Well, I guess it's the next airplane movie on my list.

When I first heard about it, I had no particular interest in seeing Flight of the Phoenix (the upcoming remake). I am not a Dennis Quaid fan, and the premise didn't catch my fancy.

But then I took a look at the supporting cast.

It has Giovanni Ribisi. And Miranda Otto, my hands-down favorite actor in the final two LOTR films. And Hugh Laurie*. That's a 1-2-3 punch. How can I pass it up?

[* Who I hope, purely personal preference here, won't be doing an American accent in the movie. It's not that he doesn't do it well--in fact, he does it perfectly. And it wigs me out. I fully realize it's part of his acting skill to take on an American persona, but his native accent is too lovely not to hear. Sorry Mr. Laurie, it's a personal weakness.]

Well, I guess it's the next airplane movie on my list.

When I first heard about it, I had no particular interest in seeing Flight of the Phoenix (the upcoming remake). I am not a Dennis Quaid fan, and the premise didn't catch my fancy.

But then I took a look at the supporting cast.

It has Giovanni Ribisi. And Miranda Otto, my hands-down favorite actor in the final two LOTR films. And Hugh Laurie*. That's a 1-2-3 punch. How can I pass it up?

[* Who I hope, purely personal preference here, won't be doing an American accent in the movie. It's not that he doesn't do it well--in fact, he does it perfectly. And it wigs me out. I fully realize it's part of his acting skill to take on an American persona, but his native accent is too lovely not to hear. Sorry Mr. Laurie, it's a personal weakness.]

This could be Heaven, or this could be hell.

Sadly, I think it's the latter.

Perhaps it's just not my type of movie, but from minute one I couldn't get into it.

So, yes, the movie does have Giovanni Ribisi in it. In uniform. Speaking Italian. Lots of Italian. That's practically worth the price of admission right there.

I've found a useful trick with my DVD player: if I'm not interested in watching a scene but still want to get the gist of it, I can put it on 2x FF with the subtitles turned on. Things will whiz by in half the time and I can catch nearly all the dialogue at the bottom of the screen, provided I'm not watching something snappy and wordy like Sports Night, in which case I likely wouldn't be fast-forwarding anyway.

I started watching Heaven at normal speed. Then, realizing I wasn't connecting to any of the other characters, I started 2x'ing between Ribisi's scenes. When I started fast-forwarding through the entire thing, regardless of who was on-screen, I knew it was a lost cause.

Here's the problem. The cinematography is beautiful, the music appropriately moody, the lighting rich, the city and countryside lovely, and Blanchett and Ribisi both luminous (c.f. The Gift). But I didn't, you know, actually like anyone.

( Read more... )

This could be Heaven, or this could be hell.

Sadly, I think it's the latter.

Perhaps it's just not my type of movie, but from minute one I couldn't get into it.

So, yes, the movie does have Giovanni Ribisi in it. In uniform. Speaking Italian. Lots of Italian. That's practically worth the price of admission right there.

I've found a useful trick with my DVD player: if I'm not interested in watching a scene but still want to get the gist of it, I can put it on 2x FF with the subtitles turned on. Things will whiz by in half the time and I can catch nearly all the dialogue at the bottom of the screen, provided I'm not watching something snappy and wordy like Sports Night, in which case I likely wouldn't be fast-forwarding anyway.

I started watching Heaven at normal speed. Then, realizing I wasn't connecting to any of the other characters, I started 2x'ing between Ribisi's scenes. When I started fast-forwarding through the entire thing, regardless of who was on-screen, I knew it was a lost cause.

Here's the problem. The cinematography is beautiful, the music appropriately moody, the lighting rich, the city and countryside lovely, and Blanchett and Ribisi both luminous (c.f. The Gift). But I didn't, you know, actually like anyone.

( Read more... )