20:13 for 2013 Screencap Fun: Ghosts, Zombies, Flappers
Saturday, December 28, 2013 at 10:21AM icymi here's part one.
Screencapping fun! We've frozen early 2013 releases* at the 20th minute and 13th second of their running times. Here's what we found. How many of these have you seen and do you think this moment is telling of the whole?
I had been drunk just once twice in my life and the second time was that afternoon."
In case you are illiterate, Baz Luhrmann's got you covered in his version of The Great Gatsby! (He sure is good at shooting party sequences, though. No filmmaker can touch him in that ultra specific place.)
This next screencap I had to lighten a bit so you could actually see it... Bed sheets are being yanked down... but by what/who?
Not funny, Nancy!"
Yep, it's The Conjuring. *chills*
[no dialogue]
In the spirit of Christmas generosity and reluctant truth telling: Some of the craft elements in The Lone Ranger were quite good, particularly the stunt work. This movie works best when its stars are on runaway trains as in this early sequence and in the final train sequence (which is immeasurably aided by the William Tell Overture). But as with all action setpiece movie mayhem including especially 2013 movies with Lone in the title (Hi, also: Lone Survivor) nobody in real life would actually live through the beatings that human bodies take in these movie when they go flying at high speeds and slamming into trains, mountains, rocks, and whatnot.
But action movies would be really really short if at the end of each setpiece some of the characters died or could not keep running from their multiple broken limbs.
Listening shells - activate!"
The Croods is a strange mix of the ugly and beautiful, the awkward and the clever, in just about every facet!
[OFFSCREEN NEWS REPORT] "The Kaiju, an enormous category 4, broke through the coastal wall in less than an hour. The Wall of Life had been deemed unbreachable by its builders."
Oh builders! Absolute statements are always bad ideas whether you're making fake things in genre movies like Pacific Rim or living out true stories. Remember the unsinkable Titanic?
[Brad's grunting]
"Jerry" is something of a Macgyver and fashions a weapon and armor out of household goods (duck tape, knife, broom, Star magazine) before risking the zombies again in World War Z which aged so well don't you think? I still think about most of its key sequences regularly. A family he's just asked to come with him, explaining the likelihood of survival if they don't has just refused and Brad nails the 'damn, this is the last time anyone will see you alive but I can't judge you' kind of an empathetic/pitying/time-for-me-to-go type look and that's a really specific look to be able to pull off, but Brad Pitt is magic.
Bonus points if anyone can tell me who Brad is mercilessly duct-taping and repurposing as forearm protection from the cover of this Star Magazine, español! It would have been so funny if it was Gwyneth or Jennifer but alas...
*I can't share freeze frame from pre-dvd movies via awards screeners or I'd be sent to prison! But maybe we'll sketch them out for you if you're good and you comment nicely.
Reader Comments (7)
Isn't that Cate Blanchett?
I had such low standards for The Lone Ranger that I ended up really enjoying it. Pretty good for what it set out to be. For some reason the comparison that comes to mind is Cowboys vs Aliens. How to you make such dirge from that title? A crappy sharknado type syfy movie would be more memorable.
MYS -- i was thinking Katharine Heigl but i really can't tell!
YoYo- My experience with The Lone Ranger too. It's such a strange blockbuster. I know people flipped at the brothel scenes (that are so PG-rated, come on) but seeing the mass-murder of the Comanche tribe gunned dow was one of the more sobering things I have seen in a blockbuster with nothing to do with Christopher Nolan. But the final train sequence raises the whole movie for me.
I think Nat is right-it definitely looks like Heigl.
Umma Thurman?
Gatsby did nothing for me outside of Elizabeth Debicki. The Conjuring was hit or miss for me, especially since the five minute Annabelle opener was scary than the entirety of that other story without super funky camera angles. I enjoyed Pacific Rim and really hope ConnectiCon picks up my Lovecraft on the Silver Screen panel so I can play some of the brain linking scenes. Guillermo del Toro made his Lovecraft film and didn't bother to tell us it was called Pacific Rim.
World War Z was terrible. Just, terrible. I can't with that. Thank goodness I didn't pay for my ticket or I would have been fighting with management for a refund at the halfway point. I still sent Max Brooks a little apology note for what they did to his masterful novel.