I was curious- is anybody able to post reviews to your website. I would like to present on for The Last Castle, should you be receptive.

Dan, where are you?

--Brian

As for THE LAST CASTLE, specifically, I'm gonna be writing the review for that; I'm seeing the film tonight and will have my review up (hopefully) shortly thereafter.

If you want to write for us in the future, you're more than welcome to email me.

quote:

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Originally posted by Crono/Kyp:
Dan, where are you?

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At work, slacker!

Dan

And I'm expecting ya to keep track of whether there is more than 35mins. of score

NP:Hotel Paradiso(Rosenthal)

My personal review is over at www.soundtrackcinema.com/lastcastle.html

I wanna hear what others think, since no other reviews have gone up yet.

My review of the soundtrack is now up.

It's a good soundtrack, and has a great theme. The movie, on the other hand, has way too many problems to make it a "good" film. Certainly, I enjoyed bits of it. But overall it felt too heavy-handed and preachy, and the gaping plot holes and script issues stood out like a sore thumb.

Oh well.

Thanks for your response, and I'll be e-mailing you about what the process is to write for your site, if at all possible.

Meanwhile, I'm seeing the film tonight at a free screening, we'll see how it goes.

Hasta, read your review- very even and balanced in structure, that said, I really can't compare until I've had my experience. Suffice it to say there's only four releases left in the year after this score wise that I am intrigued by: Shrek (finally!), Spy Game, LOTR, Harry Potter. Mildly interesting to me are K-Pax (may have to wait and see how much money is available), and something (I forget what) to which the film opens on December 14th.

There were plot holes and the script unfortunately had an effective ENOUGH of a villain (mostly aided by Gandolfini's performance), but I didn't HATE Gandolfini's character enough- and in order to have a prison movie where events spiral out of control and the warden's hubris eventually consumes him, you need to evoke more of a reaction out of your audience than I got from the Warden. The payoff was at least there enough. I think Redford was once again outstanding and plays against his archetypes admirably, his character is only contrived by one problem: is he a changed man after the events of the film? Why do we care that he's taking over the prison- why is risking all the lives and giving pride backto these prisoners- for one plot point I won't describe that only mildly effective on it's own. The script doesn't build on it's events- which is a weak point. However, it does build on tension in performances between characters- Redford and Gandolfini mostly, Mark Ruffalo's performance is actually quite watchable- if he stretches as an actor later on, he'll do fine. Direction wise, Rod Lurie manages to put action scenes and work with actors very well. He should resolved those issue in the script. The most outstanding performance in the film isthe kid who played Aguilar. I was very impressed by his performance and I honestly think that guy has a future in acting. I like the premise of the film, and it tried to hard to deviate from a standard prison film. An admirable attempt as it is; it's flaws make it difficult to get into the moments that are tied together in the film and given recent events in the nation, it may be remembered as a study in military honor, not militarism. Nowadays, that's a tough thing to balance. It at least gets the military parts, the tense, taut parts, the humor, performance and action parts well enough to bear at least one repeated viewing. For what they're fighting for and the ending's reminder of what soldiers are made for make it haunting enough to think about it. This is a film that maybe riding on the coattails of a tragedy to make it so haunting- but wouldn't any film given the circumstances? That's another discussion. I enjoyed the film enough to keep thinking about it, if not to analyze its flaws as an example of what to look out for as I venture into making my own films.

I disagree with you Dan about the score, I felt it was understated and not syrupy. Some people would argue it was over patriotic, but I felt it was somber and presented with a liberal way about it- and the main theme is haunting (the point where we do agree). In fact, the score didn't overshadow the movie, it guided it effectively enough, which it was intended to do. This wasn't meant to totally be an action movie- it was meant to be a piece of tension. For me, the pros outweighed the cons (no pun intended).

Seems we're pretty much on the same page with the film (Plot holes-a-plenty!), but as for the score, well, everyone's entitles to an opinion!

I never thought the theme was "over patriotic" - I've always said it was a somber and respectful theme. But I just feel that it was used waaay too much in the film - not that it "overshadowed" the movie; just that it was too melodramatic and, well, schlocky in terms of how much of it was used.

And yes, there's not much action in the movie until the end - which means the script is super-important. And with those gaping plot holes (and abandoned sub-plots - remember Robin Wright-Penn??), I just felt like I was watching a well-polished piece of swiss-cheese, and I didn't like the smell.

You know, a film school colleague once said it was that rationale that allowed to make excuses for Star Wars Episode I- and, no, I won't strike up that argument again- but my response? It's called a criterion, not a rationale- a standard by which I can judge how much I was entertained. Thankfully, The Last Castle was entertaining- I just wish it was as wholly satisfying as it could've been. I'd still recommend it to Redford fans.

As to those plot holes, man, they can be HEAVILY argued (the reason I place emphasis is that my fiancee and I debated it on the way home from the screening last night). It can be argued that we didn't know how the prisoners amassed all that makeshift equipment but that was supposed to be part of the element of successful surprise, however, we knew they had access, but we didn't get the whole story. They could've cut Robin Wright-Penn's part and added a montage of sequences letting you know a little more on the backstory, the prisoners' secretive gathering of that equipment- I'd love to know how they built that stuff! The counter argument (and it is weak) is that they wanted the element of surprise for the audience as well as Gandolfini's character. But do we want to identify with that character? Not really.

But score wise- this is a good one for a Goldsmith fan like me- it may not serve as any kind of great one for the casual listener to bother with, but I'm biased, I love Goldsmith's music.