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Poll

Your Favorite Steven Soderbergh Film Is:

sex, lies, and videotape
10 (8.2%)
Kafka
0 (0%)
King of the Hill
3 (2.5%)
Underneath
1 (0.8%)
Gray's Anatomy
0 (0%)
Schizopolis
2 (1.6%)
Out of Sight
26 (21.3%)
The Limey
6 (4.9%)
Erin Brockovich
5 (4.1%)
Traffic
27 (22.1%)
Ocean's Eleven
21 (17.2%)
Full Frontal
1 (0.8%)
Solaris
2 (1.6%)
Ocean's Twelve
0 (0%)
Bubble
2 (1.6%)
The Good German
0 (0%)
Ocean's Thirteen
0 (0%)
haven't seen any
1 (0.8%)
don't like any
7 (5.7%)
Che
1 (0.8%)
The Girlfriend Experience
2 (1.6%)
The Informant!
3 (2.5%)
And Everything Is Going Fine
1 (0.8%)
Contagion
1 (0.8%)
Haywire
0 (0%)
Magic Mike
0 (0%)
Behind the Candelabra
0 (0%)
Side Effects
0 (0%)
Logan Lucky
0 (0%)
Unsane
0 (0%)
High Flying Bird
0 (0%)
The Laundromat
0 (0%)
Let Them All Talk
0 (0%)
No Sudden Move
0 (0%)
Kimi
0 (0%)
Magic Mike's Last Dance
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 119

Author Topic: Soderbergh, Steven  (Read 22274 times)

1SO

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Re: Directors Best Poll #11 - Steven Soderbergh
« Reply #110 on: June 29, 2012, 02:20:25 PM »
Haywire
* *

While better than The Informer, Soderbergh once again gets in his own way, trying too hard to be different and only proving why some tested formulas (like music during the action) enriches the experience. The deer is an original touch, but what effect does it create in the viewer? It's a surprise, but also a distraction. A real 'WTF?' moment. Soderbergh just doesn't seem all that excited to make an action movie, and in the end he's even tired of watching Gina Carano fight. The bathroom fight is all close-ups and the beach climax is silhouetted to death. I'm guessing the last choice was to hide how outclassed Ewen McGregor is. A good story would've built him up as a potential threat, but every time he gets a hit in on Carano I'm thinking "if she's so good, why does she leave herself open so much?"

Coming the same year as The Raid. I had different problems with that, but at least I believed in the brutal skill of the fighters. I would more easily believe if you told me Gina Carano was a dancer and not an MMA fighter. She hits her marks, but her punches rarely land with force. (A couple of shots miss by a good distance.) Then there's the acting, where Carano is asked to do very little besides glower. She has no chemistry with the camera. No star quality. (Compare her to Zoe Bell.) Soderbergh tries to do something fresh with the genre, but with her he's just trying to get to the ending. How can you defend a film where Soderbergh has her stare at the camera and growl out "you better run"?

The best things about Haywire are the score and Soderbergh's cinematography. He's really the master of yellow-tinted images. (His blue is also excellent.) I kind of wish he'd stop directing for a few years and work as a cinematographer full-time.

¡Keith!

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Re: Directors Best Poll #11 - Steven Soderbergh
« Reply #111 on: June 29, 2012, 03:57:55 PM »
tested formulas
story
star quality

Quote from: 1SO
we don't like movies for the same reason

 ;D

1SO

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Re: Directors Best Poll #11 - Steven Soderbergh
« Reply #112 on: June 29, 2012, 04:13:31 PM »
first of all it's "proving why some tested formulas (like music during the action) enriches the experience" meaning Soderbergh's approach manages to be even worse than the norm. Different does not automatically equal good and what he does here is worse than if he'd done nothing at all.

As for story and star quality, I'll take them over the alternative almost every time.
« Last Edit: June 29, 2012, 04:15:09 PM by 1SO »

spoko

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Re: Directors Best Poll #11 - Steven Soderbergh
« Reply #113 on: June 29, 2012, 04:18:25 PM »
Aaaaaaaaamen.

¡Keith!

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Re: Directors Best Poll #11 - Steven Soderbergh
« Reply #114 on: June 29, 2012, 04:19:13 PM »
Oh I know, I've read/heard enough of your thoughts on what yr looking for in a film. I'm just not interested in plotting, character, story or star quality all that much.

1SO

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Re: Directors Best Poll #11 - Steven Soderbergh
« Reply #115 on: June 29, 2012, 04:54:02 PM »
Interesting that your Favorite movie is also The Godfather, which means we like that film for different reasons, yet we agree it's the best.

shuabert

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Re: Directors Best Poll #11 - Steven Soderbergh
« Reply #116 on: June 30, 2012, 10:13:18 AM »
Soderbergh just doesn't seem all that excited to make an action movie, and in the end he's even tired of watching Gina Carano fight.

While I liked the film more than you, this was my biggest problem with it.

¡Keith!

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Re: Directors Best Poll #11 - Steven Soderbergh
« Reply #117 on: June 30, 2012, 12:32:55 PM »
Interesting that your Favorite movie is also The Godfather, which means we like that film for different reasons, yet we agree it's the best.

Hmm, good point - its hard to argue with the things you fell in love with at 11 years old though. I wonder what my reaction would be if I saw it for the first time only now.

¡Keith!

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Re: Directors Best Poll #11 - Steven Soderbergh
« Reply #118 on: June 30, 2012, 12:37:58 PM »
Soderbergh just doesn't seem all that excited to make an action movie, and in the end he's even tired of watching Gina Carano fight.

While I liked the film more than you, this was my biggest problem with it.

See I don't see it that way - he's playing up the inherent boredom of the genre fight, travel, fight, travel... thats why the film ends on the ellipsis that it does, this cycle won't change, and it IS boring - Matt Damon did the same thing for three movies! Soderbergh is commenting on the tedious nature of this exercise.

spoko

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Re: Directors Best Poll #11 - Steven Soderbergh
« Reply #119 on: July 01, 2012, 10:15:34 PM »
Soderbergh just doesn't seem all that excited to make an action movie, and in the end he's even tired of watching Gina Carano fight.

While I liked the film more than you, this was my biggest problem with it.

See I don't see it that way - he's playing up the inherent boredom of the genre fight, travel, fight, travel... thats why the film ends on the ellipsis that it does, this cycle won't change, and it IS boring - Matt Damon did the same thing for three movies! Soderbergh is commenting on the tedious nature of this exercise.

Of all possible explanations, that is the lamest.
« Last Edit: July 02, 2012, 07:17:27 AM by spoko »

 

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