Marc   03-21-2004, 01:45 PM
#1
I just saw this last night and I want to know if anyone else has seen it and, if so, what you thought?

As always Johnny Depp was amazing as was Turturro (sic?). It was well paced and had some good scares and psychological tension in it. My big problem was the ending.

The thing most annoying was the twist. Yeah, okay, Depp is crazy but you sort of pick up on this throughout the film. But it was when his ex-wife (or soon-to-be) comes to the cabin and sees "Shooter" written on everything. Okay... cool... Shooter, shoot her... all good... but then why in the hell does he come at her with a pair of scissors??? It should have been a gun and we know he was one. His agent/bodyguard even makes mention of it at one point ("pull out your six-shooter"). I've never read the novella so I don't know how accurate this was but that was my biggest disappointment with the film.

Thoughts?
Bluesman Mike Lindner   03-22-2004, 06:25 AM
#2
Johnny Depp has done plenty of fine work as an actor, but why on Earth does he want to live in France? What's France got that we don't have more of and better right here in the good old USA? Snails? Snail ranches? OK, let's riff on that idea. "Look out, garcons--snail stampede! Pierre--Pierre--look out! Oh, no--oh, God--Pierre's donkey done threw him. Right in the path of the stampedin' herd! He's--he's gettin' slimed to death. Aw, no...won't be enough of him to send home to his folks..."
Ken Valentine   03-22-2004, 12:22 PM
#3
Bluesman Mike Lindner Wrote:Johnny Depp has done plenty of fine work as an actor, but why on Earth does he want to live in France? What's France got that we don't have more of and better right here in the good old USA?

Socialism? France has more Socialism than we do . . . well, a little more anyway.

Ken V.
Annice Burdeos   03-22-2004, 10:48 PM
#4
Marc B. Wrote:I just saw this last night and I want to know if anyone else has seen it and, if so, what you thought?

As always Johnny Depp was amazing as was Turturro (sic?). It was well paced and had some good scares and psychological tension in it. My big problem was the ending.

The thing most annoying was the twist. Yeah, okay, Depp is crazy but you sort of pick up on this throughout the film. But it was when his ex-wife (or soon-to-be) comes to the cabin and sees "Shooter" written on everything. Okay... cool... Shooter, shoot her... all good... but then why in the hell does he come at her with a pair of scissors??? It should have been a gun and we know he was one. His agent/bodyguard even makes mention of it at one point ("pull out your six-shooter"). I've never read the novella so I don't know how accurate this was but that was my biggest disappointment with the film.

Thoughts?


The twist as you say wasn't really a twist at all. Even in the way it was portrayed was unoriginal- the technique first demonstrated to ample effect in A Beautiful Mind.
Depp is very good at creating a character's inner feelings, disappearing into the character's skin as it were and he makes you forget who he is. Your focus is on him.
It would have been far better if Timothy Hutton was more central to the film. That would have been a neat touch since Hutton starred long ago in King's The Dark Half. An inside joke as it were.
So much of the film was derivative with signposts so obvious rendering the film an excerise in okayness. I have not read the novella but the film was rather disappointing as far as a King novella was concerned. Still it was
tolerable in a way Dreamcatcher wasn't.
jimbow8   03-22-2004, 10:54 PM
#5
Annice Burdeos Wrote:Still it was
tolerable in a way Dreamcatcher wasn't.
My biggest problem with Dreamcatcher was that it was like the book. The only really cool character (Beaver) died.

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. ... The piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
~ Howard Phillips Lovecraft
Bluesman Mike Lindner   03-22-2004, 11:37 PM
#6
Ken Valentine Wrote:Socialism? France has more Socialism than we do . . . well, a little more anyway.

Ken V.
C'est vrai.
Gerald Rice   03-26-2004, 06:26 PM
#7
The thing most annoying was the twist. Yeah, okay, Depp is crazy but you sort of pick up on this throughout the film. But it was when his ex-wife (or soon-to-be) comes to the cabin and sees "Shooter" written on everything. Okay... cool... Shooter, shoot her... all good... but then why in the hell does he come at her with a pair of scissors??? It should have been a gun and we know he was one. His agent/bodyguard even makes mention of it at one point ("pull out your six-shooter"). I've never read the novella so I don't know how accurate this was but that was my biggest disappointment with the film.

I thought the John Shooter persona was born when he caught his wife cheating on him. Remember, he had the gun and he pointed it at them? But he didn't have the heart to shoot her. The persona was born to 'finish the job' even though it didn't involve a gun.
Annice Burdeos   03-26-2004, 10:34 PM
#8
Gerald Rice Wrote:The thing most annoying was the twist. Yeah, okay, Depp is crazy but you sort of pick up on this throughout the film. But it was when his ex-wife (or soon-to-be) comes to the cabin and sees "Shooter" written on everything. Okay... cool... Shooter, shoot her... all good... but then why in the hell does he come at her with a pair of scissors??? It should have been a gun and we know he was one. His agent/bodyguard even makes mention of it at one point ("pull out your six-shooter"). I've never read the novella so I don't know how accurate this was but that was my biggest disappointment with the film.

I thought the John Shooter persona was born when he caught his wife cheating on him. Remember, he had the gun and he pointed it at them? But he didn't have the heart to shoot her. The persona was born to 'finish the job' even though it didn't involve a gun.


Saw this film a while ago on the lot where I work, and I just thought it was an okay adaptation of Stephen King's novella, Secret Window, Secret Garden. Depp gave a solid performance but the twist really wasn't effective at all. Using other actors to relay his "other self" was handled far better in A Beautiful Mind.
  
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