I saw Mongol almost a week ago. I wasn’t even aware it was nominated for an Oscar (for Best Foreign Film). It didn’t win but I’m hardly surprised.
The movie aspires to portray Ghengis Khan’s early life. I understand there will be 2 more movies to follow. It does a decent job of portraying the 12th century nomads of Mongolia. It was shot on location in Kazakhstan and Inner Mongolia (a Chinese province).
I guess this first part was intended to show why Temudgin (played as adult by Tadanobu Asano) became who he became. It focuses on several important episodes - his choice of bride, the poisoning of his father, the relationship with his half-brother, and the numerous captures and escapes.
The photography and the art direction are excellent - they really contribute to an epic but authentic feel. The characters do not disappoint either.
My only problem is that the movie seems incomplete - maybe because it’s intended as a part of a trilogy. We don’t get to see Ghengis Khan and his Golden Horde until the very end, the last battle scene.
Published by Administrator March 17th, 2006
in Digital Technology and News bits.
Apart from being a tad overindulgent in some of its CGI sequences, King Kong was an excellent summer movie. Empire magazine’s award for Best Movie understandably went to King Kong).
In his acceptance speach Peter Jackson was rightfully disappointed that Brokeback Mountain, a.k.a. the gay cowboy movie, upstaged King Kong at the Oscars.
Watch Peter Jackson acceptance speach (pre-recorded) here. There are some hilarious outtakes from King Kong.
What scares me though is that Peter’s working on an EXTENDED version of King Kong on a DVD. I mean … how much more extended can it be? Das Boot runs for four hours but it’s a sub movie so all is forgiven.
Published by Administrator March 10th, 2006
in Film School and News bits.
It’s a good thing Rachel Weisz got an Oscar because her presense made The Constant Gardener a lot more fun. It’s not a huge surprise as she already grabbed a Golden Globe and a Screen Actor’s Guild award in the supporting actress categories.
It was probably her karma to do this because of her “portrayal” of a librarian in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. She needed to pay back in a BIG way.
Apart from Rachel, George Clooney got what he deserved for his role in Syriana. King Kong got a few Oscars for special effects and sound.
Surprisingly, Brokeback Mountain didn’t score as highly as expected. Which reminds me I still have to review Walk the Line. I saw posters for Tsotsi in London but over here the closest I’ll get to Tsotsi is the Tsotsi torrent!
P.S. Has anyone see the movie Grbavica? I got quite a few people coming to the site looking for grbavica torrent. The movie was shown at Sundance 2006 - Grbavica directed and written by Jasmila Zbanic.
Spike Lee has just come out with an autobiography, That’s My Story and I’m Sticking to It. That’s probably behind his desire to talk to the media, including Slate.
The interview specifically addresses Lee’s comment about the Holocaust movies getting all the awards:
Slate: …You pretty much said that any movie about the Holocaust is going to carry all the prizes.
Lee: Whoa, whoa! What I was speaking of specifically was the feature-length documentary branch of the academy. I mean, there was a time—you could do the research, I don’t have the chart in front of me—but for a period of over 10 years, almost every film that won best feature-length documentary was about the Holocaust.
You can read the Lee interview at Slate. It’s not much fun, I hope the book is better.
Recent Comments