Cinerant

In Bits

Thoughts on product I saw this weekend:

Desperate Housewives season finale--I'm sorry. Did something happen? Really? Sure Lynette's going back to work and John told Carlos about the baby. (Cause that made real sense.) The moment with Bree was however really excellent. (Marcia Cross should be the one to get the Emmy from this cast), but did anything else happen during the hour that we didn't already know? It felt like Desperate Housewives for Dummies. R.I.P. Rex.
(24 and Everwood better not similarly disappoint.)

Monster-in-Law--Wanda Sykes and Elaine Stritch need to do more movies. Sure, Fonda was the big story in this, but if I were a development exec., I'd be finding other movies to pair Sykes up with. Even if it's she and Fonda again. They made a good team. And Elaine Stritch is Stritchy as always.

Star Wars--George Lucas creates great stories, but the telling of them just isn't there. His characters needed more beats and his dialogue needed more polishing. As I was talking to somebody today, part of the reason Empire and Jedi worked so well is that he just did the story. Somebody else wrote the screenplay. Only if that had been the case here. There was some really good stuff that just didn't click. Anakin in the youngling's room--frightful stuff, but should've had more drama.
At the end of the day, Lucas is a great mise-en-scene guy, but just not an actor's director. (I'd love to see a comparison of his style with Kubrick's, another director notorious for disdaining "talent.") I sat throughout the movie thinking--how does Portman go from Closer to this? She's got talent. She just needs somebody to get it out of her. Even Samuel L. Jackson looked like he needed rescuing. And Hayden Christensen...
Nevertheless, I still think the movie is better than most of what I've seen this year. That really says more about the dearth of quality product this year than anything really. It just could've been better. (If you haven't read Jan Batchler's comments on the movie, do so. She discusses with the wisdom of someone who's written this kind of movie before.) But overall, I'd still have rather watched the season finale of 24 on the big screen.

posted by cinegod @ 10:13 AM