It had been near forever and a day since last I spoke about some fil-lums I seen. So let's do this.
I am unsure if Michel Gondry will ever make a film that even approaches Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I haven't seen all of his stuff, dude makes a bunch of stuff, but I'm talking mainly about his feature films. His Hollywood feature films. Cuz Be Kind Rewind was not good. It had about half an hour of really good stuff in it, all the home-made/hand-made stuff. The rest was piffle.
The Green Hornet is maybe a bit better. Trade out Jack Black falling back on the most annoying of his schtick with Seth Rogen and his most annoying schtick. I like Rogen most of the time, but I pretty much hated his character by the end of this film. I know his incompetence and self-centerdeness are supposed to be played for laughs, but it just stopped being funny.
Kato never stopped being awesome And the film is at its best when he is on screen. The action scenes are the only time this film ever truly feels like it has a bit of life to it. The script is poorly paced and goes on for too long, and Gondry just lets it happen.
I am disappoint.
Not at all disappointed by True Grit. Not at all. I want to read the book to see which version is closer, as they end quite differently. Which could be due to the fact that the John Wayne True Grit is the story of the story, whereas this new one is the story of he girl. She narrates it, it is told from her perspective. So the two versions hit many of the same beats, but each has its own feel. And I like the feel of the Cohens' version better.
Right from the very first shot. I love that first shot. And the last shot. There are some good ones in between, too.
The earlier True Grit was not an ugly film by any stretch, but this new one... I just like how the Cohens see things. And I like Jeff Bridges, I like Matt Damon (whereas I can understand why people would prefer the Duke's version of Rooster, I cannpt comprehend how anyone could not prefer Damon's Texas Ranger), I like every damn body in here.
So yeah, Tue Grit is awesome and I hope it comes out as a double feature when it comes out on video.
I waited to long to blog about the moving pictures and some of them have done moved clear out my head.
