Trademark wrote:
I wouldn't see too much of a market for this outside of noir geeks and Humphrey Bogart impersonators.
Eh, it's not like LA Confidential, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Hollywoodland, The Black Dahlia, etc., etc. we're brimming with (at the time) A-List talent when they came out. I can't really think of any straight noir in the 2ks that has made any money either, though.
In any case, just downloaded. Excited for this too.
Having just rewatched Bringing Out the Dead, I was wondering what Ving Rhames had been up to. If I wasn't so paranoid, this flick would be kitchen country right now. As such, I'll probably catch it at Redbox. Still can't figure why Thomas Jane's career never really took off. Speaking of which, anyone seen Killshot?
Looks great, but guilty at the noir geek thing, haha. Just bought me a couple of Cagney movies the other day.
PopeyeJones wrote:
Trademark wrote:
I wouldn't see too much of a market for this outside of noir geeks and Humphrey Bogart impersonators.
Eh, it's not like LA Confidential, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Hollywoodland, The Black Dahlia, etc., etc. we're brimming with (at the time) A-List talent when they came out. I can't really think of any straight noir in the 2ks that has made any money either, though.
In any case, just downloaded. Excited for this too.
Hadn't heard of Hollywoodland yet. Thanks. I'll check it. I digged Brick also. Setting was different but the elements were there for sure.
Speaking of noir, anyone know whatever happened to Ghosts of the Heartland? Did it get a US release? Here's a trailer. It gets a 4.7 or something on IMDb but the trailer looks way too cool and authentic for that.
EDIT: Oh, the links on this forum are the same color as regular text, haha.
Just watched this. Not as good as I wanted it to be.
The first minutes are pretty awesome, the noir stuff I liked and the look was pretty cool.
I wanted it to be a more noir version of Payback, or like Sin City if it had been all Marv. And it started like that too, but than just lost steam somehow.
You film buffs will probably like a lot of things in this movie, just don't expect too much.
There was a lot I liked about this like Thomas Jane (Although maybe I'm clouded by love of the man because of his appearances on Arrested Development and my irrational love of the first Punisher, which the movie felt like a lot at times). I liked Ving Rhames and the dude who was Whitmore. The noir feel worked for the most part. Wasn't too sold on the Japanese knife throwing school-girl. A good idea but poorly executed here. I did like the crazy student art instillation she did though. Fucking hated the chick in this, aside from looking sexy, she just seemed like she was doing the poorest noir femme fatale imitation possible (Ironic considering I liked Jane's Bogartism). The worse thing about the movie and made it unnecessarily cartoony was Matchstick, that motherfucker. The Joker impression just grated to the point that I wish he'd die in the first altercation with Malone. The only redeeming aspect was how Malone played off him, and how cathartic it was when he fell for the same trick twice.
Movie started to suck the moment Matchstick showed up. Malone needed to kill a whole lot more people, He slaughters goons in the first scene but won't kill anybody after that.
In a movie like this, the antagonist should murder as much as possible (see Shoot Em Up)
yeah i was surprised how much that guy grated, considering he basically played the same character in Punisher with much better results. way too much Ledger's Joker influence
aside from that, biggest problem with the movie was the lack of balance between homage and parody. it's hard to pull off both simultaneously, Black Dynomite did it well but here it felt awkward.
and it def needed more scenes like the beginning.
Valiant effort overall, i enjoyed despite the flaws
drizzle wrote:yeah i was surprised how much that guy grated, considering he basically played the same character in Punisher with much better results. way too much Ledger's Joker influence
aside from that, biggest problem with the movie was the lack of balance between homage and parody. it's hard to pull off both simultaneously, Black Dynomite did it well but here it felt awkward.
and it def needed more scenes like the beginning.
Valiant effort overall, i enjoyed despite the flaws
I really hated this movie, and I love noir and noir hybrids for the most part. I really dug Brick for example which I know a lot of people don't feel on here.
This felt more like an over the top superhero movie with ridiculous villains than it did a noir. Poor cast imo as well.
The noir characters didn't mix well with the non noir characters, and even the noir dialogue was pretty poor. Wasn't a big fan of the story and ending either.
If the whole movie had been more like the first 10 minutes, and/or set in the 40's it would have been a much better film.
3 outta 10
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it's a decent idea that's terribly realized with a nudge-wink smugness of a 3rd rate wes anderson understudy. feels like it was made by somebody who read an article about noir once and kinda liked the idea but didn't really want to get their hands dirty with those boring old black and white movies because they're not quirky and ironic enough.
Why do you hate Brick so much?