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Author Topic: 1990s US Bracket: Verdicts  (Read 712560 times)

pixote

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Re: 1990s US Bracket commentary
« Reply #530 on: May 24, 2008, 04:18:52 PM »
Bullets over Broadway (56) was a slight favorite over American Me (83), but nobody but me had seen American Me before the balloting, so that necessarily doesn't mean a whole lot.

American Me becomes my fourth 'film to fight for' to go down to defeat in the first round.  Only one has advanced so far (Three Kings).  That leaves me four more chances for heartbreak (the tenth film, King of the Hill, having never made it into the bracket).  :'(

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facedad

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Re: 1990s US Bracket commentary
« Reply #531 on: May 24, 2008, 04:21:14 PM »
Bullets over Broadway (56) was a slight favorite over American Me (83), but nobody but me had seen American Me before the balloting, so that necessarily doesn't mean a whole lot.

American Me becomes my fourth 'film to fight for' to go down to defeat in the first round.  Only one has advanced so far (Three Kings).  That leaves me four more chances for heartbreak (the tenth film, King of the Hill, having never made it into the bracket).  :'(

pixote
You have chosen my film over pixote's. Bravo. Now me and pix are gonna go fight in secret.
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pixote

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Re: 1990s US Bracket commentary
« Reply #532 on: May 24, 2008, 04:22:58 PM »
I'm counting on kw to avenge this defeat.  :P

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facedad

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Re: 1990s US Bracket commentary
« Reply #533 on: May 24, 2008, 05:04:27 PM »
I don't know why I even bothered to put this off.

The English Patient vs. Jackie Brown

The English Patient
Major Flaws: By far the biggest flaw was that I found Fiennes and Thomas' love story uninteresting and completely unsympathetic. I really could've used the percentages of minutes given to each of the two stories to be reversed. I am shocked that this one so many technical awards. The editing (both sound and visual) was fine and the cinematography was pretty enough to call it such but neither was remarkable or noteworthy. Is that really a problem? Well, if you don't care about the prevailing story, then the visuals must become paramount and they just weren't there. On top of that, I thought the pacing was poor, particularly in the early section before we are supposed to know that the patient is Almasy. Really, is it really a mystery? If you ever wonder why casting stars is not always the best idea, try creating a mystery around which character your scarred central character correlates to and then try slipping Ralph Fiennes by me. He is the patient as long as they don't kill him off before the events of the patient. The mystery never comes close to working and taking your time revealing just pushed me away from this film before the end of the first act. So from here, I had another 2 hours to deal with. I'll stop here, and I haven't even mentioned the myriad of political/ideological issues I have with it.

Major Attributes: I really liked Naveen Andrews in particular and his story with Binoche as a whole. Also, if their story had been the majority of the film, I would be able to say the cinematography was quite nice. But I can't. Also, the Colin Firth thing that Firth does worked pretty well here. Sorry, that's it.

Jackie Brown
Major Flaws: Well, I really like Elmore Leonard in film (apparently) but I do feel that sometimes I see his dialogue a bit more than the attempt at verisimilitude would wish I did. I wish Chris Tucker didn't draw so much damn attention to himself as a real person rather than a character (not that him being unendingly annoying wasn't helpful here). It didn't have as much going on in the cinematography as say Out of Sight did and I was disappointed in how pedestrian the look of it was.

Major Attributes: It's hard, in my opinion, for actors to fail when given broad caricatures and no one does here. I think Pam Grier did well in trying to play against her own persona from the 70s while also attempting a sense of the believable, but she wasn't great. It didn't really occur to me initially, but the fact that I bought Forester wholesale, as if he was a real-life bondsman hired to act, is a pretty good indication of his deft work here. Everyone else worked in their roles and entertained me (even if De Niro bothered me slightly). I really thought the editing here, unlike The English Patient, was a huge plus to the film and really controlled the release of a story which was just as long as Minghella's film but never dragged in the least and doled out installments that felt individually satisfying as the build to the whole. The space was controlled with the cuts, keeping the viewer moving through the sets and actively engaged in the storyline in as much as it should. To be more succinct, the editing always maintained the camera's perspective in a position that cooperated with the telling of the narrative. In addition to everything above and a few things not mentioned, this was also vastly entertaining.

Verdict: I won't explain myself, as most of you knew beforehand how this would go down. I'll just say this, really consider before you resurrect The English Patient Sean, because not only did it pale in comparison to Jackie Brown, but it was just a pretty mediocre film on its own.

Jackie Brown will fly again.
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pixote

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Re: 1990s US Bracket commentary
« Reply #534 on: May 24, 2008, 05:07:42 PM »
Alligator!

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facedad

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Re: 1990s US Bracket commentary
« Reply #535 on: May 24, 2008, 05:09:35 PM »
Alligator!

pixote
I think he'd take that as a compliment.
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pixote

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Re: 1990s US Bracket commentary
« Reply #536 on: May 24, 2008, 05:14:57 PM »
And, to be clear, that's how I mean it.  (I'm a big fan of Jackie Brown, and felt it was correctly seeded at #8, while The English Patient also deserved its #131 seed.)

pixote
« Last Edit: May 24, 2008, 05:21:47 PM by pixote »
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sdedalus

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Re: 1990s US Bracket commentary
« Reply #537 on: May 24, 2008, 06:32:19 PM »
Alligator?
The End of Cinema

Seattle Screen Scene

"He was some kind of a man. What does it matter what you say about people?"

pixote

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Re: 1990s US Bracket commentary
« Reply #538 on: May 24, 2008, 07:55:20 PM »
I believe it was Robert Forster's role in the John Sayles-scripted 80s classic Alligator that really brought him to Tarantino's attention.



He flushes his daughter's baby pet alligator down the toilet.  It doesn't stay a baby for long.

pixote
« Last Edit: May 24, 2008, 07:59:57 PM by pixote »
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sdedalus

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Re: 1990s US Bracket commentary
« Reply #539 on: May 24, 2008, 08:28:38 PM »
Nice.
The End of Cinema

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"He was some kind of a man. What does it matter what you say about people?"

 

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