girlofprey (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
girlofprey) wrote2007-07-07 08:01 pm
girlofprey) wrote2007-07-07 08:01 pm
Die Hard (mostly)
I went to see I like that they gave Bruce Willis a young gay hacker lover. I did not like the misogyny.
It was - I don't know, it was weird. There were only really three visible female characters. One was a barely-there FBI agent person who the young gay hacker said he hoped wasn't in charge of anything because she disagreed with something he said. Another was John McClane's daughter, who was the only person in John McClane's family worth going after, and she was alright through having personality, despite some really awful lines. Also she was played by the cheerleader from Grindhouse. And then there was this bad woman, who just rarely got to say anything. Or not anything where she wasn't pretending to be a faceless official helpline person, as okayed by the man in charge of the bad guys. And she turned out to have kung fu skills, leading to John McClane punching her properly, like an equal opponent. But then after she died, when talking to her boss/lover, John called an "Asian-looking hooker bitch". And - it seems like you shouldn't be able to go back to that, if you've treated them like an equal in the punching stakes? I mean, I vaguely understand misogynist language in action films, because some people do talk/think like that, and there's sort of a culture of disrespect, but - well actually I don't understand it, coming from John McClane. He's not supposed to be perfect, but he's meant to be decent. Probably he said rubbish things about the guy's brother he killed in Die Hard, there's probably a precedent. But hmph. It made me angry.
A lot of my problem was that the woman (Mai) seemed to be meant to be all evil and badass, but never actually said much or did anything off her own back, though. The French assassins got personality. And leaping skills. In conclusion: she wasn't as good as the Bad Girl in Seven Swords.
Overall, it wasn't a great film. About halfway through I switched off and started putting all the scenes into Macro-speak. And they ignored logic throughout the film (cars in a tunnel where the lights have been shut off do not immediately switch their headlights on, apparently). I would like to see an action film where they ignore all the rules of logic to the point that everyone gets to live till the end of the movie. Anyway. They did do the young gay hacker lover quite well though. They gave him a lot of stereotypical "the media is out to get you, man!" speak at first, but then they kept him tired and bruised and hungry. And he hit someone with a pipe. Then at the end they gave him morphine. And he got a lot of time clinging to John McClane, and begging a car to let them go forward, and then interacting with the bad guy. Who was played by Seth from Deadwood! And called Gabriel. As all evil guys apparently are these days.
In conclusion, it wasn't a great movie. If you like explosions and fire, and gay in the manner I have described it, it might be worth a look. Otherwise probably not so much. Timothy Olyphant was quite good though, if you were to go for him. I is go look for gratuitous slash now.
In other news, I was thinking about Nathan's comment in Heroes that "If they knew what we were they'd probably gather us all up and stick us on a lab in the middle of the ocean somewhere", which people think is a Lost shout-out. It seems very clear that the people in Lost should all suddenly discover that they have superpowers. And that the people in Heroes should possibly find themselves trapped on an island where their powers don't work. But mostly the Lost one.
And I just got my payslip for last week's work and the holiday time I never took, on which they appear to be charging me £100 tax. I might need to chase that up with them on Monday.
It was - I don't know, it was weird. There were only really three visible female characters. One was a barely-there FBI agent person who the young gay hacker said he hoped wasn't in charge of anything because she disagreed with something he said. Another was John McClane's daughter, who was the only person in John McClane's family worth going after, and she was alright through having personality, despite some really awful lines. Also she was played by the cheerleader from Grindhouse. And then there was this bad woman, who just rarely got to say anything. Or not anything where she wasn't pretending to be a faceless official helpline person, as okayed by the man in charge of the bad guys. And she turned out to have kung fu skills, leading to John McClane punching her properly, like an equal opponent. But then after she died, when talking to her boss/lover, John called an "Asian-looking hooker bitch". And - it seems like you shouldn't be able to go back to that, if you've treated them like an equal in the punching stakes? I mean, I vaguely understand misogynist language in action films, because some people do talk/think like that, and there's sort of a culture of disrespect, but - well actually I don't understand it, coming from John McClane. He's not supposed to be perfect, but he's meant to be decent. Probably he said rubbish things about the guy's brother he killed in Die Hard, there's probably a precedent. But hmph. It made me angry.
A lot of my problem was that the woman (Mai) seemed to be meant to be all evil and badass, but never actually said much or did anything off her own back, though. The French assassins got personality. And leaping skills. In conclusion: she wasn't as good as the Bad Girl in Seven Swords.
Overall, it wasn't a great film. About halfway through I switched off and started putting all the scenes into Macro-speak. And they ignored logic throughout the film (cars in a tunnel where the lights have been shut off do not immediately switch their headlights on, apparently). I would like to see an action film where they ignore all the rules of logic to the point that everyone gets to live till the end of the movie. Anyway. They did do the young gay hacker lover quite well though. They gave him a lot of stereotypical "the media is out to get you, man!" speak at first, but then they kept him tired and bruised and hungry. And he hit someone with a pipe. Then at the end they gave him morphine. And he got a lot of time clinging to John McClane, and begging a car to let them go forward, and then interacting with the bad guy. Who was played by Seth from Deadwood! And called Gabriel. As all evil guys apparently are these days.
In conclusion, it wasn't a great movie. If you like explosions and fire, and gay in the manner I have described it, it might be worth a look. Otherwise probably not so much. Timothy Olyphant was quite good though, if you were to go for him. I is go look for gratuitous slash now.
In other news, I was thinking about Nathan's comment in Heroes that "If they knew what we were they'd probably gather us all up and stick us on a lab in the middle of the ocean somewhere", which people think is a Lost shout-out. It seems very clear that the people in Lost should all suddenly discover that they have superpowers. And that the people in Heroes should possibly find themselves trapped on an island where their powers don't work. But mostly the Lost one.
And I just got my payslip for last week's work and the holiday time I never took, on which they appear to be charging me £100 tax. I might need to chase that up with them on Monday.