OFF: summer films

[Jean Lansford]

On Tue, 4 Aug 1998, Carl Edlund Anderson <cea20 at CUS.CAM.AC.UK> wrote:

>On tis 4 aug 1998 11.56 +0000 "Ted Jackson jr. s2h2"
><tojackso at LIBRARY.SYR.EDU> wrote:
>>> Heard that Armaggedon is too noisy,
>>
>> Better to see Deep Impact.  Armageddon's just plain boring, and
>> dialog's embarassingly awful.
>
>     Gee, and I heard the problem with DI was you had to sit
>through ages of people having relationships before the film
>got down to brass tacks and started obliterating bits of the
>planet!  I was assured Arma was going to avoid the pretense of
>a plot and stick flashy stuff.  But perhaps not?

For an action film, the plot's rather good if predictable.

>     Heck, with a film like this, I'm not there to see people
>have emotions, I'm there to see the planet get whacked by
>enormous rocks :)

If you liked The Rock you'll like Armageddon.  It also reminds me in
places of Top Gun.

I avoided DI because I just don't care for angst and hopelessness in
my entertainment.  I've been told I didn't miss much; most people I
know who have seen it called the acting wooden.

[snip]

>>> Saving Private Ryan too bloody.
>>
>> Yeah, leave the kids home for this one.  Horrific, realistic wartime
>> violence shockingly portrayed.  Reminds me of the violence in
>> Braveheart, albeit moved up a couple hundred years...A great film,
>> that would be even better if Spielberg would ever bother to develop a
>> character.  He seems steadfastly against giving any of his characters
>> any motivation. Must've skipped that class at film school
>
>     ;)  I've heard good things about this, but I'm a WWII hobbyist
>from way back--particularly on European ground war stuff.  Gimme a
>nice muddy tank over some flashy aeroplane any day :)  I've been
>told they've been pretty accuarate on gear, uniforms, etc., so I'm
>looking forward to it

Extremely accurate.  How they turned a T-34 into a Tiger I'll never
figure out, but the wheel arrangement was the only thing my WWII
hobbyist husband noticed as wrong.  They do misidentify a plane late
in the movie, and I've heard questions about what were Rangers doing
on Omaha Beach.  (I'm told they were only on Utah, but haven't taken
the time to look it up.)

One thing that gets you is the sounds.  They recorded the bullet
sounds at a firing range using live ammo, and had the range owner fire
into various materials to get the right impact sounds for mud, water,
etc.

>     IMO, the violence in Braveheart was a bit "comic book".

It wasn't messy enough, but I figured a movie studio was unlikely to
go for too much realism.  That the warriors generally weren't trying
to fence with their swords I considered a huge step forward.  ;)


Jean Lansford
lansford at vnet.net
http://users.vnet.net/lansford/