- WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS HOW MUCH I HATED THIS. Except for all the words that will follow.
- Oh god, Danny Boyle, am I forever doomed to hate your work and yet continue to see it? I think I am.
- The crux of my issue is that I am, at heart, a minimalist. Like… this is my favourite painting of all time. I live for oppressive sameness in art, where minute differences and imperfections hold the key to dramatic tension. LIVE FOR IT. Thus, I was intrigued by the idea of an entire film taking place in a rocky crevice with an immobile protagonist. Danny Boyle, failing me again, obviously doesn’t also live for finding intensity amidst formal limitations. Instead, he goes the complete opposite direction with triple cut screens, CSI-style sub-cutaneous special effects, bad flashbacks, and several dozen unnecessary bottom-of-the-water-bottle camera angles. Maybe it’s just me, but have some faith in your material? Trust that you don’t have to spice it up eight ways to Sunday to make the story watchable. The best parts of the movie are completely devoid of Boyle’s frenetic attempts to be the next Baz Luhrmann and that’s the entire reason they work.
- Hands up if you think a more Terrence Malick-like approach would have improved this film greatly.
- Let’s talk about how much it would suck to cut off your own arm with the dull blade of a tiny knife.
- There’s just so much other unnecessary crap going on in this movie that it completely wrecks the moment where Aron decides to amputate himself. The man is CUTTING OFF HIS OWN ARM. You do not need anything else happening. If the goal is to distract us from the trauma going on on-screen, I’m not sure what the point of making this film is in the first place.
- Also, for the squeamish: Aron first breaks his own arm (gross) and then there are lots of extended shots of his inner arm muscles as he cuts through his own flesh. No fainting or seizures on my part, but I can see how it would happen to other people.
- James Franco was pretty good. He plays the charming, good time, no-cares-in-the-world type with a lot of ease but he’s got enough skill to play the opposite as well. Oh, Daniel Desario, I love you.
- If I could remake this movie to be like the first twenty minutes of There Will Be Blood, I totally would.
127 Hours
And THAT’S why you always leave a note. #JWalterWeatherman
IMDB Plot Synopsis A mountain climber becomes trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah and resorts to desperate measures in order to survive.
Yeah, I thought this movie could go either way–very good or very bad.. Then again, Danny Boyle hasn’t impressed me since Trainspotting, so maybe it’s not too surprising.
(The link to your favourite painting isn’t working. I was very curious what that was exactly.
)
Whoops, fixed the link!
Thanks!