Friday, July 13, 2007

More of the same

Hmmm ... really makes me want to buy a ticket.

Note sarcasm.


And isn't that supposed to be "grisly" instead of "grizzly"? Are there graphic images of bears being mutilated or something. Sheesh ... take some pride when labeling the rating of your torture porn.

(I think I saw this pointed out somewhere else as well, but I forget where.)

EDIT: Jeannette Catsoulis sums it up pretty well in her NY Times review of the film.
The person who ought to be most embarrassed by this airless dud is its director, Roland Joffé, a two-time Oscar nominee who in the space of just five years regressed from working with Tom Stoppard to associating with the kind of people who mix eyeball smoothies and force-feed them to defenseless women. To be fair to Mr. Joffé, however, the movie has reportedly undergone substantial alterations since its filming in Moscow in 2005. Perhaps he’s as disgusted by the eyeballs as we are.
And then at the end, Catsoulis sums up the torture porn genre with a little twist on the content warning:
“Captivity” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Characters are burned with acid, buried in sand, drugged repeatedly — and then have sex.

3 comments:

Nate said...

Your ire is just, but note the director: Roland Joffe. The man who brought us such humane classics as The Killing Fields and The Mission!

Poor guy must be hard up for cash.

Phillip said...

Exactly!

I consider The Mission one of the most beautifully shot films I've ever seen and, although its not perfect, a film of tremendous depth.

Now this.

And the sad thing is that even if Joffe really is hard up for cash, he will make more money off this film than he ever could off something humane and beautiful.

Nate said...

Gosh, what if Captivity turns out to be something humane and beautiful?

Nah, scratch that.

Hey, I've got Longford at home right now. Can't wait to see it. Thanks for the review, Phillip.