"Schindler's List" meets the Martians
Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, the flipside of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and ET, wasn’t something I was especially looking forward to. The trailers looked like outtakes from Earthquake (in “sensurround”!) and I was horribly disappointed a few years ago by the failure of Independence Day to recapture the great 1950s alien-invasion movies (including George Pal’s 1953 classic War of the Worlds).
But Spielberg’s War of the Worlds is jaw-droppingly great. I was not prepared.
I’m just going to note a few things, and then I’m done. If you’ve seen the film already, you’ll know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t seen it yet, you’ll understand later.
Here we go...
- Tom Cruise staring into a mirror, then frantically rinsing ash from his face.
- The “reveal” of the first Martian tripod.
- The river scene. Oh, God, the river scene.
- Clothes fluttering through the sky and down city streets.
- Tom Cruise dealing with the Tim Robbins “situation.” Unforgettable.
- Spielberg’s done nothing to diminish the greatness of George Pal’s 50-year-old War of the Worlds. In fact, he nods affectionately to it several times.
- Morgan Freeman’s the man.
- Little Dakota Fanning needs to get an Oscar.
See the movie for yourself. (But leave the kiddies at home. No kidding.)
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1 Comments:
I'm tempted to see it, except for one thing: Tom Cruise. I really, really, really hate him. The sight of that obnoxious shit-eating grin would make it impossible for me to suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy the movie.
When he told Lauer "I know the history of psychiatry--you don't," Lauer should have responded: "Well, I know the history of Scientology. It's a cult started by L. Ron Hubbard as a joke, to see how many gullible rich people he could take in."
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