Comments Posted By Johnmonkey
Displaying 1 To 3 Of 3 Comments
MAN, IT'S A BITCH SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER...EVEN WHEN YOU'RE NOT
Colbert is no funnier than Jon Stewart. Sit and read one of Stewart's books for a half-hour, and try calling him funny.
I must admit that I don't have cable -- is there anything funny on Comedy Central but South Park?
Comment Posted By Johnmonkey On 2.05.2006 @ 18:17
WHAT'S WRONG WITH UNITED 93? JUST ASK DANA
Publius - You echo a lot of the commentary that I've seen, that one Should Like This Movie, for various reasons. I either like it or I don't, and I have good reasons not to, in spite of the fact that there were bad reasons for Greengrass's doing what he did.
Comment Posted By Johnmonkey On 2.05.2006 @ 18:02
United 93 sucked, and I want my money back.
First of all, someone has said that "You don't 'review' this film if you have an ounce of soul left to you. You watch it." Pardon my soullessness, which I suppose is attested to by my dislike of Schindler's List.
The movie opens in a hotel room(s?) of the four Islamofascists. They are troubled and angsty, reading their little god book, praying on their mats, and shaving their torsos. That's as deep a picture of them that we get. No arrogance of self-assuredness, and no night-before strip club. (Remember that?) If they have any motivation, we're not given an indication of that.
There's not much action on United 93 during the first part of the movie, in spite of the fact that there's quite a bit of footage of it. Most of the action takes place in different control rooms. There's a military control room, where the day begins with a planned NORAD exercise. Once the military is interested, the guy in charge yells at one man after another to "light up all the blips" for one suspected airplane after another, while the guy in charge of him tries to get someone to okey-dokey shooting down planes. There are two air traffic control rooms, where the men track planes and wonder why someone doesn't do something about this situation. The guy in charge is played by his real-life self, and (surprise!) is shown doing everything that he should have done.
Once things start on United 93, the (in)action on the ground is forgotten. Of course, the passengers find out by calling the ground that they're not a hijacked plane but a guided missile. They quickly resolve to attack the Islamofascists and take control of the plane. After resolving this, they wait for ten or so minutes, while the people call home and sob and cry and you dear viewer get to watch. This unbelievable drawing things out continues after they start the attack, where they all pause to beat up one of the fascists instead of some doing so while the rest go on to take back the plane -- even though they've thoroughly talked over how very necessary that is.
Having dispatched the first fascist, they rush the second, who holds them off with cart, mace, fire extinguisher, and knife, while the plane plummets and jerks, throwing everyone around and drawing things out even more. After a bit, Number Two is put out of the way. Then there's a long attempt to get through the cabin door. For some reason, the plane is still in the air for this to be achieved, and for everyone to claw at the last two. Finally, everyone is put out of their misery.
I believe I can call this a snuff film because the action on the plane is so unnecessarily and unrealistically prolonged. I didn't actually yell out, "Get on with it!," but I was inspired to a few times.
One of my fellow viewers had to bail out early on because the movie made him sick. Not from the story or the emotions, but because all the cameras film fairly close up and constantly jerk around. You might think, though I wouldn't, that this would be fine when the passengers are rushing the fascists, but it is done all the time, even in a boring staff meeting of traffic controllers. The cinematography works against the movie throughout all of it.
Any inspiration, resolve, respect, patriotism, that I left this film with, I brought into it with me. Sorry, I thought it was crap. Crap on ice.
Comment Posted By Johnmonkey On 1.05.2006 @ 04:30
