Over the last few weeks I caught
A Beautiful Mind and
What Lies Beneath on the good ol' network tele. I might as well drop a lil' something-something on each.
Yes, I am one of the eleven people out there that had not seen
A Beautiful Mind. As someone who tries extremely hard to retain judgement until he has seen a film, I must say I thought the Ron Howard helmed, Russell Crowe starring film was going to be overrated no matter what. I was a little surprised to find it an outstanding film that lives up to the hype. The acting is superb and the story unfolds in a magical, lyrical blend of happiness, fantasy, paranoia, and grim adversity. It is without a doubt a very poignant and insightful look at mental illness and the personal story of John Nash. However, I must add, there's some poetic license taken with Nash's biography. In real life Nash had a child out of wedlock and his wife (played by the raven haired beauty Jennifer Connelly) divorced him soon after the birth of their child. She then took him in as a basically a border and they lived as distant roommates for years. In 2001 they remarried.
Another lesson in not pre-judging a film is
What Lies Beneath. Director Robert Zemeckis needed to keep busy with a film crew while Tom Hanks was getting ripped for CAST AWAY. What we have here is an old-fashioned thriller. While it's not Hitchcock it is Hitchcock-lite. Even the score reminds me of the Hitch classics. I found the movie to be quite enjoyable with a sexy Michelle Pfeiffer and a buff Harrison Ford (seriously check out his shirtless scenes, the guy made me tingle a little --- don't tell anyone! --- I'm not gay!). If you want a smart, sexy popcorn movie ... you'd do well with What Lies Beneath.
Yes, I am one of the eleven people out there that had not seen A Beautiful Mind. As someone who tries extremely hard to retain judgement until he has seen a film, I must say I thought the Ron Howard helmed, Russell Crowe starring film was going to be overrated no matter what. I was a little surprised to find it an outstanding film that lives up to the hype. The acting is superb and the story unfolds in a magical, lyrical blend of happiness, fantasy, paranoia, and grim adversity. It is without a doubt a very poignant and insightful look at mental illness and the personal story of John Nash. However, I must add, there's some poetic license taken with Nash's biography. In real life Nash had a child out of wedlock and his wife (played by the raven haired beauty Jennifer Connelly) divorced him soon after the birth of their child. She then took him in as a basically a border and they lived as distant roommates for years. In 2001 they remarried.
Another lesson in not pre-judging a film is What Lies Beneath. Director Robert Zemeckis needed to keep busy with a film crew while Tom Hanks was getting ripped for CAST AWAY. What we have here is an old-fashioned thriller. While it's not Hitchcock it is Hitchcock-lite. Even the score reminds me of the Hitch classics. I found the movie to be quite enjoyable with a sexy Michelle Pfeiffer and a buff Harrison Ford (seriously check out his shirtless scenes, the guy made me tingle a little --- don't tell anyone! --- I'm not gay!). If you want a smart, sexy popcorn movie ... you'd do well with What Lies Beneath.
5 comments:
Um, okay I saw both of these movies and because I had sitters (in-laws) I was even able to see them in the theater. Beautiful Mind was just unbelievably good and while they may have changed things, I still think it's fantastical.
HOWEVER What Lies Beneath wasn't doing it for me, it was good but NOT memorable considering I saw this movie years ago and until you mentioned it, haven't thought about it, at.all. ~sigh~
Oh and I'm a HUGE Hitchcock fan and I'd rather watch any of his then watch WLB again.
Michelle is gorgeous and I can't get tingly over Harrison cause he's old enough to be my grandfather and I've seen him with his shirt off recently and do I need to break your heart and let you know he has man boobs? Cause um, he does. It's not pretty.
I've not seen either movie... I haven't been watching too many movies of the past couple of years. I did just post another book review if you're still keeping tabs.
Vi - Yeah, perhaps my WLB review is giving the movie too much credit. From my perspective, I wasn't expecting much and found a decent popcorn movie. But yeah, perhaps even Hitchcock-lite is a bit too generous. I still enjoyed the movie though.
Sage - How ya doing buddy? I should have a book club update post soon and I'll link to your post. Paul Theroux, an excellent choice!
Yeah it was enjoyable but I'm sensitive when it comes to the Hitchcock. I mean I love the OG's and yes technically you can pretty much predate "stories" to hundreds of years ago, but HC was the OG of his time and still offers up some pretty lovely films. I mean Rearwindow was the best "suspense" movie ever. I'm of the mind that people now feel the need to throw sex, blood, drugs and half-clothed women/men to make a movie "suspenseful" and here HC did it with out any of those things and HIS movie will stand the test of time. Here's to hoping the rest of the crappy movie makers will get flushed down the toilet where they belong.
I need to lighten up. ~sigh~
Oooh! I love Hitchcock, too.
I also loved A Beautiful Mind and didn't really know the story so I was just as crestfallen as Nash's character when he realizes he is crazy and the chip was never there...
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