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Macabre Stalker
Corn-Star
Joined: 07 Oct 2003
Posts: 641
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 14 Jan 2006 09:46 pm
Post subject: Match Point |
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So I just put up Phil C.'s review of Match Point and Funslinger has one in the queue as well. Both of them torched the movie. I'm bummed because I was quite excited to see it.
So I'm curious-- why do you think the Globes are giving the film lip service if it's so bad? Just because it's Allen?
Also Phil, in your review you say you think Allen's movies have been on a decline for years. I certainly agree some of his recent works have been pretty slipshod, but what did you feel about Sweet and Lowdown? Because I think that is one of his most accomplished works (as evidenced here). |
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Nate
Earned his PhD in Boll-istics
  
Joined: 28 Jul 2004
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Posts: 414
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14 Jan 2006 10:56 pm
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Match Point has appeared on several Top Ten lists. And any neo-noir movie will garner my interest.
_________________
"Trying is the first step toward failure." -Homer Simpson |
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Phil Concannon
Seedling
Joined: 09 Dec 2005
Posts: 33
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15 Jan 2006 04:20 am
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Sweet and Lowdown is a fine film but it's also the last worthwhile thing he's done. I actually like quite a few of Allen's 90's films such as Bullets over Broadway, Everyone Says I Love You and Deconstructing Harry, as they saw Allen take a few risks and stretch himself a little; but the dreadfully vapid comedies he has made in the past five years have been an embarrassment.
I can't understand why critics are falling over themselves for Match Point (around 80% on Rotten Tomatoes?). I think they've been blinded by the fact that this is a thriller set in a different country which is out of the ordinary for Allen, and they're overlooking the third-rate writing and the fact that none of it rings true. People are so desperate to see Allen make a comeback that they're overreacting to anything which shows the slightest potential, but about five or six of my friends have seen Match Point and none of us liked it, so I think the critics are a bit out of touch with this one.
I really wish Allen would stop churning out these identikit films and have a go at adapting a novel, or try his hand at somebody else's screenplay - what has he got to lose? But I don't think that's going to happen and we're just going to see Allen's films get ever more insipid, misogynistic and out of touch with the world we live in. |
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MotionPictures
Review Team Member
 
Joined: 27 Dec 2004
Location: Redmond, OR
Posts: 124
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16 Jan 2006 11:23 am
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Oh, and it was Jack Lemmon who said "Nobody talks like that..."
Nice review of Match Point. Looks like I'll save my money. |
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Phil Concannon
Seedling
Joined: 09 Dec 2005
Posts: 33
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16 Jan 2006 12:16 pm
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Damn and blast, you're right.
I need to hire a fact-checker.... |
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Macabre Stalker
Corn-Star
Joined: 07 Oct 2003
Posts: 641
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16 Jan 2006 02:17 pm
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| Phil Concannon wrote: |
Damn and blast, you're right.
I need to hire a fact-checker.... |
Sorry about that. I've caught such things before but I haven't seen Some Like it Hot in years.
Also, keep in mind you can always go back in and edit your reviews after the fact. I don't have to do it. I took care of this one though. |
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Phil Concannon
Seedling
Joined: 09 Dec 2005
Posts: 33
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16 Jan 2006 03:46 pm
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| That's great Mac, thanks. |
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Macabre Stalker
Corn-Star
Joined: 07 Oct 2003
Posts: 641
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16 Jan 2006 05:20 pm
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| Phil Concannon wrote: |
| That's great Mac, thanks. |
Yeah. That's the versatility of online publishing...you can fix your booboos. There's no reason not to. Why wait a year or five years for a "next edition" or something?  Hell, I still notice small errors in my reviews from who knows when and I'll go in and change them.
I remember one time I was at the beach on vacation and we were discussing Enemy at the Gates and I brought up All Quiet on the Western Front and I was talking about how I compared the two even though one was a World War 1 film and one was a World War 2 film and when I said that it occurred to me that I didn't think I made that distinction in my review. Sure enough when I checked back later that week, I had not, and fixed the error immediately. That wasn't very long ago and hell that was one of the first reviews I put up on the site.
Also, I highly encourage everyone to tweak their number grades from time to time. Most people are not as obsessive as I am with grades but I rank every single movie I see. I can tell you right now of the 600 movies I have graded which one I would put ahead of another even if they have the same letter grades. So whenever I put up a new review, I first enter it into my ranked films database and then I compare it to any films in the same range of rating I've reviewed on the site and make sure the numbers appropriately speak to my opinion of the film. So I'm always tweaking my numbers slightly, though never drastically (if something is in the 70s it will remain in the 70s...I work on 10 point scales).
Now naturally I don't expect everyone to be as intricate as I am, but it never hurts to update your grades from time to time. |
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MotionPictures
Review Team Member
Joined: 27 Dec 2004
Location: Redmond, OR
Posts: 124
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17 Jan 2006 10:47 am
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Heavens, I didn't mean to make it a big issue! 
Since this thread was originally about Woody Allen...
What Allen comedy would you recommend for a skeptic who has only seen Sleeper and Melinda and Melinda and on the basis of those films thinks that Allen is really overrated? Which of his comedies do you think would convince the skeptic overwise?
Yes, the skeptic is me. |
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Macabre Stalker
Corn-Star
Joined: 07 Oct 2003
Posts: 641
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17 Jan 2006 11:11 am
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| MotionPictures wrote: |
Heavens, I didn't mean to make it a big issue!
Since this thread was originally about Woody Allen...
What Allen comedy would you recommend for a skeptic who has only seen Sleeper and Melinda and Melinda and on the basis of those films thinks that Allen is really overrated? Which of his comedies do you think would convince the skeptic overwise?
Yes, the skeptic is me. |
Comedy or film in general?
Sweet and Lowdown is my favorite Woody Allen movie, but while it has comedic moments it is not a comedy.
Crimes and Misdemeanors is quite funny. I like Manhattan Murder Mystery a lot. And of course you have the seminal Annie Hall.
Any of those four are good watching. I haven't seen Melinda and Melinda yet even though we got a free copy of it. And yeah, Sleeper is not one of his better works.
I would never call Allen overrated. It's rare I don't enjoy one of his films (I hated Everyone Says I Love You), but there's a familiarity to almost all of his films that can grow tired with some viewers. |
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Phil Concannon
Seedling
Joined: 09 Dec 2005
Posts: 33
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17 Jan 2006 03:57 pm
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Personally, I think Love and Death is Woody's funniest film but Crimes and Misdemeanours is his best film in general.
Based on the two films you've seen I don't think you've really seen Allen at his very best. Annie Hall is great, a romantic comedy which is both genuinely romantic and genuinely funny; Zelig is brilliant both in concept and execution; while The Purple Rose of Cairo, Braodway Danny Rose and Bullets over Broadway are all very different films which are hilarious and funny.
Aside from his masterpiece Crimes and Misdemeanours, the best of Woody's slightly more serious fare is probably Hannah and her Sisters (which is also very funny). In the 90's Allen produced two of his darkest and most interesting films; Husbands and Wives is a brilliantly acted depiction of marriages in decline while Deconstructing Harry is an extraordinary film in which Woody attacks his own personality in honest and acerbic fashion.
Funnily enough, one of Woody's best films is actually one he didn't direct. Play it Again Sam, based on his play but directed by Herbert Ross, is an absolutely fantastic film in which Allen plays a film critic who gets dating advice from the ghost of Humphrey Bogart.
So hopefully you can check out some of those films before losing faith with Allen completely. I still think he's one of the best filmmakers of the last thirty years which only makes the standard of his recent work even harder to take. |
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