I didn't see SIN CITY
Apr. 11th, 2005 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
james_davis_nicollI had two reasons:
If I really want to see it, I can wait until it is out on DVD. If I shop around, it will probably be no more expensive than the cost of the ticket and the bus ride to and from a decent theatre.
I don't really need to seek out ultraviolent fiction. I can get paid to read it if I choose.
Instead I saw part of a RED DWARF DVD (the interview describing the attempts at a US version of RED DWARF, which failed because contemporary American production companies are about as capable of adapting British comedy as a chimpanzee is of building a Harrier jet) and a couple of British comedies.
Mild spoilers
The first was THE LADY KILLERS, which I had never seen. I did see the Coen Brother's remake, which I now admire for their skill in keeping many of the events in the original while sucking all the humor out. There is never any doubt how the movie must end but watching events play out to their inevitable conclusion is amusing.
The second was PASSPORT TO PIMLICO. Set in post-War Britain (then still under rationing) a small neighborhood is surprised to discover that they are not legally part of Britain but rather of Burgundy. Because this allows them to evade the rationing system then still on, they are initially pleased but soon less pleasant implications make themselves known, such as the fact that the UK is no longer responsible for law enforcement. The new Burgundians soon find their patch surrounded by barbed wire and under a state of siege from a bureaucracy incapable of caring about the human consequences of proper policy.
What suprised me about this were the plot twists I expected but did not see.
There's a French nobleman who shows up at just the right time to help the Burgundians out, a Frenchman who is suave and goodlooking and not, rather oddly, a conman despite the long odds that a scion of that particular line would be available at just the right time. A helpful and sincere Frenchman must be as rare in movies as an Arab who does not turn out to be a terrorist.
It does not turn out that the legal document that made Pimlico part of Burgundy was later rescinded, either.
The solution to the neighborhood's problem is arrived in a process of negotiation between Pimlico's duly selected representatives and those of HM's government. Who ever heard of two governments solving a dispute by _talking_?
If I really want to see it, I can wait until it is out on DVD. If I shop around, it will probably be no more expensive than the cost of the ticket and the bus ride to and from a decent theatre.
I don't really need to seek out ultraviolent fiction. I can get paid to read it if I choose.
Instead I saw part of a RED DWARF DVD (the interview describing the attempts at a US version of RED DWARF, which failed because contemporary American production companies are about as capable of adapting British comedy as a chimpanzee is of building a Harrier jet) and a couple of British comedies.
Mild spoilers
The first was THE LADY KILLERS, which I had never seen. I did see the Coen Brother's remake, which I now admire for their skill in keeping many of the events in the original while sucking all the humor out. There is never any doubt how the movie must end but watching events play out to their inevitable conclusion is amusing.
The second was PASSPORT TO PIMLICO. Set in post-War Britain (then still under rationing) a small neighborhood is surprised to discover that they are not legally part of Britain but rather of Burgundy. Because this allows them to evade the rationing system then still on, they are initially pleased but soon less pleasant implications make themselves known, such as the fact that the UK is no longer responsible for law enforcement. The new Burgundians soon find their patch surrounded by barbed wire and under a state of siege from a bureaucracy incapable of caring about the human consequences of proper policy.
What suprised me about this were the plot twists I expected but did not see.
There's a French nobleman who shows up at just the right time to help the Burgundians out, a Frenchman who is suave and goodlooking and not, rather oddly, a conman despite the long odds that a scion of that particular line would be available at just the right time. A helpful and sincere Frenchman must be as rare in movies as an Arab who does not turn out to be a terrorist.
It does not turn out that the legal document that made Pimlico part of Burgundy was later rescinded, either.
The solution to the neighborhood's problem is arrived in a process of negotiation between Pimlico's duly selected representatives and those of HM's government. Who ever heard of two governments solving a dispute by _talking_?
no subject
Date: 2005-04-12 12:53 am (UTC)I enjoyed Sin City, but I like everything.