Evil Dead producers when I was on THE MUMMY set last year and what I found out was originally Sam was approached to direct the Arnold film END OF DAYS, but Sam was more interested in FOR LOVE OF THE GAME because he is a Gigantic Baseball Fan... and this was his chance to do his tribute to the game he loves. As for Sam's career choices, his next film is based upon a BILLY BOB THORNTON script that gets... a bit supernatural I believe entitled THE GIFT.
FOR LOVE OF THE GAME
The exact opposite is true for Sam Raimi, who apparently has sold his soul
to the devil (in this case Kevin Costner) in order to become a mainstream
filmmaker. Some might say that there's nothing wrong with a director trying
to do something new. After all, A Simple Plan was a change of pace for
Raimi and that was still good. But that movie still has some classic Raimi
touches. In this one, there's nothing to indicate that Raimi actually
directed the film. It feels like it could have been made by anyone. And if
there was ever a film that needed some inventive directing its this
soap-opera reject. From the very beginning the story lacks any sort of
energy. It doesn't help that the Costner and Kelly Preston have no
chemistry whatsoever. The story of their romance is completely predictable
and to be honest really boring. Its basically the boy-meets-girl,
boy-loses-girl, boy-wins girl, story re-told in as routine a manner as
possible. The baseball scenes are injected supposedly to give the film some
life, but they aren't very well directed. For such a simple set-up, the
movie is riddled with implausibilities, the largest being that Costner, who
is a Detroit Tiger, seems to spend most of his time in New York. Why didn't
they just make him a Yankee? You certainly never see him in Detroit. If
this is an indication of what Raimi's future career will be like in the
mainstream, here's hoping he just goes ahead and does Evil Dead 4.
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i can't wait for 3 kings, sounds as though its gonna be pretty cool, i like the idea of cube, wahlberg(sp?) and clooney together........off subject a little, any word on moriarty's survival?
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Saw it last night...This is a strange and engaging movie that one must see with others in order to have someone to discuss with afterwards, similar to another great film from this year, "Election."
The acting is top-notch, and expect one or more to be nominated for a Golden Globe and/or Academy Award, and possibly an accolade for the movie itself as well.
It's deservedly rated R for some language and sexual situations, but doesn't go overboard with either. Expect some surprises in that "sexual situations" category.
'American Beauty' makes no attempt to preach a moral nor would one work because we are seeing the most extreme of every personal and family stereotype, and very humorously in many cases, heavy-handed in others.
An additional plus is the music, which uses deep bass in conjunction with subtle piano strokes to create a black comedy atmosphere for the ages.
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Yes, go back to the REALISM of the zombie girl chewing her hand off and demons disintegrating... damn the ultracommercial MAINSTREAM romance crap like ED2&3! (I can't believe it, so I had to repeat it.)
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Three Kings always generates arguments on talk back so let's get started. I have a few comments to the retard who wrote the review here. You say the Gulf War was more a media event than a war. Maybe it was for you on your couch. I guess if you didn't see it, it didn't happen. I'm sorry it didn't feel like a war to you while you were flipping channels at home. It sure as shit felt like one to me in the Tigris Euphrates river valley in Iraq asshole. Oh, and that "joke of a war" as you put it wasn't such a joke to the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis or the more than 300 dead Americans or the additional thousands of dead and wounded allies. You see that's the unfortunate legacy for us Gulf vets. Whenever the war comes up in conversation there's always some asshole who says it wasn't a real war. Why? Because you didn't see images of fighting on your TV? It's funny because the same morons who tell me there wasn't any real fighting because they didn't see it are the same guys who complained during the war that the media was censored and they weren't showing the fighting that was going on. Well make up your god damned minds. The government censored information for tactical and public opinion reasons during the fighting. But when the war was over information was released,but because we as Americans are so used to getting our news spoon fed to us as it happens, it was no longer news worthy because it was old news. You say you watched specials on TV during the war. Wow, you must be really informed. Did you read any of the combat reports filtered out to the press in the months that followed? I guess not. After all, it was a joke according to you. What's sad is the war won't be remembered for what it was. It will be remembered by the distorted uninformed perceptions of assholes like you. I was liking forward to this film, but now that you like it, I have doubts.
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Harry, for the love of God, please dont let Fielding Melish see the light of day on this site again.
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Let me clear up my comments on the Gulf War. Of course US troops were doing more things off camera which we never saw. I've read up on what happened behind the scenes during the Gulf War myself so I know how the US terrorized Iraqui troops and how bad the bombing campaigns actually were. What I was referring to when I called the war a joke was the way the media and the US government tried to spin what we were doing there as something positive and noble. That's the myth Three Kings exposes so well, that this was a war about greed, not nobility. I hope it will make people go back and actually read about what went on off-camera. It wasn't a war, it was a pissing match between two bullies and is nothing to be proud of.
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I live in Houston and the American Beauty sneak screening was held last night. I got my pass about a week ago, but I could not attend that night because of school. So I gave the passes to my mother. After the screening, I ask my mother how she enjoyed the film. And she said she walked out halfway through the film, and said it was just to dirty. I wonder what the Dreamworks suits thought about that.
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to be fair, for some reason i have not watched the first two evil dead movies, so i don't have them as a reference to which to compare "army of darkness." however, i found it to be one of the most entertaining quasi-horror-comedies i've seen. maybe it is a piece of crap compared to ED1, but generally comparing movie A to movie B results in just about anything looking like a piece of crap. election was one of the best movies i've seen this year. surprising, since it was an MTV production. reese witherspoon should look for more roles that stretch her considerable talent, rather than crap like "cruel intentions." costner: the man has such a limited range of on-screen emotions he can express, so why is it that he keeps taking roles that require him to positively ooze emotion? he should stick to stuff like "jfk" or "the untouchables," and stop thinking that he's god's gift to filmmaking just because he got lucky with "dances with wolves."
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So now you're saying that the U.S. is no better than Iraq in the Gulf War. A couple of bullies. No, if you're going to call the U.S. a bully, then at least clarify by saying the country WAS doing a noble thing by driving Saddam's murderous hordes out of Kuwait. Even if we fought the war over oil, the Kuwaitis are still very happy that we did. And don't forget the other 27 countries who were also fighting to get the Iraqis out of their weak neighbor. I can't believe you just lumped the U.S. and Iraq in the same category. What an idiot! The worst part is you're probably a history teacher who is going to be one of those who prides themselves in rewriting history so there are no winners or losers, no bad guys or good guys in war. Media driven war? You mean like the Spanish-American War? Or every other war in the last 100 years? Just because the media covers a war doesn't mean yellow journalism or the government can shield our eyes from everything. Fielding, you're full of style over substance, spouting soundbytes with nothing to back it up.
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The Buckster and Bride took in American Beauty last night and we both loved it. While not a perfect film it is truly an amazing one. This is the kind of movie Dreamworks should be making, not cookie-cutter crap like The Love Letter. I have no idea how they'll market this, but it deserves to be a success. I don't go to the movies for some kind of turn-your-mind-off and escape. I go to learn and to be shown things in ways I never thought of. This is the kind of movie Hollywood can make if it will only put forth the effort. Intelligent, adult movies don't have to be religated to the low-budget independent arena. Last night I saw what could be my life 15 years from now. It bears a resemblance to Kurosawa's masterpiece Ikiru. Spacey is a man beaten down from years of meaningless work, an uncaring family, and all the compromises one has to make in life. Yes he is irresponsible in some of his actions. But at least he is alive again. Should he throw his life away for people that don't appreciate it?
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not to defend fielding, but chill out. So you were in the gulf war. My condolences go out to any friends or family you may have lost. That being said, it was a war that was handled in a really fucked up way. Of course the Kuwaiti's were glad to have their country back, doesn't take a genius to figure that one out. However, I don't see the US army invading Israel to take back the land for the Palestinians. Shit, look at the time it took to send troops into Bosnia (not that they should have gone, but since we're on the subject of playing noble saviors...). I have family in Saudi, and frankly a lot of Saudi's were alot more worried about the US presence there then Iraq invading Kuwait. You want to talk turkey, none of the countries in the middle east even existed before this century. And, so, just like many young nations (ours included, ever heard of the Trail of Tears?) Iraq has been flexing it's military muscle, trying to hold onto as much land and resources as it can. It backfired, and the Iraqi people have been bombed and starved as a result (the Kuwaiti's didn't have it so good either). I'm not saying that Iraq did the right thing. No. What I am saying is that to portray the invasion of Kuwait as a Hitleresque move (which is undeniably what the media did) is a sham. No doubt, Americans who saw combat, as well as the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's who have been killed, starved and taken prisoner view this as a "real" war. Nevertheless, to say that the war was not also about oil and economics and securing a military foothold in the middle east is to be blatantly naive. This, I think is what the fielding cat was getting at.
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Why is it that whenever people bring up how bad and oppressive China is, "Tibet" is always the first fucking word out of their mouths, as if the Tibetians are the only ones getting oppressed? What about the other 1 billion Chinese who labor every day under a brutal fascist regime, or the millions who lost their lives in the so-called "Great Leap Forward"? Why is it they never get mentioned? I suspect that what it boils down to is that ordinary everyday Chinese don't seem as "kewl" to the New Agey Hollywood types who seem to have taken Tibet as their pet cause ever since Buddhism became trendy again.
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So Sam Raimi is slowly devolving into banality. Well, it was fun while it lasted. The big problem with For Love of the Game is that it is an obvious mix of JERRY MAGUIRE, FIELD OF DREAMS, and THE NATURAL. I guess the other big problem is that it stars Kevin Costner, who as you may know is not the box office draw that he used to be. People have been stung by bloated epics and weepy dramas with Kevin acting all aw-shucks and earnest, and I seriously doubt this will change things any. This film will come and go without notice. See ya on rental in a couple of months!
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Spoilers
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You say that a flaw in the film was how Spacey was able to see what each of the characters was doing when he was shot. This is not a flaw and makes perfect sense. There were many scenes in the film that show things that there was no way Spacey could have known or seen, such as the scenes involving Annette Bening and Peter Gallagher, or where Annette is cleaning the house, or the scenes between all the teens. Those are there so that we, the audience, have a clue as to what's going on. If the only scenes that were included were ones directly involving Spacey, the other characters would have no purpose to the story. And Spacey never mentions who shoots him or what the others were doing, We only see them afterwards to show us who did it. -
*****Spoilers.
Of course the other characters are going to have their own moments and that's why Spacey doesn't narrate over those scenes. The scenes he narrates are those which, I think, are from his perception, i.e. the opening shot of his street. That is taking place from his POV from the great beyond, a point which is emphasized by his voiceover. But if that is how you set up the film, there is no logical way he can be narrating over events he could not see, namely what the other characters are doing when he is shot. Mendes confuses his thematic point with the narrative needs of the story. Yes, we want to know who killed Spacey, but we should have been shown minus Spacey's voice-over if we were to see it at all. Otherwise, the idea that Spacey is watching this from the beyond becomes suspect. Actually, I think the movie should have ended immediately after Spacey was shot, with the final shot being that close-up where you see the smile on his face. That expression says more than any of the voice over material that follows. That would have made the film stronger and more uncomprimising and better yet, less Spielbergian. Because, actually, this is very much a Spielberg movie, taking uncompromising material and tacking a happy face on it. -
Hey, I recognize the ambiguities behind the Coallition's involvement in the Gulf War and the Arab perspective, one which I happen to agree with, that US troops have overstayed their welcome in the Gulf (I'm sure Catholics all over the world would *go bananas* too if say Muslim troops were to suddenly set up barracks too near to St. Peters). Their presence is causing unnecessary friction between the Muslim world and the US and marred our good relations in the aftermath of the Gulf War, but if securing the safety for the oil supply pushed the involvement, it still stopped a brutal, unjustified occupation. I think they still did the right thing, and if you think the rest of the world, not to mention our own public, is just going to placidly condone US involvement in every instance that isn't warranted by at least some peripheral consequence like a threatened oil supply, or instability in the Balkans, then you're crazy like bedlam! If the peoples of the world REALLY actually wanted to hand arbitrary power to someone who could settle disputes among themselves with force if necessary, they would have given the UN some backbone.
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Isn't it funny how right-wingers bash lefties for trying to supress free speech with PC, but heaven forbid somebody criticize a war. Gosh darnit! That's just un-American and dishonorable. That person should be fired or banned or made to shut-up somehow. Irony? Hypocrisy?***So Brendan3 is back on the lookout for anybody with an oppositional view again, eh? Hey Brendan3, remember me. We had this conversation a few months back. Still harrumphing at anybody with a social conscience, are we? Granted, the "joke of a war" comment threw me a bit too. But fielding here explained/corrected her/himself properly. The media did treat it as a production, rather than an event with moral, political, economic, and social consequences. It was just ratings to them. And they would lick any general's ass and obey any command to censor any information in order to get an exclusive interview or whatever. The press gave exactly two shits about anyone risking or losing their life - American or Iraqi (though crocodile tears were shed for the Americans; Iraqis only got spit). Still less about the causes. For them, it meant ratings - sine qua non! But for all the faults of the press, still the greater criminals were and are the politicians who started the war and the corporations for whom the war was fought. Brendan3, I know you're haunted by the fact/impression that *your* war isn't given the same respect that other wars are. I understand that somewhat; and I myself have campaigned for the gov't to take Gulf War Syndrome seriously (which they are still trying to deny). But really, please understand that it was an incredibly uneven war. If people don't think of Iraq in the same way that they think of, say, WWI or Viet Nam, that's in general because the Gulf War looked more like a slaughter than a war. By generally accepted numbers, Iraqi soldiers died at a rate of a thousand to one, compared to US troops. If you include those who have died as a direct result of the economic sanctions we have mercilessly kept on the country, that number has risen to well past 6000:1 (and rising). So, was it a war? Yes. A slaughter? Yes, that too. Genocide? Well, I know what I think (what do you call the conscious murder by politicians of nearly two million people?). Brendan3, it is not you and your comrades (and mine) who fought in the Gulf War who must answer for these crimes, but the politicians and businesspeople and generals and weapons manufacturers who caused the whole thing. -CG (P.S. And by the way, I do think Saddam has committed crimes as well; and when the presidents and pentagon chiefs hang from the gallows, Mr. Hussien can join them.)*** P.P.S. I'm looking forward to the movie.
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Sep 08, 1999 4:00:14 PM CDT
screw iraq, let's talk about something really important...
by tommy five-tone
...that's right: kevin costner! what the fuck has happened to this guy? i remember seeing him in 'fandango' as a kid and thinking 'this guy's so freakin' cool!' he did everything right in that movie, from beginning to end. his work with ron shelton in 'tin cup' and esp. 'bull durham' is classic stuff. 'no way out' and 'the untouchables' both benefited from his presence. shit, i didn't even mind what he did in 'the bodyguard'! and he held 'JFK' together when stone's direction threatened to send it flying in a million different directions. but i saw the trailer for 'for love of the game' (and by the way, shouldn't it be called 'for THE love of the game'? just wondering) and nearly fucking heaved. please don't tell me it's going to focus on costner's inability to commit to kelly preston (who would be making straight-to-video schlockers with andrew stevens and shannon tweed if she wasn't married to travolta) rather than his love of the game - isn't the goddamn title of the goddamn movie 'for love of the GODDAMN GAME'? sam raimi, i can fully dig you wanting to expand your horizons a bit ('a simple plan' is one of the best of the year, IMHO - i can't get the final scenes outta my head) but get back to making cool movies like the 'evil dead' series and esp. 'darkman' before you get sucked into constantly helping guys like costner with their vanity projects. and costner? call ron shelton or patch up your relationship with kevin reynolds.
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Sorry for getting off-topic, but isn't this supposed to be a movie site?
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Please tell me the AZ American Beauty screening hasn't already taken plac. :-I
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Sep 08, 1999 7:23:54 PM CDT
Shami on Rami or The moral of this story is, don't be an Ash-hol
by uncapie
I bet the projected income of a well-written Evil Dead 4 would have beat For the Love of the Game. How many baseball movies has Costner got in him anyway? Rami better hurry up and go back to doing what he's good at before ol' Bruce battles the dead in his wheelchair!
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Dan-whatever-FanClub, I think the person you refer to regarding the cowboys and Indians post was being sarcastic about that. If you read his entire post, you would see that. He was against the view that wars are strickly black and white, good and bad. As for the person attacking Brenden3 (sorry if that's not your name), please take some time to consider the pain, the stress and the life-changing choices made when a person joins the armed forces. The majority of these people do not go enlist thinking "man, I wanna kill some people and blow up stuff!"...a lot of people go into the army or whatever because it's one of the few choices out there, there are some good opportunities (not the killing, any smartasses out there) to see the world and get an education (something hard to come by these days, I see), and to serve their country because they have pride in it. I don't see anything wrong with having pride in our country. Personally, I know it's not the best in the world, but it's ours and we have to want to change and be involved in order to change it. I'm also not pro-war, but I hate to see people put down for wanting to serve. It is a hard choice to make. Now, the Gulf War was a media/political sham, but for those people out there fighting, it was real. Damn...enough of this serious shit...bring on the movies!
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I love Baseball, and because I love Baseball I believe Kevin Costner should NOT make another Basball movie. Well, he can if he wants to, but you know what I mean. I'm not going to make my mind up about it 'till I see it, but... doesn't look good. One can only wonder what happened to this guy. Hey, it could have been worse... he could have made WATERWORLD 2!!! Oh, and I think John Sayles loves Baseball too ergo he should make a movie about the 1919 World Series and the "Black" Sox scandal! Jesus, can you imagine Sayles tackling the most infamous sports scandal of the century!!! You don't even need to make anything up -- the story itself is perfect drama/tragedy; ignorant mill boy becomes possibly the best baseball player ever and the idol of millions and at the height of his greatness, with his best years ahead of him ignorantly sells his honor for a little bit o' money and falls into the farthest depths of ignominy in Baseball history. And that's just Jackson's part of the story!
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I haven't received my AMERICAN BEAUTY tickets yet and live in New Orleans. Do other people here have them? Did the screening already take place!? Where and when?
THREE KINGS looks cool. It's number twelve on my to see list.
And Brendan3--I hear you, my brother.
"Charging people with murder here is like giving out speeding tickets at the Indy 500." -
Raimi couldnt keep doing schlocky,yet enjoyable horror films forever. The guy wants to do other things and i can't blame him. It's how he can get the big paycheque and work with big stars,maybe not Costner anymore, but BIG stars. Simple Plan was a typical plot, turned into a great film thanks to Raimi. Let some poor shmuck direct Evil Dead 4 or 8, whatever!
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Was lucky enough to see it at the screening by UCLA today with Kevin, the director, and other cast in attendance. IMHO, the best film of the year, though I loved the Sixth Sense as well. Congrats to all involved. www.get.to/sterlingwolfe/
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So what if the U.S. and 27 allies fought the war to keep oil prices down? Does that somehow justify Iraq's occupation of Kuwait. Are they innocent in the war? Were we the agressors? Bloody hell no! And don't blame the U.S. for the scores of thousands of dead Iraqi soldiers, that rests solely on the head of a certain dictator named Saddam. And you "pacifists" who deride me for holding on to a "cowboy and indian" outlook on war, would you have sat on your asses as the Nazis drove through Europe killing millions? I hope not. Yes, we were the good guys in World War II. In World War I, the allies (not just the U.S.) were the good guys. In the Gulf War, we were the good guys. When Napoleon attempted to take over Europe almost 200 years ago, he was the bad guy. When Stalin killed 14-27 million of his own people, he was the bad guy. When the U.S. battled Russia via Vietnam, well, that was just stupid and the process was inane.... But to those who claim that everyone is equally bad are full of crap, afraid to take a stand against any agressor. Go ahead, you can let dictators rampage innocent civilians. I, however, won't allow it.
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Sep 08, 1999 10:58:40 PM CDT
631864 (or whatever your number is), are you on the crack pipe?
by tommy five-tone
i don't know if you're serious or not, but you might want to watch a film called 'eight men out' before you come back around these parts.
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Caught the trailer for FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME the other day and was blown away by how unrelentingly cheesy it was. If the trailer is any indication, the film looks to be a non-stop barrage of cliches in the form of yet another Kevin Costner cinematic ego trip. The big question is: what is Sam Raimi is doing tangled up in this mess? Did he make the film in a cynical attempt to score some bucks? Is he really just a sentimental slob with no taste? Has he gone insane? All of the above? Any ideas?...
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www.cinemayhem.com has a really cool review of American Beauty. Check it out. NOW. Oh, and does anyone know how I can change my e-mail address on this talk back? I leave work in a week, so my address will no longer work from then. www.cinemayhem.com
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Sep 09, 1999 1:03:19 AM CDT
Clarification on my war comment, especially fo DANMAUNZFANCLUB(l
by brendan3
Wow. I come back from work and this site is loaded with venom. Allow me to clear something up for DANMAUNZFANCLUB (that's a hell of a talkback name by the way)I wasn't bashing Fielding for being against the war. I was bashing him for belittling it and calling it a joke. That's why I brought up the statistics. I don't want your sympathy or your appreciation for having fought there. I just get understandably pissed off when people make comments suggesting that it wasn't a real war. That's insulting to those of us that fought there(not those of us that were merely there). You assume that because I must be some mindless "idiot" for enlisting that I must approve of what we did over there. Well I don't and I didn't join for some blind patriotic reason. I did it for me and it's given me some amazing experiences and some great stories for my grandkids. As for the war: Should we have driven Iraq out of Kuwait? Yes. Now a lot of people say "well then we should drive out any invader whether oil is involved or not." They're right. We shouldn't make exceptions. We should have gotten involved in the Balkans years ago as well as Rwanda. I would have vollunteered if I was still in. But we didn't and shame on America for only intervening when it was in our own best interests or it wouldn't hurt someone's political career. I have more reason to hate our political policy in the Gulf than you ever will. After the cease fire we didn't all come home right away. It doesn't work that fast. My unit was there for a couple of more months. We set up hasty checkpoints along our Northernmost line of advance just below the Euphrates River and we got to watch streams of Kurd and Shi'ite refugees flee South through our lines to escape the Iraqi Army which was busy slaughtering them for rising up as our government asked them to do. This was the same Iraqi Army that we had just devestated and spilled sweat and blood to defeat. It was more frustrating than anything you can imagine. Our government didn't just betray those that rose up in Iraq. It also betrayed its own soldiers. So don't assume. I'm more against our foreign policy than you will ever be. I only lost one friend in combat but it was no fucking "joke of a war" as Fielding put it in his review. That's why I attacked his comments. You should have really read what I posted before you decided to attack it.
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A pleasure as always sir, but you seem to have forgotten our last conversation some time ago. Tsk tsk. You accused me of bashing someone just for having an opposing view point. Not true. If you read the posting you're refering to again you'll see I wasn't attacking the reviewer for being anti-war. I was attacking him for belittling it and calling it a joke. At no time was I defending any political point of view or attacking his. I felt it was ignorant at best to dismiss the war as a nonevent. I felt those of us that were there deserved better than to hear some kid say it wasn't even a war. I didn't take a right or wrong stance. I have no argument with you CG. I discovered that the last time we debated we actually had some very simillar political beliefs. If me telling him that the war wasn't a joke and people really fought and died is me bashing an opposing point of view, as you put it, well then I'm guilty. I'm sure we'll meet again on this site when the movie finally comes out. The irony I supose would be that for all our arguing the movie turns out to be forgettably lame.
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Hm. I attend UCLA. I also adore Kevin Spacey. I didn't know that there was a screening on campus. Now excuse me while I go scream "Fuck" at the top of my lungs.
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In other words: does the fact that we saved the lives of the Kuwaitis justify the fact that we were only in it for the money? I will not deny that Brendan3 and the rest of our military did a very courageous thing and should not be attacked or overlooked for their efforts. But what about the politicians who sent them over there? If Kuwait did not have as much oil pumping through it as it did, then our boys would not have had to put their life on the line.
Now look at how David O. Russell used this in his film (for those of you who have forgotten, this is AICN, not MSNBC). The three main characters start out trying to get rich off the Kuwaitis (ie: the ills of the politicians) but end up saving them (ie: the heroics of the military). If anything, "Three Kings" may have the capability of being a second (although probably lesser) "Dr. Strangelove." It is a film that has the guts to show what drives us to pick up a gun and shoot, and whether or not our actions can be justified.
The above question can also apply to "For Love of the Game," although it would have to be reworded as "Does the fact that Mr. Costner and Mr. Raimi get a big paycheck at the end of a day's shooting justify the fact that they are making yet another indigestable load of sap?" The answer, unfortunatly, is: "No." Why must the audience have to suffer through yet another retread of "Field of Dreams" or "The Natural"? I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this will be the final nail in Costner's coffin. I don't know if any self-respecting person would drag themselves to see him ham it up after this. I hear that Coster always consults his children before he makes a movie. Word of advice, Kev- fire your kids.
By the way, I hear Kelly Preston is going to star in a filmed version of E. Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Shipping News." God, I hope Hollywood doesn't take this great, edgy work of fiction (one of the best books I've read written in the past ten years)and turn it into a similar pile of sap.
As for "American Beauty," it looks like a good idea, but I think I'll wait for it to come out on video. Kevin Spacey always has a lot of energy (check out the underrated film "The Ref"), but Benning hasn't really impressed me in a while.
Ta.
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This is for person who reviewed "For Love of the Game." Get a date you loser. Pretentious much?
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This guy Brendan3 enjoys writing snarky reviews all over the web (this site and IMDB.com). Who is this douchebag? He is truly a no talented hack writer who thinks he knows filmmaking. He is full of pretentious shit and undoubtedly has never been on a movie set. If he ever came onto a movie set where I am working, I will make sure he is kicked off (after I instruct the grip department to put him through an ass smacking machine).
Brendan3 needs to be bound and gagged. What a douche....
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