Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&amp;#039;Drama" data-source="post: 379732" data-attributes="member: 23">Gambit (2012)

<img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fthefilmstage.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F04%2Fgambit.jpg&amp;f=1&amp;nofb=1&amp;ipt=a58566015033ac9b2c8185fa91ec50e2bfeb5bf1faa81fafac5a01a1e1cd0e53&amp;ipo=images" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 525px" />

This is becoming a habit. Fortunately, having no awareness that this was a remake meant that I could watch it with good degree of neutrality. Seeing the Coen Brothers&#039; names at the beginning made me a little nervous, though I didn&#039;t know why, apart from a vague notion from somewhere that they were associated with &quot;zany&quot; stuff and weirdness.&nbsp; Looking at their filmography, I see they were also responsible for that ill-advised remake of The Ladykillers, so perhaps that was a factor.

The opening titles are probably the best part of the film. They&#039;re great, and very Pink Panther-esque. And, as you&#039;ll see, there&#039;s quite a decent cast here:
[MEDIA=youtube]qxN1igd1aFo[/MEDIA]

Colin Firth looks rather like he&#039;s in a dry run for Kingsman. He is someone I associate with being very proper and terribly British, so it sounded quite jarring to hear him use the Americanism &quot;snuck&quot; at one point. Since the film had American writers and director, I&#039;m assuming he just read what was written to the letter without questioning it. Fortunately, he spent a good part of the film trouser-less, and he does have very nice legs so all was quickly forgiven.

In theory, I feel like I shouldn&#039;t like Cameron Diaz as much as I do. She&#039;s remarkably good at these &quot;blonde who appears ditzy but most probably isn&#039;t&quot; roles, and very endearing indeed, with good comic timing (a few times last night I found myself reflecting she&#039;s kind of a latter day Marilyn Monroe). Bizarrely, she didn&#039;t utter a single word in her first few scenes. It was most distracting, and meant I didn&#039;t take my eyes off her. I thought I knew the reason for her initial silence (so that her broad Texan accent could be more of a shock to Firth&#039;s character) but it turned out this wasn&#039;t the only reason and I thought it&nbsp; a nice little reveal.

Alan Rickman, Stanley Tucci and Tom Courtenay are also present and each as reliable as ever.

It&#039;s a very watchable film, though I couldn&#039;t shake the feeling that it wasn&#039;t quite as quirkily clever as the creators would like the audience to think. Most twists can be seen coming from a little way ahead but, to the credit of the engaging cast, they still satisfied.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 379732, member: 23"] [CENTER][B][SIZE=6]Gambit[/SIZE][/B] (2012) [IMG width="525px"]https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fthefilmstage.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F04%2Fgambit.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=a58566015033ac9b2c8185fa91ec50e2bfeb5bf1faa81fafac5a01a1e1cd0e53&ipo=images[/IMG] [/CENTER] [CENTER] This is becoming a habit. Fortunately, having no awareness that this was a remake meant that I could watch it with good degree of neutrality. Seeing the Coen Brothers' names at the beginning made me a little nervous, though I didn't know why, apart from a vague notion from somewhere that they were associated with "zany" stuff and weirdness. Looking at their filmography, I see they were also responsible for that ill-advised remake of [I]The Ladykillers[/I], so perhaps that was a factor. The opening titles are probably the best part of the film. They're great, and very Pink Panther-esque. And, as you'll see, there's quite a decent cast here: [MEDIA=youtube]qxN1igd1aFo[/MEDIA] Colin Firth looks rather like he's in a dry run for [I]Kingsman[/I]. He is someone I associate with being very proper and terribly British, so it sounded quite jarring to hear him use the Americanism "snuck" at one point. Since the film had American writers and director, I'm assuming he just read what was written to the letter without questioning it. Fortunately, he spent a good part of the film trouser-less, and he does have very nice legs so all was quickly forgiven. In theory, I feel like I shouldn't like Cameron Diaz as much as I do. She's remarkably good at these "blonde who appears ditzy but most probably isn't" roles, and very endearing indeed, with good comic timing (a few times last night I found myself reflecting she's kind of a latter day Marilyn Monroe). Bizarrely, she didn't utter a single word in her first few scenes. It was most distracting, and meant I didn't take my eyes off her. I [I]thought[/I] I knew the reason for her initial silence (so that her broad Texan accent could be more of a shock to Firth's character) but it turned out this wasn't the [U]only[/U] reason and I thought it a nice little reveal. Alan Rickman, Stanley Tucci and Tom Courtenay are also present and each as reliable as ever. It's a very watchable film, though I couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't [U]quite[/U] as quirkily clever as the creators would like the audience to think. Most twists can be seen coming from a little way ahead but, to the credit of the engaging cast, they still satisfied.[/CENTER] [/QUOTE]

Verification

Who played JR Ewing?