Commentaries: babbling about movies I recently watched
BOURNE ULTIMATUM
If ever Hollywood decides to do another Daredevil movie and if they really want to do it right, then they should get Paul Greengrass to direct it and Tony Gilroy to write it. Heck, while they’re at it, they should get Matt Damon to play Matt Murdock (aha! They even have the same first name!) And maybe Ben Affleck can start as the cop that gets killed by Bulleyes in scene one.
Did you see that rooftop/le parkour chase scene? Did you see all those close-quarter combat scenes? Aren’t all those just classic Frank Miller-Daredevil scenes?!!! I could already see the sfx word KRESHHH pop on screen when Bourne crashed through the window.
Out of the three BOURNE movies, I liked this the best. It did have the advantage of having two previous movie provide all the set-up for the character, so for most of the movie you just see him getting his mission accomplished. The movie wasn’t burdened with too much backstory and we didn’t have to devote time with any love interest. The few scenes that did came close to a “love story” were short and subtle and intense.
Considering the success of this movie, what’s stopping them from coming out with a fourth movie and they could call it BOURNE AGAIN.
(pause and wait for laughter to die down)
(or wait for the all the spam I’m going to get for that pun)
Anyway, moving on.
DISTURBIA
Stars Shia “Lucky Bastard” LeBouf. How can anyone be so lucky to share screentime and get to lock lips with hot newbies like Sarah Roemer and Megan Fox in "Transformers the Movie". In his next movie, he’ll share screentime with Harrison Ford in the latest (and last?) installment of INDIANA JONES (and hopefully, he won’t lock lips with Mr. Ford). Directed by DJ Caruso, DISRTURBIA is a good mix of DAWSONS’ CREEK (betraying my age since I should be making a reference to THE OC or ONE TREE HILL but I haven’t watched those shows) and REAR WINDOW.
Commentaries about the commentaries
Anyway, having nothing better to do the other weekend, I watched DISTURBIA a second time and listened to the audio commentaries of Caruso, LeBouf, and Roemer. I also watched the anime PAPRIKA and switched on the commentaries of the director (Satoshi Kon), the music composer (Susumu Hariwasa), and the associate producer (Morishima).
In the DISTURBIA commentary, it was interesting to hear Caruso talk about how they filmed the movie; how certain scenes were shot in a studio while other scenes were shot on location, how the front of the house was shot in Location A, while the back of the house was shot in Location B. From the point of view of someone who makes TV commercials, I was wondering why would they go through all that trouble. I guess when you’ve got the money to do it, then you’d do it that way. I’ve just gotten used to having to shoot five different scenes in one house or location and the production studio makes it look like five different place; which happens because we only have one or two days to shoot everything.
It was also interesting hear how one scene in the movie was shot because it an input from Steven Spielberg, which makes me wonder how much input does Spielberg have in the movies that he produces.
So, while you had all that technical talk coming from Caruso, LeBouf and Roemer talked about how they felt fat in one scene, how it was like to be at the set for the first time. While they were doing the commentaries, Caruso’s phone kept ringing and you could hear him carry on a conversation with person on the other line. They even started to eat hamburger and fries and Twinkies while talking about the movie.
I couldn’t help but compare it to the commentaries in PAPRIKA, where they didn’t just talk about the film, but also about what influenced it, how certain scenes were based on the manga and how other scenes were made just for the movie. Because the film was about a girl who could enter people’s dreams, they also talked about the nature of dreams and psychology and the workings of the mind. They talked about how music contributed a large part to the storytelling and how telling a story through prose also has its own rhythm and pace.
It was a bit jarring to listen to the DISTURBIA commentaries jump from technical talk to trivial stuff.
Which makes me think one great way to do these commentaries is to have an interviewer along with the director and the other people in the room. The interviewer needs to be a fan of the film as well, so he’d at least know what the heck he’ll be asking about. Sometimes, the people doing the commentaries just fall silent and watch the film, so having the interviewer there would at least keep the conversation going and keep things interesting. Maybe. I don’t know. It would make for an interesting experiment.
BOURNE ULTIMATUM
If ever Hollywood decides to do another Daredevil movie and if they really want to do it right, then they should get Paul Greengrass to direct it and Tony Gilroy to write it. Heck, while they’re at it, they should get Matt Damon to play Matt Murdock (aha! They even have the same first name!) And maybe Ben Affleck can start as the cop that gets killed by Bulleyes in scene one.
Did you see that rooftop/le parkour chase scene? Did you see all those close-quarter combat scenes? Aren’t all those just classic Frank Miller-Daredevil scenes?!!! I could already see the sfx word KRESHHH pop on screen when Bourne crashed through the window.Out of the three BOURNE movies, I liked this the best. It did have the advantage of having two previous movie provide all the set-up for the character, so for most of the movie you just see him getting his mission accomplished. The movie wasn’t burdened with too much backstory and we didn’t have to devote time with any love interest. The few scenes that did came close to a “love story” were short and subtle and intense.
Considering the success of this movie, what’s stopping them from coming out with a fourth movie and they could call it BOURNE AGAIN.
(pause and wait for laughter to die down)
(or wait for the all the spam I’m going to get for that pun)
Anyway, moving on.
DISTURBIA
Stars Shia “Lucky Bastard” LeBouf. How can anyone be so lucky to share screentime and get to lock lips with hot newbies like Sarah Roemer and Megan Fox in "Transformers the Movie". In his next movie, he’ll share screentime with Harrison Ford in the latest (and last?) installment of INDIANA JONES (and hopefully, he won’t lock lips with Mr. Ford). Directed by DJ Caruso, DISRTURBIA is a good mix of DAWSONS’ CREEK (betraying my age since I should be making a reference to THE OC or ONE TREE HILL but I haven’t watched those shows) and REAR WINDOW.
Commentaries about the commentaries
Anyway, having nothing better to do the other weekend, I watched DISTURBIA a second time and listened to the audio commentaries of Caruso, LeBouf, and Roemer. I also watched the anime PAPRIKA and switched on the commentaries of the director (Satoshi Kon), the music composer (Susumu Hariwasa), and the associate producer (Morishima).
In the DISTURBIA commentary, it was interesting to hear Caruso talk about how they filmed the movie; how certain scenes were shot in a studio while other scenes were shot on location, how the front of the house was shot in Location A, while the back of the house was shot in Location B. From the point of view of someone who makes TV commercials, I was wondering why would they go through all that trouble. I guess when you’ve got the money to do it, then you’d do it that way. I’ve just gotten used to having to shoot five different scenes in one house or location and the production studio makes it look like five different place; which happens because we only have one or two days to shoot everything.
It was also interesting hear how one scene in the movie was shot because it an input from Steven Spielberg, which makes me wonder how much input does Spielberg have in the movies that he produces.
So, while you had all that technical talk coming from Caruso, LeBouf and Roemer talked about how they felt fat in one scene, how it was like to be at the set for the first time. While they were doing the commentaries, Caruso’s phone kept ringing and you could hear him carry on a conversation with person on the other line. They even started to eat hamburger and fries and Twinkies while talking about the movie.
I couldn’t help but compare it to the commentaries in PAPRIKA, where they didn’t just talk about the film, but also about what influenced it, how certain scenes were based on the manga and how other scenes were made just for the movie. Because the film was about a girl who could enter people’s dreams, they also talked about the nature of dreams and psychology and the workings of the mind. They talked about how music contributed a large part to the storytelling and how telling a story through prose also has its own rhythm and pace.It was a bit jarring to listen to the DISTURBIA commentaries jump from technical talk to trivial stuff.
Which makes me think one great way to do these commentaries is to have an interviewer along with the director and the other people in the room. The interviewer needs to be a fan of the film as well, so he’d at least know what the heck he’ll be asking about. Sometimes, the people doing the commentaries just fall silent and watch the film, so having the interviewer there would at least keep the conversation going and keep things interesting. Maybe. I don’t know. It would make for an interesting experiment.
End of babbling.
Comments