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gelbes_gilatierBecause instead of looking for job ads, I decided to do a movie review... well, two actually. Since ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
schnelmi is here on vacation I went to the cinema twice in one week. I really only go to the cinema very rarely because usually mom doesn't want to watch in English and I can bring myself only very rarely to watching them in German because for seven years I lived in a city where the only cinema you could watch movies in English was a tiny independent cinema... and when I go to the movies I want the big screen, not a screen that could fit into my living room... and I also have a totally unintellectual taste when it comes to movies I watch at the cinema (seriously, what do I need the big screen for psychological dramas or some independent movie everyone claims to find groundbreaking and no one really understands but would never admit to it?). When I go to the cinema, I want explosions, battle scenes, good looking half-naked men fighting... all the good stuff, you know?
Anyway, what I wanted to say: for seven years I lived in a city where I had to watch all the movies in German if I wanted to see them on the big screen... so now that I moved back to Berlin where we have the wonderful, wonderful Cinestar Original multiplex at Potsdamer Platz I just feel like it would be a waste of time and money not to use that and still go to see movies in German... but mom usually disagrees. However,schnelmi and I actually managed to trick her twice into accompanying us to a movie in English (apparently, letting her watch the first two Merlin seasons in English helped a lot in that) and here's what we watched:
#1 Robin Hood:
Yes, the one by Ridley Scott. Yes, the one with Russel Crowe and Cate Blanchett. Yes, the one that's kinda like a reboot to the whole Robin Hood myth (what's with Hollywood rebooting everything they can put their hands on recently, huh?). I didn't have bit expectations because I only knew Ridley Scott tried his hand at Robin Hood and Russel Crowe and Cate Blanchett were his leads and thatheitidei was over the moon because she's a real Robin Hood nut and desperately wanted to see it.
So when the movie began, I was kinda "What the... not Jerusalem? Every Robin Hood movie starts in Jerusalem. Why the hell are they in France?" but I forgot about my initial slight irritation because OMG RUSSEL CROWE. Seriously, I never heard his real voice before and the first word he said put me in a total voice coma (only rivaled by the one I go into when listening to Kavan Smith in Impressions)... and besides that battle was finest of the finest. State of the art middle ages dirty, gritty, bloody battle with guys cursing, arrows soaring, some derring-do... oh yeah, I loved that. Absolutely hand-made and honest.
Also, as we later found out, beginning the movie in France with the battle where Richard Lionheart fell is much more realistic and historically correct than the usual Jerusalem-stuff. I liked that. I also liked it that Robin isn't the noble knight Robin of Locksley but the common archer Robin Longstride at the beginning. He drinks, he swears, he gambles... and he meets Little John and the rest of the Merry Men in the army, not back in England (they still do that fight thing, though... God, I loved that!). He's also... well... a deserter who, after interrupting an ambush at the party of knights that was supposed to bring the dead king's crown back to England, is practically forced to impersonate a nobleman - Robert of Locksley - and bring the crown back in his stead.
I actually liked the idea of making Robin much less of a shining hero and rather turn him into a commoner who's pretty reluctant to take on the role of a nobleman because let's face it; it's much more realistic anyway. I also liked it that Robin deceives Prince John and Queen Mother Eleonore of Aquitaine (who actually want to be deceived... they never even question his identity) but reveals that he's not Robert of Locksley to Locksley's widow Marian and his father, Walter of Locksley right from the beginning and isn't exactly thrilled at the idea of Walter to impersonate Robert of Locksley just for a little while longer so they have some help in fending off the Crown's tax collectors.
After that, we get a nice winded story about French intrigue to conquer a land weakened by the death of a king and the inability of his succesor (which is actually more or less historically correct, even if mom wouldn't believe it at first) and also the story of a fatherless commoner learning about his heritage (yes, I mean Robin) and the tentative love story of two strangers having to find their way in a rough world (yes, I mean Robin and Marian). I guess you're wondering "But where's the forest in all of that? And the sheriff? And the stealing from the rich and giving to the poor?" now and hey, I'd been wondering that as well... almost until the end when - after winning against the French invaders with the help of Robin -Prince King John breaks his promise and outlaws Robin out of pure spite and personal vanity. Because, you know, that's when they're in the forest and poaching the king's deer etcblahblahblah. Et voila, reboot of the Robin Hood myth.
Lots of people didn't really like that about the movie but to be honest: I did. I liked it that Scott gave Robin a different backstory and made him rougher and less of an overconfident cocky brat (although Russel Crowe did give him just enough cocky tendencies to make me all gooey inside... "Ask me nicely." had an amazing effect on me ;)) and more of a seasoned warrior with a troubled past. Cate Blanchett's Marian is the strong, confident and capable woman I wanted to see and the idea of making her a widow rather than an unmarried warden of King Richard was genius. I loved her with Russel Crowe because they had a surprisingly great chemistry and I would have loved to see a lot more Robin/Marian scenes.
There are, however, a few peeves about the movie. First of all, the last third of the movie felt kind of rushed and almost as if Scott had had to cut a lot of scenes (so here's hoping to a Director's Cut version...) and had to do it in a hurry. That did put a damper on things. Also, I'm not quite sure if the French invasion reminding me very, very, very much of every D-Day movie ever made (but most of all Saving Private Ryan) fits into the category of "absolute genius" or "WTF?" And yeah, okay, Mel Brooks' Men in Tights probably ruined every serious Robin Hood movie ever made and ever going to be made for me. From the first moment on, I constantly had Men in Tights quotes in my head to accompany almost every scene, even though this wasn't even a standard Robin Hood movie.
But overall, I really liked the movie... or I was just too deafened by Russel Crowe's amazing voice (even though he had probably not more than 10 minutes of actual speaking time in a 140 minute movie...) or too blinded by his amazing biceps (and the rest of his half-naked body) to notice any more peeves. Either way, that movie was totally worth going to the cinema to see it.
#2 Prince of Persia:
No, seriously. I watched that movie, just yesterday. And voluntarily, even. Yes, you're not mistaken. I wanted to see it.
Okay, now that we cleared that up... whoa, what a movie! Okay, granted, I know the video game and have fond memories ofschnelmi trying to do that one jump over and over and over again until the prince finally managed not to fall into those spikes and meet his bloody end... anyway, there's your reason for me wanting to see that movie. And I was... blown away. Sure it's no great intellectual movie that takes on the big issues etcblahblahblah but I doubt they ever wanted it to be that. Instead it's fun because it's got half-naked good looking men fighting, it's got a spunky princess, it's got big battle scenes (not handmade but that's not the point here), it's got treachery and magic and demons and... just whoa.
Also, did I mention thehalf-naked good looking men? Jake Gyllenhaal especially (God, I love his crooked little grin!) but also miscellaneous other guys. Seriously, those are very good reasons to watch that movie. And it has time travel. I mean, I get headaches from time traveling but all you Dr. Who fans out there have much more experience with it than I have and are probably better able to ignore all the paradoxa and stuff.
To sum it up (because I need to start baking if I still want to make cupcakes for the English conversation class today...): That movie needs to be watched in the cinema. You need a big screen for it and a great sound system and all that stuff to enjoy it but if you have that, it's fun! And that's all I wanted from it.
Oh, on a health related note: The cold is almost gone (although it'll probably start all over again in a while because now mom's got an even worse version of it and can't get it into her head not to hug and kiss us or drink from shared bottles and all that...) and I finally have an actual diagnosis for the knee. Apparently, I didn't scrape or rupture any ligaments (yay for that!) but rather just overstretched the inner ligaments and capsules. It'll just take a while for the knee to get normal again but I won't need any surgery or physical therapy, just a brace and no sports for a while. YAY!
schnelmi is here on vacation I went to the cinema twice in one week. I really only go to the cinema very rarely because usually mom doesn't want to watch in English and I can bring myself only very rarely to watching them in German because for seven years I lived in a city where the only cinema you could watch movies in English was a tiny independent cinema... and when I go to the movies I want the big screen, not a screen that could fit into my living room... and I also have a totally unintellectual taste when it comes to movies I watch at the cinema (seriously, what do I need the big screen for psychological dramas or some independent movie everyone claims to find groundbreaking and no one really understands but would never admit to it?). When I go to the cinema, I want explosions, battle scenes, good looking Anyway, what I wanted to say: for seven years I lived in a city where I had to watch all the movies in German if I wanted to see them on the big screen... so now that I moved back to Berlin where we have the wonderful, wonderful Cinestar Original multiplex at Potsdamer Platz I just feel like it would be a waste of time and money not to use that and still go to see movies in German... but mom usually disagrees. However,
schnelmi and I actually managed to trick her twice into accompanying us to a movie in English (apparently, letting her watch the first two Merlin seasons in English helped a lot in that) and here's what we watched:#1 Robin Hood:
Yes, the one by Ridley Scott. Yes, the one with Russel Crowe and Cate Blanchett. Yes, the one that's kinda like a reboot to the whole Robin Hood myth (what's with Hollywood rebooting everything they can put their hands on recently, huh?). I didn't have bit expectations because I only knew Ridley Scott tried his hand at Robin Hood and Russel Crowe and Cate Blanchett were his leads and that
heitidei was over the moon because she's a real Robin Hood nut and desperately wanted to see it. So when the movie began, I was kinda "What the... not Jerusalem? Every Robin Hood movie starts in Jerusalem. Why the hell are they in France?" but I forgot about my initial slight irritation because OMG RUSSEL CROWE. Seriously, I never heard his real voice before and the first word he said put me in a total voice coma (only rivaled by the one I go into when listening to Kavan Smith in Impressions)... and besides that battle was finest of the finest. State of the art middle ages dirty, gritty, bloody battle with guys cursing, arrows soaring, some derring-do... oh yeah, I loved that. Absolutely hand-made and honest.
Also, as we later found out, beginning the movie in France with the battle where Richard Lionheart fell is much more realistic and historically correct than the usual Jerusalem-stuff. I liked that. I also liked it that Robin isn't the noble knight Robin of Locksley but the common archer Robin Longstride at the beginning. He drinks, he swears, he gambles... and he meets Little John and the rest of the Merry Men in the army, not back in England (they still do that fight thing, though... God, I loved that!). He's also... well... a deserter who, after interrupting an ambush at the party of knights that was supposed to bring the dead king's crown back to England, is practically forced to impersonate a nobleman - Robert of Locksley - and bring the crown back in his stead.
I actually liked the idea of making Robin much less of a shining hero and rather turn him into a commoner who's pretty reluctant to take on the role of a nobleman because let's face it; it's much more realistic anyway. I also liked it that Robin deceives Prince John and Queen Mother Eleonore of Aquitaine (who actually want to be deceived... they never even question his identity) but reveals that he's not Robert of Locksley to Locksley's widow Marian and his father, Walter of Locksley right from the beginning and isn't exactly thrilled at the idea of Walter to impersonate Robert of Locksley just for a little while longer so they have some help in fending off the Crown's tax collectors.
After that, we get a nice winded story about French intrigue to conquer a land weakened by the death of a king and the inability of his succesor (which is actually more or less historically correct, even if mom wouldn't believe it at first) and also the story of a fatherless commoner learning about his heritage (yes, I mean Robin) and the tentative love story of two strangers having to find their way in a rough world (yes, I mean Robin and Marian). I guess you're wondering "But where's the forest in all of that? And the sheriff? And the stealing from the rich and giving to the poor?" now and hey, I'd been wondering that as well... almost until the end when - after winning against the French invaders with the help of Robin -
Lots of people didn't really like that about the movie but to be honest: I did. I liked it that Scott gave Robin a different backstory and made him rougher and less of an overconfident cocky brat (although Russel Crowe did give him just enough cocky tendencies to make me all gooey inside... "Ask me nicely." had an amazing effect on me ;)) and more of a seasoned warrior with a troubled past. Cate Blanchett's Marian is the strong, confident and capable woman I wanted to see and the idea of making her a widow rather than an unmarried warden of King Richard was genius. I loved her with Russel Crowe because they had a surprisingly great chemistry and I would have loved to see a lot more Robin/Marian scenes.
There are, however, a few peeves about the movie. First of all, the last third of the movie felt kind of rushed and almost as if Scott had had to cut a lot of scenes (so here's hoping to a Director's Cut version...) and had to do it in a hurry. That did put a damper on things. Also, I'm not quite sure if the French invasion reminding me very, very, very much of every D-Day movie ever made (but most of all Saving Private Ryan) fits into the category of "absolute genius" or "WTF?" And yeah, okay, Mel Brooks' Men in Tights probably ruined every serious Robin Hood movie ever made and ever going to be made for me. From the first moment on, I constantly had Men in Tights quotes in my head to accompany almost every scene, even though this wasn't even a standard Robin Hood movie.
But overall, I really liked the movie... or I was just too deafened by Russel Crowe's amazing voice (even though he had probably not more than 10 minutes of actual speaking time in a 140 minute movie...) or too blinded by his amazing biceps (and the rest of his half-naked body) to notice any more peeves. Either way, that movie was totally worth going to the cinema to see it.
#2 Prince of Persia:
No, seriously. I watched that movie, just yesterday. And voluntarily, even. Yes, you're not mistaken. I wanted to see it.
Okay, now that we cleared that up... whoa, what a movie! Okay, granted, I know the video game and have fond memories of
schnelmi trying to do that one jump over and over and over again until the prince finally managed not to fall into those spikes and meet his bloody end... anyway, there's your reason for me wanting to see that movie. And I was... blown away. Sure it's no great intellectual movie that takes on the big issues etcblahblahblah but I doubt they ever wanted it to be that. Instead it's fun because it's got Also, did I mention the
To sum it up (because I need to start baking if I still want to make cupcakes for the English conversation class today...): That movie needs to be watched in the cinema. You need a big screen for it and a great sound system and all that stuff to enjoy it but if you have that, it's fun! And that's all I wanted from it.
Oh, on a health related note: The cold is almost gone (although it'll probably start all over again in a while because now mom's got an even worse version of it and can't get it into her head not to hug and kiss us or drink from shared bottles and all that...) and I finally have an actual diagnosis for the knee. Apparently, I didn't scrape or rupture any ligaments (yay for that!) but rather just overstretched the inner ligaments and capsules. It'll just take a while for the knee to get normal again but I won't need any surgery or physical therapy, just a brace and no sports for a while. YAY!
