24 June 2008

There Will Be Blo--hey, whatever happened to Daniel Day Lewis?

I can't bring myself to watch There Will Be Blood, even though I might like it. On a recent flight, it was described in the in-flight magazine as "Daniel Day Lewis puts on an acting masterclass [....]" Which is exactly why I don't want to see it. An acting masterclass? Really? To me that means he's demonstrating rather than acting. In the trailers, he certainly seems to be thespianizing like there's no tomorrow, spewing out mannerisms and stylized flourishes like the most precocious freshman on the speech team. I'm not sure I want to see someone ACTING so damn hard for two hours. Is he playing a character or a caricature? Is he the only actor that started out great and slides a little with every performance? I hope I'm wrong. If this movie is worth seeing, let me know and I'll give it a shot.

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3 comments:

  1. zim24 June 2008 at 14:50

    i've heard it's quite good, but the trailers turned me off, as well.

    i highly recommend No Country for Old Men, for the performances turned in by Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin.

    be on the lookout for Trainspotting's Kelly Macdonald.

    In Bruges comes out on DVD in a few days; i shall be watching it soon.

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  2. pyker24 June 2008 at 17:44

    I did like No Country for Old Men. Josh Brolin was great. I was a little put-off by the delight people took in the Javier Bardem character, but that might be a fault of the audience and not the movie.

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  3. JustJoeP28 June 2008 at 13:44

    Ryan McFee aptly called it "There Will Be Acting". I watched it on Netflix, and did not bother to watch any "extras" or "special features". There's very little things happening in the movie, other than DD-Lewis developing a very unlikable, very flawed, unpleasant character. Yes, yes, descent into madness and all that.. ok, fine, but I can't recommend it as an effective means of spending 2 and a 1/2 hours productively or enjoyably. If you have laundry to fold, or a check book to balance, or a pizza to bake, TWBB might be paletable to have running in the background for some of the sissy slap fights, which I found strangely amusing in a twisted way.

    (lol... the random letter generator verification is "gilfs" on this posting)

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