A movie Alec Bings would love

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By the way, I went to see Vantage Point earlier this week. Excellent film! Really well scripted, the editing was MARVELOUS. Tight and tense as hell - I was literally reduced to biting down on my jacket sleeve, I was so wound up, thinking oh shitshitshitshit oh shitSHIT. SO much fun.

The story is presented in a Rashomon style, from the viewpoint of several different characters. After we see the central event - the shooting of an American president while visiting Salamanca, Spain for a political summit - the film rewinds back to the beginning and we see the thing again, from another viewpoint. Then again, from another, and again, from another, and with each rewind, we learn more about the event, the people involved and exactly what is happening. Which, of course, turns out not to be what we think is happening at all. It's very deftly handled, culminating in a great chase sequence.


Now, here's the funny thing about this movie. It's being called a "political thriller", but it actually isn't. After it was over, I was thinking about it on the way home, and I started wondering just what was the point to the thing. Because really, there isn't one, at least not the kind that the advertising and reporting is claiming. Yes, it's about a political figure, but the film doesn't actually have a thing to do with politics. That's just the frame that it's hung in. It's really an old-fashioned chase movie, a shoot-'em-up thriller. No message, really. It's just a rip-roaring good time, with damned fine actors having an awful lot of fun. (William Hurt, Dennis Quaid, Forrest Whitaker, Sigourney Weaver, Matthew Fox, James LeGros - it's an awesome cast.)

For example, one of the reasons I wanted to see it was the setting; there are almost no mainstream films made set in Spain. But I realized eventually that the film could have been set anywhere; the fact that it's Spain is irrelevant. It could just as easily have been London, or Paris, or Moscow, or Reykjavik, or any one of a hundred other places around the world. It could also have been about any world leader, not necessarily an American. It doesn't matter, because the politics is not finally the point. The setting and characters are just an excuse to play with the idea of points of view, hidden motivations, untangling threads, and GREAT fucking acting. (And the casting is divine - ahahahaHAHA, Matthew Fox! That was inspired.)

Keeping that firmly in mind, I definitely recommend this film. Not every movie has to be about something, after all. Sometimes movies can just be tense, intense fun. Not everyone's cup of tea maybe, but as another president who took a bullet once said,

For those that like that sort of thing, I think it is just the sort of thing that they would like.

Snippet on "The Hobbit"

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From Variety.com:

Warner Bros. gobbles up New Line.


The relevant bit:

"The Hobbit" has Guillermo Del Toro in talks to direct, and the picture will be unaffected by the ouster of Shaye and Lynne. Though the films won't be scripted until a director is hired, and Jackson wraps "The Lovely Bones," the expectation is that the films will be ready for release for Christmas 2011 and 2012. Harry Potter will have wound down at WB by then, and the corporation will surely welcome another fantasy franchise that has an eager global audience waiting. New Line will distribute domestically, while MGM has international rights.


Looks like they're plowing ahead with the project. I guess the Warner execs are willing to bet on the lawsuit coming out in their favor. Good for them; I hope it all works out. So keep in mind, as we hear bits of progress, that no matter how much they're putting into it, nothing is completely certain until that all gets worked out.

But it's certainly good news that they're not just laying back to see what happens. Keep your fingers crossed. In a couple of years we may be going back to Middle Earth!

Interests Collage

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Gacked from a bunch of people.


When I tried this yesterday, I got just a few pictures and they didn't seem to have anything to do with my journal. But I guess the coding worked itself out, because today I got this:


( My collage )

Now that's more like it. Pretty cool, I'd say. :)