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Aug. 16th, 2005 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
molly_oI ran seven miles tonight! I know it's barely a quarter of a marathon, but it's farther than I've ever run before, so I'm feeling pretty good about it. Now I'm showered and fed and watching a Thin Man movie (RoboMark *loves* Thin Man movies).
We saw "Four Brothers" this weekend, and I *really* liked it. I've always had a soft spot for Marky-Mark (check out "The Corruptors," a very slashy movie starring him and Chow Yun-Fat), and he was*great* in this role. He's older and thicker and not pretty at all -- he's totally believable as a seedy, borderline criminal guy who nonetheless has a certain charm. Four Brothers is definitely his movie, but Andre Benjamin is pretty good, too. The only weak link is Garrett Hedlund -- pink eyeshadow doesn't substitute for acting.
It's barely an action movie, though; there are plenty of punches thrown and shots fired and even a car chase -- but it's not a *showy* car chase, it's just two American cars in the snow, and the movie, shockingly, does not even have one of those long hand-to-hand combat scenes with a pounding techno song (you know, one of those scenes that's in *every* action movie?). The stunts are less important than the script -- the back-and-forth among the brothers is so natural, I almost think it was improvised.
And there's so much attention to detail in the direction! One of the brothers has a drinking problem, and I don't know this because of a clumsy piece of exposition disguised as dialogue, I know it because in virtually every scene, he's got a bottle of beer. The camera doesn't dwell on the bottle in an obvious way, but all the same the shots are framed so you can't help but notice it. (And I *almost* think there's a subtle thing that Marky-Mark's character is gay, but RoboMark thinks the slash goggles are on too tight and cutting off the circulation to my brain.)
The only things that *didn't* work for me were the "visions" of the boys' mother, which were just kinda creepy, and the soundtrack, which was really obtrusive. Oh, and speaking of music, John Singleton has a thing about old-time turntables and 45s with those plastic thingies in the middle. Now, I'm the same age as Singleton, and it's true that in my adolescence I had a whole collection of 45s and little plastic thingies to go in their middles, but nowadays, even when I go to my mom's house, we listen to CDs. He pulled the same thing in Poetic Justice (cause, yes, I saw that movie), but that was made in 1993. It's 2005, baby, we're all digital now.
We saw "Four Brothers" this weekend, and I *really* liked it. I've always had a soft spot for Marky-Mark (check out "The Corruptors," a very slashy movie starring him and Chow Yun-Fat), and he was*great* in this role. He's older and thicker and not pretty at all -- he's totally believable as a seedy, borderline criminal guy who nonetheless has a certain charm. Four Brothers is definitely his movie, but Andre Benjamin is pretty good, too. The only weak link is Garrett Hedlund -- pink eyeshadow doesn't substitute for acting.
It's barely an action movie, though; there are plenty of punches thrown and shots fired and even a car chase -- but it's not a *showy* car chase, it's just two American cars in the snow, and the movie, shockingly, does not even have one of those long hand-to-hand combat scenes with a pounding techno song (you know, one of those scenes that's in *every* action movie?). The stunts are less important than the script -- the back-and-forth among the brothers is so natural, I almost think it was improvised.
And there's so much attention to detail in the direction! One of the brothers has a drinking problem, and I don't know this because of a clumsy piece of exposition disguised as dialogue, I know it because in virtually every scene, he's got a bottle of beer. The camera doesn't dwell on the bottle in an obvious way, but all the same the shots are framed so you can't help but notice it. (And I *almost* think there's a subtle thing that Marky-Mark's character is gay, but RoboMark thinks the slash goggles are on too tight and cutting off the circulation to my brain.)
The only things that *didn't* work for me were the "visions" of the boys' mother, which were just kinda creepy, and the soundtrack, which was really obtrusive. Oh, and speaking of music, John Singleton has a thing about old-time turntables and 45s with those plastic thingies in the middle. Now, I'm the same age as Singleton, and it's true that in my adolescence I had a whole collection of 45s and little plastic thingies to go in their middles, but nowadays, even when I go to my mom's house, we listen to CDs. He pulled the same thing in Poetic Justice (cause, yes, I saw that movie), but that was made in 1993. It's 2005, baby, we're all digital now.