Sunshine Hurt
I’m among a small group of Hurt Locker-admiring journalists who’ve been asked to do short before-the-audience interviews with director Kathryn Bigelow (and, I gather, producer/screenwriter Mark Boal) prior to evening showings at lower Manhattan’s Sunshine Cinemas. (Coming Soon‘s Ed Douglas did one last night.) My chit-chat will start just prior to tonight’s 7:10 pm show. The Sunshine website says Bigelow will also make an appearance prior to the 9 pm show so I guess another journalist will be doing the honors. It’s a daisy chain.
I’ll repost this since the discussion will likely move to this thread:
Just got back from a morning screening. It was very good, but I think the ecstatic reviews are only going to leave people feeling a bit disappointed. It was a really first-rate war movie, but I think to go overboard and claim it’s a classic for the ages is a bit much. And no offence Wells, but I really can’t understand why someone would go see it five times in the theater.
Renner and Mackie were excellent and it was tense as all hell. But we didn’t really get into the heads of the soldiers that much. Mackie’s character didn’t have much to him really. Only Renner was really fleshed out that much, and it was kind of obviously signposted when some characters were going to meet their doom.
That said, it was a top-notch war movie and so I’d give it 4/5. Just don’t expect it to be as good as it’s being made out to be.
This made me laugh from the NY Post review:
“the shake-the-camera, play-with-the-zoom-lens style that used to say “gritty” but now says “Dunder Mifflin”
You know why you had the reaction you had? Deep down you were looking for some “Bayos,” and when Bigelow didn’t deliver them quite the way that you wanted you went into your qualified “meh” mode. One of the things that works really well is that it doesn’t follow the usual fill-in-the-questionaire approach to explaining character. Mackie was there to show what James was not and to exemplify the responsible, regimented military rulebook approach to IEDs. He was filled in just fine.
Here in LA Renner is doing a post film Q & A with (am I reading this right???) Sam Rockwell moderating after the 7:30 show at the Landmark.
If you are interested, better move quick, it’s down to just the first 6 rows at this point.
You know why you had the reaction you had? Deep down you were looking for some “Bayos,” and when Bigelow didn’t deliver them quite the way that you wanted you went into your qualified “meh” mode.
Or… the level that it was hyped up by critics meant it was always going to be a slight let-down. I gave it a positive overall evaluation, but come on. It wasn’t that good.
Take the final scene, for example. Would you have tolerated a character talking to his baby son (thereby essentially delivering a voiceover, given that babies can’t talk back) explaining his motivations in such a simplistic manner in a Michael Bay film? It was overkill – we got that he was an adrenaline junkie; we didn’t need him to spell it out by saying “there’s only one thing I love.” It was a bit unnecessary. The cereal aisle shot summed up his civilian boredom just fine without with the extra exposition.
Mackie was there to show what James was not and to exemplify the responsible, regimented military rulebook approach to IEDs. He was filled in just fine.
You mean like, say, William Fichtner’s character in Armageddon was there to show Bruce Willis and the team the regimented military rulebook approach to space travel? He was a bit of a stock character. Renner was really the only fully-fleshed out character in the film. And some of his actions – the solo mission to Beckham’s house, for example – weren’t really that believable.
Look, I’m only comparing this film to Bay because you brought it up first, and for what it’s worth I preferred Hurt Locker to Transformer 2 by quite a bit. But it’s a bit silly to dismiss any minor criticism out of hand. It’s not a flawless film. It’s a very good one and I enjoyed it a lot, but I do feel that the critical circle got so giddy about watching an action film that wasn’t from Bay et al. that they overpraised this one somewhat.
Oh dear, not only does it have a cute kid subplot but a spell-it-out voiceover at the end too? Every day the smell of overpraise at HE gets stronger and stronger. That just about every critic feels obligated to mention that this should be the Iraq war movie to “break out with the audiences” just screams emperor’s new clothes.
And you know what, critics constantly complain that they have no influence. Well, when they hype up a cliche factory like it’s the fucking second coming, simply because there’s such a dire lack of quality filmmaking that anything that resembles quality films of years past suddenly becomes a masterpiece, it’s kind of hard to maintain integrity.
I will say that whoever released this certainly played their cards right with the limited release, or else the bubble might have burst by now.
P Vice,
With you on this one too. This is the second time in as many days that you’ve made perfect sense regarding this movie.
p.Vice: it’s not a cute kid subplot. The baby is only in one scene.
For me, the highlight of the film was Jeremy Renner. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in anything else but he was excellent. Looks like a pudgier Daniel Craig. I’d like to see him in more stuff.
Let me get this straight……. Hurt Locker is just a pretty good film. It’s only reviewing off the charts because all critics are wrong and all other films are shit by comparison.
Nothing like a wildly irrational generalization to make a point about a film you haven’t seen.
I wonder what the staggering amount of journalistic praise for “Hurt Locker” will mean at the box office? I just read Roger Ebert’s “Transformers” single star review calling the Mike Bay film “a horrible experience of unbearable length.” Then i noticed Variety says observers estimate “Transformers” could top $190 million domestically in it’s first five days. I caught Kathryn Bigelow on with Charlie Rose Friday and it was nice to see her give full credit to screenwriter Mark Boal.At least Jeff is no longer a lonely voice for the film.
Having just walked in from the show at the Landmark (Renner should not do interviews, which is probably why someone had brains to put Rockwell up there to try to keep it interesting), I have to say I’m with pVice on this. It’s a solid film, one of the better war movies to come along in a while.
But I think the overpraise is going to boomerang and make later audiences expect too much.
Saw Charlie Rose…she is well spoken…good looking…a class act….growing as an artist.
Will see this in July…..Sunday morning first show.
As for dollar projections…..who knows…the word
of mouth is your prime indicator….tweet away.
How about 20 mil at the US b.o.?
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