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Aug. 23rd, 2004 11:14 amTurns out this was a big weekend for movies.
Gangs of New York: I enjoyed this film a lot. New York in the 1860's was as fantastic as anything you'd find in Middle Earth. The street gangs that vied for power in the Five Points, the corrupt politicians buying votes, the waves of Irish immigrants and the persecution they suffered, the constant stream of wooden boxes returning to the city and the young men leaving for the war. In all the classes I had on the Civil War in high school, I never knew that the Navy shelled New York City. The accents were in and out, but they usually are in films, so that doesn't bother me. Daniel Day Lewis seemed a bit more comically than scary. The film really fascinated me with it's background, it inspires me to see more period films, if only to see if other film maker's had a similar vision of our past.
Spider Man 2: Lots of fun. They are really capturing the comic book combat very well, and the CGI work is improving. I was also surprised with the amount of time focusing on Peter Parker, and now crappy his life is. There were lots of Sam Raimi touches to the movie as well. I think the franchise may have some difficulty over time. While there are no end of super villains for Spider Man to face, a lot of the meat of the film revolves around Peter Parker, and they need to come up with interesting challenges for him too.
White Lies: forgettable made-for-TV style movie about Neo-Nazis in Canada. I bought it to see some more films that Sarah Polly was in, that's about it. It's very hard to have a film about Neo-Nazis be engaging, because the topic is very black and white and has been done to death in the "after school special" kind of way. American History X is the exception to this, but I haven't seen a lot of other films hold my interest, or invest any level of sympathy for the characters.
Gangs of New York: I enjoyed this film a lot. New York in the 1860's was as fantastic as anything you'd find in Middle Earth. The street gangs that vied for power in the Five Points, the corrupt politicians buying votes, the waves of Irish immigrants and the persecution they suffered, the constant stream of wooden boxes returning to the city and the young men leaving for the war. In all the classes I had on the Civil War in high school, I never knew that the Navy shelled New York City. The accents were in and out, but they usually are in films, so that doesn't bother me. Daniel Day Lewis seemed a bit more comically than scary. The film really fascinated me with it's background, it inspires me to see more period films, if only to see if other film maker's had a similar vision of our past.
Spider Man 2: Lots of fun. They are really capturing the comic book combat very well, and the CGI work is improving. I was also surprised with the amount of time focusing on Peter Parker, and now crappy his life is. There were lots of Sam Raimi touches to the movie as well. I think the franchise may have some difficulty over time. While there are no end of super villains for Spider Man to face, a lot of the meat of the film revolves around Peter Parker, and they need to come up with interesting challenges for him too.
White Lies: forgettable made-for-TV style movie about Neo-Nazis in Canada. I bought it to see some more films that Sarah Polly was in, that's about it. It's very hard to have a film about Neo-Nazis be engaging, because the topic is very black and white and has been done to death in the "after school special" kind of way. American History X is the exception to this, but I haven't seen a lot of other films hold my interest, or invest any level of sympathy for the characters.
