All The King's Men

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All The King's Men - 26/10/2006 12:47:49 AM

Empire Admin

Posts: 26280
Joined: 29/6/2005

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Post #: 1

- 26/10/2006 12:47:50 AM

rams

Posts: 152
Joined: 20/6/2006

Man,Hollywood has to stop beeing afraid of releasing movies as they were meant to be,They enstill a fear in the directors that if a movie is more tha 2 hour no one will see it,and if the release it as 2h30,than it means thare is even more left out.As it Is,some great movies have been left on the cutting floor,showing theatrically an ounce of their true potencial.
The problem is,the studios are right about people,everytime you release a movie people always bitch about the length(you see they have an appointement with the mates at the bar).One thing people seem to forget is not everyone has the mental capacity to absorb 3 hours(small bladders are excused because I have one,but hey,just because I have a problem doesn't mean I'm blaiming the movie),and with the statistics that over 60% of the world's poulation has an I.Q of less than 90,and that the majority of Americans voted again for Bush prove this point completley:In fact since the 90's people's I.Q's have been falling like flies(which is shocking given the propensity for I.Q's to increase over generations).
Yes people are getting more and more stupid(as you can see by the music charts)and studios know this so they order to cut unecessary things as character development ad actual plot development so they can satisfy most of the people,forgetting that this movie is not made for all audiences and by cutting it they loose the inicial public that actually goes for this type of movie.
As for this film itself it really has potential,but I havent seen a movie this butchered since Once Upon a Time in America(the thetrical cut was litlle over 2 hours,for a film that is now 4).
The fact remains that we are only seing the inferior cut in cinemas these days,and the true movie only comes out on dvd,but most people that didn't like the movie initially are not going to give it a second chance.So stop beeing afraid and release the fucking movie as it was intended.
Sorry for the length,but again,we are speaking about it

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 2

RE: ALL THE KING'S MEN - 30/10/2006 10:16:28 AM

Groovy Mule

Posts: 1089
Joined: 26/11/2005

If ever a film could be categorised as an Oscar-baiting film, this would be it. Starring 2 Oscar winners and 2 Oscar nominees, a remake of an Oscar winning film and written and directed by the man who wrote Schindler's List for ths screen. Unfortunately, this film never comes close to their collective (or individual) reputations.

The film just feels so old-fashioned. I am not surprised that the film's release was delayed by a year because compared to last year's politically charged films such as Syriana and Good Night and Good Luck this feels so limp. The direction and music cues are straight of a film from 20 years ago and yet this is not the biggest problem. The dialogue feels weighed down as if by lead and the narrative is fractured and incoherrent which results in zero tension at the end of the film when the tension should be through the roof.

Despite all the negatives, the performances were generally pretty good. There is more ham in Sean Penn's performance than at a hog roast and some of his dialogue is quite simply unintelligable through a thick accent but his character is set up in such a way that this feels in keeping with the tone of the movie. After all, it is not Penn but Jude Law who is the emotional lynchpin of the film and I enjoyed his performance. Also impressive were Anthony Hopkins, Kate Winslet and Patricia Clarkson although both Winslet and Clarkson roles appear to have been left somewhat on the cutting room floor. Mark Ruffalo is not an actor I particularly enjoy (although this may have something to do with his apparent ubquity in brainless rom-coms a couple of years ago) but he performs adequately albeit relying rather heavily on squinting.

A sign of what this film could have been can be seen in the final ten minutes where the screen suddenly switches to a highly stylised black and white - it worked unlike the rest of the film.

Overall, it is an old-fashioned bore. There were more than a few grumbles on the way out of the cinema (which was surprisingly busy for this film) and several people walked out. I suspect if you want to catch this film, you see it this week. I struggle to see it lasting on general release much past the end of the week.

4.5/10

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Post #: 3

ALL THE KINGS MEN - 31/10/2006 8:33:28 PM

moviemaniac2

Posts: 525
Joined: 17/9/2006

An enjoyable political film with a superb cast, but it does lose i's way a bit towards the end. Sean Penns hair should've got a separate credit for it's perfprmance.

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Post #: 4

Slow - 7/7/2008 7:06:50 PM

Caster