Latest Updates - Samuel L. Jackson

---

Comment by Magic Marmalade:

I've "Seen" this twice before, but only watched it for the first time today.

Well, I saw a few minutes of it back in the day, off the back of the whole Tarantino thing, but found it boring, and switched it off...then, about ten years ago, I gave it another go, and fell asleep.

But now, I thought I'd give it another go, and find it is one of the best things I've seen recently.

I think this is because I'm now ready for it - more mature (ish) - as can be evidenced by the fact that among the Tarantino movies, Jackie Brown is the one that has been creeping up through the ranks of my favourite movies of his, as it operates on a more slow burn, lo-fi - effortlessly cool basis, rather than all the pizazz of his other works...

...And that's exactly the kind of space this operates in; If possible, even more effortlessly cool, and lo-fi than Jackie Brown - but not boring.

I've also read an Elmore Leonard novel now (Maximum Bob - quite funny!) , and so am more tuned into his intricate yet easy, and naturalistic storytelling... the vibe he was giving in his work, and which both Jackie Brown and this, both adaptations of Leonard's work capture extremely well.

This tale of the Hapless bank robber, and prison escapee who comes across the cool, calm, and composed FBI agent, and sparks fly between them, causing her to question her duty to the law while at the same time, trying to catch him , is coolly, and seductively told, against a backdrop of a planned heist among some nefarious yet engaging characters does everything with ease, and without trying too hard to say: "look how cool this movie is eh!?!!!" the way some adaptations of Leonard's work do, or how the Ocean's 11 series do, which are a bit too goofy and overt for my taste. This is more straight up, and is the better for it.... more... subtle.

Given I've only really just seen it, is it right that I should add it to my list of favourite nineties movies now? .... ah, what the hell, it's going on there, as I think this getting a few rewatches.

(Not only that, I've ripped the movie to hard drive, and I'm keeping this DVD! :)

---

Comment by Magic Marmalade:

This movie has gotten a lot of unfair flack since the time of release...

...But my opinion is that it's actually a quite entertaining, well thought out and executed slice of teleporting combat action.

The only decent movie Hayden Christensen has ever been in too. :)

---

Comment by Magic Marmalade:

"That room is f&$king evil"

...And you know, Samuel L. Jackson's hotel manager's assertion about that room in his hotel to John Cusack's paranormal investigator / debunker is pretty much on the money, as all of Cusack's personal trauma and hidden hurts become manifest when he spends the night in there in order to debunk it.

Terrific realisation of the idea of making the room itself a character in the movie, a malevolent force of nature that persecutes it's occupants to death if they dare try to stay in it.

A nice yet perhaps predictable twist at the end, which is that the twist isn't the twist... er sort of, but very moody, tense, and creepy.

Will give many the chills.

---

Comment by henry29:

Tilte from the movie added. H.

---

Comment by Magic Marmalade:

The best superhero movie ever made.

...Bar none.

This is how you do it, and this is what superheroes and their movies are supposed to do for their audience:

Evoke the basic feeling of the truly wonderous, within the everyday, in such a way as to allow the viewer to feel that such things are within the bounds of the possible, and so inspire them at the deepest level.

Mmmmmm... Night's genius in this regard is to realise that in order to do this, you've got to pull this kind of movie, and the characters down, out of the clouds, allow the physics of it to be close enough to reality that the audience is willing to stetch their suspension of disbelief out to meet you half way. And then, strip away the fantastical, convoluted, plots that plague more recent cinema superheroes, as well as the primary coloured spandex costumery...

Show us the man...

...The man burdened with extraordinary circumstance, and how he struggles to make sense of it, and already you have the essence of the movie - the drama, the plot, and the wider story taken care of, in a way that allows the audience to sympathise, empathise, even with his exceptional abilities.

Being so lean, and focused, and with the story, along with cinematography, score, performances and direction conspiring to make the everyday grandiose, epic, and significant, while at the same time being the most intimate, personal portrayal, we can believe in the dash of the extraordinary in that everyday as we really want to, until the finale, where we are given that moment of relief of the tension created in the drama in a thoroughly transcendent, euphoric release.

Because it is this very feeling that you evoke in the audience is why they go to the cinema to see superhero movies, and when they work, the feeling that the film-makers tap into successfully, and when they don't, because they have gotten too far away from it, and concentrated too much on the superficial - the dazzle, the CGI, the excessive plotting and knots they tie themselves in to desperately try to sell the ever more unbelievable physics, and fantastical nature of what is shown.

Stripped down to bare wood, this is the purest portrayal of a superhero you will ever see, an ordinary man who is struggling to reconcile himself to the fact he might not be so ordinary after all.

And it's got all the feeling.

---

Comment by zabadak:

Independent review