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BuckminsterFievre
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Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Overrated all around
I really wanted to like this film. But it has plot holes you could fly a 747 through. The characters do completely nonsensical things. And for the love of God, if you're going to make a place a character in your movie, at least actually film it in that state. Like maybe ... I don't know ... In Bruges?
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Film noir rendered in orange tones
Having waited for what seems like a long, long time since the first trailer, this was all a bit of a slow-rolling disappointment.
There are many great parts here, but they don't seem to sum up to much of anything. Except maybe to help answer the eternal question, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
In the end, I just didn't find myself caring much about any of these characters, or about what happened to them.
As the long, long end credits rolled, I did wonder what ever happened to Vangelis, though. So there's that.
Gran Torino (2008)
Career-capping performance
In Gran Torino, Eastwood's Character, Walt Kowalski, seems to be the embodied repudiation of virtually Eastwood's entire career. Much as Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) and Flags of Our Fathers (2006) examined the impact and aftermath of war and violence from a directorial perspective, Eastwood uses his peerless acting chops in Gran Torino to examine the gunslinger approach to problem-solving and finds it lacking.
Politically, Eastwood is difficult to get a handle on. His Wikipendia entry states that Eastwood has been registered as a Republican since 1951, supported Richard Nixon in 1968 and John McCain in 2008, and was adamantly pro-business as the (largely undistinguished) mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea in the 1980s.
On the other hand, commissioner Eastwood along with Chairman Bobby Shriver (Ah-nold Schwarzenegger's brother-in-law) were instrumental in leading the California State Park and Recreation Commission in its unanimous opposition to a six-lane toll road that would have cut through San Onofre State Beach north of San Diego. Eastwood and Shriver also supported a 2006 lawsuit to block the toll road and urged the California Coastal Commission to reject the project. Given the heavy-handed tactics of the toll road proponents, it isn't hard to believe that these actions led directly to Eastwood and Shriver not being reappointed to the park commission.
What this seems to leave us is an artist who has evolved remarkably through the years. Defying Churchill's oft-quoted alleged witticism about old Liberals having no brain, Eastwood seems to have examined the butcher's bill left by his earlier work and decided that blazing through life with guns drawn just might not be the best way to conduct one's life.
I Am Legend (2007)
Um, the bridges?
I haven't been a big Will Smith fan
even if I did enjoy his MIB and Independence Day gigs.
I was also a wee bit put out about this shameless efforts to get Will's kids cast in his films. But then, virtually everyone working in film and TV these days is related to someone, someone's college roommate, or something ... aren't they? Maybe Will's up-front approach is just surprisingly honest.
Otherwise, the movie was far better than I expected. I liked the Omega Man for the sheer schlockiness of it. But Legend took the same source material, cut out the non-sense, added much scarier 'monsters', and imbued it all with actual meaning and sensitivity.
That said, can someone explain how Anna and Ethan drove on, then off, Manhattan? I mean the tunnels were flooded and the bridges were intentionally bombed to quarantine the island. Did she have a private ferry? Big water wings for the product-placed Ford SUV?
It's All About Love (2003)
Dreadful and pretentious
First, the good news. The photography and lighting are lush and beautiful. I can see why Anthony Dod Mantle got the nod for Last King of Scotland.
Otherwise, by the time the credits rolled, not only didn't I care about these characters ... I wanted to see them dead. I didn't care if they were shot, frozen to death, or died of lung cancer from the non-stop smoking.
Not bad enough? Sean Penn's part seems like it was tacked on as an afterthought. We're supposed to believe this story unfolds nearly two decades in the future ... but oddly, all the cars and clothes look like it's 2003. We're supposed to believe there are a number of clones of Claire Danes's character ... but they barely look like her. There's a global catastrophe afoot ... but it's mostly a big yawn.
In short, the entire undertaking is confused and pointless. I want these 104 minutes of my life back.