SIFF day 2
May. 24th, 2010 12:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ironymaidenRapt
the blurb describes this as a nailbiting thriller. perhaps if it had a stiff edit. i was all ready to get caught up in the machinations of the corporate board deciding how much money their chairman was worth and how that worth depended on his reputation.
how could a story of a kidnapping be so deadly dull? how could everyone involved be so unsympathetic?
well, the kidnapping victim did have a pretty dog.
Nowhere Boy
i grabbed teriyaki for dinner and arrived in the theater just as the ticketholders started to come in. got the last open seat in the legroom row. i politely asked the people by the seat if it was taken before sitting down; the man on the left dithered a bit before saying no. after i sat down, he got up and moved away with a little huff. his seat and all the seats on the left side of the row were reserved for a Platinum Plus member and their guests. don't know if he was the passholder (a weekly newspaper reviewer) or a guest, but sorry my presence was so offensive, asshole.
the film was good enough - not my cup of tea, but well done. it's a biopic of teen John Lennon, pre-Beatles. the focus is on Lennon's relationship with his mothers - his biological mother who abandoned him at five, and his aunt who raised him. i was there for the early Beatles stuff, and that's not what the film is about. i could give a shit about Lennon's mommy issues. (fun shoutouts are available if you do know about who he marries/The Quarrymen/The Cavern Club.) nice work by Kristin Scott Thomas as Aunt Mimi.
Bodyguards and Assassins
long slow buildup with an epic action scene release. (i think there's about 1:15 of talky that leads to 45 minutes of continuous tension and fighting.)
Hong Kong, 1906 - our heroes run a dangerous decoy operation while an exiled leader organizes revolution. lots of predictable touches, with the dude getting married tomorrow obviously marked for death, etc. but getting there is not predictable and the rickshaw run through narrow streets full of assailants is pretty epic. it features many familiar Hong Kong actors, including a fine turn by Donnie Yen.
i liked the history and revolution chatter as well as the action, folks with less patience might enjoy looking for fight scenes on youtube (there's a whole scene devoted to iron fan vs chains.)
the blurb describes this as a nailbiting thriller. perhaps if it had a stiff edit. i was all ready to get caught up in the machinations of the corporate board deciding how much money their chairman was worth and how that worth depended on his reputation.
how could a story of a kidnapping be so deadly dull? how could everyone involved be so unsympathetic?
well, the kidnapping victim did have a pretty dog.
Nowhere Boy
i grabbed teriyaki for dinner and arrived in the theater just as the ticketholders started to come in. got the last open seat in the legroom row. i politely asked the people by the seat if it was taken before sitting down; the man on the left dithered a bit before saying no. after i sat down, he got up and moved away with a little huff. his seat and all the seats on the left side of the row were reserved for a Platinum Plus member and their guests. don't know if he was the passholder (a weekly newspaper reviewer) or a guest, but sorry my presence was so offensive, asshole.
the film was good enough - not my cup of tea, but well done. it's a biopic of teen John Lennon, pre-Beatles. the focus is on Lennon's relationship with his mothers - his biological mother who abandoned him at five, and his aunt who raised him. i was there for the early Beatles stuff, and that's not what the film is about. i could give a shit about Lennon's mommy issues. (fun shoutouts are available if you do know about who he marries/The Quarrymen/The Cavern Club.) nice work by Kristin Scott Thomas as Aunt Mimi.
Bodyguards and Assassins
long slow buildup with an epic action scene release. (i think there's about 1:15 of talky that leads to 45 minutes of continuous tension and fighting.)
Hong Kong, 1906 - our heroes run a dangerous decoy operation while an exiled leader organizes revolution. lots of predictable touches, with the dude getting married tomorrow obviously marked for death, etc. but getting there is not predictable and the rickshaw run through narrow streets full of assailants is pretty epic. it features many familiar Hong Kong actors, including a fine turn by Donnie Yen.
i liked the history and revolution chatter as well as the action, folks with less patience might enjoy looking for fight scenes on youtube (there's a whole scene devoted to iron fan vs chains.)
