Posted on 07/04/2005 4:12:15 PM PDT by timsbella
I wouldn't watch anything connected to Spike Lee.
And I had already made up my mind to avoid "War of the Worlds." I have seen exactly three Tom Cruise movies in my life, and I sat through them for reasons other than Tom Cruise. I went to see "Top Gun" because I like military aircraft. I saw "A Few Good Men" because it had a military theme. There were other actors in it, notably Jack Nicholson, who are far better at their craft than Tom Cruise. Finally, I saw "The Firm" because of a personal connection to Memphis. If I gave it a lot of thought, I'm sure I could come up with a lot of actors who would have done a better job in the lead role than Tom Cruise. He is probably the most overrated, self-important actor in history.
That said, I'm glad he didn't attempt a Southern accent in "The Firm." There's nothing worse than a non-Southern actor trying to do a Southern accent. My wife was watching "Sayonara" the other day. I happened to walk into the living room and heard Marlon Brando trying to speak Southern. What a joke! Some actor who probably never spent a day in the South, and he thinks talking through his nose equates to a Southern accent!
If there was ever a director-is-the-star movie it's this new WOTW. Cruise is irrelevant to it and it probably would have worked just as well if not better with someone who looks more like an Average Joe. 25th Hour is one of the best American features of the decade thus far. You're missing out. Lee didn't write it. Hence its quality. :-)
Looks like somebody else posted an answer on this thread. IMHO, part of the reason "Master and Commander" didn't do well at the box office was due to poor marketing. Duty, honor, and loyalty are such foreign concepts to Hollyweird that the powers-that-be don't know how to market a film that illustrates those virtues. Guess all that happy powder they shove up their noses has adversely affected their brains.
Yes, "National Treasure" was good. On top of that, there was no gratuitous foul language in the film. It is one of those rare films that the entire family can enjoy. But a friend of ours, who in an expert on historic documents and their preservation, would have probably gone into cardiac arrest at the sight of Nicholas Cage's character handling the original Declaration of Independence without white cotton gloves!
And I have to say that ever since "Windtalkers" I have been impressed with the upward spike in Nicholas Cage's acting. Of course, there are those who would say that he had only one way to go.
I almost never go to the theaters anymore anyway. Unless it is something that I am convinced I need to see "on the big screen", I wait for it to come out on dvd, and even then, I'm way behind on watching movies. I just don't have that kind of time to waste. I took the family to the last Star Wars movie this year, but I don't see any coming up that I feel I'll need to go to the theater for, so it may just be the one movie for this year.
"There's nothing worse than a non-Southern actor trying to do a Southern accent."
It's like fingernails on a blackboard, isn't it?
The reason Master and Commander didn't do well at the boxoffice is because nobody wanted to see it.
"The reason Master and Commander didn't do well at the boxoffice is because nobody wanted to see it."
As I wrote in an earlier post, it did not do well at the box office because the cocaine-riddled Hollyweird types didn't know what a treasure they had and they didn't know how to market the film. Duty, honor, and loyalty are concepts that left Hollyweird years ago.
The movie had a budget of over $100 million. That a fairly large investment. Don't you think that marketing such an expensive product would have been on their minds?
"It's like fingernails on a blackboard, isn't it?"
You said it! Another case where a dialect coach was sorely needed is "Sergeant York." I know some folks from Sergeant York's part of Tennessee, and nobody in that area talks like the characters in the film. I don't know who was worse, Gary Cooper or Joan Leslie.
And then there's the reigning champion of phony Southern accents, "Gone With The Wind." English accents three octaves higher than normal do not equate to Southern accents. The only one who got it right was Hattie McDaniel. She should have been hired as a dialect coach.
Hollywood has managed to get it right in recent years. "Ride With The Devil" was a well-done little Civil War film released around 1999. It was historically correct, and the Southern accents were spot on. Unfortunately, it was another example of Hollywood not knowing how to market what they had. So the film died at the box office.
"Ride With The Devil" ...Unfortunately, it was another example of Hollywood not knowing how to market what they had. "
Musta bin. I never heard of it.
"Don't you think that marketing such an expensive product would have been on their minds?"
It may have been on their tiny little minds, but they blew it. I never even heard of it till I saw it on the discount rack at the Navy Exchange in Yokosuka.
"And then there's the reigning champion of phony Southern accents, "Gone With The Wind."
What did you think of the job Tom Hanks did in Forrest Gump of combining a Southern accent with a "developmentally challenged" accent?
Those film industry marketing jobs are great gigs. They pay like $350k. You might want to consider changing careers. If you could get people into the theaters to see Master & Commander you'd be a marketing god.
Not a great fan of Tom Hanks. I didn't see "Forrest Gump." The clips I saw on TV didn't impress me.
Another Southern accent disaster was "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof." I saw it a long time ago, when it was first released, and recall asking myself, "Why am I here?" when I heard Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor trying to speak Southern. I guess the hot redhead sitting next to me kept me in the theater.
"Ride With The Devil" dealt with the no-quarter irregular warfare in Missouri and Kansas between the pro-Confederate Bushwhackers and the pro-Union Jayhawkers. It was directed by Ang Lee, the noted Taiwanese director. Fancy that! It took a Taiwanese to make a decent Civil War film! "Ride" was one of Tobey Maguire's first movies. Jim Caviezel, later of "The Passion of the Christ," portrayed Black John Ambrose, a fictional version of Bloody Bill Anderson. Jeffrey Wright gave an outstanding performance as a freed slave riding with the Bushwhackers.
If you like Civil War films with historically correct firearms and correct accents, I highly recommend "Ride With The Devil." It's out on DVD, but it may be hard to find. I probably snagged one of the first copies pressed. It's on VHS, but it's pan-and-scan, and the sound quality is not as good.
"I highly recommend "Ride With The Devil."
I've made a mental note.
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