weekend movies

[ellen_datlow]

Friday night I watched The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen--it was pretty much by the numbers, but not as bad as I'd heard and it's always a pleasure to watch Sean Connery. I also liked Peta Wilson (who I've not seen before, although I know she was in the American tv version of La Femme Nikita)as Mina Harker.

Last night I watched In the Valley of Elah, with Tommy Lee Jones as an ex-army guy and Charlize Theron as a cop investigating the disappearance of Jones's son, just back from a tour in Iraq. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's pointedly against the Iraq war but is awfully heavy-handed in its depiction of the war's emotional toll on the young American men (no female members of the corps in this movie) fighting. But most of the acting is good.

Then, because I knew I'd need something cheery afterward, I watched Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in Silk Stockings, the musical remake of Ninotchka. Made in 1957 and directed by Rouben Mamoulian with script by George S. Kaufman, Leueen MacGrath, and
Abe Burrows it's a very silly but pretty funny depiction of the Cold War. Fred Astaire is a movie producer who wants to use the classical music of an important Soviet musician for an American musical he's planning to make. Ninotchka is the by-the-book Soviet official sent to bring back the errant commissars and the composer. Most of the movie takes place in Paris, which seduces everyone who goes there (certainly all the Soviets).Peter Lorre is one of the three Soviet Commissars seduced by Paris and he's terrific. It's nice to see him having a good time in a movie rather than in his usual serious roles. Of course, there's romance. (I won't even discuss the sexual politics--bad).

I'm afraid I never appreciated Cyd Charisse enough before. I'd seen her in movies and heard how good a dancer she was (she just died in June at age 86)but after watching her dance last night I'm going to rent some other movies she was in. Here she is in the Red Blues number in Silk Stockings

Comments

[joeicarus.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

There's a lot to be said for the power of lowered expectations. *grin* I also saw LOEG after the verdict was pretty much in that the movie sucked. And I thought it *was* pretty weak, but like you said, not quite as bad as everyone else seemed to think.

[vee-ecks.livejournal.com]

If not for the source material, it'd be a passable waste of time. As an adaptation of the comic, it's horrifying.

[misplacedmind.livejournal.com]

Precisely.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Joe..too true.
But I haven't read the comic so I didn't see the travesty of it. :-)

[stephen-dedman.livejournal.com]

The comic is much better. I have, however, found the film useful, if only because Sean Connery once described it as the worst movie he'd ever been in. When I tell people under 30 this, they usually reply, "What, worse than The Avengers?" - but if they're over thirty, they almost invariably reply, "What, worse than Zardoz?"

As I'm a lousy judge of ages, it's sometimes good to have a measuring tool like that handy.

For Peter Lorre having fun, it's hard to go past The Raven and Arsenic and Old Lace.

[joeicarus.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

*nod*

I haven't read the comic either. So it's likely that whatever cleverness there was in the movie was only a dim reflection of the good stuff in the comic. At the time, I didn't even know there was a comic, so the idea of bringing together heroes of action stories from the last two hundred years was kind of neat.

Sometimes it's good not to know what could/should have been. I haven't seen the movie Jumper, because it sounds like a horrible adaptation for a novel I am very fond of. Just from the commercials and from what I've read, I can see the things they got wrong wrong wrong. But it's occurred to me that if it didn't have that connection to a novel I love, I could probably find it to be a decently entertaining mindless action flick.

(I wonder if I hit the right reply link . . . )

[vee-ecks.livejournal.com]

I read Jumper because my son liked it, and thought it was a decent book, I'm not in geeky love with it or anything. I still thought the movie was crap - they ripped the guts out of the novel and replaced them with straw. Same deal with LoEG. The superficial aspects of what's cool about both novels remain in the film adaptations,which just makes them all the more maddening.

BTW, greatest LoEG movie review evar: http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=16641 (After "HOBBIT-MAN: THE KING RETURNS," starting with "Let me give you an example of how NOT to make books into movies:" Neil Cumpston is really Patton Oswalt.)

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

I recommend Brigadoon for some Cyd Charisse goodness, with bonus Gene Kelly. :)

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Thanks--but can I bear the plot?

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

Well, it's been a lot of years since I saw it, but I think you might like it. It's about a village in Scotland that comes alive once a century. If you like musicals of that era, it's one of the better ones.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I know what it's about...I might even have seen it in some incarnation!
Actually it was recommended that I just rent That's Entertainment with all the best dance numbers of numerous musicals, rather than have to watch them all ;-)

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's a good idea! :)

[catsparx.livejournal.com]

Cyd Charisse was one of my favourite movie stars. She still looked stunning as an older woman. I was sad when she died.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I never appreciated her till now.

[misplacedmind.livejournal.com]

I'm appalled at myself for not having even realized that Peta Wilson played Mina Harker in LoEG. I used to be a huge fan of La Femme Nikita when I was younger. I'm part of the contingent that probably would have really enjoyed that movie had I not been a huge fan of the comic, first. I had high hopes for it, which were summarily dashed. It's rare to encounter a truly good movie that also appeals to true fans of the source material. Case in point is your commentary on the Hellboy movies recently - as a big fan of the comics, I absolutely LOVED the movies... but I guess I can see where they would fall flat for people without that background. Contrariwise, there are the X-Men movies, which were universally adored, but which comic fans tended to be very angry with (or maybe that was just me!)

One stellar example of a work that crossed those boundaries is Sin City. It was both a fantastic film, AND a fabulous adaptation of the series. That doesn't happen often, heh.

Sorry, I'll cease my geekery for now :)

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I only saw the first X-Men movie (I think) and thought it ok but nothing great (and have never read the comics).

[misplacedmind.livejournal.com]

Heh, don't bother with the rest then - the first was the best of the bunch.