I saw the original Die Hard about 13 times. It had what made any good thriller good - a great villain in Alan Rickman, accompanied by a glamorous, follicly-blessed posse of Euro-trash villain/super-model blokes. They were silly. He was fabulous. Live Free or Die Hard was just what I was looking for the night we went to see it. The fourth in the series doesn't have a good villain, but it had enough references to the original to make me smirk between chewing my nails. The best part had to be the casting of young Justin Long who played a similar role (hapless computer nerd) in one of my favourites: Galaxy Quest.
The new Harry Potter movie is fun... as long as you have read the book. So much has to be left out, so really what you are going for is a visual representation of what you have been imagining, and - as usual - you are not disappointed. I'm very loyal to the series, so I'm hanging in there till the bitter end! But, to nitpick, I wish now that another villain could have been fought in these last two movies, saving Voldemort for the last, say, two stories. I mean, it's just another "ahh... we live to fight another day, Harry Potter" kind of ending. Come on already! Imelda Staunton is a creepy Dolores Umbridge, who seems to be channeling Margaret Thatcher if she had received fashion advice from Elizabeth II. A stand-out for me was the eerily remote Evanna Lynch as Luna "Loony" Lovegood. I was convinced I'd seen her before, so was my dad when we compared notes, but it seems that this is the first professional tv/movie job this young lassie has had. The rrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrr factor was overwhelmingly satisifed with Jason Isaacs worth the price of admission alone, reprising his role as Lucius Malfoy; and Gary Oldman very focused and magnificently committed (no pun intended) as Sirius Black.
2 comments:
I saw Phoenix on Sunday myself and was not disappointed. I thought that Imelda Staunton's rendition of Umbridge stole the movie. That cheerful Avon Lady Nazi (Didn't see any Maggie in the chracter at all) did for the character what Rowling couldn't do using words. A few thoughts and nitpicks. They could have left out Mad Eye moody which was a casting (should have used Oldman) and special effects disaster carried over from the previous flick. I was also disapointed with the casting of Tonks..was looking for someone that was a bit more hungry, a little more punk. I thought that Bonham Carter did well as a LaStrange...was it me or was she doing her best Johnny Depp impersonation...sort of Edward Scissor Hands does Willy Wonka? I thought that Evanna Lynch was very good as Luna Lovegood also. She reminds me of someone also. Tina Yothers perhaps?
Well I think Tonks was vastly underused, but that's an example of how much they had to leave out of the book. Regarding book three, I remember them saying they might make two movies of it. And each subsequent book is longer. It's a challenge, deciding what goes in and what stays. Maybe Bonham-Carter was getting tips from Tim Burton. Didn't they have a child together? That's a wacky couple. I definitely wasn't thinking of Tina Yothers. I'm beginning to think that maybe Evanna's face is just one of those faces that you swear you've seen before. I liked Mad-Eye... interesting you didn't, but I like him way more in the last movie. Gary Oldman is too attractive to be Mad-Eye. Oh, I suppose a lot of makeup would help. I loved him as Dracula. The best part of that odd movie. I love the way he is absolutely committed to each part, completely inhabits it, no matter what he does. Definitely one of my top ten actors of all time.
Post a Comment