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randall 
"I like to watch."
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 Posted - 06/04/2009 : 20:05:03
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In one sense, it's visually stunning -- the same kind of stun you can get from watching 300 or SIN CITY; not surprising, since Frank Miller had a hand in each -- but there's nothing behind the curtain. The "plot" is all over the place, the acting is about at community-theater melodrama level [this just might be the picture where you actually get tired of Sam Jackson], and all that's left is a very long series of visuals, most of which you can barely see.
The Spirit is a beat cop from the Forties -- except for the cell-phones and photocopiers, that's where we are -- who was killed in the line of duty and somehow rose from the dead. You will find out how in excruciating detail. The original Will Eisner series was famous for its creative use of the panel-art medium and zany/creepy storylines. [And for an African-American second banana whose Stepin Fetchit stereotype is thankfully nowhere to be seen.] Great stuff, but its innovative visual style is *meant for the printed page*.
The movie can't decide whether to play comic or comic book. There are knowing winks to comics fanboys [once, Miller manages to reproduce Eisner's signature google-eyed look on the Spirit's face when he gets sucker-punched, and I swear I saw a famous WATCHMEN panel quoted when a body explodes], and the first fight scene is fairly inventive, rendering moot all those following, but this picture tries to walk a tightrope which it just can't navigate.
Miller is far less confident with a movie's pace than a graphic novel's. This thing is at least 20 minutes too long, and it wastes too much time between action sequences [Eva Mendes alone is time worth wasting, but even she wears out her welcome soon after she wears out an office copy machine].
It's too bad. True fans of the Forties comics will wonder what the hell this is, and they will be joined in this wonder by Batman-movie fanboys who've never read the Spirit. Thank goodness I waited for Netflix. |
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MisterBadIdea 
"PLZ GET MILK, KTHXBYE"
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Posted - 06/04/2009 : 20:39:48
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| A true disaster -- something that needs to be seen. I'd put in a rare class alongside M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water, Richard Kelly's Southland Tales, Guy Ritchie's Revolver and Rob Reiner's North -- movies that uniquely belong to the filmmakers, movies made by people who have buckets of bad ideas and the means to realize every single one of them. An awful movie which no one else could have made. |
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randall
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 06/04/2009 : 21:06:11
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| I forgot to mention the goddam voiceover. Frank Miller hit paydirt with this device in his DARK KNIGHT masterwork, and he's written this monologue to sound very much like Batman's clipped cadence in that piece. But this is the Spirit, ferchrissake! Way off tone. |
Edited by - randall on 06/04/2009 21:08:21 |
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demonic 
"Cinemaniac"
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Posted - 06/05/2009 : 00:54:14
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quote:
Originally posted by randall
The "plot" is all over the place, the acting is about at community-theater melodrama level [this just might be the picture where you actually get tired of Sam Jackson]
I've been bored of him for ten years - pretty much since Out of Sight and Deep Blue Sea - everything since then has been the same old rubbish (I don't count "The Incredibles"). Let's not mention the shocking Virgin Broadband and other cinema ads he's done; a true sign of desperation. |
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MisterBadIdea
"PLZ GET MILK, KTHXBYE"
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Posted - 06/06/2009 : 14:09:13
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Good Samuel L. Jackson performances in the past ten years
Changing Lanes - maybe his best
Lakeview Terrace
Resurrecting the Champ - certainly the most atypical of Jackson's roles
Black Snake Moan - not a good movie, but I surely do enjoy watching Jackson shout the blues
Unbreakable
Snakes on a Plane - at the very least, a good bad performance
Worst Samuel L. Jackson performance in the last ten years
Jumper, somehow even worse than The Spirit |
Edited by - MisterBadIdea on 06/06/2009 14:09:42 |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 06/06/2009 : 19:53:08
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I commented on this film somewhere after demonic mentioned it, but perhaps it wasn't in a dedicated thread. Anyway, there isn't much to the plot or acting but I thought that it looked great, and it earnt 3/5 just for that.
I agree that S.L.J. is good in Black Snake Moan, but I only found him so-so in Lakeview Terrace and (even ironically) S.o.a.P. |
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The Spirit
