Taking Woodstock

[Watashi]

Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Iq8z2WDbKo)

Certainly doesn't feel like an Ang Lee film.

[Sycophant]

We're getting an Ang Lee movie this Summer?

SCORE!

[eternity]

Demetri Martin looks practically 20 years younger than he actually is. Moreso than he usually does. It creeps me out.

[Sxottlan]

Looks cute. I'll see it.

I hope Q shows up.

[NickGlass]

My expectations, if not completely shattered, just significantly lowered.

[Kurosawa Fan]

That doesn't look good. At all.

[Winston*]

Yeah, meh. I like the fact that Eugene Levy's appearing in an actual movie not directed by Christopher Guest though.

[number8]

Yeah, meh. I like the fact that Eugene Levy's appearing in an actual movie not directed by Christopher Guest though.

What, like all 6 American Pie movies?

[Winston*]

What, like all 6 American Pie movies?

I said an actual movie.

[DavidSeven]

I don't know if I could be any less interested in seeing an Ang Lee film than I am now.

[Rowland]

I find that I generally like all of Ang Lee's pictures, but none ever really impress, challenge, or move me beyond that. My least favorite is actually Brokeback Mountain, which is the closest I've came to outright disliking a Lee picture. So, I'm never really all that enthused to go out of my way in seeing any of his latest, but I will see this nevertheless.

[Winston*]

How's Demetri Martin's tv show btw?

[number8]

How's Demetri Martin's tv show btw?
Blegh.

[Qrazy]

Lee needs to make another Wuxia.

[Sxottlan]

Lee needs to make another Wuxia.

Agreed, but the wuxia craze seems to have sort of come and gone. At least in the U.S. Maybe it's still a lot of people's bread and butter in Asia.

They should have struck while the iron was hot. There had been talk of doing a prequel or sequel to CTHD soon after it came out. For some reason, it never happened.

CTHD is by the way my favorite Lee film. However, Eat Drink Man Woman was very good. Didn't see much of his earlier stuff stateside.

[transmogrifier]

Lee begins and ends with The Ice Storm. Every other film he has made has had the faint whiff of tastefully rendered, fully embalmed corpse.

Except for maybe Ride with the Devil. I remember liking that.

[Kurosawa Fan]

How's Demetri Martin's tv show btw?

Pretty mediocre. It has its moments though.

[Qrazy]

Lee begins and ends with The Ice Storm. Every other film he has made has had the faint whiff of tastefully rendered, fully embalmed corpse.

Except for maybe Ride with the Devil. I remember liking that.

Crouching Tiger, The Ice Storm and Sense and Sensibility are all very strong in my opinion. Eat Drink Man Woman and The Wedding Banquet are reasonably solid, less so the latter which shows Lee first finding his dramatic footing. I don't really agree with your comparison to fully embalmed corpses in the slightest since even Lee's weaker films are very alive and usually dramatically successful. Brokeback Mountain is a very well acted and rendered film, it's weaknesses primarily lie with the script. Hulk fails because it overreaches itself with pretensions to communicate more than it actually has to say. And what it does have to say it says in an extremely convoluted fashion contrasting an all too serious Freudian origin story with goofy comic book driven zaniness. I would agree that all of his work and even his best work lacks a certain quality keeping it from true excellence although I'm not sure what that quality is. Perhaps he strives too much for universal appeal, doesn't make the audience work hard enough. I"m unsure.

I haven't seen Ride with the Devil or Lust, Caution.

[Boner M]

Lee begins and ends with The Ice Storm. Every other film he has made has had the faint whiff of tastefully rendered, fully embalmed corpse.
This.

I don't think I'll watch this trailer.

[Qrazy]

This.


To me that implies dramatically inert, which they really aren't. Alternatively, if we're not talking drama here than what are we talking about, tone?

[transmogrifier]

To me that implies dramatically inert, which they really aren't. Alternatively, if we're not talking drama here than what are we talking about, tone?

To me, drama, tone, energy, ambition....everything, really.

[Qrazy]

To me, drama, tone, energy, ambition....everything, really.

Well I really don't agree in terms of drama. The complaint of a disinteresting tone and a lack of energy and ambition to some of his films I can sort of see. I'd level a similar criticism against Minghella. I've enjoyed many of both of their films but there's a pedestrian quality about their work. It's not inert but it's kind of tedious.

[ledfloyd]

this looks really bad.

[Pop Trash]

The Ice Storm, CTHD, and Brokeback Mountain are all exceptionally strong films. Everything else by him (that I've seen) has been OK or worse. But I do agree The Ice Storm is the best. Hell, I'd go so far as to say it's one of the best films of the 90s period.

I'm not sure what to make of Lee. I do thing he is a better filmmaker than say Sam Mendes or Minghella who seem to actively try and make "prestige" pictures, which is completely the wrong way to approach moviemaking, but sometimes stumble into greatness by accident.

And yes this doesn't look very good.

[Qrazy]

The Ice Storm, CTHD, and Brokeback Mountain are all exceptionally strong films. Everything else by him (that I've seen) has been OK or worse. But I do agree The Ice Storm is the best. Hell, I'd go so far as to say it's one of the best films of the 90s period.


Yeah actually I think Brokeback is stronger than my last post may suggest. It would probably make my top ten of that year.

[number8]

I'm writing my review high. Let's see how it comes out.

[megladon8]

The review in our local paper is scathing to say the least.

They said it's the most hypocritical, cliché-ridden depiction of the '60s culture they've ever seen.

[number8]

Lo.

http://www.justpressplay.net/movie-reviews/40-reviews/5787-taking-woodstock.html

[balmakboor]

Lo.

http://www.justpressplay.net/movie-reviews/40-reviews/5787-taking-woodstock.html

Enjoyed your review. I'll be seeing this today or tomorrow.