Spontaneity!

[tamaranth]

Yesterday ladymoonray and I had a rather spontaneous afternoon.

We'd intended to see a 4pm-ish showing of Underworld as it seems to be disappearing from cinemas, but found it wasn't showing on Thursday at Leicester Square.

So we checked the Metro listing and wandered over to Haymarket to see The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

But that listing was wrong and the only showing was at 8:40.

So we went to see Once Upon a Time in Mexico again. I'd expected to find its appeal waning, third time around, but this film just grows on me: the light! the colour! the sociopathy! And the soundtrack is excellent, too: just the right (re)mix of traditional spaghetti Western scoring and Mexican pop.

I had a vague notion of sushi, but instead we went to Livebait in Covent Garden and had cooked fish, excellent fish (I had kingfish with mashed potato and seaweedy salad), with a bottle of pink drink. Possibly because of this -- well, fish is brain food -- our shared brain cell went into overdrive, first helping us decide on which dessert to share (baked pear and cinnamon cheesecake with maple creme, if anyone cares), and then making it seem quite reasonable to head back to the UGC Haymarket and catch the 8:40 showing of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. (I can't remember the last time -- if ever -- that I saw two films at the cinema on the same day).

Stop reading now if you don't want to know. (No spoilers though)

It's fun, but most of the best acting is in the first 30 minutes. Stuart Townsend plays Stuart Townsend again, very pretty and foppish and slinky, and calls it Dorian Grey. Sean Connery is excellent as Allen Quatermain (though one scene is spoilt by the fact that practically everyone in the Western world can recognise Connery). Peta Wilson makes a very proper Mina Harper (all the better for the glimpses of the monster), and Shane West is unexpectedly engaging as Special Agent Sawyer. Oh, and they found Nemo: Naseeruddin Shah's exotic Sufi/pirate mix doesn't get much focus, and ends up as a cypher.

I had the advantage -- and I suspect it's quite a major advantage -- of not having read Alan Moore's original comic. I wonder if Stephen Norrington has tried too hard to be true to that original, at the expense of pacing and plot in the movie (which feels very rushed and hectic in places). There are some splendid scenes, and some of the effects work very well. Others don't: I failed to be convinced by the Nautilus. I'm glad I saw it, but I have absolutely no urge to see it again.

Comments

Such a thing as being too famous

[camies.livejournal.com]

LXG sounds fun (though why since Terminator 2 or Independence Day (ID4) must every film have an acronym?
Although Connery is obviously a clear choice for Quatermain it does, as you say, run into the problem which faces BBC trying to cast the new Dr Who: you don't want the audience to be saying "Oh look, there's Sean Connery as Allan Quatermain" or "Oh look, there's Stephen Fry [for example] as Dr Who". I think Michael Caine has the same effect these days, as does Jack Nicholson (all men you notice; I don't know of any women where this is true).

Re: Such a thing as being too famous

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Nicole Kidman? Judi Dench?

Re: Such a thing as being too famous

[gummitch.livejournal.com]

I'd say that Kidman really does act (at least since she dumped Tom Cruise). But Judi Dench is probably right. Is there really much difference between QE1 in Shakespeare in Love and 'M' in the James Bond movies.

I'd add Whoopie Goldberg to your list, too.

Re: Such a thing as being too famous

[camies.livejournal.com]

Dench, yes; Helen Mirren?

Re: Such a thing as being too famous

[the-gardener.livejournal.com]

No. Mirren is an identifiable face, but as an actress she's more versatile. At any rate, I tend to perceive her as the character she's playing first, and as the actress Mirren second.

[the-gardener.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know that LXG had been released (and wasn't expecting it until next month), but then I have been away for a week. I was planning to see Kill Bill this weekend, but given the negative reviews LXG was getting prior to release I'd better see that instead, since it clearly won't be around for very long. In other words, thanks for the heads up!

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

LXG is fun enough in its way, but it's nothing like the comic...

[dalmeny]

The film bears only a passing resemblance to the comic so, no, Norrington wasn't trying too hard to stick with the original.

I enjoyed some aspects of the film: the Hyde/Jekyll scenes worked surprisingly well, although I think we rather lost the subtext about the best and worst of Englishness in the process.

I think I would have detested the dialogue regardless of whether I had read the comic or not. dmw pointed out that the characters tended to speak at each other, or make exclamations, rather than actually having conversations.

What I personally regret, as a reader of the comic, are the changes to Mina. In the comic, she is the leader of the League, despite the fact that she has no special powers nor gadgets, unlike most of the other members. She is not a superpowered vampire but someone who through sheer strength of will and intelligence alone is capable to being a member (indeed leader) of the Extraordinary Gentlemen.

I'm actually planning to give a talk on the comic next year at our local sf discussion group. I expect I will mention the film as well.

[lproven.livejournal.com]

Watched the Underworld trailer on a PowerMac G5 yesterday in MicroAnvika. Now I desperately want a G5 and to see Underworld.

However, Nadin insists I see POTC ASAP. Is it still on anywhere?

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

oh yes - at least 2 screens at the Odeon Mezzanine Leicester Square on Friday

[lproven.livejournal.com]

Jolly good. Must try to fit it in before TCASU, then!