- Messages
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- Trophy Points
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Roxanne (1987)
'Cyrano de Bergerac' is seamlessly translated into a charming 80s romcom by writer/star Steve Martin. It was a pleasure to revisit. He gives a genuinely touching and nuanced performance but Martin doesn't completely reign in his anarchic screen persona, so his version of Cyrano, "C.D. Bales" is a fast quipping town celebrity, with parkour skills, a head full of wise cracks, and likes to make up stories about being abducted by aliens who have come to Earth to have sex with old ladies... for the benefit of some excited old ladies. I got a 'Twin Peaks' vibe about the little town in the film (with a soupçon of 'It's a Wonderful Life'), it's bars, diners and eccentric people. Coincidentally the town in 'Roxanne' and the one in the later TV show were filmed just a couple hundred miles apart across the USA/Canada border. A fun fanedit of 'Roxanne' could be re-scored with Angelo Badalamenti music and re-framed around new arrivals Roxanne and Chris.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
You can't fault the beautiful detail of the animation and it's hugely entertaining in parts but my goodness does it go on. If you liked the first one, this is more of the same, much more, too much more. During the big chase through the "Spider-Society" world I remember thinking "Wow! This is one of the most astonishing and inventive things I've seen in a long time", then seemingly 10-minutes later also thinking "I hope this chase is going to end at some point in my lifetime?". It oddly had two speeds and modes, frenetically paced action with mildly annoying jabbering dialogue and creative camera work, or slow paced, well written, heartfelt dialogue scenes, with utterly bland, un-creative camera work. Daniel Kaluuya's Don Letts-style Punk Spider-Man was my favourite character. It remains to be seen if a future part-2 can make all this chaos worth it in the end, with a more focused wrap up.
'Cyrano de Bergerac' is seamlessly translated into a charming 80s romcom by writer/star Steve Martin. It was a pleasure to revisit. He gives a genuinely touching and nuanced performance but Martin doesn't completely reign in his anarchic screen persona, so his version of Cyrano, "C.D. Bales" is a fast quipping town celebrity, with parkour skills, a head full of wise cracks, and likes to make up stories about being abducted by aliens who have come to Earth to have sex with old ladies... for the benefit of some excited old ladies. I got a 'Twin Peaks' vibe about the little town in the film (with a soupçon of 'It's a Wonderful Life'), it's bars, diners and eccentric people. Coincidentally the town in 'Roxanne' and the one in the later TV show were filmed just a couple hundred miles apart across the USA/Canada border. A fun fanedit of 'Roxanne' could be re-scored with Angelo Badalamenti music and re-framed around new arrivals Roxanne and Chris.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
You can't fault the beautiful detail of the animation and it's hugely entertaining in parts but my goodness does it go on. If you liked the first one, this is more of the same, much more, too much more. During the big chase through the "Spider-Society" world I remember thinking "Wow! This is one of the most astonishing and inventive things I've seen in a long time", then seemingly 10-minutes later also thinking "I hope this chase is going to end at some point in my lifetime?". It oddly had two speeds and modes, frenetically paced action with mildly annoying jabbering dialogue and creative camera work, or slow paced, well written, heartfelt dialogue scenes, with utterly bland, un-creative camera work. Daniel Kaluuya's Don Letts-style Punk Spider-Man was my favourite character. It remains to be seen if a future part-2 can make all this chaos worth it in the end, with a more focused wrap up.