New movies with Gary Oldman this week:
True Romance - I think this was a victim of my being too young to see it when it originally came out and then confusing it with other movies, so I never got around to it. How happy am I that I had to see it for Gary Oldman's performance? Wow - what a great movie. Really makes you wonder what happened to Christian Slater's career though? Oldman isn't in the movie a ton, but as a white Rasta pimp, he does an incredible job. One of the best movies I've seen for the podcast so far.
The Backwoods - This moving started out defying all my expectations. It follows 2 English couples vacationing in Spain, in a particularly rural area. They bicker and obviously have issues, but are pretty interesting to watch. One day the men are out hunting and find an abandoned cottage, and realize there's a little girl chained up like an animal inside. They know they cannot leave her, and bring her home. Turns out she's got lobster claw hands and the town nearby is cuckoonuts and keeps her hidden. This is where the movie went a bit off the rails and stopped making sense. I might have to watch it again to figure out the end, but not the horror movie I kinda thought it might be.
Interstate 60 - I was wonderfully surprised by this movie - Quirky describes it best. Gary Oldman plays a man who can grant wishes (like a genie without a bottle). However, you can't just go find him, he finds you. James Marsden plays a guy who can't get a handle on his life and keeps looking for answers. He is granted this wish and it sends him on the oddest journey. Just check it out - odd and quirky, funny, and a bit romantic.
State of Grace - This was just a relatively cliched undercover cop movie starring Sean Penn, a young Robin Wright, and Gary Oldman. If you like cop movies in NYC with a mafia undertone, this is for you - just wasn't quite for me.
5 comments:
Got a new slogan for the show: We Love White Rasta Pimps. Thoughts?
Love it. :-D
I have a question for you both: when you decide on an actor, about how many of his or her films do you usually end up watching in preparation for the show?
Rach-I'm not sure that sets the tone we're looking for. :). But we'll find one.
Rich - it's usually between one and seven new movies depending on our familiarity with the star. We try to see all of his big ones or career changing flicks and fill gaps in our knowledge. But we're imperfect and do our best to capture the work to date. And honestly things on Netflix streaming get watched more often.
Rich-First we make a list of actors/actresses who have a current movie in release that weekend or the surrounding weekends. Then from there we narrow down to who we're familiar with and want to discuss. Some folks we've been like "No thank you."
I didn't start watching more films for the show until probably our 8th or 9th episode. Before that I relied mainly on my familiarity. Then we hit our Paul Rudd episode, and there were many of his I hadn't seen, so I decided to play catch up and kept doing it weekly for each new actor.
I think the most I've watched in one week for an actor is probably 7 or 8, but average is more like 4 or 5. We tend to start with the big, iconic roles but try to throw in the smaller films too, especially if we enjoyed them so our listeners can check them out if they haven't seen or even heard of them.
One Gary Oldman film I really enjoy is "Romeo is Bleeding." The film does go over-the-top at times but Gary Oldman and Lena Olin have such great chemistry in the film. They provide the flick with a twisted charm that works for me.
p.s. Magnolia is fantastic! Saw it twice in theatres. Once as part of a double-bill with The Talented Mr. Ripley…talk about a long day in the cinema.
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