April 27th, 2005 at 10:14 am (Movie News, Trailers)
This morning the Serenity movie Fan Site, Browncoats posted a news announcement for a special advanced screening of an unfinished version of the movie in select cities. The Portland screening sold out within a few hours of being posted, sorry local fans, but other shows might still have tickets available. If you attend one, comment on this post and let us know how it went (but please no spoilers).
April 26th, 2005 at 5:20 pm (Trailers)
There is reason to be excited. Today at 3:00pm the Apple Trailers posted the much anticipated Serenity Trailer. For any who may have missed it, Serenity (2005) is the movie adaptation of the superb but short lived TV show “Firefly” (2002) created by master writer Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), Toy Story (1995), “Angel” (1999/I)). Firefly was taken off the air before it completed its first season but the series has an avid fan following and is among my favorite TV shows. If you missed the show I very much recommend picking up the series on DVD or even better: if you live in Portland OR like I do put a hold request for it at the Multnomah County Library.
April 20th, 2005 at 11:07 am (5 - Whoa!)
Having been a big fan of Frank Miller for many years it was with great anticipation that I waited for the cinematic adaptation of the Sin City comic series. Robert Rodriguez‘ assertions that he intended to be true to the original work allayed fears I had of a Hollywoodization of the moody story. As behind the scenes footage and trailers began to make their appearance a new fear developed that the story might be lost as it was embalmed under layers of stylistic CG effects. The movie thankfully escapes this tar pit and delivers a fun and beautiful show that should meet the expectations of both casual watchers and die hard fans.
Many people have asked me for my opinion of the movie, either to match notes or because they were trying to gauge whether to go see it themselves. I found myself repeating two statements that I think relay the nature of the film:
1. This is one of the most accurate and honest movie adaptations of a book I have seen.
2. Anyone who has not read the books is warned that they are very violent as is the movie. To quote my friend Sean:
“Saying that Sin City is kind of violent is like saying that the Care Bears Movie (1985) is kind of cute”.
To be more detailed, if any of you remember the scene from “The Hard Goodbye” where Marv casually drives down the street while holding a guy’s face down on the pavement: yup, it’s in there.
You have been warned.
I have heard some people complain that the stories are misogynistic and cliché. This seems and odd criticism to me since Sin City (2005) is based on (and at times a send up of) the old pulp-noir novels. Of course they are misogynistic and cliché. Realize that, and enjoy the extreme sex, extreme violence and extreme cool that the book/movie captures with such beauty and style.
A turnoff for me was the unevenness of the acting. Most of the roles were spot-on, a testament to the actors and more so to the director and casting agent that got talent like Benicio Del Toro in for Jackie Boy, Mickey Rourke in for Marv, Clive Owen in for Dwight or my favorite surprise of the movie Elijah Wood nailing the silent psycho Kevin. I was however rather disappointed with the wooden performance Jessica Alba gave as Nancy, a character that seems to be following the script and little more. Bruce Willis also at times failed to convince as Hartigan, the aging cop trying to survive long enough to ‘do the right thing’. This is a minor complaint though, there was nothing bad about their work, I just felt it somehow could have been better.
I was careful not to let the anticipation for Sin City built up to the point where it could not be met. I was very happy with the movie and recommend it to anyone who is “into that kind of thing” (if you prefer the Care Bears, give this one a skip). I am also happy to retain some happy anticipation as the forthcoming Sin City DVD is expected to include the full versions of “The Hard Goodbye”, “The Big Fat Kill” and “That Yellow Bastard” which were edited down to make them fit into a theatrical time. Even better, Rodriguez and Miller have said they would like to make more movies and eventually adapt the full series.
Previously on GeekRoar.com: