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[CBMT] Non Super Hero Round Four


odessasteps

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Popeye is not only an amazing film, but one of the most faithful to the source of any comic book movie.

 

I just rewatched this a couple of weeks ago and "Comic strip + Altman" SHOULD NOT WORK, but it does in so many wonderful, wonderful ways.

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I like Road to Perdition a lot.  Hell, it's worth watching solely for it being Conrad Hall's last film, and his amazing (Oscar-winning) work shooting it.  It's has an amazing supporting performance from Paul Newman, maybe his last truly great performance.  Tom Hanks is fantastic against type.  It's a good, strong take on Lone Wolf and Cub as a 30's mob film....

 

 

There is no way in hell it should be beating Ghost World.

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I never "got" Ghost World. Maybe I owe it a rewatch sometime, I only saw it once and that was a long time ago, but it just felt like more of the same Disaffected White People Complain About First World Problems that we were getting deluged with at the time.  I felt like it fell into the same category as Welcome to the Dollhouse, Reality Bites, Rent, all those self-righteous Important Artistic Statements that were coming out at the same time.  I'm just not down with anything that tries to pretend that spoiled American middle-class life is supposed to be the worst level of hell.  But obviously, its fans feel differently; Fowler, can you explain why you love this movie so much? 

 

Road to Perdition on the other hand is a DAMN fine piece of bleak-as-hell gangster noir, easily Sam Mendes's best-non-Skyfall film.  (As opposed to American Beauty, which in hindsight really is a perfect example of what I complained about in the previous paragraph.)  It lines up a dream cast of heavyweight actors, and every one of 'em knock it out of the park; Tom Hanks never felt like he was putting on a deliberate performance, which you get with most of his work; and I say that as a fan of his. 

 

And I like Popeye, but  I'm sorry, I liked A History of Violence more.  Yeah, it was kinda disappointing that AHOV went to such a relatively banal conclusion, especially with can't-emote-to-save-his-fucking-life William Hurt being involved; but, that moment when Viggo Mortensen runs all the way home and then the movie actually DEALS with the real facts of what running a long way does to a middle-aged man.  That never fucking happens in most action movies or thrillers or anything else; you usually get Tom Cruise showing off how badass he is at running really fast, or something like that.  And the sex scene between the man and his wife felt absolutely damn real, and I'm always a sucker for a realistic-feeling sex scene (in an emotional sense, not in the porny way... okay a little bit in the porny way maybe, but seriously, nailing that particularly complex boiling pot of feelings is really hard to get right).  . 

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And I like Popeye, but I'm sorry, I liked A History of Violence more. Yeah, it was kinda disappointing that AHOV went to such a relatively banal conclusion, especially with can't-emote-to-save-his-fucking-life William Hurt being involved; but, that moment when Viggo Mortensen runs all the way home and then the movie actually DEALS with the real facts of what running a long way does to a middle-aged man. That never fucking happens in most action movies or thrillers or anything else; you usually get Tom Cruise showing off how badass he is at running really fast, or something like that. And the sex scene between the man and his wife felt absolutely damn real, and I'm always a sucker for a realistic-feeling sex scene (in an emotional sense, not in the porny way... okay a little bit in the porny way maybe, but seriously, nailing that particularly complex boiling pot of feelings is really hard to get right). .

"Nailing" it ... heh ...

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