Tuesday, March 27, 2007

About your father ...


1. Rome, alas, is no more. As with Deadwood, I can't help feeling it has ended prematurely. I also can't help feeling that they tried to jam a little too much stuff into season two. The finale disappointed slightly. The treatment of Actium was particularly bad--Did they run out of money? That said, all things considered, it was extraordinarily well done. The decision to focus on Pullo and Vorenus as the center of the story was quite effective. The sets and costumes were top notch. The casting was great--in particular, Max Pirkis as the young Octavian (I didn't like the actor playing the older Octavian quite so much), James Purefoy as Antony, Polly Walker as Atia, and Ray Stevenson as Pullo were brilliant. As costume dramas go, it was certainly one of the best.

2. We watched a double feature on Friday evening. We started with Marie Antoinette. Whaddya know! I really liked it. For me at least, the contemporariness of it (all that teen angst) really worked. Also, Kiki Dunst, who I usually find severely annoying, was quite lovely and effective. Jason Schwartzman--who, come to think of it, can also be really annoying--also does a nice job as the boy king, Louis Seize.

Next was The Prestige, part of the current fashion for magic movies. It is of course utterly preposterous but also quite well done, a bit better, I think, than the one with Ed Norton (another former resident of Columbia, MD) and Jessica Biel. However, "the prestige" (the magical part of a magic trick) of the movie itself was kind of week. (I'll not ruin it here, in case you haven't seen it.) However, I will suggest that there wasn't enough magic (i.e., actual magic tricks) in either movie. Why bother having Ricky Jay involved if your not going to have some really cool tricks? Also, David Bowie is very cool but who shall rescue the reputation of Tesla from this travesty?

Speaking of magic--I think I've probably mentioned this before--but somebody ought to make a movie of Susanna Clarke's brilliant Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell.

3. Breaking news: Piven is an a-hole. I am shocked! Truly shocked! Also, Entourage premiers April 8.

Posted by jwb at 4:00 PM   

3 Comments:

Blogger Bram said:

We saw The Illusionist (the Norton movie) and then The Prestige the week after. IIRC, the NYT review of Illusionist talked about how short stories make better movies than novels; I'd say that while Illusionist was probably a more "worthy" movie, Prestige had better twists and was a whole lot more fun. You're right about the dearth of actual magic, but after seeing those and reading The Fifth Business, I so badly want to learn some sleight of hand. Just that pulling the coin from behind an ear will do fine.

And as to how the Tesla name can be redeemed — how about this, to be built right here in NM?
at 8:51 PM     

Blogger monica said:

And, if you haven't yet, you should read Carter Beats the Devil — Bram's probably already recommended it.
at 9:45 PM     

Blogger jwb said:

Do you mean the Robertson Davies' novel?

I agree with your comment that The illusionist is probably a better movie, but The Prestige is more fun.

I'll have to check our Carter Beats the Devil.
at 8:00 AM     

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