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Movie Monday: The Big Kahuna and, again, LOTR
I know I'm not the only one who watched LOTR, ROTK last night, with commercials. Nothing special about that except I, and so many others, have the DVD (and Blu-ray by now?) of all three LOTR movies both in theatrical and extended versions. Maybe it's the feeling that by watching it with commercials we are in sync with the rest of the world. Nah! We're just nutty LOTR fanatics.
But I didn't watch the commercials. I kept switching during them (which turned out to be tricky since the last movie had fewer commercials than TTT which was shown Saturday night - those commercials went on forever) to The Big Kahuna; a three player tour-de-force among Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito and a dark-haired Peter Facinelli (who could not have been dreaming about Twilight fame to come here.)
The movie is basically talk. The three main characters are at a sales convention where they need to sign on a new client (The Big Kahuna) in order to save their company. I see touches of Glengarry, Glen Ross with large doses of Waiting for Godot.
Some commenter on IMDb said that Spacey was very good and DeVito was great. That's right on. I especially liked the scene where DeVito explains to Facinelli that character comes when you make a mistake, regret it but must move on knowing you can't fix things.
It's a lot of talking but it's worth the listen. (I hadn't thought of this, but this movie is probably a good one for complicated lace knitting; you listen, not look.)
Unlike TTT, I did get to see the end of ROTK last night. TTT turned into a sleep fest: falling asleep and then awakening just after a crucial scene. Like awakening and watching Arwen leaving Riverdell in that ghostly caravan of elves leaving Middle Earth for the last time.
What I missed was the scene prior to this between Elrond and Arwen where he tells her what her fate will be if she remains with Aragon. Tolkien didn't write this as a father-daughter scene but it's right out of the Appendix A, v at the end of ROTK. Here, we and Arwen learn that the troubled life of humans is ended in grief. I remember reading that part of the Appendix and thinking Tolkien nailed the human condition; Jackson does also.
This trilogy is a good example of great entertainment with messages.
I'm beginning to think I must have a marathon of the theatrical versions of LOTR. I was spoiled by watching, in order, the extended versions of the first two and the theatrical version of the third. I've never seen Jackson's complete vision since the extendeds contain a lot of fan-pleasing extras.
As I'm typing this, I hear The Big Kahuna playing in the background. My husband must have stumbled upon it while channel surfing. I'm noticing he's not changing the channel. It's that interesting a movie; go take a look.
But I didn't watch the commercials. I kept switching during them (which turned out to be tricky since the last movie had fewer commercials than TTT which was shown Saturday night - those commercials went on forever) to The Big Kahuna; a three player tour-de-force among Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito and a dark-haired Peter Facinelli (who could not have been dreaming about Twilight fame to come here.)
The movie is basically talk. The three main characters are at a sales convention where they need to sign on a new client (The Big Kahuna) in order to save their company. I see touches of Glengarry, Glen Ross with large doses of Waiting for Godot.
Some commenter on IMDb said that Spacey was very good and DeVito was great. That's right on. I especially liked the scene where DeVito explains to Facinelli that character comes when you make a mistake, regret it but must move on knowing you can't fix things.
It's a lot of talking but it's worth the listen. (I hadn't thought of this, but this movie is probably a good one for complicated lace knitting; you listen, not look.)
Unlike TTT, I did get to see the end of ROTK last night. TTT turned into a sleep fest: falling asleep and then awakening just after a crucial scene. Like awakening and watching Arwen leaving Riverdell in that ghostly caravan of elves leaving Middle Earth for the last time.
What I missed was the scene prior to this between Elrond and Arwen where he tells her what her fate will be if she remains with Aragon. Tolkien didn't write this as a father-daughter scene but it's right out of the Appendix A, v at the end of ROTK. Here, we and Arwen learn that the troubled life of humans is ended in grief. I remember reading that part of the Appendix and thinking Tolkien nailed the human condition; Jackson does also.
This trilogy is a good example of great entertainment with messages.
I'm beginning to think I must have a marathon of the theatrical versions of LOTR. I was spoiled by watching, in order, the extended versions of the first two and the theatrical version of the third. I've never seen Jackson's complete vision since the extendeds contain a lot of fan-pleasing extras.
As I'm typing this, I hear The Big Kahuna playing in the background. My husband must have stumbled upon it while channel surfing. I'm noticing he's not changing the channel. It's that interesting a movie; go take a look.
See you next week.
P.S. I did give Confessions of a Shopaholic another try. I still can't get past the unfunny silliness. The hiding behind the clothes rack to get through a locked door and the sliding across the conference table to get a phone call just make me shudder. Slapstick is tough and most of it fails to amuse. But anachronistic (I'm really stretching a definition here.) actors can do it. If you saw the original The In-Laws with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin, can you forget "Serpentine!" Who would have thought tough guy (soon to be good guy, Columbo) Peter Falk could be so funny?
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