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Travis Bickle takes a fare to THE BEACH
Father Geek here with a callin from our hotheaded cabbie who has been roaming the streets and back alleys of London as of late. He ended up at THE BEACH eary Sunday and caught pretty boy Leoardo Di Caprio in his latest flicker. Here's how the effort struck Travis...
I attended a screening of Danny
Boyle's "The Beach" in London on Sunday morning. Arranged by author Alex
Garland's publisher and agent it was theoretically a chance for everyone
involved in the success of the book to share in a 'successful' transition to
screen. Really not the case. In the least. At all.
My initial reservation was in Leoardo Di Caprio, but as it is he was the
best thing about this muddled and botched adaptation. The story is stripped
of all elements other than the strictly necessary, leaving the narrative too
thin, and in its place Boyle tries some of the virtuoso elements that worked
for him in Trainspotting. To this end we get a clever but pointless 5 minute
sequence of Leonardo running through the jungle as a character in a video
game and some genuinely gorgeous cinematography.
There's evidence of the film being hacked around at the editing stage.
Within the first 10 minutes Robert Carlyles character addresses DiCaprio's
character by name, despite not knowing his name, and one wonders if the
'happy' ending wasn't tacked on in response to test screenings. You might
know this one.
What else is there to say? Robert Carlyle delivers another trademark 'manic'
performance, and Tilda Swinton is credible as the beach community's leader
but the additions and substitutions to the plot ruin the film. When DiCaprio
first arrives in Thailand there's a shot of him and the various other
travellers at their hotel watching "Apocalypse Now." This is horrifically
deliberate move, as towards the end of the film when DiCaprio's in the
jungle with the 'spirit' of Carlyle it's like watching a ham-fisted would-be
auteur parody the final reel of Coppola's masterpiece. It's a crude homage
and lessens Boyle's credibility more than you'd think possible. Oh, and the
soundtrack's awful too.....I could go on for a while here, but will leave
off with just one more rant.
<-----Outraged Internet User's Frustration Starts Here------>
As part of the outrageous 'happy' ending, the final shot involves a
photograph sent by email and picked up in a web cafe. The mail is accessed
through Excite, (bad enough in itself), but contains what pretends to be an
800x600 image. This image is seen to be 'animated' - you see a realtime
'signature' happen. We're talking at least 60 frames, animated, at 800x600
downloaded in seconds over a bad connection. This trying to be hip and down
with the web is fantastically screwed and insulting to the audience. But
hell, so's the whole movie. If you liked the book, keep it in your head -
don't see the film.
<-----Outraged Internet User's Frustration Ends Here------>
Anyway, keep up the good work guys,
Travis
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What's the deal with that hot chick. Don't know, or care, what her name is. French = naughty. Why is it that Hollywood thinks that Leo can play tough? Rick Moranis in Streets of Fire is tougher that he could ever be.
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A LIFE LESS ORDINARY and now this? Danny needs to get the hell away from Hollywood, discontinue his creative relationship with John Hodge (which benefits Hodge much more than it does Boyle,) and start over.
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.....is Virginie Ledoyen, and I think she actually dumped Leo in real life. I like her already!
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My sentiments exactly, Beaks. May TRAINSPOTTING was a fluke?
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First Hitch, then Kubrick, then Hawks, now Francis. Danny Boyle, king of the homage.
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Too bad. This was a spectacular book. If they screw this one up, which it does sound like they have, I'm gonna take it somewhat personally. As for Boyle, Shallow Grave and Trainspotting were stellar, but A Life Less Ordinary was practically unforgivable. If he does as badly with this excellent material as I'm fearing, he may go on my has-been list. And by the way...why does everybody hate Leo so much?
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Once I heard he was playing the lead in this film, I tuned out. First of all, the character in the book is ENGLISH! Secondly, the trailers appear to be making the character out to be just another snobby American backpacker on the extended "Daddy's Gold Card" tour. Who wants to see that. The feel of the novel is very "anti-travel". But the main problem? DiCaprio's a wuss! That scene where he's throwing punches makes me giggle every time I see it. He looks like a 14-year-old girl! He's a buttlick. Boyle should have cast Ewan MacGregor in the role (his first choice). Still, I feel I may have to see it out of morbid curiosity to see how it holds up to the book.
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this is a real fucking shame because alex garland's novel is one of my favorite books ever and deserves better than some shitty adaptation.
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Jan 10, 2000 12:49:27 PM CST
Inaugurating the Computer Rendering Arena of Shame Hotsheet (CRA
by alexandra dupont
A few things: (1) Your frustration with YET ANOTHER technically inept depiction of computer usage is heard round the world, Mr. Bickle. It
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Trainspotting is one of my all-time favorite movies and one of my all-time favorite books. Boyle's direction was brilliant, and as far as adaptations go I've never been more impressed. I actually enjoyed the film more than the book, and that is high praise from me. Mrbeaks, I realize Hodge had some great source material from Welsh, but I would have to give him some credit for the translation to screenplay. Still, you might be right about Boyle's direction vs. Hodge's writing. All of the directorial flair that made Trainspotting so alive doesn't even seem like it has much of a place in the storylines for his other films. I liked Shallow Grave, but I wasn't too thrilled by it. A Life Less Ordinary was a huge disappointment. I'll be seeing The Beach, but now I'm not too optimistic. Maybe I should read the book.
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HA! I think the #1 worst has to be the use of a laptop to somehow insert a "virus" into the alien computer in ID4 (w/ laughing skull and cross bones, no less). But how about the depiction of a virus' effect on a system by having the screen go all pixelated and "melt" as in THE NET (wotta stinker!)?
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Well. John Hodge's SHALLOW GRAVE script wasn't nothing special, but BOYLE transformed it into a excelent movie. John Hodge's TRAINSPOTTING script was one hell of a great script and BOYLE did it "in SCORSESE's GOODFELLAS mode" and it was all the movie should and could be. And it was GREAT FUN. Then came A LIFE LESS ORDINARY. Hum. And life in HOLLYWOOD. Hum. It was their first CINEMASCOPE film, that was okay. But the film? Not so bad as some say, but not so good as it should be. It is funny. But the screenplay is so stupid and the camera movements so unnecessary... For fucks sake. I enjoyed the movie but it was a piece of shit in screenplay. Playing with too many potential good ideias and destroying most of it. And what was the problem with HOLLY HUNTER in this flick??? She did a piece of shit overracted angel. Not that the script helped.
Well. About THE BEACH. It smelled like a SUCKAFEST from the moment they switched EWAN MCGREGOR for DICAPRIO. Who in their right mind would change EWAN for DiCAPRIO? And about the guy that asked "Why some people don't like DiCaprio?". Well. Let me be real. Some guys are jeaulous of him. Some are angry because TITANIC took SW from the top spot of the BOX OFFICE. Some think he is a sell out. I think I have to see this guy act yet. I don't see him as the piece of shit that let's say, the overrated by talkbacker's Brad Shitt is. He has a bit more of charisma. Charisma that don't affect me, but pleases a lot of people. But is an actor that has to prove himself. His two last movies proved that he can do shit acting and before, he did stereotypes with lot's of overracting. Even the retard from GILBERT GRAPE. One of the most overrated pieces of acting from recent history. But coming back to BOYLE, someone that has showed great talent in the past. Even for 'cinematic references' I think the worst thing that he could do was come to the USA. Some directors are born to be the voices of their respective countries. Like PAUL VERHOEVEN he has trown that gift out... But that is life ... in Hollywwod.
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that's all i wanted to say
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Easy. MIDNIGHT MADNESS. Stephen Furst's father installs a computer in the back of his van (this was the 70's, when the van could be outfitted with anything,) which allows him to decode all of the clues on their scavenger hunt. All he does is type in the clue, and the computer spits out the answer. Oh, and the machine goes on the fritz when he hides his marshmallows in it. Funny stuff, no?
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Jan 10, 2000 1:19:38 PM CST
But we have to remeber that Andrew McDowell is ballsy...
by dodge manhunter
Maybe he may save this supposed to be BOX OFFICE hit/fan fluke.
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Sorry, Andrew McDonald.
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Andrew MacDonald, you smack cunt!!!
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Well, Eternal, I guess that I qualify. I'm not seeing this because of Leo. I'll see it because of Boyle and my love for Trainspotting.
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I think I have the original nominee: Wargames, wherein Matthew Broderick lifts the phone handset out of his acoustic coupler to let Ally Sheedy hear what carrier sounds like, then replaces the handset, all without losing his connection! That amused my friends and me way back in 1983.
Chris Nuzzi
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when Danny Boyle made a couple of great films. I wish he would go back to doing that. But hey I guess I'll go see this one anyway. And what is the problem you people have with DiCaprio. Sure he's a pretty boy but just for the record. HE CAN ACT! I kinda doubt that any of you said anything else when you saw "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" and he was nominated for an Oscar. He's a great talent and because he's so popular with the babes a lot of guys hate him. Well, I gues envy is a mother fucker. And o yeah the french chick is a hottie.
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Jan 10, 2000 2:09:04 PM CST
What a bunch of @$#%$% whiners! Boyle makes a couple of bad fil
by dennis
Pick on someone who actually has a @hit track record, like Joel Schumacher!!! Let's see -- Shallow Grave, hilarious and dark; Trainspotting, I hated it, but it was the critic's darling and loved by people everywhere, hailed as a new era of cinema, blah, blah, blah; Life Less Ordinary - some critical success, I think underrated, hilarious and snotty. Ewan proves once again that he's one of the most charming bastards on the planet; and now The Beach. This is ONE review. The other day, someone totally bashed Titus. Said it was one of the worst films ever. Funny, most of the reviews I've seen don't reflect that at all. Once again, people's opinions are like @$$holes -- everyone's got 'em. The review has a right to bash the film, but I'd wait till a few more reviews come out before you all start heckling Mr. Boyle, and telling him to go home.
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Am I the only jackass geek that liked this one? I didn't see it in the theater, and hated it upon first viewing. The fact that I was watching it with this chick I was dating who I wanted to blow me but was afraid to swallow my load might have affected my opinion somewhat, but that has nothing to do with this post so I will get off of that.......FUCK, Supernova TV spot again!!!! *WRETCH!!!!!!* Anyway, I liked this thing upon viewing it a second time. But I also seem to think that there is nothing wrong with Leonardo (NOT LEO!). I know that this film will most likely be a peice of donkey shit, but I see all these fertilizer chunks for free anyway, so fuck it.
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I have to admit that when I read certain posters' objections to bad computer science in movies, I was thinking, "Man, what a buncha geeks." I was all set to argue that inaccuracies may be employed in a film for dramatic effect and therefore may be forgiven if their use is effective (for example, the use of the computer in Jurassic Park enhances the suspense of the scene). Then I remembered how much I always hate it when there are horses in a movie and the foley guys use a generic whinnying noise on the soundtrack when the animals panic. A frightened horse does not whinny (a noise which is used to greet other horses), it squeals, which is an altogether different sound. So after thinking it over, my ultimate point is--I agree with you geeks!
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(1) While I lack your ferocity, Dennis, I certainly share your sentiment. We always complain about the money-obsessed "suits" stifling an artist's creativity and never giving them a chance to evolve their craft or blossom over the course of a body of work -- but then we dismiss a filmmaker outright if they make one flawed, unsuccessful film. What poo! (2) Another couple of CRASH nominations (after all, I must keep my hobbyhorse alive): (a) pretty much anything in the movie "Hackers"; and (b) 3-D molecular models being created with keystrokes on what appeared to be a Mac SE 30 in "Star Trek IV: Teh Voyage Home."
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Eternal, I don't quite know what to make of your post. Do you mean that anyone who sees this movie has shit for brains? Or that anyone who sees a DiCaprio movie has shit for brains? Please clarify.
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Jan 10, 2000 2:42:58 PM CST
I'm Only Being Dismissive After Reading That Awful Draft Of THE
by mrbeaks
It was simply garbage. If Boyle makes something watchable out of it, he's the new Welles. Also, I've heard a whole chorus of pans on this flick from various friends. This movie has been viewed as damaged goods for some time. As for C.R.A.S.H...... 1) REVENGE OF THE NERDS - Anthony Edwards types away at a keyboard and creates two animated figures that bear an amazing resemblance to himself and the girl he is attempting to woo. With a little additional typing, he manages to make them hold hands. 2) WEIRD SCIENCE - The whole scene where they create Kelly LeBrock. Very funny.....
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Pretty good. Anyone know if Really Bad Things was based/semi-adapted from it? I was constantly reminded of it, except they took things more to the extreme in the latter film...
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I've got to dissagree with the above mention of computer innacuracies (sp?) in the movies. Nothing dates a movie faster than using the available technology of the day. Not even music. A soundtrack composed by RATT wouldn't date a movie as quickly as one scene of Sandra Bullock's character "de-bugging" some new video game and then showing "Castle Wolfenstein" on the screen. State of the art at the time, but hopelessy out-of-date by the time the movie is even released. I'd bet the kind of e-mail technology used in The Beach is available by the time it comes out on DVD. It's probably avalable now and we don't know it.
I see the point of the criticisms, but I forgive them. Technology just moves too fast anymore for the movies to accurately use them without turning into a period piece. "That scene was so '99." -
I think Mission Impossible like ID4 is very very very stupid : that you can enter the elevators system through the net with a computer seems a bit....shit.
And Virginie Ledoyen is the most exquisite, exciting and SMART actress ( and without fake boobs) in cinema today. -
The one that always bothered me the most was in Beverly Hills Cop III (which had to be made because there were so many unanswered questions from the first two). In this scene, Eddie Murphey discovers that the evil criminal is using the amusment park's printing presses to make counterfeit money. Laughing his disticive guffaw, and with a few quick key strokes, (and no scanner or photographic equipment), he is able to foil the efforts of the bad guys by replacing the presidnetial faces on the bills with an image of his own face, underneath which, in currency font, is the phrase "Kiss my a**." My god, I hate this film.
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Jan 10, 2000 3:38:19 PM CST
Yes, CDog -- but is "accessing the elevator grid remotely" a rea
by alexandra dupont
CDog, you write that
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Well, I guess I'll be crying myself to sleep tonight. "The Beach" by Alex Garland is one of my absolute favorite books of all time. I like to tell people that it is the perfect melding of "Catcher in the Rye" and "Lord of the Flies," but I only say that because I know it will get them interested. It's really not, though. It is completely original and underivative. It's a shame, because I was hopeful after seeing the trailer in the theater the first couple of times. I'm wondering if I should even go see this movie or not. It might destroy my love for the book. Why couldn't Leonardo Dicaprio have just gone and signed on to make "American Psycho" instead. At least he would be making a sucky movie adapted from a sucky novel, instead of making a sucky movie adapted from a great novel (let's face it, people: "American Psycho" the novel was an utter piece of shit, 80's metaphor or not). Just wait, "American Psycho" the movie will probably be great, whilst "The Beach" will suck a big fat one. I guess bitching about Leo is a moot point, in that (as much as I hate to admit this) he is probably not the problem with this film. However, I would have liked to see Christian Bale (who is playing the lead in "American Psycho") and Leo switched around. After all, the main character in "The Beach" is English, and the lead in "American Psycho" is...you guessed it, American. But, I will try to suspend further judgement until I actually see "The Beach" (which may be a real gamble). Anyone who has read both the book and already seen the movie, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE e-mail me at merlin76@aol.com with you thoughts.
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C'mon. Even a mildly computer-friendly person like my self, who knows little or nothing about programming could tell that wasn't just stretching it, it was unbelievable! A technologically superior alien race has a computer system compatible with ours? And NO security!? Yeah, right...
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I didn't really consider that possibility. The reviewer doesn't mention it, and I can't remember from the trailers....
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Dude, wait to read other reviews before bashing time begins against Danny Boyle and Leonardo DiCaprio... their records, except for a few things, say they usually do great work as a director and an actor (watch some of Danny's movies - shallow grave, trainspotting, toss a life less ordinary -just MY opinion LOL. Watch some of Leo's work
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I am curious to know: at what point did you start hating DiCaprio? Was it before or after Titanic. Before or after the media started following his every move and reporting his bad-boy behavior. Granted, the guy sounds like a jerk personally, but I enjoyed his performances in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Marvin's Room, The Quick And The Dead and The Basketball Diaries. Titanic was a piece of tripe, but was that DiCaprio's fault? No, it was that whore James Cameron -- his bad script and 2 hours + film that didn't have the FX money shot until the end. Thank god that bastard didn't get Spiderman...
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if they have cut out the whole
Book Spolier
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everyone turns into a psychopath and wants to kill the main character and the hole thing that richard does see duffy after he died
i think the movie does suck m
maybe! maybe it is like Fight Club
Somebody like it some not
Fox makes modern cult movies
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What is with the open hostility towards me? I merely asked for you to clarify who exactly you felt had shit for brains and you start in on me? Initially, I HADN'T taken offense to anything you wrote. Now, however, I definitely have! I was just trying to open a discussion of sorts. And instead you take it as an opportunity to slam me. That's just wrong, man. Seriously. Lighten up.
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I had the pleasure of seeing this movie in August. I remember hoping as they herded us in, that it was going to be The Green Mile. As we were seated a young lady got up and told us that we were going to be the first people to see the new Leo movie The Beach!! I thought, damn but then said to myself, "Danny Boyle, Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, hot ass French chick in bikini, how bad could it be?" As the film started my heart sank. I agree with Travis about the wanna be Coppola hommage, if that was what it was. As the movie progress without moving. Tissue thin story line about a not-so-mythical beach. This Utopic vision of a Melrose Place meets Lord of the Flies was ridiculous. My heart no longer sank but plummetted as the scene of Leo eating mushrooms and his wanna be Huxley like vision of a video game commenced. Why? No one knows. The feeling I had as I left the theater was one of despair. Danny I thought A Life Less Ordinary was a speed bump!
I actually started to write Harry a desciption of my vivesection but alas, I did not. So thanks Travis for assuring me that I wasn't being to pretentious. -
No matter how bad this movie may be (and I do believe it will be so), at least the soundtrack returns to the fold the second greatest band of all time (no, I'm not naming the first, but let's just say they don't dress the same, dance with chairs, or sing in Spanish) which is NEWORDER! I'm so overjoyed that Sumner and Hook have put their squabbles and chemical dependencies aside just long enough to make the one song on the soundtrack to THE BEACH, but in fact they are due for an entire album in the spring! Oh, I'm so happy, I think I'm gonna do a line right now.
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I'm going see the Beach and then I'll say if its any good.
And I think Hacker is the worst, littel PackMan's that eat the screen??? And I loved the show MilleniuM but I hated the stuff Frank Black did with Photoshop,
Fingerprint stuff and mugshot ID's . I even once saw (don't know it it was a movie or a show) a man doing 'computer stuff' and there were al these animations on screen
and you could see 'animation.mov'
in the top of the screen. -
Okay, it's been a while since I've seen it, but, as I remember it, the aliens of Independence Day were using our own satellites to coordinate their attack. If they were doing this, it makes sense that they had developed an operating system compatible with the one that normally communicated with the satellites. In other words, they would have cloned an existing system for their own use. If this was the case, someone with one of these operating systems should have been able to hack into the aliens' system, because they were using compatible technology. So I bought it up to that point. How Goldblum figured out exactly how to access their computers, I don't remember. "Hacking" in movies is usually cheesy (see my above post about BHC III), but I at least bought the premise, if not the execution of this one. All right, flame away, Talkbackers!
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Someone (Anexandra) said that film makers go out of there way to make gun use realistic. What planet do you live on? Holy cow! If there is one thing film makers *don't* do is have realistic gun use. There is no attention to the number of rounds or reloading unless an empty chamber is needed to make a dramatic point. (i.e. the hero knows the gun is empty but the villain doesn't) The way in which guns are shot is horrible - with John Woo and the other Hong Kong styled film makers being the worst. The only film maker I can think of who bothers with accurate gun use is James Cameron. But he tends towards perfectionism in his technical details. As for computer errors, it bugs me a lot, especially those phone "computer screens" that bear no resemblance to any computer interface or program around. So I agree with you there. But I think computers are dealt with no worse than cars (cars don't normally explode in a huge pyrotechnical blaze upon impact - even Cameron screwed that one up, and with a diesel yet [T2]), guns (see above), languages (the hero can learn languages by watching - see 13th Warrior), martial arts (there has rarely been a realistic martial arts fight in Hollywood), etc. BTW - the screen in the first Jurassic Park actually was an SGI program that came standard with the computer. It was a pretty stupid way to browse the directories, but it was a real program. Basically Hollywood wants great 3D graphics and virtual reality for the most mundane of applications. Or worse they want some totally retro computer that makes no sense ( Pi).
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This is truly terrible. The Beach is SUCH a great book and Trainspotting was SUCH a good movie. Why is this project sucking? I hate to be a Dicaprio basher, because logically all he can do to harm the film is act poorly with his Uber-American accent-but- why didn't they have Ewan do this film? It would have had a lot more in common with the wonderful novel. But of course I still haven't seen it. I will have to wait and see if it truly, does, suck.
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I don't know shit, but what about
Wilford Brimley's computer in John Carpenter's THE THING. It was some old ass 286 thing, but it
knew the answers to his questions
without him having to input any relevant information. He would type a question, in english, and the computer knew the odds of someone being infected, or how long untill the human race is absorbed by the thing, in hours! -
The moment in the trailer when someone asks Leo how far he thinks it is to the island and says 'Let's go' and does this BS dive into the water you JUST KNOW this movie is going to suck. So pardon me while I go and watch 'Gladiator' and 'Wonderboys'.
As for the CRASH...One of the worst misuse of computers has got to be Disclouse with Michael Douglas. At the end, when he was hacking into the computer system in the bad guy's room...Was that Virtual Reality he was going into? And how about those unlocking doors? You gotta be kidding me... -
I dunno..... the whimsy, which seemed so damn effortless in HH (oh, I'm bein' serious here, folks,) was so forced in Boyle's film. I honestly wanted to love ALLO (hell, they even had a funny, stupid robot scene played out with Ian Holm, who once played a funny, homicidal robot in ALIEN,) but it just didn't work for me. I'm glad the movie has its fans. Every orphan needs a little love, which is why I'm often quick to praise HH, DIGGSTOWN, and HERO, but this is one stinker that I believe is fully deserving of its sullied reputation.
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Sir, Wolf 3d was never state of the art at any time during the production of "The Net". There's a thousand other things to rag on concerning the current date, but this movie was obselete before it was made.
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--all over my color 8x10's of his face. GOD is he cute. Maybe it's 'cause he looks so much like a girl. God help me if he ever decides to grow a beard. . .yuck. Anyway, getting back on track here, I'll see the movie but if it truly doth blow goats THAT friggin' badly then I'll just have to read the book to erase it from my mind. Oh, and my CRASH nomination? Yeah, it's got to be a tie between SUPERMAN III and ID4. Kudos to the guy above who mentioned the SIII disaster; I'd almost forgotten it. Crap it was, utter offal; it and it's misbegotten, maggot-infested abortion of a sequel did for the Superman movies what the last two Batman flicks did for the Caped Crusader. I will only buy the first two of each on DVD; the rest, to quote Orwell, "do not exist--they have never existed."
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Hey mrbeaks...I agree with you that Diggstown is a good movie (It's very hard to not like a James Woods movie even if it is a B-movie like 'Bestseller') and I'll even raise you one by going so far as to say that another homicidal robot movie, Hardware, is a great movie.
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1: ANYTHING and EVERYTHING on the movie HACKERS... I personally did a wee bit of hacking about the same time that movie came out, and it basically turned me off of it. Just, the... erroneous nature of it made me sick to the stomach... 2: True Lies where Arnie turns on the badasses computer at the ball, and you hear the trademark APPLE turn on sound, and then see a Windows logo on the screen. 3: Unfortuanately I forget the name of this movie, but, it pissed me off and maybe someone will know it. The main character had to search for someone, so they enter the person's name in WEBCRAWLER (www.webcrawler.com) and for some reason the search ends up bringing up detailed information, police files, etc. on the screen on the first try. 4: ID4 definitely takes the cake. If the aliens were using Linux, THEN I might have believed it. heh... Little dork joke there. 5: The movie Eraser where people can easily copy information to a CD, and then bring it home and use it on a completely different drive without even properly formatting the disk. 6: Any movie where any characters over the age of 25 know more about a computer than how to look up porn. That's about all I can think of thus far, but GodDAMM it there's a lot of them out there...
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he could do leo's part easy. james spader could do the other role. oh, and molly ringwald and jamie gertz could share a banana under a palm tree. yeah, now we have something.
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i think a definite candidate for the crash list is the latest bond with windows CE as opsys for a nuclear device..
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I can't believe people are jumping to conclusions after reading one review, from a person they don't know, which is just after all a matter of opinion. Their main point seemed to be that the film tampers with the book and makes things too obvious. As the book is mainly about the thoughts of one man the book would need to be adapted to make it an interesting cinematic experience. The apocalypse now bit just seems like a useful condensation of all the thought proccesses in the book that let you know he is a nam film obsessive. Now i don't care if this film is good or not, though it would be nice if it were. I'm just saying have a bit of perspective. One man's opinion is not necessarily yours. The internet can be a dangerous thing
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people, take it easy. Red Devil is right. This is one guys opinion. I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm just saying it might be. Let's weigh the pros and cons.
Pros:
1. Taken from an excellent book
2. Made by an excellent director
3. The trailer is very good, and from it one could say the cinematography seems sublime.
4. It co-stars a hot french chick
5. Robert Carlyle kicks ass
Cons:
1. Leo is starring
2. It is being marketed as the hot new thing
3. It has a computing mistake.
4. It borrows excessively.
We will see. -
First of all, were any of you old enough to see the BASKETBALL DIARIES? Probably not. Leo can act, he just seems to be acting like a prima dona. Oh fucking well. As for the movie, it will never be as good as the book. It could be fun to watch. That cute little French girl, rolling around in the sand, what the hell? Just another mainstream mind numbing pseudo-adventure for all the fucking sheep in the audience. The pretty boy gets the girl in the end, or at least a piece of the action. Let it slide. If you want to see a really good move GO SEE MAGNOLIA instead...
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Must be the old Batman series from the 60. Batman would ask the 'Bat-computer' a question about where the ridler was hiding, and Macaronie would come out of the thing (Ridler = in the old macaronie factory)hahahah I was 7 at the time and thought that was crap.
And nobody seems to mention the shit they did in Enemy of the state, Rotating a 2D image and looking in to a bag and al this with a normal department store camera! (sorry for the crap spelling)
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Enternal...I interpreted your statement "you'll just have to judge for yourself if my statement applies to you," as a bit hostile. Perhaps that's merely my interpretation. Either way, it's over and done with. No hard feelings on either end, and we can get back to why we're here...to openly state that Leonardo "Panty Boy" DiCaprio's presence in "The Beach" will completely sully what could have been a great film!
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This is so fun! Ok, my nominee is You've Got Mail when Meg Ryan connects to AOL and it takes her mere seconds to get online and WITHOUT all that advertising crap that comes up everytime you get on it. (My grandparents have AOL and I've been trying to get them to find another ISP.) And don't forget while she's dialing up the little graphics barely correspond with the real dial-up process. Of course, if they had been honest about how slow AOL is to connect to, the entire movie would have been Meg Ryan sitting in front of her computer bitching at the screen while waiting for the connection and the end would show her shove the laptop out the window after AOL sends her a bunch of junk mail and forces her to download software she doesn't want. For some, it would have been an improvement...
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Talk about "You've Got Mail". Funny how Tom Hanks character types *at least* 30 lines of text *in one Instant message window* and sends. I laughed in the theater at those AOL chatting scenes. ( I'm on AOL, so shoot me )
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This one always got me whenever I watch Mirror, Mirror (STTOS). Kirk, McCoy, and Uhura are in the Captain's quarters and Kirk asks how it's possible to transport from one dimension to another. The computer responds, and Kirk then asks the computer to transfer the instructions to disk in order to reverse the transport.
It either plays as kitsch or a glaring error.
Talk about Deus Ex Machina
Stile -
The trailer is terrible. If that music is in the film, it will suck. This is a fact.
Furthermore, Danny Boyle has no real talent, as a director. I've seen all three of his films in their proper theatrical exhibitions and the overriding fact about all of them is that his style is little more than an attitude. It suited Trainspotting, to a certain point, but those other two were way too snotty and arrogant for their own good. In terms of attitude, they shared that annoying self-satisfaction that Good Will Hunting had until Damon's character realized he was an asshole. I don't think they realize that their characters are all unlikeable, cynical, ironic assholes. The reason Trainspotting worked was because they realized that their characters were assholes and this was acknowledged in the execution of the film. Well, back to the Beach. This film seems to have all those characteristics, in the trailer and the only way to redeem this (which I hold both Boyle and Hodges responsible for) is to kill off all those annoying characters ("just making conversation..." WHAT KIND OF DUMBASS CONVERSATION/DIALOGUE IS THIS? DO ME A FAVOUR TRAINSPOTTING BOYS AND WRITE SOME REAL DAMN CHARACTERS). However, as the reviewer points out, the film has a bullshit ending. In other words, the assholes don't die, pretend that they learned a lesson and we have to go on thinking that these kinds of idiots are still wandering the world amongst us. Maybe the film is intended to be a tragedy.
Has everyone seen Magnolia yet. As my name would suggest, I love that film and wish Harry would write about it so we could all share our ideas. -
it's funny to see al those boys trashing leo while SECRETELY DREAMiNG of his hot body! BTW don't go to see the movie because frenchboy Guillaume Canet is really REALLY HOT!!!
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Mrbeaks!!
Just the mention of Midnight Madness deserves praise. Michael J. Fox as a spoiled little arcade freak? Pabst Blue Ribbon? That old hag dialing the cops with her nose?
Can you say: CLASSIC?
P.S. That chick in The Beach is HOT. And I don't mean Leo.
And Magnolia? Brilliant. I could watch the fist 15 minutes over and over on its own. The sequence where all the characters sing Aimee Mann's great song is unbelievably affecting. Tom Cruise might as well create a pseudonym and put acting jobs like this under it so people can take him seriously. By far his best acting yet.
"Dad, you have to be nicer to me." -
any word on soundtrack? i kinda liked the music from the trailer. i'm not really curious about this movie but may be still will check it out coz i love exotic places. peace.A
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Jan 11, 2000 9:15:19 PM CST
It doesn't Matter How bad The film is, It Will Be A HUGE Hit!
by gilmour
C'mon, its coming out in February with little competition and 13 year old girls will see this film 5 times each no matter how much of a pure crapfest it is. Like it or not, Leo's career is still red hot and this film will continue his rise as a movie superstar. (WARNING: The Following Talkback Was Paid For By Leonardo Melvin Dicarprio.)
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I always recieved the impression, from the graphics on the computer, that Goldblum was hacking into the alien system on a basic, binary level. Hence it would work no matter what the OS was. Also, I figure the "countdown" wasn't an actual signal from the aliens- Goldblum's character had already found out that the signal was diminishing itself, and was able to calculate how much time was left before it finished and the countdown went off.
At least that's my theory. -
The Apocalypse Now reference is in the book and I think that
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The weird chanting stuff with the drum beats is by a group (actually just one person) called VAST. It is an amazing cd, as it uses elements of all forms of music to create something entirely new, intelligent, menacing, holy, and sexy all at the same time. Also, NEWORDER is on the soundtrack, and we all know that God invented NEWORDER to spread us joy. That one song towards the end of the trailer, however, (the one with the Def Leppard riff and the whiny white-guy emoting)? That's by a band called LIVE. They suck. A lot.
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The topic is not the unrealistic computer scenes in movies. I mean ok, I agree you're right about ID4 and Eddie Murphy movie, they suck. But did you ever think what a movie would become if everything about computers were true. That would be boring. Like the reviewer of this movie expected that the main character to stare at the computer screen for like 15 minutes until the e-mail was downloaded, then would he and all other computer people like the movie.
I am out of the topic, so get back:
I am sure I will like The Beach. First of all, I like Boyle. Shallow Grave was brilliant, Trainspotting: Genius, A Life Less Ordinary: Hilarious (That guy who watched the movie for the first time while getting a ..job, and liked it the second time he watched, you are not the only person who liked the movie.) Why should I think that this time he will fail.
Second, I have read the book like two years ago, and I loved it. Though I have to admit, it was not like I expected, I loved the its style and the story.
All those people who liked the book, and are complaining that the movie will suck, because it is not the same as the book: Do you really think that a great and accurate adaptation of this book into a movie is possible? I don't think so. So it's better that the movie is not 100% same with the book. I will not go to the theaters to watch the book that I've once read (which usually results in dissappointment), but a movie with a new story that sounds familiar. I advice you to do the same.
The person who told that Leo would have better done American Psycho: I agree. But not for the same reasons you gave. American Psycho and Bret Easton Ellis are my among of my favourites. I think Leo could be more persuasive as Pat Bateman than Christian Bale, who not even in a single movie I saw gave a good performance. However if Leo was to star, than the movie should be shot like 2 years later, cause he looks rather young for a 27 year old Wallstreet yuppie.
Last thing, I think Leo is a good actor. He is capable of acting different characters with marginal experiences.
Adding all things up: I am looking forward to seeing this movie. One thing for sure, that will most probably be a movie like Fight Club, some people will love it, some will hate it. -
Isn't the whole point of adapting a novel into film to capture the essense, theme, and message of the orginal story? If not, then why bother? Why not write your own goddamn picture? Time and again Hollywood bastardizes wonderful novels as they did with the Beach by changing essential elements of the story like Richard's relationship with Francois (the French chick), not to mention the whole goddamn ending. That's where this whole thing went wrong --> They thought "How do we get more suckers to fill the seats?" instead of "How do make a great movie out of this great book?" Hence the casting of Leo. Oh, and why do so many people hate him? The same reason he never gets cast for masterpieces like Magnolia and the Green Mile... because he's a phony!
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