Short OP either way:
The best thing about this movie was some good gratutitous nudity from the two male leads (Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson), both of whom have nice booties.
The worst thing was, to me, Blake Lively’s non-acting as O[phelia]. The entire movie depends upon your caring whether she lives or dies (that’s not a spoiler- in fact her first line is a voiceover saying she’s going to be in a life-or-death situation), but whether it’s the January Jones-esque ‘emotion conservation’ school of acting or whether it’s just the spoiled vapid rich girl way she was written, I didn’t anymore care whether she lived than whether Elena (Salma Hayek’s character) or any other villains survived. (And while I’ll admit it’s an extremely minor nitpick to the movie, it is one reason that I thought O was vapid: how the hell can you be in a consenting menage a trois with two criminals who pride themselves over being non-violent and yet not know the name Etta Place? You wouldn’t call her “that woman in that movie”, you’d have an authentic tintype of her on your wall.)
Travolta was almost too much star power for his role, which is more than a cameo but not a very big supporting role. Benicio Del Toro and must not get many high paying acting roles, because his character wasn’t very fleshed out (and while U.S. projects probably pay a lot more than Mexican, Demian Bichir must get irritated playing drug cartel leaders).
In general I thought this had some odd contrasts with Natural Born Killers, a Quentin Tarantino script that (in my opinion, and it’s an opinion with which many people strongly disagree) was totally effed up by Oliver Stone. This was an Oliver Stone script that he directed himself but that I think Tarantino could have made really work: Tarantino would have added a lot more humor and a lot more cartoonish gore for one thing and it could have used both.
I have not seen this yet (would like to but will wait for dvd), but i agree with you that Tarantino directing his script of NBK would have made for a MUCH better film.
Just saw it, should have walked out at the word “wargasm”. Didn’t care about anyone, wanted them all dead, actually, and walked out as fast as I could before they even told what happened to the main characters. So heavy handed, and still my dumb audience was explaining parts out loud throughout it. I would absolutely pass on this movie.
Saw it. Blake Lively’s acting definitely dragged it down and I thought having two endings was kind of a cop out but it wasn’t bad. Over all, I think I would have rather watched a movie about Benicio Del Toro and John Travolta’s characters than the one we got.
I think Taylor Kitsch could change his name to ‘Kiss-of-Death Kitsch’ after this, John Carter, and his lesser flops in a row. I really don’t think he has anything to do with why they’re flopping, but he’s got to feel contaminated.
Okay, I just saw it this afternoon and really liked it. So sue me.
Basically it was Stone does Tarantino, and he did it damn well IMHO - a great and dynamic balance of suspense, violence, quirkiness/comedy, and even the shootout at the end, or was it?
The only thing I really didn’t like about it was Taylor Kitsch. Absolutely wooden (now I fear he’ll screw up Lone Survivor)
Saw it opening weekend. Didn’t care for it at all.
No one seems concerned that one of their friends must have murdered when the gf is kidnapped as he’s never seen again. There’s a big push at the start to get hundreds of pounds of dope to the cartel by a certain time, and then… no one from the cartel mentions these guys getting more dope, or showing them their organization, which is why the gf was kidnapped in the first place. There was a plan to get $13 million to buy the gf back, they stole $3 million, and then… never continued forward with the plan. The whole movie seemed disjointed and badly stitched together.
I also had a very hard time buying Elena, an attractive sophisticated middle aged woman, as the head of a cartel. I don’t care how ruthless she was, unless she was trained by Bill (of Kill Bill fame) and a total she-demon with katana/Glock/MMA fighting/chains/etc., she’d have been decapitated with a chainsaw, probably to a room full of macho laughter, the first time she threatened the lives of any of her lieutenants.
