Film night
Sep. 22nd, 2010 11:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ghoti_mhic_uaitI've not written a lot about recent film nights. In brief:
Bourne Identity(C's choice) - I was enjoying this more than I thought I would, then our recording broke off for the news and I realised we didn't have the second half. Oops.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - if they're the same age as us, how come the films always show them in clothes no teenager would have worn for another ten years or so?
Ocean's Eleven - a quite enjoyable cop romp, nothing heavy.
Casablanca- no matter how many times I see it, I'm always worried I misremembered the ending (my favourite of any film)
Minority report - an old fashioned whodunnit set in the future
I saw Minority Report for the first time last night, having not previously read the short story by Phiip K Dick on which it is based.
The premise of the film is that, in a future world, certain people are found to have precognitive abilities, such that they can predict murders (and only murders). A branch of the police is set up, 'Precrime' to intercept the murders and stop them happening. The film deals with how this works, how it could go wrong, and touches on associated moral issues.
The first thing that I noticed about this film is that the leaad character, played by Tom Cruise, reminded me strongly of the lead character in the Philip K Dick novel, 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' (filmed as 'Bladerunner'). I was therefore disappointed by the subsequent lack of sheep.
The second thing I noticed was that it went on for far too long. It's an adaptation of a short story, and the film is 145 minutes long. The first couple of hours really dragged for me, I felt that the pace was way off. On the other hand, I really enjoyed the last 45 minutes, when the action was. I guess all's well that ends well.
It doesn't help that there was a lengthy chase in the middle, and police chases almost always bore me. Also, there are several scenes which seem to be added purely to remind us that it's in the future, which seem unnecessary.
On the other hand, there is some excellent acting - Tom Cruise is eminently believable as the troubled cop, as is Max von Sydow as his friendly superior. There's an excellent supporting cast too, and I really enjoyed Samantha Morton's portrayal as the precog (soothsayer) Agatha (named for Agatha Christie).
So, I'm glad I saw it, and I'll look out for the short story, but I wouldn't watch again.
Bourne Identity(C's choice) - I was enjoying this more than I thought I would, then our recording broke off for the news and I realised we didn't have the second half. Oops.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - if they're the same age as us, how come the films always show them in clothes no teenager would have worn for another ten years or so?
Ocean's Eleven - a quite enjoyable cop romp, nothing heavy.
Casablanca- no matter how many times I see it, I'm always worried I misremembered the ending (my favourite of any film)
Minority report - an old fashioned whodunnit set in the future
I saw Minority Report for the first time last night, having not previously read the short story by Phiip K Dick on which it is based.
The premise of the film is that, in a future world, certain people are found to have precognitive abilities, such that they can predict murders (and only murders). A branch of the police is set up, 'Precrime' to intercept the murders and stop them happening. The film deals with how this works, how it could go wrong, and touches on associated moral issues.
The first thing that I noticed about this film is that the leaad character, played by Tom Cruise, reminded me strongly of the lead character in the Philip K Dick novel, 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' (filmed as 'Bladerunner'). I was therefore disappointed by the subsequent lack of sheep.
The second thing I noticed was that it went on for far too long. It's an adaptation of a short story, and the film is 145 minutes long. The first couple of hours really dragged for me, I felt that the pace was way off. On the other hand, I really enjoyed the last 45 minutes, when the action was. I guess all's well that ends well.
It doesn't help that there was a lengthy chase in the middle, and police chases almost always bore me. Also, there are several scenes which seem to be added purely to remind us that it's in the future, which seem unnecessary.
On the other hand, there is some excellent acting - Tom Cruise is eminently believable as the troubled cop, as is Max von Sydow as his friendly superior. There's an excellent supporting cast too, and I really enjoyed Samantha Morton's portrayal as the precog (soothsayer) Agatha (named for Agatha Christie).
So, I'm glad I saw it, and I'll look out for the short story, but I wouldn't watch again.
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Date: 2010-09-23 05:49 pm (UTC)