10-30-2005, 07:47 PM
I've always hated Shane Black. It probably had nothing to do with his great initial success at the tender age of 24. He sold the screenplay for a record amount and it was his first. Each screenply upped the ante. Each sale a record. Most of the films were okay, but nothing that needed you to pay this writer millions, I thought. No, I wasn't jealous at all :twisted: . I even read the first draft of Lethal Weapon. He had Riggs attempting suicide via overdose. Who doesn't know that a policeman isn't go to overdose to killhimself? He's going to eat his own barrel. Joseph Wambaugh taught us that.
But he faded from the scene for ten years. I always wonderd what had happened. Turns out what he really wanted to do was direct. Directors kept ruining his stories.
It could be true in this case. Shane Black, director, might have ruined Shane Black's screenplay. Because it was a mess of convolutions and twists. But it some ways it missed the final twist for you to shake your head and say wow, I was really fooled and you did it in a great way. That didn't happen. I wish it did.
But it did have a great deal of style. He was ripping off the old film noir genre. He just never got to the part where our hero was set up by the dame. I was waiting for that and it never came. It does center around a Donald Hamiltonesque writer and his hero Matt Helm, so I have to give it kudos for that.
The one thing that was superb about the movie was the dialogue. I think the motto was don't let really cool dialogue interfere with anything as secondary as plot. Val Kilmer's acting was superb but you had to role your eys at his name. Robert Downey jr seems to be on top of his form and really suited to the character.
The one Question: Why does Shane like torture scenes so much? The are in all of his movies.
Not only did I see the poster, I saw the film, Cranefly.
But he faded from the scene for ten years. I always wonderd what had happened. Turns out what he really wanted to do was direct. Directors kept ruining his stories.
It could be true in this case. Shane Black, director, might have ruined Shane Black's screenplay. Because it was a mess of convolutions and twists. But it some ways it missed the final twist for you to shake your head and say wow, I was really fooled and you did it in a great way. That didn't happen. I wish it did.
But it did have a great deal of style. He was ripping off the old film noir genre. He just never got to the part where our hero was set up by the dame. I was waiting for that and it never came. It does center around a Donald Hamiltonesque writer and his hero Matt Helm, so I have to give it kudos for that.
The one thing that was superb about the movie was the dialogue. I think the motto was don't let really cool dialogue interfere with anything as secondary as plot. Val Kilmer's acting was superb but you had to role your eys at his name. Robert Downey jr seems to be on top of his form and really suited to the character.
The one Question: Why does Shane like torture scenes so much? The are in all of his movies.
Not only did I see the poster, I saw the film, Cranefly.
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit