Jaye's Musings

It's been a long time since I've posted to my journal and a long time since I've dabbled in icon making and inspired20in20, but I found the time to be inspired this month!

CORIOLANUS




( There is no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male tiger. )

Based on Anton Chekov's play, The Cherry Orchard has lovely cinematography and is a sedate drama. Now, I've never seen nor read the play before watching this, so I don't know what's been changed or how well it compares, but I found it passably good. Good enough to make me not want to fast forward to all the Gerry bits. It's another early Gerry part, and he plays Yasha, a valet to a broke-but-still-living-like-she's-not Russian noble. He's cocky, cynical, easily amused, chauvinistic, rogue. It's not a large part, but Yasha's role is really to explain things to the audience that are not made clear by the other characters. He is easily the most charming of the cast...although they all put in solid performances, especially Charlotte Rampling, Owen Teale and Michael Gough, but there is really no one who is likable.

( Now to the picspam! )

Edit: Because celticdreamz just reminded me. He is credited as Gerald Butler!! You think they could have checked.

All I ever seem to do now is write movie reviews!...I blame Netflix. *g*

So, One More Kiss is an early film of Gerard Butler's, and he's decidedly lovely and fresh-faced in this...and really that's the only positive thing I have to say about the entire thing. The basic premise is that Sam's (Gerry's character) ex-girlfriend has returned to Scotland from the U.S. with the news that she's dying from a brain tumour. She asks him to spend time with her and do stuff (basically a Bucket List) before she shuffles off the mortal coil. The trouble is, Sam is married, and his wife (understandably) isn't thrilled by this.

It is supposed to be a story about spending what time we have left to the fullest, and not being afraid to take a chance because we might never get to do it, otherwise. Those points aren't implied by the story as they should be but blatantly stated...and they have to be because if they weren't, all you would see is a story about a miserable woman who dumped her boyfriend years ago and now suddenly turns up. She doesn't care that he's happily married, and spends the rest of her life creating a situation to split them up. On top of that she just isn't an interesting character...there is nothing appealing about her. Sam isn't much better as he drops just about everything, including his wife, to spend time with her...including standing her up at the opera. The best performance was, perhaps, the dying woman's father. He's the only one who really tries to find a cure for his daughter (but really, why bother?) and she treats him like rubbish.

In the opening scene, she's still in New York and is standing on top of a skyscraper ready to jump. I couldn't help thinking she should have...it would have saved an hour and a half of my life.

I capped it (because young Gerry!), but I'm so glad I didn't buy it. He plays his role well, but it's such a poor story with poor characterization...plus a lead actress who has very little appeal, that it just flops.

I managed to get my grubby little paws on this all-but-straight to DVD movie (it did have a very limited US release) and watched it last night.

It's not the best movie in the world, definitely having its faults, but I am disappointed it didn't make a larger release. There are plenty of movies that make a general release that are a lot worse. Perhaps they didn't think it would sell because there is no hero in it, or even likable character in it.

Yes, that includes Gerry's character, Neil. He's an arsehole. A really gorgeous, handsome, sexy arsehole, but one all the same. Yes, you feel sorry for the hell he's being put through by Pierce Brosnan's character, but pretty much all that sympathy slips away by the climax of the movie, and it's established in the beginning that he'll walk over anyone (including Nick Lea) to further his own career. He's a jerk!

Never seen Gerry play a jerk before. He's played psychopaths that will bash someone's brains out with a cricket bat just for the hell of it, and I prefer them than this guy.

For a quick synopsis of the plot: Neil is a high-flying ad executive who with his wife, Abby, is carjacked by Tom (Brosnan). Tom tells them he's kidnapped their daughter and for the next several hours they have to do exactly what he tells them or she dies. Then he proceeds to put them through hell, ruining Neil financially and professionally, and even asking him to kill. The question of the film is: What would someone do to save their child?

Gerry's American accent...was iffy, and I've really missed hearing his natural brogue over the past few movies, especially as Brosnan got to use his natural accent, but the range of emotions he shows was excellent from really pissed off to terrified. I don't think he's ever played a character in that horrifying of a situation and it was good to see him as not the tough guy. My favourite scene was where Tom gets Neil to climb up a clock tower, knowing he's scared of heights and forcing him to look over the edge. The mix of fear and desperation was extremely well done. Most disappointing was where Tom demanded Neil kiss him, and Neil just spits in his face...all I could think was "No Gerry, we want you to kiss him!"

Brosnan was excellent. He makes a very creepy, scary bad guy especially when you don't know what his motive for doing all this is. I squee'd at seeing Gerry and Nick Lea in the same scenes, but there was no more of him, and I do really think they could have made more use of his character, especially how they tried to set that relationship up.

No, it's not the best film in the world, but it's an enjoyable thriller and probably only worth buying if you're a diehard Gerry (or Brosnan) fan, but it is worth renting.

I'm in the last week of class, so I'm rather swamped and procrastinating in a big way as I have one final exam to do and one paper. Neither of which are interesting at all. Well, the exam (the Brit Lit class) isn't so bad, but I'm going to have to pad out my answers to get the word count, when I think I've answered the questions well enough. As for the Modern World Drama class, word count isn't a problem, but just not falling asleep writing it will be as it's mind-numbingly boring, and I just can't find interest in it. But I keep telling myself that this is the end, one final push and it's done.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to come up with reasons why I shouldn't buy this. It's the documentary of the filming of "Beowulf and Grendel" and the extremely hellish difficult conditions they endured making the film. It has an hour long interview with Gerry. Damn, somehow I'm not coming up with any reasons except paying nearly $40 for it (including shipping).