Johnny Simmons: Russel Crow

Showing posts with label Russel Crow. Show all posts

Thursday, 3 June 2010

Robin Hood

0 comments Posted by 2011 at 00:59

After the jury began splitting over the goodness (or terribleness) of Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood I began wondering just what I was expecting when I listed it as my #4 most anticipated film of the year. sure, I’m enamoured with Miss Blanchett (who isn’t) and though I’d say that Crowe has been snubbed by awards too often in recent years I don’t particularly love him. True, I did read the original script for the then titled Nottingham but with all the changes made that was an entirely different beast. Naturally I was disappointed with the tepid response, thus my expectations were somewhat lowered. I expected less and watching Robin Hood I got less.

Half an hour into Robin Hood two things truck me. The first was more obvious, I was feeling bored. However, more than this, I found myself remembering a book on screenwriting I’d read a few years ago. Sid Field had said that it’s always good to have a back-story to your screenplay so you’d know what happened to the characters just before the credits roll. She went on to say that sometimes writers like their back-stories so much they end up using it as part of the screenplay. Herein lies one of Robin Hood’s earliest issues. Screenwriter Brian Helgeland seems to be altogether too fond of his work and he chooses to open the movie forty minutes before it actually begins. It’s not that the running time is outrageous, but it feels like a chore. Note, I watched this the same day as the 190 minute Doctor Zhivago (my review), and I didn’t look at my watch once during that one. Even more he has a tendency to write some blandly expository dialogue that even Cate Blanchett (she thrives on those exposition passages usually) falters at times. It’s actually what does in Oscar Isaac who I was impressed with in Agora. Ridley Scott, or Helgeland or maybe Isaac himself seem so enamoured with making John a lascivious villain that he spends half the film shouting inane lines in a VERY LOUD VOICE. Pass.

And yet, don’t think I’m trashing Robin Hood because as it picks up I find myself charmed by its machinations. I’ve heard more than a few persons recognise Scott’s skill with battles, but I’d have preferred if he’d tried to make Robin Hood an introspective character study than an amalgamation of what we’ve seen before. The entire point of rebooting the series depends on it offering something different. Hence, it’s the new portrayal of Maid Marian that stands out in this incarnation. Yes, I am unfairly biased to Cate. It is what it is, but it’s a register that I like her in. She’s not as irrepressible as Kate or formidable as Elizabeth, but the toned down but nonetheless strong woman is something she plays excellently. It’s not her best, by any means, but her decision to show bits of emotion at the strangest parts turns her Marian into the most realistic portrayal of the film. Sure, it ends with a somewhat misguided monologue from her but the almost chaste attraction between Hood and Marian work. Marian is past her prime, and more than a heated romance she wants a man she can finally depend on and stand by. Thus Ridley’s decision, to make it less about the physical and more about the intellectual, works for me.

More than any film Robin Hood thrives with the promise of what could have been…but I’ll put the possibilities out of my mind. Robin Hood is imperfect, but in its own way it was divertingly charming. Certainly not the comeback Scott and Crowe were looking for, and after a year and a half without Cate I’m unsatisfied. Still, they could do worse. I came in expecting less, but I didn't get nothing.

B- [almost a C+, but not quite]

Wednesday, 13 January 2010

Anticipating 2010: Part 4

0 comments Posted by 2011 at 05:47

So after Parts One, Two and Three I'm finally read to unveil the ten films I'm anticipating the most for 2010. I suppose many weren't all too pleased with 2009. I've not decided as yet, though they were not the decade's worst. But with a new decade beginning I hope 2010 impresses more than it disappoints. These are the ten films that have had be salivating for quite some time.

#10 Inception

I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest Nolan fan although the sheer bravura of The Prestige, as imperfect as it was, left me convinced that he could do great things. Sure this has Leonardo DiCaprio and Marion Cotillard [in what's probably a small role]; but I'm not certain if this is going to be that film that makes me love him. I really don't know much about this film, other than it's scientifically charged plotwise, and involves a ton of blackmail. That's not much to go on, but I'll see how it goes.

#9 The Kids Are Alright

Julianne Moore and Annette Bening star as lesbian lovers with two children. When the sperm donor father enters the picture, drama ensues, naturally. Seeing Julianne and Annette play off each other could be something especial. I’ve been wanting Mark Ruffalo to get some love for some time now. After his eclectic turn in You Can Count On Me he’s showed up doing underrated work in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac and Reservation Road. Hopefully this doesn’t become too generic. I have high hopes.

#8 Never Let Me Go

Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley [two of the Bennett sisters] star is this supernatural drama, based on a somewhat acclaimed novel. The story centres on a group of English friends who find out that the exclusive private school which they attend is simply a front for harvesting organs. It does sound a bit like The Island, but I'm still expecting this to be good. It will be nice to see Keira and Carey team up again with Sally Hawkins in a small role.

# 7 Mother & Child

Here it is, another Annette Bening piece. Naomi Watts, Kerry Washington and Samuel Jackson. The drama surrounds a woman [Bening] searching for the daughter she gave up for adoptions decades ago. Washington co-stars as a woman searching for a child to adopt. This was screened to good reviews last year and though I don’t want to jinx her [again] notices predicted an Oscar showing for Ms. Warren Beatty herself. I’ll see what happens. Still, regardless of whether or not Oscar recognises this. I’m keeping my eye on it.

#6 Death Hallows I

This is pure fanboy. I tried to adjust and adjust, but it ends up in my top ten because regardless of the quality I am dying to see this. I’ve read the book so much that my hardcover copy is becoming tattered. I mean, I hate to sound like a nerd, but I’m just way too excited for this. I hope that they finally give Rupert Grint something notable to do than just act as some sort of inane form of comic relief.

#5 Alice In Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland is one of the most original, entreating but simultaneously thought provoking. I have to admit that the previous live action version was a guilty pleasure, and with all his broodiness and his macabre self I can’t resist Tim Burton. Sure, I love him more when he’s toned down [Big Fish] but I love him any way. Helena Bonham Carter as The Red Queen is the type of wonderful casting that’s just scintillating. This looks like it’s going to be the most entertaining movie experience of the year to come.

#4 Robin Hood

Cate Blanchett and Russell Crow are a duo I would pay good money to see. The Aussies. Ridley Scott is an underrated director who has yet to win an Oscar. I warrant it won’t be for this, but I’m all ready to see a new incarnation of Robin Hood. It’s anyone’s guess if it’ll be able to combat with Errol Flynn/Olivia de Havilland, but visually thus far it look satisfying and my anticipating will remain untempered until I see it.

#3 Rabbit Hole

This film is important because it marks the return of Nicole Kidman to cinema. Not that Nine wasn’t cinema, but it wasn’t a lead role. Aaron Eckhart and Nicole Kidman star as a husband and wife who cope with the death of her child. Perhaps, that alone sounds generic – but adapted from a Award winning play [which earned Cynthia Nixon a Tony]: I don't think so. Diane Wiest costars as her mother with Sandra Oh and Tammy Blanchard in supporting roles.

#2 Shutter Island

This was actually coasting along as my number one for some time until…My reasons for anticipating this are multitudinous. Scorsese and DiCaprio have impressed me three times in the last decade, add that to Michelle Williams – whom I like, though I didn’t like her Brokeback turn, Emily Mortimer [underrated in Match Point], Mark Ruffalo [underrated in everything he does], the wonderful Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley and you have what looks like one hell of cast. Scorsese is one of those directors that just work for me, and the chances are that I’m going to like what he does. I’m just not sure if I’m going to love it or worship it.

#1 The King’s Speech

Helena Bonham Carter and Colin Firth star as the parents of Queen Elizabeth II, Michael Gambon, Geoffrey Rush, Timothy Spall and Guy Pearce costar. The film centres on George VI, who in the 1940’s has developed a nervous stutter. With the help of unorthodox speech therapist [Rush] who helps to work on the “king’s speech’, George eventually loses the stutter leading his country through the horrid 1940s. It’s a weird premise, duly noted. But the film’s cast is top notch – Helena Bonham Carter in particular needs a good role. And the director Tom Hooper won an Emmy for his adaptation of the first Elizabeth’s life. It’s being distributed by the Weinstein Company who are probably hoping for Oscar love, which I am too actually. I suppose it’s a weird choice for my number one, but I have really high hopes for this – obviously.

So were there any surprises? I'll be back with the performances I'm looking forward to.

Thursday, 17 December 2009

2003: The Acting: …Then the Men

0 comments Posted by 2011 at 04:02

So now it's on to the men. I suppose my picks are just about as strange as the men, but I stand by choices especially in the Supporting Actor category that was royally f***ed up. Okay not quite, but still - just saying...

Supporting Actor

Tier Three
Kevin Bacon, Mystic River
Billy Crudup, Big Fish
Djimon Honsou, In America
Derek Luke, Pieces of April
Viggo Mortenson, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Okay Viggo had done his best work of the trilogy in the second installment, but they could have thrown him a bone. I can't be too pissed at Honsou's nomination, I like him, but I really wasn't all that blown away. And what made Bacon's work in Mystic River so unimportant?

Tier Two
Sean Astin, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Alec Baldwin, The Cooler
Ian McKellen, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Cold Mountain
Cillian Murphy, Girl With a Pearl Earring
I really was not heavy on Oscar buzz back in 2003, but I remember loads of people predicting Sean Astin. For the record I was not a fan of Sam, but damn he carried Frodo up the freakin' mountain and you can't even give him some love. Astin is really good here, depressing, but good. Cillian Murphy was one of the few things I could tolerate in Girl With a Pearl Earring, he is desperately in need of a good role. They could even have thrown a second nomination to Gandalf. Perhaps Hoffman wasn't any good in Cold Mountain. But then again, nah.

The Nominees
Billy Boyd, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Benicio Del Toro, 21 Grams

Albert Finney, Big Fish
David Hyde Pierce, Down With Love

Tim Robbins, Mystic River

So two Oscar nominees are here, and three performances that were thoroughly overlooked. I guess my one and two would be Robbins and Del Toro [in that order], they were amazing – I’ve said it before. As I’ve said that Albert Finney, my third choice, was good. Boyd was always my favourite of the hobbits, and his Pippin in this third film was perfect. Of the hobbits, he did the most growing and it was a great performance. Hyde Pierce had amazing comedic timing in the under loved Down With Love.

The Actors

Tier Three
Anthony Hopkins, The Human Stain
Tommy Lee Jones, Missing
Tobey MaGuire, Seabiscuit
Ewan McGregor, Down With Love
Jack Nicholson, Something’s Gotta Give
I probably should rewatch The Human Stain. I don't remember it fondly, but I do remember it with some respect. . McGregor and Tommy Lee Jones are the best of this lot...Ewan just had a great year and yet he was ignored like nobody's business. Gah!

Tier Two
Collin Farrell, Phone Booth
Russell Crow, Master & Commander
Ben Kingsley, House of Sand & Fog
William H. Macy, The Cooler
Sean Penn, 21 Grams
Am I crazy with the love for Farrell? It's so weird how Russell picked up almost no traction - they've really fallen out of love with him. Sean Penn is someone else who had quite a year. Luckily they rewarded him for Mystic River. Not that 21 Grams would have been undeserving, but it would have been way too predictable. Kingsley was good of course, hr just didn't make my top 5.

The Nominees
Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of Black Pearl

Jude Law, Cold Mountain

Ewan McGregor, Big Fish
Bill Murray, Lost in Translation

Sean Penn, Mystic River

Well this is pretty easy. Sure Penn and Law battle it out and no one's a winner,because I'm a coward. Ewan gives his best performance that no one seems to care about in Big Fish, so do Depp and Murray actually but people take notice of them. Altogether, it was a very good year for the men - but damn them for not even taking a look at Ewan. Ugh. Fail.

So what are your thoughts? McGregor, Law, Penn, Penn. Or, Robbins, Del Toro, Finney?

Wednesday, 29 April 2009

2000-2009 THE BEST IN SHOW The Gentlemen

0 comments Posted by 2011 at 11:43

The last ten years in film have been good. Let’s look at the Actors who helped. It’s more or less the usual suspects. I think I need to single out the following who did not make the list – Paul Giamati (Sideways/Cinderella Man), Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain, The Dark Knight), Christian Bale (American Psycho, The Dark Knight, The Prestige), Jack Nicholson (The Departed, About Schmidt) and Ralph Fiennes (The Reader, The Constant Gardener). Brad Pitt was the runner up (Babel, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Oceans’ Eleven, The Assassination of Jesse James) and Benicio Del Toro (Traffic, 21 Grams) and Tom Wilkinson (In the Bedroom, Michael Clayton) barely missed it. Sorry, but it's only nine...

Jude Law - #9
Jude Law is my favourite living male British actor. He gave great performances in AI: Artificial Intelligence, and The Road to Perdition. He then gave a poignant performance as Inman in 2003’s Cold Mountain (Lead Actor nomination – Oscar) followed by an undervalued performance in Closer the next year. That same year he was also rewarded as an ensemble(SAG nod) for being a member of my favourite cast that year The Aviator. I heard that he may be coming to Broadway soon with his acclaimed portrayal of Hamlet, so maybe he could conquer the stage before returning to the screen to win his Oscar – sometime. He’s going to win eventually… right?

Russell Crow - #8
Crow won his first Oscar for his performance in Gladiator at the turn of the millennium then and was nominated the next year for A Beautiful Mind, which I still believe to be the best performance of that year, even though I was not a fan of the movie. His performance in Master & Commander and Cinderella Man were both Oscar worthy and he also gave a solid performance in American Gangster. I wonder if he will ever get that second Oscar. I don’t think it’s going to be for Nottingham – but who knows?

Ed Harris - # 7
Is this nepotism? Of course it is. It’s my list after all. In 2000 he directed and starred in Pollock earning a Best Actor nod – the second best of the year as far as I was concerned. Then he gave the best supporting performance in The Hours (Oscar nomination), but he was snubbed. He also gave solid performances in A Beautiful Mind and particularly in A History of Violence. He needs to get back to work and get that damned Oscar. It’s about time!

Johnny Depp - #6
He has become a star. From Chocolat, to The Pirates of the Caribbean (Oscar nomination) and its sequels, Finding Neverland (Oscar nomination) and Sweeney Todd (Oscar nomination) he has done well for himself. Some even call him the most due actor for an Oscar. I won’t go that far. But he is a cool guy. I don’t think Public Enemies is going to win him that Oscar – but it’s forthcoming. I think.

Philip Seymour Hoffman - #5
After years of being a character actor I gained respect for him in Cold Mountain where he managed to do some scene stealing opposite Jude Law. No awards buzz came until 2005 when he won the Oscar for Capote. He was nominated in 2007 for Charlie Wilson’s War, a year filled with great performances from him – Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead and his terribly comedic work as the best thing in The Savages. Last year he got nominated for his work in Doubt. Hoffman is also a stalwart on the Broadway stage. He deserves all the respect he gets. I wonder when he’ll get Oscar number two…

Sean Penn - #4
Which was the better performance? Mystic River or 21 Grams. Penn won the Oscar for the former and countless awards for the latter. 2003 was a good year for him. And last year he joined the elite club of actors with two lead Oscars for his turn in Milk. Along with Kate Winslet he has managed to gain awards’ nods after All the Kings Men. I’m waiting for Jude Law, Patricia Clarkson and Anthony Hopkins.

Daniel Day Lewis - #3
This was a tough one to have him so low. Is he the best working actor right now? Maybe. He was robbed of the Oscar for his astounding performance in Gangs of New York which earned him an Oscar nod. He then gave another riveting performance that earned him his second Oscar in 2007 in There Will Be Blood. He’s set to star in Nine this year, and I’m looking forward to that. After playing so many terrorising characters it will be nice to see him play nice!

Javier Bardem - # 2
He gave the best performance of 2000 in Before Night Falls (Oscar nomination), gave another spellbinding performance in The Sea Inside and then won his Oscar for No Country For Old Men. His commendable performance in Love in the Time of Cholera went unnoticed, but his performance in Vicky Cristina Barcelona earned a Golden Globe nod. I love this guy. I can’t wait to see what he does next!

Leonardo DiCaprio - #1
There wasn’t really any contemplation as to who would get this spot. He started his love affair with Martin Scorsese in Gangs of New York in a very undervalued performance. That year he also gave a good performance in Catch Me If You Can. He earned his second Oscar nomination for the best of the year performance he gave in The Aviator. Then his astounding performance in The Departed went unnoticed by the Oscars – despite SAG and Golden Globe nod. He was nominated for Blood Diamond – another good performance. He then gave his career best in Revolutionary Road – the best of the year I believe. He failed to even garner a Oscar nod – but that’s all blood under the bridge. It’s time to look ahead to his next date with Scorsese. Is it finally time for Oscar to come a knocking? F*** Yeah! Excuse my French.

Johnny Simmons