The West Wing and Le Pacte des Loupes
Nov. 29th, 2002 04:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockJust watched my recording of Wednesday's West Wing.
I absolutley LOVED Bartlet''s yelling on the phoen to the UN diplomat about the parking ticket. And I loved Charlies lead-in. That whole scene was hilarious. One of my favorite all-time WW scenes. Why are these characters always the most humorous when they rant?
~***~
I watched Le Pacte des Loupes last night. Also known as: The Brotherhood of the Wolf (though don't ask me why the french title is plural and the english one isn't).
Overall review: Thumbs up!!!
This is a kick-ass movie. In scope it reminded me of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, though this one was not as unbelievably amazing as that-- it was still an unusually high quality action/historical/horror mystery.
I wasn't sure what it would be about, but it met and surpassed all my expectations, and gave me a story I was sucked into. It's VERY dark, and sad in places, and somewhat bloody (more than Crouching Tiger, less than Saving Private Ryan). It is wonderfully filmed, but the cinematography, though fascinating, also has mucht o do with the mood f the film, so its very dark and bleak overall, with lots of wet, rainy forrests and hillsides, lots of grey skies, and lots of grim colors (though the oft-seen bright green foliage was quite pretty, as it stood out so brightly against the gim greyness of the sky and the cotsumes).
One important thing-- you have to watch this movie in French. Yes, the subtitles seem distracting at first, and are sometimes hard to follow in rapid-fire group conversations, but to be appreciated this movie HAS to be seen in its original dialogue, with the voices by the original actors. You get used to it fast (the movie's 2 hrs, 45 min.), and its critical to the story, to the acting. Acting which, btw, was absolutely fantastic.
The plot, not spoiling the movie for you:
In 1764, in a province of France, a Beast has been preying on the populace (and they pronounce it w/ a capital B). Villagers-- men, women, children-- have been killed over a two year period. A few sruvivors report it as a not a wolf, but far more monster-like.
Tales of the mosnter have reached Paris, and two men are sent out by the King to hunt down the Beast and capture/kill it. One is the royal taxidermist, a knight and a scientist. The other (Mark Docascus, of tv show The Crow: Stairway to Heaven)is an Iroqois (sp?-- I don't remember) Mowhawk, and is hinted to be a medicine man. He is also presented from the first scene as a hell of a fighter (sure he was using eastern martial-arts type fighting instead of the wrestling that the Native Americans actually used, but he looked so fucking cool doing so that believe me, I didn't care.) I'm not gonna say much about their backstory (because it's best presented in the film), except that the two men are very close and have a highly respectful companion/working relationship, and have been travelling together for a long time.
But I'm getting caught up in the damn details again. Anyway, they hunt the Beast, and in doing so go much deeper into the deception that's everywhere around them than they could possibly have imagined when they began. This movie has an extremely complex plot, with several characters and intricate politics. Its defintely something you have to pay close attention too. There's a love story sub-plot, but thankfully they toned it down to concentrate on the plot as a whole-- the horror mystery-- and the romance arc does further that major plot along nicely as well, and isn't just there to take up our time. The story is dramatic and scary, and sometimes quite disturbing. Certainly R-rated... I wouldn't let anyone under 14 or 15 watch it. For one, some of its subtleties (the more mature scenes, the complexities of the relationships, disturbing imagery) would go over their heads, and two, it's very violent.
The best part of the movie? The fights, of course.
This has some great, great fight scenes. Very physical, some with weapons, some without. They were inventive though, and not your average movie-fare. The scene with the Beast and the traps vaguely reminded me of Predator, and some of the forrest battles brought to mind The Last of the Mohicans.
The main character's entrance into the final fight scene-- god it was so cool. When he named all the lords, and then jumped and landed crouching on the altar-like stone? KICK ASS. And I loved how throughout the film we're deliberately given the impression that physically Mani (the Indian) is the most dangerous of the two, and yet in the end we see that it was more than the just the other guy teaching him French to be a translator-- Mani taught *him* how to be a warrior, how to fight like he did, and so they really were blood-brothers in acutally, not just in name/ceremony. And btw, I was SO mad when Mani was shot. Such an undignified nd to someone who had just proven themselves such a great warrior.
The score is excellent, haunting and creepy. The movie on the whole was creepy, but it wasn't scream-like scary... it was the tension, and the drama, and the underlying suspense all the time that made it hard to watch. But I love well-done suspense.
This was a cool movie. I'll go a while before watching it again-- there was enough her to turn my stomach for a while-- but I'm glad I did. And I'm glad I saw it on a large tv, with popcorn. Kinda regretting I didn't see it in theaters, actually.
I absolutley LOVED Bartlet''s yelling on the phoen to the UN diplomat about the parking ticket. And I loved Charlies lead-in. That whole scene was hilarious. One of my favorite all-time WW scenes. Why are these characters always the most humorous when they rant?
I watched Le Pacte des Loupes last night. Also known as: The Brotherhood of the Wolf (though don't ask me why the french title is plural and the english one isn't).
Overall review: Thumbs up!!!
This is a kick-ass movie. In scope it reminded me of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, though this one was not as unbelievably amazing as that-- it was still an unusually high quality action/historical/horror mystery.
I wasn't sure what it would be about, but it met and surpassed all my expectations, and gave me a story I was sucked into. It's VERY dark, and sad in places, and somewhat bloody (more than Crouching Tiger, less than Saving Private Ryan). It is wonderfully filmed, but the cinematography, though fascinating, also has mucht o do with the mood f the film, so its very dark and bleak overall, with lots of wet, rainy forrests and hillsides, lots of grey skies, and lots of grim colors (though the oft-seen bright green foliage was quite pretty, as it stood out so brightly against the gim greyness of the sky and the cotsumes).
One important thing-- you have to watch this movie in French. Yes, the subtitles seem distracting at first, and are sometimes hard to follow in rapid-fire group conversations, but to be appreciated this movie HAS to be seen in its original dialogue, with the voices by the original actors. You get used to it fast (the movie's 2 hrs, 45 min.), and its critical to the story, to the acting. Acting which, btw, was absolutely fantastic.
The plot, not spoiling the movie for you:
In 1764, in a province of France, a Beast has been preying on the populace (and they pronounce it w/ a capital B). Villagers-- men, women, children-- have been killed over a two year period. A few sruvivors report it as a not a wolf, but far more monster-like.
Tales of the mosnter have reached Paris, and two men are sent out by the King to hunt down the Beast and capture/kill it. One is the royal taxidermist, a knight and a scientist. The other (Mark Docascus, of tv show The Crow: Stairway to Heaven)is an Iroqois (sp?-- I don't remember) Mowhawk, and is hinted to be a medicine man. He is also presented from the first scene as a hell of a fighter (sure he was using eastern martial-arts type fighting instead of the wrestling that the Native Americans actually used, but he looked so fucking cool doing so that believe me, I didn't care.) I'm not gonna say much about their backstory (because it's best presented in the film), except that the two men are very close and have a highly respectful companion/working relationship, and have been travelling together for a long time.
But I'm getting caught up in the damn details again. Anyway, they hunt the Beast, and in doing so go much deeper into the deception that's everywhere around them than they could possibly have imagined when they began. This movie has an extremely complex plot, with several characters and intricate politics. Its defintely something you have to pay close attention too. There's a love story sub-plot, but thankfully they toned it down to concentrate on the plot as a whole-- the horror mystery-- and the romance arc does further that major plot along nicely as well, and isn't just there to take up our time. The story is dramatic and scary, and sometimes quite disturbing. Certainly R-rated... I wouldn't let anyone under 14 or 15 watch it. For one, some of its subtleties (the more mature scenes, the complexities of the relationships, disturbing imagery) would go over their heads, and two, it's very violent.
The best part of the movie? The fights, of course.
This has some great, great fight scenes. Very physical, some with weapons, some without. They were inventive though, and not your average movie-fare. The scene with the Beast and the traps vaguely reminded me of Predator, and some of the forrest battles brought to mind The Last of the Mohicans.
The main character's entrance into the final fight scene-- god it was so cool. When he named all the lords, and then jumped and landed crouching on the altar-like stone? KICK ASS. And I loved how throughout the film we're deliberately given the impression that physically Mani (the Indian) is the most dangerous of the two, and yet in the end we see that it was more than the just the other guy teaching him French to be a translator-- Mani taught *him* how to be a warrior, how to fight like he did, and so they really were blood-brothers in acutally, not just in name/ceremony. And btw, I was SO mad when Mani was shot. Such an undignified nd to someone who had just proven themselves such a great warrior.
The score is excellent, haunting and creepy. The movie on the whole was creepy, but it wasn't scream-like scary... it was the tension, and the drama, and the underlying suspense all the time that made it hard to watch. But I love well-done suspense.
This was a cool movie. I'll go a while before watching it again-- there was enough her to turn my stomach for a while-- but I'm glad I did. And I'm glad I saw it on a large tv, with popcorn. Kinda regretting I didn't see it in theaters, actually.
