I think the last time Sophia and Kirsten made a movie together it was Virgin Suicides. And based on content, I think Virgin was a better movie.
What Sophia does well is show the grandeouse nature of the time period, poke fun at the ridiculous rituals of the royal court and portrary how Marie's less than conservative personality rubbed against the grain of the restraints and expectations of being Queen of France.
Marie, becomes wife at age 15 to the heir to the French throne. He's a shy and awkward boy who doesn't speak much to his wife or have any passions other than his key collection. Bored out of her mind, Marie finds other fun festivities to engage in, including friends that are entertaining but not approved of by the courts.
Her problems arise when the King of France dies making her queen at age 18. Not knowing how to deal with the pressures and obligations of her new status, including producing an heir to the throne, her formerly accepted fun-loving ways are shunned and then blamed for the country's economic distress.
The film was too long, even though is was visually appealling. It didn't express anything new or even pit nobleman vs peasants. There wasn't much internal tension or intrigue and the storyline lacked dialogue. It made me feel bored as, I imagine, Marie was- but I only had to watch for an hour and 1/2 and didn't have to live it.
Dunst wasn't a bad Marie based on what she had to work with, but I would prefer to see her in Interview with a Vampire again or even Spiderman.
The movie trailer made this film seem like it would be an edgy Marie Antoinette with hip music and an interesting viewpoint. But it was just a let down.
Go for the scenery, or go if you want to make out. It's kind of like a soap opera, if you miss a year or two, you still know the storyline and can catch up well before the credits.
Worth the money: $$ 1/2
Monday, October 23, 2006
Thursday, October 12, 2006
The Guardian
When will Hollywood come up with a new story? I mean, really new? Well, it's not with this movie. This is a remake of every "older experienced mentor going through a struggle teamed with a young hot shot who needs to be straightened out but they bond and become best friends, yada, yada, yada" movie ever made.
Kevin Costner plays a swimmer for the Coast Guard in this movie who should be retired but can't seem to give the life up until an accident happens. Then he takes a job as an instructor for the Coast Guard academy. He has his own rules on how to train these new, would-be swimmers. Ashton Kutcher is the hot shot swimmer ,who was recruited by every ivy league school on the planet, but decided he wanted to save lives instead. Costner runs the trainees through "real life" exercises to show them what saving lives in horrible conditions may be like. And he speaks of how one chooses, who lives and who dies on missions. Kutcher learns by trial and error what makes a good swimmer and what doesn't. And he and Costner start bonding as mentor to student and as friend to friend.
This movie reminded me of Annapolis (a carbon copy of An Officer and a Gentleman) but it's about swimmers and not soldiers. And it's reminscent of Top Gun a little bit with the struggles and lives of these poor devoted men to their jobs and not their personal relationships without the fun sound bites "I feel the need for speed" and the serenading of Kelly McGillis and other elements that made Top Gun a fun movie back in the day.
The action scenes were okay but not enough to see the movie on the big screen and pay for it. It's a rental, like G.I. Jane and other movies about the military. It's nice to see Ashton play a serious role but I'd rather see him in something a little bit crazy and out there as a departure from his partier, pretty boy, punk'd, older-woman-loving self. Not sure Hamlet would be it, but playing a total loser or someone dispictable that you wouldn't like and bring another side of himself to - his intellilect or a super emotional side or a deranged side.
Kosner wasn't great in this movie either. I loved him in No Way Out, Dances with Wolves, Tin Cup and Bull Durham. But I guess with all the replay scripts out there, he was bound to be in a movie like this. Don't do it again Kevin!
It wasn't great, it wasn't super poor, it was just kinda there like a big black hole you get sucked into despite your efforts to get free. It wasn't really entertaining but not really boring either. You knew how it was going to end but you still wanted to see the ending. Guess that's probably human nature and not a compelling script in this case.
So I'm just kind of up in the air about the movie in general. There wasn't enough depth to the characters to make you care and there wasn't enough drama or action to engage your other emotions. But if you want a real time passer that you only have to yawn at once or twice (which was sign from the Queen of England back in the day of how short your play would run) I guess this is a watchable movie.
Worth the money: $$
Kevin Costner plays a swimmer for the Coast Guard in this movie who should be retired but can't seem to give the life up until an accident happens. Then he takes a job as an instructor for the Coast Guard academy. He has his own rules on how to train these new, would-be swimmers. Ashton Kutcher is the hot shot swimmer ,who was recruited by every ivy league school on the planet, but decided he wanted to save lives instead. Costner runs the trainees through "real life" exercises to show them what saving lives in horrible conditions may be like. And he speaks of how one chooses, who lives and who dies on missions. Kutcher learns by trial and error what makes a good swimmer and what doesn't. And he and Costner start bonding as mentor to student and as friend to friend.
This movie reminded me of Annapolis (a carbon copy of An Officer and a Gentleman) but it's about swimmers and not soldiers. And it's reminscent of Top Gun a little bit with the struggles and lives of these poor devoted men to their jobs and not their personal relationships without the fun sound bites "I feel the need for speed" and the serenading of Kelly McGillis and other elements that made Top Gun a fun movie back in the day.
The action scenes were okay but not enough to see the movie on the big screen and pay for it. It's a rental, like G.I. Jane and other movies about the military. It's nice to see Ashton play a serious role but I'd rather see him in something a little bit crazy and out there as a departure from his partier, pretty boy, punk'd, older-woman-loving self. Not sure Hamlet would be it, but playing a total loser or someone dispictable that you wouldn't like and bring another side of himself to - his intellilect or a super emotional side or a deranged side.
Kosner wasn't great in this movie either. I loved him in No Way Out, Dances with Wolves, Tin Cup and Bull Durham. But I guess with all the replay scripts out there, he was bound to be in a movie like this. Don't do it again Kevin!
It wasn't great, it wasn't super poor, it was just kinda there like a big black hole you get sucked into despite your efforts to get free. It wasn't really entertaining but not really boring either. You knew how it was going to end but you still wanted to see the ending. Guess that's probably human nature and not a compelling script in this case.
So I'm just kind of up in the air about the movie in general. There wasn't enough depth to the characters to make you care and there wasn't enough drama or action to engage your other emotions. But if you want a real time passer that you only have to yawn at once or twice (which was sign from the Queen of England back in the day of how short your play would run) I guess this is a watchable movie.
Worth the money: $$
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