'Ring' It On! ("LOTR: The Return of the King" and "Cold Mountain" will be Oscar frontrunners)

NY Post ^ | December 4, 2003 | LOU LUMENICK

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YES, it's true: "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" is the picture to beat at this year's Oscars.

Shown to the press this week in advance of its Dec. 17 opening, the 3 1/2-hour "Rings" exceeds its huge expectations with a more cleanly told, emotionally involving and better-acted story than its Oscar-nominated predecessors'; awesome, sweeping battle scenes; and sheer visual grandeur that could blow away the competition.

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Usually, any film with gnomes, elves and fairies is a much miss (sort of like the cinematic equivalent of a Renaissance Festival or a Jethro Tull concert), but the first two LOTR movies were pretty cool. Word is that the third one is the best.

[Paradox]

I can't wait, unlike the somewhat dissappointing Matrix finale, the Rings Trilogy sounds like it has a fitting end.

[Ex-Dem]

I read Cold Mountain a few years ago. Great storytelling with a lot of symbolism and imagery. Fairly depressing ending though, IIRC. I'd be interested to see how closely Hollywood keeps to the original storyline.

[TheBigB]

What? No nods for Freddy vs. Jason?? Highway robbery, I tellya...

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I bailed on the Matrix movies about twenty minutes into the second.

Most movies that have had great sequels (Terminator, Mad Max, The Godfather) have pretty bad third entries (The Godfather III was particularly horrendous - awful in every way.)

I guess LOTR will be the exception.

[Dead Dog]

Saw the previews for Cold Mt. when I went to see Master and Commander. It looked pretty good, but I also noticed it was a Miramax film. I figured it must be an anti war flick that glorifies a deserters and dereliction of duty.

What was the book about?

[Psycho_Bunny]

lol....It took me all of two minutes of The Natural to realize there was no way the film was going to keep the storyline of the book.

The way Hollywood is compelled to ruin good books really annoys me.

[Dead Dog]

I'm guessing LOTR will be an exception because it was written by a WWI veteran who understood the real world, and that all three were written, and filmed, as one story.

Matrix, and Fight Club for that matter, were written by metrosexual sissies who's only real life experience are as first hand witnesses to the failure of Dr. Spock. In my less then humble opinion, of course.

[RonF]

Most movies that have had great sequels (Terminator, Mad Max, The Godfather) have pretty bad third entries (The Godfather III was particularly horrendous - awful in every way.)

Most movies that develop into series (Godfather, Terminator, Rocky) have an initial movie based on a good story that is then stretched into Rocky II, Rocky III, etc. But LOTR was written as a trilogy in the first place, so there's original material to base the 2nd and 3rd films on, and a continuing story with unresolved elements that carry over from film to film.

[Hodar]

I have seen (all too frequently) the previews for "Cold Mountain". The previews bored me to tears, good grief, the preview is the most boring and depressing 5 minutes I have spent in years. My wife and I have no intention of actually wasting our time, let alone our cash; watching a movie that is as boring and depressing as the previews made this move appear. Naw, if we want boredom and depression we'll dig out some our insurance policies and read what isn't covered.

Now, Return of the King looks promising. Even if you don't like the fantasy of the Lord of the Rings series; the acting, the scenery and the battles make this movie a stand out. So this will be yet another movie that we'll throw money at, and another DVD to add to our collection.

[Ex-Dem]

I don't want to spoil it for anyone for hasn't read the book and intends to see the movie, so I've typed in up in white font. Highlight the text below to read it:

SPOILER BEGIN

The main character in the book (I think he's played by Jude Law) is a soldier in the confederate army. He was wounded (not seriously) and is in an army hospital at the beginning of the book. IIRC, he was going to be sent back to the front lines after he recovered. He decides that he's had enough of the war, so he deserts to go back home to his wife or girlfriend. Much of the book basically recounts the obstacles he encounters on his way home (to Virginia?). Fairly dark and depressing book IIRC. It also does tend to glorify deserters...

SPOILER END

[John H K]

I've heard the book is excellent, but haven't gotten around to reading it. My sister hates the idea that Nicole Kidman is in the movie, though. Jude Law is an excellent actor.

Hope the accents aren't too butchered.

It it is, in fact, about a Confederate deserter at the end of the Civil War.

I despised Minghella's previous film, "The English Patient" and I suspect in 20 years that will be one of those "what the hell was the academy THINKING?" films.

I saw the trailer for it as well when I saw Master and Commander, and it did look impressive, especially the explosion of the Petersburg mine (I'm told that's not in the book, however.

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Fight Club was a great movie! One of the most underrated of the last decade.

It really had little to do with fighting, and was, on one level, about metrosexual frustration at themselves for being such emasculated sissies. It was very funny and cutting social commentary on those types of men.

Plus, Meat Loaf sobbing with bitchtits was priceless.

[John H K]

The Petersburg mine exploding is boring?

[Dead Dog]

Thanks, and cool way to conceal the spoiler. I'm probably paranoid, but it figures Miramax would run something like this at this time. Sound kinda like that short story about the guy getting hung from a bridge..dreams of his escape and return to his woman, but hits the end of his rope just as he gets to her.

[Ex-Dem]

You're more right about the plot than you might realize ;)...

[Hodar]

You MUST have seen a different preview that what I saw. I saw a woman whining and moaning about the war, and asking her husband to quit fighting and come home. I saw a cold and desolate mountain, with women whining about how rough life is. Then they had a statement where deserters would be hunted down, and a posse shooting at a person who is camping... Then more moaning, more wintery scenes, some shots of apparent war casualties. But, I didn't see a mine explode. Lots of close ups of various actresses on the verge of tears, and yet more moaning about how rough life is. Nothing at all compelling me to throw money and time to see this flick.

[ClearCase_guy]

Peter Jackson directed three huge movies simultaneously. On location. Wielding a massive budget of $300 Milliion. He took a much beloved trilogy and turned it into three movies that were hugely popular with both fans and critics.

No director has ever done anything so daring. In addition, the cast is mostly made up of non-famous actors -- yet the performances of Elijah Wood, Andy Serkis, Sean Astin, Ian McKellan and Viggo Morgenstern are of very high quality. Must be a good director to achieve that.

And word of mouth says that ROTK will clearly be the best of the three. If the Academy fails to reward Jackson ... if the academy instead focuses on a depressing movie which glorifies a military deserter ... well, I guess I won't be too surprised.

[pro libertate]

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek." I haven't seen that in years.

[KevinDavis]

I would like to see Secondhand Lion nominated. Very good movie.