Well, come on, the movie is called The Iron Lady, what do you want me to do? And a remarkably schizzy movie it is, as I discuss in my review for MSN Movies.
My year’s work for that redoubtable website is pretty much done. Also up now is another of my colloquys with colleague Glenn Whipp; the latest “Between Two Glenns” (and how delightfully proprietary is that column title?) has us discussing remakes and their discontents. Finally, if you missed it, I compiled a list of 2011’s WORST movies, and wrote some complaints about them. All that’s left for the year is my review of the very excellent A Separation, which should be posted over there soon. You’ll be alerted.
With any luck I’ll have the second installment of my Blu-ray Consumer Guide Holiday Thingie up before the Night Before Christmas. So keep your eye out for that, too, here.
“…possibly because Adam Sandler hasn’t remade anything since he took down Frank Capra and Robert Aldrich several years ago with the brutal one-two punch that was “Mr. Deeds” and “The Longest Yard.””
Forgotten already about Cactus Flower revamp Just Go with It, or courteous decision to let your cohort’s slip go unmentioned? A fun exchange either way.
I liked THOR. I hated SUCKER PUNCH. Friends?
Yeah, absolutely. Tony Dayoub, also a friend, liked THOR, too. I just don’t get it. Maybe I was sitting too close.
I get the complaint about lack of action – that bewildered me a little bit, too, though I thought when the action it arrived it was fairly delightful. Maybe it’s just my whole “Natalie Portman thing” coming through too strongly. But I would sort of think, and please don’t take this as heresy, but I would sort of think that you, as a strong Jack Kirby man, would have at least appreciated that the crazy, early-Marvel version of space, all purple and red and black and glass bridges, made its screen debut with some degree of faithfulness.
As a comic-book nerd might put it, perhaps the problem with the ‘Thor’ movie was that it had too much Vince Colletta and not enough Jack Kirby?
Kirby was maybe too specific a reference. Mainly, I just liked the depiction of the lunatic Marvel vision of outer space. I hadn’t seen that in any comic book film, including the abysmal FANTASTIC FOUR movies, which should have been all over that.
Not remembering any scenes where the backgrounds disappeared randomly, Oliver C.
Damn, Bruce. Awesome.
Anyway…I get where Bill’s coming from, INCLUDING the Portman thing (what’d you think of “Your Highness,” man?) but there just wasn’t a sufficient amount of the okay/interesting stuff to make up for the luggishness of Hemsworth, the blandness of Hiddleston, and the…nothingness of the script. Most direly disappointing to me was the film’s conception of Loki. I really enjoyed his comic book incarnation as a, you’ll excuse the term, cosmic nihilist, a real honey-badger of an off-his-rocker bad guy. It’s arguable indeed that Lee/Kirby’s Loki was something of an influence on the Moore (and later Nolan) Joker. The way the film saddles him with this tedious MOTIVATION really dragged on me.
There are some serious comic book geeks here. Which I don’t mean as a slight – I just can’t compete, is all.
I get the Loki problem, but motivation is, unfortunately, here to stay. Maybe I’m too forgiving. Probably I am. But I had fun with it, and thought Branagh, much to my dismay, brought a whole lot more verve and craft to this than I ever thought he would.
“what’d you think of ‘Your Highness,’ man?”
My impression was generally favorable, due in no small part to one Natalie Portman. As it happens.
Bruce, that comment is brilliant. Thank you.
Shame about THE IRON LADY– I was kind of curious to see Streep play Thatcher. As you described the film’s flahback structure and the links to Thatcher’s deteriorating health (plus Jim Broadbent), I wondered how similar it was to something like IRIS in tone. That’s another film that was almost entirely redeemed for me by the acting, particularly Broadbent’s. I hadn’t realized this had the same director as the exhausting MAMMA MIA!–urgh. Although it makes me wonder if it might have worked better if they’d turned Thatcher’s life into a wild musical.
Boy I hated Submarine. Someone actually recommended that to me. Lesson: never listen to recommendations.
To me the most intriguing choice on your worsts list is “Incendies”, which actually made it onto one or two best lists. You brought back my own decidedly mixed feelings about the film. As I was watching it, I’ll admit I enjoyed it but at the conclusion I had to do a double take at a plot that could only be described as “Deus Ex Whatthehell?”. The film is based on the premise (spoiler alert, y’all) that a mother on her deathbed would send her children on a global quest into some serious danger zones to find a man she knows lives pretty much where they started from. “Gee, thanks, Mom. Couldn’t you have just left us some stock certificates and the chiffonier?”
Count me in the “I actually kinda liked THOR” group. Like Bill, I also have an…inclination, shall we say, towards Natalie Portman, as well as an appreciation for Kat Dennings, both in how she looks and in her crack comic timing (if only “2 Broke Girls” was better written, I’d watch it regularly!). But I also didn’t mind Hemsworth or Hiddleston, and thought it was fun. Yes, CAPTAIN AMERICA was better, and admittedly, I saw this on DVD and not in theaters, but still, I had a decent time.
Which is more than I can say for SUBMARINE. Having been lucky enough to miss every other film on your list, I can truly say it was, to date, the worst film I saw in the past year.
YES! You rock, Glenn, for calling out the bullshit that is “Incendies.” I remember sitting in the theater, just feeling the manipulation every moment through. Near the end of the film, during the last abomination of a twist, a woman next to me muttered, “This is what war does to people.” I would have cried for humanity at that point, but I’d given up years ago.
Speaking of hypersensitive adolescent males, I’d like to put in a good word for RESTLESS on your list. The Oh-my-fucking-god-why-the-fuck-am-I-stuck-in-this-theater list.
DRIVE was pretty loathsome too. Especially considering the hype and the idiotic fawning that rode along with it.
“skinky”. That’s fabulous.
I’ve certainly hated all the RUSHMORE-inspired sensitive-boy movies. When I saw GARDEN STATE, I tried to contain my laughter for the sake of all the adoring lads in the audience, but once Braff burbled “This is me, Dad! This is my life!”, the giggles would not be denied. But then, I think RUSHMORE is an egregious hunk of special pleading on behalf of self-satisfied, cheeky sociopaths everywhere, so all its derivatives have just seemed like more of the same.
Oh, wow, I was way off. I thought this was “Margaret Thatcher: Vampire Hunter”. Glad I didn’t waste my money.
A musical version of ‘The Iron Lady’ would have a great soundtrack, but none of the songs would be in favour of her.
I’m still interested in seeing it but, having lived through the Thatcher years in England, just looking at that still above gets my blood pressure up so I’m not sure I could sit through it.
I liked TFB’s comment about Garden State – for all the flak it gets I think Freddy Got Fingered drove the sensitive-boy (and man-child) cliches into total overdrive a priori. I seem to remember it got so excruciating that it attained a kind of horrific zen brilliance, especially in the scene where we finally see Tom Green’s character’s horrific animation.
On the Streep film, I was a little surprised that the right wing press here in the UK are going apoplectic over portraying their beloved leader as a slightly addled old lady, as I thought that this was supposed to be a highly respectful deification of the old coot. I’m not sure the fury of the Daily Mail will inspire me to actually watch The Iron Lady, but it helps!
On turning The Iron Lady into a musical, I remember thinking when the casting information about Oliver Stone’s “W. [dub-ya]” was announced that it seemed like it was going to be a parody film, hopes that sadly never were fulfilled. Visions of Thandie Newton playing Condoleezza Rice and doing a parody of that Cher music video on the deck of the oil tanker named after her (“I’m pumping, pumping the oil of your love”), sprang to mind.
But then I suppose those images would, since I thought Sucker Punch was surprisingly good, for a Zak Snyder film!
Garden State is really nothing like Rushmore tonally though.
The former is confessional, while the latter is wry.
In other words, Rushmore is Bob Dylan, and Garden State is Elliott Smith.
I would say the difference is more that the hero of GARDEN STATE is a mope, while the hero of RUSHMORE is a monster. “Hero”, not “protagonist”, because that’s how the movie sees each boy, and that’s exactly the problem.
I would, however, totally pay to see “Margaret Thatcher: Vampire Hunter”. I mean… LOOOOOOK AT HER!