01-21-2009, 02:05 PM
Ed Harris. Viggo Mortenson. Jeremy Irons. What a great cast! Oh, and there's Ms.Squinty, Renee Zelweger. She's won an academy award you know.
There should be a rule that says don't let an actor direct. They are quite content to lock down the camera and let the actors do their stuff. Heaven forbid they should do a tracking shot. The world might crack asunder if there was actual motion in the camera. And when it does happen it is so out of place, you wonder if maybe the director left for a bit and the DP finally cut loose. It's almost like watching a stage play. And a bad play at that.
Harris writes, directs, produces and stars in this adaptation of Robert Parker's novel "Appaloosa" Ed plays the lawman Virgil Cole. Viggo plays Everett HItch. Jeremy Irons plays Randall Bragg. Squinty gets to play Allison French.
Parker writes novels about the unspoken rules that men hold. Unspoken rules are kind of hard to act out in a movie which means the deep bond between Cole and Hitch doesn't come across. The reasoning behind a lot of their actions doesn't translate either. You end up doing the scenes as written but the message doesn't come across.
To top it off, it's a poorly made film, too. The acting is very hammy and dramatic. The soundtrack in many places sounds like found footage from Bonanza. And you have Squinty sucking the life out the picture. I'm constantly begging for her to open her eyes.
This is a great duo. You can skip the book and the movie.
There should be a rule that says don't let an actor direct. They are quite content to lock down the camera and let the actors do their stuff. Heaven forbid they should do a tracking shot. The world might crack asunder if there was actual motion in the camera. And when it does happen it is so out of place, you wonder if maybe the director left for a bit and the DP finally cut loose. It's almost like watching a stage play. And a bad play at that.
Harris writes, directs, produces and stars in this adaptation of Robert Parker's novel "Appaloosa" Ed plays the lawman Virgil Cole. Viggo plays Everett HItch. Jeremy Irons plays Randall Bragg. Squinty gets to play Allison French.
Parker writes novels about the unspoken rules that men hold. Unspoken rules are kind of hard to act out in a movie which means the deep bond between Cole and Hitch doesn't come across. The reasoning behind a lot of their actions doesn't translate either. You end up doing the scenes as written but the message doesn't come across.
To top it off, it's a poorly made film, too. The acting is very hammy and dramatic. The soundtrack in many places sounds like found footage from Bonanza. And you have Squinty sucking the life out the picture. I'm constantly begging for her to open her eyes.
This is a great duo. You can skip the book and the movie.
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit