Begun at The Old Vic and then moving to the Curzon Mayfair and Hyde Park, Jo and I cover many films - Jo has watched Alice in Wonderland, Simon watched Shakespeare in Love and Jo, Simon and Sarah watched The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo.Music is by Jacob Groth from his soundtrack to The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo and some music is from Danny Elfmans music for Alice in Wonderland.
Links mentioned:
Donate to Sports Relief by clicking here
Movie Moxies blog is easy to get to ... so click here
The Mad Hatters 'The Dark of the Matinee' blog and his Matinee Cast - Podcast Number 9 features me - has a hosting site here but you can easily find that link via his blog too.
Lastly, if you want to hear the Shutter Island review I was unhappy about, you can hear that very LAMBcast by going to the website here.
I know you disagreed with me (and others) on the LAMBcast, but I'm still waiting to hear just what bothered you so much.
ReplyDeleteDid you watch your Jo assignments yet?
Alas, Jo's chosen films have yet to be watched but I do explain my problems with the comments you LAMBcasters had with Shutter Island on this weeks podcast ...
ReplyDeleteI left you a response on the Blustering Me request you had a few days ago. Good luck!
ReplyDeletehttp://largeassmovieblogs.blogspot.com/2010/02/brutally-blunt-blog-blustering-29.html
OH ... my ... god. I didn't catch that! I didn't even realise I was being 'blustered'!
ReplyDeleteI ... am embarressed ... and I have, so often, read that message "if you are ready to be blustered, you have to be blustering yourself..." and I missed it completely!
Right - well, I am making changes today!
Alright - per Travis's comment about the editing: I listened to an interesting (and lively) debate about the editing of Shutter Island on the Row Three Cinecast about S.I., where two of the gents argued that the mistakes were more or less intentional (and therefore made the film even more brilliant) while the other said that they bothered the hell out of him. The pro argument was that Scorcese apparently has a history of more or less not caring about minor continuity errors/gaffes, and yet they argued that given the plot (read: twist) of S.I., that the errors here were more intentional or something. That struck me as arguing both sides of the same coin.
ReplyDeleteI didn't notice bad edits save for one scene, which was a dream sequence anyway. But to those that don't buy/don't like that the nature of the story can give the filmmakers free rein to make mistakes, I can see their point.
As for my argument, what can I say? I guess I didn't much care about why Teddy was the way he was. The WWII stuff was overused, mostly unimportant, and heavy-handed. I will admit that, given the twist, I'd like to watch it again to see how it all plays out with my advance knowledge of how it'll end. I'd actually like to do the same with Book of Eli, which I also was none too impressed with.
Sad to hear Jo's take on Girl w/ Dragon Tattoo. I, too, am a reader (and lover, I should add) of the book, so it sounds as though I'll be disappointed. Still, I've been eagerly anticipating seeing it, and it comes to Phoenix on Friday (and I'll be doing Hatter's podcast on it as well). I still get the feeling that I'll like it, though that goes against the general notion that people like whichever medium they experienced first more.
The Sonic/Green Zone stuff killed me. Absolutely brilliant. I was ashamed for not making the connection (or recognizing the song right away).
Well, with reg. to Travis, he should come here and say that! I'll show him (I roll up my sleeves in mock 1800's fist fight...)...
ReplyDeleteTravis, I feel from listening to LAMBcast #16 is clearly alot more ... how can I put this ... he values the literature. He prioritises the book prior to watching or 'truly' understanding a film based on a book. Hence his reading of Twilight. Man alive. I wouldn't do that - though I'll watch the films for an opinion - I will not read the books.
Either the films work well or they don't. Any story with gaping holes doesn't work. In literature or on film.
With that in mind, go to Girl... Dragon Tattoo with an open mind - Sarah and I truly loved it. Nb, how JO said the first 50 pages in the book were boring, but neccessary ... I'm glad we didn't have to watch the boring-ness and just got stuck straight in! Then again, I haven't read the book so what would I know... Maybe the boringness is somehow gratifying?
I think with ref. to the Green Hill Zone stuff - I think we have found the first joke to make it into a 'Best Of' Podcast when Jo and I take a week off.
For what it's worth, I didn't find the beginning of the Girl/Tattoo book boring. It's actually more like the first half of the book that is setup, but considering how foreign Sweden is to not only an American, but one living in a desert, I dug the hell out of it. You know how many Swedes I meet on a daily basis? It ain't a large number. But I imagine Jo didn't care for more of the financial/business talk, which I did (even if I didn't understand all of it). And I think it'll play into the larger picture of the three novels (sounds like Jo's read the second already, he ought to know).
ReplyDeleteNo worries, though - I'll enter with an open mind. I already think they did a terrific casting job of Salander based on my mental picture of her.
No, I wasn't defending Travis on the editing point so much as bringing up the debate itself. I disagreed with him on that 'cast, anyway, not noticing a bunch of gaffes myself.
And I ain't gonna read Twilight or see the films. So there. :D
Yo Fletch,
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I gotta clarify a couple of things regarding my opinion on the book and the film.
Firstly the first 50-100 pages with all the financial journalism stuff. I wasn't necessarily bored but I was definitely waiting for the action to get started. Because it wasn't clear of the relevance of Wennerstrøm and the detail it didn't feel like a murder mystery like I was expecting. Of course by the end that start all came full circle and the importance/drama was clear. For me the book really kicked off when Blomqvist met Vanger and Lisbeths gradual introduction was brilliantly plotted. The Swedish stuff does feel great, a tasty foreign perspective gives it a certain crisp uniqueness.
I have read the second book (which follows on nicely) and actually the film includes a couple of things from Played With Fire which is a bit of a shame. Generally (without giving too much away) there are some things missing from the movie which I was looking for. It rushes over certain things (especially the meeting between Mikael & Henrik) but then you're bang on with the casting of Lisbeth- it is perfect. Interestingly the difference between Stockholm & Hedestad is great in the book but not really clear in the film.
Anyways I'll leave it there before I say too much but we should certainly continue the debate once you've seen it...
Just noticed one of the first questions raised - Jo's assignments following my bad guesses on the Oscars front have been purchased. Both Blueberry Nights and In the Mood for Love are sitting-pretty next to the PS3 ...
ReplyDeleteJo - as Simon has already seen, I not only saw Girl/Tattoo last night, but I walked away feeling much like you, from the sounds of it. It felt like the first 200 pages were zipped through in the first 20 minutes of the movie. The relationships between the characters never came through for me, and there wasn't nearly enough backstory on Lisbeth, though I've already had the prologue of Played with Fire a bit spoiled for me (I've just started it).
ReplyDeleteThe thing they really got right in my mind is the look of it; aside from the Salander casting, which was pretty spot on, I thought they captured Hedestad brilliantly, if a bit rushed (I wasn't confused by the transition between it and Stockholm, for what it's worth).
In the end, I just wished that the book had been made into a miniseries that could have delved further into the Wennerstrom affair and the backstories more instead of focusing so heavily on the more actiony aspects. I'm actually looking forward to the American remake now, though, just to see what's done with the material...
Oh, and please stop the autoplay of the podcast when visiting your page. I hate it when sites play music (or similar) without my clicking on something.
ReplyDeleteHey Fletch,
ReplyDeleteGlad that you agree with me on the Dragon Tattoo (although obviously sad you didn't enjoy it that much...) The Wennerstrohm affair and the relationship with Erika & Cecilia and the general depth of detail, all bloody missing! Lisbeth is well covered but you get no sense of Blomqvist of Vanger. Hopefully the American version will get turned into a ten part mini series encompassing all three books.
I totally agree on the autoplay function, will try and persuade Simon to take it off when he returns from Prague.