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Post by midoro on Jul 23, 2014 21:24:21 GMT
Laila, Rueful and GE2!
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Post by rueful on Jul 23, 2014 22:14:05 GMT
Nice review, GE2! Thanks for posting it. An overall positive review in The Guardian. Hercules review – cheerfully ridiculous
He is Hercules: hear him roar. Pec-oil supplies plummet as the great muscly hero of classical antiquity arrives on the big screen, played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, in glistening semi-nudity. Brett Ratner's cheerfully ridiculous and entertaining film begins by saying that he is "the son of Zeus – the Zeus!" That's in case there's any confusion and someone blunders up to our hero mid-battle, and says how much they enjoyed his dad's masterpiece The Cat in the Hat.
Yet the film restricts his fabled 12 labours to the opening sequence, and does not dwell on the yucky business of cleansing the Augean stables. It is with tongue in cheek that it focuses on his post-labours career and suggests the stories of those origins may not be literally true, but vital for helping him to believe in himself, and fight the good fight.
What a lesson there is for all of us. Hercules is avowedly the demigod leader of a crew of tough-guy mercenaries, a magnificent seven or so samurai of A-Team Expendables, including the seer Amphiaraus (Ian McShane), the droll Autolycus (Rufus Sewell), super-sexy archer Atalanta (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal), brutish Tydeus (Aksel Hennie) and his silver-tongued nephew, Iolaus (Reece Ritchie), a beardless youth who longs to prove himself in battle.
The king of Thrace (played, slightly inevitably, by John Hurt) hires the crew to defend his lands against sinister marauders, but there is something strange going on in their own camp, and it has something to do with the king's iffy general, played by Peter Mullan. There were no cigars in those days, but if there were, Hercules might well have felt the need to spark one up; instead, he must content himself with other alpha-male mannerisms, such as removing from around his neck the tooth from the Nemean lion he defeated, and presenting it to a wide-eyed little boy who hero-worships him.
There are some rousing battle scenes, preceded by stirring addresses on the subject of going to Elysium – all cheekily borrowed from Ridley Scott's Gladiator, the 2000 film that did so much to revive the swords'n'sandals genre.Los Angeles premiere of Hercules is tonight, 5 pm Pacific time. Hope Rufus will make an appearance on the red carpet and there will be some photos tomorrow! guestofaguest.com/los-angeles/calendar/2014/july/hercules-premiere-at-tcl-chinese-theatre
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Post by GreenEyesToo on Jul 23, 2014 23:01:50 GMT
Thanks, Rueful - the reaction seems generally good so far. Looking forward to those premiere pics - no doubt our early-risers will oblige!
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Post by rai on Jul 24, 2014 1:29:42 GMT
Ami & Roof at the Hercules premiere. Looking good. Rai
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Post by kissmekate on Jul 24, 2014 6:32:55 GMT
That review sounds good, rueful! And thanks a lot for the pic, rai. Looking good indeed!
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Post by walt on Jul 24, 2014 7:13:48 GMT
a lot Ge2, Rueful and Rai!
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Post by adina on Jul 24, 2014 7:17:51 GMT
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Post by Petruchio - Good God on Jul 24, 2014 7:27:11 GMT
rai - I posted your pic on the premiere-Thread again - of course, with a thanks to you ....
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Post by lovethemanrs on Jul 24, 2014 9:34:36 GMT
Thanks Rai and Adina.
A beautiful couple...xx
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Post by kygal on Jul 24, 2014 10:32:19 GMT
Thanks for the reviews and pics. I knew there was a reason to get out of bed this am.
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Post by GreenEyesToo on Jul 24, 2014 18:27:11 GMT
to Rai and Adina, and to PGG for opening a thread in Media for the red carpet pics.
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Post by kygal on Jul 25, 2014 10:22:05 GMT
So... who is going tonight?
I am a little bummed that I probably will have to wait until next week to see it. A wedding and baseball have consumed my weekend. Who plans a wedding on the Hercules premier weekend......lol.
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Post by lassie on Jul 25, 2014 14:49:09 GMT
for the pic Rai - he is looking very good indeedy! for the other pics Adina. It was so kind of Rufus to wear light coloured suit so he could be spotted easily Just going to look at the media thread now - cheers PGG.
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Post by rueful on Jul 25, 2014 17:04:56 GMT
I am a little bummed that I probably will have to wait until next week to see it. A wedding and baseball have consumed my weekend. Who plans a wedding on the Hercules premier weekend......lol. Very inconsiderate! Maybe you can persuade the other guests to take a road trip to the theater. to Judy! I watched the Hercules tv special that you told us about. It was a 30 minute "making of" feature with several quotes from Rufus and lots of video! He discussed his character and it seemed like he was having fun making the film. Sorry I can't find any video of it online. Here are some more good reviews. I'm only going to put excerpts, since we really only care about Rufus, and these don't mention him other than by character name. USA Today
'Hercules' hoists hefty action with some thought
Putting Greek gods on the big screen can be a Herculean task. You've got the funny getups, stilted language and the whole immortal thing that makes suspense nearly impossible.
So credit Dwayne Johnson and director Brett Ratner, of all people, for accomplishing the near-mighty in Hercules: They've made a sword-and-sandal spectacle that entertains. And though it's not the second coming of 300, this Hercules (*** out of four; rated PG-13; opens Friday nationwide) proves surprisingly knowing of the legend — and surprisingly willing to tweak it....
But Hercules, which stands miles above this year's The Legend of Hercules, is more about flexing brawn with just a dash of brain. And given the rash of bland sword-and-sandal flicks, a dash might be just the trick.VarietyThe mythical Greek strongman gets a refreshingly human spin in Brett Ratner's grandly scaled, solidly entertaining popcorn pic.
On paper, Brett Ratner sounds like such an improbable choice to direct a large-scale ancient Greek epic that, going into his “Hercules,” one could only hope for a less aggressively preposterous affair than Renny Harlin’s bargain-basement “The Legend of Hercules” from earlier this year. The happy surprise is that Ratner’s “Hercules” is more than a mere improvement on its predecessor. It’s a grandly staged, solidly entertaining, old-fashioned adventure movie that does something no other Hercules movie has quite done before: It cuts the mythical son of Zeus down to human size (or as human as you can get while still being played by Dwayne Johnson). The result is a far classier pic than Paramount’s frenetic trailer — and decision to hide the film from reviewers until the 11th hour — foretold...IGNTHE VERDICT An entertaining and boisterous action flick, Hercules offers a fresh take on the legendary character and his heroics.ForbesDwayne Johnson's 'Hercules' Doesn't Deserve "No Press Screenings" Stigma
It is odd that we have two major studio releases debuting this weekend that are wholly different from how the marketing materials would represent them. Universal’s (Comcast Corporation) Lucy is a science-fiction character study about a woman who unlocks all of her brain and thus the secrets of the universe, yet it is being sold as a “Watch Scarlett Johansson kick butt!” action picture. MGM and Paramount’s (Viacom, Inc.) Hercules wasn’t even shown to most film critics prior to its theatrical release last night. Generally speaking a studio holds back a film because it is so terrible that reviews can put a serious hurt on the opening weekend box office. But Brett Ratner‘s Hercules is not only not “too terrible for critics” but actually pretty good. I would argue it too was a victim of somewhat blatantly false marketing.
Brett Ratner’s Hercules is a perfectly solid action picture. It is well-acted by a game cast and the screenplay by Ryan Condal and Evan Spiliotopoulos (of course adapted from Steve Moore’s Hercules comic book) gives the likes of Ian McShane, John Hurt, and Rufus Sewell plenty of amusing things to do and say (yes, Hurt gets to pontificate and it is wonderful as always). The action sequences are well-staged and relatively creative. Because Ratner is somewhat old-school, the battles are cleanly shot and coherently edited. The film looks like every penny of its $110 million budget is onscreen, and it has a certain relaxed quality. It’s not quite 100 minutes, but it never feels rushed and it never feels like story chunks were cut out for the sake of the lean running time. And the film feels wide, with not an ounce of visual claustrophobia...
Aside from fans that walk into the theater only wanting 95 minutes of The Rock breaking monsters in half, I can’t imagine anyone being too disappointed with Hercules. It is well-paced, well-plotted, and entertainingly acted by a cast that seems to be enjoying themselves.... Edited to add a couple Rufus-specific comments. Tribune"Don't just stand there, kill someone!" Sewell says at one point. One wonders if he, Hurt and McShane sat around the set in between takes, competing in a raspy-but-charming bellowing contest. (<---- I would pay big money to watch that video!!!) Indiewire But Hurt, as the king of a city-state who engages Hercules and his band to defend them, McShane, as an eccentric seer, and Rufus Sewell as Hercules' snarky sidekick, rip into their roles with gusto and wit. Sewell, who never misses an opportunity to deflate the gravity of a moment, is to the sword and sandal genre as "Airplane!'s" Steven Stucker is to the disaster movie.
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Post by rueful on Jul 25, 2014 19:37:05 GMT
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