Comments for Touching From a Distance

Comment on Cast and crew by Shawn Slovo

Shawn Slovo — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:19:29 +0000

Ha ha, that’s an evasive answer if I ever heard one.

Comment on Cast and crew by simon

simon — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:37:38 +0000

Financially or to reputations?

Comment on Cast and crew by Shawn Slovo

Shawn Slovo — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:17:18 +0000

Let us into a secret – how much did it cost?

Comment on Cast and crew by simon

simon — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:13:07 +0000

Shawn You should have come! I enjoyed it plenty of running about, big explosions & lots of quick cutting as you’d expect from Greengrass.

Baghdad is done is very well, you get a real sense of the post war chaos and looting. The politics are a bit simplistic and the plot suffers from trying a bit too hard to combine lots of different Iraq war themes but doesn’t do too bad a job all the same.

Nice touch for the nerdy among us, the WSJ journalist character is obviously based on the NYT journalist Judith Miller
(who went to jail for refusing to give up Scotter Libby) but they couldn’t use her so Greengrass calls the Matt Damon character Miller. Coincidence I think not!

7 out of 10 .. ‘The Hurt Locker’ it ain’t!

Comment on Cast and crew by Shawn Slovo

Shawn Slovo — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:47:18 +0000

So, Simon, what’s your verdict? Unbiased, non partisan – as if….

Comment on Cast and crew by Shawn Slovo

Shawn Slovo — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:47:17 +0000

So, Simon, what’s your verdict? Unbiased, non partisan – as if….

Comment on Cast and crew by simon

simon — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:28:44 +0000

Paul- You’re going to love it!

Comment on Cast and crew by Paul B

Paul B — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:34:53 +0000

Anything by Greengrass is usually more than worth watching. Looking for to the film

Comment on The Sincerest Form of Filmmaking by Scott Jordan Harris

Scott Jordan Harris — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:41:35 +0000

Oh, I’m surprised you found it poorly put together, Edward. After the obvious selling point of Bruce Lee, ‘Fist of Fury’ is characterised by its technical superiority to many other movies of its kind. For a martial arts movie that truly is poorly put together, check out the Brucesploitation clip above!

If the more straightforward kung fu films are not for you, you might like to try out a more intellectually involving and obviously artistic picture like King Hu’s still-astonishing ‘Touch of Zen’:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Touch-Zen-Xia-1971-DVD/dp/B000089ARL/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1268091581&sr=8-1

For a more detailed analysis of action in a modern martial arts film, you could check out my Great Movie Scenes post on 2008’s ‘Ip Man’:

http://www.touchingfromadistance.co.uk/2010/02/great-movie-scenes-%E2%80%98i%E2%80%99m-not-here-for-the-rice%E2%80%99/

Comment on The Sincerest Form of Filmmaking by Edward McLaughlin

Edward McLaughlin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:14:49 +0000

Scott, it was just so poorly put together. It didn’t impress – and at the time, it wouldn’t have been too difficult. The fight scenes just seemed daft; the story, corny. I saw a bit of ‘Enter the Dragon’ also, to try and get what all the fuss was about. Put me off martial arts films for life.

I wonder: have they ever gotten round to showing fight action differently? In a way which might put over the actual being in a fight, more vividly. It just blurs past and I’m sure it could be done better.