From the NY Post review of "Here."
October 29, 2024
"Robert Zemeckis’ film 'Here' is an object lesson in how to take a touching idea and make an extremely annoying movie out of it...."
"… a single camera sits in one spot for the entirety of the film as the action jumps back and forth through time.... Starting off as an old man, [the Tom Hanks character] walks into a sunlit modern living room only for the shot to fade away to the era of dinosaurs…. [I]n a bid for self-protection, Zemeckis and co-writer Eric Roth unconvincingly force in some diversity. In the future, when the Youngs have left, we see glimpses of a 2010s black family, the longest of which shows the dad telling his son how to talk to the police in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. Almost nothing else is learned about them except that their housekeeper gets COVID. Hundreds of years in the past, an indigenous couple wordlessly flirt, have a kid and die in the 2,000-square-foot meadow where the Young home will eventually stand...."
From the NY Post review of "Here."
From the NY Post review of "Here."
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The commercials for this remind me of the "uncanny valley" effect Zemeckis achieved in "Polar Express" (2004), also with a Tom Hanks avatar. The appearance of these AI/AGI generated characters has a repellent effect that at the very least is distracting but at worst is just too freaky to endure for 110 minutes. It turns me off. I'm surprised Zemeckis went back to this but maybe "Polar Express" made much more money than I remember. I do recall my grandkids loving the movie and having no problem with the guy they associated with Woody from "Toy Story" paying a conductor on the train.
It could be that younger generations have been desensitized and the uncanny valley effect is no longer operative.
Just a nit- that exact same location would alternately be way above and way below ground level at various times. That motif of one location across time was done at shorter cinematographic scale in the remake of "The Time Machine" and in the film "Lucy".
George Floyd? oh - another movie I wont be watching or paying to watch.
Stunning. And brave. And dull.
This feels like something that could be very moving at 10 or 20 minutes but 104 minutes seems like quite a bit. The trailer was quite interesting, but I can understand and imagine what the reviewer without sitting through 104 minutes of it.
Hundreds of years in the past, an indigenous couple wordlessly flirt, have a kid and die in the 2,000-square-foot meadow where the Young home will eventually stand...
Sounds like members of the long lost Herethehekawi Tribe.
"Also impressive is that only days later did I realize that the cast includes a whopping 70 actors. It’s so seamless and intimate that its vibe is that of a small ensemble drama. But sadly it’s a nauseating one. You’d think that the goal of the fly-on-the-wall format would be to present a real portrayal of family life. Instead, it’s like watching a lousy stage play in which actors, cranked up to 200%, deliver soapy speeches to a wall."
I appreciate a good review like this - so I know to stay away.
Hey ! That's white man revisionist history ! Everybody knows the lost tribe is named the Fuggawi tribe. We're the Fuggawi ! We're the Fuggawi !!
That is an ambitious idea and I'd love to see a movie like that that is compelling. But it's hard to imagine such a movie when the audience is fixed in place so that the action has to come to us.
Sounds like a remake of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine
an extremely annoying movie out of it...."
"… a single camera sits in one spot for the entirety of the film..
i heard of a lady that did this with a spot on a lake :)
Cute for a student short film. How lucky is the house to land Tom Hanks though?
The engineered George Floyd riot+rage-response caused billions in property damage and lead to many deaths. Black communities were hardest hit.
Here is a police report reminder. Totally memory holed by the Democrat State run media.
Now would also be a good time to recall that Kamala openly supported springing rioters and arsonists from jail.
In high school the annoying tic greeting was What’s the story? Never one to miss an opportunity to out annoy my pat response was Well…first the Earth cooled… If challenged I could do ten minutes after that…
Hanks is a great actor and I've enjoyed most of his movies that I've seen. But this appears to be just another (with a few exceptions) mawkish Tom Hanks role. Anyone else getting tired of him/those?
IF it was in the midwest, it'd probably be way above and below sea levels too!
https://www.iowapbs.org/iowapathways/mypath/2667/iowas-geology
Iowa has been under water in one form or another for much of its history. Ancient seas covered Iowa while it was located near the equator. For millions of years, the continental plate on which Iowa sits has slowly wandered around the globe. At one time the plate split apart, creating a rift. Then it moved back together. Several other times, it crashed into other plates. These crashes caused parts of the land to get pushed up out of the water. These earth-quaking events often formed mountains. The oldest mountain remnants in Iowa are found as Sioux Quartzite in the northwest corner of the state.
Just teasing Professor!
gilbar has (just checked) 134 pix, from the last 12 and half years; of EXACTLY The Same spot in a trout stream in iowa (it's interesting how much it changes)
It's a gimmick, not a movie. Like a Sensurround or 3D movie of old.
I watched Birth of a Nation recently and was struck by how, for any given scene, there was usually only a single camera setup. OTOH, there were probably 60+ scenes, and they weren't all staged the same. I can't imagine sitting through two hours of a single camera setup trained on a single set. That's the opposite of cinematic. It'd be like watching a webcam for two hours.
I dunno, if you don't like the movie at least you can close your eyes and listen to that great music by Yes. Well, I would.
A big tip-off that this is not a movie to see is that the commercials for it feature the actors, out of character, talking about how much they enjoyed the experience of making the film. Umm, sure, glad to hear it, but MY enjoyment of the picture is entirely dependent on what you put up on the screen.
gilbar at commented:
“i heard of a lady that did this with a spot on a lake :)”
This is really true. Yet this movie doesn’t sound interesting although the sunrise photos never bore me.
I imagined a very different movie from the trailer. Won't be watching it now.
I recently stumbled on "Daddio". Two people. One set. Just words. And life. No music. No stunning scenery (OK, I could make a case for Dakota Johnson's face). No special effects. Not for everyone but...
It sounds like "A Ghost Story" (2017) with Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara. The ghost (just somebody covered by a sheet) remains standing there in the house while the world changes around him, going forward -- and then backward -- in time, with the house being torn down and new buildings going up around him.
I had no desire to see this, but my wife was likely to try to drag me to it. Once I tell her that it's a single camera, she won't want to see it. So thanks!
I liked the trailer.
88 percent of the USA is NOT black. Further, the audiences in latin America, Asia, and europe are NOT black either. But Hollywood and leftwing MSM Force black characters and situations and situations into film and TV constantly.
I've been forced to watch a lot TV for last 6 weeks, and from watching commericals, TV news anchors, and current TV shows, you'd think that 1/3 of the USA is black and 1/3 is Jewish. White women are almost always paired with black men, or another woman. Guess that appeals to their vanity.
As film itself, it looks interesting, but todays films almost always disappoint.
I'm all for TV or whatever "Looking like America". Except Jews/Blacks are 14 percent of the USA, not 2/3. And Hollywood is also ignoring their biggest markets in China and India. The Chinese were not amused when one of the Star Wars movies had a black character (a comedic doofus) being kissed by the only Asian character. I've read that his black character was often removed from Movie posters in China.
One wonders what Hollywood would be doing with its black actors if the black community voted 85 percent Republican instead of 85 percent D.
I watched my last Hanks movie around 17 years ago. I have no regrets about that.
me too.
I thought the graphic novel was fantastic. Very clever and heartfelt. Need to read it again. Not so sure how well it will work as a movie.
Hanks did this before... well, kinda...
"Those can be some pretty mean streets. Don't let appearances fool you."
when they first got together in forrest gump, 30 years ago, the bloom has gone off the rose,
Maybe he could make a movie where he sucks a whole big bag of dicks? I wouldn't pay to see it, but it would be nice to know I could if I wanted.
The classic simile for boredom: A three-hour walk around your own living room.
This film reminds me of Wilders "Skin of our teeth" for some reason.
Indeed. I really like the version of "I've Seen All Good People" in the trailer.
I don't feel like I want to have sex with Robin Wright all that much so the trailer could use some improvement.
I recall a late friend of mine’s outrage at the horrible special effects put to use in teh Gump movie, lol.
Greyhound was pretty good.
Did the black parents just show their kid the Chris Rock clip?
If the police stop you......don't fight with them or try to run away.
You're welcome.
The Nanny Cam
The Nanny Cam
Many people have already seen Airplane.
I would have gone with 1/2 black and 1/3 gay, but you're in the ballpark.
Whenever someone says "X should look like America", my response is "great idea! Let's start with the NBA."
Joy! And libtards...
Hollywood has always been disproportionately Jewish, simply because Jews were the entrepreneurs and entertainers. If wasn't engineered. But the Academy is enforcing affirmative action for blacks. As I understand it, movies that don't have the required degree of representation by "underrepresented minorities" will be ineligible for awards. The requirements are here.
Hitchcock's Rope.
This reminds me of a film from 1971. A camera was placed on the grill of an automobile and driven from New york to LA. The film was speeded up and was accompanied by only a drum solo. I thought it was clever, but after 30 minutes I got bored and left.
James K, maybe some enterprising black artists will do something subversive with the requirement. Canada had (maybe still does) a Canadian Content Quota for all TV shows. This spawned SCTV’s Bob & Doug MacKenzie, eh.
Somewhere out there is a pair of black hosers….
JSM
I got Zemeckis confused w Wes Anderson (based on the description) after seeing the Roald Dahl Collection on Netflix.
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