Tagged: Taking Woodstock
Sense and Sensibility (1995)
I’m getting annoyed of these sappy romantic period pieces.
Jane Austen’s classic tale of 19th-century etiquette and ethics chronicles the troubles and triumphs of the marriage-minded Dashwood sisters — sensible oldest sibling Elinor (Emma Thompson) and her romantic younger sister, Marianne (Kate Winslet). While Marianne deftly charms two suitors (Alan Rickman and Greg Wise), Elinor must weather a circuitous courtship with an aspiring clergyman (Hugh Grant) of considerable reserve.
The film is directed by Ang Lee, who has won of the craziest resumes ever. He goes from this, to The Hulk, to Brokeback Mountain, then to Taking Woodstock. I have to praise his direction here cause he isn’t familiar with this material, and tries his hardest to make it entertaining and fun to watch. However, he fails at doing so.
The one problem with this film is that it tries its hardest to be emotional, when its just boring. I will admit there are some funny moments in the film, but by the end of the film their all all thrown away. It got sappy, then sappier, and just when I thought it couldn’t get any sappier, well it does so, by getting even more sappier.
I think the main reason I didn’t like this film cause period pieces like this, unless interesting, just aren’t my cup of tea. I mean I enjoyed looking at the costumes and settings and thought that was well-done, but it just all seemed one emotion for me, sad. There are happy moments but they just feel put on to bring out some joy when in reality there is none cause I’m still watching this movie. I can see why so many others like it, but I just can’t put myself on that list.
The acting here is good, but most of the time I was brought down by the script so I payed less and less attention to the acting. Emma Thompson is as good as she is beautiful in this film, showing once again, she can play the strong female character like no other. But the best in this film has to be Kate Winslet, who shows so much promise with her performance, that you can see why she was nominated for an Oscar 4 times before actually winning the big one.
Consensus: Though it looks good, with some credible acting, Sense and Sensibility is not a very entertaining film, mostly due to its bleak screenplay, as well as its uninteresting twists it tries to put on its viewers.
4/10=SomeOleBullShitt!!!
Taking Woodstock (2009)
One of the biggest parties of the centuries, that nobody who saw this was apart of.
A twenty something man (Demetri Martin) finds his life forever changed in the summer of 1969 when he offers up his parents’ motel in the Catskills as a home base for Woodstock organizers and helps the show go on by donating an all-important music festival permit.
Based on the Elliot Tiber novel, the films aims to tell what happened behind the scenes. Many viewers though looking for spectacular concert footage, will find themselves leaving and wanting a lot more than they got, such as I did myself.
Now, for people that wanted to see all the love and music that was put into Woodstock, go check out the documentary Woodstock. This one doesn’t feature any of the performances, which kind of made me a little ticked off knowing that I wanted to see Woodstock itself, and not necessarily this dysfunctional family that had to deal with it.
The film also has those bunch of crazy cliches that surround the 60s. You got the pot smokers, LSD doers, transvestites, naked hippies, and of course the ones always rolling in the mud. I was expecting a different more fresh look at the crowd rather than just seeing everything that I already know I’m going to see, from a film about the 60s.
Now all that said, the film looks exactly like it was in the 60s during Woodstock. I really did feel like I was apart of this, and this is what made the film a lot more entertaining for me. Director Ang Lee, does a great job at re-imagining these beautiful and cultural images from Woodstock that we all know.
The film isn’t as funny as it just a little cute coming-of-age drama. I liked how the film explored all the ways this nerdy guy tries to become part of this hippie movement, but also has a lot of differences with all of them. Ang Lee also uses the split-screen documentary style to show everything that is going on and it really does work here, and captures the same exact essence the documentary did.
The performances weren’t that good, but they were OK. I wish Demetri Martin was more funny, and to be truly honest I think he was sort of miss cast. The colorful characters that surround him are made up of superstars like Paul Dano, Emile Hirsch, and the real saving grace of this film for me, Liev Schreiber. He is funny as this transvestite, and every time is on-screen brings out a whole bunch of laughs within me.
Consensus: Taking Woodstock has the usual 60s cliches that you would expect, not a lot of hilarious comedy, and an underwhelming atmosphere, but captures the look and feel of Woodstock, and has some nice moments.
5.5/10=Rental!!!
