Throughout the film, you see Samantha (Zoey Deutch) try and figure out how to reverse her day from hell that she keeps reliving. You see her strengthen and destroy relationships all in a hot minute. These relationships go through so many ups and downs that the emotion is lost, leaving the movie to be similar to watching paint dry.
With the uninteresting nature in mind, I think the script and plot could be stronger with more developed relationships. With this thought in mind, I would not recommend this movie. I think it is a waste of time for only a few minutes of interest.
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I should preface my thoughts by saying that I saw it in the best possible way imaginable. I saw the movie at the newly reopened SIFF Downtown Theater (formerly known as the Cinerama), which is famous for its enormous screen and chocolate popcorn. The packed crowd was invested in the movie from start to finish, and that energy absolutely added to the experience. If your viewing experience is understandably worse than mine, whether it be because of a smaller screen or an unsilenced phone, you might not enjoy it as much as I did. That being said, I believe Dune: Part II is worthy of the immense praise it has been receiving from audiences and critics alike.
I think the TV miniseries of Joan of Arc was much better. They weren't trying to turn Joan into a "popstar", but remained true in a historical vein. I still believe "Excalibur" has the best Medieval Warfare (gritty, bloody, graphic) ever committed to film. And while I'm not a huge fan of "Braveheart" the battle scenes were more intense than this movie (The Messenger). Just my five cents.
As for the improved showing of carnage on the beeg screen. That's agreed. More than likely it's due to the increase use of CGI as well as more $$ for production budgets. And if you do check out Excalibur again, rent the DVD or, if you can find it, BUY it. It's worth it. The DVD transfer is beautiful and John Boorman's (director) commentary is worth the price alone. I LOVE this DVD.
It has been quite a year for Harrelson. He gives an astounding performance as a soldier who is tough and rugged on the outside, yet on the inside stricken by the grief he sees, and unsure about how to cope. But it is Foster who shines.
in 12 min in the movie the messenger, what is that song called they also play the song when Ben foster punches the wall because he up set that his love is get married to another guy. Im a solder and i can relate to his anger when that happens. i have to know who sings it. please let me know , howyad...@yahoo.com thank you
Maybe the only way to do it is by the book. You walk up to the house of a total stranger, ring the bell and inform them that their child has been killed in combat. When they open the door and see two uniformed men, they already know the news. Some collapse. Some won't let you finish before they beat their fists on your chest, crying at you to shut up, god-damn it, that can't be true. Some seem to fall into a form of denial, polite, inviting you in, as if this is a social situation.
Some tell you it's a mistake. It isn't a mistake. "The Messenger" is an empathetic drama about two men who have that job. One is Capt. Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson), an old hand at breaking the news. The other is Staff Sgt. Will Montgomery (Ben Foster), who was wounded in combat in Iraq and is serving out the last three months of his tour. Stone, who has never experienced combat, is the more soldierly. Montgomery, in his first days on the job, has a tendency to care about the people --mostly parents -- he's informing.
That's a very bad idea, Stone tells him. It is always necessary to go by the book. Don't have physical contact with anyone, let alone hug them. Better for you, better for them. These are their lives. They need the news, not a new best friend. Stone is another of Woody Harrelson's penetrating performances. With his hair shaved almost as short as a kid in boot camp, his eyes behind dark glasses, his manner displaying the stubborn fragility of the newly recovering alcoholic, he doesn't care that much about Montgomery, either. This may not be the first soldier he's had to break in on this hard assignment.
Ben Foster as Montgomery has usually played tough guys ("Alpha Dog," "3:10 to Yuma," the Alaskan vampire thriller "30 Days of Darkness"). It is a wonderment to me how some actors seem defined by their credits, and reinvent themselves in the right role. Here in countless subtle ways, he suggests a human being with ordinary feelings who has been through painful experiences and is outwardly calm but not anywhere near healed.
Both of them are time bombs. How close is Stone to taking another drink? Will post-traumatic stress syndrome bring down Montgomery? They drive in their rental car through the ordinary streets of America, so recently left by those they bring news of. Stone takes the lead. He sticks to the script. "The Secretary of Defense deeply regrets informing you that your (son, daughter), (military rank), (name), has been killed while on duty."
Everyone takes it differently, and the film develops the two characters as they meet survivors, notably Samantha Morton as a new widow, and Steve Buscemi as an angry father. Following the Army way, they would never see these people again. It doesn't work out that way.
Montgomery encounters Olivia (Samantha Morton) again. He sensed she was hurting. A tender, frightened romance slowly begins to grow between them, in a series of scenes that are not simply about two people but about these two, and all that we know about them and continue to learn. They meet the angry father again, and Buscemi, as he sometimes does, plays an almost impossible scene in a way that we couldn't anticipate and that could not be improved.
"The Messenger" is the first film directed by Oren Moverman, a combat veteran of the Israeli army, whose earlier screenplays included the Bob Dylan biopic "I'm Not There" (2007) and the extraordinary "Jesus' Son" (1999). This is a writer's picture, no less than a visual experience that approaches its subject as tactfully as the messengers do. No fancy camerawork. It happens, we absorb it.
An important element is Kelly (Jena Malone), the girl Montgomery left behind when he shipped out to Iraq. She hasn't remained committed. She isn't heartless; that's her trouble. Her heart found other occupations. Kelly treads a careful, not unkind, path with Montgomery. Her absence has created a vacuum; he may be too willing for Olivia to fill it.
"The Messenger" knows that even if it tells a tearjerking story, it doesn't have to be a tearjerker. In fact, when a sad story tries too hard, it can be fatal. You have to be the one coming to your own realization about the sadness. Moverman and his screenwriter, Alessandro Camon, born in Italy, have made a very particularly American story, alert to nuances of speech and behavior. All particular stories are universal, inviting us to look in instead of pandering to us. This one looks at the faces of war. Only a few, but they represent so many.
In the silence of the first half hour of the movie, the viewers get a glimpse of what kind of man Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis) is. While working alone to wrest silver from the earth, he falls down the shaft and breaks his leg. That would spell doom for most men at the turn of the century, but not him. He meticulously lifts himself out of the shaft, crawls across the deserted landscape and cases in his finding for money, which funds his new oil company.
With that said, there is something about this movie that leaves me unfulfilled. Was it the lack of humanity shown by Daniel Plainview throughout this movie? There were scenes of tenderness with H.W, but his last scene with his son had me cringing in my seat. Was it the oil and greed plot? I honestly have no clue.
A Keeper of the Lost Cities live-action film adaptation was confirmed on January 11, 2021, with an article from Deadline[1], as well as Shannon Messenger's Instagram[2] and Twitter[3] accounts. As of 2024, no details have been confirmed regarding casting or a potential release date. Originally...
As you probably know, there's going to be a movie adaptation of the series. We don't have that much information about it, so I'm just going to talk about my opinions on the idea of a movie adaptation rather than any specific details we have about it.
I tend to be wary of movie adaptations because I know there have been some bad ones in the past, so I've never been super enthusiastic about the idea of a KotLC movie. However, I do think it'll be cool to see certain aspects of the Lost Cities.
I'm excited to see the different special abilities come to life, but I don't know if the CGI will be good. We know the movie has a pretty big budget, but there have definitely been movies with high budgets that still have bad CGI. We don't know; it might be amazing, but if it's bad, it'll be really obvious.
Best case scenario: the movie is amazing, and it manages to fix the pacing issues that the books have. Worst case scenario: it's not that good; we all complain for a while and move on. Not great, but I don't think it'll be, like, Peter Johnson movies level bad. I think we'll probably get an adaptation that we can at least enjoy even if we don't love it, but who knows?
On the whole, I'm not super hyped for the KotLC movie, but I'm almost definitely going to watch it, and I'm pretty excited for it. What do you think? Do you think it'll be good, bad, mediocre, or what? I'm curious what everyone else thinks.
Guys, this is a huge deal. Previously, the movie was going to be produced by Ben Affleck with Disney which was going to be EXTREMELY bad. They would have demolished the series/book. But now, it belongs to Warner Bros and it's going to be produced by Emma Watts, who is better than Ben Affleck based on his Artemis Fowl movies. But most importantly...
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