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Unpopular movie opinions...

Edward

Bartender
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25,074
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London, UK
It may be true that Shakespeare can work in any setting, but gah! The acting in that Baz Luhrmann version of Romeo and Juliet is atrocious.

Long time since I've seen it, but I remember liking it a lot. It sticks out as the ONLY recorded production of that play I've seen where they clearly understood that is was about teenage infatuation, not love. I hate hearing Romeo and Juliet referred to as a love story.
 

Young fogey

One of the Regulars
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276
Location
Eastern US
It may be true that Shakespeare can work in any setting, but gah! The acting in that Baz Luhrmann version of Romeo and Juliet is atrocious.

Never saw that one but liked his Moulin Rouge! Doubted very much it would work with the anachronistic music but it does.

I mentioned I hate Beatles movies (except Yellow Submarine, which mostly wasn't really them; I like it): not camp fun but unwatchable. On that note there was Across the Universe. Not only does it glorify the destruction of the culture I and the rest of this board celebrate but someone managed to take a top-quality songbook (love them or not, their music is good), set it in its period and still make an awful musical.

It, the three live-action Beatles pics, John Leguizamo (a wasted talent) in The Pest, Scary Movie, The Thin Red Line (literally fell asleep at the cinema – Saving Private Ryan it ain't) and Sally and St Anne (a golden-era black-and-white stinker) are in my Ten Worst list. I still have to pick the remaining two. Silverado didn't hold my interest at the time so maybe it's No. 9. Mars Attacks! (not funny but desperately trying to be) or maybe The Toy (OK story and it has its moments but mostly unfunny) as No. 10.
 
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Harp

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,508
Location
Chicago, IL US
Long time since I've seen it, but I remember liking it a lot. It sticks out as the ONLY recorded production of that play I've seen where they clearly understood that is was about teenage infatuation, not love. I hate hearing Romeo and Juliet referred to as a love story.


I recall my school days and Brother Terrence Sloan, a strict master
who seldom, if ever, showed emotion, commenting wistfully that he
thought Romeo "was in love with Love, not Juliet, alas."
 

S_M_Cumberworth

One of the Regulars
Messages
114
Location
Japan, formerly Los Angeles
I mentioned I hate Beatles movies (except Yellow Submarine, which mostly wasn't really them; I like it): not camp fun but unwatchable. On that note there was Across the Universe. Not only does it glorify the destruction of the culture I and the rest of this board celebrate but someone managed to take a top-quality songbook (love them or not, their music is good), set it in its period and still make an awful musical.

You hate all the Beatles movies? That's too bad. I really think A Hard Day's Night is superb.

Never saw Across the Universe, since it looked lamentably bad to me. I think Julie Taymor started off rather well, but she seems to be getting worse and worse with each movie she makes (not to mention her Spider-man Broadway musical). Her film version of The Tempest was recently released, and it, too, looks terrible.
 

S_M_Cumberworth

One of the Regulars
Messages
114
Location
Japan, formerly Los Angeles
Long time since I've seen it, but I remember liking it a lot. It sticks out as the ONLY recorded production of that play I've seen where they clearly understood that is was about teenage infatuation, not love. I hate hearing Romeo and Juliet referred to as a love story.

I'll give it that. I think it was interesting conceptually, but I feel that none of the actors knew what they were doing. It was just too much line recital and not enough acting. It came off like a high school drama production in that regard.
 

MissMittens

One Too Many
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1,628
Location
Philadelphia USA
Yellow Submarine made no sense to me until a trip to Amsterdam when I dropped acid and watched it on a VCR at some other students' pad I ended up at. That was while I was still of collegiate age, and I have not dropped acid or any other illicit substance since, nor do I condone the use of any drug except MIDOL*. However, it unlocked things in the movie I'm still conscious of two decades later whenever I see it, that I simply wasn't aware of before that experience.

*MIDOL - saved the lives of many men for several decades ;)
 

Young fogey

One of the Regulars
Messages
276
Location
Eastern US
You hate all the Beatles movies? That's too bad. I really think A Hard Day's Night is superb.

Never saw Across the Universe, since it looked lamentably bad to me. I think Julie Taymor started off rather well, but she seems to be getting worse and worse with each movie she makes (not to mention her Spider-man Broadway musical). Her film version of The Tempest was recently released, and it, too, looks terrible.

I'll grant you AHDN is the best of the three live-action Beatles pics (Help! and Magical Mystery Tour being respectively hackneyed, unfunny comedy and incoherent druggie junk), sort of a time capsule of the end of the golden era (which for me is about 1935-1965), a quickly, cheaply made film (which is why it's in black and white) trying to make some money off the pop band du jour before they fall off the charts.

I'll also grant you that maybe I don't get AHDN's version of British comedy.

Good point others have made about Romeo and Juliet. Never thought of it that way. You may be right. But... I remember picking up in school that Shakespeare contrasted teenage infatuation – Romeo's pining for Rosaline – with 'the real thing' for Juliet.
 
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Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,074
Location
London, UK
Young fogey;1155773 Good point others have made about [I said:
Romeo and Juliet[/I]. Never thought of it that way. You may be right. But... I remember picking up in school that Shakespeare contrasted teenage infatuation – Romeo's pining for Rosaline – with 'the real thing' for Juliet.

I suppose that comes down to personal interpretation - for me, the references to Rosaline put Juliet entirely in context as simply the latest fixation for Romeo...
 

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