Thursday, April 14, 2005

be cool

We chose F Gary Grey's Be Cool for our cinema viewing last night. Dan had heard good things about it and so had I, including a glowing review from Chris Curtis and a slightly more honest but still positive one from Mr Herald&Post Film Reviwer himself, Matt Adcock

The film is jam packed with famous people (yeah, I know most films are but this one more than usual, OK?) with poor excuses for cameos all over the place. It's kinda nice at first, a bit like being in a crowd of people where you keep recognising old friends. But it gets tiresome after a while seeing so many people playing themselves.

As a film, it can't really decide which shelf to file itself on either. It has a wonderfully kitsch 70s feel to it but is also a gangster/mobster movie, a music industry "here's a singer who needs to launch her career who is played by a singer who needs to revive her career in real life" film, a comedy, a self-parody... and flitting between all these styles and genres gets tiring too. In my opinion they aren't well blended enough to make one film.

And as a result it just feels way too long. There are so many sub groups in the double crossing gangster bit of the plot that rather than being clever and complicated it just ends up being convaluted and annoying. And it's one of those films where there are loads of points at which you think "oh good, that'll be the end then" but it just carries on (and on and on and on)

We went to the cinema because we wanted to spend an evening together. We also had a food shopping list in the car, waiting for us to go to Asda afterwards but the film went on so long we didn't have time. The result... me in the cinema totally bored with a snoring Dan sat next to me and an empty fridge at home. We'd have had a better evening together in Asda.

10 comments:

  1. Cinema in 2005 is a disaster. I don't think we've seen one good film at the cinema since I HEART Huckabees and The Incredibles which were ages ago.

    Grrr.

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  2. True but there's some good stuff coming in:

    - The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy (29/04/05)
    - Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (29/07/05)
    - The Chronicles of Narnia (9/12/05)

    At least, I'm counting on them to be good. There's three absolute classic books there so they'd better not stuff them up!

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  3. I am looking forward to the Charlie & The Chocolate Factory one very much. Tim Burton directing and Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka! You probably can't go wrong there.

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  4. Hey Rach,
    Be Cool was kind of amusing but to long like you said...

    I saw Hitch Hikers last night and can confirm that it's good - a real labour of love which I think a lot of people might not 'get' - it's very British but I think that's a good thing!! (and I got a wicked freebie - on each seat was a Hitch Hikers branded towel - which just might be the most fitting promo piece ever!)

    P.S. Can you update the link to my Be Cool review as the one you've posted doesn't seem to work!?

    I'm Tiger Woods...

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  5. Go see The Life Aquatic of Steve Zizou!
    (http://lifeaquatic.movies.go.com/splash.html) It's great!!

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  6. I never go to the cinema for about 3 years, and then I go twice in one week! But if Hitchhikers, Choc factory (but will the room with all the lolly pops and the edible lemon cups be the same as in the Gene Wilder classic?), AND Narnia are all coming out, I think I might need to continue the trend!
    Matt, which cinema did you go to?

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  7. Aaaaaaargh! Anonymous commenters! I changed my settings today because Ben Bell (a TypePad member) wanted to comment and doesn't have a blogger account.

    But now I have anonymous comments again. So frustrating! Who ARE you?

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  8. Hey - whoever you are... I saw H2G2 at the empire in Leicester Sq. Am meeting the cast next week to see what they have to say about it - I'll post that interview on my blog...

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  9. Hi Rach! It's me Kerenza who was the anonymous one! I dont understand it sometimes. It wouldnt let me log in as me, it didnt give me the option to when I wanted to post, and then all of a sudden it came up as anonymous! Sorry! I was kinda surprised as I didnt quite understand,as I thought it usually doesnt let you do anonymous comments! SOrry!

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  10. Hey, am I all alone in liking Be Cool. It's about the only comedy I've liked in an age. Oh well, back to depressing drama where I'm happiest

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