(no subject)
Mar. 28th, 2006 01:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
molly_oRM and I have had good luck with movies lately. Ultraviolet was a terrible disappointment, and I've already posted about how wonderful V for Vendetta is, but we also saw 16 Blocks and Inside Man, both of which I'd recommend without reservation. The performances in 16 Blocks are so very solid -- Bruce Willis, Mos Def, and David Morse do wonderful work. The plot is not terribly original or inventive, but the acting and the message are both two hours of your life.
Inside Man likewise has some solid acting, and more than that a great script. I don't know how much originated with the screenwriter (Russel Gewirtz) and how much resulted from Spike Lee's direction, but the final product is so rooted in New York. Another Spike Lee trademark fully supported by Gewirtz' script: even the bit parts are memorable. Someone might only have three lines, but for those three lines, they're as much the focus of the scene as Denzel or Clive. My only quibble, and it really is a quibble, is that a lesser-known actor might've been a little better than Denzel in the role of Frazier. Folks in the film keep underestimating him, but we never do -- because they're seeing a detective on the downhill side of his career, and we're seeing an Academy Award winner.
Inside Man likewise has some solid acting, and more than that a great script. I don't know how much originated with the screenwriter (Russel Gewirtz) and how much resulted from Spike Lee's direction, but the final product is so rooted in New York. Another Spike Lee trademark fully supported by Gewirtz' script: even the bit parts are memorable. Someone might only have three lines, but for those three lines, they're as much the focus of the scene as Denzel or Clive. My only quibble, and it really is a quibble, is that a lesser-known actor might've been a little better than Denzel in the role of Frazier. Folks in the film keep underestimating him, but we never do -- because they're seeing a detective on the downhill side of his career, and we're seeing an Academy Award winner.