Movie Recommendations

In this past week, I've gone to see both I Am Legend and Margot at the Wedding and enjoyed both greatly. They're rather different movies, though. Margot struck me as a bit worse than The Squid and the Whale since Jack Black slightly took me out of things by hamming it up, but it's otherwise really good. Just a couple of days before I went to see it, I caught the lamentable Invasion on a plane flight but Margot completely redeemed my views of Nicole Kidman.

Legend, as I understand it, departs massively and systematically from the book, so if you're a fan of the book and expecting an adaptation: Don't. But its vision of post-apocalyptic New York is brilliantly executed and I don't want to say too much about it since I don't want to ruin the suspense. Naturally, when you look back there are some plot holes, but that's kind of what you get with this genre.

Comments

In the book, the ending is that the narrator comes to realize that HE is the monster in the new world. After his death, he will become a legend -- as Grendel was, say. I've not yet seen the movie, but strongly doubt that will be the Hollywood ending.

Posted by Robert the Red | December 16, 2007 11:44 AM

Whatever. Not interested in Legend, was just a little impressed by Squid, but you and the IMDB reviews have finally convinced to check out on cable the Kidman/Downey jr movie about Diane Arbus, which has been seriously scaring the shit out of me in the listings.

Posted by bob mcmanus | December 16, 2007 11:57 AM

"Naturally, when you look back there are some plot holes, but that's kind of what you get with this genre."

raise your standards, matt. :)

Posted by Max B. | December 16, 2007 1:18 PM

Legend was half of a great film. The first half was really marvelous. Will Smith and his dog trolling around empty new york was great. The second other points insinuated into the plot the film went to hell. The ending also, was absolute nonsense.

I was just this morning blogging about the terrible, terrible state of film "endings. This is no exception. "

Posted by bend | December 16, 2007 3:36 PM

In many ways I actually preferred the film to Richard Matheson's story. The book had a pretty great concept, which the film certainly borrowed, but a lot of cheese moments and anti-cinematic events that I'm glad the filmmakers passed up on. I do think Bend's points are fair though, the ending of the movie was a pretty big cop-out that really sought to disguise itself to audiences as something meaningful, but really "there is a God after all" doesn't count as a conclusion. Still, an entertaining two hours no doubt.

Posted by Eric the Political Hack | December 16, 2007 4:20 PM

Invasion was wonderful because it showed the political wrangling that Martin O'Malley had w/ movie studios to shoot Baltimore as a Washington-DC-look-a-like. Ditto with Die Hard 4. Both movies, for reasons in no way linked to the plot, had scenes set in Baltimore even though nearly all of the scenes were shot in Baltimore. Invasion had a bit of dialogue that went something like:

James Bond guy: Where are they holding you? Federal Hill? Fells Point??? Tell me!
Nicole Kidman: It's near Patterson Park!

Whereas Kevin Smith lived in the bottom of a Bal'more rowhouse with his mom for no good reason in Die Hard. Go Mobtown!

Posted by ZH | December 16, 2007 5:54 PM

Invasion was wonderful because it showed the political wrangling that Martin O'Malley had w/ movie studios to shoot Baltimore as a Washington-DC-look-a-like. Ditto with Die Hard 4. Both movies, for reasons in no way linked to the plot, had scenes set in Baltimore even though nearly all of the scenes were shot in Baltimore. Invasion had a bit of dialogue that went something like:

James Bond guy: Where are they holding you? Federal Hill? Fells Point??? Tell me!
Nicole Kidman: It's near Patterson Park!

Whereas Kevin Smith lived in the bottom of a Bal'more rowhouse with his mom for no good reason in Die Hard. Go Mobtown!

Posted by ZH | December 16, 2007 5:55 PM

I watched A Might Heart, the Daniel Pearl movie, this weekend. Very good.

Also tried The Wire again. I tried the first couple episodes a couple years ago and never got into it. But now I'm hooked and will waste much of the next month in front of the television catching up for the final season.

Posted by Mike | December 16, 2007 8:50 PM

The Matheson book stinks. I'm serious. I read it this summer after learning about the upcoming film and the earlier versions (including Chuck Heston in "The Omega Man," which I did like). It's a great (for a pulp novel) concept--hey, what if the world really were taken over by vampires?--but then confuses things by trying to solve the mystery, scientifically (huh?). The ending of the novel (novella? it's not that long) is actually one of the better parts of the concept--a complete shift in the perspective. But I knew when I read the last chapter of the novella/novel that that aspect of the story would be cut from the Hollywood version. Because a Hollywood movie starring Will Smith can't end like that.

I talked to some of my other pulp-fiction-reading friends (folks who can carry on an informed discussion of Lovecraft, PK Dick, stuff like that), and they all agreed. I guess that folks like the ideas in the Matheson book but not the actual execution. (Maybe it's closer to a PK Dick novel than anything else in that regard.)

Posted by Emery | December 16, 2007 8:51 PM

Saw "Legend" last night and enjoyed it event though I suspected that we would not get the book ending and the aforementioned plot holes.

However, the really cool thing about seeing the movie in IMAX (besides the extra weight it gave the empty New York cityscape) was the 6 minute "Dark Knight" trailer...huzza!

Posted by Mike P | December 17, 2007 11:31 AM