Tokugawa
Joined Jun 2001
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Reviews17
Tokugawa's rating
Saw it today.
As good as the previous one, and just as moving.
Narnia has been taken over for several generations by a foreign human people who have settled there, the Telmarine. Prince Caspian's father, the king, has been killed and the uncle is the usurper. (Can you say "Hamlet"?!). Caspian is on the lam. Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan are summoned to help by the prince's horn as they are needed. Caspian is found hiding out underground with the Narnians whom the Telmarines thought were extinct.
Alliances were formed with talking animals and various creatures, even some dwarfs and minotaurs previously allied to the White Witch--all oppose the foreigners in Narnia. Various exploits and battles ensue.
Aslan shows up briefly later in the film. The White Witch even has a brief scene.
This film is much less allegorical than the first, with much less sibling discord among the four English youngsters--Peter, Edmund, Lucy and Susan. They are all far more self-assured. especially Edmund.
Action sequences are top notch, and it seems they used fewer digital "people" than Lord of the Rings, which was OK: if you saw a cavalryman in the distance it was a real man and horse.
Prince Caspian, interestingly, several times was a real screw-up, Peter and Edmund basically saved his throne for him. At least Aslan showed confidence in him.
What was oddest was that although this film was made in New Zealand (as usual!), Slovenia, and Poland, all the Telmarines looked and sounded Spanish! ??? They all had Spanish accents, and even Caspian, played by Ben Barnes (born in London) spoke with a Spanish accent. The Italian actor who played Miraz said that the director wanted such an accent from all Telmarines.
Best new talking animals: Trufflehunter (badger), and Reepicheep (sword wielding mouse with attitude).
As others have said, "The new Narnia can be seen as a parallel to the modern world, in which old beliefs are scoffed at. "Who believes in Aslan nowadays?" asks Trumpkin (dwarf) when he first meets Caspian. Those who "hold on", like the badgers, are praised: this links with Lewis's views on religious faith".
I can't say more about this film without giving away spoilers. But it was top notch.
As good as the previous one, and just as moving.
Narnia has been taken over for several generations by a foreign human people who have settled there, the Telmarine. Prince Caspian's father, the king, has been killed and the uncle is the usurper. (Can you say "Hamlet"?!). Caspian is on the lam. Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan are summoned to help by the prince's horn as they are needed. Caspian is found hiding out underground with the Narnians whom the Telmarines thought were extinct.
Alliances were formed with talking animals and various creatures, even some dwarfs and minotaurs previously allied to the White Witch--all oppose the foreigners in Narnia. Various exploits and battles ensue.
Aslan shows up briefly later in the film. The White Witch even has a brief scene.
This film is much less allegorical than the first, with much less sibling discord among the four English youngsters--Peter, Edmund, Lucy and Susan. They are all far more self-assured. especially Edmund.
Action sequences are top notch, and it seems they used fewer digital "people" than Lord of the Rings, which was OK: if you saw a cavalryman in the distance it was a real man and horse.
Prince Caspian, interestingly, several times was a real screw-up, Peter and Edmund basically saved his throne for him. At least Aslan showed confidence in him.
What was oddest was that although this film was made in New Zealand (as usual!), Slovenia, and Poland, all the Telmarines looked and sounded Spanish! ??? They all had Spanish accents, and even Caspian, played by Ben Barnes (born in London) spoke with a Spanish accent. The Italian actor who played Miraz said that the director wanted such an accent from all Telmarines.
Best new talking animals: Trufflehunter (badger), and Reepicheep (sword wielding mouse with attitude).
As others have said, "The new Narnia can be seen as a parallel to the modern world, in which old beliefs are scoffed at. "Who believes in Aslan nowadays?" asks Trumpkin (dwarf) when he first meets Caspian. Those who "hold on", like the badgers, are praised: this links with Lewis's views on religious faith".
I can't say more about this film without giving away spoilers. But it was top notch.
I just finished watching on PBS, for the very first time, a highly regarded movie comedy from 1961, "One, Two, Three". And I have a headache from it. A very quirky film. I have never seen its like.
It was written and directed by Billy Wilder at his height of fame, he being one of the legends of screen writing and movie direction. He had just won huge acclaim for the classic and charming "The Apartment".
Even after watching this the title is itself odd. If you look at IMDb the rating and written reviews are mostly glowing. And it is clever. No doubt the lovers of this film were the ones who wrote.
BUT. . . although it is very well done it was like a movie on uppers. I was paying close attention and I felt like I was in a cyclone of jokes, many not good; a few hilarious. I did laugh out loud at Arlene Francis' character commenting on how she knew Cagney was having an affair because he started wearing his "elevator shoes".
Jimmy Cagney (acting legend) headed a frenzied hyper cast delivering lines fast rat-a-tat like machine guns, and doing so at the top of their lungs. So much yelling. The jokes and apparent jokes and all the lines went flying by; you hardly knew when one ended and another began. And if something was funny if you laughed you'd miss the next line! :o And I had the volume way up.
You get the idea. Somehow, it being in black and white didn't help.
It was set in Berlin in 1961, just before the Berlin Wall went up, and the Cold War jokes had to be understood in historical context.
It was good and well done, BUT. . . if ever there was an example of "Less is More" this is it. If Wilder removed a third of the jokes, especially the poorer ones and slowed the pace it would have worked better.
How Cagney could deliver lengthy lines that loudly and fast I don't know, but he did. It was almost funny to see that alone; he was like some kind of crazed machine not a man in his sixties.
Jeez. It was like the entire film was on heavy doses of caffeine.That thing lasted almost two hours, and it needed two intermissions for the audience to take a break! But it was good, sure. But I still have a headache trying to follow its frenetic pace.
It was written and directed by Billy Wilder at his height of fame, he being one of the legends of screen writing and movie direction. He had just won huge acclaim for the classic and charming "The Apartment".
Even after watching this the title is itself odd. If you look at IMDb the rating and written reviews are mostly glowing. And it is clever. No doubt the lovers of this film were the ones who wrote.
BUT. . . although it is very well done it was like a movie on uppers. I was paying close attention and I felt like I was in a cyclone of jokes, many not good; a few hilarious. I did laugh out loud at Arlene Francis' character commenting on how she knew Cagney was having an affair because he started wearing his "elevator shoes".
Jimmy Cagney (acting legend) headed a frenzied hyper cast delivering lines fast rat-a-tat like machine guns, and doing so at the top of their lungs. So much yelling. The jokes and apparent jokes and all the lines went flying by; you hardly knew when one ended and another began. And if something was funny if you laughed you'd miss the next line! :o And I had the volume way up.
You get the idea. Somehow, it being in black and white didn't help.
It was set in Berlin in 1961, just before the Berlin Wall went up, and the Cold War jokes had to be understood in historical context.
It was good and well done, BUT. . . if ever there was an example of "Less is More" this is it. If Wilder removed a third of the jokes, especially the poorer ones and slowed the pace it would have worked better.
How Cagney could deliver lengthy lines that loudly and fast I don't know, but he did. It was almost funny to see that alone; he was like some kind of crazed machine not a man in his sixties.
Jeez. It was like the entire film was on heavy doses of caffeine.That thing lasted almost two hours, and it needed two intermissions for the audience to take a break! But it was good, sure. But I still have a headache trying to follow its frenetic pace.
