The Hunt for Gollum came out this afternoon (only) on Dailymotion! It is a short movie made by dedicated fans of the original Lord of the Ring in the beautiful mountains and woods of northern Wales, recreating the costumes of Peter Jackson’s movie by themselves. Given those premises, it is incredibly good. That people could work on this project for years without any financial support and produce a coherent (if short) movie of almost commercial quality is amazing. (Without the above premises, I must add the movie is a bit bland… The plot is fairly simple and builds upon the few hints given in The Lord of the Ring about the search for Gollum but does not dare to go much further. The acting is not always very convincing either, even though the battle scene is well-done. So, objectively, I can only recommend the 35 minutes of The Hunt for Gollum to fans. Which is supposedly the reason for the shot.) Retrospectively, though, when compared with X-Men origins: Wolverine, where I had to take my daughter yesterday, I finally preferred by far The Hunt for Gollum!!!
Archive for movies
A prequel to The Lord of the Ring
Posted in Books, Kids with tags heroic fantasy, Lord of the RIng, movies on May 4, 2009 by xi'anGrandiose Gran Torino
Posted in Books, Kids with tags Eastwood, movies on April 30, 2009 by xi'an
This weekend, I saw Clint Eastwood’s latest movie, Gran Torino. This is an immense movie that clearly shows how Eastwood’s vision is continuously sharpening with time and not getting duller with age. The representation given by this movie of the mechanisms at work within the American society is flawless and the issues of immigration, racism, violence, and adolescence are treated with an intensity I rarely saw. The most unlikely Christic figure of Eastwood himself and his raw catholicism are central to the plot and they sound to me like an American rendering of Graham Greene’s atmosphere. The two young Hmongs are equally impressive in their acting, addressing the complex messages of cultural barriers and universal adolescent angst. The way the young girl very progressively thaws both the ice wall Eastwood has built over the years and his connected racism is completely convincing. Again, this is for me an immense movie, confirming the art of Eastwood.
