{ I think she's phobic, or something. }

[delga]

Last night was The Dad's Rotary night, so the rest of us sat down to eat and watched Open Range which I'd seen the beginning of but not finished. It was a good watch. Some of the writing made me uncomfortable although I couldn't put my finger on why; some of the plot (i.e. the romance angle) felt bizarrely rushed, and as much as I like Annette Bening, I wouldn't class this as one of her finer performances. That said, Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall more than made up for it, and it was nice to see Diego Luna on screen again. Costner produced and directed the film and there were some moments where the direction wasn't as seamless as I had anticipated it would be. By that I mean, sometimes the lenses used on different frames/scenes seemed incompatible. But those are minor complaints. The film delivered what it promised: a showdown. I enjoyed it despite the above.

--

When we took the DVD out, C4 was showing The Quick and The Dead so, heh, we watched that, too. WOW. That film was BAD. But it was also entertaining. I felt like the roundtable for that particular pitch went along the lines of, "The staples of The Western are vengeance and gunplay. So let's ditch all the other stuff and just show a string of showdowns! Also: feisty female lead, just to spice up the mix." The cast was full of people before or after their prime - Sharon Stone, Leonardo DiCaprio, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, Gary Sinise - and the direction choices were plain insane. You'd get a forty-five degree left zoom on one character, countered by a forty-five degree right zoom on his/her component and then a really intense close-up on the town clock tower, more alternating between the two components, the clock and then -- tick! BANG. And someone was dead. Sharon Stone was AWFUL (her plotline was that she was coming after Gene Hackman because he had contrived in some manner to have her father killed. Oh, the ANGST. I mean, that's what makes a true gunslinger, isn't it?), Russell Crow was confusing, DiCaprio was hilarious and Sinise's wig in the flashbacks looked like a dead rat. But the film was damn entertaining, and I recommend it if you're sitting around with a bunch of people who have nothing to do because the mocking potential is high.

--

The question here is: why don't I have a Western icon?

--

Earlier in the day I finished the third disk of The Wire, season 2, and then realised that episode 6 (the one when Omar is in the courtroom) had an audio commentary. OK, first up: Dominic West is a freaking Brit, as is Idris Elba, apparently. Secondly, he and Michael K. Williams (Omar!) are HILARIOUS. They were just sitting there making conversation; their laughter is priceless. Apparently Wendell Pierce knows how to partay. The guy who plays Nicholas Sabotka is apparently Liev Schreiber's brother

ALSO, it turns out that Elba is going to be in RocknRolla, Guy Ritchie's latest. SO PSYCHED. Idris Elba! Thandie Newton! Gerard Butler... um. Ludacris! Jeremy Piven! HUZZAH!

So, anyway, I'm probably going to re-watch the commentary today. The Mother and The Sister have just departed for Skegness. Uh, no thanks.

Comments

[wliberation.livejournal.com]

Why o' why have I not watched the commentary? I must do so immediately.

And silly westerns do so rock. Ah, the mockage!

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

Hee, you should. Very much worth it. ("Omar"'s snigger of a laugh is PRICELESS.)

I have to admit, this wasn't as bad as High Noon or whatever that was with Jackie Chan, and the basic premise made a lot of sense, but man. The execution? Hoboy.