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Dec. 5th, 2004 09:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickWent to see Saw with brother Roy last night. The movie choices were not spectacular, because I live in bumfuck and it's not like we have art cinema or anything here. (My exposure to less-mainstream films is by way of DVD -- anyone I know locally buys one, we all watch it because that way you get full value *and* have someone to discuss the film with. Films are things that I have to buy on DVD. Movies are things I can go to Altoona and see in a theater.) At my disposal, I had...
The Polar Express, that horrible Christmas movie with Tom Hanks
Alexander, which has not gotten a single positive review
National Treasure, disqualified by virtue of being a Nicholas Cage film
The Incredibles, which I've already seen
Christmas with the Kranks, which I would not watch if you paid me
Spongebob Squarepants, The Movie, an effort that holds negative appeal for me
Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason, wasn't she the bitchy british twentysomething? With diaries?
Shall We Dance -- no clue
After the Sunset -- no clue
The Grudge -- Roy said he'd heard it wasn't bad.
and, obviously, Saw, which I'd heard was at least relatively interesting and had a guy cutting off his foot. (Yes, that is a selling point.)
Movie theaters now show huge amounts of ads before they get to the movie. I don't mind movie trailers -- they're one way I find out about new movies -- but I'm a bit peeved about ads for shit like Diet Coke and cell phone services. I am not laying down my money to be marketed consumer goods, damn it.
So, how was it? Not bad. Not bad at all. It was very clever. We thought it was kind of like Se7en in the relative clue and coolness of the serial killer guy and we liked the ending rather a lot. That was the clever part. Full points for having the gun over the mantle in the first act, as it were.
I thought that the colors and lighting were really quite good and set the mood effectively. Set wasn't bad, either. There was a lot of blue and green, very cool and institutional, what with the tile and exposed pipes. We were both impressed with the blond guy's makeup at the end of the movie, how they made him look all pale and stuff.
I never did get what the deal was with the freaky puppet thing, though. That was just disturbing.
The nonlinear narrative... it was okay. That and the not-random fastforwarding of the camera work were kind of effective. We thought that the nonreliable narrators were pretty realistic -- people act that way in real life. I'm not sure I'd enjoy this sort of thing in regular movies and I damn sure wouldn't have wanted more of it in this movie, but this was just enough. It was okay.
There were a few things that royally pissed me off about the movie, though.
1. Stupid cop behavior. They would have called for backup as soon as they found something definite. Even if they were there without much probable cause. They would have called for backup or 911-ambulance as soon as the first guy was down. Man down. They would have called for fucking backup, hot pursuit or no. Cops run *towards* gunfire. Killing one does not scare the rest of them away. It attracts more.
2. Some of the dialogue was a little skiffy. In particular, the "incoming calls only" cellphone. Are there such things? If not, why aren't there? Seems like it'd be a hell of a way to keep track of one's teenagers without running the cellphone bill from hell. This line of inquiry distracted me from several minutes of movie.
3. If you are a chick and you have what you've got reason to believe is an insane madman on his knees in front of you and you're holding a loaded gun on him, the next thing you should do is shoot the bad guy. Yes, even if your baby girl is tied up four feet away for a ringside view of mommy-the-killer. If, for whatever reason, you do not shoot the guy (you fool!), stay at least ten feet away from the motherfucker. If it comes to a hand-to-hand struggle over the gun, he's going to get the gun. You are NOT AS STRONG AS HE IS. It's genetics, which gives fuck-all for equal rights. You are going to have to give up the gun if it comes to hand-to-hand, so don't let the fight go there.
The Polar Express, that horrible Christmas movie with Tom Hanks
Alexander, which has not gotten a single positive review
National Treasure, disqualified by virtue of being a Nicholas Cage film
The Incredibles, which I've already seen
Christmas with the Kranks, which I would not watch if you paid me
Spongebob Squarepants, The Movie, an effort that holds negative appeal for me
Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason, wasn't she the bitchy british twentysomething? With diaries?
Shall We Dance -- no clue
After the Sunset -- no clue
The Grudge -- Roy said he'd heard it wasn't bad.
and, obviously, Saw, which I'd heard was at least relatively interesting and had a guy cutting off his foot. (Yes, that is a selling point.)
Movie theaters now show huge amounts of ads before they get to the movie. I don't mind movie trailers -- they're one way I find out about new movies -- but I'm a bit peeved about ads for shit like Diet Coke and cell phone services. I am not laying down my money to be marketed consumer goods, damn it.
So, how was it? Not bad. Not bad at all. It was very clever. We thought it was kind of like Se7en in the relative clue and coolness of the serial killer guy and we liked the ending rather a lot. That was the clever part. Full points for having the gun over the mantle in the first act, as it were.
I thought that the colors and lighting were really quite good and set the mood effectively. Set wasn't bad, either. There was a lot of blue and green, very cool and institutional, what with the tile and exposed pipes. We were both impressed with the blond guy's makeup at the end of the movie, how they made him look all pale and stuff.
I never did get what the deal was with the freaky puppet thing, though. That was just disturbing.
The nonlinear narrative... it was okay. That and the not-random fastforwarding of the camera work were kind of effective. We thought that the nonreliable narrators were pretty realistic -- people act that way in real life. I'm not sure I'd enjoy this sort of thing in regular movies and I damn sure wouldn't have wanted more of it in this movie, but this was just enough. It was okay.
There were a few things that royally pissed me off about the movie, though.
1. Stupid cop behavior. They would have called for backup as soon as they found something definite. Even if they were there without much probable cause. They would have called for backup or 911-ambulance as soon as the first guy was down. Man down. They would have called for fucking backup, hot pursuit or no. Cops run *towards* gunfire. Killing one does not scare the rest of them away. It attracts more.
2. Some of the dialogue was a little skiffy. In particular, the "incoming calls only" cellphone. Are there such things? If not, why aren't there? Seems like it'd be a hell of a way to keep track of one's teenagers without running the cellphone bill from hell. This line of inquiry distracted me from several minutes of movie.
3. If you are a chick and you have what you've got reason to believe is an insane madman on his knees in front of you and you're holding a loaded gun on him, the next thing you should do is shoot the bad guy. Yes, even if your baby girl is tied up four feet away for a ringside view of mommy-the-killer. If, for whatever reason, you do not shoot the guy (you fool!), stay at least ten feet away from the motherfucker. If it comes to a hand-to-hand struggle over the gun, he's going to get the gun. You are NOT AS STRONG AS HE IS. It's genetics, which gives fuck-all for equal rights. You are going to have to give up the gun if it comes to hand-to-hand, so don't let the fight go there.
